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!
With thanks to Margaret K. McElderry Books for this ARC of The Glass Town Game by Catherynne M. Valente, her upcoming Middle Grade novel following Charlotte, Anne, Emily, and Branwell Brontë as they’re transported into Glass Town, the fictional realm based on a world of the siblings’ own creation. I’ve always been curious about Valente’s MG projects, and this sounds like it could be the perfect place to start.
Raining Fire by Rajan Khanna is the third book of the Ben Gold series which I’m still behind on, but as soon as I’m caught up with book two I’d like to check this one out. My thanks to Pyr Books for the finished copy.
From the kind folks at Simon & Schuster I also received this finished copy of The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck and illustrated/adapted by Nick Bertozzi, a graphic novel adapted from the 1931 classic. The artwork is really breathtaking, and I wish I had read the original story.
Huge thanks to Flatiron Books for this ARC of 13 Minutes by Sarah Pinborough! I’m a big fan of the author’s work, not to mention that this novel has already been out in the UK for a while now to great acclaim, which is making me even more excited to read it.
The first book of the Adventures of Arabella Ashby series was such a joy to read, which is why I was thrilled when its sequel Arabella and the Battle of Venus by David D. Levine landed on my doorstep earlier this week. I also received Perilous Prophecy by Leanna Renee Hieber, the third installment of her Victorian-era fantasy series Strangely Beautiful, though I hear this one is considered a prequel novel and thus can be read as a stand alone. My thanks to Tor for these finished copies.
Continuing with the new arrivals from Tor, I also received Tomorrow’s Kin by Nancy Kress which I’m very excited to read because I just love tales of first alien contact. Next up is The Queen of Swords by R.S. Belcher, third in the Golgotha sequence, of which I’ve only read the first book. From the description though, it sounds like this novel can be read as a standalone and I’m really hoping this is the case – after all, how can I resist a story about female pirates? My thanks again to the publisher.
Last week I received a mystery package from Hachette, and to my to delighted surprise it contained this ARC of Provenance by Ann Leckie. The author’s Imperial Radch trilogy is one of the most unique works of science fiction I’ve ever read, so I’m really curious to see what she has in store for us next. Provenance appears to contain some elements of a heist book, featuring a young woman’s quest to retrieve a priceless lost artifact and a prison break. I can’t wait to see what it’s all about! With thanks to Orbit Books.
Thanks also to Harper Voyager for The Reluctant Queen by Sarah Beth Durst, book two of The Queens of Renthia series. I read the first book last year and enjoyed it a lot, and I’m excited to see how the story will continue.
Later this fall, Graydon House which is a new imprint from HarperCollins will be releasing their major launch title Best Day Ever by Kaira Rouda, a story that takes place over 24 hours following a seemingly perfect couple. The husband takes his wife away to their lakehouse for a romantic weekend getaway, promising her the best day ever (like that doesn’t sound ominous!) Domestic suspense is a genre that is hit or miss with me, but holy shit I can’t get over how AMAZING this one sounds. My sincerest thanks to the publisher and Wunderkind PR for the review opportunity, I’m seriously dying to read this.
And speaking of suspense, LoveMurder by Saul Black is another surprise arrival, described as a haunting thriller starring a homicide detective who must work with the convicted killer she put away six years ago in order to solve another grisly murder. It is technically the second book of a series, but sounds like it’s possible to just jump right in. My thanks to St. Martin’s Press.
So yeaaaah I went kinda nuts on NetGalley, but you can hardly blame me. From Del Rey, I requested A Plague of Giants by Kevin Hearne because what urban fantasy fan can say no to a brand new series from the mind who brought us the hilarious Iron Druid Chronicles? From Crown, I also requested Artemis by Andy Weir, a near-future heist thriller that sounds very different from his sci-fi hit The Martian. I also got an email one afternoon in which Little Brown Books for Young Readers was offering a limited number of “Read Nows” for Invictus by Ryan Graudin, so you can bet I slammed on that button right quick. Magicians Impossible by Brad Abraham was also an intriguing supernatural/fantasy thriller novel that caught my eye from Thomas Dunne Books. And finally, I saw Stillhouse Lake by Rachel Caine from Thomas & Mercer and just could not help myself. I love Rachel Caine but I’ve only read her fantasy, and I’d very much like to see how handles mystery/thriller. With thanks to all the publishers.
This week I also received a couple of review requests from authors. Revenant Winds by Mitchell Hogan is the first of a new epic fantasy series set in a world devastated by a series of cataclysms, and a group of unlikely heroes must band together to stop an evil long thought to have been defeated. Snowspelled by Stephanie Burgis is a romantic fantasy novella set in an alternate version of Regency England in which magic is reserved for gentlemen while ladies are expected to attend to the more practical business of politics. Thanks Mitchell and Stephanie, I’m looking forward to reading!
