Mogsy’s Bookshelf Roundup: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads
Bookshelf Roundup is a feature I do every other weekend which fills the role of several blog memes, like Stacking the Shelves where I talk about the new books I’ve added to my library or received for review, as well as It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? where I round up what I’ve read since the last update and what I’m planning to read soon. Mostly it also serves as a recap post, so sometimes I’ll throw in stuff like reading challenge progress reports, book lists, and other random bookish thoughts or announcements.
Received for Review
Thank you to the publishers and authors for the following review copies received. For more details and full descriptions of the books, be sure to click the links to their Goodreads pages!
Kicking off this week’s roundup is a book I’m really excited about: Devil’s Call by J. Danielle Dorn doesn’t come out until July but I’ve already read it and LOVED it. Following a mixed-race witch protagonist named Li Lian, this fantasy-Western horror novel is a revenge story, told in the form of a letter written to the unborn child she is carrying as she travels across the American frontier hunting the men who murdered her husband. Already it’s one of the best books I’ve read this year, and I’m sure you’ll be hearing me rave about it for a long time yet. Huge thanks to Inkshares for giving me the opportunity to read this marvelous book!
Next up, I received this pair of ARCs from the incredible Wunderkind PR team: The Clockwork Dynasty by Daniel H. Wilson is the upcoming sci-fi novel from the author of Robopocalypse about a race of human-like machines that have been hiding among us for centuries; and The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. Valente is a short story collection described as “a ferocious riff on women in superhero comics”. I’m especially excited about this one because it will be my first read by Valente! With thanks to Doubleday and Saga Press, respectively.
Also thanks to both Jo Fletcher Books and Broadway Books for sending me a finished copy of City of Miracles by Robert Jackson Bennett – both the UK and US editions are gorgeous, and they look even better sitting side by side! In case you missed it, my review went up earlier this week; be sure to check it out to see how much I enjoyed the book.
I was also thrilled to receive this surprise ARC of Soul of the World by David Mealing from the amazing folks at Orbit. As you know, it was already on my list of highly anticipated books for this summer, so its arrival was certainly most welcome!
My deepest thanks also goes to Django Wexler for sending me a signed ARC of his upcoming Middle Grade novel The Fall of the Readers! Despite not being a big reader of MG fiction, I am a die-hard fan of this series. This will be the fourth and final book, and I can’t wait to find out what happens.
And speaking of endings, All Good Things by Emma Newman will be concluding the Split Worlds pentalogy later this summer, so I best catch up with book four before then! From the publisher I also received Sovereign by April Daniels, the sequel to Dreadnought, a YA superhero novel starring a transgender heroine. Thank you to Diversion Books for these ARCs.
Now for a trio of shiny finished copies! Courtesy of Orbit books, I received The Ship by Antonia Honeywell and The Boy on the Bridge by M.R. Carey – I can’t wait to get started on both! And from Tor Books came this surprise copy of The Guns Above by Robyn Bennis, a steampunk and military fantasy mashup that looks extremely fascinating and I’m curious to check it out. My thanks to the publishers.
Last but not least, I was pretty excited at the following surprise arrivals: The Emperor and the Maula by Robert Silverberg has an interesting history, having been written for a publishing project that never went forward, and as a result it was published only once in an abbreviated form. This edition will be restoring the complete version, for the first time bringing to light the author’s original vision. Next, The Crow’s Dinner by Jonathan Carroll is a debut essay collection described as the author’s “wide-ranging spiritual autobiography”, and River’s Edge by James P. Blaylock is a new novella in the series featuring the adventures of Langdon St. Ives. I wish I knew more about these books, but as of right now there’s still very little information, so be sure to click the links to the publisher’s website to find out more. Many thanks to the awesome folks at Subterranean Press, who are always spoiling me so!
