This week on TBR Thursday, I’m starting with a much higher number as I did a big giveaway entrance spree and wound up with a lot of new potential reads. I’m now at 500, up from 488 at the end of last Thursday’s cleanup. So I’ll set my generator to 500 and we’re off!

413

Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian

Synopsis from goodreads: “Meet Chloe Sevre. She’s a freshman honor student, a leggings-wearing hot girl next door, who also happens to be a psychopath. Her hobbies include yogalates, frat parties, and plotting to kill Will Bachman, a childhood friend who grievously wronged her.

Chloe is one of seven students at her DC-based college who are part of an unusual clinical study for psychopaths—students like herself who lack empathy and can’t comprehend emotions like fear or guilt. The study, led by a renowned psychologist, requires them to wear smart watches that track their moods and movements.

When one of the students in the study is found murdered in the psychology building, a dangerous game of cat and mouse begins, and Chloe goes from hunter to prey. As she races to identify the killer and put her own plan into action, she’ll be forced to decide if she can trust any of her fellow psychopaths—and everybody knows you should never trust a psychopath.”

Verdict: I added this one during a recent giveaway spree. Reading back over the synopsis, I just really am not feeling it. I’m removing it.

REMOVE

62

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

Synopsis from goodreads: “A novel that chronicles the lives of two women who could not be more different: Becky Sharp, an orphan whose only resources are her vast ambitions, her native wit, and her loose morals; and her schoolmate Amelia Sedley, a typically naive Victorian heroine, the pampered daughter of a wealthy family.”

Verdict: This is a classic that’s been on my list for a long time, and I don’t plan on removing any classics as a rule because I want to eventually read them all if I can. So I’ll keep.

KEEP

120

Too Far by Rich Shapero

Synopsis from goodreads: “Blaze a trail with two wayward kids as they explore a private forest whose supernatural potentials illuminate the triumphs and follies of desperate imagination.”

Verdict: Wow, does this book have a terrible average rating. Of the reviews I read, two of them were comprised of “What the flying fuck was this book?!!!” and “This is the worst book I’ve ever read.” Not a hard call on this one.

REMOVE

369

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

Synopsis from goodreads: “Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am.

She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions. Everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well—and she is on a collision course to meet them.

Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone.

The can’t-look-away story of three entangled families living in a house with the darkest of secrets.”

Verdict: I’ve rarely met a Lisa Jewell book that wasn’t worth the read, so I’m going to keep this one.

KEEP

184

The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

Synopsis from goodreads: “Meet Pat. Pat has a theory: his life is a movie produced by God. And his God-given mission is to become physically fit and emotionally literate, whereupon God will ensure a happy ending for him—the return of his estranged wife, Nikki. (It might not come as a surprise to learn that Pat has spent time in a mental health facility.) The problem is, Pat’s now home, and everything feels off. No one will talk to him about Nikki; his beloved Philadelphia Eagles keep losing; he’s being pursued by the deeply odd Tiffany; his new therapist seems to recommend adultery as a form of therapy. Plus, he’s being hunted by Kenny G!”

Verdict: I sort of thought I’d already read this, but maybe not. I really enjoyed the movie and I definitely need to pick up the book at some point. I’ll keep.

KEEP

That is it for this week, and after removing two of them I’m at 498. See you again soon!

Happy Reading!