June TBR & My Frankly Embarrassing Book-Buying Habits

Hello, friends!

In an effort to clear out the one hundred and twenty-three unread books taunting me from my shelves (yes, you read that right), I’ve put myself under a book buying ban and randomized by TBR with a jar full of titles. Several years of buying books just slightly faster than I’ve been reading them combined with constantly grabbing whichever book is shiny and new has left me with loads of books lying around for a frankly embarrassing amount of time without being touched. Oops.

So I’m letting The Jar decide what comes next, no exceptions, and if I’m hating a book a hundred or so pages into it, it’s gotta go. Time to clean out these shelves or I’ll never buy a new book again.

The Book Jar has spoken, and next up on my TBR…

Swear on This Life, by Renee Carlino. This is one that my book club read before I joined, and after months of listening to the other girls talk about books I haven’t read, I’ve made it a goal to go back through the ones that I missed on my own.

A Separate Peace, by John Knowles. I feel like I’m the only one who never read this in high school. Am I wrong? I took a lit class once where the class was split in half and we got separate book assignments, and the other half got this one.  I’ve been left with some weird sense of obligation towards it ever since.

The Pearl That Broke Its Shell, by Nadia Hashimi. This was another book club pick before I joined.

Battle Royale, by Koushun Takami. I’m honestly dreading this one and it may end up donated before the month is through. I tried to start it once before and I don’t remember how far I got into it, but I could not get into it. Maybe I’ll make it further this time. People seem to love this book, and I really want to get what they see in it.

I’m also listening to these audio books for this month:

 

Strange The Dreamer, by Laini Taylor. YA is not normally my thing, but I’ve been seeing this book everywhere and I had to see what the hype was about. And fantasy is very much my thing, so I’m thinking I’ll like this one. I’m just a couple of chapters into it now, but I have high hopes.

Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow. I’m a Hamilton geek. Enough said.

I’ll end on this, my current read:

This is How it Always Is, by Laurie Frankel, a story about a trans child and her family, which is still using male pronouns 100 pages in, when it is crystal clear at this point that this child views herself as and wants to be treated as a girl. I don’t know if this choice is a product of the author or of the characters she’s writing not being sure how to deal with the transition, but it just strikes me as an odd narrative choice, and it’s beginning to irritate me. The parents are still chugging along, calling her by a female name and male pronouns. I’m struggling to decide how I feel about this book, but I guess I’ll wait and see. So far, I have very mixed feelings.

What are you reading this month? Have you read the books referenced here? Please feel free to share your thoughts on them in the comments or to link to your own TBR posts. 🙂 Happy reading!