- Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
- Order on ascending date added.
- Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books (or 20 if you have as many as I do)
- Read the synopses of the books
- Decide: keep it or should it go?
1. The Mist on Bronte Moor by Aviva Orr:
Heather gets her wish when her concerned parents send her to stay with a great-aunt in West Yorkshire. But shortly after she arrives, Heather becomes lost on the moors and is swept through the mist back to the year 1833. There she encounters fifteen-year-old Emily Brontë and is given refuge in the Brontë Parsonage.
Unaware of her host family’s genius and future fame, Heather struggles to cope with alopecia amongst strangers in a world foreign to her. While Heather finds comfort and strength in her growing friendship with Emily and in the embrace of the close-knit Brontë family, her emotions are stretched to the limit when she falls for Emily’s brilliant but troubled brother, Branwell.
Will Heather return to the comforts and conveniences of the twenty-first century? Or will she choose love and remain in the harsh world of nineteenth-century Haworth?
My thoughts:
I kind of like stories like this. So I might want to try to read it some day.
Verdict: Keep for now
2. First World Problems: 63 things that totally suck by Gemma Correl and Mariah Bear:
Funny photographic treatments of one of the Web’s most popular and long-standing memes (unlike some here-today-gone-tomorrow tags, #firstworldproblems shows up as a popular tag year after year). Each spread illustrates a funny statement or problem, in a way that’s familiar to addicts of the incredibly popular I Can Has Cheeseburger, Failblog, and other funny-photo sites. These are different in that they feature a captivating quirky design, and content created especially for the format.
My thoughts:
Could be fun. But I find that really I don't need to buy a lot of these books. Or read them.
Verdict: Toss
3. The Menagerie by Tui T. Sutherland:
Zoe is panicking. Her family has been guarding the Menagerie for centuries. If they don't get the cubs back fast, the whole place will be shut down. To save the griffins' lives, she's willing to break all the rules, even if it means letting an outsider like Logan help. But the real mystery remains: Is someone trying to sabotage the Menagerie?
Who let the griffins out...and why?
Cool cover, but I think it is middle grade, and I don't really read those anymore.
Verdict: Toss
4. Unsouled by Neal Shusterman:
Connor and Lev are on the run after the destruction of the Graveyard, the last safe haven for AWOL Unwinds. But for the first time, they’re not just running away from something. This time, they’re running toward answers, in the form of a woman Proactive Citizenry has tried to erase from history itself. If they can find her, and learn why the shadowy figures behind unwinding are so afraid of her, they may discover the key to bringing down unwinding forever.
Cam, the rewound boy, is plotting to take down the organization that created him. Because he knows that if he can bring Proactive Citizenry to its knees, it will show Risa how he truly feels about her. And without Risa, Cam is having trouble remembering what it feels like to be human.
With the Juvenile Authority and vindictive parts pirates hunting them, the paths of Connor, Lev, Cam, and Risa will converge explosively—and everyone will be changed.
My thoughts:
I love this series, need to finish reading!
Verdict: Keep
5. Til Death by Kate Evangelista:
Enter Dillan Sloan. Selena has seen the new guy in a different dream, and he is even more droolworthy in person. Beyond the piercing blue eyes and tousled dark hair, there is something else that draws her to him. Something…electric. Unfortunately, Dillan makes it more than clear that he does not feel the same. They just met, so why would he act like he hates her?
When Dillan and Selena are forced together one weekend to work on a school project, Selena prepares to be ignored as usual. But when she stumbles across a few undead in the backyard, Dillan comes to her rescue and reveals a whole lot more. Not only is he part of a society that hunts otherworldly creatures…she is too. And she is being targeted by a force bigger and darker than anything she ever imagined. Despite her death dream, Selena is not going to give up easy, especially when she discovers that Dillan might not actually hate her after all.
My thoughts:
Beautiful cover. But doesn't sound that unique.
