How is it that something that is so ubiquitous it is literally called ‘the common cold’ manages to make a person feel so uncommonly miserable with so little warning? You’d think I’d get plenty of reading done while I’m sniffling and coughing, but looking down to read just makes everything worse. I think it’s finally on its way out, but it feels like it’s taking twice as long to leave as it did to arrive.

Yuck. And I repeat. YUCK.

Something definitely not yucky that I participate in every year is serving on one of the American Library Association’s adult book awards committees. This year it’s the Sophie Brody Medal Committee, which administers “an award to the U.S. author of the most distinguished contribution to Jewish literature (fiction and/or non-fiction) for adults published in the United States” published during the year. In this particular case, published during the year 2024.

Being on one of the ALA book award committees, whichever committee it happens to be in a given year, does influence which books I pick up from NetGalley and Edelweiss, and boxes of books show up at my front door on a regular basis. So the titles that may be under consideration will appear in my stacks, but won’t be noted as such, and this is the last time I’ll mention the committee until the winner(s) are officially announced in January 2025. Which seems like a lifetime from now and already too damn close, both at the same time.

For Review:
The Dallergut Dream Department Store by Miye Lee
Dear Edna Sloane by Amy Shearn
Fervor by Toby Lloyd
The Goldie Standard by Simi Monheit
In the Shadow of the Greenbrier by Emily Matchar
An Intrigue of Witches (Secret Society #1) by Esme Addison
Judaism is About Love by Shai Held
The Kill List (Inspector Anjelica Henley #3) by Nadine Matheson
Mastering the Art of French Murder (American in Paris #1) by Colleen Cambridge
A Murder Most French (American in Paris #2) by Colleen Cambridge
Opening Doors by Hasia R. Diner
Summer’s End (Shady Hollow #5) by Juneau Black
To Be A Jew Today by Noah Feldman
Toward a Holy Ecology by Ellen Bernstein

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My murder-y mood continues – so when I saw book 5 in the Nell Ward series, A Trace of Hares, come up on Edelweiss I decided to just go for the whole series. I’ll be reading the first book in the series over the weekend, so hopefully I’ll have a chance to get caught up before the Hares hop out.

The most adorable cover in the bunch is the one for Chaos at the Lazy Bones Bookshop – although we’re back at murder again, aren’t we? My heart is divided on ‘pretty’ in this batch between We Speak Through the Mountain and The Doors of Midnight but that’s a bit like comparing apples and oranges, isn’t it?

For Review:
Chaos at the Lazy Bones Bookshop (Halloween Bookshop #1) by Emmeline Duncan
The Doors of Midnight (Tales of Tremaine #2) by R.R. Virdi
Glass Houses by Madeline Ashby
Glory Be (Gloria Broussard #1) by Danielle Arceneaux (audio)
A Trace of Hares (Nell Ward #5) by Sarah Yarwood-Lovett
Unexploded Remnants by Elaine Gallagher
We Speak Through the Mountain by Premee Mohamed

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
A Cast of Falcons (Nell Ward #2) by Sarah Yarwood-Lovett
A Generation of Vipers (Nell Ward #4) by Sarah Yarwood-Lovett
A Mischief of Rats (Nell Ward #3) by Sarah Yarwood-Lovett
A Murder of Crows (Nell Ward #1) by Sarah Yarwood-Lovett

Borrowed from the Library:
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt (audio)

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So I picked up a couple more books this week than I did last week. What’s a few extra books between friends, amirite? Especially since Enlightenment absolutely ran away with the ‘pretty book cover’ award for this week’s stack!

For Review:
The City of Marble and Blood (Chronicles of Hanuvar #2) by Howard Andrew Jones
Close to Death (Hawthorne and Horowitz #5) by Anthony Horowitz
Enlightenment by Sarah Perry
The Friend Zone Experiment by Zen Cho
The Runes of Engagement by Dave Klecha and Tobias S. Buckell
A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
What Feasts at Night (Sworn Soldier #2) by T. Kingfisher (audio)
Yoke of Stars (Birdverse) by R.B. Lemberg

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold #1) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Before We Say Goodbye (Before the Coffee Gets Cold #4) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Before Your Memory Fades (Before the Coffee Gets Cold #3) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
The Devil’s Brew (Sinners #2.5) by Rhys Ford
Tales from the Cafe (Before the Coffee Gets Cold #2) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

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For some reason this stack LOOKED way bigger than last week’s stack – but it’s not. Just one more title.

