Down the TBR Hole – 09

Oh, hello. Am I really back with another Down the TBR Hole post after several weeks of purposely ignoring it? Why yes, I am 😬 It’s been a while, gentlefriends, but I’m back and since the last post where I ended with 1,005 books, I’m now starting with a whopping 1,022 books on my Goodreads TBR! Yeah, I kind of went on a mini add-spree yesterday… 😅 But let’s see how many of the 10 books I’ll say bye-bye-bye to this week! I’m hoping it’s at least one?

Down the TBR Hole is a weekly book meme created by the wonderful Lia @ Lost in a Story that attempts to organize our ridiculously long Goodreads TBR list by choosing either to keep or eliminate the books we’ve saved on there. Here’s how it works:

  • Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
  • Order on ascending date added.
  • Take the first 5 (or 10 (or even more!) if you’re feeling adventurous) books. Of course, if you do this weekly, you start where you left off the last time.
  • Read the synopses of the books
  • Decide: keep it or should it go

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Goodreads Monday – 16 December

We’re back with another Goodreads Monday, a weekly meme started by @Lauren’s Page Turners. This meme invites you to pick a book from your TBR and explain why you want to read it. Easy enough, right? Feel free to join in if you want to! I’ll be using a random number generator to pick my books from my insanely long GR Want-to-read list.

This week’s book is Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind. I surprisingly only added this book to my Goodreads TBR in 2018 but I first heard about it back in 2006/7! So while it hasn’t been on my GR TBR for long, it’s been a known entity for a while! It’s a historical fiction, horror and thriller that has 4.02 stars with 286k+ ratings and 12.9k+ reviews. Pretty good ratings, I think!

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Goodreads Monday – 09 December

We’re back with another Goodreads Monday, a weekly meme started by @Lauren’s Page Turners. This meme invites you to pick a book from your TBR and explain why you want to read it. Easy enough, right? Feel free to join in if you want to! I’ll be using a random number generator to pick my books from my insanely long GR Want-to-read list.

This week’s book is Please Read This Leaflet Carefully by Karen Havelin. This was one of the more recent additions to my TBR this year, when I saw a post about it when it released in May. It’s a contemporary medical fiction and it’s got 3.97 stars with 254 ratings and 48 reviews.

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Goodreads Monday – 02 December

We’re back with another Goodreads Monday, a weekly meme started by @Lauren’s Page Turners. This meme invites you to pick a book from your TBR and explain why you want to read it. Easy enough, right? Feel free to join in if you want to! I’ll be using a random number generator to pick my books from my insanely long GR Want-to-read list.

This week’s book is Hunted by Meagan Spooner. I had absolutely no idea that this was even on my list but I did add it in 2017 so… That’s a long enough time for my very spotty memory to completely forget! 😆This is a YA fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast and it’s got 3.92 stars with 21,269 ratings and 4,101 reviews.

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Goodreads Monday – 25 November

We’re back with another Goodreads Monday, a weekly meme started by @Lauren’s Page Turners. This meme invites you to pick a book from your TBR and explain why you want to read it. Easy enough, right? Feel free to join in if you want to! I’ll be using a random number generator to pick my books from my insanely long GR Want-to-read list.

This week’s book is Of Blood and Bone (Chronicles of The One #2) by Nora Roberts. Ooh, this is a good pick and it reminds me that I still have to read it! It has some pretty impressive stats on Goodreads too: 4.30 stars with 18,127 ratings and 1,855 reviews.

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Thursday Discussion: Books To Read Before 2019 Ends!

Welcome back to my second week joining the Thursday Discussion posts! Thursday Discussion is a biweekly meme hosted by Ally Writes Things where you write a post based on the prompt for that week. The post can be as long or as short as you want, and you can talk about as much or as little as you want. This week’s topic is books you need to read before the end of 2019 and coincidentally, I’ve just posted on bookstagram about that topic today!

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Down the TBR Hole – 08

We’re back with another episode of Down the TBR Hole! My TBR currently sits at a whopping 1,005 books, which is the same number I ended this post with last week. I reviewed 10 books again this week but… I’m just gonna be up front here and let you know that I cut ZERO books out this week. NONE. NIL. ZILCH. Because I really want to read all of these books and I’m convinced that I will (eventually) read them all. It’s gonna happen! So all of these are staying 😂

Down the TBR Hole is a weekly book meme created by the wonderful Lia @ Lost in a Story that attempts to organize our ridiculously long Goodreads TBR list by choosing either to keep or eliminate the books we’ve saved on there. Here’s how it works:

  • Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
  • Order on ascending date added.
  • Take the first 5 (or 10 (or even more!) if you’re feeling adventurous) books. Of course, if you do this weekly, you start where you left off the last time.
  • Read the synopses of the books
  • Decide: keep it or should it go

Read More »

Goodreads Monday – 18 November

We’re back with another Goodreads Monday, a weekly meme started by @Lauren’s Page Turners. This meme invites you to pick a book from your TBR and explain why you want to read it. Easy enough, right? Feel free to join in if you want to! I’ll be using a random number generator to pick my books from my insanely long GR Want-to-read list.

