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!
First things first: THIS IS NOT A DRILL! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! I want to express my most sincere and heartfelt gratitude to Tor Books for pretty much making my whole month when this ARC of Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson showed up on my doorstep last week. You can bet I got started on this bad boy right away! Furthermore, the publisher was also kind enough to send finished copies of Deadlands: Boneyard by Seanan McGuire and The Stone in the Skull by Elizabeth Bear – two more books that are on my highly anticipated releases for this fall, and I’m sure I’ll be tackling them as soon as I’m done the latest Stormlight Archives.
Next up are some more finished copies, with thanks to the kind folks to the following publishers: Simon and Schuster for Zero G: Green Space by William Shatner and Jeff Rovin, Crown Publishing for Paradox Bound by Peter Clines (my review of which should be hitting the blog next week, so stay tuned for that!) and also William Morrow for this gorgeous hardcover illustrated edition of Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Somehow, I’d never gotten around to reading this Gaiman classic, so I’m glad to be getting another chance.
Last week, a physical ARC of Kill Creek by Scott Thomas also arrived with thanks to Inkshares, just in time to ring in Halloween month. If you’re looking for a book to set the mood, this creepy haunted house horror sounds like it’d be perfect! From LibraryThing, I was also selected to receive Strange Weather by Joe Hill as part of their Early Reviewer program, so that was super exciting. Pyr Books was also kind enough to send over a finished copy of The Genius Plague by David Walton which I’ll be reviewing very soon, but in the meantime you can give the image on the sidebar a click to check out the author’s guest post and enter the international giveaway that’s currently going on!
Huge thanks also to Orbit Books for this next duo of new arrivals: Mageborn by Stephen Aryan whose first trilogy I really enjoyed so I’m really looking forward to this one, and The Two of Swords: Volume One by K.J. Parker which I believe collects the first eight installments of his serialized novel. And finally, thank you to St. Martin’s Press for sending me a finished copy of In the Still of the Night by David L. Golemon. Haunted house stories seem to be quite popular this year!
And on to the digital haul, with thanks to Tor.com for e-galleys of Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor and Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire, both of which are third installments in their respective series, so I best be catching up with them quick. While browsing Edelweiss, a book I hadn’t heard of before called Master Assassins by Robert V.S. Redick also caught my eye this week. The author is known to me for his excellent nautical fantasy series The Chathrand Voyage though, so I thought I’d give this one a try. With thanks to Talos.
It’s also been a big week for new audiobooks, with thanks to Macmillan Audio, Audible Studios, and Random House Audio for the following review copies. Kicking us off is Autonomous by Annalee Newitz with story about pharmaceutical pirates and military robots! Next up is Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas, a novel of Throne of Glass. To be honest, I was this close to quitting the series after my awful experience with the last book, but when I found out this one was all about Chaol Westfall, I decided to give it another chance. At the time of this writing, I’m actually more than halfway through the audiobook, and so far it’s not bad! I also couldn’t resist Origin by Dan Brown when I saw it on offer, because if nothing else, the Robert Langdon books are super addictive and I’m curious to see what this latest one will be like.
Finally, Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View is a collection of 40 stories by 40 authors celebrating Star Wars’ 40th anniversary, each one told from the perspective of a background character in A New Hope, with a lineup including big names like Ken Liu, Renee Ahdieh, Christie Golden, Mur Lafferty, Nnedi Okorafor, Chuck Wendig, Sabaa Tahir, Claudia Gray, Delilah S. Dawson and many, many more.
Something a little different also showed up from a publisher this week – not exactly book mail, but it’s arguably just as cool: A Game of Thrones 3D Mask and Wall Mount! I was pleasantly surprised to be sent the Targaryen Dragon, which I started putting together straight away. Not gonna lie, it was tougher than I expected. As you can see, there were a ton of different pieces and unfortunately limited instructions, but gradually the mask came together and I couldn’t be happier with the end result (considering it’s pretty much heavy card held together by a crap ton of tape!) With thanks to Bantam for sending it to me, and for also giving me a cool gift idea for some of my crafty friends this Christmas.
Reviews
A quick summary of the reviews I’ve posted since the last update:
13 Minutes by Sarah Pinborough (5 of 5 stars)
Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw (4 of 5 stars)
Leia, Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray (4 of 5 stars)
The Salt Line by Holly Goddard Jones (4 of 5 stars)
Blackwing by Ed McDonald (3.5 of 5 stars)
An Unkindness of Magicians by Kat Howard (3.5 of 5 stars)
Magicians Impossible by Brad Abraham (3.5 of 5 stars)
When I Cast Your Shadow by Sarah Porter (2.5 of 5 stars)
Roundup Highlights:
Interviews & Guest Posts
A huge thanks to author David Walton for stopping by The BiblioSanctum this week with a guest post related to his new novel, The Genius Plague!