Verdict: Toss
6. In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters:
Featuring haunting archival early-twentieth-century photographs, this is a tense, romantic story set in a past that is eerily like our own time.
My thoughts:
The other book that I've read by this author I liked, and I'm interested in how this author will use the old photos as part of the story.
Verdict: Keep
7. Finished Being Fat by Betsy Schow:
My thoughts:
This almost sounds like a good one, but I don't know that I will ever get around to reading it. Hmm. I almost want to keep it though.
Verdict: Keep - for now
8. Leap Write In! by Karen Benke:
• On-the-Spot Drops that offer quick “free-fall” prompts on different themes, such as short-winded poems and seven-line stories.
• Mini Memoirs to unlock personal narrative to share, or not.
• Suddenly a Story suggestions to explore feelings and states of being like fear, reluctance, compassion, kindness, anxiety, anger, jealousy, happiness, and more.
• Surprise Yourself Surveys for those who think they know everything about themselves.
• Untie-Your-Mind Word Lists to jump-start stalled imaginations.
• Definition Decoders to introduce new ideas and styles of writing.
Created especially for tweens, teens, and other earthlings, this book provides you with a chance to create imaginative poems, stories, fragments, and real-life on-the-spot sketches. All that’s required is that you take a breath, relax, reset, and leap write in!
My thoughts:
Well, for one thing, I've decided I need to actually just write, and not worry so much about reading books about writing until I've got my writing done and practice the actual writing. Plus I think this is more for teens, so probably not for me.
Verdict: Toss
9. On the Island by Tracy Garvis-Graves:
Anna and T.J. are en route to join T.J.'s family in the Maldives when the pilot of their seaplane suffers a fatal heart attack and crash-lands in the Indian Ocean. Adrift in shark-infested waters, their life jackets keep them afloat until they make it to the shore of an uninhabited island.
Now Anna and T.J. just want to survive and they must work together to obtain water, food, fire, and shelter. Their basic needs might be met but as the days turn to weeks, and then months, the castaways encounter plenty of other obstacles, including violent tropical storms, the many dangers lurking in the sea, and the possibility that T.J.'s cancer could return. As T.J. celebrates yet another birthday on the island, Anna begins to wonder if the biggest challenge of all might be living with a boy who is gradually becoming a man.
My thoughts:
Nah, not sure why I added it.
Verdict: Toss
10. The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank by Willy Lindwer:
My thoughts:
I am always fascinated to know all the details and how this could have happened. I feel every bit we learn and remember is important for the memory of those we've lost, as well as to help prevent similar events in the future.
Verdict: Keep
11. The Tangled Bank by Carl Zimmer:
My thoughts:
I don't really have the time to read a lot of the science books like I used to.
Verdict: Toss
12. Entanglement by Dan Rix:
In a world like ours, humans are born in pairs. When a newborn boy takes his first breath in the coastal town of Tularosa, the exact time is noted, recorded in the Registry, and later compared to the birth times of other newborns around the globe. There will be one identical match—his half. They will meet on their eighteenth birthday and they will spend their lives together. Except this time, there is no match.
Hotheaded heartthrob Aaron Harper is scheduled to meet his half in twenty-nine days, and he doesn’t buy a word of that entanglement crap. So what if he and his half were born the same day and share a spooky psychic connection? Big deal. After breaking one too many teenage girls’ hearts, he’ll stick to brawling with the douchebag rugby players any day.
Until the day a new girl arrives at school and threatens everything he takes for granted.
Cold and unapproachable, Amber Lilian hates the growing list of similarities between her and the one boy she can’t read, Aaron: born the same day, both stubborn, both terrified of meeting their halves. . . . All the more reason not to trust him. That she would rather die than surrender herself as her half’s property is none of his damn business. But once lost in Aaron’s dangerous, jet black eyes, she’s already surrendered more than she cares to admit.
