Happy Friday, my friends! Although September isn’t the start of a new year, it always feels a bit like a fresh start. Because of that, I started thinking about the books that have been on my shelves for a year +, but have survived all my unhauls so far this year.
As someone with limited shelf space but a never ending TBR, I try to be very deliberate with the books that I buy physical copies of. I try really hard to only buy books that I anticipate being 4-5 stars and books I’ll read again. Even with that in mind while buying, sometimes you’re just not in the mood for a book and suddenly it’s been on your physical TBR for over a year.
Earlier this week I went through my book inventory spreadsheet and took a look at some of my unread books and made a list of 4 books that I need to read before the end of the year, and if I don’t, I must unhaul them.
While going through my book inventory spreadsheet, it was nice to see that of the books that I own, only 33.5% of the books are unread. I believe that the majority of my unread books are ones that were purchased this year (possibly…maybe I should start tracking that too), but I did notice some that I’ve had on my TBR for over a year and every time I see them I go “Oh, I’ll read those at some point!” Well, I keep saying that, but I still haven’t read them.
Truthfully, there are more books that I could add to this list, but I knew that if I made the list too long I wouldn’t end up reading any of them, so I kept the list short and sweet!
By the Book by Jasmine Guillory
A tale as old as time—for a new generation…
Isabelle is completely lost. When she first began her career in publishing right out of college, she did not expect to be twenty-five, living at home, still an editorial assistant, and the only Black employee at her publishing house. Overworked and underpaid, constantly torn between speaking up or stifling herself, Izzy thinks there must be more to this publishing life. So when she overhears her boss complaining about a beastly high-profile author who has failed to deliver his long-awaited manuscript, Isabelle sees an opportunity to finally get the promotion she deserves.
All she has to do is go to the author’s Santa Barbara mansion and give him a quick pep talk or three. How hard could it be?
But Izzy quickly finds out she is in over her head. Beau Towers is not some celebrity lightweight writing a tell-all memoir. He is jaded and withdrawn and—it turns out—just as lost as Izzy. But despite his standoffishness, Izzy needs Beau to deliver, and with her encouragement, his story begins to spill onto the page. They soon discover they have more in common than either of them expected, and as their deadline nears, Izzy and Beau begin to realize there may be something there that wasn’t there before.
Best-selling author Jasmine Guillory’s reimagining of a beloved fairy tale is a romantic triumph of love and acceptance and learning that sometimes to truly know a person you have to read between the lines.
By the Book is the second novel in the Meant to Be series, in which authors write modern retellings of classic Disney films. By the Book is a Beauty and the Beast retelling (the other books in the series are based on Cinderella, The Little Mermaid and the most recent book in the series is a Tangled retelling), and that is what drew me to it in the first place. While Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite films, I haven’t been a fan of any retellings I’ve read because I do think it’s a hard book to update for modern audiences.
I’ve read multiple works by Jasmine Guillory and for the most part have enjoyed them. I’ve also heard very good things about this book from multiple people, including my best friend, so obviously, I had to pick up a copy. I’ve been reading more romance lately, so maybe I’ll try to pick this one up before September is over!
Conversations with Friends and Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
A sharply intelligent novel about two college students and the strange, unexpected connection they forge with a married couple.
Frances is twenty-one years old, cool-headed, and darkly observant. A college student and aspiring writer, she devotes herself to a life of the mind–and to the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi, her best friend and comrade-in-arms. Lovers at school, the two young women now perform spoken-word poetry together in Dublin, where a journalist named Melissa spots their potential. Drawn into Melissa’s orbit, Frances is reluctantly impressed by the older woman’s sophisticated home and tall, handsome husband. Private property, Frances believes, is a cultural evil–and Nick, a bored actor who never quite lived up to his potential, looks like patriarchy made flesh. But however amusing their flirtation seems at first, it gives way to a strange intimacy neither of them expect. As Frances tries to keep her life in check, her relationships increasingly resist her control: with Nick, with her difficult and unhappy father, and finally even with Bobbi. Desperate to reconcile herself to the desires and vulnerabilities of her body, Frances’s intellectual certainties begin to yield to something new: a painful and disorienting way of living from moment to moment.
Written with gem-like precision and probing intelligence, Conversations With Friends is wonderfully alive to the pleasures and dangers of youth.”
Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a distribution warehouse, and asks him if he’d like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend Eileen is getting over a break-up, and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood.
Alice, Felix, Eileen and Simon are still young-but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart. They have sex, they worry about sex, they worry about their friendships and the world they live in. Are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness, bearing witness to something? Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?
Honestly, I bought both of these after I read and watched Normal People and had it rework my brain chemistry, so I figured, why not get her other books? I’ll be totally honest, these two don’t intrigue me as much as Normal People did, so I think that’s part of why I’ve put them off for so long. However, what I really loved about Normal People was the way that Sally Rooney described character, character relationships and did general character study, which I think both of these books will have.
I’m thinking that I may try to get the audiobooks of both books from my library and do tandem reads. I just have a feeling that that’ll be the most successful way for me to consume these stories; especially since that’s how I consumed Normal People and it really worked for me.
Finding Her Edge by Jennifer Iacopelli
Adriana Russo is figure skating royalty.
With gold-medalist parents, and her older sister headed to the Olympics, all she wants is to live up to the family name and stand atop the ice dance podium at the Junior World Championships. But fame doesn’t always mean fortune, and their legendary skating rink is struggling under the weight of her dad’s lavish lifestyle. The only thing keeping it afloat is a deal to host the rest of the Junior Worlds team before they leave for France.
That means training on the same ice as her first crush, Freddie, the partner she left when her growth spurt outpaced his. For the past two years, he’s barely acknowledged her existence, and she can’t even blame him for it.
When the family’s finances take another unexpected hit, losing the rink seems inevitable until her partner, Brayden, suggests they let the world believe what many have suspected: that their intense chemistry isn’t contained to the ice. Fans and sponsors alike take the bait, but keeping up the charade is harder than she ever imagined. And training alongside Freddie makes it worse, especially when pretending with Brayden starts to feel very real.
As the biggest competition of her life draws closer and her family’s legacy hangs in the balance, Adriana is caught between her past and present, between the golden future she’s worked so hard for, and the one she gave up long ago.
A book about an elite ice dancer? Truly, what more could I ask for? I loved Jennifer Iacopelli’s Break the Fall that centered around elite gymnasts, so the fact that she wrote a book about my favorite winter Olympic sport made me so excited! However, I actually think that’s what’s made me put this one off for so long. I love Break the Fall so much, what if I don’t love Finding Her Edge just as much? While I still have a bit of that fear in the back of my mind, I do really want to read this one before the end of the year.
Ideally, I’d be reading this one while I obsessively watch the Winter Olympics, but considering the fact that the next Winter Olympics aren’t until 2026, that’s not an option, but I do think this will be a great read for December!
I didn’t realize this while figuring out which books would be part of this read or unhaul project, but it’s actually perfect that I picked 4 books with 4 months left of 2024 (let’s not focus on that too much). I think it’ll be pretty easy to commit to reading one of these each month for the rest of the year, and hopefully I love them!
Are there any books that have been on your TBR for over a year that you’d like to get to before the year is over? Let me know in the comments.
Until next time! 
