- Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
- Order on ascending date added.
- Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books
- Read the synopses of the books
- Decide: keep it or should it go?
1. Jane Austen Made me Do It - Original Stories Inspired by Literature's Most Astute Observer of the Human Heart:
“My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” If you just heaved a contented sigh at Mr. Darcy’s heartfelt words, then you, dear reader, are in good company. Here is a delightful collection of never-before-published stories inspired by Jane Austen—her novels, her life, her wit, her world.
In Lauren Willig’s “A Night at Northanger,” a young woman who doesn’t believe in ghosts meets a familiar specter at the infamous abbey; Jane Odiwe’s “Waiting” captures the exquisite uncertainty of Persuasion’s Wentworth and Anne as they await her family’s approval of their betrothal; Adriana Trigiani’s “Love and Best Wishes, Aunt Jane” imagines a modern-day Austen giving her niece advice upon her engagement; in Diana Birchall’s “Jane Austen’s Cat,” our beloved Jane tells her nieces “cat tales” based on her novels; Laurie Viera Rigler’s “Intolerable Stupidity” finds Mr. Darcy bringing charges against all the writers of Pride and Prejudice sequels, spin-offs, and retellings; in Janet Mullany’s “Jane Austen, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!” a teacher at an all-girls school invokes the Beatles to help her students understand Sense and Sensibility; and in Jo Beverley’s “Jane and the Mistletoe Kiss,” a widow doesn’t believe she’ll have a second chance at love . . . until a Miss Austen suggests otherwise.
Regency or contemporary, romantic or fantastical, each of these marvelous stories reaffirms the incomparable influence of one of history’s most cherished authors.
Look for special features inside.
My thoughts:
Honestly, I'm not a Jane Austen reader. Oh, I'll admit I enjoyed the Pride and Prejudice movie, but I'm not really one for reading her writing. So, don't know that I really will ever want to read these? Although it's exciting to see a couple of the authors that are supposedly a part of this.
Verdict: Toss
2. An Infinite Thread - A Merry Sisters of Fate Anthology by Tessa Gratton, Maggie Stiefvater, and Brenna Yovanoff:
My thoughts:
Because I love all three of these authors, and I never did get to reading anything from when they had the website up, I know that some day I'd love to read through what they collected in this book. I'm guessing it is impossible to get a copy of these days, but it is something I'd love to have, so I want to not forget about it.
Verdict:Keep
3. Shivers VI by Richard Chizmar (Editor):
Shivers VI weighs in at 410 pages and contains more than 110,000 words from today's most popular authors of horror and suspense including Stephen King, Peter Straub, Al Sarrantonio, Jay Bonansinga, Lisa Tuttle, David B. Silva, Melanie Tem, Brian Hodge, Brian Keene, Alan Peter Ryan, Blake Crouch and Jack Kilborn, Bev Vincent, Brian James Freeman, Norman Prentiss, and many others.
Two of the longest pieces are a long lost novella -- "The Crate" by Stephen King, which has never been in one of his collections and hasn't been in print in more than three decades -- and "A Special Place: The Heart of A Dark Matter" by Peter Straub, a novella that is "creepy to the core" and "shines a terrible light on the backstory of Straub's acclaimed A Dark Matter" according to the coveted Starred Review from Publishers Weekly.
Featuring original dark fiction with a handful of rare reprints, Shivers VI is available only from Cemetery Dance Publications.
My thoughts:
As much as I really want to read the Stephen King short story, and I used to love and devour these types of anthologies, it looks as if this is a difficult book to get ahold of. So, I probably won't keep it on my list.
Verdict: Toss
4. Another Piece of My Heart by Jane Green:
Andi is a woman who has spent much of her adult life looking for the perfect man, and at thirty-seven, she's finally found him. Ethan—divorced with two daughters, Emily and Sophia—is a devoted father and even better husband. Always hoping one day she would be a mother, Andi embraces the girls like they were her own. But in Emily’s eyes, Andi is an obstacle to her father’s love, and Emily will do whatever it takes to break her down. When the dynamics between the two escalate, they threaten everything Andi believes about love, family, and motherhood—leaving both women standing at a crossroad in their lives and in their hearts.
Another Piece of My Heart is a novel that illuminates the nuances and truths about relationships and is Jane Green at her absolute best.
My thoughts:
While Jane Green is a very popular author that I don't think I need help remembering, many of her books other than a few, are more what I call women's lit rather than the chick lit that I prefer. This one however, just about fits what I would kind of hope for myself if I ever find the right guy. Since I have no kids and can't ever have them, I kind of think it would be nice to find a man with kids. So I think I'll keep this on my list.
Verdict: Keep
5. Walden 3.0 - A Dystopian Romance by Phil Fragasso:
Jacob Botticelli is a young reporter who’s been asked to tell the story of Walden 3.0, a secretive, self-sustaining community in Vermont with its own unique culture, educational and healthcare systems, religious beliefs, and economic structure. Almost immediately, Jacob’s head swirls with revelations that the monogamy of the "outside world" has been replaced with serial marriage; parenting is a communal responsibility; death panels are a reality; and everyone gets to be god for a day. The more Jacob learns of Walden's ways, the more uncertain he becomes of his own beliefs and the life he wants to lead.
Torn from today's headlines, Walden 3.0 offers a worldview that will alternately delight and dismay pretty much everyone. Rather than the traditional Red State-Blue State blather, this no-holds-barred, Purple-State black comedy aims its sights on parenting, romantic love, higher education, gay marriage, universal healthcare, circumcision, the bloated legal system, organized religion, reality television, social networking, conspiracy theories, plastic surgery, and much more.
