The Tottering TBR // Episode 22

A weekly(ish) 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…

I haven’t been the best blogger lately, but part of the problem is that I’m reading far too many books that are parts of series, instead of individual books.  I like to review series all at once when I finish them (unless a specific book really speaks to me), so I have piles of books I’ve read, that are all waiting for me to finish just one or two books more before they can get reviewed.

Also, I can’t believe how fast summer is going!  July is almost over!  I’m not ready for my life to go by so quickly!  Things have been really busy around here.  I’ve started harvesting and freezing some garden produce, mostly green beans and peppers.  For some reason my tomatoes are ripening very slowly this year.  I have tons of green ones, but they just aren’t kicking over!  I’m actually procrastinating right now, as I really need to go down and do some weeding.  It’s a perfect morning for it, and we’ve gotten some rain, so weeding should actually be a very rewarding endeavor today.

Because I haven’t done very many reviews, there haven’t been a lot of drastic TBR changes.  That also reminds me that I read an article this week that informed me that my TBR is only for books I want to read very, very soon, and should be a very, very short list.  Other books should go on some wishlist far, far away.  So basically my TBR that is hundreds of books in length apparently isn’t a real TBR.  So I thought about that for a little bit and then decided that that’s a bunch of hogwash and my TBR is whatever I want it to be, so here we are!

Current Reads:

• Meet the Austins by Madeline L’Engle – I like to read series in their published order, and my understanding is that the characters from the Austin series and the characters from A Wrinkle in Time and those books somewhat overlap.  So I’m reading through all of those book in their published order, which technically means I ought to have read Austins first, but I didn’t realize it at the time.  I’m actually enjoying this book much more than I did Wrinkle – the Austins are such a genuinely happy, friendly bunch.  I’m interested to see where else these books go.
• Infinity Reborn by S. Harrison – the final book in a trilogy that has been rather strange yet interesting.
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman – this is my next book for the Traveling Book Club, and my second Gaiman read – the first was long, long ago, before I was blogging on WordPress.  I found that book (Stardust) to be a bit too… contrived? … for my personal taste.  But I keep meaning to give him another shot, so I’m actually looking forward to this read, which I started yesterday.
• The Sheriff’s Runaway Bride by Arlene James – one of my many Love Inspired titles – this is actually the second in a series of books that center around a family of adult siblings and cousins who have to return to their small hometown for a year in order to receive an inheritance.  A little hokey, but not too bad.  The first book was decent, and I’m enjoying this one as well.

Off the General TBR:

My only review this week was After Dark by Phillip Margolin, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  However, I did weed a few others off the list while picking out the next five books to get from the library:  I’m already committed to reading all of P.G. Wodehouse’s books in published order, so I thought I had removed all of his titles from the general TBR, but I found one still hiding there the other day.  Two other books are actually books in series, so they’ve been moved to the Mystery Series and Series tabs as needed.  I also wrote a minireview for Words in Deep Blue, so it’s off the TBR but you won’t get to read the review until the end of the month.  So, five off!

Added to the General TBR:

The problem with reading a book that I really like is that then I want to add more books by that author.  I actually thought that I had added most of Margolin’s books when I read Woman With a Gun last year, but apparently not!  So, somewhat sadly, eight Margolin titles got added!  I also added two books thanks to reviews around the blogs – A Sky Painted Gold by Laura Wood was reviewed by ChrissiReads, and Brewster’s Millions by George Barr McCutcheon, reviewed by The Captive Reader, who often brings older books to my attention.

Total for the General TBR:  852 (up five!  *shakes fist at Phillip Margolin*)

*****

Added to the Personal TBR:

Cheap Kindle books…!!!  I got The Siren Wars by K.M. Robinson for free, which may or may not be how much it ends up being worth; time will tell.  I picked up to 99¢ bargains – Three Day Fiancee by Marissa Clarke, because I can’t resist a good fake relationship trope; and When It’s Real by Erin Watts, because I’ve been meaning to read Watts forever and I have heard a lot of good things about this one in particular.

Off the Personal TBR:  

Nothing.  :-(

Total for the Personal TBR:  692 (up three)

*****

Added to the Series TBR:

Two added here – one was a series that got moved over from the General TBR (the Worldquake series by Scarlett Thomas), and other is Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight books – I hear about Sanderson all the time but have never read anything by him.  I had yet another friend strongly recommend these, so they are finally on the official list!

