Howdy, y’all! It’s time for my July 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 June 2023, I had 616 books. Today, I have 623. That is a bit of an increase. Oh well! Will my July 2023 Goodreads TBR shelf clean-up help that number drop any?
I saw this Goodreads TBR Clean-Up post at Megan’s Book Stacks and knew I had to try it, and Megan found it over at MegaBunnyReads.
Click the titles to go to the Goodreads page for the book.
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: 623
Starting Number: 319, it looks like I’m going through the books I added in October 2021
Shelf Sorted: Date Added
Let’s get this July 2023 Goodreads TBR Shelf Clean-Up underway!
A Toast to Murder by Allyson K. Abbott
As Milwaukee counts down to New Year’s Eve, bar owner Mackenzie “Mack” Dalton has but one resolution — unmask the dangerous mastermind who has been taunting her and killed bouncer Gary Gunderson. Mack and her fellow barflies have fleshed out a suspect and arranged an invite-only party to put a cork in the murderer’s game for good.
But when the clock strikes midnight, and their suspect is found cold and stiff on the basement stairs, it seems the celebration may have come too soon. Now Mack must rely on her special talents to find the real criminal among the crowd of revelers — or someone won’t survive until last call.
My Thoughts
It’s a cozy mystery, so does it matter if it’s book five in the series? I also own a copy of this book, though I didn’t pay a lot for it, as I picked it up at a library book sale. Plus, the synopsis sounds like fun! I mean, a holiday book that’s not set at Christmas? How could I not want to read it?
KEEP
Knot the Usual Suspects by Molly MacRae
It’s time for Handmade Blue Plum, an annual arts and crafts fair, and Kath and her knitting group TGIF (Thank Goodness It’s Fiber) plan to kick off the festivities with a yarn bombing. But they’re not the only ones needling Blue Plum. Bagpiper and former resident Hugh McPhee had just returned after a long absence, yet his reception is anything but cozy. The morning after his arrival, he’s found dead in full piper’s regalia.
Although shaken, Kath and her knitting group go forward with their yarn installation—only to hit a deadly snag. Now, with the help of Geneva, the ghost who haunts her shop, Kath and TGIF need to unravel the mystery before someone else gets kilt!
My Thoughts
This is another library book sale find. And while it’s also the fifth book in the series, I could pick this up without feeling too lost. Plus, it’s a cozy mystery. Those are always fun to read! This book has made an appearance or two on the blog.
KEEP
Christmas at Hembry Castle by Meredith Allard
You are cordially invited to Christmas at Hembry Castle. An unlikely earl struggles with his new place. A young couple’s love is tested. What is a meddling ghost to do? In the tradition of A Christmas Carol, travel back to Victorian England and enjoy a lighthearted, festive holiday celebration.
My Thoughts
This book is 134 pages long and written in the tradition of A Christmas Carol. What’s not to like about all of that?
KEEP
The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson
“I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to.”
And, as soon as Bill Bryson was old enough, he left. Des Moines couldn’t hold him, but it did lure him back. After ten years in England, he returned to the land of his youth, and drove almost 14,000 miles in search of a mythical small town called Amalgam, the kind of trim and sunny place where the films of his youth were set. Instead, his search led him to Anywhere, USA; a lookalike strip of gas stations, motels and hamburger outlets populated by lookalike people with a penchant for synthetic fibres.
Travelling around thirty-eight of the lower states – united only in their mind-numbingly dreary uniformity – he discovered a continent that was doubly lost; lost to itself because blighted by greed, pollution, mobile homes and television; lost to him because he had become a stranger in his own land.
My Thoughts
As an Ex-Pat, something about this book grabs my attention. Of course, I have returned to the States in the 14+ years since I left. But it still amazes me to see how much has changed and yet not changed in my time away, especially when I visit the special places of my youth.
KEEP
On a Night of a Thousand Stars by Andrea Yaryura Clark
New York, 1998. Santiago Larrea, a wealthy Argentine diplomat, is holding court alongside his wife, Lila, and their daughter, Paloma, a college student and budding jewelry designer, at their annual summer polo match and soiree. All seems perfect in the Larreas’ world—until an unexpected party guest from Santiago’s university days shakes his usually unflappable demeanor. The woman’s cryptic comments spark Paloma’s curiosity about her father’s past, of which she knows little.
When the family travels to Buenos Aires for Santiago’s UN ambassadorial appointment, Paloma is determined to learn more about his life in the years leading up to the military dictatorship of 1976. With the help of a local university student, Franco Bonetti, an activist member of HIJOS—a group whose members are the children of the desaparecidos, or the “disappeared,” men and women who were forcibly disappeared by the state during Argentina’s “Dirty War”—Paloma unleashes a chain of events that not only leads her to question her family and her identity but also puts her life in danger.
My Thoughts
While the story sounds interesting and informative, I’m not sure I still want to read it. Sometimes I struggle with multiple timeline stories.
DELETE
Wrap Up
And that is my July 2023 Goodreads TBR Shelf Clean-Up. It looks like I cleaned my shelf up a little! Out of the five books, I’m keeping four. As for the one I’m deleting, it’s not to say I wouldn’t give it a read if I ended up with a copy.
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?
Looking for some more ideas to read? Check out my monthly reading wrap-ups.
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Cozy mysteries really are the exception to needing to read a series in order, as long as you don’t mind possible minor spoilers. And as to the Molly MacRae Haunted Yarn Shop series, I think maybe starting with something other than book one might be a good idea. I read book one expecting a haunted yarn shop, but there was so much set-up in getting the MC settled in her new town that neither the shop nor the ghost were as prominent as I wanted. I’ve heard that both are bigger parts of the series after that, but it made me not want to read book two for a long time. (I haven’t read it yet, though I do plan to. Eventually.)
Thanks for the heads up, Nicole!