Bookshelf Roundup 01/09/21: 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!
A few weeks ago, I received a surprise copy of the second book of The Endling series and I lamented about not having read the first book, so I probably should track it down because the premise sounded pretty interesting. Well, lo and behold, earlier this week a copy of Endling: The Last by Katherine Applegate showed up out of the blue! Looks like someone at the publisher was looking out for me! Thank you, HarperCollins!
Thanks also to Grand Central Publishing for a finished copy of The Effort by Claire Holroyde, which actually turned out to be really serendipitous because the audio copy I downloaded had some problems. I recently finished this one, and my review should be posted soon.
Also huge thanks to Orbit Books for We Lie with Death by Devin Madson, the second novel of The Reborn Empire. Great timing, as I just finished the first book and really enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to continuing the series.
In the digital pile, a big haul from the awesome team at Penguin Random House Audio. First a couple of thrillers: The Push by Ashley Audrain, a psychological thriller with hints of horror, as well as The Perfect Guests by Emma Rous, who also wrote The Au Pair which I so enjoyed last year. I also picked up a listening copy of In the Garden of Spite by Camilla Bruce after her debut You Let Me In was one of my favorite books of 2020. At the time of this writing, I’m only about a few chapters in, but already I’m hooked. And with great excitement, I snagged a copy of Star Wars: Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule, the highly anticipated first novel of The High Republic publishing campaign whose launch was pushed back because of the pandemic, but now it’s finally here! Finally, from their YA imprint Listening Library I picked up City of the Uncommon Thief by Lynne Bertrand and Don’t Tell A Soul by Kirsten Miller. Starting the new year off with a couple of YA books I’ve got my eye on, hope they’ll be good.
Reviews
We Ride the Storm by Devin Madson (4 of 5 stars)
The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins (3.5 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 
They are all foreign to me, never heard from them.
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Yeah, I’m discovering a lot of new books this year!
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I don’t know most of these, which I feel surprised by, and yet maybe it’s because I’ve been so out of the blog loop for a while! Hope you enjoy!
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It’s not just you, I’m discovering a lot of new books this year as well, and it’s still January!
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The “High” Republic? How is that different from the Old Republic?
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From what I read, the High Republic era is about 200 years before The Phantom Menace, and way after the Old Republic which fell long before. It’s the so-called “Jedi Golden Age” (but in the end we all know it doesn’t matter, it’s all a marketing ploy anyway 😉 )
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Gotcha. Thanks.
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The Effort is one of the titles that recently caught my attention and so far received good reviews 🙂
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Unfortunately it didn’t work as well for me – but if you get a chance to check it out, I hope you’ll like it better!
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OOoh nice! I’ve had my eyes on Don’t Tell a Soul for months now! I can’t remember when I first heard about it but it sounded creepy good and I am all for it!! Hope you enjoy all of your awesome 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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Yeah, the cover for Don’t Tell A Soul really grabbed me! I hope it’ll be good!
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I’m looking forward to your review of In the Garden of Spite! And I’m sad I didn’t enjoy Devin Madson’s first book enough to want to read the sequel…
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By now you’ve probably seen my review for Spite…I LOVED IT!!! 😀
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Nice haul! The Push sounds interesting, and I’m really curious about In the Garden of Spite.
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I started reading The Push today, it’s very unsettling – in the good way!
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Lately I’ve been feeling a pull to reread some of the books I read when younger, or those that seem like ones I might have read then if they’d been around and I knew about them. And that has me more curious about The Endling series than I might be otherwise.
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Yeah, it looks like a charming little series for the younger ones. It’s the same author as The One and Only Ivan, IIRC!
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Saw the star wars available on Net Galley, but ive got a few too many books on there that i need to get to still
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Same here, but I figured since this launch of the High Republic is such a big deal, I had to make time to check it out, lol!
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Have to admit, im a bit out of touch with SW. I like some movies and Mando was great, but all these “easter eggs” that people get all exited about goes way above my head.
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Oooooo, I’ll be waiting for your opinion of In the Garden of Spite. My friend recently recommended it to me after I read a non-fiction Belle Gunness book. 🙂
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I really enjoyed it! And I think it would be a great read especially after you finished reading that nonfiction book about her!
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I entered a book giveaway for it so fingers crossed!
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Interesting books 😀
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Happy reading!
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I’m really interested in The Effort after reading Tammy’s review of it. I hope you enjoy these!
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Unfortunately I did not enjoy it as much as Tammy!
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Welp. Hopefully I do because I think I pre-ordered a copy haha. 🙂
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Some really exciting books you got there! The High Republic one looks truly promising! Hope you enjoy these! 😀
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Thanks! I did enjoy Light of the Jedi! 🙂
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I just out The Push on hold at the library after seeing it a few places. Don’t know when it will come in but I do want to give it a try.
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I just started it. So far so good – it’s very unsettling!
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Some intriguing looking books on here The Push was on NG – might go and take a further look at that one.
Lynn 😀
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I’m having a good time with it right now!
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Just got my copy of We Lie With Death this week, excited to see where the story goes!
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