Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by Jana over on that artsy reader girl, which features a different bookish theme every week. This week’s theme is satisfying book series’.
Number 1
The White Bird of Kinship
Richard Cowper
Why? The implied spiritual rebirth at the end left me feeling hopeful and exultant, despite the events which lead up to it.
Number 2
The Empire Trilogy
Raymond E. Feist & Janny Wurts
Why? The ending! I can’t elaborate without spoilers.
Number 3
Down the Long Wind
Gillian Bradshaw
Why? This is the most relatable Arthurian story I’ve read.
Number 4
The Orphans Trilogy
Sean Williams & Shane Dix
Why? The way the story came full circle and answered so many of my questions.
Number 5
Earth’s Children
Jean M. Auel
Why? Seeing Ayla overcome everything that happened to her, and finally find happiness. I haven’t read The Land of Painted Caves, though, as it didn’t exist at the time I read this series.
Number 6
Earthsea Cycle
Ursula K. Le Guin
Why? Not really sure, to be honest, I just know I was quite satisfied by the story. I’ve only read the first four. I didn’t even know the other existed until compiling this list.
Number 7
The Ellie Chronicles
John Marsden
Why? We all know wars don’t end with the cessation of hostilities and that is demonstrated in this series, set after Marsden’s Tomorrow series.
Number 8
Carr Family
Susan Coolidge
Why? Seeing Katie grow up.
Number 9
Emily series
L.M. Montgomery
Why? I enjoyed Emily’s personality, and her ability to give the proverbial finger to societal and familial expectations and follow her dreams.
Number 10
Tomorrow series
John Marsden
Why? Plenty of satisfying ‘Hell yeah!’, ‘Take that!’, and ‘Fuck you!’ moments in this series.
And now, I’ll leave you with a little teaser from one of my current reads as part of Teaser Tuesday, hosted by The Purple Booker:
While Comrade Liu wielded power, she knew next to nothing about science and technology beyond the fact that the earth rotates around the sun and the moon rotates around the earth. But it wasn’t her ignorance that stood out so offensively. It was her disdain for science that shocked me. Perhaps I might have been more understanding of her had I considered that she was merely following the party leaders, especially Chairman Mao. It was not until the late 1980s that the world came to understand that Chairman Mao conjured up mass campaigns that repeatedly brought famine and catastrophe to China, causing the loss of tens of millions of lives. The Chairman paid lip service to science and common sense, while in practice he cast them to the wind and ordered the nation to engage in absurd and destructive activities that were not only unscientific but also contrary to common sense.
— The Bitter Sea: Coming of Age in a China Before Mao by Charles N. Li, p. 220
© Adele Walker October 2025
Adele Bound in Books 
I really enjoyed Earth’s Children when I read it many years ago. Also Down The Long Wind sounds good as I do like Arthurian Legend.
Here’s a link to my TTT post
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Yes, the Arthurian legend is a classic for a reason. If you do pick them up, keep your phone nearby. Some of the welsh names can be a bit difficult to figure out pronunciation.
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Someday I should read the Emily books!
Here is our Top Ten Tuesday.
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I hope you enjoy them as much as I did if you ever pick them up. I actually liked them better than Anne of Green Gables.
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I was not a big fan of The Land of Painted Caves, but I hope you find it more satisfying than I did.
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I haven’t read any of these!
My TTT: https://laurieisreading.com/2025/10/07/top-ten-tuesday-satisfying-series/
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I remember discovering the Earth’s Children series in my school library. I can only assume there are many organisations that would have a fit about that these days!
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LOL. Most definitely.
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I read MOST of Auel’s series but skipped the last one because I had series fatigue at that point!
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I completely understand. They can be a bit of an undertaking.
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Our book club read and enjoyed Tomorrow, When the War Began, but I did not realize it is part of a series. The Jean M. Auel series have been recommended to me often, though I still haven’t tried them.
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Earth’s Children: Understandable, they are quite a hefty undertaking. If you ever pick them up, I hope you enjoy them.
Tomorrow series: I’m so glad you enjoyed Tomorrow, When the War Began. I’m always happy to see Aussie literature being appreciated. If you can, I recommend reading the rest of the series. It’s really good. Then there’s a follow-on series called The Ellie Chronicles. Also very good.
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I love the older-style, high fantasy, painted covers on those first three series. Definetly will check those out.
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They are beautiful covers, aren’t they? I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.
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What an interesting list. I just said to someone that I haven’t seen a single book I know or have read but on your list, I saw a few where I have read at least one book by the author (LeGuin and Montgomery) and the Ayla books have been on my wishlist for ages. Maybe I should give them a go …
Thanks for visiting my post:
https://momobookblog.blogspot.com/2025/10/top-ten-tuesday-book-series.html
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Wow, you’ve got some really good ones here! I haven’t read Emily of the New Moon or the Empire trilogy, but I’ve heard a lot about them and really feel like I need to read them!
Haze
https://thebookhaze.com/
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