I reached a feedback ratio of 92% at NetGalley earlier this month, so of course I felt obligated to wreck my stats again with new requests. Totally worth it though for these books though, don’t you think? My thanks to Pocket Star for approving me for Owl and the Electric Samurai by Kristi Charish and Tor Books for The Tiger’s Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera. And Tor was also kind enough to offer me an eARC of Graveyard Shift by Michael F. Haspil, which is on the list of my most anticipated debuts of 2017.
Over on Edelweiss, I couldn’t resist requesting The Last Namsara by Kristen Ciccarelli either. It’s so rare for an YA epic fantasy to catch my eye; I figured it warranted a closer look, and I am grateful to HarperTeen for the chance to check it out.
I also want to thank Rob J. Hayes for getting in touch to let me know about his upcoming novel, Where Loyalties Lie. He had me at “piratical fantasy”!
And finally, cheers to Tor.com for sending a couple more eARCs, The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjob and A Red Peace by Spencer Ellsworth. I am quite intrigued by these.
Reviews
Time for a roundup of reviews posted in the last two weeks:
Thrawn by Timothy Zahn (4 of 5 stars)
City of Miracles by Robert Jackson Bennett (4 of 5 stars)
Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray (4 of 5 stars)
Within the Sanctuary of Wings by Marie Brennan (4 of 5 stars)
Tremontaine created by Ellen Kushner (3 of 5 stars)
The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco (3 of 5 stars)
The End of the Day by Claire North (2 of 5 stars)
What I’ve Read Since the Last Update
And here are the books I’ve finished recently. I’ve been working hard on unstacking the review pile, and even though I’m still far behind, I’d like to think I’m gradually getting back into the swing of things. Look out for my reviews of the following books coming soon.
Have you heard of or read any of the books featured this week? What caught your eye? Any new discoveries? I hope you found something interesting for a future read! Let me know what you plan on checking out. Until next time, see you next Roundup!
The BiblioSanctum 
I am really curious about soul of the world
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Me too! It’s a debut too, so I’m crossing my fingers it’ll be good.
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Ooh keen to see what you thought of Ararat, I’m not sure of that one. Clockwork dynasty looks good and I like those Split Worlds covers. The Tiger’s Daughter looks interesting too. I’ve only read the first Owl book…
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Ararat was pretty interesting! It was my first Golden so I didn’t know what to expect. I would say it’s no Dan Simmon’s The Terror, but it was a fun horror thriller and the ending was pretty gory and insane 🙂
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Ooh, Devil’s Call sounds amazing. And I need to read The Refrigerator Monologues.
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Devil’s Call was sooooo good. I’m jumping up and down trying to get it on more people’s radars this summer. And I can’t wait to read The Refrigerator Monologues either, it looks like a lot of fun.
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I’m so unsure about reading the Divine Cities books…I kind of worry that it might be too slow for me but something about it sounds interesting. I guess I’ll read more reviews and then decide. That is quite a size of book haul overall so it should keep you busy for a while!
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I would say the first book of the Divine Cities was actually more of a slow-burn. I remember struggling through the first few chapters because it was a lot to take in…but in the end it was worth it. The second book also threw you right into the action, it was awesome 🙂
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Ooh nice new reads!! I still want to give The Girl with All the Gifts a try! And now there’s a third book?! So behind! LOL! Happy Reading!
My STS will be up tomorrow, so stop by then if you can!
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
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Boy on the Bridge is the second book, and it’s more of a prequel/companion novel so you can actually just jump right in! 🙂
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Oh great many books for you! happy reading!
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Thanks, happy reading to you too!
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“Soul of the World” keeps popping up in acquisition lists lately, and each time I think about requesting it – if it weren’t for my oh-so-busy reading queue that stretches from here to Alpha Centauri… 😀 😀
Problem is, every time I read one of your ‘stacking the shelves’ posts I become greedier than Gollum!
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Haha, I know the feeling! Looking at the mountain that is my tbr I am both excited and depressed knowing I’ll likely never finish everything I want. Initially, I was actually thinking of taking a pass on Soul of the World because I just had too much on my plate. I ended up not being able to resist anyway, and this was even before a surprise copy was mailed to me.
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That is a serious haul!! I’m really looking forward to Soul of the World as well!
