Stacking the Shelves (631)

A really short stack this time around, and ALL coincidentally at the end of the alphabet. My stacks tend to get short at the end of the year because they’re usually all eARCs that I get from NetGalley and Edelweiss. I’ve always assumed that the publishing folks take a bit of time off at the end of the year just like the rest of us, because not much gets added from now until after New Year’s.

Of course, is you happen to be someone who RECEIVES books for the holidays, your stack could get blissfully huge.

In spite of ONLY having FOUR books this time around, I’ve actually got something to say about each of them. The ‘pretty cover’ award is split evenly between The Sirens and Tideborn. Shadow of the Solstice is the book I’m most looking forward to because I’ve been looking forward to the next book in the Leaphorn, Chee and now Manuelito series, and the next and the next and the next, for decades at this point.

And the book that has me intensely curious is Six Wild Crowns because its based, I suspect loosely based but we’ll see, on the court of Henry VIII and I can’t wait to learn how THAT’s going to work!

For Review:
Shadow of the Solstice (Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito #28) by Anne Hillerman
The Sirens by Emilia Hart (eARC and audio)
Six Wild Crowns (Queens of Elben #1) by Holly Race
Tideborn (Drowned World #2) by Eliza Chan


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Stacking the Shelves (630)

As the year winds – or perhaps that should be dribbles – to a close, the stacks are definitely getting smaller. Which is probably a good thing. This week’s stack is fun in that I think they’re all pretty – although, as usual, they are pretty in pretty different ways.

The title I’m really, really curious about is Christopher Moore’s Anima Rising. One of my friends loves his work, so I’ve tried to get into it multiple times and bounced off. But this one looks like it might work for me. We’ll see. The cover is certainly gorgeous.

The book I’m particularly looking forward to, or at least to one story in it, is Love in Other Worlds. One of my favorite authors, M.L. Buchman, has a story in the collection titled, “The Hanukkah Pretzel Prophecy” and I’m both curious and looking forward to reading it. Because, well, what could pretzels have to do with Hanukkah? Inquiring minds REALLY want to know!

For Review:
Anima Rising by Christopher Moore
The Convenience Store by the Sea by Sonoko Machida, translated by Bruno Navasky
Heavenly Tyrant (Iron Widow #2) by Xiran Jay Zhao (ebook and audio)
A Line You Have Traced by Roisin Dunnett
One Way Witch (She Who Knows #2) by Nnedi Okorafor
A Ruthless Angel Weeps (House of Croft #3) by Sophie Barnes

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
Love in Other Worlds (Christmas Romance Digest #2) edited by Tracy Cooper Posey


If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

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Stacking the Shelves (629)

I hope that everyone had a terrific Turkey Day and has awakened from their tryptophan coma without too much difficulty!

I’ve got a bit of an eclectic stack this time around. The two books in the Vintage Cookbook Mystery series are the result of reading Bayou Book Thief, which was a fun cozy mystery and will be reviewed later in December. Wedgetail and The Hero She Deserves are the latest entries from two authors I follow religiously. Or relentlessly, take your pick.

Orbital just won The Booker Prize, and seems to be up for just about every other year-end prize. It’s SF, which made me curious. It’s actually literary SF, which explains a lot, at least so far. (I’m in the middle of the audio right now. We’ll see this coming week when I finish.)

The prettiest covers this time around are The Gentleman and His Vowsmith, and Orbital. The two that REALLY have my curiosity bump itching are American Hippo and If Wishes Were Retail.

Did you find much to add to your stack this week?

For Review:
The Gentleman and His Vowsmith by Rebecca Ide
The Hero She Deserves (Unbroken Heroes #4) by Anna Hackett
If Wishes Were Retail by Auston Habershaw
The Last Wizards’ Ball (Gunnie Rose #6) by Charlaine Harris
The Queen of Fives by Alex Hay
Wedgetail (Miranda Chase NTSB #15) by M.L. Buchman

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
American Hippo (River of Teeth #1-2) by Sarah Gailey
French Quarter Fright Night (Vintage Cookbook Mystery #3) by Ellen Byron
Wined and Died in New Orleans (Vintage Cookbook Mystery #2) by Ellen Byron

Borrowed from the Library:
Orbital by Samantha Harvey (ebook and audio)


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Stacking the Shelves (628)

A fairly sizable stack for the Saturday before Thanksgiving, isn’t it? Maybe I’ll even have a chance to read a couple of extra over the holidays?