My thoughts:
Eh, sounds like it might be good. But don't know that it is grabbing me enough that I have to read it.
Verdict: Toss
6. 12.21.12 (The Altunai Annals #1) by Killian McRae:
Archaeologist Sheppard Smyth has staked his career and the honorable memory of his wife and partner on proving his widely panned theory: Cleopatra VII, the last sovereign pharaoh of Egypt, was not a victim of suicide as history suggests, but of a well-concealed murder. When a statue of the doomed Queen is unearthed in a pre-Columbian excavation site in Mexico, Shep rushes to investigate and, hopefully, find the proof that has evaded him for so long. The statue, however, is only the first clue suggesting a mysterious connection between Mesopotamia and Mesoamerica, and possibly - beyond. Suddenly thrust into the heated rivalry between sexy and enigmatic antiquities thief Victoria Kent and the infamous Russian mafioso Dmitri Kronastia, Shep finds himself a common pawn played by forces working to see out a quest older than the pyramids and cloaked in the Mayan Doomsday prophecy of 12.21.12.
My thoughts:
There was a time, before 2012, when the whole doomsday prophecy of the Mayans was frightening. Now, not so much.
Verdict: Toss
7. Sean Griswold's Head by Lindsey Leavitt:
The focus object is intended to help Payton deal with her father's newly diagnosed multiple sclerosis. And it's working. With the help of her boy-crazy best friend Jac, Payton starts stalking-er, focusing on-Sean Griswold . . . all of him! He's cute, he shares her Seinfeld obsession (nobody else gets it!) and he may have a secret or two of his own.
In this sweet story of first love, Lindsey Leavitt seamlessly balances heartfelt family moments, spot-on sarcastic humor, and a budding young romance.
My thoughts:
Cute, but eh, not sure I'll get to it.
Verdict: Toss
8. Bone Dressing by Michelle I. Brooks:
Sydney Roberdeau lost her parents as a young girl. Waiting for her life to start and the freedom that will come with her eighteenth birthday, Syd spends much of her time haunting the local cemetery. It is there, stretched out among the dead, that she feels most alive, most at home. Until one rainy night when Beau, Sarah and T.J. crash her ghostly sanctuary, appearing out of nowhere, turning her already inside-out world one degree past upside down.
Syd must now revisit past lives, dressing in the bodies of her previous selves and bone dressing. Her only chance to outrun the evil breathing down her neck is to face her own worst nightmares and her strongest desires. But if she can't stay out of trouble in this life, how can she possibly fix mistakes from past lives? And just how many lives has she lived, loved and lost? What is Syd exactly, and what will she risk for the life of a man she doesn't remember, the man she spent a lifetime with, the man she loves? Everything including her very own life?
Bone Dressing, the first in a series of seven books, will carry Syd and Beau on an adventure that transcends life itself.
My thoughts:
Don't remember adding.
Verdict: Toss
9. Daemon Hall by Andrew Nance:
Nothing exciting ever happens in the town of Maplewood—that is, until famous thriller writer Ian Tremblin holds a short-story writing contest with a prize that seems to be the opportunity of a lifetime: five finalists will get to spend the evening with Tremblin himself in the haunted mansion Daemon Hall, and the winner of the best short story will see publication.
Wade Reilly and the other finalists could never have imagined what they find lurking in the shadows of this demonic mansion. During a suspenseful night of tale-telling, strange incidents mix the realms of the real and the supernatural. What is Tremblin really up to, and can he be trusted? What about Daemon Hall—is it alive? And, more to the point, will any of the contestants make it out of this hall of horrors to tell their story?
In the tradition of Stephen King, this chilling novel will have teen readers on edge in anticipation of what's to come with the next extinguished candle.
My thoughts:
Once upon a time I read this kind of stuff constantly, now, not so much.
Verdict: Toss
10. Bedtime Stories for Dogs and Bedtime Stories for Cats by Amy Neftzger and Eli Stein:
My thoughts:
Sounds cute, and yes I would read a story to my dogs before bed if I had something silly like this. But, I don't need to buy, and who knows where I'd even find this anymore.
Verdict: Toss
Final Thoughts:
Only keeping two this week out of ten, so that's good! Once again you can see that I may have dropped some, but you can also see how many I've added during the week as well because I'm also pointing out how many books are on my Want to Read list on Goodreads each week. This week, after taking these 8 off, I have 3,189 books listed now, and last week I ended with 3,190. Like last week, I did get rid of more than I added for a change. It may just be one book, but still!
Have you read any of these? Would you suggest I keep any I'm tossing? And if you're inspired to do this on your blog, please feel free to join in and share a link in the comments, since it will also get you an extra entry into my giveaway at the bottom of this post.
Giveaway:
Once again this is a US only giveaway, unless you are International and see a book here you really want and would be willing to pay for the difference in the shipping through Paypal or some other way. This week I'm upping the prize, you get to pick any two books from the pictures below, as long as they don't get traded away, or picked by last week's winner, and I will pick a surprise book from the piles to add to your choice. Here are your choices:
2018 ARCs:
2017 ARCs:
2014 ARC:
I'm continuing to add in my early 2019 ARCs now. You can pick one of your two choices from the picture below, the other book you pick needs to come from the pictures above.
Once again I'm going to let you pick two, along with me throwing in a surprise third book! Just enter the Rafflecopter below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway