Weekly Wrap Up 9 – 15 Nov: In which I pretend my TBR is under control by creating a ghost-TBR

Hello readers!

It’s been quite a week – I am so ready for Christmas vacations. I’m on a good way to getting my TBR below 170 books, although I’ve been deviating a lot from what I planned to read.

As a way to control my TBR while also not losing track of books that are vaguely on my radar but I’m not very decided about, especially those I keep adding and then removing from my TBR, I created a “on-my-radar” list, where I am gleefully adding books (I added 60 in like… 2, 3 days?) so I no longer have to debate whether to add something to my TBR or not. As a result, my TBR is smaller and consists of stuff I actually want to read, plus a “shadow” TBR of stuff I might want to get to at some point but don’t feel actually pressured to read. I think this will work well!

This week I bought:

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Weekly Wrap Up

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The Endurance by Caroline Alexander

I finished this – it’s such an interesting account of the expedition of the Endurance to Antarctica and getting stuck on ice. I am glad to have read this, it was a recommendation from my mom and dad and they have good taste!

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

I’ll finish this in the next couple days – I’m really enjoying this! It’s a wonderfully written story.

A Deal with the Elf King by Elise Kova

I read this romance in a few days, adjusting my expectations for a simple, fun but not especially memorable read – I ended up giving this 2 stars because it was not so much fun anymore to read the second half, which was so incredibly predictable it just got me impatient to finish it. Considering I had already adjusted my expectations in the first place, I could not give this a high rating.

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A Man by Keiichiro Hirano, trans. by Eli K. P. William

This is a novel about a man who dies in an accident and then his wife finds out he’s not the person he said he was – thus starting an investigation to uncover his true identity and where the man whose identity he’d taken was, and whether he was alive. The premise was super interesting, but this fell a little flat for me at times, while at other times being very interesting. A mixed experience but I’m glad to have read it in the end.

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

I wanted to read this after reading Wishful Drinking. Carrie Fisher has such a funny personality, this was a joy to listen to (although I liked WD better). I really liked it.

Evil Has a Name by Paul Holes, Jim Clemente, Peter McDonell

I am nearly done with this one, it’s an interesting follow-up to the sensitive and incredible I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara, giving details we don’t get in the book and more information on the actual criminal, which is interesting.