Trimming the TBR: B-tier, identity, and a forgotten gem?? (8/23/21)

Hey y’all!

I’m sure there’s a book tag for this but I cannot find the one I was envisioning! So first off, if anyone happens to know of one, please send it my way. 🙂

My goal here is to check out some books on my TBR (currently ~760) that I have 100% forgotten about. Titles that I see and think “Wow, I could have sworn I had never heard of this book before.” But I’m the one who added it so clearly, I have. Things like that. 😅I want to remind myself about books I was excited to read, and maybe cut some off this list to remove the clutter!

I used Goodreads for this, by sorting my To Read shelf into a random gallery mode and scrolling through covers, making note of ones where I scratched my head trying to remember it. To start, here are six!

How She Died, How I Lived by Mary Crockett

2 sentence summary:
A girl lives with guilt over the random chance of another girl dying instead of her. As she sorts through this, she also starts a maybe relationship with the dead girl’s boyfriend, which is maybe kind of weird and maybe just a “you know what I’m going through” thing.

This cover reminded me of one I read when I was probably 12 or 13, so I thought it was SUPER OLD at first, but it actually published in 2018. The plot, while pretty grim, also sounds pretty intriguing. I’m curious in the crime part of it — the guy who killed that girl, what happened?? But I’m also curious to the aftermath that it focuses on. The navigation of survivor’s guilt. I probably don’t want that right now, but sometime for sure.

keep 📚

Behind the Fan by Caroline Walken

2 sentence summary: An old woman’s family packs up her life to move her into a nursing home. They learn a lot more of her secrets than ever expected.

This sounds kind of like The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and that book was so good that I don’t feel the need to read anything similar to it again, because nothing will top it. The blurb also started off sounding like bad erotica, and the overall writing of the blurb wasn’t very compelling. If the book itself is like that, I’m out. The reviews were all GLOWING, which almost compelled me to give it a try, but they were SO good that it made me suspicious. Like only the author’s friends wrote them or something.

cut 🗡

The Thirteenth Guardian by K.M. Lewis

2 sentence summary: An average girl discovers she has a mystical queenly bond that links her with five similarly powered strangers and an enigmatic group called The Guardians. Engage quest.

Cons for this book are that it sounds like there is A LOT going on. Medical mystery. Sudden powers. Secret society. World-ending threat of legend. Quest to save the world. Also apparently a queen?

And yet, those are all also pros for the book. If it’s done well, this sounds AWESOME!!! And like it’s full of all the stuff I love! And so for that reason, I am still going to give this one a chance. ^.^

keep 📚

Silver in the Blood by Jessica Day George

2 sentence summary: two sisters come of age (aka turn seventeen) and have to go to their homeland to learn about their family and the reality of being shapeshifters. Although, they just might rebel against it all instead.

This sounds like something I would have loved when I was 13 (though I added it to my list when I was about 20). For that, I’m going to still keep it.

keep 📚

The Color of Love by Marra B Gad

2 Sentence Summary: A memoir about a mixed-race Jewish woman who, after fifteen years of estrangement from her racist great-aunt, helps bring her home when Alzheimer’s strikes.

While I can see how this drew my attention, since it sounds like a common theme of my reading, I’m just… not really feeling the interest reading this again. In this case, it’s not that this sounds like a “bad” book, but just not for me.

cut 🗡

Be the Refuge by Chenxing Han

Buddhists in America are not all white, yet that’s how they’re largely portrayed according to this proposal. Research and stories propose the truth in this, and suggest a new balance and look at monks.

To be honest, I have no idea why I added this one to my list. It was probably in an overzealous conversation with someone else who recommended it, and I agreed immediately and now am realizing I’m pretty not at all interested in the actual reading of this book.

cut 🗡

So I kept 3 and cut 3! Not bad! But… also… I added one that was recommended on the page of one I cut . xD The new one sounds great for now, but maybe in a year I’ll see it on one of these lists. 😅