Also, they are nearly all pretty in their own ways, with the exception of The Atlas Complex. That whole series has had sort of bland covers, the excitement has always been BETWEEN the covers on that one. Although, I have to admit that it’s the kind of excitement engendered by watching a trainwreck or a 10-car pileup. Those characters are ALL such hot messes that I’m still in it at this point just to see how it ends. Because it’s middled in some very weird places and I honestly don’t like ANY of the characters. If they all got exactly what they deserve it would be marvelous. Also bloody, but marvelous.

In Mercy, Rain and Skeleton Song aren’t exactly ‘pretty’ per se either. Pretty fitting for the Wayward Children series, but not exactly pretty in themselves.

If I had to pick, I’d say the prettiest cover in this stack in A Letter to the Luminous Deep, but it’s really hard to pick just one.

What about  you? What pretty and/or pretty interesting books are stacked on your shelf this week?

For Review:
Daughters of Olympus by Hannah Lynn
The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan (book and audio)
The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo
A Letter to the Luminous Deep (Sunken Archive #1) by Sylvie Cathrall
More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (Days at the Morisaki Bookshop #2) by Satoshi Yagisawa
The Nightingale’s Castle by Sonia Velton
The Sky on Fire by Jenn Lyons
The Undermining of Twyla and Frank (Undertaking of Hart and Mercy #2) by Megan Bannen

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
The Atlas Complex (Atlas #3) by Olivie Blake (book and audio)
In Mercy, Rain (Wayward Children #7.5) by Seanan McGuire
Skeleton Song (Wayward Children #7.7) by Seanan McGuire

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I finally found cover images for two books that I’ve had forever – but without the art. It feels like a bit of a milestone. Also, the covers are gorgeous. I’m speaking of Blood Jade and Fiasco both of which have fascinating covers and whose first series books were both terrific. So I have very high hopes indeed for both of them.

Two books in this stack look to be series wrap-ups, notably the final Maisie Dobbs book, The Comfort of Ghosts, Ghostdrift, which is purportedly the last book in Suzanne Palmer’s Finder Chronicles.

And I can never resist either a Sherlock Holmes pastiche OR another entry in the Penric and Desdemona series by Lois McMaster Bujold. All in all, this is kind of a ‘Goldilocks’ stack – not too big, not too small and all of the books look like they’re going to be JUST right!

For Review:
Blood Jade (Phoenix Hoard #2) by Julia Vee and Ken Bebelle
The Comfort of Ghosts (Maisie Dobbs #18) by Jacqueline Winspear
The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson
Fiasco (Uncharted Hearts #2) by Constance Fay
Ghostdrift (Finder Chronicles #4) by Suzanne Palmer
The Hero She Wants (Unbroken Heroes #2) by Anna Hackett
Port in a Storm (Sinners #8) by Rhys Ford
Sherlock Holmes and the Telegram from Hell by Nicholas Meyer

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
Demon Daughter (Penric and Desdemona #12) by Lois McMaster Bujold
From Sawdust to Stardust by Terry Lee Rioux

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I have been trying to figure out Instagram and #bookstagram this week, meaning that this is my both my first Stacking the Shelves post of 2024 and my first stab at doing it on insta. (Check it out!) I believe I’ve reached the point in my learning curve where I’ve flipped from 1 step forward and 2 steps back to the other way around. I sure hope so. It helped that this week’s stack was VERY short.

The book I’m most looking forward to in this short stack is definitely Gryphon, because I adore the Miranda Chase series. The ones I’m most intrigued by are the Miss Percy Guides. Because dragons. We’ll certain see in the weeks ahead – if not sooner, because Miss Percy and her dragons are absolutely calling my name!

For Review:
City of Laughter by Temin Fruchter (book and audio)
Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis
Triple Sec by TJ Alexander

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
Gryphon (Miranda Chase NTSB #14) by M.L. Buchman
Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide (to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons (Miss Percy Guide #1) by Quenby Olson
Miss Percy’s Travel Guide (to Welsh Moors and Feral Dragons (Miss Percy Guide #2) by Quenby Olson

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This stack is a bit taller than I expected, but then I didn’t expect Amazon to dangle triple kindle points in the Kindle Rewards Beta in front of me this week – and I probably should have. But that’s what brings the remainder of the Barker & Llewelyn series into my Kindle app – not that I needed much coaxing after reading The Limehouse Text this week and being every bit as enthralled as I was with the first two books in the series.

That being said, the book I’m actually most looking forward to in this stack is Requiem for a Mouse because I adore Diesel and am sneakily fond of his human as well. Although, as adorable as that cover picture is, Diesel really shouldn’t eat even a bit of that cheesecake because it would not be at all good for him. No matter how good I expect his book to be for me!