Tangled in each other’s self-destructive lives, Aaron and Amber learn the secret behind their linked births and why they feel like halves—but unless they can prove it before they turn eighteen, Aaron faces a lifetime alone in a world where everyone else has a soul mate . . . and he’ll have to watch Amber give herself to a boy who intends to possess not only her body but also a chunk of her soul.
ENTANGLEMENT, a 75,000 word YA thriller, will appeal to readers of Michael Grant's GONE and Ally Condie’s MATCHED.
My thoughts:
I've liked the other book I read by this author, and this does sound kind of good.
Verdict: Keep
13. James Potter and the Hall of Elders' Crossing by G. Norman Lippert:
Now, with the help of Ted Lupin and his band of merry mischief makers (The Gremlins), James must race to stop a war that could change the world forever. His only hope is to learn the difference between being a hero and being the son of a hero.
My thoughts:
Honestly, I'm not the hugest fan of fan fiction. I've tried, but just can't seem to get into it.
Verdict: Toss
14. Penpal by Dathan Auerbach:
How much do you remember about your childhood?
In Penpal, a man investigates the seemingly unrelated bizarre, tragic, and horrific occurrences of his childhood in an attempt to finally understand them. Beginning with only fragments of his earliest years, you'll follow the narrator as he discovers that these strange and horrible events are actually part of a single terrifying story that has shaped the entirety of his life and the lives of those around him. If you've ever stayed in the woods just a little too long after dark, if you've ever had the feeling that someone or something was trying to hurt you, if you remember the first friend you ever made and how strong that bond was, then Penpal is a story that you won't soon forget, despite how you might try.
My thoughts:
I get why I added this, sounds pretty creative, but I don't know that I'm as into it now.
Verdict: Toss
15. T-Rex Trying by Hugh Murphy:
Drawn from Hugh Murphy’s wildly popular Tumblr feed of the same name, T-Rex Trying depicts the stubby-armed tyrant in a range of hilarious—yet pathos-inducing—activities that we humans take for granted. Murphy’s 100 drawings include:
T-Rex Trying to Paint His House
T-Rex Trying to Use a Drive-Through ATM
T-Rex Trying to Apply Sunscreen
T-Rex Trying to Break Into a Vending Machine
T-Rex Trying to Ask for a New Roll of Toilet Paper from the Next Stall
Looks like the ancient beast isn’t so tough after all.
My thoughts:
Again, I love the humor books, but really I don't have time or need them on my TBR.
Verdict: Toss
16. Hollywood Hypocrites by Jason Mattera:
THE BOOK YOU’RE ABOUT TO READ WILL PISS YOU OFF.
Are you sick of self-important celebrities preaching against “global warming,” yet flying private planes to their countless homes? Fed up with lectures about charity and philanthropy from miserly rockers who will do anything for a tax break? Disgusted by leftist stars decrying the evils of the Second Amendment as their personal bodyguards pack more heat than a Chuck Norris kick to the face?
The same Hollywood loons who got Barack Hussein Obama elected in 2008 will do so again in 2012. That is, unless we muzzle them. Four years ago, Republicans sat back like wimps and let Obama’s celebrity-fueled cool machine steamroll them into electoral smithereens. This time, we must do the steamrolling.
New York Times bestselling author of Obama Zombies and gonzo journalist Jason Mattera takes the first stand with Hollywood Hypocrites, as he slays the Left’s sacred celebrity cows and teaches Obama’s Tinseltown foot soldiers their most important lesson yet: No longer can they attempt to deny Americans the very liberties they use to catapult themselves to prosperity and stardom. In his trademark eye-opening, no-holds-barred, and hilarious style, Mattera puts scores of A-list celebrities, including Sting, Madonna, Bono, Al Gore, Alec Baldwin, Matt Damon, Cameron Diaz, Bruce Springsteen, and many, many more under the microscope to analyze whether they live by the same environmental, health, anti-violence, civil rights, and other policy prescriptions they seek to inflict on Americans. What he uncovers will shock you.
