Time for another round up of books from my TBR to go through! Each week I’ll be going over a selection from my physical unread books and deciding what to keep and what to purge. There will be a third option–undecided–which I might ask for your input on why you think I should keep or purge that title from my list. You can also check out my full TBR pile here.

Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris

Sookie Stackhouse finds it easy to turn down the request of former barmaid Arlene when she wants her job back at Merlotte’s. After all, Arlene tried to have Sookie killed. But her relationship with Eric Northman is not so clearcut. He and his vampires are keeping their distance…and a cold silence. And when Sookie learns the reason why, she is devastated.

Then a shocking murder rocks Bon Temps, and Sookie is arrested for the crime.

But the evidence against Sookie is weak, and she makes bail. Investigating the killing, she’ll learn that what passes for truth in Bon Temps is only a convenient lie. What passes for justice is more spilled blood. And what passes for love is never enough…

I used to be a HUGE fan of the Sookie Stackhouse books from Charlaine Harris–read them all as they were coming out years ago. But I could never bring myself to read the final book in the series. I’ve heard…things. That being said, I do still want to wrap this up and I also have the book of collected shorter works in the universe as well. KEEP

Cold Hand in Mine by Robert Aickman

Cold Hand in Mine was first published in the UK in 1975 and in the US in 1977. The story Pages from a Young Girl’s Journal won Aickman the World Fantasy Award in 1975. It was originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1973 before appearing in this collection.

Cold Hand in Mine stands as one of Aickman’s best collections and contains eight stories that show off his powers as a ‘strange story’ writer to the full, being more ambiguous than standard ghost stories. Throughout the stories the reader is introduced to a variety of characters, from a man who spends the night in a Hospice to a German aristocrat and a woman who sees an image of her own soul. There is also a nod to the conventional vampire story (Pages from a Young Girl’s Journal) but all the stories remain unconventional and inconclusive, which perhaps makes them all the more startling and intriguing.

This is a short fiction collection that one of my good friends sent me because it’s one of his favorites. I very much am keeping this precious gift. 😀  KEEP

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams

Facing annihilation at the hands of the warlike Vogons is a curious time to have a cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his curious comrades in arms as they hurtle through space powered by pure improbability – and desperately in search of a place to eat. Among Arthur’s motley shipmates are Ford Prefect, a long-time friend and contributor to the The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; Zaphod Beeblebrox, the three-armed, two-headed ex-president of the galaxy; Tricia McMilan, a fellow Earth refuge who’s gone native (her name is Trillian now); and Marvin, who suffers nothing and no one gladly.

I read the first Hitchhiker’s Guide book and thought it was fun but not quite for me. I liked the humor but there wasn’t enough substance for me? I don’t know how else to put it. I think I’ll pass on the rest of the series. PURGE

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty 419 scam habit, and a talent for finding lost things. When a little old lady turns up dead and the cops confiscate her last paycheck, Zinzi’s forced to take on her least favorite kind of job–missing persons.

Being hired by reclusive music producer Odi Huron to find a teenybop pop star should be her ticket out of Zoo City, the festering slum where the criminal underclass and their animal companions live in the shadow of hell’s undertow. Instead, it catapults Zinzi deeper into the maw of a city twisted by crime and magic, where she’ll be forced to confront the dark secrets of former lives–including her own.

This book was also a gift from a friend and I still can’t believe I haven’t read it yet, I’m terrible. This one is a keeper though. KEEP

Sherwood Nation by Benjamin Parzybok

Water rations are down to one gallon per person per day… the mayor is proposing digging a trench to the Pacific Ocean… dried out West Coast cities are crumbling and being abandoned by the east… and in Portland, Oregon, water is declared a communal right but hoarding and riots persist.

Amidst this, a young water activist nicknamed Maid Marian (a.k.a. Renee, 20-something barista and eternal part-time college student) becomes a hero. She rides her swelling popularity in opposition to the city government and becomes an icon to a city in need.

Even as Maid Marian and her compatriots build a new community one neighbor at a time, they make powerful enemies in the city government and the National Guard. Their idealistic dream is quickly caught up in a brutal fight for survival.

This is a love story, a war story, a grand social experiment, a treatise on hacking and remaking government, on freedom and necessity, on individualism and community.

I picked this one up for free at World Fantasy Convention a few years ago and I kind of want to read this because I’ve heard some good things but I’m also kind of like ‘meh’ towards it? Convince me? UNDECIDED

That’s all for now! This brings my total count to:

More purges and one more undecided. Things are moving in the right direction! What do you think about my choices here? Anything you’d do differently? Leave a note in the comments, I’d love to chat!