With six done, and having pulled the Gabriel Allon series for now, I have whittled down my TBR to:
I am prioritizing finishing any series that I have enjoyed so far, as long as there is a “mageable” nmber of them; I don’t know what constitutes manageable, but The Gabriel Allon series has 22. They are not quick reads for me, so I would like to clear more of my queue and have time to decide how best to approach this long series; one book per 5 book TBR? One every other currently reading book? TBD.
I have decided not to add more books to my TBR. I set five as the (new) limit on my TBR and have five “On Deck“. I would also like to clear the TBR, then move on-decks into that list; with the exception being book club books as necessary. Here are my books on deck.
How many books do you have on your TBR? How do you decide which one(s) to read next? Do you keep a short-list of books you want to prioritize? How much of a series do you read in a row? Do you have a limit to how long a series can be before you commit to it? Interested in your input to improve my lists, too!
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I have decided not to add more books to my TBR. I have/keep 5 as the (new) limit on my TBR and have 5 “On Deck“. I would also like to clear the TBR, then move on decks into that list. With the exception being book club books as necessary. Here are my books on deck.
I am prioritizing finish any series that I have enjoyed so far, as long as there is a “mageable” nmber of them; I don’t know what constitutes manageable, but The Gabriel Allon series has 22. They are not quick reads for me, so I would like to clear more of my queue and have time to decide how best to approach this long series; one book per 5 book TBR? One every other currently reading book? TBD.
How many books do you have on your TBR? How do you decide which one(s) to read next? Do you keep a short-list of books you want to prioritize? Interested in your input to improve my lists, too!
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I keep my TBR fairly organized and have recently added a few books to the list. Other than my book club’s upcoming books, here are a few of my most recent additions in no particular order.
“Sadie Revelare has always believed that the curse of four heartbreaks that accompanies her magic would be worth the price. – Sadie faces the last of her heartbreaks, and she has to decide: is love more important than magic?”
“In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. – When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community-heaven and earth-that sustain us.”
“Ray McMillian loves playing the violin more than anything, and nothing will stop him – not the racism inherent in the classical music world.[H]e makes the startling discovery that his great-grandfather’s fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, his star begins to rise. [W]ith the international Tchaikovsky Competition – fast approaching, his prized family heirloom is stolen. – With the odds stacked against him and the pressure mounting, will Ray ever see his beloved violin again?”
“- [A] woman is at a work reunion dinner with former colleagues- [o]n her way back, she runs into a former boyfriend. And then another. And . . . another. Nothing is quite what it seems as the city becomes awash with ghosts of heartbreaks past. – Memories of the past swirl and converge in ways both comic and eerie, as Lola is forced to decide if she will surrender herself to the conspiring of one very contemporary cult.”
“The one thing [Patricia] has to look forward to is her book club, a group of Charleston mothers united only by their love for true-crime and suspenseful fiction. – But when an artistic and sensitive stranger moves into the neighborhood, the book club’s meetings turn into speculation about the newcomer. – [W]hen some local children go missing, she starts to suspect the newcomer is involved. – What she uncovers is far more terrifying, and soon she-and her book club-are the only people standing between the monster they’ve invited into their homes and their unsuspecting community.”
“Stella Park is elated to celebrate her best friend’s wedding in the Italian countryside—and maybe she also needs this escape from her personal and her professional life. [S]he runs into the ex she hasn’t seen since she broke his heart ten years ago. – When Stella and Samuel keep getting pushed together during a weekend filled with – food – and wedding traditions, – she attempts to ignore that maybe he really was the one that got away. But maybe Samuel is worth the risk—and perhaps some love stories just need more time to marinate.”
“In 17th-century England, Mary Fawcett refines the healing recipes she’s inherited from [the] Fawcett women before her – [w]hen witchfinder Matthew Hopkins arrives in her small village, – he sees – the devil at work. Soon, the husband of one of Mary’s patients is found murdered, his body carved with strange symbols. When the – village turns against her, Mary dares to trust – an enigmatic alchemist- who knows the dead man’s secrets. – Mary must save her life and the lives of those she loves.”