Also an interesting batch of books in more than one way. The cover/book combo that feels like the biggest conundrum to this reader is An Excellent Thing in a Woman, the next book in the Sparks & Bainbridge series. I absolutely ADORE the series, I’m really looking forward to reading this latest entry, but damn if that isn’t the meh-est cover that ever meh-ed. Please don’t judge this series by the cover of this entry in it. Because meh. Seriously just meh. But the series is not meh at ALL.

Very much OTOH, the covers of the Under the Mistletoe collection, Cruel Winter with You etc., totally fit their books. They’re light, fluffy covers for light, fluffy holiday romances. A perfect match. Also each really short if you’re looking for a reading pick-me-up.

I think the prettiest covers are A Drop of Corruption, Idolfire and The Witch Roads, although as per usual they are not pretty in remotely the same way. A Drop of Corruption, along with The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses, are the two books I’m most looking forward to in this batch, while Their Monstrous Hearts is the one I’m most curious about as a friend asked me to read it to see if our opinions align. They probably will but we’ll see.

What did you put in your stack – and or throw on the top of your towering TBR pile – this week?

For Review:
A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan #2) by Robert Jackson Bennett
An Excellent Thing in a Woman (Sparks & Bainbridge #7) by Allison Montclair
Idolfire by Grace Curtis
It Takes a Psychic (Harmony #18) by Jayne Castle
A Palace Near the Wind (Natural Engines #1) by Ai Jiang
The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses (Mossa and Pleiti #3) by Malka Older
Their Monstrous Hearts by Yiğit Turhan
The Witch Roads (Witch Roads #1) by Kate Elliott

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
Cruel Winter with You (Under the Mistletoe #1) by Ali Hazelwood (ebook and audio)
Merriment and Mayhem (Under the Mistletoe #3) by Alexandria Bellefleur (ebook and audio)
Merry Ever After (Under the Mistletoe #2) by Tessa Bailey (ebook and audio)
Only Santas in the Building (Under the Mistletoe #5) by Alexis Daria (ebook and audio)


If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

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Stacking the Shelves (627)

Lots of pretty amid not so many covers this week. It’s November, and publishing looks like its already headed into the holiday doldrums. Not that the holidays themselves are doldrum-y, but rather that not much comes out or gets promoted over the holidays because no one is paying attention to anything EXCEPT the holidays!

I almost said that there isn’t an ugly cover in the bunch, but I  have to admit that the beady eye of whatever that insect is pictured on the cover of Esperance is definitely giving me the creeps. I’m curious as hell because I loved the author’s Braking Day. But still, that cover is really kind of creepy – and potentially crawly as well.

The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin, however, gets my nod for both prettiest cover and most eye-catching title, but your reading mileage may vary. We’ll have to see in the months ahead.

For Review:
The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst
Esperance by Adam Oyebanji
The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin (Ill-Mannered Ladies #2) by Alison Goodman
Murder at Gulls Nest (Nora Breen Investigates #1) by Jess Kidd
A Shipwreck in Fiji (Sergeant Akal Singh #2) by Nilima Rao

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
All by My Elf (Under the Mistletoe #3) by Olivia Dade (ebook + audio)
Bayou Book Thief (Vintage Cookbook Mystery #1) by Ellen Byron


If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

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The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 11-10-24

I’m not sure whether this picture of a sleepy Luna represents a cat not wanting to have their nap disturbed, or a cat looking to dig a hole and pull it in after her. This is one of her common sleeping positions, folded up into a surprisingly small kittybundle and getting as many limbs as possible to cover her pretty face. She clearly likes to make the world GO AWAY when she sleeps.

I fully admit I’ve been tempted to join her this week. If dear old Acme – the folks who supplied Wile E. Coyote – were still in business I think there would be a lot of folks looking to buy their patented ‘portable holes’ this week. Alas, Acme isn’t available, so I’ve had to content myself with comfort reads. Possibly for a while.

