Bookshelf Roundup 12/11/22: 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!
Another quick update this week as we barrel towards the holidays and things are looking a little quiet in the old inbox. With thanks to Forge Books for sending along an ARC of The Last Beekeeper by Julie Carrick Dalton which is set in a near-future world where bees have gone extinct, looking at the far-reaching consequence on a society’s agriculture, environment, economy, and politics.
Courtesy of Orbit, I also received an ARC of Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky, the third book in the Children of Time series. I loved the first two books, which I think are some of the author’s finest work, so I’m really looking forward to read this one.
Thank you also to the kind folks at Wunderkind PR and 47North for a review copy of The Union by Leah Vernon. This was a new one to me; a quick search on Goodreads shows it’s a sci-fi dystopian unique for its reverse racism themes and that it was originally self-published under the title Impure before being revised and re-released under its current title.
Only one new audiobook in the digital review haul this week. Thank you to Hachette Audio for an early listening copy of The Stolen Heir by Holly Black, the start of a new duology set in the same world as the author’s Elfhame series.
Reviews
The Hollows by Daniel Church (4 of 5 stars)
A Sliver of Darkness by C.J. Tudor (3 of 5 stars)
Raven Unveiled by Grace Draven (3 of 5 stars)
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 
OOh nice new reads! I’m current;y debating the merits of starting Holly’s new duology when it releases of if I should stick to my bingeing duologies philosophy! Every once in awhile I break the “rule” but I can’t help but think it might be better to wait this one out…lol!
Hope you enjoy all of your wonderful new reads!
Here’s my StS
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
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There’s definitely a wisdom to waiting and bingeing, lol! But I find I’m generally the strike while the iron’s hot kind of reader 😀
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I have got the Luminaries in a book box this week! And I’ll be waiting for your review of The Stolen Heir as I am always looking for good audiobooks!
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I’m hoping to get my review of The Luminaries up this weekend!
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I really want to read more Adrian Tchaikovsky. I’m going to read Shards of Earth next month and then just back into this Children of Time series.
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I ventured out to try some of his other sci-fi books, but didn’t have as much luck, so I’m glad to be sticking to his Children of Time series for now 😀
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Been curious about The Hollows. Beekeeper looks interesting to me too for those themes. Why haven’t I STILL read Holly Black? Baffles me.
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Yeah, I used to be a volunteer at a biodiversity exhibit at a museum and I was in charge of the bee station where we had a live hive. Needless to say, I’m very excited to read The Last Beekeeper!
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Oh, that’s cool!
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I took a chance on Tchaikovsky’s other recent book—whiiich I haven’t read yet—so I decided to pass on this one. Hope you like it, hope it’s good!! Also can’t wait to see your thoughts on Empire of Exiles! At the moment that one’s a dnf for me…
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Was it Shards of Earth? That one I have for review but I figure since I’ll be diving back into his Children of Time series with this one soon, I’ll hold off on that for now. I’d be interested to hear what you think about SoE! And Empire of Exiles was…challenging. It’s gonna be a tough review to write, but I can say right now I’m happy to have made it through the book. It wasn’t bad, but I’m totally not relating to these rave reviews.
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Um no, it was… City of Last Chances? I also have SoE which I also have yet to read lol
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Seeing the title, The Last Beekeeper, brought back memories of an old Asimov short story about a child who spoke with the bees around his yard. I don’t recall much else about it right now, though I think there was a person interviewing his parents as he was looking for people with abilities but they never thought to look at the community of bees. It was a fun read. I hope this one is, too.
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That sounds really cool! The Last Beekeeper will likely go in another direction looking at how a bee extinction would change the world on all levels and not just the devastating ecological impact, but I do find any stories to do with bees really fascinating.
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Some nice books there! Happy reading!
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Thank you, you too!
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I’m looking forward to your review of Children of Memory. The Last Beekeeper also sounds very interesting.
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I hope to read Children of Memory soon, it’s one of my “goal” books for this month 😀
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Happy reading ;D
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Thank you, you too!
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Hope you love them all.
Lynn 😀
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