Bookshelf Roundup 03/21/20: 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.
First off, I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe and healthy during these uncertain times! Like most of the country, my family and I are practicing social distancing and staying home if there’s no reason to go out. Since I work from home already, my schedule hasn’t changed all that much except now that school is also closed for two weeks, my cooped up kids have been predictably distracting! Add to that, my workload hasn’t really gone down as expected, and there were actually a couple days this week that got super busy, so I haven’t even gotten any extra down time to enjoy more reading, unfortunately. I am woefully behind on reviews but I did start this week with quite a few scheduled in advance, so we’ll see what happens. In the meantime, guess I’ll just keep plugging away at things one day at a time.
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!
The books are still coming in, with thanks to Orbit for finished copies of some highly anticipated books for this fall. The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey is of course high on the list, the first of a trilogy about a young boy’s journey through a post-apocalyptic world. Next is A Time of Courage by John Gwynn, book three of the Of Blood and Bone series. I’m a little behind, but I plan to read book two and catch up posthaste. From the publisher’s sister imprint Redhook, I also received The Age of Witches by Louisa Morgan. I loved her last book, so I’m really looking forward to this one.
Up next, my thanks to Tor for sending me an ARC of The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison. You might recall that I featured this book on an earlier Waiting on Wednesday, and I am a huge fan of her novel The Goblin Emperor so I’m excited to see what this one will bring. Earlier this month I also scored a copy of The Sisters Grimm by Menna van Praag from a LibraryThing giveaway, so that was pretty awesome! I’ve been hearing some mixed things about it, but I’m still very curious. From the kind folks at Viking Books for Young Readers, I also received a surprise copy of A Phoenix First Must Burn edited by Patrice Caldwell, described as a collection of stories that explore the Black experience through fantasy, science fiction, and magic. Well, you know me and anthologies, but I do like the sound of this and will try to check it out if I can.
Ace/Roc/DAW also treated me very well earlier this week, sending along a couple of surprise ARCs. When Jackals Storm the Walls by Bradley P. Beaulieu is book five in The Song of the Shattered Sands series which I am very behind on, and at this point I’m not sure I’ll ever catch up the way the author keeps churning ’em out! However, I’m pretty jazzed about The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson, a fantasy horror debut that has been compared to M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village, so heck yeah I’m all over this. And finally, big thanks to Del Rey for sending along a finished hardcover of The Last Human by Zack Jordan. I’m planning on starting this one very soon.
Only a few new additions in the digital haul, even though it took every ounce of willpower I had not to go nuts clicking a whole bunch of stuff in my auto-approval lists in NetGalley, but I only ended up with The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher because I loved her book The Twisted Ones so much, and I was also sent a widget invitation for Driftwood by Marie Brennan, another highly anticipated release from one of my favorite authors. With thanks to Saga Press and Tachyon Publications, respectively. And late in the week, an advance listening copy of The City We Became by N.K. Jemison became available, so I quickly snagged that one too, and that is my only addition to the audio pile this week with thanks to Hachette Audio!
Reviews
Cries from the Lost Island by Kathleen O’Neal Gear (4 of 5 stars)
Star Trek: Picard: The Last Best Hope by Una McCormack (4 of 5 stars)
Smoke Bitten by Patricia Briggs (4 of 5 stars)
Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold (1.5 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 
I hope you enjoy all the books you’ve got!
(www.evelynreads.com)
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Thank you!
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Did you enjoy Gwynne? I’m curious if it’s worth reading, these books are quite a time investment! 😉
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I did! I haven’t read the original trilogy though, but I heard you could start his second one without reading it first.
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I am so excited about The Angel of the Crows!
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Me too!
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I’m SUPER excited for When Jackals Storm the Walls, but much less so for Time of Courage. I liked Gwynne’s first series way better than this new one. Beaulieu’s are totally worth it if you get the time! I liked the Last Human, but it got a little too metaphysical at times and the pacing was inconsistent at others. Good luck with all things and stay safe! The world needs you!
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I really wish I had kept up with Beaulieu’s series. I wonder how many more books there will be. I LOVED the first one, but somehow never got around to reading the second book, and now here we are 😛
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It’s supposed to be six!
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Yeah this is just crazy times all over the world it seems. Sadly because my company works with the essential companies that are not closing, we’ll be open too. Even worse is that we exceed the 10 person limit by quite a lot. I feel like in the early morning we’ve around 50 or just dancing the line of that. But I don’t see us being told to stay home for our own safety, so I’ll just be in panic mode until this whole thing dies down. Which might be months…so yay stress. 😦
Nice new reads! Seeing quite a few new to me ones here! Although I’m getting curious about Sisters Grimm and wondering if it will be fairy tale like because with a name like Grimm, you expect fairy tale business! Lol.
Happy Reading!
My StS will be up tomorrow, so stop by then if you can!
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
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Oh man, stay safe! I’m quite curious about The Sisters Grimm as well, I’m going to try to fit that one in even though it was a giveaway win technically 😀
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M.R. Carey is one of my “compulsive buying” authors, and I’m thrilled that there’s a new book out and that it’s part of a trilogy – more goods to come! Granted, right now a post-apocalyptic world might not sit well with our current mood, but who knows? An imagined world trouble might help distract us from the real one…
Happy reading!!! 😊
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Absolutely! Anything M.R. Carey writes, you can bet I’ll be there!
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I’m behind on The Song of the Shattered Sands series too, but hoping to catch up.
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Yep, it’s gonna be a long term commitment! 😀
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Ahhhhhh, you got The Angel of the Crows?? Congrats!!
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Yes, I was thrilled! It’s one of my most anticipated.
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Whaaaat?! How did I miss Brennan?!
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It snuck up on me too!
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I really enjoyed The Book of Koli. It’s the first book I’ve read by the author. And I’m very curious about The Angel of the Crows and The Last Human. Great list, here. I hope you’re able to find a new rhythm that works for you with all the recent changes in the world.
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Oh fantastic! I’m even more excited to read Koli now! And I’ve heard some mixed things about The Last Human…let’s just say it’s now gone from a “must” to “maybe”.
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I grabbed The Hollow Places too! And I’m so excited for The Book of Koli, I’ve decided to read all the April releases I’m excited for now, because you know, apocalypse, and The Book of Koli is one of them😁
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Haha! Good plan…in these stressful times, sometimes you just gotta bump those high priority books you wanna read!
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Another very nice haul! I thought all this social distancing would be perfect for whittling down my tbr, but having difficulty focusing on reading, bah. Here’s hoping.
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Yeah, I thought I woudl have more time to read, but nope!
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I hadn’t even heard about The Angel of the Crows, somehow! Eeh! Enjoy. 😀
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I was pretty excited when I learned about it!
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At least we can fill this crazy time with some good books. I got a copy of Driftwood as well. Hope you enjoy all of these.
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Absolutely…now is the best time to escape with some good SFF.
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Oooh, the new Jemisin!!! Ooooh, the new Brennan! Looks like you have a lot of great books ahead of you! Enjoy. 🙂
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Yep, the world may be going to hell in a hand basket, but I got my books! Haha 😀
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Same, lol.
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Lovely haul. I have the Brennan book and can’t wait to pick it up. Currently reading the John Gwynne finale and enjoying it very much so far.
Lynn 😀
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