Off the Series TBR:

Nothing. :-(

Total for the Series TBR:  230 (up two)

*****

Added to the Mystery Series TBR:

Two here as well – another one from the General TBR (the Tyrone Swift books by Gretta Mulrooney), and the Shetland Island series by Ann Cleeves, thanks to yet another excellent review by Cleopatra Loves Books – she reviewed the first book, Raven Black.

Off the Mystery Series TBR:

Nothing – I’m still working through the Gardening Mysteries by Mary Freeman, but I’m waiting for Book #3 to come in from the library, so I’ve stalled out a bit.

Total for the Mystery Series TBR:  108 (up two)

*****

Total for the Nonfiction TBR:  Holding steady at 76

*****

Grand Total for the Week:  Seventeen added and only five off, so up a net of twelve more this week… I do believe I may be working backwards instead of forwards on this pile!!!  However, I can think of worse problems to have.  :-D  Happy reading!

The Tottering TBR // Episode 21

A weekly(ish) 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…

Ohho, it is Wednesday, and you are probably thinking (because I know you live for my blog posts), “I thought Sarah was posting her Tottering TBR episodes on Wednesdays?  She’s almost out of time!”  Normally, I like to blog in the morning, but I actually made two airport runs yesterday – my dad and two of my brothers have been in Washington state for a couple of weeks, but for complicated reasons weren’t able to all fly back together.  So I got Dad around suppertime, and then picked up my brothers a little after midnight.  Since it’s about an hour drive, what with one thing and another I didn’t get to bed until around 2am, which is significantly past my normal 9pm bedtime!!  So, long story short, this morning I was sleeping instead of blogging!!  :-D

But I have a few minutes before my husband gets home, so I will see how far I can get!

Current Reads:

• Infinity Rises by S. Harrison – this is the second book of a trilogy that is a little trippy but intriguing.
• Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley – I didn’t think I was going to like this book, but it’s actually kind of interesting.
• The Riddle of the Double Ring by Margaret Sutton – this is the 10th Judy Bolton book, and I’m going to take a little break after this one.  While these are pleasant reads, they are also a little same-y after a while.
• The Secrets She Keeps by Michael Robotham – this book isn’t creepy, exactly, but somehow does make me uneasy.

Added to the General TBR:

This has actually been a pretty quiet week for additions, with only one added – Watching You by Lisa Jewel, inspired by a review by Cleopatra.  I was almost POSITIVE that that book was already on my TBR, so it’s very possible that there have been some other recent reviews that made me think I had already added it…

Off the General TBR:

Unfortunately, nothing came off this week – most of my reviews were for books I own!

Total for the General TBR:  847 (up one!)

*****

Added to the Personal TBR:

I ended up purchasing a secondhand copy of a Grace Livingston Hill book that has four stories in it, plus got two free Kindle books, so I sadly added six!  Where is my self-control?!

Off the Personal TBR:

I did, however, get a few titles off as well.  I reviewed Scotty by Frances Pitt (which I have owned FOREVER), as well as The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit.  I also reviewed Georgette Heyer’s Frederica, but it was technically a reread.  My other two reviews, The Midnight Kittens (Dodie Smith) and Fairest (Gail Carson Levine) weren’t actually on any of my lists.  (Crazy, right?!)

Luckily I was also able to eliminate a couple of Kindle books that were DNFs – Everblue (Brenda Pandos) and Love’s Funny That Way (Pamela Burford).  Everblue was honestly just pretty boring, and the Burford book was all sex and no story.  :-/

Total for the Personal TBR:  689 (up two)

*****

Series TBR / Mystery Series TBR / Nonfiction TBR:

No change for any of these.

*****

Grand Total for the Week:  Much better than last week!  Seven added and four off, so only a net gain of three, which is a pretty good week for me!  :-D

The Tottering TBR // Episode 20

A weekly(ish) 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…

I haven’t had a lot of books to review this week, so the TBRs will only be on the rise, I fear…

Added to the General TBR:

I’m not exactly saying that I added nine books to my list this week, but I may have added nine books to my list this week.  I have a weakness for marriage of convenience tropes, and also a weakness for fairytale retellings, and I got my hands on lists of both??  I honestly thought I was pretty strong for only adding seven!!!

