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.
Happy new year, everyone! This is going to be a light roundup due to the holidays, but on the bright side, this was the first time in years that we didn’t have to travel anywhere so I managed to get a lot of reading done during our staycation. I’ll have a lot of review writing to catch up on, but I’m definitely looking forward to getting back into the rhythm of things.
Received for Review
My thanks to the publishers and authors for the following review copies received, and be sure to click the links to their Goodreads pages for more details and full descriptions!
Last month from the kind folks at Berkley, I received an ARC of The War Within by Stephen R. Donaldson. I didn’t even know that he’ll have a new book out, but a little bit of digging showed this will be the sequel to Seventh Decimate, which–oops!–I still need to catch up on.
Also thanks to Simon Pulse for a finished copy of Slayer by Kiersten White! This is one I’m hoping to read for January.
With thanks also to Tor for a finished copy of Terran Tomorrow by Nancy Kress, the third and final book in the Yesterday’s Kin trilogy. Looks like I still have to read book two before I can get to this one, but I was planning on it anyway, since I enjoyed the first one.
And from the amazing team at Subterranean Press, I received this incredible haul of ARCs: Death & Honey by Kevin Hearne, Delilah S. Dawson and Chuck Wendig is a collection containing three novellas, one by each of the authors. These stories also feature their characters from their respective series: Atticus and Oberon, Rhett Walker, and Miriam Black. At Home in the Dark edited by Lawrence Block is an anthology collecting a number of dark speculative fiction stories written by genre favorites including Joe Hill, Joe R. Lansdale, and Joyce Carol Oates. Then there’s Cruel Fate by Kelley Armstrong, which looks to be the follow up to Rough Justice. Both are part of the author’s Cainsville world, which I’ve not had the chance to check out yet, but I’d love to read these two books at some point.
And a belated thanks to Wunderkind PR and Top Shelf Productions for The Jekyll Island Chronicles Vol. 1: A Machine Age War and Vol. 2: A Devil’s Reach by Steve Nedvidek, Ed Crowell, Jack Lowe, and Moses Nester. These beautiful graphic novels came to me in early December, but I haven’t had time to take a look yet. I’m going to try to get to them because I want to read more comics/graphic novels this year, and these stories exploring an alternate history between the two World Wars look to be an interesting place to start.
Finally, from Tor comes this trio of paperbacks, The Magic of Recluce, The Towers of the Sunset, and The Magic Engineer by L.E. Modesitt Jr, the first three books in his Saga of Recluce. I’ve never read the series, but I guess it’s getting reissued because these look to be brand new covers, and they are gorgeous. My thanks to the publisher for this amazing surprise.
On to the digital haul, I made some Netgalley requests before the holidays and a couple came in this week. As an extra bonus, I was even auto-approved by Random House Children’s when I got the email granting me access to Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim, a Chinese-inspired YA fantasy that has been compared to Mulan. I also grabbed Inspection by Josh Malerman, with thanks to Del Rey. And try as I might, I could not resist the call of Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan, so big thanks to Wednesday Books for approving my request.
Just a couple of new audiobooks in the haul this week. From Listening Library, I received an audio review copy of Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee. I wasn’t crazy about the author’s adult sci-fi series and never made it past Ninefox Gambit, but I was intrigued by this Middle Grade space-opera-and-fantasy mix featuring mythological fox spirits as well as space pirates and gamblers. And from Penguin Audio, I snagged a listening copy of The Au Pair by Emma Rous, the first of many mystery-thrillers I’m looking forward to this year.
Reviews
Here’s a quick summary of reviews posted since my last update. Yes, I actually managed a few between all the year-end lists!
King of the Road by R.S. Belcher (5 of 5 stars)
The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden (4 of 5 stars)
The Outsider by Stephen King (4 of 5 stars)
City of Broken Magic by Mirah Bolender (2.5 of 5 stars)
Limetown created by Zack Akers & Skip Bronkie with Cote Smith (2 of 5 stars)
Roundup Highlights:
What I’ve Read Since the Last Update
Here’s what I’ve managed to “unstack” from the TBR since the last update. December was my catch-up month and I was able to finish a few more 2018 books before the end of the year, and even got a jump on several 2019 releases. A ton of reviews on the way!
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 
Spin of dawn looks good 😀
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I love that cover 🙂
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OMG you’ve already read The Wicked King? Lucky girl! I am waiting for two boxes themed on this book! Slayer has been pre ordered and is “on its way” and I got approved (yepeeee) for Wicked Saints! Great list.
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I listened to it in audio because I was lucky enough to snag an early listening copy. It was really good, I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did!
