Down the TBR Hole #39

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Hello Hello! How are you all?

Yesterday was my final class of 2020 and of my semester, so I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders even though I still have a lot of work to do! I hope you all had a good week and are getting in the mood for Christmas!

In any case, I’m really glad to be back for this post as it’s one of my favourites to do every week, and I hope you all enjoy reading it!

You know the drill if you’ve never read any of my Down the TBR Hole posts before but you want to find out why I started and what rules to follow to do your own TBR list purge on your Goodreads, head over to the first edition of this post to find out more!

This week’s purge is starting with 3,679 books on my Goodreads “Want to Read” shelf and I’m going to be going through the next 20 books on this list to try to get that number down, starting at #345! Wish me luck!

GOODREADS “WANT TO READ” SHELF

The First True Thing by Claire Needell

Starting off with a YA contemporary that I have never heard about or seen before! This is a mystery story, which I would usually try, but the blurb sounded very boring to me and a trope that has been done and redone many times. I’m not in the mood for this and don’t think I would enjoy it, so I’m letting it go.

REMOVE

We Are the Ghosts by Vicky Skinner

Another YA unknown-to-me contemporary mystery. I feel like covers with vehicles is going to be a thing this week aha, very 2010. Oh, the main character is called Ellie, I’ve not read many books where the MC shares my name! However, this one bored me so much I couldn’t even bother to finish reading the blurb, so I’m not going to be keeping it.

REMOVE

A Cotswold Family Life by Clare Mackintosh

I feel like I have heard of this book before. It is a nonfiction memoir, I have been trying to read more nonfiction books lately, but not too sure about reading memoirs about the Cotswolds. It sounds like a fairly nice book, but not my cup of tea, so I’m not going to bother with this one!

REMOVE

 The Lost Ones (#1) by Sheena Kamal

This is a mystery/thriller and I’ve not heard of it or seen it before, which is hardly surprising if you know me. I’m not really a fan of these more family-plot orientated books, I don’t know why, but the blurb just does nothing for me, so I’m going to concentrate on other books instead.

REMOVE

Growing Things and Other Stories by Paul Tremblay

Ohhhh! I’ve heard of Paul Tremblay before and I had no ideaaaaaa that I had his horror short story collection on my TBR. However, I am nowhere near prepared to read this book, the blurb made it sound absolutely terrifying and I can’t bring myself to pick it up just now, but I might one day!

REMOVE

Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite by Zoraida Córdova

This is another short story collection that I have heard about before and it’s a fantasy one, so much more up my alley. I’m about 99.999999% sure that I added this book to my TBR just become of the word Vampire ahah, I’m so predictable! Some of these stories sound a bit outlandish, but overall, it sounds like a fun read, so I’m going to give it a chance!

KEEP

Take the Mic: Fictional Stories of Everyday Resistance by Bethany C. Morrow

Oh yay, another short story collection, and I have definitely seen this one about before! This book sounds absolutely incredible and I have no idea why I hadn’t realised it was on my list, I really need to read it soon and I’m sure I’m going to love it!

KEEP

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

This book is an LGBT historical fiction that I’m pretty sure I have heard about before, we definitely have a wide range of books and genres on the list this week! I can see how this book would be great and really enjoyable for some people, but there is something about the blurb that just doesn’t make me want to pick it up, I might give it a shot one day, but it doesn’t draw me in at the minute!

REMOVE

The Gunners by Rebecca Kauffman

This is an unknown-to-me contemporary fiction with a really interesting cover! I don’t really understand what this book is about because the blurb is fairly vague and I sort of lost interest (oops), but I did see that the main character has macular degeneration, so this is a book that would work for my thesis. However, it’s just not calling to me and I don’t want to drag myself through it as it doesn’t sound like a book for me, so I’m going to let it go!