The other two books came from reviews from fellow bloggers.  I was quite taken by Cleopatra’s review of Take Me In by Sabine Durrant, which sounds delightfully creepy.  While I’m not always a fan of domestic thrillers, Bibliobeth’s review of Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris left me feeling very intrigued.

Off the General TBR:

Nothing…!!!!

Total for the General TBR:  846!

*****

Updates to the Personal TBR:

So I have been working on an ongoing project to organize all of my Kindle books.  I have a bad habit of picking them up for free or for 99c and now I own tons of Kindle books and half of them are part of a random series and some of them I’ve started to read but didn’t like but now I can’t remember if I did or not and the whole thing is the kind of disorganized mess that makes my soul shudder.

Determined to address this, I of course created a spreadsheet (two, actually, but that’s besides the point) and have been sifting through every book on my Kindle to find out if it’s part of a series or not, whether or not I’ve read it, whether or not I would ever read it again, and sorting everything into various collections.  I feel SO MUCH BETTER about the whole thing and also feel like I can actually read books on my Kindle and get somewhere.

Well.  All that to say, I didn’t actually purchase any new books this week, but the list did change as I added what is hopefully the FINAL round of books that I apparently own but didn’t have on this spreadsheet before.  I think my Personal TBR spreadsheet now truly has EVERY BOOK I OWN on it in some form!  I did actually get rid of some books from this TBR as well, as I apparently had added books that I intended to download via Bookfunnel that have since expired, and that sort of thing.  I’m also currently reading a batch of my own personal books, so hopefully a few more will actually come off of this list sometime!

So this number did go up this week, but hopefully from here forward it will actually genuinely reflect whether or not I have read or purchased books, and not just that I found another bunch of books that hadn’t been accounted for before!

Total for the Personal TBR:  687

*****

Series TBR:  No change – still at 228

*****

Mystery Series TBR:  No change – still at 106

*****

Updates to the Nonfiction TBR:

None added, but one off!  I finally finished How to Cheat at Everything by Simon Lovell, which was honestly a very fun and entertaining read.

Total for the Nonfiction TBR:  76

*****

Grand Total for the Week:  18 added and one up, so a net gain of 17!!!  I may have a problem!!!

The Tottering TBR // Episode 19

Happy Independence Day!!!

And what better way to celebrate than by attempting to reinstate my weekly(ish) Tottering TBR posts??!

A weekly(ish) 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…

I haven’t done one of these posts for almost a year, but now that things are getting under control (haha) on this blog, I thought I would give it another try.  I really do like linking to other people’s reviews to let them know that they’ve inspired me to add yet another book to the never-ending TBR!

For those who are unfamiliar with my weird TBR set-up, I kind of have five separate lists:

• The General TBR – basically regularly, stand-alone books that I don’t own.  This is the big one.
• The Personal TBR – all the books that I own… which is a LOT.  You can see more details on my Quest page, but basically I am slowly trying to read/reread every book that I own.  Theoretically, this is to help me cull some books…  ha ha ha
• The Series TBR – pretty self-explanatory… series, rather than individual books.
• The Mystery Series TBR – ditto, except mysteries instead of not-mysteries.

And for all of my TBRs, even if a series has tons of books, it only counts for one entry.  So even though I own like 30 Nancy Drew books, it’s only one entry on the Personal TBR.

Okay, enough with the boring stuff!  On to the goodies…

Added to the General TBR:

In the last week, I’ve added four books.

• Uprooted was one of my favorite reads last year, so I was pretty excited to see that Naomi Novik is coming out with another book in July!  While she says that Spinning Silver isn’t set in the same world, I get the impression that it’s set in a similar world.  One of these days – hopefully soon – I’m going to get around to rereading Uprooted, too.
• I had mixed feelings about Ruth Ware’s In a Dark, Dark Wood.  It was gripping – like I literally read it in almost one sitting – but I kind of hated everyone and didn’t really like the ending.  I haven’t gotten around to any of her other books, but I’ve added yet another to the TBR.  I’ve been seeing reviews come in for The Death of Mrs. Westaway, and it sounds like Ware may have created another gripping book full of kind of unlikable people.  :-D  We’ll see.  In the meantime, I read reviews by both Cleopatra Loves Books and Fictionophile this week, so be sure to check them out!
• FictionFan is a regular contributor to my TBR problem.  The extra tricky part is that she has a knack of making me want to read books that I’m not sure I would pick up on my own!  I’m not sure that I would normally pick up a book about someone plotting to kill his aunt, but FF assures me that reading The Murder of My Aunt by Richard Hull is well worth it.
• Finally, we all have those authors we are always meaning to read something by but haven’t gotten around to yet.  Erin Watt is definitely one of those authors for me.  I already have several of her books on my TBR, but what’s another?  Stephanie’s review of One Small Thing meant another Watt book got added to the list.  The odds of one of her books coming up on my random number generator has to be increasing, right??

