Bookshelf Roundup: 01/15/22: 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 big thank you to Tordotcom this week for a couple of sweet finished copies. I’ve already given Battle of the Linguist Mages by Scotto Moore a read and it was an odd one! I’m still not sure how I really feel about it, but a review should be up soon once I get my thoughts in order. A review copy of Servant Mage by Kate Elliott also arrived, and this is one I’m hoping to knock out real quick before the month is out. I’m not generally leaping to read novellas, but I’m definitely interested in this one because of the author and because dragons.
With thanks also to the kind folks at Tachyon for a surprise ARC of Crazy in Poughkeepsie by Daniel Pinkwater. Not sure this one would be for me, since its audience is clearly children (description says middle-grade but a flip through makes me think closer to upper elementary). Now that my daughters who are in Grades 1 and 4 are reading more though, I’m grateful for receiving these kinds of books when I’m building their library. And finally my thanks to Subterranean Press for an ARC of The Dark Ride: The Best Short Fiction of John Kessel. I can find no link for this book yet, not even on the Subterranean site, but it’s pretty self-explanatory! All the author’s best short stories from the period of 1981 to 2021 are here, including award winners.
In the digital haul, my thanks to Simon & Schuster for a whole slew of fascinating thrillers. As soon as I read the description to When You Are Mine by Michael Robotham, I knew I had to read it! From the publisher I also received Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner, a debut suspense that has been making waves recently, and then there’s The Appeal by Janice Hallett, a murder mystery involving a theater troupe full of backstabbing and mind games–and it’s an epistolary novel!
And for my sci-fi and fantasy audio fix this week, with thanks to HarperAudio for ALCs of Light Years From Home by Mike Chen and The Broken Tower by Kelly Braffet, the sequel to The Unwilling.
Reviews
A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham (4.5 of 5 stars)
Such A Pretty Smile by Kristi DeMeester (3.5 of 5 stars)
Roundup Highlights:
What I’ve Been Reading
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!
The BiblioSanctum 
I loved a Flicker in the Dark – brilliant. Review will be up very soon. And, thanks.
Lynn 😀
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OOh nice! Those are all totally new to me ones! 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 🙂
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Ohhhhh, a Pinkwater novel. Yeah, he’s definitely upper elementary. I read his “5 Novels” collection and man, he’s one weird guy. In a good way. I am glad to see that he’s still alive and kicking….
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I still need to start Batttle of the Linguist Mages, and now I’m prepared for odd😁
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I just reviewed Servant Mage this week. I liked a lot of it (the world-building & magic especially), but it’s like she developed the bones of a full-length fantasy epic and then crammed it into a novella too short to do it justice.
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I’m very curious about Servant Mage. I didn’t realize it was a novella, but that might help me get to it sooner if it’s a good one. 🙂
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I’m looking forward to reading the Skyward novellas when the bind up comes out. I hate that I’ve kind of read things out of order, but oh well.
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the appeal was so so good!! Hope you like it!
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I’m starting Servant Mage today!
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Servant Mage is one of my anticipated January releases! 😀
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I love the look of these- especially The Appeal!
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Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on Servant Mage, but really the rest as well! A big haul this week, eh? Best of luck reading them! Hope you have a good rest of the month!!
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I really want to know about the Elliot one!
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