To Be Read Shelf Clean-Up: October 2021

Howdy, y’all! It’s time for another To Be Read Shelf Clean-Up, the October edition. I wonder if this will ever 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 September, I had 449 books. Today, I have 463. I didn’t add that many books in the couple of weeks since I last did this.

I saw this Goodreads TBR Clean-Up post at Megan’s Book Stacks and just knew I had to give it a try. 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.
• 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 4 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: 463

Starting Number: 374; looks like I’m going through the books I added in November 2020

Shelf Sorted: Date Added

Book 1: A Princess for Christmas by Jenny Holiday

Synopsis from Goodreads

Leo Ricci’s already handling all he can, between taking care of his little sister Gabby, driving a cab, and being the super of his apartment building in the Bronx. But when Gabby spots a “princess” in a gown outside of the UN trying to hail a cab, she begs her brother to stop and help. Before he knows it, he’s got a real-life damsel in distress in the backseat of his car. 

Princess Marie of Eldovia shouldn’t be hailing a cab or even be out and about. But after her mother’s death, her father has plunged into a devastating depression, and the fate of her small Alpine country has fallen on Marie’s shoulders. She’s taken aback by the gruff but devastatingly handsome driver who shows her more kindness than she’s seen in a long time. 

When Marie asks Leo to be her driver for the rest of her trip, he agrees, thinking he’ll squire a rich miss around for a while and make more money than he has in months. He doesn’t expect to like and start longing for the unpredictable Marie. And when he and Gabby end up in Eldovia for Christmas, he discovers the princess who is all wrong for him is also the woman who is his perfect match.

Thoughts

I just picked this book up over the summer. And I have decided to put it on my Holiday TBR.

KEEP

Book 2: Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder

Synopsis from Goodreads

One day, the mother was a mother but then, one night, she was quite suddenly something else…

At home full-time with her two-year-old son, an artist finds she is struggling. She is lonely and exhausted. She had imagined – what was it she had imagined? Her husband, always traveling for his work, calls her from faraway hotel rooms. One more toddler bedtime and she fears she might lose her mind.

Instead, quite suddenly, she starts gaining things, surprising things that happen one night when her child will not sleep. Sharper canines. Strange new patches of hair. New appetites, new instincts. And from deep within herself, a new voice.

Thoughts

I am torn with this book. I am interested, but not sure if it’s enough to keep the book on my TBR. It’s relatively short, under 300 pages, so that helps. Should it stay, or should it go?

KEEP

Book 3: The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan

Synopsis from Goodreads

Desperate to escape from London, single mother Zoe wants to build a new life for herself and her son, Hari. She can barely afford the cramped studio apartment on a busy street where honking horns and shouting football fans keep them awake all night. If she doesn’t find a way out soon, Zoe knows it’s just a matter of time before she has a complete meltdown. On a whim, she answers an ad for a nanny job in the Scottish Highlands, which is about as far away from the urban crush of London as possible. It sounds heavenly!

The job description asks for someone capable of caring for three “gifted children,” two of which behave like feral wolverines. The children’s widowed father is a wreck, and the kids run wild in a huge tumbledown castle on the heather-strewn banks of Loch Ness. Still, the peaceful, picturesque location is everything London is not—and Zoe rises to the challenges of the job.

With the help of Nina, the friendly local bookseller, Zoe begins to put down roots in the community. Are books, fresh air, and kindness enough to heal this broken family—and her own…?

Thoughts

I added this book after reading The Bookshop on the Corner, also by Jenny Colgan. The first one is like a cozy romance; I’m hoping this is the same.

KEEP

Book 4: 500 Miles from You by Jenny Colgan

Synopsis from Goodreads

Lissa is a nurse in a gritty, hectic London neighborhood. Always terribly competent and good at keeping it all together, she’s been suffering quietly with PTSD after helping to save the victim of a shocking crime. Her supervisor quietly arranges for Lissa to spend a few months doing a much less demanding job in the little town of Kirrinfeif in the Scottish Highlands, hoping that the change of scenery will help her heal. Lissa will be swapping places with Cormac, an Army veteran who’s Kirrinfeif’s easygoing nurse/paramedic/all-purpose medical man. Lissa’s never experienced small-town life, and Cormac’s never spent more than a day in a big city, but it seems like a swap that would do them both some good.

In London, the gentle Cormac is a fish out of the water; in Kirrinfief, the dynamic Lissa finds it hard to adjust to the quiet. But these two strangers are now in constant contact, taking over each other’s patients, endlessly emailing about anything and everything. Lissa and Cormac discover a new depth of feeling…for their profession and each other.

But what will happen when Lissa and Cormac finally meet…?

Thoughts

While this is the third book in the Scottish Bookshop series, it doesn’t seem to focus on one of the main characters having a bookshop. I’m not sure if it’s connected to the others. But I’m hoping it is just as cozy feeling as the first one.

KEEP

Book 5: Live a Little by Howard Jacobson

Synopsis from Goodreads

At the age of ninety-something, Beryl Dusinbery is forgetting everything – including her children. She spends her days stitching morbid samplers and tormenting her two long-suffering carers, Nastya and Euphoria, with tangled stories of her husbands and love affairs.

Shimi Carmelli can do up his buttons, walks without the aid of a frame, and speaks without spitting. Among the widows of North London, he’s whispered about as the last of the eligible bachelors. Unlike Beryl, he forgets nothing – especially not the shame of a childhood incident that has hung over him ever since.

There’s very little life remaining for either of them, but perhaps just enough to heal some of the hurt inflicted along the way and find new meaning in what’s left.

Thoughts

I have no idea where I first heard about this book. But it sounds like a good read! The concept of senior citizens being the main characters isn’t new, but it’s something that I am becoming to enjoy.

KEEP

Wrap-Up

It doesn’t look as though my To Be Read Shelf Clean-Up for October 2021 wasn’t successful. Do I feel guilty? Nope! I will try to do another one soon, and maybe I’ll be more successful.

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