Guest Post: “If A Fungus Had A Brain” by David Walton
What I’ve Read Since the Last Update
Whew, big update this week! But things have not been looking so productive on the reading front, and I wasn’t able to get as many books finished as I would have liked. Part of this is due to starting Oathbringer which is about the length of 3-4 average-sized novels, and another part of it is due to a busy schedule and simply having to deal with a lot more stuff going on around here lately. Here’s what I did manage to “unstack” from the TBR since my last roundup post though, and I’m sure you’ll be seeing their reviews 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 
Sanderson! Eeeeeeeeeeek
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I know, I was like AHHHHHH!
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I’m curious about The Stone in the Skull, as well as Beneath the Sugar Sky. The Star Wars book I picked up and am about 5 stories in, and I’m anxious to delve deeper! And that dragon head is seriously cool!!!
Looking forward to your review of The Blackbird Season. I know I liked it a little more than you did, but I’ll probably agree with many of your points just the same, as it did have some issues, for sure.
Have a great weekend!
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Awesome, I’m looking forward to your review of the SW anthology because you’ll probably finish before I can get to it! Glad to hear it’s interesting so far!
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Ohhhh!!! Nice dragon!! Pretty Dragon!!! 🙂
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LOL! That was so fun to put together 🙂
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That Star Wars book looks like something taken from the Tales of the Empire, Tales of the New Republic idea. I loved those books, so I might have to check this one out…
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It does! It also reminds me of those anthologies edited by Anderson (sorry, I know how much you loathe him, lol!) like the ones from Jabba’s Palace and Tales of the Bounty Hunters. I’m really looking forward to checking out this one for sure.
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Yeah, Anderson annoys me. But I liked those Tales books too. mainly because he’s the editor and not a huge contributor 😀
For whatever reason, short story collections were some of the best in the star wars universe. This would be one in the new canon that I’d be willing to try, even as prejudiced as I am 🙂
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LOL yes, he can edit, just don’t write. And I agree with your comment about SW short stories, maybe it’s because they give readers a glimpse into lesser known characters vs. the same big ones we see again and again. Hopefully I’ll be able to start this new collection soon!
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Ooh nice! Those are all totally new to me reads! Hope you enjoy each and every one of them!
My STS will be up tomorrow, so stop by then if you can!
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
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Thanks, happy reading!
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A good haul, as ever! I am jealous of Beneath the Sugar Sky…
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I really need to catch up with the series 🙂
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I looked it up and I’m intrigued by the Deadlands series, and I’ve yet to read anything by Seanan McGuire. I also need to add the Binti novellas to my list for the fall. I’m excited about Akata Warrior coming out soon, too so maybe I should make this the Autumn of Nnedi:).
That dragon head is COOL and you did a fantastic job putting it together!
Happy Reading!
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Seanan McGuire has been hit or miss with me, but I know she’s well beloved by a TON of SFF fans. And I really need to check out some of Okorafor’s novels. The first book of Binti really didn’t work for me, but then it’s a novella so I figure something longer might be more my cup of tea.
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The 3D mask is so cool! Not sure I would have had the patience to put it together myself😊 I believe I have a copy of Kill Creek coming too, and I can’t wait.
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It took a long time to put together, would have been much faster if the instructions hadn’t been so limited! But yay, I’m so glad you got a hold of Inkshares for Kill Creek!
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How amazingly cool is that dragon head! I think I just might be buying that bad boy! Wonder if they do a direwolf as well…You certainly did well from publishers didn’t you! I’m impressed by the book pile!
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The dragon mask is soooo awesome, I would definitely recommend it for all game of thrones fans. And yes, I do believe they have a direwolf version! And it looks amazing, I am tempted to pick one up too!
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yay many books there! happy reading!
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Thank you, happy reading to you too! 🙂
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I hope you are loving the Sanderson book. I’m so excited for you! When I saw the title Kill Creek, for a second I thought it was the next Rachel Caine book, but that’s Killman Creek. Haha. I was all excited about it. 🙂
I can’t wait to read the new Joe Hill. I need to send you an email for the Genius Plague giveaway. I love that whole cordyceps premise.
I love that wall mount so much. It looks like a fun little project.
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Yes, I’m enjoying Oathbringer so far thanks! I’ve barely made a dent though, it’s such a huge tome. And haha, I can understand your excitement for Killman Creek, I’m really looking forward to that one too! And yes, do enter the giveaway if you can!
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I’m not even a Game of Thrones fan but I’m well impressed by that dragon head!
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To be honest I wasn’t expecting it to look that good either, for a mask made of heavy card, but I ended up being pretty impressed with the finished result 🙂
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OATHBRINGER! So…where do you live?! 😀 Haha, just kidding! Enjoy it, I hope it can live up to all of our expectations – can’t wait to read it 🙂
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I really enjoyed Boneyard and I’m currently reading The Elizabeth Bear book which so far is very promising (about a third in).
Would love a copy of Oathbringer I must confess but the release is soon.
And, wow – that 3D mask looks amazing.
Lynn 😀
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