My top TBRs #2

I generally try to keep my Goodreads lists to a minimum, but I have one for my top TBRs, the ones I want to read ASAP. I generally try to keep it below 20 books, as I feel like that’s achievable. So I thought it’d be fun to go through my books on there and explain why they’re there. It’s also a good way to keep these books fresh in my mind so when I’m looking for a book to read or buy, I know which ones I want. See part 1 here!

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Between You and Me by Lisa Hall

They say every marriage has its secrets.
But no one sees what happens behind closed doors.
And sometimes those doors should never be opened …

Sal and Charlie are married. They love each other. But they aren’t happy. Sal cannot leave, no matter what Charlie does – no matter how much it hurts.

When it was added: April 18, 2017

Why it’s there: I saw someone (I don’t remember who) review it and it sounded interesting, so I thought I’d give it a go. It’s been a while since I read a good mystery/thriller and I’ve been in the mood for one lately and this seems like it’d be a relatively quick read, so I added it to my Read-a-thin TBR!

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The Lost Girls by Heather Young

In the summer of 1935, six-year-old Emily Evans vanishes from her family’s vacation home on a remote Minnesota lake. Her disappearance destroys her mother, who spends the rest of her life at the lake house, hoping in vain that her favorite daughter will walk out of the woods. Emily’s two older sisters stay, too, each keeping her own private, decades-long vigil for the lost child. 

Sixty years later Lucy, the quiet and watchful middle sister, lives in the lake house alone. Before she dies, she writes the story of that devastating summer in a notebook that she leaves, along with the house, to the only person to whom it might matter: her grandniece, Justine. 

For Justine, the lake house offers a chance to escape her manipulative boyfriend and give her daughters the stable home she never had. But it’s not the sanctuary she hoped for. The long Minnesota winter has begun. The house is cold and dilapidated, the frozen lake is silent and forbidding, and her only neighbor is a strange old man who seems to know more than he’s telling about the summer of 1935.

Soon Justine’s troubled oldest daughter becomes obsessed with Emily’s disappearance, her mother arrives with designs on her inheritance, and the man she left behind launches a dangerous plan to get her back. In a house steeped in the sorrows of the women who came before her, Justine must overcome their tragic legacy if she hopes to save herself and her children.

When it was added: April 18, 2017

Why it’s there: again, someone reviewed it and I thought it sounded super interesting. I love family mysteries too but don’t read very many.

(since originally writing this post, I’ve read this book! one book down! I have a review coming soon!)

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The Rest of us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

What if you aren’t the Chosen One?

The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death?

What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again.

Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life.

Even if your best friend is worshipped by mountain lions…

When it was added: April 23, 2017

Why it’s there: I’ve read the Chaos Walking series by Patrick Ness and adore it, and I want to read more by him. My brother said this one was interesting enough, and I think we have a copy.

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1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.

A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled. 

As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.

When it was added: April 23, 2017

Why it’s there: I’ve had this book on my TBR for FOREVER and decided it was maybe time to prioritize it. I’ve heard so many good things about it and really want to read it.

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American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Locked behind bars for three years, Shadow did his time, quietly waiting for the day when he could return to Eagle Point, Indiana. A man no longer scared of what tomorrow might bring, all he wanted was to be with Laura, the wife he deeply loved, and start a new life.

But just days before his release, Laura and Shadow’s best friend are killed in an accident. With his life in pieces and nothing to keep him tethered, Shadow accepts a job from a beguiling stranger he meets on the way home, an enigmatic man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. A trickster and a rogue, Wednesday seems to know more about Shadow than Shadow does himself.

Life as Wednesday’s bodyguard, driver, and errand boy is far more interesting and dangerous than Shadow ever imagined. Soon Shadow learns that the past never dies…and that beneath the placid surface of everyday life a storm is brewing – an epic war for the very soul of America – and that he is standing squarely in its path.

When it was added: June 15, 2017

Why it’s there: We finally bought a copy of this book, so I figured I should add it to my top list. I love Neil Gaiman and often say he’s my favourite author, so I figure I should read some more of his books.

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Those are books 6-10 on my top TBR list! Have you read any of these? Which should I read first?

xx