Off the General TBR:

My personal rule is that books don’t get to be scratched off the TBR until I’ve actually reviewed them.  In the last week, I’ve mostly been reading/reviewing random books that I own or that just popped up not on the list.  So the only official removal I’ve had is Kasie West’s The Distance Between Us.  It was an alright, but not stellar read.  However, I’ve been reassured that it’s one of her weaker books, and I still definitely plan to read more of her books.

Grand Total for the TBR:  837 (!!!)

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Added to the Personal TBR:

Whilst rearranging some shelves this past week, I came across two nonfiction books that weren’t on my original list!  Apparently, they got set aside when I was teaching an Ohio history class.  But fear not!  Now both Ohio: Its People and Its Culture by George Crout AND Ohio: The Buckeye State by William Collins are on the list!  :-D

Off the Personal TBR:

Actually, I’ve been knocking off quite a few of these, as I’ve been on a bit of a Kindle kick.  Ring of Truth by Jaclyn Weist was an utterly ridiculous yet somehow endearing chick lit read.  The Second Chance by Joanna Starnes was a P&P variation that was almost amazing.  While Elizabeth Bennet’s Deception by Regina Jennings was so terrible that it was a DNF, that still means that it is checked off the list!  The Holiday Swap by Zara Stoneley was another random chick lit read, The Pursuit of Mary Bennet by Pamela Mingle was another so-so P&P variation, and Swamp Cat by Jim Kjelgaard was an enjoyable read by one of my favorite authors from childhood.  I’ve also been working my way through the Judy Bolton mysteries – this week I reviewed the first five books – but they won’t get checked off until I actually finish the series!  So, grand total off – five!

Grand Total for the Personal TBR:  678

*****

Added to the Series TBR:

Nothing this week.

Off the Series TBR:

I finished the Paper Magician series, which was so-so for me.  There were concepts I liked, but overall just found them to be boring.  I didn’t bother with The Plastic Magician, which is supposed to be a spinoff from the first three books.  However, my sister tells me that Holmberg’s stand-alone, Followed by Frost, is totally worth the read, so Holmberg may be getting one more chance…

Grand Total for the Series TBR:  228

*****

Grand Total for the Mystery Series TBR:  This one hasn’t really changed lately – holding steady at 106.

*****

Grand Total for the Nonfiction TBR:  Still plowing my way through How to Cheat at Everything, which is fun and interesting but taking forever to read.  So this list is holding steady also at a mere 77.

*****

Grand Total for the Week:  

Six added and seven off, so I’ve had a net of one book down this week!  Go me!  :-D

Keep those reviews coming, people – I obviously don’t have enough to read!

The Tottering TBR // Episode XVIII

A weekly(ish) 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…

So last weekend I was down and out with a terrible stomach bug and no time for blogging nonsense.  But I am back in the game this week, despite the fact that I have also already started working my autumn job at the orchard!  We are picking and sorting peaches like crazy – it’s been several years since we had a good crop around here, so everyone is quite pleased and the peaches are delicious.  I absolutely love working at the orchard, mostly because the owners are the best people I have ever worked for, so even though I’m sad that my summer is over so soon, I am enjoying my time there.

Added to the General TBR:

Eleven additions in the last two weeks!