The Collector #3 “When Agent Ramirez finds an abused young boy on her porch, covered in blood and clutching a teddy bear, – he tells her a chilling tale: an angel killed his parents and then brought him here so she could keep him safe. [This murder was] a rage kill like no one on the Crimes Against Children team had seen before. [As] more children arrive at Mercedes’s door with the same horror story. Each one a traumatized survivor of an abusive home.”
The Vine Witch #3 Sidra didn’t murder her husband. Determined to prove her innocence, she returns to her adopted home- where [her] true destiny awaits.- On her trail is Jamra, another jinni, who’s after more than revenge for the murder of his brother. When he learns an ancient relic capable of unleashing chaos on the world- is in the hands of his murderous sister-in-law, he vows to destroy her to get it. Sidra defends herself using the village’s greatest asset: its perfume. But is it enough for Sidra to protect herself and those she loves from powers yet to be released?
“When Yang Wei travels to C City for work, he expects nothing more than a standard business trip. A bottle of mineral water from the hotel minibar results in – unconsciousness. When he wakes three days later, things – get worse. -[T]he hotel forcibly sends him to a hospital for examination. There, he receives no diagnosis, no discharge date…just a diligent guide to the labyrinthine medical system he’s now circulating through. As he seeks escape and answers, one man’s illness takes him on a quest through a corrupt system and his own troubled mind.”
Some of these are Amazon Kindle First Reads. If you have an Amazon membership and are not taking advantage of Kindle First Reads, I urge you to do so; you get 1-2 free books per month. If you aren’t a Prime member, you can still sign up and get books for $1.99 each month.
These are all being moved, if they aren’t already in, my On Deck folder. Some are earmarked in Libby, which I highly recommend. Libby is an e-book library that you can rent books from once you enter your library card information. Get a library card, get Libby, and get to reading.
Any books from my list you’ve read? Any not on my list that you think is a must-read? Let me know what’s on your mind!
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Like many of you, I have an exceptionally long long list of books that I want to read. For those of you who don’t know, a TBR is a To Be Read list, essentially books owned or that we would like to own or borrow from a library that we would like to read at any point in the future. The question is, how to decide what to read next and how to keep track of these books?
On my Kindle, the books that I have purchased, reserved on my Kindle Membership, or that I have received for free from Kindle First Reads, are organized into folders. I have the typical folders: fiction, nonfiction, thriller, self-help. I also have two folders which keep me on track, I have a “currently reading” and an “on deck”. I read multiple books at once, especially because one of them is a daily journal prompt and I like to switch between books so I have time to digest one. My on deck is exactly what it sounds like, it’s so that I can prioritize what I want to read next without having to go through my TBR, plus it gives me a chance to think about it. I can add books, remove books, and then move them into my “currently reading” when I’m ready. If you have an Amazon membership and are not taking advantage of Kindle First Reads, I urge you to do so; you get 1-2 free books per month. If you aren’t a Prime member, you can still sign up and get books for $1.99 each month.
I also have physical, hardcover and softcover, books. I keep a comfort book, two “currently reading”, and an “on deck” book on my nightstand. You may be asking, “does she read really read four-ish books at once”, yes I do. Usually it’s fine, like watching an episode, or five, of one show and then watching a different tv show. But once I was reading two “spy novels” at once and those almost burred together, I made it through though.
How do you organize your TBR? Do you read multiple books at once? Any tips for me?
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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and The Bookish June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
In no particular order, here are 10 series I recommend you add (at least the first 5 chapters of the first book) to your TBR.
My all-time favorite: The Black Jewels by Anne Bishop – A trilogy with many spin-off books that I’ve reread at least four times
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling – Duh
*R/PG-13 Rated* Court of Edaeii by Anya Bast (2-book series) – sexy, fun, wish there was a 3rd
The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer -I genuinely still enjoy it, I can be a smol teenager again if I want
For Dummies -Hard to pick one, and I obviously have not read them all, but if you want a starting, basic, foundational book on just about any subject then I recommend you find a “For Dummies” book on that subject.
