October 2023 Goodreads TBR Shelf Clean-Up

Howdy, y’all! It’s time for my October 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 September 2023, I had 610 books. Today, I have 610. Impressive, there’s no change. Will my October 2023 Goodreads TBR shelf clean-up help that number drop?

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, 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: 610

Starting Number: 102, it looks like I’m going through the books I added in the Spring of 2021

Shelf Sorted: Date Added

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

Olympus, Texas by Stacey Swann

The Briscoe family is once again the talk of their small town when March returns to East Texas two years after he was caught having an affair with his brother’s wife. His mother, June, hardly welcomes him back with open arms. Her husband’s own past affairs have made her tired of being the long-suffering spouse. Is it, perhaps, time for a change? Within days of March’s arrival, someone is dead, marriages are upended, and even the strongest of alliances are shattered. In the end, the ties that hold them together might be exactly what drag them all down.

My Thoughts

I was super excited to read this book when I first heard about it. Sadly, it took me forever to find a copy. But now that I finally have one on my shelf, how can I not give this a try?

KEEP

Don’t Hate the Player by Alexis Nedd

By day, Emilia is a field hockey star with a popular boyfriend and a mother obsessed with her academic future. But by night, she’s kicking virtual ass as the only female member of a highly competitive eSports team. Emilia has mastered the art of keeping her two worlds thriving, which hinges on them staying completely separate.

When a major eSports tournament comes to her city, Emilia is determined to prove herself to the male-dominated gaming community. But her perfectly balanced life is thrown for a loop when a member of a rival team—Jake—recognizes her . . .

My Thoughts

This sounds like it could be a fun read. BUT I’ve been feeling a bit turned off by YA books recently. There’s nothing wrong with them, but I just struggle to connect with them. So, I think I’m going to pass on this one for now.

DELETE

Haven Point by Virginia Hume

1944: Maren Larsen is a blonde beauty from a small Minnesota farming town, determined to do her part to help the war effort––and to see the world beyond her family’s cornfields. As a cadet nurse at Walter Reed Medical Center, she’s swept off her feet by Dr. Oliver Demarest, a handsome Boston Brahmin whose family spends summers in an insular community on the rocky coast of Maine.

1970: As the nation grapples with the ongoing conflict in Vietnam, Oliver and Maren are grappling with their fiercely independent seventeen-year-old daughter, Annie, who has fallen for a young man they don’t approve of. Before the summer is over a terrible tragedy will strike the Demarests––and in the aftermath, Annie vows never to return to Haven Point.

2008: Annie’s daughter, Skye, has arrived in Maine to help scatter her mother’s ashes. Maren knows that her granddaughter inherited Annie’s view of Haven Point: despite the wild beauty and quaint customs, the regattas and clambakes and sing-alongs, she finds the place––and the people––snobbish and petty. But Maren also knows that Annie never told Skye the whole truth about what happened during that fateful summer.

My Thoughts

While this sounds interesting, I’m just not sure it appeals to me anymore. Especially given the synopsis kind of spoils parts.

DELETE

The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories by Agatha Christie

A collection of nine of Agatha Christie’s intriguing short stories.

Some highlights: Mr. Parker Pyne must recover a priceless diamond which disappears during a dinner party trick; Hercule Poirot proves that a crowd is the best cloak for a murder, and Miss Marple solves a baffling crime by the fireside. There are six more good ones in this mystery anthology.

My Thoughts

It’s Agatha Christie; how can I not keep it?

KEEP

Lord Edgeware Dies by Agatha Christie

Poirot had been present when Jane bragged of her plan to ‘get rid of’ her estranged husband. Now the monstrous man was dead. And yet the great Belgian detective couldn’t help feeling that he was being taken for a ride. After all, how could Jane have stabbed Lord Edgware to death in his library at exactly the same time she was seen dining with friends? And what could be her motive now that the aristocrat had finally granted her a divorce?

My Thoughts

Again, how can I not keep an Agatha Christie book on my list?

KEEP

Wrap Up

And that is my October 2023 Goodreads TBR Shelf Clean-Up. It looks like I cleaned my shelf up a little! Out of the five books, I’m keeping three of them.

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.