A weekly post wherein I pretend to lament the fact that I have so many books on my TBR… but in fact am secretly rubbing my hands together with delight that there are so many amazing books left to be discovered…
A busy week around the house and on the blog, as I managed to post almost every day!
Added to the General TBR:
I am almost caught up on reading reviews, which means the TBR has suffered! I added eleven titles to the list. Three of them are novels by Amy Tan – this is the problem with reading a book that I actually enjoy, like The Joy Luck Club – only one book gets removed from the list, but several more get added so I can explore that author’s writing more!
But most of my additions were thanks to some great reviews around the blogosphere…
Fictionophile wins the award for adding more than one title to the list this week. Her reviews of Rainy Day Sisters by Kate Hewitt and Pocketful of Names by Joe Coomer both appealed to me. I really enjoy reading books about siblings, so Hewitt’s book, about a pair of half-sisters getting to know each other as adults sounded intriguing. Pocketful of Names also has a set-up that I enjoy – a loner who, through circumstances beyond her control, ends up having to help out various people and is drawn out of her solitude.- While Beware That Girl by Teresa Toten doesn’t exactly sound like my usual kind of book, Bee’s review of it over on HeartFullofBooks just sounded so interesting that I couldn’t resist adding this YA thriller to the list.
- A while back I started to read Mark Billingham’s Tom Thorne series. A couple books in I came across one that I just couldn’t stomach – too gruesome for me – so I gave them up, rather reluctantly as there was a lot about Billingham’s writing that I enjoyed. (And I know I could have just skipped that title and jumped into the next, but there is some weird psychological twist in my brain that won’t let me skip around inside of a series!) Anyway, Cleopatra’s review of one of Billingham’s stand-alone novels, Rush of Blood, made me think that that may be a good way to jump back into his writing, as this one sounds quite intense!!!
- I really do enjoy fairy tales, and I also love reading traditional stories from other countries. On top of that, Russia has always had a fascination for me – such a rich tapestry of culture to explore! All that to say, when TheLiterarySisters reviewed a compilation of Russian fairy tales, Russian Magic Tales (edited by Robert Chandler), it sounded like it would tick a lot of boxes for me!
- Another trope that I like is where a young person comes to appreciate an older person in their life. Chrissi described this type of tale in her review of Margot & Me by Juno Dawson. With a WWII diary playing a key role in the story, it sounds like this book has a lot to offer.
- Finally, Stephanie couldn’t say enough good things about Making Faces by Amy Harmon, which she described as an emotional tornado that still ended hopefully and beautifully.
Off the General TBR:
The funny thing is that I initially thought that I was finally going to have a week where I took more books off than I added, as I actually eliminated a lot of titles from the list!
I reviewed Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, which while not exactly uplifting, was still beautifully written and completely engaging. I also wrote a minireview for The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World by E.L. Konigsburg, which will post towards the end of the month. Spoiler alert: I really didn’t like this book, which was especially disappointing considering how much I’ve loved some of her other books.
However, besides eliminating those two, I also found several duplicates and whatnot – for instance, the books in the Joseph O’Laughlin series (which I’m currently reading) were somehow all listed individually, scattered throughout the TBR. All in all, I removed six titles that shouldn’t have been there! Woohoo!
Of course, I also read and reviewed two Wodehouse books – Mike at Wrykyn and Mike and Psmith, neither of which were on the list!
Total for the General TBR: So I’m sitting at 887, which isn’t bad considering the number of books I added this week – only up three!
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Added to the Personal TBR:
After a couple of weeks of doing pretty well with free Kindle books, I fell off the bandwagon a smidge this week… four more titles!
Off the Personal TBR:
No progress here this week. I’m actually reading a Pride & Prejudice retelling that is ridiculously long and involved and encompasses two volumes and really isn’t worth the amount of time I’m putting in reading it for the story I’m getting out of it… except I can’t stop…
Total for the Personal TBR: 612 – up four!
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Added to the Series List:
One of the books that I removed from the General TBR actually belonged on this tab (a fluffy chick lit series), so we went up one here.
Off the Series List:
Nothing off, but I did review the first book in a trilogy, Thorn Jack by Katherine Harbour. There were a lot of things about this book I really liked and a lot of things I didn’t like, so I’m curious to see which direction the second book goes.
Total for the Series List: 148, up one.
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Added to the Mystery Series List:
This was another book that was misplaced on the General TBR when it actually comprises several titles and belongs over here – the Sergeant Cluff books by Gil North.
Off the Mystery Series List:
Still working on the Joseph O’Laughlin books – I reviewed #4 this week, Bleed for Me.
Total for the Mystery Series List: 72, up one.
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Total for the Nonfiction List: Holding steady at 61.
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Grand Total for the Week: Seventeen on and only six off, so up eleven for the week!
The Aroma of Books 