MIRANDA'S SEPTEMBER MUSINGS: THE TBR PILE!

 Hello my precious people and hello spring, you are both lovely!

Time to spring clean! I shifted a few shelves in my TBR (To Be Read) section, and discovered some extremely exciting and swoonworthy books I'm ashamed to say I haven't read! Don't judge, I'm sure you also have *cough* hundreds waiting for you, too. My excuse is I think mine multiply in the dark at night, being romances and all.

But omigosh, I found so much treasure waiting for me.

First up, the very patient and lovely Narelle Atkins sent me her inspirational Snowgum Creek series some time ago. I love Narelle. She's an inspiration not only in her books but in her life, and I feel terrible I haven't read this gorgeous sweet series yet. Now I've unearthed them I can't wait to start. The first sentence refers to runaway bride Kate: She had to escape now!... Wow, what an opener. Thanks so much Narelle. (Sorry I've taken so long!)

Picture credit: amazon.com

Next, I discovered four beautiful bride books by Nora Roberts. Gasp! New-to-me Nora books, unread - happy day! I feel like someone just gave me a birthday present! Everyone loves a bride book, don't they? Oh, the utter romance and wonderful-ness of a wedding. The first in the quartet - yes, four bride books with four wedding planner friends, is Vision in White. This is going to be good...

Picture credit: amazon.com

What next? Happily, readers, I won the following book in a competition from the fabulous Catherine Evans - oh dear, yes, a while ago. Never read but not forgotten. It's a spectacular 3-in-1 anthology, a teeny weeny hard to find now, so absolute gold on my shelf. Catherine's story is called The Healing Season, and there are books by Jennie Jones: A Heart Stuck on Hope, and Lisa Ireland: Honey Hill House. So much rural romance goodness in one book! Lucky, lucky me.

Picture credit: Catherine Evans

Here's a rediscovered blast from the past: Heartstrings by beloved author Rebecca Paisley. I found not one, not two, but three copies on my shelf. (Super reluctantly let one precious paper copy go because I do have an ebook as well...) Time to reread this little gem, published back in the 1990s. Not that I was alive then or anything. 😉 (Yes, I was.) This is a wild west story, where a prim spinster hires a wild west tough guy to sire her baby, so she can give the little one to her childless sister. So much tenderness and fierce family love right there. There's also a talking parrot that reduced me to helpless laughter every time it opened its mouth. Beak. I love this book, so it's going back onto the TBR pile. I'm sure it'll stand the test of time.

Picture credit: amazon.com

I'm going to cheat here and at least claim some success with my TBR. I plucked forth and enjoyed a recent Aussie historical romance, Alison Stuart's splendid The Postmistress, mainly because the next book in the series, The Goldminer's Sister has also just been released. The loosely linked books are set on the Australian goldfields in the 1870s. Yes please, I simply can't get enough of that era. It was truly a fascinating slice of history and romance, with lots of colourful characters, an intrepid heroine, and the best and the worst of the Australian bush thrown in. Such gripping reading, thanks Alison.

Picture credit: amazon.com

Last but not least, there's a brand new addition to the TBR I'm very excited about. I won a book from wonderful Aussie author Darry Fraser - Elsa Goody, Bushranger, set in 1896 South Australia. Our Elsa appears to be on a quest for buried treasure, and her freedom, and embarks on a perilous quest to find Ezekial Jones, the last man to see her brother alive. More exciting colonial history. Thank you Darry, you wonderful author you, and also thanks to Alli Sinclair, who featured the comp for the book on her blog. Lucky me.

Picture credit: amazon.com

So! Do you have a massive, teetering, years old TBR pile like me? Or are you one of those brilliant readers who manages to read everything on your shelf before you get distracted by more shiny new romance?

Confess.... No judging here.

Lots of love dear readers, and please stay safe and well,

Miranda xxx

Love to Love:

My TBR. True treasures await. You?

Love to Laugh:

At funny books, like Heartstrings. You?

Love to Learn:

How you manage your TBR. Random/blind selections, whatever suits your mood, or another method? 

The TBR Mountain - How I'm Taking Back Control

by Enisa Haines

Image courtesy of: giphy.com

Back in the days when life was simpler, a mix of school/university and leisure time, I hadn't met the TBR pile. I was always reading, devouring in a few days the ten romance novels Harlequin Mills & Boon published every month. Yes, ten novels. Soon a new publisher appeared, Silhouette Books, and the ten books per month grew to twenty. I could cope with that.

