Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature that currently resides at The Artsy Reader Girl and features bloggers sharing lists on various book topics.  For this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, participants get a freebie option, allowing them to post whatever they want.  I’m going to use this freebie to jump ahead and do next week’s topic, mainly because I’m hoping to highlight upcoming books for Spring 2025 next Tuesday.  As such, this week I will be listing my favourite books that have occupations in the title.

This was an interesting list topic, and I always enjoy Top Ten Tuesday tasks where I can dive into the titles of the various unique books I have had the pleasure of reading over the years.  Listing occupations featured in titles was a cool choice, and there are a surprising number of books out there that feature job titles or professions in their names.  I ended up with a substantial list of potential inclusions for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, so I made sure to restrict entries to one book from each author.  I also tried to show the most varied list of occupations I could, as I didn’t want my list to get bogged down in the various uses of solider or miliary ranks.  I think my resulting list had a great combination of various occupations used in book titles, and it liked the intriguing combination of novels that emerged.

Honourable Mentions:

The Recruiter by Gregg Podolksi

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The No.1 Lawyer by James Patterson and Nancy Allen

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The Interpreter by Brooke Robinson

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The Maid by Nita Prose

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Top Ten Tuesday:

Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 30: Thieves and Spies by Stan Sakai

A classic entry from one of my favourite comic series.  While early volumes The Ronin and Samurai would have also been excellent choices for this list, I’m instead going with the 30^th volume, Thieves and Spies, which features two separate occupations in the title.

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The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson

An excellent recent fantasy novel that follows a scholar character as she tries to uncover a dark conspiracy amongst a complex and deadly tournament.  Scholar was a great occupation to have in the title, and I deeply enjoyed this epic fantasy read.

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Mr Einstein’s Secretary by Matthew Reilly

A deeply captivating historical fiction novel that follows a talented secretary who finds herself involved in multiple world events in the lead up to World War II.

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The Judge’s List by John Grisham

A judge is an excellent occupation to feature on this list, especially as this judge has some very dark secrets.

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Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

A classic novel from the legendary Terry Pratchett that follows the humble city guard in a fantasy city as they come face to face with a magical murder.  This is an incredible novel and a great choice for this list.  Other books from Pratchett such as Men at Arms or Reaper Man might have fit in here nicely as well, but Guards! Guards! was my first choice for this list, and I’m glad I get to highlight it again.  

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The Chaos Agent by Mark Greaney

I suppose that it was inevitable that a book in one of my favourite, long-running spy thriller series would feature “agent” in one of its titles, which is a great way to describe the occupation of the protagonist.  This particular novel from Greaney was a great addition to the Gray Man series, and readers are in for a wild time with its cool plot and compelling action.

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Priest of Bones by Peter McLean

An impressive and awesome fantasy novel that follows returning soldiers determined to take over their home city’s underworld.  While the “priest” in this title is a little more criminal you would usually associate with the occupation, it still works to make this book a worthy entry to this list.

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The Devil’s Advocate by Steve Cavanagh

A title taken from a classic saying, advocate works as an occupation for the sake of this list, and I was pleased to feature a fun legal thriller from Steve Cavanagh.

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The Queen’s Captain by Peter Watt

I had a few novels with the occupation of “captain” in the title, but I decided to go with The Queen’s Captain by Australian author Peter Watt.  While captain here refers to a military rank, the word also works to describe a general occupation, so I think it works well for this list.

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Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb

The final novel I want to feature on this list is Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb.  There were several amazing books I could have used here that featured the nefarious occupation of “assassin” in the title, but I decided to go with this beloved fantasy novel, which I deeply enjoyed reading years ago.  Following a young bastard prince who finds a new, secret occupation as a court assassin, Assassin’s Apprentice is true classic and it rounds out this list perfectly.

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Well, that’s the end of this list.  I had fun listing my top books with occupations in the titles, and I’m happy with how the above list turned out, especially as there is an interesting collection of books there.  All the above come highly recommended, and I hope everyone else enjoys this topic when they look over it next week.