Bookshelf Roundup 12/10/23: 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.
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 Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland (Dell): I mean, I love folklore inspired stories, but selkies?! Give it to me now.
The Briar Book of the Dead by A.G. Slatter (Titan Books): I’m a big fan of Angela Slatter’s gorgeous writing, and I don’t get a chance to read as many of her books as I’d like to. I’m really excited to check this one out.
A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock (Titan Books): This beautiful book arrived this week, and how can I resist this horror debut described as Mexican Gothic meets The Lie Tree by way of Oscar Wilde and Mary Shelley?
Island Witch by Amanda Jayatissa (Berkley): A gothic fantasy inspired by Sri Lankan folklore, this is historical novel infused with horror, mystery, and witchcraft.
The House that Horror Built by Christina Henry (Berkley): The author’s books have been hit or miss for me these past few years, but I do want to give this one a chance. What can I say, haunted houses and horror movies are my weakness.
Reviews
Recent Reads
I didn’t read too much this week, as I was feeling a little antsy and couldn’t quite figure out what I wanted to pick up next. Of course, this being my catch-up month, I had a bit of leeway to choose what I wanted so I went with some mood reads. One turned out to be a bust which I ended up DNFing, so that was a bit of time wasted (at the end of the year, I may do an inaugural post featuring a round up of my DNFs, of which there are going to be at least three). Happily, things started looking up after that. Ultimately, I went with Chasing the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar which wasn’t even a review book, but I loved the idea of “true crime fiction” and it ended being a winner. Still feeling the mystery vibe, I next picked up Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates which is one of my review books from earlier this summer, and again it was exactly what I was looking for.
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 
Do you review DNF’s or just abandon them to the void?
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This is the first year I’ve started Dnfing. Currently the plan is to put up a post of the ones I did and just talk about them briefly. Maybe sometime in the next week.
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So one post with a bunch of dnf’s. Saves time AND space 😀
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A Sweet Sting of Salt is new to me, and I’m intrigued! I’ll have to seriously consider it.
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It was new to me too, but it was too hard to resist selkies 😁
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OOoh nice new reads! Some new to me ones here except for Christina Henry’s book! Super excited about that one as I just love her books!
Hope you enjoy all of your new reads once you get to read them!
Here’s my StS
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
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I’m hoping this new Henry book will work better for me!
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Island Witch looks SO GOOD! 😍😍
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I’m very curious about that one!
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Those first five are completely new to me. The cover for A Botanical Daughter drew my eye, and the text on the cover had me thinking again of Rappaccini’s Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (one of Tammy’s posts also brought it to mind), though I’ve no clue if there’s any similarity.
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That cover seriously is something else. I can see why you would be drawn to it, given your interest in photographing flora!
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THREE DNFs this year???
I’ve never felt more proud of you, or closer 😊
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Haha, crossing my fingers there won’t be more, but the year ain’t over yet 😛
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I can’t wait to read the Mystery Guest! And my reading mood is weird as well!
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You will love The Mystery Guest!
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Botanical Daughter’s cover looks amazing. Ive not heard of any of these sadly as my reading is more to the scifi niche of 40K…
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I wish I knew more about the Warhammer 40K universe, a lot of the books look fun!
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When instarted this blog i was going to try get more people into it and going to do all sorts of lore related posts. Then i found out people on youtube and WP were already years ahead of me, so that venture of mine stopped.
40K is a massive undertaking and there should be a few books that a person new to the franchise could dip their toes into, recommending books like that tho is never easy as in some cases it also would require you to read up on stuff before getting to that certian book.
When i eventually put out review for 40K novels I try to make it easier to understand, but in the case of Horus Heresy by this time we are on book 30 of 54 books so it tends to get harder remembering stuff all the way back too book one…
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From the title alone I know I need to send info about The Botanical Daughter to one of my friends, ha! Hope it’s awesome, it sounds pretty great.
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So glad to hear that! Hope your friend will be intrigued.
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Will you do a review of Chasing the Boogeyman? I’ve been curious about that one.
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I’m going to try, even though it wasn’t a review book. I just got the sequel from the library though, so maybe I’ll review both together when I finish it.
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Shame about the DNFs – but I admit I’ve had more than three. It’s not just the disappointment of the book not working either – it’s the time element too that makes it so frustrating.
I loved the Nita Prose book too – and I particularly like the way she seemed to be taking us down a potentially different route for future instalments.
Lynn 😀
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