The Collector Series by Dot Hutchison -I’ve read two of the four and can’t wait to read the next one.
Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin -duh
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins -Obvi
John Dies at the End by David Wong -Thrilling , ridiculous, sci-fi and fantasy and crazy a** sh!t
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman -A series so wonderful that it’s been made into a movie and a show on HBO
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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and The Bookish June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
My Top Ten Twenty-Six Tuesday this week is inspired by Reese’s Book Club. “Every month, Reese [Witherspoon] picks one book she loves with a woman at the center of the story and shares it with her book club.” For a complete list, click here. It’s from book one, June of 2017, through January of 2020’s pick.
These are the ones that I thought worked for me. Many of the books on the list, as they are women-centered books, lean a little heavily toward romance for me and I just couldn’t add that many romance novels to my list when I don’t generally like them. This does not mean they weren’t amazing or that the authors are any less valuable to the world, just that they don’t tickle MY fancy. These books all have great reviews, so if you were having trouble finding a book to start off your year, look no further! If you can’t find at least 5 that you like then:
“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”
― Toni Morrison
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This TTT, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl is perfect because I’ve decided to start cleaning out my closet, well my Kindle Library that is. The ten books on my TBR list for Fall are all books I already own and have not read for anything from avoiding the book to being even more excited by a more recent purchase or freebie.
Zen in the Art of Writing – I started this a while back, I even read about half of it. I don’t know why I set it down, but I’d like to finish in time for NaNoRiMo and maybe find some inspiration (except my cover art looks like this… but my Kindle worked with GoodReads to mark as “reading” the cover art from the title link…)
Desperate Characters – Not sure where I saw this one, but the title sounded interesting and so did the summary. It’s a pretty recent add to my TBR but I’d like to read it before the end of the year
Rapid Falls – This was a Kindle First Reads that I got in November 2018; I think it’s about time I read it.
Bossypants – I didn’t love Amy Poehler’s “Yes Please” and I love her as an actress and host. Bossypants is by Tina Fey who has been a costar and friend to Amy Poehler and I’ve been delaying it so that I give Tina’s book a fair try; a little over two years seems like plenty of time.
The Forgotten Hours – One of the Kindle First Reads’ from January this year; it still sounds as good as when I first picked it and I’ve finally read enough of my older picks to feel like my newest ones can be on deck.
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Thanks Caitlin for suggesting this week’s TTT topic, circulated and promoted by That Artsy Reader Girl! I’ve been sort of kind of procrastinating on the following books for very different reasons.
Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness I love cephalopods, like many others. My mom once asked why all her high school students were obsessed with kraken and what they even were and I wrote her a mini research paper. I’m just not sure what to expect from this book and I don’t want to lose the wonderment of these intelligent, graceful, mysterious creatures of the deep.
Robot Sex: Social and Ethical Implications (The MIT Press) It sounds like this is more of a thesis which worries me for two reasons: I’m concerned that since it’s written by MIT technical students it will be very over my head and also that it will be exceptionally dry as a read.
Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation This is a textbook a woman who was in my book club was reading for school. It would be helpful given my career in HR and just for self improvement and insight. I want to read it because I understand the severely negative effects of microaggressions, which also makes me apprehensive as I’m sure I’ll find out how terrible of a person I am and how many micro-aggressive transgressions I make in a day. I also am not one hundred percent on the ball with reading a textbook for leisure.
The Other Einstein I’m hesitant as I think it will be a lot of fictionalized scenarios involving or revolving around the Mrs. and the last book I read with a fictional version of Einstein was The Einstein Prophecy and I didn’t get much insight into him or anything about him that wasn’t already known, that he was a quirky, exceptionally intelligent man.
The Frame-Up (The Golden Arrow Mysteries Book 1) I know I know I know, don’t judge a book by it’s cover, but the cover artwork does seem to target a younger audience. GoodReads doesn’t say that this is a YA novel but even the summary sounds like a great read for older teens. I haven’t been connecting to YA novels because I don’t connect with the internal or external issues that the characters deal with.
