To Be Read Shelf Clean-Up: September 2021

It’s the middle of September, so it seems like a great time to do this month’s To Be Read Shelf Clean-Up. I have to admit that I’m not removing many books doing these. Oh, but I am adding books each month. When I did the August shelf cleanse, I was at 398 books. Today I’m up to 449. I may have to do the shelf clean-up posts more often if I really want to reduce my TBR. Who am I kidding? I’m a reader; I want books to read!

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.

How It Works:

• Go to your Goodreads want-to-read shelf.
• Ask Siri 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: 449

Starting Number: 54; looks like I’m going through the books I added in November 2020

Shelf Sorted: Date Added

Book 1: Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee

Summary from Goodreads

Missouri, 1849: Samantha dreams of moving back to New York to be a professional musician—not an easy thing if you’re a girl, and harder still if you’re Chinese. But a tragic accident dashes any hopes of fulfilling her dream and instead leaves her fearing for her life. With the help of a runaway slave named Annamae, Samantha flees town for the unknown frontier. But life on the Oregon Trail is unsafe for two girls, so they disguise themselves as Sammy and Andy, two boys headed for the California gold rush. 

Sammy and Andy forge a powerful bond as they each search for a link to their past and struggle to avoid any unwanted attention. But when they cross paths with a band of cowboys, the light-hearted troupe turn out to be unexpected allies. With the law closing in on them and new setbacks coming each day, the girls quickly learn that there are not many places to hide on the open trail.

Thoughts

I love that it is a historical fiction that’s not the typical World War I or World War II setting. It’s not my typical read, but that’s why I’m interested in reading it. What to do? What to do?

KEEP

Book 2: The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop by Fannie Flagg

Summary from Goodreads

Bud Threadgoode grew up in the bustling little railroad town of Whistle Stop, Alabama, with his mother Ruth, church-going and proper, and his Aunt Idgie, the fun-loving hell-raiser. Together they ran the town’s popular Whistle Stop Cafe, known far and wide for its friendly, fun, and famous “Fried Green Tomatoes.” And as Bud often said to his daughter Ruthie of his childhood, “How lucky can you get?”

But sadly, as the railroad yards shut down and the town became a ghost town, nothing was left but boarded-up buildings and memories of a happier time.

Then one day, Bud decides to take one last trip, just to see where his beloved Whistle Stop used to be. In so doing, he discovers new friends, new surprises about Idgie’s life, and about Ninny Threadgoode, Evelyn Couch, other beloved Flagg characters, and also about the town itself. He also sets off a series of events, both touching and inspiring, which change his life and the lives of his daughter and many others. Could these events all be just coincidences? Or something else? And can you go home again?

Thoughts

There is no doubt in my mind what I’ll do with this book. Why? Because I love reading Fannie Flagg’s books.

KEEP

Book 3: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Summary from Goodreads

No one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: she struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding unnecessary human contact, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.

But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen, the three rescue one another from the lives of isolation that they had been living. Ultimately, it is Raymond’s big heart that will help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one. If she does, she’ll learn that she, too, is capable of finding friendship—and even love—after all.

Smart, warm, uplifting, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . .

the only way to survive is to open your heart.

Thoughts

Honestly, I’m not sure why I added this to my TBR. Sure it sounds like it could be a good read, but is it a fun read? I’m not sure. So many people seem to love it, but will I?

DELETE

Book 4: Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Summary from Goodreads

Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning white boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she’s been given.

Thoughts

This is another book that I’m not sure why I added it to my TBR. I’ve heard it’s a great read and a wonderful introduction to Octavia Butler. What throws me off is the time jumping. Does this make the book like the tv show Quantum Leap? I know the show was set in the 1940s-1990s, and the book is set in different eras.

DELETE

Book 5: The Bermondsey Bookshop by Mary Gibson

Summary from Goodreads

Her mother died in a fall, her father has vanished without a trace, and now her aunt and cousins treat her viciously. In a freezing, vermin-infested garret, factory girl Kate has only her own brave spirit and dreams of finding her father to keep her going. She has barely enough money to feed herself or to pay the rent. The factory where she works begins to lay off people, and it isn’t long before she has fallen into the hands of the violent local money-lender. That is until an unexpected opportunity comes her way – a job cleaning a most unusual bookshop, where anyone, from factory workers to dockers, can learn to read and then buy books cheaply. A new world opens up, but with it come new dangers, too. 

Thoughts

Yet another book I’m unsure where I heard about it from. It’s yet another historical fiction. This one is set in 1920s London, which seems to be a normal place for historical fiction to be set. But it’s not a normal time period for historical fiction. And it revolves around a bookshop. What could be better?

KEEP

Wrap Up

Well, it looks like I cleaned my shelf a little. I’m keeping only 3 books. I don’t have any trips planned to book shop, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be adding books to my TBR.

This was fun. I think I’ll do this once a month to see if I can actually cut any books from my TBR. Do you think this will be a successful endeavor? Probably not, but it doesn’t mean I won’t do it again.

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