Then an explosion happened in the romance novel publishing industry. New publishers emerged, offering sub-genres never before published: romantic suspense, futuristic, fantasy, paranormal and Gothic. Harlequin Mills & Boon introduced new category lines. So many books vying for my attention but life was no longer simple, family and work obligations and using spare moments to write hacking away at my reading time. And the TBR pile took up residence in my home. Five books stacked on my bedside table.

Then the bedside table morphed into one bookcase, then two, then three, the shelves overflowing as the five books unread multiplied to 1500. Add the 1000+ eBooks waiting to be read on my Amazon Kindle app (eReader News Today daily bargain deals sure are tempting) and my stack is now a mountain!

How did my TBR pile get so out of control? I love books. Too much, I now admit. I'll see a promo for a new book release or I'll read a review and I'm purchasing, so I know I won't ever stop buying, but I have to take control of my unread books and work through that mountain. How?

Image courtesy of: giphy.com

I've come up with a plan:

• Resist buying more books to replace the ones read or donated (most important)
• Read the back cover blurb and the first page. Does it grab my attention? 
• Read the first chapter. Do I want to read on?                                                                                   (if the answer to either question is 'no', the book goes in the 'Donate to charity' box)

Am I being too ruthless? Sure, but ruthless I have to be to cull my TBR mountain.

Do you have a TBR pile? Is it out of control? How do you deal with it?


Love to love: reading romance novels

Love to laugh: at the funny gifs I find as I search the internet

Love to learn: all the ways how to tame my TBR pile

How Easy is it to Add to Your 'To Be Read' Pile?

Miranda's May Musings

Hello beautiful readers, welcome! I have a very serious question to ask this month: how big is your To Be Read pile? Ha, stop laughing... Is it like mine? Enormous? Even if I live to be eleventy billion years old I'll never finish. Such a thrilling dilemma.

Today fellow BITB blogger Alyssa J Montgomery and I went to a wonderful High Tea run by the Australian Romance Readers Association (ARRA), and it was divine. Held in a beautiful boutique hotel in Sydney, there were three tables, each hosted by an author: Kandy Shepherd, Shannon Curtis, and my table's lovely hostess Avril Tremayne.

You know where this is going, don't you? Yes, more books! I don't care that I've got a trillion books at home (slight exaggeration only). I staggered home full of tea, scones, sandwiches and cake, with a bag of free books and divine swag (unicorn pen! tiara! chocolates!) from Avril. So now, deliciously, these books are on my TBR:

                   

Photo credits: amazon.com

Here Comes the Bridesmaid is a beautiful hardback (isn't the cover sumptuously bridesmaid-y pink? I adore it!), and of course both books are signed by Avril. Swoon. Thankyou, Avril, thankyou.

...But wait, there's more. Our recent guest blogger Melanie Milburne was also at my table (read her recent column here). Congratulations Melanie on your 75th book (wow!). These are now on my TBR:

                     

                      Photo credit: amazon.com

Photo credit: amazon.com

Somehow or other I missed getting a book from Kandy Shepherd. I love her sweet romances, they are gorgeous to read, and Kandy is the nicest person to meet and chat to. So I've pre-ordered her latest, which sounds right up my alley and has a divine wedding pic on the cover. I love it already.

Photo credit: amazon.com

I did get this book from Shannon Curtis, quite outside my normal genre picks, which will be interesting to read. Shannon suggested I read Lycan Unleashed first, to get the gist of the world building. Alrighty then.

Photo credit: amazon.com

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand there was more: some books by Penny Reid in the Knitting in the City series. And so many others to choose from - I honestly couldn't carry them all home, such a tragedy. Everyone staggered out from that High Tea with happy tummies and books spilling out of their arms, adding to their TBRs with gay abandon. Alyssa's bag was just as heavy as mine.

It is so, so, SO easy to add to the TBR, isn't it? Life is sweet! ...I'm off to read.

Until next time, my friends,

Love from Miranda xxx

Love to Love:

Free books! High teas! Meeting new authors and old friends! Thankyou ARRA.

Love to Laugh:

...at how dead easy it is to add to one's mountainous TBR. Awesome.

Love to Learn:

Has something fabulously wonderful like this happened to you? Free signed books poured your way? Or are you disciplined (unlike moi) and finish your TBR before you add more? (But seriously, does such a person even exist?!)