Bookshelf Roundup 12/7/19: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads
Bookshelf Roundup is a feature I do every 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 summarize what I’ve finished reading in the last week 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.
My, how the time races by! You might have noticed only a week has passed since my last Bookshelf Roundup, and that’s because starting today I’ve decided to make it a weekly post rather than a bi-weekly one. Over time, I’ve been noticing how some of my roundups were becoming very long and unwieldy, which I think kinda defeats the purpose of a summary post! Drafting them was also taking up more and more time, so hopefully by switching to weekly it will become more manageable.
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!
A big thanks to Simon & Schuster for Dead Endless by Dave Galanter, a part of the Star Trek: Discovery series of tie-in novels! Also thank you to Del Rey for sending me an ARC of The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez, a story about a mute boy who falls from the sky and the woman who finds him and takes him in, the two of them communicating with each other through the power of music. This one sounds very interesting, and it wasn’t on my radar before but it sure is now. And also much love to the kind folks at Subterranean Press, who sent me an ARC of The Gobblin’ Society by James P. Blaylock, a new novella starring the author’s Langdon St. Ives character. From the title, you can kind of tell the delightful story you’ll be in for!
Courtesy of Tor.com, I also received an absolute treasure trove of awesome ARCs: Stormsong by C.L. Polk is the second novel of The Kingston Cycle, and I’ve heard such good things about the first book Witchmark that I really thnk I’ll have to start it soon. Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey is one I’ve been looking forward to, so I was thrilled when a surprise copy showed up! Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings also looks amazing, having been described as a haunting fantasy-horror that is half mystery and half fairy-tale. And finally, Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire is the fifth book of her Wayward Children series, which I’m ashamed to admit I haven’t even started yet. But one day soon I’ll binge them all, mark my words!
Hey, I’ve been pretty good at restraining myself from requesting too much lately, just one book in the digital haul this week. As you know, I’ve been following the books in the official Minecraft series and when I saw The End by Catherynne M. Valente I just couldn’t resist. She’s written some great tie-ins, so I’m looking forward to listening to this one, with thanks to Random House Audio.
Reviews
Starsight by Brandon Sanderson (5 of 5 stars)
Blood Heir by Amélie Wen Zhao (3.5 of 5 stars)
The Harp of Kings by Juliet Marillier (3.5 of 5 stars)
Walk the Wild With Me by Rachel Atwood (2 of 5 stars)
Roundup Highlights:
This Week’s Reads
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 
For once I’ve never heard of any of these new books. I hope you like them, but try not to love them TOO MUCH, eh? My TBR is already pretty ridiculous.
LikeLike
Hee hee, no promises 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
The new McGuire! I have some catching up tp do
LikeLike
Gosh, same here!
LikeLike
Ok, when Roundup posts go weekly, you really need to look at how much you’re posting! (he said in a very jealous tone)
I’d say the usual things like “don’t burn out”, blah blah, blah but considering that you’ve been keeping this schedule up for almost the whole time that I’ve been following you since ’16, well, I guess you can keep up this pace. It astounds me, in a good way, and I really do like knowing that there are people who can have a busy life and still have a busy blog.
I didn’t read the intro at first and so when I got to the end of the post and it was so short, I was like “huh, what happened?”. That’ll teach me to skip stuff! 😀
Keep up the good work and I hope the weekly idea works out well for you, because I agree, these posts were definitely getting l-o-n-g…
LikeLike
Thanks! Actually, it gets tough sometimes, but I try to keep at least one week ahead of schedule when it comes to content, so on light days I try to draft 2-3 posts at a time (usually the meme/features). My mild OCD probably has a lot to do with maintaining my post-a-day schedule, and I’ve been keeping it up for years now and I want to see how long I can go without breaking the streak. In fact, as long as I keep it up, it energizes me, so I probably don’t feel “burnout” the same way others would. I’m actually worried that I might start losing interest if I stop or take a break 😛
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hahahahahaaa, I totally understand. You’ve got momentum and need to keep it. Well, as long as burnout isn’t a problem, I certainly don’t mind seeing new content every day 😀
LikeLike
I’d love to read The Vanished Birds, although I think it’s a January release and I’m already booked up for that month😁
LikeLike
Yeah my January is already looking pretty crazy!
LikeLike
Upright Women Wanted? Nice! I’m looking forward to that one myself.
LikeLike
That one does look interesting!
LikeLike
OOh nice ones! All new to me! I 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 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you!
LikeLike
New McGuire book! YAY!!! 🙂
LikeLike
Everyone talks about how much they love that series, I need to catch up quick!
LikeLike
Stormsong! Come Tumbling Down! So excited for both of those!
LikeLike
Haha, I need to start the first books for both!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I really enjoyed Witchmark, we are reading it right now for our romantic fantasy book club over on r/fantasy (I have already read it before though). Hope you enjoy it!
LikeLike
A lovely haul! I’m sticking my fingers in my ears and la-la-la-ing loudly and trying not to look… I promised myself that I wouldn’t request anymore books for the rest of the month, as I try to whittle down my teetering TBR!
LikeLike
Haha, I promised myself the same though, er, I’m probably not exactly following that pledge to the letter 😉 It’s a good thing December is generally a light month for releases, so I haven’t been tempted by too much!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s a HUGE relief!!!
LikeLike
Ooh Minecraft The End looks fun! I’ve never played it or even realized there was spin off fiction, but that looks pretty good.
LikeLike
And the books are actually pretty good!
LikeLike
Oh god I’m so happy you loved ‘Starsight’! I’ve stayed away from reviews because I don’t want to know any details at all, but I make sure to come back and read yours once I’m finished 😀 Started today, woohoo!
LikeLike
Nice, enjoy! I can’t wait to hear what you think!
LikeLike
Looking forward to seeing what you thought of Ninth House!
LikeLike
Review’s going up Monday! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oooh I can’t wait to read your thoughts on Ninth House Mogsy!
LikeLike
I enjoyed it! Review is scheduled for Monday!
LikeLike
Starsight is going to be my next Audible purchase and I’m looking forward to it very much.
Lynn 😀
LikeLike