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Watch out for Recluce. A lot of onomatopoeia AND eating descriptions beyond belief. If it didn’t happen in almost every book, you’d think that Modesitt wrote each book while practically on the edge of starvation 😀
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LOL! Thanks for the warning. Reading about food and eating always tends to me make me hungry as well, so if I’m ever going to start this series, I’ll make sure I’ll do it on a full stomach so I won’t be tempted. 😛
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That’s so great! So many things for you to read! Happy reading!
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Thanks! Happy reading to you too!
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Ooh very nice! I LOVE Slayer!! It was such a fun read and I am already dying for the sequel! Lol! Wicked Saints is one I was keeping an eye on but may just jump the gun and buy a copy once it releases! Lol. Hope you enjoy all your lovely new reads!
My STS will be up tomorrow, so stop by then if you can!
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
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That’s great to hear about Slayer! That’s one I would love to read this month if I have time, so I’m crossing my fingers!
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Nice book haul! I’m going to limit my buys at least for the first half of the year-books in series I follow, new books by a favourite author are ok but I’m going to try and limit the new paperback buys for new authors and try samples instead to cut down how many I buy and DNF early!
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Great plan! I know I should be DNFing books if I don’t like them, but that’s something I’m still working on, my OCD just isn’t letting it happen, lol!
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I have Inspection and Wicked Saints too. I’m looking forward to both!
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So excited for both! It’s going to be a great year!
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I also was approved for Wicked Saints! It’s funny, I just ran across a booktuber named Thomas Wagner (and I never watch booktubers!) and he did a book haul post recently and had lots of the same books you’re highlighting here. I swear, I do NOT have time to get hooked on watching booktubers, help!
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I don’t watch booktubers either, but Thomas Wagner sounds very familiar! And it’s funny, I guess when you have similar tastes, the book hauls/features will all feature the same books too 😀
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Modesitt’s Saga of Recluce is a series I’ve seen mentioned often, and having read – and enjoyed – a couple of his SF books I’ve been interested in it since… well, almost forever. The problem is, it consists of 20 (!!!!!) books so far, with nr. 21 slated for publication in 2019, and the idea of such a commitment scares me to no end! 😀 😀
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OMG 20+ books?! Okay, that might have just scared me off too 😛
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Ooh Slayer and Terran Tomorrow both look great. I’ve never read the Recluce books but I’m curious. Maybe with them being reissued is the time for me to give them a shot. And I need to get The Au Pair!
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I can’t wait to start The Au Pair, I’m thinking of starting that one next in audio. Hopefully it’ll get the bad taste of my current audiobook out of my mouth, the one I’m listening to right now is pretty terrible, lol.
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Ooh (common theme to this list!) – didn’t realise War Within was almost out! 🙂
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That one really snuck up on me! But I guess I wasn’t paying too much attention, since I hadn’t read the first one!
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Looks like you have lots of great stuff there. I don’t know what Spin the Dawn is about but that cover has me intrigued. I feel like it may be a very ‘me’ type book, I’ll have to take a look. 🙂
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Haha, I’m glad it caught your attention! The blurb with Mulan meets Project Runway got me too 🙂
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Awesome haul! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on winter of the witch and wicked king 🙂
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They were both really good! Both reviews should be up by now. Loved them a lot 😀
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Another great haul and I personally think staycations are the best. I LOVE the Cainsville novels and seriously, all the books from Subterranean Press seem like ones I need to check out. I think I’ll be seeing The Wicked King everywhere this month. I was not a BIG fan of The Cruel Prince but I liked it well enough to check out the next one. I need to make sure I request it from my library.
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Yes, I couldn’t believe how much reading I got done over my staycation! It was very calming and yet productive because I got a lot of work done too 😀 I’m with you, big fan of being able to stay home and relax!
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I love your digital haul. They are all pretty much on my list. I just heard about Dragon Pearl earlier today. I’m anxious to hear your thoughts on it.
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I do feel like I lucked out with my digital haul this week, I’m much more excited about my NetGalley approvals haha! Hopefully I’ll get to listen to Dragon Pearl soon, and The Au Pair.
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I’ve never read L.E. Modesitt Jr — the books have always sort of been there on the edge of my consciousness, but I can’t think that I’ve ever once actually read the backs or anything! Weird. I’m very curious about Spin the Dawn and Dragon Pearl.
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It’s weird, I’ve seen Modesitt’s name everywhere but it seems very people I know have actually read him! I know I haven’t…maybe I’ll give this series a try, I don’t know yet.
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I am so interested in Slayer. I can’t wait to see your thoughts on it.
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But those covers for The Jekyll Island Chronicles! Dang! ❤
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I love these stacking the shelves posts – they send me rushing to all the request sites – although I am still trying to be careful.
Those covers for Jekyll Island are great aren’t they.
Lynn 😀
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