The World of Lore: Dreadful Places I listen to Aaron Mahnke’s podcast, Lore, and I love it. This book, though, might just be a written version of episodes. One episode I listened to recently was about the Stanley Hotel in Colorado and the summary of the book references this as one of the “dreadful places” that Mahnke takes the reader to.
To the Bridge: A True Story of Motherhood and Murder This is the true story about a woman, Amanda Scott-Smith, who drove to a bridge and tossed her seven-year-old daughter and four-year-old son over the side. Written by a journalist who dug into why she did this as well as documents and other items withheld before and during the trial. I can’t imagine a validation for throwing two kids over a bridge.
Lady Cop Makes Trouble (A Kopp Sisters Novel Book 2) I loved Kopp Sister Book 1, Girl Waits with Gun, and I’m worried I may not like the sequel as much.
The Uncertain Art: Thoughts on a Life in Medicine I’m a healthcare administrator, my background is human resources, patient scheduling, and clinical staffing. There is a high probability that this is geared toward medical professionals (doctors, nurses, nursing assistants, medical assistants, techs, etc.) and that I won’t gain from it or connect to it.
Zen and the Art of Making a Living: A Practical Guide to Creative Career Design I feel like there is a good chance that Boldt gives unrealistic suggestions or that it’ll be tacky and not useful in general. I do love me some self-help and it’s no secret that we can all use some more zen in our lives, improve on less stress at work, and not bringing business stresses home to our personal lives. I also am not sure I’m prepared to make the changes this book might suggest, if they’re actually helpful. Change is hard.
Got books you’re procrastinating on? Read any of the above and can talk me down from this ledge? Comment! Give me some deets!
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I love this Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl (also YaBookNerd). This theme was books to be read for winter, which for me is roughly two of my own books from now ’til March and then the required reading for the Feminist Book Club I try to go to each month.
December, well, today (the 18th), happens to be the meeting where we choose our books for the next six months. We do one meeting/book per month, so six books, and I’ll list those first. Technically, with six books and winter ending in March, three of the FBC books will be outside of the Winter timeline. I’ll also add four more books of my own choosing and they could be anything- maybe more feminism, maybe sci-fi or non-fiction (science or history), maybe even a self-help book– just to round out to ten.
Feminist Book Club Books(Reminder: while I am a voter/member of the group, we are mixed age, sexual preference, gender identity, political party, and origin. This group keeps me open-minded and books or views reflected in this list are not necessarily my own.)
I’m actually not excited to read this book. Maybe there’s been too much hype about it, the title is too grabby for me, or because I’m not that into celebrities or celebrity gossip and hype. This book picks a “too” word (Too Old) and covers a celebrity and societal views (Madonna, being too old to present herself as sexy and/or sexual). I understand that she maybe is trying to reflect that the negative reactions toward these “too” celebrities mirrors society’s, but it doesn’t because tabloids only poke fun and find negatives and that’s why I steer clear of them. I might read it to be able to participate, I may not read it and just hear what everyone else has to say. If you’ve read this book, let me know if you loved it and why – or otherwise.
This book was actually chosen in our last list for book club and then there was a horrible storm and the month got skipped, so we decided to add it to this six month list. I didn’t read it last time- it was picked during a rough month for me emotionally and schedule-wise. Part of me is concerned that I won’t like it because I don’t identify with the struggles of Saudi women, especially living under the thumb of the Saudi government. Moreover, it seems like she had a lot of freedom compared to other women- graduating with a degree and working as a computer security engineer – and that for all my effort in trying to understand what difficulties exist for Saudi women, her view is very different from others’ reality. Overall, it has 85% of reviewers giving at least 4-stars, but some reviewers had my same skepticism realized and are of the other 15%.
Evans covers the work, research, and influence of women in web-related technologies from their inception. Some negative reviews complain that women continue to make great strides in the technological community but that Evans’ coverage stops at the dot-com era. Most of the reviews are just glad someone went back and is recognizing those who were left out when contributors were acknowledged. As someone who loved Hidden Figures and would love to read/learn more about women’s contributions previously covered up or unrecognized, I’m really excited to read this book.