REMOVE

Eternal Life by Dara Horn

This book is a fantasy standalone that I’ve never heard about or seen before and I’m not a fan of the cover. It kind of sounds like one of those very weird books that are good but you don’t really understand enough to explain why you enjoyed it and right now, I’m not in the mood for that kind of read, so this is an easy choice.

REMOVE

Edgar and Lucy by Victor Lodato

Another contemporary fiction that I’ve not seen before! The first line has already put me off to be fair, I don’t really like stories about “family love and betrayal” for some reason they bore me awfully and I wish I could find one that doesn’t. I don’t really like the sound of the rest of the blurb, so this one is coming off the list.

REMOVE

LaRose by Louise Erdrich

Well, I never expected this, but it’s an unknown-to-me literary fiction that I was intending to remove until I saw the word Ojibwe in the blurb and I’m kind of intrigued now (they are a Native American tribe). The first paragraph in the blurb has actually got me hooked and I don’t actually know what this is about! Wow, this book sounds so intriguing, not one I would expect to want to read but I am keeping this on the list and will try to read it soon!

KEEP

Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller

I think I have heard about this book before, but I didn’t know that it was historical fiction, otherwise, I would surely have read the blurb! Honestly, this sounds more like a thriller to me and I don’t fancy it at all, it just sounds like one of those books with a story centred on a couple and I usually don’t enjoy those, so I am letting this one go.

REMOVE

Deadfall by Stephen Wallenfels

This is an unknown-to-me YA thriller that looks more like a horror book, yikes. It sounds like a Criminal Minds episode actually, but it doesn’t entice me enough to want to read it, unfortunately, so I’m going to let it go.

REMOVE

;

Copycat by Hannah Jayne

This time we have a YA mystery and I really don’t like the cover. I’m intrigued by this one, it sounds like something maybe I could enjoy, however, right now, it’s just missing that little spark that I need to want to pick up a book, but I’ll keep it in the back of my mind if I ever fancy it!

REMOVE

The Life and Death Parade by Eliza Wass

YA contemporary that I’ve never heard about but it has some supernatural elements apparently. This one just didn’t capture me and I gave up reading halfway through, it doesn’t sound like a story I would enjoy, so I’m going to get rid of it.

REMOVE

The Color of Lies by C.J. Lyons

I’ve never heard of or seen this book before either and the first thing I have to say is that I really don’t like the cover, I don’t know why I just generally don’t like when covers only have words on them. But it’s YA mystery so I might like the sound of it. I understand why the cover is like it is now, and this has synaesthesia in it, so it would be a great choice for my thesis and the mystery part of the book actually sounds interesting, so I feel like giving this one a go!!

KEEP

A Bright and Pleading Dagger by Nicole Rivas

This is an unknown-to-me feminism short story collection. It sounds intriguing, but not at all like the kind of book that I would want to read, it’s much more on the literary fiction side of things which is a genre I hardly read because I either just don’t get it or the stories don’t captivate me, so this is an easy choice!

REMOVE

When I Find You by Emma Curtis

This is a psychological thriller and I’m pretty sure it’s going to be coming off the list, but I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt anyway. This one has another disability theme, which is something I didn’t expect from a thriller, but it’s definitely not my kind of book, so this is going to be getting removed.

REMOVE

After the Darkness by Honey Brown

And we are finishing this week with a mystery/thriller that I have never heard of before and absolutely hate the cover, so that doesn’t bode well. And after reading the blurb, it’s not one of those mysteries that I usually read. I have a lot of great-sounding mysteries on my list already, so I’ll concentrate on those!

REMOVE

Well, that was a bit of an eclectic mix and quite a few genres and themes I was not expecting, but I feel like it was a very interesting bunch! Out of the 20 books I have looked through today, I was able to remove a total of 16 books, taking my Goodreads “Want to Read” list down to 3,663 books.

I’m really happy with those numbers because last week I didn’t do good at all! Next week I will be starting the Down the TBR Hole post at #349 and hoping to get a few more books off my list!

That’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed this post, see you soon, stay safe,

Ellie xx