Wednesday, November 9, 2011

TBR Update

So, my TBR has reached quite epic proportions...it's giving me a bit of an anxiety attack.  It seems like now whenever I begin a book, if it's not stellar I immediately start to wonder if I should shelve it for one of the zillion books from the TBR list.  I even have an entire bookshelf dedicated to books I haven't read (not including review copies)...it's getting bad.  After causing quite a library stack backup I've decided that I need to focus on my top picks from each genre.  So, here's the heavily edited TBR:

First off, library books:
  1. The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
  2. Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal
  3. The Informationist by Taylor Stevens
  4. Liesl & Po by Lauren Oliver (love her!!)
  5. The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
  6. Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
  7. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
  8. The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

    Now, onto the rest of the [urgent portion of the] TBR list (I warn you...this is still very long):

    Literary Fiction
    1. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
    2. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
    3. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dal Sijie
    4. Pobby and Dingan by Ben Rice
    5. The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
    6. The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow
    7. The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
    8. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
    9. The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli
    10. Swamplandia by Karen Russell
    11. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
    12. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
    13. Fiskadoro by Denis Johnson
    14. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
    15. Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay
    16. We the Animals by Justin Torres
    17. The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
    18. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
    19. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt
    20. State of Wonder by Anne Patchett
    21. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
    22. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

      Fantasy
      1. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
      2. Someplace to be Flying by Charles de Lint
      3. To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
      4. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
      5. Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop
      6. His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
      7. The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny
      8. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin
      9. Prospero Lost by L. Jagi Lamplighter
      10. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
      11. The Reincartionist by M. J. Rose
      12. Legend by Marie Lu
      13. A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore
      14. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin 
      15. Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day by Ben Loory (short stories)

        Historical Fiction
        1. With Fire and Sword by Henryk Sienkiewicz
        2. The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly
        3. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
        4. The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett
        5. The Magicians and Mrs. Quent by Galen Beckett
        6. The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye
        7. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
        8. Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie

          Young Adult
          1. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
          2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
          3. Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson
          4. Eli the Good by Silas House
          5. If I Stay by Gayle Forman
          6. The Roar by Emma Clayton
          7. Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
          8. Sabriel by Garth Nix
          9. Feed by M. T. Anderson
          10. The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
          11. Saffy's Angel by Hilary McKay
          12. Chime by Franny Billingsley
          13. Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
          14. Skellig by David Almond
          Southern Lit
          1. The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy
          2. Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
          3. Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
          4. Never Sit Down in a Hoopskirt by Crickett Rumley
          Nonfiction/Memoir
          1. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
          2. Bossypants by Tina Fey
          3. Tiger Tiger by Margaux Fragoso
          4. The Mistress Contract by Anonymous
          5. American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare by Karen Abbott
          6. Bento Box in the Heartland by Linda Furiya
          What should I choose to read next?  It's always so difficult to decide!!

          11 comments:

          1. Wow, that's a very impressive list! I wouldn't know where to begin, although I've always had a soft spot for Zelazny.

            Perhaps you could review something that has not received a lot of attention and deserves a review.

            I'm curious to see what you'll choose!

            The Overnight Bestseller
            http://michaeljmccannsblog.blogspot.com/

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          2. Seriously? You give an amazing list like this and expect us to choose?

            Well, okay. The Night Circus. :)

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          3. My TBR wouldn't even fit in one blog post...there's over 400 now and that's just the ones I've remembered to put on Goodreads as I've got them.

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          4. @Michael - Zelazney eh? Yeah, I've heard really good things!

            @Asheley - yep I'm super excited that I have The Night Circus from the library!

            @Ellie - oh, this is just my severely edited TBR...my actual TBR is almost 700 titles long!!!

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          5. What great books in your TBR! I'm envious that you have so much good reading ahead of you! :--)

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          6. I like your plan for reading one from each category to get it done. I've got over 300 books in my home on a bookshelf and two bags in front of it waiting to be read. And I keep buying or checking out more! :-)

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          7. I feel your pain -- my TBR list is gigantic, and it grows by about a book a day. Crazy!

            If you really can't decide, why not go in alphabetical order? Or in the order in which you have the books listed here? Or pick a number between 1 and whatever, and that's the book you read? Role a die, have a friend pick, or create a poll between one book from each genre and post it here. Nothing like letting fate or other people decide for you. :)

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          8. Love, you and I are in the same boat! I think one of my reading goals for 2012 is going to be to really try to focus on reading books on my TBR list, especially those that I own!

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          9. Kat, I would love to read a lot of the books on your list as well, you have some really good ones on your list! I have been seeing some really good reviews for The Dovekeepers, I am hoping to get to it soon.

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