Hollywood’s megaphone is powerful, and the mainstream media’s love affair with the president will roar back with a vengeance when their guy is against the wall. Anyone who thinks Barack Obama’s abysmal first term will be enough to demoralize the Liberal Left Coast from flexing its mediated political muscle is a fool.
It’s time to recognize the marketing and fund-raising power the Hollywood Progressives wield. It’s time to dig into the data and set the record straight. It’s time to turn the media spotlight back on the image makers and prevent the Hollywood elite from hoodwinking American voters once again.
My thoughts:
This is one that still kind of interests me. Don't know when/if I'll get to it though.
Verdict: Keep - for now
17. Snakeroot by Andrea Cremer:
Andrea Cremer is continuing the story she began in in her internationally bestselling trilogy: Nightshade, Wolfsbane and Bloodrose.
Bosque Mar haunts the dreams of both Adne and Logan, trying to escape for the Nether, where Calla, Shay and the other Guardians trapped him in the final battle in the War of All Against All...
Will he turn Adne to the dark side? Will Logan reclaim his birthright? And will darkness take over our world?
My thoughts:
At some point I may go back to this series, but I don't know that I need to keep it on my TBR list on Goodreads.
Verdict: Toss
18. In the After by Demetria Lunetta:
Amy Harris's life changed forever when They took over. Her parents—vanished. The government—obsolete. Societal structure—nonexistent. No one knows where They came from, but these vicious creatures have been rapidly devouring mankind since They appeared. With fierce survivor instincts, Amy manages to stay alive—and even rescues "Baby," a toddler who was left behind. After years of hiding, they are miraculously rescued and taken to New Hope. On the surface, it appears to be a safe haven for survivors. But there are dark and twisted secrets lurking beneath that could have Amy and Baby paying with not only their freedom . . . but also their lives.
My thoughts:
I feel like I still want to read this some time!
Verdict: Keep
19. Yesterday by C.K. Kelly Martin:
NOW: It's 1985. Freya Kallas has just moved across the world and into a new life. On the outside, she fits in at her new high school, but Freya feels nothing but removed. Her mother blames it on the grief over her father's death, but how does that explain the headaches and why do her memories feel so foggy? When Freya lays eyes on Garren Lowe, she can't get him out of her head. She's sure that she knows him, despite his insistence that they've never met. As Freya follows her instincts and pushes towards hidden truths, the two of them unveil a strange and dangerous world where their days may be numbered. Unsure who to trust, Freya and Garren go on the run from powerful forces determined to tear them apart and keep them from discovering the truth about their shared pasts (and futures), her visions, and the time and place they really came from. Yesterday will appeal to fans of James Dashner's The Maze Runner, Veronica Roth's Divergent, Amy Ryan's Glow, Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone, and Ally Condie's Matched.
My thoughts:
Doesn't sound that different from other dystopia type of books, so I'll skip.
Verdict: Toss
20. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes:
The plan seems simple but becomes complicated by a nosey best friend, a difficult roommate, a dreamy stranger, and a really bad ring. As the month progresses, Ellie must confront the realization that by deciding to focus on herself, she may have become completely self-centered.
Will she let her own ambitions, insecurities, and assumptions ruin her friendships and get in the way of a possible romance? Ruled by endless lists and fueled by several plates of pie, Ellie's comical thoughts and mishaps drive this story from the office to the coffee shop during a month that will leave her with a broken foot, a great pair of shoes, and a forever changed life.
My thoughts:
I feel like I can just watch the movie probably.
Verdict: Toss
Final Thoughts:
Keeping a lot this week, 8!!!
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. 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. As I mentioned above, unpacking is finding a lot of books to get rid of, so you have even more to pick from this week! Here are your choices:
2018 ARCs:
I'm continuing to add in my 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.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