And finally, my thanks to Tor.com for these e-galleys of Switchback by Melissa F. Olson and Weaver’s Lament by Emma Newman, both of which are sequels to books I have not gotten a chance to read yet. I’ve been falling behind on all these novellas I want to read, but I’m working hard to catch up.
Reviews
In this section I do a roundup of my reviews posted since the last update. I’m so glad I finally got to share my review of Devil’s Call by debut author J. Danielle Dorn, which gets the highlighted spot this week along with the brilliant Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory.
Devil’s Call by J. Danielle Dorn (5 of 5 stars)
Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory (4.5 of 5 stars)
Shark Island by Chris Jameson (4 of 5 stars)
Now I Rise by Kiersten White (4 of 5 stars)
A Kiss Before Doomsday by Laurence MacNaughton (4 of 5 stars)
Warlock Holmes: The Hell-Hound of the Baskervilles by G.S. Denning (4 of 5 stars)
Godblind by Anna Stephens (3 of 5 stars)
Roundup Highlights:
Interviews & Guest Posts
A huge thanks to Laurence MacNaughton who stopped by last week for a Q&A about his new novel A Kiss Before Doomsday!
An Interview with Laurence MacNaughton, Author of the Dru Jasper Series
What I’ve Read Since the Last Update
The following are books I finished recently. Considering there were a couple of huge clunky tomes in the “unstacked” pile this week, I was surprised I got to read this many books, honestly. Reviews for most of these are 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 
Arabella and the Battle of Venus looks awesome, and so does The Reluctant Queen and Invictus. Shark Island I’m curious about, and I’m about 12 chapters in to The Witchwood Crown. Very curious to see what you thought of it!
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The first Arabella book was awesome, so I’m really looking forward to the Battle of Venus next! Same goes for the second Queens of Renthia book 🙂
My Witchwood Crown review should be up soon – it was such a huge book I needed time to mull over my thoughts 😀
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I love the cover for the Mitchell Hogan book! Sounds pretty cool as well, I’ll get a sample if I can!
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I love the cover too! I’ve always wanted to read Mitchell Hogan. This new series seems like the perfect place to start.
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A great set of books as ever. I’ve got a couple of these waiting to be read and I will definitely be keeping my beady eye on a couple of the others such as Kevin Hearne and Emma Newman.
Happy reading
Lynn 😄
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I have to catch up with the first book in Emma Newman’s series before I can read Weaver’s Lament, unfortunately…but it’s a novella so hopefully I can knock it quickly off my TBR!
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I’m so envious of people who have the time to read so many books. I can just about remember what it was like.
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I used to read even more, believe it or not. The last couple years have seen my reading time go down, but I am lucky I am a fast reader, plus thank goodness for audiobooks. In an average week I can probably finish one and a half physical books, but finish 2-3 audiobooks.
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Damn! Now you’re making me even more jealous; I haven’t been able to finish a book since the first week of June. It’s a shame I hate audiobooks because that would probably help me out.
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I’ll be interested to see what you make of the new Kevin Hearn series, given that I LOVED the Iron Druid series and the Andy Weir offering. You have soooo many books there I’d love to get hold of – but my TBR pile has now overflowed into the middle bedroom bookshelf as well as my Kindle and I need to get it under control! Happy reading, Mogsy:)
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I know the feeling – my linen closet is doing double duty as a shelf at the moment, since my actual bookshelves have long since overflowed with books. I can’t wait to start the new Kevin Hearne series either! I’m not anywhere close to finishing the Iron Druid Chronicles, but I do love what I’ve read so far 🙂
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I’ve completed the series and loved it – all of it:). He managed a reasonably nifty trick in that although they got a tad darker, they didn’t go all grimdark and angst-ridden in the way that the Harry Dresden series did, for instance, which I think is a smart move.
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I’m actually glad to hear the Iron Druid Chronicles gets darker, because while the first few books were a blast, I could only take Atticus’ style of humor in small doses. That said, I’m glad it doesn’t get THAT much darker, because I know what you mean with the Dresden Files series – I’m all caught up with that one, and there were a few recent installments which were just plain depressing!
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I don’t like steampunk but I do think the Ben Gold series sounds interesting and I might try to grab a sample of book one. I’m really curious about A Plague of Giants though I haven’t seen much about it so far online. I look forward to seeing some reviews. Congrats on a good reading week!
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I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of Plague of Giants once we get closer to the release date. His latest Iron Druid book just came out so I think all the attention has been on that lately, but I have a feeling it will shift soon 🙂
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Oooh! Artemis sounds like an interesting read! I’ll have to check that out! Great set of books you got this week!
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I’m really looking forward to Artemis! It sounds so different from The Martian, but I have a feeling I will love it no less.
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OOoh very nice! Lots of new to me ones! Love when the big hauls come in one week! Lol! Hope you enjoy them all!
My STS will be up tomorrow, so stop by then if you can!
