December 2023 Goodreads TBR Shelf Clean-Up

Howdy, y’all! It’s time for my December 2023 Goodreads TBR Shelf Clean-Up. I wonder if this will help me reduce the number of books on my TBR. Who am I kidding? I’m a reader; of course, I will forever add books. In November 2023, I had 605 books. Today, I have 601. Impressive, there’s been a slight decrease. Will my December 2023 Goodreads TBR shelf clean-up help that number drop a bit lower?

I saw this Goodreads TBR Clean-Up post at Megan’s Book Stacks and knew I had to try it. Megan found it over at MegaBunnyReads.

Click the titles to go to the Goodreads page for the book, and the image will take you to Amazon.

How It Works:

• Go to your Goodreads want-to-read shelf.
• Use a random number generator to pick a number between 1 and however many books are on the list.
• Go to that book and look at the four after it for a total of 5.
• Read the synopses of the books.
• Decide: keep it, or should it go?
• Discuss here.

Books To Be Read: 601

Starting Number: 5, it looks like I’m going through the books I added in the in 2020.

Let’s get this December 2023 Goodreads TBR Shelf Clean-Up underway!

Looking for Me by Beth Hoffman

Teddi Overman found her life’s passion in turning other people’s castoffs into beautifully restored antiques. Leaving her hardscrabble Kentucky childhood behind, Teddi opens her own store in Charleston. She builds a life as unexpected and quirky as her many customers, but nothing alleviates the haunting uncertainty she’s felt since her brother Josh mysteriously disappeared. When signs emerge that Josh might still be alive, Teddi returns to Kentucky, embarking on a journey that could help her come to terms with her shattered family—and find herself.

My Thoughts

I enjoyed reading Saving CeeCee Honeycutt, so why wouldn’t I enjoy reading Looking for Me?

KEEP

Curtain by Agatha Christie

Arthritic and immobilized, Poirot calls on his old friend Captain Hastings to join him at Styles to be the eyes and ears that will feed observations to Poirot’s still razor sharp mind. Though aware of the criminal’s identity, Poirot will not reveal it to the frustrated Hastings, and dubs the nameless personage ‘X’. Already responsible for several murders, X, Poirot warns, is ready to strike again, and the partners must work swiftly to prevent imminent murder.

My Thoughts

First of all, it’s an Agatha Christie book. Second of all, it’s the end of an era. How could I not want to read it?

KEEP

The Unexpected Guest by Charles Osborne, Agatha Christie

When a stranger runs his car into a ditch in dense fog near the South Wales coast, and makes his way to an isolated house, he discovers a woman standing over the dead body of her wheel-chair bound husband, gun in her hand. She admits to murder, and the unexpected guest offers to help her concoct a cover story.

But is it possible that Laura Warwick did not commit the murder after all? If so, who is she shielding? The victim’s retarded young half-brother or his dying matriarchal mother? Laura’s lover? Perhaps the father of the little boy killed in an accident for which Warwick was responsible? The house seems full of possible suspects …

Charles Osborne has adapted the novel from Agatha Christie’s original play of the same title from 1958.

My Thoughts

A book based on something written by Agatha Christie, how can I not want to read it?

KEEP

The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah

‘I’m a dead woman, or I shall be soon…’

Hercule Poirot’s quiet supper in a London coffeehouse is interrupted when a young woman confides to him that she is about to be murdered.  She is terrified – but begs Poirot not to find and punish her killer. Once she is dead, she insists, justice will have been done.

Later that night, Poirot learns that three guests at a fashionable London Hotel have been murdered, and a cufflink has been placed in each one’s mouth. Could there be a connection with the frightened woman? While Poirot struggles to put together the bizarre pieces of the puzzle, the murderer prepares another hotel bedroom for a fourth victim.

My Thoughts

A book featuring a much-beloved character, why wouldn’t I want to give it a try?

KEEP

Spider’s Web by Charles Osborne, Agatha Christie

A typical closed cast of characters occupies the temporary country home of Henry and Clarissa Hailsham-Brown: the seemingly scatterbrained Clarissa; her stepdaughter, Pippa; the odious Oliver Costello, who has married Pippa’s mother; Sir Rowland Delahaye, Clarissa’s godfather and a man of honor; an outspoken gardener; a butler; a cook; and Inspector Lord, the rather diffident policeman. When Clarissa discovers a body in the drawing room, she decides that it mustn’t be found there. Her plans to dispose of the body are interrupted by the arrival of a rather diffident policeman, Inspector Lord, who has come to check out an anonymous tip that a murder has been committed.

Christie’s bag of tricks includes hidden doorways, secret drawers, French windows and concealed identities. Dall used to amusing effect. As with Osborne’s previous novelizations, this is a welcome addition to the Christie canon and is sure to reach mystery bestseller lists. The cover, with a spider in a web against a green faux-marble background, is as catchy as they come.

My Thoughts

Yet another book that revolves around Agatha Christie. How can I get rid of it?

KEEP

Wrap Up

And that is my December 2023 Goodreads TBR Shelf Clean-Up. It doesn’t look like I cleaned my shelf at all! Out of the five books, I’m keeping all of them. It doesn’t help that I found a clump of books on my TBR that were either written by Agatha Christie or feature her characters.

This was fun. I may do it now and then to help keep my shelf realistic. In the past, I just added books without really thinking about it. Will I stop doing that? Of course not! What kind of animal do you think I am?

What do you think? Have you tried doing something like this to see if you can get your TBR under control?

Are you looking for some more ideas to read? Check out my monthly reading wrap-ups.