Down the TBR Hole #11

I figured I haven’t done this in awhile and with all the new books I’ve added to my TBR…well it’s probably time lol. Here we go again!

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Down the TBR Hole was originally created by Lost in a Story! It’s supposed to help make your TBR list a little more manageable and allow you to get rid of books that you don’t have interest in anymore.

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How it works:

• Go to your Goodreads to-read shelf.
• Order on ascending date added.
• Take the first 5 books
• Read the synopses of the books
• Decide: keep it or should it go?

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Hostage by Eli Weisel

It’s 1975, and Shaltiel Feigenberg—professional storyteller, writer and beloved husband—has been taken hostage: abducted from his home in Brooklyn, blindfolded and tied to a chair in a dark basement. His captors, an Arab and an Italian, don’t explain why the innocent Shaltiel has been chosen, just that his life will be bartered for the freedom of three Palestinian prisoners. As his days of waiting commence, Shaltiel resorts to what he does best, telling stories—to himself and to the men who hold his fate in their hands.

With beauty and sensitivity, Wiesel builds the world of Shaltiel’s memories, haunted by the Holocaust and a Europe in the midst of radical change. A Communist brother, a childhood spent hiding from the Nazis in a cellar, the kindness of liberating Russian soldiers, the unrest of the 1960s—these are the stories that unfold in Shaltiel’s captivity, as the outside world breathlessly follows his disappearance and the police move toward a final confrontation with his captors.

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The Round House by Louise Erdich

One of the most revered novelists of our time – a brilliant chronicler of Native-American life – Louise Erdrich returns to the territory of her bestselling, Pulitzer Prize finalist The Plague of Doves with The Round House, transporting readers to the Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota.

It is an exquisitely told story of a boy on the cusp of manhood who seeks justice and understanding in the wake of a terrible crime that upends and forever transforms his family.

 

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The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

On an ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, Julia awakens to discover that something has happened to the rotation of the earth. The days and nights are growing longer and longer; gravity is affected; the birds, the tides, human behavior, and cosmic rhythms are thrown into disarray.

In a world that seems filled with danger and loss, Julia also must face surprising developments in herself, and in her personal world: divisions widening between her parents; strange behavior by her friends; the pain and vulnerability of first love; a growing sense of isolation; and a surprising, rebellious new strength.

With crystalline prose and the indelible magic of a born storyteller, Karen Thompson Walker paints a breathtaking portrait of people finding ways to go on in an ever-evolving world.

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The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay

“I am Moth, a girl from the lowest part of Chrystie Street, born to a slum-house mystic and the man who broke her heart.” So begins The Virgin Cure, a novel set in the tenements of lower Manhattan in the year 1871. As a young child, Moth’s father smiled, tipped his hat and walked away from her forever. The summer she turned twelve, her mother sold her as a servant to a wealthy woman, with no intention of ever seeing her again.

These betrayals lead Moth to the wild, murky world of the Bowery, filled with house-thieves, pickpockets, beggars, sideshow freaks and prostitutes, where eventually she meets Miss Everett, the owner of a brothel simply known as “The Infant School.” Miss Everett caters to gentlemen who pay dearly for companions who are “willing and clean,” and the most desirable of them all are young virgins like Moth.

Through the friendship of Dr. Sadie, a female physician, Moth learns to question and observe the world around her, where her new friends are falling prey to the myth of the “virgin cure” – that deflowering a “fresh maid” can heal the incurable and tainted. She knows the law will not protect her, that polite society ignores her, and still she dreams of answering to no one but herself. There’s a high price for such independence, though, and no one knows that better than a girl from Chrystie Street.

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The Innocents by Francesca Segal

What if everything you’d ever wanted was no longer enough?

Adam and Rachel are getting married at last. Childhood sweethearts whose lives and families have been intertwined for years; theirs is set to be the wedding of the year.

But then Rachel’s cousin Ellie makes an unexpected return to the family fold. Beautiful, reckless and troubled, Ellie represents everything that Adam has tried all his life to avoid – and everything that is missing from his world. As the long-awaited wedding approaches, Adam is torn between duty and temptation, security and freedom, and must make a choice that will break either one heart, or many.

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Hostage by Eli Weisel

I have had a moratorium on reading books about the Holocaust or set during the Holocaust for awhile now and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. It’s just too emotional for me to read about and while this isn’t directly about that, it still deals with it. So I might read this one day, but not in the foreseeable future.

Verdict: Delete ×

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The Round House by Louise Erdich

This sounds like the kind of book I would have read in high school or college and is probably why it ended up on my TBR, but at this moment in time, I’m just not feeling it. I’m sure it’s a powerful book, but I don’t think it’s for me right now.

Verdict: Delete ×

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The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

Oh boy this sounds depressing lol. Where my happy books at?? You can tell where my head space was at when I added these books to my TBR. I’ll pass.

Verdict: Delete ×

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The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay

This sounds good, but I’m a little worried about there being a sexual assault or rape in the book (if you’ve read this book, please let me know!). I’ve also read a couple of reviews that were less than great so I think I’m going to let this one go.

Verdict: Delete ×

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The Innocents by  Francesca Segal

If you’ve seen the movie, The Age of Innocence, than you know this story and that’s why I originally put this on my TBR and bought it. I just haven’t gotten to it yet. But the story still interests me and if I can stop buying books (hahahahaha), I can finally have the chance to read it.

Verdict: Keep √

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Now I want your opinion! Any books you think I should add back onto my TBR? Or ones I should take off? Let me know!

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