Sunday 17 January 2021

Down the TBR Hole #18

Current TBR shelf: 3926

Last week's TBR shelf: 3933

The rules   

  1. Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
  2. Order on ascending date added.
  3. Take the first 5 (or 10 (or even more!) if youre feeling adventurous) books. Of course if you do this weekly, you start where you left off the last time.
  4. Read the synopses of the books
  5. Decide: keep it or should it go?

 


Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin

 
If Naomi had picked tails, she would have won the coin toss. She wouldn't have had to go back for the yearbook camera, and she wouldn't have hit her head on the steps. She wouldn't have woken up in an ambulance with amnesia. She certainly would have remembered her boyfriend, Ace. She might even have remembered why she fell in love with him in the first place. She would understand why her best friend, Will, keeps calling her "Chief." She'd know about her mom's new family. She'd know about her dad's fiancée. She never would have met James, the boy with the questionable past and the even fuzzier future, who tells her he once wanted to kiss her. She wouldn't have wanted to kiss him back.

But Naomi picked heads.

I just think this sounds really interesting and simply like something that I could really like. 

Verdict: Keep


The Adventures of Jack Lime by James Leck

 
Things might get rough, they might even get a little messy, but I was okay with rough and messy as long as I could shut the lid on this dirty case.

Meet Jack Lime, private investigator, who solves problems for his fellow Iona High students. Sometimes he falls for the dames who hire him, sometimes he falls in the river and sometimes he falls asleep (he's narcoleptic). But rest assured that whether he's tracking down a missing banana-seat bike or a kidnapped hamster, or cracking open a trivia tournament betting ring, Lime will follow every lead. 
 
This sounds like a male version of Veronica Mars and whilst I love that show, I'm not sure if this is a book I'm hugely bothered about. 
 
Verdict: Remove
 
Fifteen-year-old Tom lives in the murky, sooty city of London, where he helps his father to run a print shop. Among the customers is wise old Dr Harker, a retired physician and seafarer, whose patient demeanour and fascinating tales endear him to Tom. When Tom and Harker hear a newspaper seller announce a most curious murder in the city, with the victim pierced by an arrow and left holding an illustrated card of 'Death and the Arrow', they are both intrigued by the mystery. As subsequent 'Death and the Arrow' victims are discovered, the mystery closes ever more tightly round the city and intrudes even into Tom's own life. From then onwards, he can't rest till he has discovered the truth behind the murders...

Set a mystery in historical London though and I'm there. 

Verdict: Keep


The New World (Chaos Walking 0.5) by Patrick Ness

 
In this explosive Chaos Walking short story, discover what happened during Viola’s terrifying voyage to the New World. Best read immediately after The Knife of Never Letting Go, find out exactly what happened before Viola and Todd’s first meeting and get exciting hints of things still to come in the award-winning and bestselling trilogy. 
 
Well, seeing as I haven't even read the original trilogy yet, I don't think there's much point of keeping this on my TBR until then. 
 
Verdict: Remove
 

Wither (The Chemical Garden #1) by Lauren DeStefano  

 
In the not-too-distant future, genetic engineering has turned every newborn into a ticking time bomb: Males die at age twenty-five, and females die at age twenty. While scientists seek a miracle antidote, young girls are routinely kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children. When sixteen-year-old Rhine is taken, she enters a world of wealth and privilege that both entices and terrifies her. She has everything she ever wanted - except freedom.

Soon it becomes clear that not everyone at her new husband's home is how they appear. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to escape... before her time runs out.

I'm pretty sure I got this out of my library a few years ago and read the first couple of chapters but I literally can't remember anything about it so I don't think that's a good sign. I think I may give it another chance if I happen to come across it again but I'm not in any hurry. 

Verdict: Remove


Popular by Alissa Grosso

 
Meet the clique that rules Fidelity High: Olivia, Zelda, Nordica, and Shelly, each one handpicked by über-popular Hamilton Best. You know you're "in" when you make the guest list for one of Hamilton's parties. And in the thralls of senior year, everyone wants to get noticed by Hamilton.

But Hamilton's elite entourage is coming apart at the seams. Olivia fantasizes about finally having a boyfriend, Zelda dreams of ditching high school, Nordica wants to be alone with her photography, and Shelly's plotting to dethrone Hamilton. Lies and secrets are ripping away the careful ties that have kept them together for years. But Hamilton has the biggest secret of all, one that only her boyfriend Alex knows. If the truth got out, it would shock everyone and destroy Hamilton's fragile world—and she'll do anything to protect her secret and keep her clique together.
 
I think I'm past books about cliques and popular girls dealing with general drama. 
 
Verdict: Remove
 

Half-Blood (Covenant #1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

 
The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi pure bloods have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals--well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures.

Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden. Unfortunately, she's crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn't her biggest problem--staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is.

If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck.
 
I've struggled with reading books about the descendents of gods in the past and at this point I think Percy Jackson may be my last hope for this sub-genre. 

Verdict: Remove


Virtuosity by Jessica Martinez

 
Now is not the time for Carmen to fall in love. And Jeremy is hands-down the wrong guy for her to fall for. He is infuriating, arrogant, and the only person who can stand in the way of Carmen getting the one thing she wants most: to win the prestigious Guarneri competition. Carmen's whole life is violin, and until she met Jeremy, her whole focus was winning. But what if Jeremy isn't just hot...what if Jeremy is better?

Carmen knows that kissing Jeremy can't end well, but she just can't stay away. Nobody else understands her--and riles her up--like he does. Still, she can't trust him with her biggest secret: She is so desperate to win she takes anti-anxiety drugs to perform, and what started as an easy fix has become a hungry addiction. Carmen is sick of not feeling anything on stage and even more sick of always doing what she’s told, doing what's expected.

Sometimes, being on top just means you have a long way to fall....
 
 
Not a book that really interests me anymore 🤷

Verdict: Remove


Ten Miles Past Normal by Frances O'Roark Dowell

 
Janie Gorman is smart and creative and a little bit funky…but what she really wants to be is normal. Because living on an isolated farm with her modern-hippy parents is decidedly not normal, no matter how delicious the goat cheese. High school gives Janie the chance to prove to her suburban peers that she’s just like them, but before long she realizes normal is completely overrated, and pretty dull.
If she’s going to learn how to live large (and forget the haters), Janie will have to give up the quest and make room in her life for things from the fringe—like jam band, righteous chocolate, small acts of great bravery, and a boy named Monster.

Actually kinda sounds sweet and quirky so I'm gonna give it a chance. 

Verdict: Keep


The Year We Were Famous by Carole Estby Dagg

 
With their family home facing foreclosure, seventeen-year-old Clara Estby and her mother, Helga, need to raise a lot of money fast—no easy feat for two women in 1896. Helga wants to tackle the problem with her usual loud and flashy style, while Clara favors a less showy approach. Together they come up with a plan to walk the 4,600 miles from Mica Creek, Washington, to New York City—and if they can do it in only seven months, a publisher has agreed to give them $10,000.
 
I'm actually very intrigued by the synopsis and anything that challenges women's roles in society. 

Verdict: Keep

This Week:

Kept: 4
Removed: 6 

Overall: 
 
Kept: 70
Removed: 109

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