Down the TBR Hole #45

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Hello Hello! How are you?

I can’t believe it is already Friday today! My week-off has gone by so fast, but I got quite a bit of work done, a fair bit of thesis research and had a bit of a breakthrough. Here’s hoping my weekend will involve relaxing, reading and napping! How was your week?

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!

I am starting today’s post off with a total of 3,637 books on my Goodreads “Want to Read” shelf and apparently that means that for the second week in a row, I’ve removed two books without realising! I’m going to be going through the next 20 books on this list as usual and starting off at #388. I hope I’ll get some more books removed today!

GOODREADS “WANT TO READ” SHELF

I can already tell that this is going to be a very eclectic mix and I am a little bit nervous, but here goes nothing!

She Loves You (Yeah, Yeah, Yeah) by Ann Hood

We are starting this week with a middle grade historical fiction, and I think this is the first time that I’ve heard about this genre/subgenre. I love historical fiction, but I don’t think I’ve read it from an MG perspective. I’m not too sure about the fact that this is about the Beatles though. I do like The Beatles, but I’m not into reading about bands, singers or stars. I will admit that it sounds like a fun story, but I don’t think it’s my cup of tea.

REMOVE

The Length of a String by Elissa Brent Weissman

Again, MG historical fiction and I don’t think I have heard of this one either. And wow, I can’t believe I have never heard about this book before because it sounds great. It is about a young girl who wants to find her birth parents and she stumbles across her great-grandmother’s diary in which she writes letters about her escape from Luxembourg during the Holocaust. I love anything about WWII and I loved mixed media in books, so I am going to give this one a try!

KEEP

These Witches Don’t Burn (These Witches Don’t Burn #1) by Isabel Sterling

Now, this is what I’m talking about. I have seen this book ALL over the bookish community in the last years and I actually can’t believe I still haven’t read it, let alone get myself a copy. This is YA fantasy with witches (that’s basically all I need to know to want to read it). This book is also LGBT and a series, and that blurb sounds exactly like my kind of read, so this is staying firmly on the list.

KEEP

Until Tomorrow, Mr. Marsworth by Sheila O’Connor

Isn’t it so weird that you never hear about something and then when one crops up, many follow? This is another MG historical fiction! I can’t believe it aha! This one is set during the Vietnam War, a period that I am ashamed to say I know hardly anything about. But this book sounds absolutely beautiful and very poignant. I’m a pacifist just like one of the main characters and the blurb sounds incredible, this is definitely staying as well.

KEEP

The Mad Wolf’s Daughter (Mad Wolf’s Daughter #1) by Diane Magras

Well, what do you know? Another MG historical fiction haha! Ohh this one is set in Scotland! This one is about a war-band and brothers that get captured, I believe and their younger sister who goes on a quest all throughout Scotland to save them, with the help of a motley crew. I’m not 100% sure about this one as the end of the blurb sounded a bit strange, but I think I want to give it a chance!

KEEP

Payback on Poplar Lane (Poplar Kids #1) by Margaret Mincks

And now we have an MG contemporary and I haven’t heard about this one either (the only one I have heard about before so far is These Witches Don’t Burn). However, this book does not sound like something I would enjoy, so I’m going to be getting rid of it off my list.

;

REMOVE

Healing Children: A Surgeon’s Stories from the Frontiers of Pediatric Medicine by Kurt Newman

This is an unknown-to-me nonfiction medical book and I have no idea how it got on my list! It actually does sound like a really interesting book about how children should be treated by doctors who are specialised in the field. I think that I would end up enjoying it if I did pick it up, however, I’m just not in the mood for something like this right now.

REMOVE

Glimmer of Hope: How Tragedy Sparked a Movement by The March for Our Lives Founders

This is another nonfiction that I have not heard about before, but the event that this book focuses on is one that I have heard about. I don’t know how this one got on my list either, but it is about the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in February 2018 and about the March for Our Lives movement. I think this will be a really good and enlightening book to read, so I’m going to try it out!

KEEP

Fireborne (The Aurelian Cycle #1) by Rosaria Munda

And now we are back to a YA fantasy series that I have heard about before. And I’m not going to lie, the reason I added it to my list when this book was released was because of the dragon on the cover. This has been blurbed as a cross between Game of Thrones and Red Rising, so it sounds very promising. This is about two once-friends, now rivals who become dragon riders and I don’t need to know any more about this because I’m sure it’ll be a great book and series!

