Bookshelf Roundup 04/16/23: 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.
I’m back from my trip! And even though it was less than a week, it took me several more days to recuperate because the Mogsy household doesn’t just vacation, we ADVENTURE! So I was pretty beat when I got back. Then, not only was there a lot of work to catch up on, there was also a big pile of book mail waiting on my front porch.
It made me realize perhaps it’s time to streamline the book haul process so that it wouldn’t take me as long to put together every week, and more importantly, I was about to hit my media upload limit! After cleaning out my image files I was able to get some space back, but I suppose after 12-13 years of blogging it was bound to happen and it’s definitely time to cut back on the high res photos.
Without further ado, here’s my Bookshelf Roundup for the last two weeks…
Received for Review
With thanks to Saga Press/Gallery for:
- A Sleight of Shadows by Kat Howard, the sequel to An Unkindness of Magicians which I read and enjoyed back in 2017! Hope I’ll remember what’s what!
- The Will of the Many by James Islington, the first book of Roman-inspired fantasy series, and it looks to have a pretty unique magic system too.
- The Handyman Method by Nick Cutter and Andrew F. Sullivan, a haunted house horror recommended for fans of Black Mirror and The Amityville Horror.
With thanks to Subterranean Press for:
- The Best of Michael Swanwick Vol. 2, another huge collection of the author’s stories, some of which have never been collected before now.
- Jade Shards by Fonda Lee, a book collecting four prequel short stories set in the world of The Green Bone Saga.
With thanks to Tor Books for:
- Cassiel’s Servant by Jacqueline Carey, the story of Kushiel’s Dart told from Joscelin’s point of view. Words can’t describe how excited I am to read this.
- Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher, a new fairytale retelling from the author, this time a dark and violent version of Sleeping Beauty.
- The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown, described as a claustrophobic sci-fi horror blend set onboard a doomed generation ship. (Nightfire)
With thanks Minotaur Books for:
- What the Neighbors Saw by Melissa Adelman, a domestic suspense of murder and thrills set in a quiet well-to-do suburb of Washington DC. And okay, I do have to share just one photo here, because the package containing the ARC also included this neat piece of book swag.
YES, THAT IS A COOKIE!!!
Quite a few eARCs to feature in my digital haul today. In my defense, it’s been a while since I’ve requested anything on Netgalley and I might have gone a little overboard. With thanks to HarperTeen for The Lake House by Sarah Beth Durst; Ecco Press for The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt; Jo Fletcher Books for The Malevolent Seven by Sebastien de Castell; Tundra Books for Someone Is Always Watching by Kelley Armstrong; Poisoned Pen Press for Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates.
Thank you also to Saichek Publicity for providing me a review copy of The Eidolon by K.D. Edwards, the first book of in a new collection of stories in the Magnus Academy series from the author who brought us The Tarot Sequence.
These last two weeks, I only hauled one audiobook. With thanks to Simon & Schuster Audio for Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling, a near-future dystopian following the lives of climate displaced survivors.
Reviews
- 4 of 5 stars to Antimatter Blues by Edward Ashton
- 4 of 5 stars to The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten
- 4 of 5 stars to The Last Beekeeper by Julie Carrick Dalton
Recent Reads & Upcoming Reviews
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 
Omgosh.. I need to steal like.. all of these.
Welcome back and thanks for sharing, Mogsy!
LikeLike
Thank you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re very welcome!
LikeLike
Carey and Kingfisher, oh my! 🙂 Glad you had a good vacation-adventure 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you! It was a nice break from the grind 🙂
LikeLike
Yeah, most people seem to need a vacation after their vacation 😀
So you hit the media limit eh? That’s a bummer. What are you going to do for a solution? I now host all my high res pix at dropbox. Anything over 150K goes straight to dropbox and then I let the magic work. I also use caesium to compress everything. A kilobyte saved is a kilobyte earned after all, hahahaha 😀 Best of luck in figuring it all out.
LikeLike
Oh I was just close to hitting the limit on my wordpress storage, I have google storage and dropbox as well but I just prefer the convenience. It’s okay for just cover images and such, if I stop posting book haul photos I’m sure it will last me forever, plus it ends up saving so much time anyway!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I tried the google stuff, but could never make it work for me. What’s your process?
LikeLike
Google storage is basically just the cloud service I use to store my photos from my phone so that when backed up I can free up space, I don’t really use it for anything else to be honest. Dropbox is for my media – music, movies, ebooks etc…and a crap ton of audiobooks.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ahhh, so you don’t use google to host the pix like you can with drop box, thus bypassing putting it into wordpress. That’s what I was think you were doing…
LikeLike
Nice haul! I’m very excited to start The Will of the Many and Thornhedge 😁 and I’d love to read Jacqueline Carey’s books at some point!
LikeLike
I’m very excited about those books too, I’ll probably review The Will of the Many as part of Wyrd and Wonder this month!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s a brilliant haul and so many of them look like great reads. I’m going to have to clear out my image library at some point and really need to stop just uploading photos from my phone. The trouble is that it’s so quick and easy to do that I’m reluctant to go down another route.
LikeLike
Exactly! I have all these other services like dropbox and stuff, but simply preferred the convenience of just directly uploading, haha!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad to hear you had a nice vacation. I’m trying to get a mini one planned for myself. So far it could be end of June for an annual road trip but it’s not 100% set in stone yet.
Whoa! Very nice haul! I still need to pick up Kelley’s latest, sadly I did not see it at two of the bookstores I went to this weekend. I know I can always ask them to order it but since the stores aren’t convenient location wise, I held off. Hope you enjoy all of your fantastic new reads! And yay a cookie! That’s so cool!
Here’s my StS
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
LikeLike
I love road trips! I hope you’ll be able to catch a few author signings too if you do go!
And I just finished Kelley’s latest, maybe I’ve been spoiled by her adult mysteries like Rockton, but I felt this one was kinda blah!
LikeLike
Welcome back! I’ve honestly been nervous about reaching my media limit. I’m thinking of deleting old posts and images but it seems like such a daunting task😭
LikeLike
Thanks! I had to clear some photos so now a lot of bookshelf roundup images are unfortunately broken, but oh well! The cover images for reviews is what I wanted to prioritize.
LikeLike
You’re so lucky you got “Thorn Hedge”! As for “The Will of the Many,” I started it and it’s going to be one of those books that none of us saw coming for this year. Yes, it’s that good (so far)!!!
LikeLike
Wow!!! That makes me so excited! The Will of the Many is going on my Wyrd and Wonder to-read list in May for sure!
LikeLiked by 1 person
YAY books 😀
And yes my poor computer too
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great haul. I have a couple of these and I can’t wait to tuck in – especially the Carey.
Lynn 😀
LikeLike
I am really looking forward to Josceline’s POV!
LikeLike
Sounds like you all had a great vacation. I certainly hope so. 🙂 And then to get home to all those books on the porch? Christmas in April!
LikeLike
Book mail is always a nice surprise to come home to, that’s for sure!
LikeLike
Book mail is always a nice surprise to come home to, that’s for sure!
LikeLike