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I hope we’ll both enjoy it! 🙂
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What a great (and huge) roundup! I’m especially curious about Devil’s Call, (since you loved it so much and because it sounds so different from anything I’ve read before). Also, Cold Welcome, yayyy! I’m reading it right now for my bedtime book! The survivalist elements remind me fondly of reading The Martian. I can’t wait to see what you thought!! 😀
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Devil’s Call is really good! Haha, you’ll probably be hearing me push this book a lot…but I just loved it so much 🙂
And Cold Welcome was AWESOME! I was actually soooo delighted when I realized it was a survival story. I was expecting run-of-the-mill military sci-fi, which would have been cool too. But what it turned out to be was even better 🙂
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Awesome!! I can’t wait to read your reviews for both 😀
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92% on NetGalley – awesome! Although I know you’ve said you’ve trashed it now…
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Well, “trashed” is relative, I guess, haha! I know they recommend 80 and above, but I already get nervous whenever mine falls below 90 🙂
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I know exactly what you mean. Mine’s 86% and that’s a bit too close for comfort for me. Makes you disciplined though about finishing the ARCs you have before requesting more. So, tempting sometimes though. I say NetGalley is the crack cocaine of book blogging!
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It definitely is! 92% is the highest I’ve gotten in a while, usually it hovers around 89-90 simply because I CAN’T STOP REQUESTING. It really is an addiction 🙂
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Too true…
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I’ve been mostly disconnected for the last month or so and therefore am dazzled by all the awesome. The next RJB City book is out?! There’s a new Claudia Gray? So much to catch up on!
I’m definitely super interested in Devil’s Call – Weird Westerns are usually a hit with me – and mam intrigued by The Crow’s Dinner – I’ve read one Jonathan Carroll book and it is enough to think his spiritual autobiography should be pretty darn interesting.
There are a bunch more that look tempting – you’ve got some good reading ahead! I’m gonna start digging in to all the reviews I’ve missed…
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Yes, the next RJB is out! Go check it out! It’s the conclusion of the series, so you’ll definitely want to read it 🙂
And yep, there’s a new Claudia Gray too, her new YA sci-fi. I enjoyed it a lot 🙂
And I can’t recommend Devil’s Call enough. If you love paranormal westerns, especially those with a horror bent, you must give it a look! It’s a real fast read too!
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Tiger’s Daughter is one I really am looking forward to. Probably the most of your list. I read The Guns Above. It was entertaining.
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I’d like to give The Guns Above a read if I can find the time – sounds like it has a good mix of different genre elements.
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AMAZING haul.
92%? Oh, girl… I’m impressed.
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Haha, I’m a bit obsessive about my NG stats. Too bad anytime I get past 90% I always let myself go with another flurry of requests – sigh, I’ll never clear my pile 🙂
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Ok, I just ran over to NetGalley to request Devil’s Call! I’ve seen it floating around but I thought it was a mystery for some reason. I always get excited when you rave about a book!
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Yay, I’m so glad! The cover is probably very misleading, based on a glance, I would have pegged it for a mystery too. It honestly doesn’t do the book justice 🙂
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Now I’m dying to read Devil’s Call! A mixed-race witch, revenge story, AND it’s epistolary? Hell yes, sign me up. I can’t wait to hear your take on The Tiger’s Daughter because it’s one of my most anticipated 2017 releases!
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Yep, and a Western! It was like a book made just for me 🙂
I’m looking forward to The Tiger’s Daughter as well, it has so much potential!
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I have a headache looking at these books – or more to the point contemplating the reading time! I do love your stacking the shelves posts though.
I’ve got a few of these waiting to be read – Devil’s Call – really looking forward to that one.
I’ve read the Owl book and I have to say I think it’s the best so far – cliffhanger ending but a really strong addition to the series.
Lynn 😀
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Ooh, the Owl book sounds promising. I read another review that said it had a darker tone, which actually works for me – not a big fan of cliffhangers, but I’m sure I’ll make do 😀
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