• I’ve read an enjoyed Todd Johnson’s other two books, Critical Reaction and The Deposit Slip, so when I saw he has a third book coming up, I knew I wanted to read it.  Since then, I’ve found out that I’ll be receiving an ARC of Fatal Trust from the publisher, so this read will actually happen sooner rather than later!
• FictionFan’s review of The Lodger left me intrigued, mainly because she has a habit of setting up the whole mystery and then not telling me the ending (*sigh*), so I suppose I have to read it for myself.
• I’ve mentioned before that I really enjoy books about catering or hotels and that sort of thing, so the review of Once and for All over at the Penniless Bookworm made me feel like this would be a good place to start with author Sarah Dessen.
• Even though I’m a bit leery about reading a sci-fi book that has lots of footnotes, That’s What She Read made The Punch Escrow sound like too much fun to miss.
• Fictionophile gets blamed for two additions this week, both thrillers.  Lynne featured The Day She Died on her Throwback Thursday post as an old favorite revisited – I always enjoy reading books that have stuck with someone months after they read it.  And even though I’m always a bit hesitant to read books where a missing child is the center of the mystery, her review of What She Knew just sounded too intriguing to pass up!
• Cleopatra Reads Books definitely wins the award for weighing down the TBR with a hefty THREE entries!  I really do keep meaning to read something by Tammy Cohen and also by Lisa Jewell.  In the meantime, I guess I’ll keep adding their titles to the list thanks to Cleo’s recommendations, because she really does love both of these authors!  And proving that I’m not as good at avoiding things as I like to think I am, I added another book with a missing child as a central plot – Little Sister.
• Finally, I came across two random books on lists that sounded engaging – Dragon’s Green by Scarlett Thomas and Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley.

Off the General TBR:

I haven’t done too shabbily here, with four off – The Girl from Summer Hill (weird), Water Song (needed to be longer), The Methods of Lady Walderhurst (disappointing), and What Lies Within (infuriating).  I had several reviews that weren’t on my TBR – five books, in fact.  It’s amazing that the TBR can be so long, and yet I keep finding myself reading books that aren’t even on it…

Grand Total for the General TBR:  792 (up seven)

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Added to the Personal TBR:

Besides two free Kindle books, I also added two more.  My grandpa somehow ended up with a gigantic box of books when my great-aunt passed away, and he’s decided that I should have them all.  They consist of some sometimes dreadful but sometimes alright Christian fiction called ‘Love Inspired’, and for a while (maybe you still can) you could subscribe and they would send you a book a month or whatever.  Apparently my great aunt was subscribed for YEARS.  Anyway, I took a small pile of them home, but most of them are parts of series, so they don’t count yet.  One, The Last Bridge Home by Linda Goodnight, seems to be a standalone, so I may try it.  Someday.

I also got another book from my Bethany Beach Books Box!  I switched from the YA subscription to the Children’s, and I think this may be a better fit for me.  I am kind of picky about my YA because I really am not into angst-ridden narratives.  Children’s books are so often simpler and cleaner, yet can still be incredibly profound.  This month, I got a copy of Summer of Lost and Found by Rebecca Behrens.  It looks like a lovely little book AND I got a beautiful hardcover copy.  I hope I really love this book because it is SO PRETTY.

Off the Personal TBR:

Only two this time around – Farewell, My Lovely and Martin’s Mice.  And what a contrast those two titles are!

Total for the Personal TBR:  593 (holding steady, because apparently I can’t do math)

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Total for the Series TBR:  Holding steady at 222.

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Added to the Mystery Series TBR:

Stephanie’s review of the latest Kate Burkholder mystery by Linda Castillo inspired me to go ahead and add this series, which currently has nine entries.  Stephanie really enjoys these books, and we frequently have similar taste.  :-D

Off the Mystery Series TBR:  

Nothing…

Total for the Mystery Series TBR:  103 (up one)

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Total for the Nonfiction TBR:  No changes – steady at 79.

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Grand Total for the Week:  Four off and twelve on, so up a total of eight.  I consider anything under a net of ten to be a win, so go me!  :-D

The Tottering TBR // Episode XVII

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…

So this was a pretty good week on the blog overall.  I’ve been really focused on getting reviews done in a timely manner.  This week was also incredibly rainy weather, so I had more time for reading than I sometimes do in the summer.  Next week looks fabulous – sunny and dry – so I probably won’t get as much reading in…  fence-painting calls!

Added to the General TBR:

One book that I had on the Nonfiction TBR turned out to actually be a novel, so it got flipped to this list.  Three views also tempted me this week:

• Rose said that she’s a happier person from reading The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson.  I’m pretty positive that I started to read another of Jonasson’s books with a ridiculously long title (The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden) but didn’t finish it for some reason… but I can’t remember what I didn’t like, so I think this book deserves a chance.
• While Waste of Space by Gina Damico doesn’t necessarily sound like “my” kind of book, I was still attracted to Stephanie’s review – she said that it’s a humorous story that doesn’t take itself too seriously, which sounds like a nice change of pace from a lot of YA.
• Finally, Lynne’s review of The Birdwatcher by William Shaw hooked me from her quote of the book’s first paragraph:  “There were two reasons why William South did not want to be on the murder team.  The first was that it was October.  The migrating birds had begun arriving on the coast.  The second was that, though nobody knew, he was a murderer himself.”  Carol also reviewed this book last month before I was back on the Tottering TBR schedule, and I honestly thought I had added it then… but apparently I overlooked it!