KEEP

The Lonely Dead by April Henry

Completely changing up the genres now as we have a YA mystery, that is again, unknown to me. And this book sounds creepy, atmospheric and actually kind of cool. It is about a girl who can see the dead and one day, she finds her ex-best-friend in a grave and has to work with her to discover the killer without getting killed herself. I’m going to give this one a try I think.

KEEP

The Place on Dalhousie by Melina Marchetta

Again, a complete change and this is an unknown-to-me contemporary, so I’m already a little sceptical. Having read a bit of the blurb, this honestly does not sound like a book I would ever want to read or would enjoy reading, so this is an easy choice.

REMOVE

Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly

Oh, back to YA fantasy and I have seen this one before, it was all over the bookish community on Instagram a few years ago I believe. This is obviously a Cinderella retelling and you all know how much I love a fairy tale retelling. Wow, just from the first paragraph of this blurb, I can tell this is going to be a really dark story. I’m definitely going to read this book, it sounds great!

KEEP

The DNA of You and Me by Andrea Rothman

And now we have a romance that I feel like I’ve seen before but I’m not sure as I think quite a few contemporaries or romances have similar covers. But this just does not sound like anything I would ever pick up, so I’m taking it off my list.

REMOVE

Dig. by A.S. King

Ohhh, this is a YA contemporary and I actually added this book to my list because I saw it in a BookTube video and it really intrigued me. And the blurb sounds very vague and bizarre to me if I’m honest. I was not expecting anything like that. As far as I can tell, this book is about family secrets (maybe?) and in any case, I don’t think that it sounds like something I would enjoy.

REMOVE

The Silvered Serpents (The Gilded Wolves #2) by Roshani Chokshi

Oh yay, back to YA fantasy! I read the first book in this series, The Gilded Wolves, in 2019 and I really enjoyed it. I remember not enjoying it AS much as I was expecting, but I loved the vibes I was getting from it. I love National Treasure and this felt a lot like that, so I am definitely going to be picking up the second book in this series soon.

KEEP

Messenger by Carol Lynch Williams

This is a YA fantasy paranormal and a book I have never heard about before. I also hate the cover. It sounds kind of interesting but also not my thing, and I know I have loads of other books on my list that have similar themes but that sound more like my thing, so I’m going to be taking this one off the list today.

REMOVE

The Hummingbird Dagger by Cindy Anstey

This is a historical fiction mystery that I have seen about a few times in the past because it did the rounds on Instagram and intrigued me enough for it to get added to my TBR. This book is set in 1833, so an earlier period than I’m used to reading in historical fiction. This book sounds really dark and while I’m not fully convinced it’s for me, I do want to give it a shot.

KEEP

Come Find Me by Megan Miranda

This is YA mystery and another book that I saw on BookTube and added without finding out what it was about, grrr! This also seems like it has some kind of science fiction theme to it and while I do like science fiction and YA mystery alone, I don’t think I would enjoy the mix here. The blurb doesn’t do anything for me, so I’ll get rid of it.

REMOVE

Last Girl Lied To by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

Another YA mystery and I have to say, I have never seen it before! It is also blurbed as an emotional thriller and while I suppose I would have given this a shot a few years ago, it just doesn’t appeal to me right now, so I’ll be getting rid of this one as well.

REMOVE

Songs from the Deep by Kelly Powell

And the final book on my TBR Purge for this week is a YA fantasy that I’m not sure whether I have heard about before, but I do know that I am not a fan of that cover. And I’ll be honest, the blurb isn’t gripping me, so I will finish this week off with an easy choice!

REMOVE

Well, that was such a bizarre mix of books, a mix of ones I’ve heard about before and other ones that were completely new, along with a new genre! I know that I did keep quite a few books today, but I do think that I also made some progress.

Out of the 20 books that I went through today, I was able to remove a total of 10 books, taking my Goodreads “Want to Read” shelf down to 3,627 books. I’m quite happy with that, and next week, I’ll start again at #398 and that means I will nearly be on page 5, come on!!

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

Ellie xx