September 2022 Goodreads TBR Shelf Clean-Up

Howdy, y’all! It’s time for my September 2022 Goodreads To Be Read Shelf Clean-Up. I haven’t done one of these since December 2021. 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 be adding books. In December 2021, I had 524 books. Today, I have 608. That is a massive increase in a short time.

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.
• Ask Siri, or 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 it and 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: 608

Starting Number: 64; looks like I’m going through the books I added in December 2020

Shelf Sorted: Date Added

Let’s get this September 2022 Goodreads TBR Shelf Clean-Up underway!

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

Patricia Campbell had always planned for a big life, but after giving up her career as a nurse to marry an ambitious doctor and become a mother, Patricia’s life has never felt smaller. The days are long, her kids are ungrateful, her husband is distant, and her to-do list is never really done. The one thing she has to look forward to is her book club, a group of Charleston mothers united only by their love for true crime and suspenseful fiction. In these meetings, they’re more likely to discuss the FBI’s recent siege of Waco as much as the ups and downs of marriage and motherhood.

But when an artistic and sensitive stranger moves into the neighborhood, the book club’s meetings turn into speculation about the newcomer. Patricia is initially attracted to him, but when some local children go missing, she starts to suspect the newcomer is involved. She begins her own investigation, assuming that he’s a Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy. What she uncovers is far more terrifying, and soon she–and her book club–are the only people standing between the monster they’ve invited into their homes and their unsuspecting community.

My Thoughts

Part of me is unsure why I added this, but another part knows exactly why I added it—all of the hype around it. I say I’m unsure because it’s not really my thing. Typically, spooky and creeping books aren’t my go-to. Am I still curious about the book? Of course I am. Will I ever read it? Doubtful!

DELETE

The One-Way Bridge by Cathie Pelletier

Cathie Pelletier draws readers back to the beloved town of Mattagash, a seemingly quiet New England outpost in Maine. Yet Mattagash is anything but tranquil. While its citizens bicker publicly over small-town theft or their neighbors’ offensive mailboxes, they privately struggle through deeper life issues: scandal, loss, failed ambitions, and the scars of war.

My Thoughts

I picked this book up from the thrift store on a whim. The cover is cute; I mean, it’s a moose-shaped mailbox! And I love the idea of a look into a small community. One thing I’m not sure about is the fact that this is the fourth book in the series, and I haven’t read any of the other books. Does that mean I’m not going to understand everything? Or should I follow my heart and give this a try?

KEEP

The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson

On June 14, 2007, the king and the prime minister of Sweden went missing from a gala banquet at the royal castle. Later it was said both had fallen ill, but the truth is different. The real story starts much earlier, in 1961, with the birth of Nombeko Mayeki in a shack in Soweto. Nombeko was fated to grow up fast and die early in her poverty-stricken township, be it from drugs, alcohol, or just plain despair. But Nombeko takes a different path. She finds work as a housecleaner and eventually makes her way up to the position of chief advisor at the helm of one of the world’s most secret projects.

Here is where the tale merges with then diverges from reality. South Africa developed six nuclear missiles in the 1980s, then voluntarily dismantled them in 1994. This is the story of the seventh missile, the one that was never supposed to have existed. Nombeko Mayeki knows too much about it, and now she’s on the run from both the South African justice system and the most terrifying secret service in the world. The fate of the planet now lies in Nombeko’s hands.

My Thoughts

When I first picked this book up, I hadn’t read anything by Jonasson. But since then, I’ve read The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. And I loved that book. Who’s to say I can’t love another of Jonasson’s books?

KEEP

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. . .”

With these words, the reader is ushered into an isolated gray stone mansion on the windswept Cornish coast, as the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter recalls the chilling the chilling events that transpired as she began her new life as the young bride of a husband she barely knew. For in every corner of every room were phantoms of a time dead but not forgotten—a past devotedly preserved by the sinister housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers: a suite immaculate and untouched, clothing laid out and ready to be worn, but not by any of the great house’s current occupants. With an eerie presentiment of evil tightening her heart, the second Mrs. de Winter walked in the shadow of her mysterious predecessor, determined to uncover the darkest secrets and shattering truths about Maxim’s first wife—the late and hauntingly beautiful Rebecca.

My Thoughts

In the fall of 2020, it seemed like everyone was talking about Rebecca. And I mean EVERYONE! It’s a book that I knew about but not one I had ever read. My guess is that everyone was talking about it then because they read it during one of the many lockdowns that year. Is it something I will enjoy if I read it? In some ways, it reminds me of Jane Eyre, which I read many years ago in high school.

DELETE

Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor

“History is just one damned thing after another.”

Behind the seemingly innocuous façade of St Mary’s, a different kind of historical research is taking place. They don’t do ‘time-travel’ – they ‘investigate major historical events in contemporary time.’ Maintaining the appearance of harmless eccentrics is not always within their power – especially given their propensity for causing loud explosions when things get too quiet.

Meet the disaster-magnets of St Mary’s Institute of Historical Research as they ricochet around History. Their aim is to observe and document – to try and find the answers to many of History’s unanswered questions…and not to die in the process. But one wrong move and History will fight back – to the death. And, as they soon discover – it’s not just History they’re fighting.

Follow the catastrophe curve from 11th-century London to World War I and from the Cretaceous Period to the destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria. For wherever Historians go, chaos is sure to follow in their wake.

My Thoughts

I’m not sure how this book ended up on my radar. It sounds like it could be an entertaining read. Who wouldn’t want to be able to time travel to observe life? But is it something I want to read? Maybe I can keep it for now and maybe think about it a bit more.

KEEP

Wrap Up

And that is my September 2022 Goodreads TBR Shelf Clean-Up. It doesn’t look like I cleaned my shelf up too much! Out of the five books, I’m keeping three. What did anyone expect? I mean, I love reading; how can I easily cut a book off of my TBR?

But this was fun. I may do it now and then to help keep my shelf realistic. Earlier this year, 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.