Off the General TBR:

Actually, I didn’t do too badly this week!  I reviewed three books – Woman With a Gun by Phillip Margolin (fantastic), Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier (depressing), and The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain (engaging but ultimately underwhelming).  I also wrote two minireviews that will be published sometime this month, but came off the TBR when the reviews were written (Sprig Muslin by Georgette Heyer and Sunlight and Shadow by Cameron Dokey).  So – a grand total of five off!

Total for the General TBR:  785 – DOWN one!!!

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Added to the Personal TBR:

Two free Kindle books this week.  I have got to get that under control.  Although since I just bought a Kindle Paperwhite on Prime Day, it probably won’t happen any time soon, if I’m honest.

Off the Personal TBR:

Two reviews this week – Girl Out of Water by Laura Silverman (alright, but nothing I’m holding onto, so it’s actually off the list and off the shelves!) and a biography – Patrick Henry: Firebrand of the Revolution by Nardi Reeder Campion.  I also wrote one minireview that will be published later this month – a Kindle Pride & Prejudice variation (no, I do not have a problem, thank you) – Unwilling by Elizabeth Adams.  So – three off!

Total for the Personal TBR:  593 – DOWN one!!!

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Total for the Series TBR:  No change this week – nothing added, and I’m not currently reading a series.  So holding steady at 222.

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Total for the Mystery Series TBR:  No change here either – steady at 102.

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Added to the Nonfiction TBR:  

Nothing!

Off the Nonfiction TBR:

Like I said, one book I had on here turned out to be a novel – Gettysburg, 1913 by Alan Simon, so it was moved off this list.  I also removed a book about healthy eating that didn’t actually sound like it would be useful after all.  So – two off.

Total for the Nonfiction TBR:  79 – DOWN two!

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Grand Total for the Week:  Six added but TEN off – I am down a net of four books!  DEFINITE progress!  At this rate, I may only be 107 when I get through all these books.  ;-)

The Tottering TBR // Episode XVI

This has been a really pleasant week.  A lot of projects are getting done around the house (PAINTING FENCE), but I’m still in a happy reading groove as well.  The Fourth of July was a super happy day – we did a few productive things in the morning while it was cool and then spent the hot and muggy day being completely lazy in the air conditioning, and it was great.  I spent the day doing some organizing of my own books, both on the shelves and on the TBR, which resulted in some drastically different numbers this week from last week.

Added to the General TBR:

With a great show of restraint, I only added four books this week.  I realized that I’ve never read Kipling’s Kim, and it really feels like that’s one I should check off.  I also added Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson because I remembered that I enjoyed her earlier book, Edenbrooke, quite some while back.

Prisoner of Night & Fog, which Bibliobeth reviewed, sounds super intriguing, with a great historical setting and all kinds of potential adventures.  Meanwhile, Fictionophile’s review of The Widow’s House definitely sounded exciting as well.

Off the General TBR:

One off this week – Threads of Suspicion by Dee Henderson.  This was a solid read that meant that my Dee Henderson binge ended on a good note.

Total for the General TBR:  786 – up three.

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Added to the Personal TBR:

This tab got a bit confusing – a lot of books came on and off so the numbers are all kinds of whack.  However, I did completely indulge myself by purchasing a trio of books from Slightly Foxed – I can’t resist them! – by Adrian Bell.  I’m quite excited to read them, both because the stories sound charming, and because just holding these books is perfect.

Off the Personal TBR:

See notes above!  However, I did review both Reclaiming Christianity by A.W. Tozer and The Secret Keepers by Trenton Lee Stewart – which were both on my list!

Total for the Personal TBR:  594 (down 35!!!!!)

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Added to the Series TBR:

While going through all my old reviews, I realized that I actually would kind of like to read Colleen Houck’s crazy tiger-prince books again.  Maybe.  Someday.

And, again inspired by Slightly Foxed – while I have a vague memory of dad reading Swallows and Amazons out loud to us when I was quite small, I’ve never really read them, and they again feel like childhood classics.  So they are now on the list!