If you’re looking for a comfort read, I highly recommend the cozy fantasy of The Teller of Small Fortunes, as well as the slightly rueful, thoroughly witchy, laugh out loud snark and sarcasm of Crazy as a Loon – as you’ll see in this coming week’s reviews.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Thanks a Latte Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book PLUS EVENT-WIDE AMAZON/PAYPAL PRIZE in the Late Fall Giveaway Event!
$5 Amazon Gift Card + eBook Copy of A Tainted Heart Bleeds by Sophie Barnes
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Fall 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Blog Recap:

A+ #AudioBookReview: The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon
Spotlight + Excerpt: A Tainted Heart Bleeds by Sophie Barnes + Giveaway
#GuestPost: Election Day 2024: Readings
A- #BookReview: Old Scores by Will Thomas
B #BookReview: The City in Glass by Nghi Vo
B+ #BookReview: Art in the Blood by Bonnie MacBird
Stacking the Shelves (626)

Coming This Week:

Veterans Day (#GuestPost by Galen)
The Bloodless Princes by Charlotte Bond (#BookReview)
The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong (#BookReview)
Crazy as a Loon by Hailey Edwards (#AudioBookReview)
Grimm Curiosities by Sharon Lynn Fisher (#BookReview)

Stacking the Shelves (626)

This has been a difficult week for many, and I’m certainly among them. This is going to be a bit of a self-care weekend, and I know I’m far from alone in that feeling.

My search for comfort reads led me to Bonnie MacBird’s Sherlock Holmes Adventure series. After finishing the first book in the series, Art in the Blood, I grabbed the whole set so the later books in the series will be reviewed in the months ahead. I’ll probably include What Child is This? in my Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon posts.

Out of this week’s stack, IMHO Behooved has the prettiest cover – and the story sounds pretty as well. Admittedly, this stack is chock full of pretty covers, but Behooved just stands out from the rest. The books I’m most looking forward to are Anji Kills a King as it’s being billed as a readalike for The Blacktongue Thief and The Orb of Cairado as its a short story set in the universe of The Goblin Emperor.

The one I’m most curious about is Direct Descendant by Tanya Huff. I loved her Blood series as well as her Smoke series (back in the day), AND her Valor series is one of my fave SF series. But it’s been awhile, and this one is billed as horror, so my curiosity bump itches all the way around.

For Review:
Anji Kills a King (Rising Tide #1) by Evan Leikam
Behooved by M. Stevenson
The Book That Held Her Heart (Library Trilogy #3) by Mark Lawrence
Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame by Neon Yang
Direct Descendant by Tanya Huff
A Far Better Thing by H.G. Parry
Harmattan Season by Tochi Onyebuchi
The Incandescent by Emily Tesh
The Orb of Cairado by Katherine Addison
The Serpent Under (Sherlock Holmes Adventure #6) by Bonnie MacBird

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
The Devil’s Due (Sherlock Holmes Adventure #3) by Bonnie MacBird
The Three Locks (Sherlock Holmes Adventure #4) by Bonnie MacBird
Unquiet Spirits (Sherlock Holmes Adventure #2) by Bonnie MacBird
What Child is This? (Sherlock Holmes Adventure #5) by Bonnie MacBird


If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

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The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 11-3-24

Did you remember to reset your clocks last night? Or, does everything reset itself in your house?

If you are a U.S. citizen, have you voted yet? If not, do you have plans to vote on Tuesday? The right to vote is precious, and like so many other precious things, either you use it or you lose it – one way or another.

Tomorrow’s review will be The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon. I wanted something just a bit more relevant for just before Election Day than I generally worry about and that book turned out to be a gem as well as fitting for the week, as the thing that many of those unsung heroes fought and in some cases even died for was the right to vote.

The rest of the week is mostly comfort reads, because whatever happens on Tuesday – and after – the world will be different. The question is how much and in what ways.

Which leads me to today’s cat picture and a bit of a story to go with it. This is a portrait of something we refer to in this household as the ‘Butts of Bast’. Our current clowder of cats does not snuggle with each other. We’re still shaking our heads about that, as the previous clowder did, very much and all the time. But that group consisted of a family that had been raised together. LaZorra and Erasmus – the momcat and dadcat – were also siblings from the same litter. They had two daughtercats, Sophie and Mellie, who were also their niececats. (Sort of like an Egyptian pharaoh family, just with cats.) The little girls each had their own respective parentcat. Sophie was daddy’s girl and Mellie was mommy’s girl. I’m referring to their actual feline parents – not the humans. The little girls had very little to do with us by their own choice.

It was only when Mellie was the last survivor, 17 years later, that she started to turn to us AT ALL. At first, she’d sleep on the bed but not touch us. Then she’d let us touch her and pet her – A LITTLE – but only if we approached from her rear so that she could pretend it was the ‘hand of Bast’ – the Egyptian cat goddess – petting her and not those dreadful humans.