This week’s book is I Kills Giants by Joe Kelly, Ken Niimura. Well, this is a little different from my previous Goodreads Monday picks! I honestly don’t remember adding this graphic novel to my TBR but it could’ve been during one of my biggest graphic novel binge phases! On Goodreads this has an average rating of 4.14 stars with 14,154 ratings and 1,467 reviews.

Barbara Thorson is your new hero: A quick-witted, sharp-tongued fifth grader who isn’t afraid of anything. Why would she be..? After all, she’s the only girl in school who carries a Norse war hammer in her purse and kills giants for a living… At least, that’s what she’ll tell you – but where does the fantasy end and reality begin in the heart of this troubled girl? And what if she’s telling the truth?

Brought to life with unexpected tenderness by JOE KELLY (Supergirl, Action Comics, Deadpool) and breakout talent J. M. KEN NIIMURA, I KILL GIANTS is the bittersweet story of a young girl struggling to conquer monsters both real and imagined as her carefully constructed world crumbles at the feet of giants bigger than any one child can handle.

Why do I want to read it?

Ever since I discovered Saga–the greatest graphic novel of all time, don’t at me–towards the end of last year, I’ve been desperately scouring the graphic novels out there to find one that’ll hook me in and make me feel the feels like Saga did. I’ve read a few pretty great ones but none that I love as much as Saga itself! That said, this one does sound really interesting; especially the main character! I’m looking forward to reading it 🙂

Have you read I Kill Giants or is it on your TBR too?

Top 5 Saturday: Books by Unread Authors!

It’s time for another Top 5 Saturday, a weekly meme created by Mandy @ Devouring Books and this week’s topic is: books by unread authors you want to read. Friends, I’m loving and hating this prompt because it’s a keen reminder of all of the unread books sitting sadly on my shelves and the guilt is making itself known just a little bit right now and it’s making me feel like such an irresponsible reader! *flails dramatically under mountain of guilt* Now, with that out of the way, here are five books by unread authors that I’m hoping to read before the end of 2019! 😂

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

SYNOPSIS: How far will you go to protect your family? Will you keep their secrets? Ignore their lies? In a small town in Virginia, a group of people know each other because they’re part of a special treatment center, a hyperbaric chamber that may cure a range of conditions from infertility to autism. But then the chamber explodes, two people die, and it’s clear the explosion wasn’t an accident. A powerful showdown unfolds as the story moves across characters who are all maybe keeping secrets, hiding betrayals. Chapter by chapter, we shift alliances and gather evidence: Was it the careless mother of a patient? Was it the owners, hoping to cash in on a big insurance payment and send their daughter to college? Could it have been a protester, trying to prove the treatment isn’t safe?


The Farm by Joanne Ramos

SYNOPSIS: Nestled in the Hudson Valley is a sumptuous retreat boasting every amenity: organic meals, private fitness trainers, daily massages—and all of it for free. In fact, you get paid big money—more than you’ve ever dreamed of—to spend a few seasons in this luxurious locale. The catch? For nine months, you belong to the Farm. You cannot leave the grounds; your every move is monitored. Your former life will seem a world away as you dedicate yourself to the all-consuming task of producing the perfect baby for your überwealthy clients. Jane, an immigrant from the Philippines and a struggling single mother, is thrilled to make it through the highly competitive Host selection process at the Farm. But now pregnant, fragile, consumed with worry for her own young daughter’s well-being, Jane grows desperate to reconnect with her life outside. Yet she cannot leave the Farm or she will lose the life-changing fee she’ll receive on delivery—or worse.