Off the Series TBR:

Nothing… and I’m not even in the middle of a series right now!  No progress in sight!

Total for the Series TBR:  222 (up two)

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Added to the Mystery Series TBR:

Nothing!!!

Off the Mystery Series TBR:

I finished the Joseph O’Laughlin series, so it is now checked off the list!  I’m sorry to see Joe go – but I’m excited to get something off!!

Total for the Mystery Series TBR:  102 (DOWN one!)

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Added to the Nonfiction TBR:

Tragedy struck in the form of a post  by The Literary Sisters wherein they looked at several books that revolve around maps.  Basically, I want to read them all, and then find more books about maps.  I LOVE MAPS.  I actually own piles of maps, and have a giant one of the US hanging on our wall.  I pull out my map of the UK when I’m reading books set there; I plot trips on Google Maps that I have no intention of taking; I pull out my Ohio Atlas just to flip through it and look at parks and roads and towns that I’ve never noticed before.  Point being, their post caused me to add four titles to this list!

I’ve also been reading a children’s biography of Patrick Henry, and really enjoying it.  It inspired me to try and find a more “serious” biography of his life – I added Lion of Liberty: The Life and Times of Patrick Henry by Harlow Giles Unger, but am open to other suggestions if any of you know of a better option??

Off the Nonfiction TBR:

Nothing, of course!  Currently I am reading several nonfiction volumes, they just all happen to be ones that I own, so they aren’t actually on this section of the list…

Total for the Nonfiction TBR:  81 (up five)

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Grand Total for the Week:  11 up and 37 down (thanks to crazy math on the Personal TBR :-D) so I am going to seize that victory and revel in it, even though it will never happen again!!

The Tottering TBR // Episode XIV

Fairly quiet week here on the blog.  For some reason, I’ve been reading a lot of books that go in pairs, so that takes extra time, and only counts as one book when I finish them.  Also, I just found out today that I’m starting my job back up at the garden center on this coming Monday, so I’ll be back to 40hrs/wk plus commuting time, so be forewarned – both reading and blogging will probably be reduced!  However, I’m pretty excited about starting there again as I get paid to be outside playing with plants, so it’s hard to complain about that.

Added to the General TBR:

As usual, I’m rather behind on reading reviews, but I still managed to add four books, including Right Behind You by Lisa Gardner.  Carol’s review over on Reading, Writing & Riesling made this book sound quite exciting!

Off the General TBR:

This week, I reviewed The House of the Scorpion and its sequel, The Lord of Opium, both by Nancy Farmer.  They were pretty engaging, although they seemed a bit intense for children’s books!  Because they are a duology, they only count as one title off the TBR.

I also read Cold Shot by Dani Pettrey, a thiller-ish that I enjoyed but somehow lacked that zing. Turns out that it was actually on my TBR, so I got to knock it off!

I also removed a cheesy-looking title from the list that I’m not even sure how it ended up there.  Finally, while I did review The Art of Wishing by Lindsay Ribar, it won’t officially be off the list until I finish the sequel, The Fourth Wish, which I haven’t even started yet.  :-D

Total for the General TBR:  888 – only up one!

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Added to the Personal TBR:

Only two free Kindle books this week!  Such self-restraint!

Off the Personal TBR:

Still working on the Pride and Prejudice variation – it’s my bedtime book.  Things are spiraling out of control there.  So much angst.  Why.  But I can’t stop.

Total for the Personal TBR:  614 – up two!

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Total for the Series TBR:  Nothing added to taken off this week, although I am about halfway through the second book in the Night and Nothing trilogy.  So we’re holding steady at 148.

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Total for the Mystery Series TBR:  No changes here, either – still at 72.

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Total for the Nonfiction TBR:  No changes here, although I have been reading several of my own nonfiction books, mostly studying up on gardening stuff yet again!

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Grand Total for the Week:  Six added and three off, so only a net gain of three – I’m going to call that a win!

The Tottering TBR // Episode XIII

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 Tottering TBR // Episode XII

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…

If it’s possible to have normal weeks in life, this was one of those weeks.  I hung out with my family, sold a few notebooks, read some stuff, wrote a couple of reviews, and of course celebrated Groundhog Day.