This picture is of George and Tuna. They play together now, they chase each other, they shake the house a bit as they’re both rather large. But they don’t cuddle with each other and they don’t cuddle with Luna or Hecate. Tuna doesn’t even cuddle with Luna now, and they are also littermates. They all do cuddle with us, just not each other. In this picture, Tuna and George are clearly touching each other – they were napping butt to butt. BUT, when Galen woke them they both focused on him and refused to acknowledge the other cat touching their butt. Hence, the ‘Butts of Bast’.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Thanks a Latte Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book PLUS EVENT-WIDE AMAZON/PAYPAL PRIZE in the Late Fall Giveaway Event!
$5 Amazon Gift Card + eBook Copy of A Tainted Heart Bleeds by Sophie Barnes
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Fall 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Silly Pumpkins Giveaway Hop is Stacey

Blog Recap:

A- #AudioBookReview: Constituent Service by John Scalzi
A- #BookReview: A Tainted Heart Bleeds by Sophie Barnes + Giveaway
Grade A #BookReview: The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny
B #BookReview: Buried Memories by Simon R. Green
Thanks a Latte Giveaway Hop
Stacking the Shelves (625)

Coming This Week:

The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon (#AudioBookReview)
Election Day 2024 (Guest Post by Galen)
Old Scores by Will Thomas (#BookReview)
The City in Glass by Nghi Vo (#BookReview)
Art in the Blood by Bonnie MacBird (#BookReview)

Stacking the Shelves (625)

The U.S. presidential election is this Tuesday, November 5. It will be a day to remember, no matter what the outcome, and no matter how anyone in particular feels about the outcome. I wanted to post something this week that’s a little more serious than most of the books reviewed here. And lit upon The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon, a book that collects a fraction of the stories of the unsung heroes of American history. I hope it hits the right note for the occasion – it’s certainly been an educational AND enjoyable read and listen this week.

For Review:
The Desert Talon (Crowns of Ishia #2) by Karin Lowachee
Grave Empire (Great Silence #1) by Richard Swan
A Lesson in Dying (Inspector Ramsay #1) by Ann Cleeves
The Memory Collectors by Dete Meserve
Miss Amelia’s List (Elemental Masters #17) by Mercedes Lackey
Only in America by Richard Bernstein
Third Ear by Elizabeth Rosner

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
Other People’s Playgrounds by Harry Turtledove
The President’s Brain is Missing by John Scalzi (ebook + audio)
The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon (ebook + audio)


If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

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The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 10-27-24

This week’s schedule went just a bit awry at the end, because I finished Kevin Hearne’s Candle & Crow AGAIN, (that story is in the review – HINT), this time in audio, and just had to write it up because awesomesauce. Not that the new Gamache book, The Grey Wolf, the book I intended to review on Friday isn’t also terrific, just that I wasn’t quite done with it yet and I had entirely too much to say about Candle & Crow and the whole Ink & Sigil series.

My review of The Grey Wolf will be coming this week, the day before Halloween. Because in it’s own way, it’s MORE than scary enough. You’ll see.

As far as this week’s cat pictures, I sometimes have to remind myself that Luna is NOT a small cat. She is only small in comparison to her brother Tuna, who is HUGE. Last week’s picture was of Tuna, sprawling in the same bed that Luna has primly posed in in this picture. Notice that Tuna filled the whole thing and lopped over the sides. Luna, as I said, is primly POSED. She has space all around herself – the better to look adorable with.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Silly Pumpkins Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book PLUS EVENT-WIDE AMAZON/PAYPAL PRIZE in the Late Fall Giveaway Event!
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Fall 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Blog Recap:

A- #BookReview: Murder of a Suffragette by Marty Wingate
A- #BookReview: Murder in Highbury by Vanessa Kelly
B #BookReview: The Mountain Crown by Karin Lowachee
B #BookReview: Fury Brothers: Claim by Anna Hackett
Grade A #AudioBookReview: Candle and Crow by Kevin Hearne
Stacking the Shelves (624)

Coming This Week:

Constituent Service by John Scalzi (#AudioBookReview)
A Tainted Heart Bleeds by Sophie (#BookReview #BlogTour)
The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny (#BookReview)
Buried Memories by Simon R. Green (#BookReview)
Thanks a Latte Giveaway Hop