Descendant of the Crane by Joan He

SYNOPSIS: Tyrants cut out hearts. Rulers sacrifice their own. Princess Hesina of Yan has always been eager to shirk the responsibilities of the crown, but when her beloved father is murdered, she’s thrust into power, suddenly the queen of an unstable kingdom. Determined to find her father’s killer, Hesina does something desperate: she engages the aid of a soothsayer—a treasonous act, punishable by death… because in Yan, magic was outlawed centuries ago. Using the information illicitly provided by the sooth, and uncertain if she can trust even her family, Hesina turns to Akira—a brilliant investigator who’s also a convicted criminal with secrets of his own. With the future of her kingdom at stake, can Hesina find justice for her father? Or will the cost be too high?


How to Make Friends With the Dark by Kathleen Glasgow

SYNOPSIS: Here is what happens when your mother dies.
It’s the brightest day of summer and it’s dark outside. It’s dark in your house, dark in your room, and dark in your heart. You feel like the darkness is going to split you apart.
That’s how it feels for Tiger. It’s always been Tiger and her mother against the world. Then, on a day like any other, Tiger’s mother dies. And now it’s Tiger, alone.
Here is how you learn to make friends with the dark.


Birthday by Meredith Russo

SYNOPSIS: Two kids, Morgan and Eric, are bonded for life after being born on the same day at the same time. We meet them once a year on their shared birthday as they grow and change: as Eric figures out who he is and how he fits into the world, and as Morgan makes the difficult choice to live as her true self. Over the years, they will drift apart, come together, fight, make up, and break up—and ultimately, realize how inextricably they are a part of each other.

Are any of these books on your own list? What books by unread authors would you have on your list? Any of them to be read before 2019 ends?

Down the TBR Hole – 07

We’re back with another episode of Down the TBR Hole! My TBR is currently sits at a whopping 1,011 books because I added some books to my list after last week’s culling 😅 I’ll be reviewing 10 books again today and I’m hoping to find it easier to cut more out!

Down the TBR Hole is a weekly book meme created by the wonderful Lia @ Lost in a Story that attempts to organize our ridiculously long Goodreads TBR list by choosing either to keep or eliminate the books we’ve saved on there. Here’s how it works:

  • Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
  • Order on ascending date added.
  • Take the first 5 (or 10 (or even more!) if you’re feeling adventurous) books. Of course, if you do this weekly, you start where you left off the last time.
  • Read the synopses of the books
  • Decide: keep it or should it go

Verdict: Keep

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff. I bought this book earlier this year because I thought for sure it’d be my jam but now I’m not so sure anymore… I’m gonna try it since I already have it. I hope my first thought was right! 🤞

Finders Keepers (Bill Hodges #2) by Stephen King. I sped through Mr. Mercedes and absolutely loved it, so I was really keen to get my hands on Finders Keepers. So far I’ve tried reading it twice and both times I’ve put it down with the intention of ‘picking it up later’. Third time’s the charm, I guess? But if it’s still not working for me, it’ll definitely go in the bye pile!

The Quiet Game (Penn Cage #1) by Greg Iles. After reading his Natchez Burning trilogy, I’m convinced that I need to read the rest of Iles’ books — especially involving Penn Cage! 😍

The Glass Magician (The Paper Magician #2) by Charlie N. Holmberg. I remember loving The Paper Magician so much and don’t know why I didn’t continue with the series right then. I have this on my Kindle library though and I’m still keen to check it out!

Verdict: Bye-bye-bye!

Notorious (Max Revere #1) by Allison Brennan. Just doesn’t appeal to me so much anymore. Didn’t even recall ever seeing this book before LOL

Austenland (Austenland #1) by Shannon Hale. I LOVED this movie so naturally thought I wanted to read the book. The reviews scream a big fat NO — especially Emer’s review (and the shelves she chose for this) on Goodreads, which is plain gold and had me dead 🤣

Ten Things I’ve Learnt About Love by Sarah Butler. Reading this synopsis just doesn’t appeal to me at all anymore…

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd. This sounds interesting but I’ve had multiple times to pick it up in stores and I never do… So I think I’m taking that as a sign to say bye-bye-bye?

The Master Magician (The Paper Magician #3) by Charlie N. Holmberg. I’m only removing this one because I haven’t read the second book yet (which I decided to keep!). I read the first book AGES ago but remember loving it, so this’ll probably come back if I love the sequel!

City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg. It was really hard for me to decide on this one but I’ve chosen to remove it for now. The synopsis is interesting but not so much that I’m sure I’ll read it ASAP. So, bye-bye-bye for now!

bluepanda

BAM BABY! I let 6/10 books go this week bringing my TBR tally to 1,005 books. Still a lot but we’re making progress by removing 60% of the list this week, right?! 😃 Again, I think I’m pretty satisfied with my decisions; perhaps more so this week than I was last week!