Groundhog Day is actually a big holiday for our family.  I’m not even sure how it exactly started, but sometime back when I was in my teens, my dad decided that I would love the movie Groundhog Day and that we should watch it, which we did and I did and it was brilliant.  Then the next year my brother was old enough to really get it, so we watched it again…  and, well, we’ve watched it every single Groundhog Day for probably somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty years.  (If I’d known what a tradition it was going to become, I probably would have paid more attention about when we started!)  Now we not only watch the movie, we also have a series of snacks that we eat throughout the movie that coordinate with events in the movie – usually angel food cake, popcorn, fudge, and sticky buns.  Plus my mom makes the most adorable little groundhog pudding cups!

Last year, we even found Dad a Punxsutawney travel poster.

Anyway, back in the book blogging sphere, it was a pretty average week.  I didn’t make any great strides in checking off reading projects, but I did get a few books reviewed, plus posted January’s Rearview Mirror.

Added to the General TBR:

I am once again quite behind on reading reviews, so I am sure there are even more books waiting out there to be added.  Still, I managed to add six, including another book by Wendy Van Draanen (since I liked Flipped so well), and a few books inspired by random advertising emails.  Two of my books were inspired by blogger reviews –

• The Literary Sisters reviewed The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy, an adaptation of that fairy tale that sets it in WWII Poland.  I love fairy tale retellings and am also endlessly intrigued by stories set in random locations during WWII, so how can this not be a win??
• The other addition is also historical fiction – Following Ophelia by Sophia Bennett.  Heart Full of Books reviewed this one, and I was totally hooked when they said that it was like a nineteenth century version of Hannah Montana, except without wigs.  Perfect.  :-D

Off the General TBR:

I reviewed two books from this category this week – Flipped by Wendy Van Draanen, which I quite liked, and The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux, which I didn’t like quite as well.  I also reviewed The Swoop! (which I loved!) in my quest to read all of Wodehouse’s book in published order.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have all of his books on the TBR to begin with, so some of them – like this one – don’t technically help reduce the number on that pesky list!

However, I also removed one another book that I came across – a long while back, back in the day when the TBR was just getting started, I added all of Grace Livingston Hill’s books because I have enjoyed reading some of them in the past.  Now I frequently remove them without even reading them if, as in the case of The White Lady, it just sounds exceptionally lame.

Total for the General TBR:  884 – up three!

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Added to the Personal TBR:

This week I added four.  Two were free Kindle books, and the other two are actually books that I got my husband for my birthday (because yes, getting him books for gift-giving occasions is a great way to add to my collection!)

• Grandma Gatewood’s Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail by Ben Montgomery is the story of Emma Gatewood who, at the age of 67, told her family she was going for a walk.  She left with just a little bit of money and some clothes and went on to hike the entirety of the Appalachian Trail by herself without a tent, a sleeping bag, or any of the other items that most of us would consider essentials for overnight trails.  At the time, the AT was minimally maintained, and the awareness that Gatewood raised helped solidify the AT’s place as a classic thru-trail.  Gatewood is actually from here in Ohio, and there is a six-mile out-and-back section of trail down at Old Man’s Cave named for her that Tom and I (and Waylon) hike all the time.  Tom has been reading this book already and says that it is really well-written and engaging.  I’m looking forward to this one a lot.
• The second book is another nonfiction title, And On That Bombshell: Inside the Madness and Genius of Top Gear by Richard Porter.  Porter was a script editor for Top Gear for all thirteen years of the Jeremy Clarkson era, and tells the story from the first (dreadful) pilot episode through the crash ending that led to release of Clarkson from the BBC.  Tom and I have watched Top Gear for years, and have found the new Amazon show with Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May (The Grand Tour) to also be quite entertaining and even, at times, informative.  I’ve read several articles and whatnot by Porter, and he is quite humorous, so I’m anticipating an overall light read with this one.

Off the Personal TBR:

Here’s something crafty:  I originally had The Mystery of the Yellow Room on the General TBR, but when I got it as a free Kindle book, I added it to the Personal TBR, too – so now it’s off both and I get credit both places!  Go me!

Total for the Personal TBR:  608 – also up three!

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Total for the Series TBR:  Nothing added or removed here, so holding steady at 147.

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Total for the Mystery Series TBR:  Holding steady here, too, at 71.

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Total for the Nonfiction TBR:  I’m displaying so much restraint that this tab, too, is holding steady – 61.

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Grand Total for the Week:  With ten added and four removed, I’m only up a net of six this week.  So don’t worry – I definitely have this list under control.  ;-)