For Review:
The Book That Broke the World (Library Trilogy #2) by Mark Lawrence
The Last Word (Harbinder Kaur #4) by Elly Griffiths
Requiem for a Mouse (Cat in the Stacks #16) by Miranda James
A Ruse of Shadows (Lady Sherlock #8) by Sherry Thomas

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
An Awkward Way to Die ((Barker & Llewelyn #8.5) by Will Thomas
Dance with Death (Barker & Llewelyn #12) by Will Thomas
Fierce Poison (Barker & Llewelyn #13) by Will Thomas
Heart of the Nile (Barker & Llewelyn #14) by Will Thomas

Borrowed from the Library:
The Postscript Murders (Harbinder Kaur #2) by Elly Griffiths

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I’m not sure pretty is even the correct word for this bunch of covers. The West Passage takes that prize, although there honestly isn’t a lot of competition. Very much on the other hand, there are three books in this stack that I am eagerly anticipating, one of which I didn’t even know was going to exist until I saw it on Edelweiss.

That would be The Daughters’ War by Christopher Buehlman, the unexpected PREQUEL to The Blacktongue Thief. Not that I wouldn’t still love to see the SEQUEL that story is begging for sometime soon – although not as soon as I’d hoped since this came first. I’ve also been eagerly awaiting Navigational Entanglements by Aliette de Bodard, as I said in my review of her Seven of Infinities a couple of weeks ago.

I don’t know about you, but I’m absolutely looking forward to not just one but TWO three-day weekends in a row. There should be plenty of time over the holidays for lots of wonderful reading.

Happy Holidays INDEED!

For Review:
A Body on the Doorstep (London Ladies’ Murder Club #1) by Marty Wingate (audio)
The Daughters’ War (Blacktongue #0) by Christopher Buehlman
Gravity Lost (Ambit’s Run #2) by L.M. Sagas
In the Shadow of the Fall (Guardians of the Gods #1) by Tobi Ogundiran
Lightning Strikes the Silence (Lane Winslow #11) by Iona Whishaw
Mislaid in Parts Half-Known (Wayward Children #9) by Seanan McGuire (audio)
Navigational Entanglements by Aliette de Bodard
Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi
The West Passage by Jared Pechaček

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
Come Tumbling Down (Wayward Children #5) by Seanan McGuire (audio)

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I keep playing with these stacks because I keep expecting that one of these holiday week stacks is going to be empty – and then what? But so far, there’s always been something. Actually, there are a couple more somethings than are showing here because there are some books coming up next spring that may have ARCs available but whose cover art just isn’t ready yet.

The book on this list I am absolutely more looking forward to is People in Glass Houses by Jayne Castle. I love her, well her and her alter egos Amanda Quick and Jayne Ann Krentz, and their combined Arcane Society/Harmony ‘verse. The Harmony books in particular are always a treat because I love good SFR and it’s among the best.

I’m also looking forward to, albeit with some trepidation, Funny Story by Emily Henry. The first book of hers that I read was Book Lovers, and I loved it, so I picked up Happy Place, which was good but I didn’t fall into my own happy place nearly as much. I’m wondering where Funny Story is going to fall on that spectrum. We’ll see.

For Review:
The Fall of Waterstone (Black Land’s Bane #2) by Lilith Saintcrow
Follow the Stars Home by Diane C. McPhail
Funny Story by Emily Henry
A Matter of Class by Mary Balogh
Mirrored Heavens (Between Earth and Sky #3) by Rebecca Roanhorse
People in Glass Houses (Harmony #17) by Jayne Castle
Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland

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This stack of covers isn’t so much pretty as it is evocative. The Barker & Llewelyn covers do an excellent job of invoking the time and place and projecting the sense of dark mystery, the London Ladies’ Murder Club covers pretty much scream the 1920s while the cover of Paladin’s Faith fits right in with the rest of the Saint of Steel series.

Speaking of Paladin’s Faith, that’s the book in this stack that I’m MOST looking forward to. I’m planning to treat myself with it over the holidays.

For Review:
A Body on the Doorstep (London Ladies’ Murder Club #1) by Marty Wingate
A Body at the Séance (London Ladies’ Murder Club #2) by Marty Wingate
Ghosts of Honolulu by Mark Harmon and Leon Carroll, Jr. (audio)
Lore of the Wilds by Analeigh Sbrana

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
Blood is Blood (Barker & Llewelyn #10) by Will Thomas
Hell Bay (Barker & Llewelyn #8) by Will Thomas
Old Scores (Barker & Llewelyn #9) by Will Thomas
Paladin’s Faith (Saint of Steel #4) by T. Kingfisher
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor (audio)

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

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