Traister addresses that “angry women” is not a new phenomena. From the suffragettes through today she covers many political movements lead by angry women and the changes they affected. I’m truly excited to read this book and can imagine it might make me feel hopeful that the anger of today’s feminist issues, for all genders and non-conformists, that change has happened, can happen, and will happen.
This is a short (107 pgs) compilation of work from seventeen writers. I don’t love essay compilations in general, but I do tend to love essays themselves that I connect with and are well-written. It sounds like it’ll cover intersectionality as well as difficulties identifying as a feminist, which is interesting to me. I’m also glad this is a May book for me, since may can get a little crazy and this will be a quick bite of a book, but that I can also (hopefully) really sink my teeth into.
I know what you’re thinking “frees women from feminism“, isn’t this a feminist book club? Shouldn’t you be chaining people to feminism and it’s movement? That’s part of why I chose this book. Yep, this was one of the books that I – one of the two Jewish women in the group- recommended and it got voted into the list. My argument was that it sounded like it might be a nice devil’s advocate to our usual list, and also that it references this Catholic Church whom 16% of people follow, and makes up 50% of the one-third of the population that are Christian. I’m really excited to read this book. One of my best friend’s in Colorado also is a devout Catholic and I have asked her to read this book on my behalf so that I can pick her brain, since I’ll also be leading the conversation on this book in June.
Books I Chose (or Kindle recommended and I caved.)
This is the sequel to John Dies at the End, also by David Wong. I read the first book and loved it (see review here – and don’t worry, it’s the first one in the linked post, so you won’t have to dig around). Naturally, as much fun as I had with the inaugural(?) book of the series, I can’t wait to read the second one!
I’ve read almost this whole book about two and a half years ago and really started to clean up; and not figuratively. I got rid of lots of clothes, found a way to spruce up a little bit each day, and then I got in my own way. I hated my living situation, had some other things that pushed my buttons, and in general my anxiety and depression flared in an extreme manner. This resulted in me not caring about my “home” space with it’s negativity and choosing instead to live out of a drawer and a duffle at my boyfriend’s place; which left my things mostly in disarray. I’m in a great place now with my home life, a generally good place otherwise, but we haven’t made the time to move in to our new place with all of our traveling (literally myself or both of us out of town every weekend since we moved in, last weekend being our first non-travel, non-work days). I’m hoping this book will reinstill the motivation and practice to do better. I figure I’ll give myself December to put stuff away in general and clean up a bit before rolling up my sleeves, reading this book, and really getting the place organized. Maybe throwing away some things, too.
Confession: I just started reading this book a few days ago. I have been trying to make a habit of reading more often so when I finished my last book, I decided to move on the my TBR list. I’ve wanted to stop reading this book a few times. The story is interesting, but I only sometimes care about the characters and the drama building feels like I’m headed into a soap opera. It’s a murder mystery, sort of. So far, the phrase “could care less” occurred twice which is bothersome since the story’s set in somewhat high society (middle class at least) during WWI and this is definitely not the articulate phrasing (correct is “couldn’t care less”) that they would use. Another character said “she literally eats like a bird” and I wanted to vomit. I use this phrasing, today, in 2018, and am mildly ashamed of myself for doing so. This phrase is something my mom and aunts scoff at me and my cousins for using and is, again, not era or wealth status appropriate. I am, right this second, 29% through this book. There were a few reviews on GoodReads that had similar complaints to mine, but overall this book has overwhelmingly positive reviews, so I will continue to swallow my grammar-nazi tendencies, hold back my eyerolls, and make it through to at least 50% of this book before calling it quits. Who knows, maybe I’ll read the whole thing.
Monago’s suspense/mystery set in suburbia has been on my list for a while. It’s a little over 300 pages, was $6, and just seemed like a good last addition to my list. It got great reviews from ~8,500 people on GoodReads and a suburban thriller seems to be the one thing I was missing for my TBR list.
Well, there you have it. Ten books that will last me through winter and then some. If you’ve read any of these books, tell me what you thought. If you think I’d like a book, name drop below.
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iniverse 