Bookshelf Roundup 02/29/20: 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.
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!
First, a big thank you to the amazing team at Ace/Roc/DAW for sending along a care package earlier this week, containing the following finished copies: False Value by Ben Aaronovitch is the eighth installment of the Peter Grant/Rivers of London series, which I love — not surprisingly, I’ve already devoured this one and a review should be hitting the blog some time next week. Another one I’ll be starting soon is Smoke Bitten by Patricia Briggs, and it’s hard to believe we’re on book number twelve in the Mercy Thompson series, but I’ll keep reading as long as they keep coming. Up next are finished copies of Sword of Fire by Katharine Kerr and The Queen’s Bargain by Anne Bishop, both of which are continuations to an already established series, reintroducing readers to their respective worlds. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get to them next month.
Thank you also to Aladdin, a children’s imprint of Simon & Schuster, for this surprise arrival of City Spies by James Ponti. It’s a middle grade novel about a group of spy kids, and while I might not be its target audience, I think I’ll be passing this one on to my daughter who reads above her grade level and should probably be ready for this now. Thanks also to Del Rey for sending along this ARC of Queen of the Unwanted by Jenna Glass. It wasn’t on my radar before, even though it sounded familiar, and only when I looked it up did I realize it is the sequel to The Women’s War. I haven’t read the first book yet, hence I haven’t been following up with news on the series, but it’s definitely on the to-read list. Up next, with thanks to 47North and Wunderkind PR for a finished copy of The Killing Fog by Jeff Wheeler, which I’m actually going to try really hard to fit into my spring schedule because this looks quite interesting! And finally, with thanks to Tor Books and Tor.com for ARCs of Automatic Reload by Ferrett Steinmetz and The Ghosts of Sherwood by Carrie Vaughn, respectively. Both are highly anticipated releases on my May-June TBR!
I’ve been trying real hard these last couple weeks to limit my digital haul, since at the moment I have a lot of audiobooks to catch up with, plus I also want to boost my NetGalley stats by a few points before I start requesting again. Still, there was one title I couldn’t resist grabbing, and that’s The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel, with thanks to Random House Audio.
Interviews and Guest Posts
“It’s All About Family…And Thrillers” by T. Frohock
Reviews
The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood (3.5 of 5 stars)
The Will and the Wilds by Charlie N. Holmberg (3.5 of 5 stars)
The Chill by Scott Carson (2.5 of 5 stars)
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 
Smoke Bitten looks awesome. she always gets the best covers. 🙂
I’m REALLY curious about The Glass Hotel!
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I missed out on Station Eleven, I’m definitely jumping on this one!
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Nice week!
I am listening to sword of fire right now
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I need to get on that!
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Ooh, niiiice haul! 🙂
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Lots of goodies! Happy reading to ya!
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Nice list you for there. I absolutely love The Queen of Raiders and No Bad Deed. Sword of Fire was average for me, but also my first Deverry novel, so I am probably missing something there. Looks like you are in for quite a ride! Enjoy!
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I enjoyed The Queen of Raiders! The story is definitely getting off the ground! And I’m in the same boat with Sword of Fire being my first Deverry novel, hope I’ll do okay with it!
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I hope so, too.
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The Killing Fog caught my attention as well, and I’m trying to see if I can find some tiny space on my TBR – but then there is the new Katsu novel as well, and other books already clamoring for attention… The life of a bookworm is a hard one, indeed… 😀 😀
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I just finished The Deep – hmm, I’m really not sure what to think about it, to be honest!
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I didn’t particularly care or Sword of Fire, but I’m almost done with The Queen’s Bargain and loving it. The Women’s War is one on my TBR list as well – I’d hoped to get to it before Queen of the Unwanted hit shelves, but that’s not going to happen.
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Yeah, I’m hearing some mixed things for Sword of Fire, I’m crossing my fingers I’ll do okay with it! But I for one cannot wait to start The Queen’s Bargain!
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I’m dying to read The Glass Hotel, but it’s not going to be a review read for me, I’m just going to buy a copy so I can read it whenever I want to😁 Ooh and so curious what you think of The Deep. Man I have mixed feelings about it.
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I didn’t even hear of The Glass Hotel until just recently, and was caught off guard when I saw the audio offered for review! Of course, I recovered right away and jumped on it, lol! And yeah, I agree with you on The Deep, it’s a tough one to rate for sure.
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OOh nice! I didn’t know Carrie had a new release out! I still need to finish the Kitty Norville series! I fell soooo behind in so many of my favorite starter series!
I hope you enjoy all of 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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I haven’t read any Carrie Vaughn, I don’t think. So I’m looking forward to starting this one 😀
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I like Aaronovitch, so I’ll wait your review. The others are not the books I read, but you can me think otherwise… We’ll see!
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I enjoyed False Value! If you are a fan of the other Rivers of London books I think you will enjoy this one as well. I’m kinda glad that the Faceless Man story arc is behind us and we are starting a new chapter for Peter Grant.
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Greatly anticipating Automatic Reload, but Tor isn’t going to grant me a copy. They never do. Which means I’ll have to wait for it like the rest of the world. Also, two straight weeks with only 1 digital book? That’s some excellent self-control!
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I know, I am quite surprised at myself for resisting so well, haha! I did start off the month with a whole lot of audiobooks to listen to though, so I knew better than to keep adding to the pile. Now that I’ve finished off quite a few, I might just start requesting a little more again 😛
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Looks like a good haul! I haven’t picked up False Value yet — haven’t read the last book, so I figured i’d catch up first!
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Oh definitely catch up first! The last book ties up the Faceless Man arc, so you’ll definitely want to hit it first before False Value 🙂
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Ooooh, I know you’re probably excited for the new Rivers of London book! I am super curious about The Ghosts of Sherwood. Hope you get some good reads out of these!
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Yes, I was soooo excited for False Value, and I did love it! 😀
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I look forward to reading your take on The Killing Fog if you’re able to fit in it. I’m very curious about that one, and absolutely love the cover.
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I’m hoping I’ll be able to fit that one in too. It was a surprise arrival so other priority books will have to come before it, but it does look very interesting and I’d like to read it if I am able!
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Lovely haul. Love seeing Automatic Reload on here.
I’m reading The Deep at the moment. Almost 50% in. My initial thoughts would be that this is more like historical fiction so far. Well written, not quite as chilling as I was expecting (at this point), more lots of superstition and family drama which seemed popular during that time, although it does also feel that things are starting to become a little unstuck?.
Can’t wait to read Glass Hotel.
Lynn D:
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