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
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Yeah, it always seems to be like that with NetGalley in particular! Sometimes weeks will go by with nothing that tempts me at all, and then there are weeks like this where I go insane with requesting 😛
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Wow, Provenance! I’m really excited for that one — congrats on getting the ARC!
I’ve also got an ARC of Artemis, and I’m hopeful. Heists are some of my favorite storylines.
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I love heists as well 🙂 And I’m pretty curious about Provenance. I didn’t love the Ancillary trilogy, but I definitely want to read more by Leckie.
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I almost requested Artemis, but I’m trying to sit on my fingers at the moment!! I wonder how long that will last. LOL. I got to meet Rachel Caine last night! She was so cool. I went to one of her book signing and got to speak with her a bit. She’s the kind of person you really want to sit around with and just listen to her stories.
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I met Rachel Caine once too and she was the friendliest, sweetest person! I love popular authors who don’t “act” popular:-)
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From the stories I’ve heard from people who’ve met her, she’s awesome in person and very nice! One day I hope I get the chance to shake her hand 😀
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Yeah, I considered sitting on my hands for Artemis…and then I just caved and admitted defeat 😀
And how awesome that you got to meet Rachel Caine! I saw the pic on your blog, she seems like such a nice person. You’re so lucky, I would love to meet her one day!
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The Queen of Swords cover is fantastic! I haven’t read any of R.S. Belcher’s books but I think I may have one buried in TBR,… I’m also about to go scour NetGalley for Weaver’s Lament because I loved the first book!
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I’ve read most of R.S. Belcher’s books, but ironically this is the only series I’m behind on! If it’s possible to jump in at Queen of Swords and read it as a standalone, I think I will.
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I’m so curious about The Glass Town Game, it sounds fantastic. And I really want to push that request button for the new Kevin Hearne book but I’m holding off. I may go back and request it anyway, it’s so tempting! Oh same with Invictus. I wasnt fast enough and didnt get the “read now” option, but I do want to read it:-)
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I won’t lie, the Kevin Hearne book (and Artemis too, if I’m to be honest) I tried to resist but knew at some point I’d lose the fight…figured I’d just save time and surrender now, haha!
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Nice! so many books for you there! happy reading!
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Thank you, you too!
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Do you have an idea about how *dangerous* these posts of yours are? 😀 They mostly turn me into a Gollum-like creature who wantsssss about everything!
As for Anne Leckie’s “Provenance” I had the good luck of reading an excerpt attached to the latest Expanse novella “Strange Dogs”, and although Leckie’s previous work did not work for me, this one seems to have all the elements of something I would love.
Time will tell….
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Like you, I wasn’t too hot on Leckie’s previous work either – I did read the entire Ancillary trilogy and thought it was interesting and solid, but definitely wasn’t head over heels in love with it like a lot of the SFF community. That said, Provenance features a premise that sounds more to my tastes and I’m quite curious about it now 🙂
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I’d want several of those 🙂
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Anything in particular catch your eye? Happy reading 🙂
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You really do have stunning hauls one week after the next, Mogsy. Where do you put all of them??
Also, seeing The Reluctant Queen reminded me to tell you that I did borrow The Queen of Blood from the library a couple months ago. It was… OK. The only characters that stuck out for me were Ven and Daleina, and I wasn’t a big fan of Durst’s writing style in that book. But the worldbuilding was really interesting. Between the spirits, the construction of its cities and villages, and the “close-to-nature” way of life for its people, it almost epitomized what a wilderness should be like.
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Yeah, the wilderness aspect really spoke to me. What’s funny is that when I was reading The Waking Land, I was reminded a lot of The Queen of Blood too. I just thought it was interesting that we were also just talking about that book 🙂 The two stories were very different, but I think it was the nature-based magic that made me link the two. Incidentally, I think I liked TQoB for the same reasons I enjoyed TWL – it was very traditional, down-to-earth, and nothing genre-shaking, but it was a lot of fun 🙂
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Ahhhhhhhhhhh Provenance! How do you get so many awesome books from publishers? Who do I have to bribe? I WANTS IT.
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Orbit does spoil me! Provenance was a huge surprise though, I didn’t think they’d be sending those ARCs out to little old me.
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New Ann Leckie?!?! AAAHHHHH!!! How did I miss this until now?
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Yep! I’d heard talk of a new novel coming from her for a while, I guess Provenance is it! 🙂
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For some reason Stillhouse Lake was completely off my radar but I’ve very intrigued byt it — and interested to hear your take on it! I just read Snowspelled and it was absolutely delightful.
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I actually just finished Stillhouse Lake! It was a fast read, and it was fantastic 🙂
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There’s a graphic novel version of The Good Earth??!? Definitely want to check that out – I loved the novel. And thankfully because I’m old remember very few details about it so a graphic novel sounds like a great way to re-read:).
Lots of exciting reading for you, methinks!
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Yep, there is! I’ve taken a glance through it, the art is nice. 🙂
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