Stacking the Shelves (617)

Posted on September 7, 2024September 5, 2024 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Stacking the Shelves

It’s not so much that this stack is shorter as it is that the stack of books for which I have covers is shorter. Some of the stuff that’s not being published until next year has eARCs available but no cover art yet. And so it goes.

I’m not sure that “pretty” is a word I would use for this bunch. Interesting, yes, but pretty, not so much. Although there’s certainly a whole lotta purple going on and that’s not bad.

But anticipation, well, I’ve got a TON of that. The books I’m most curious about at Cat’s People and The Museum Detective. The ones I’m most looking forward to reading are See How They Hide, The Tomb of Dragons and of course Scalzi’s latest, When the Moon Hits Your Eye because seriously WTF?

when the moon hits your eye by john scalzi

For Review:
Cat’s People by Tanya Guerrero
Countess by Suzan Palumbo
A Dragon of Black Glass (Moonfall #3) by James Rollins
Luminous by Silvia Park
The Museum Detective by Maha Khan Phillips
See How They Hide (Quinn & Costa #6) by Allison Brennan
The Tomb of Dragons (Cemeteries of Amalo #3) by Katherine Addison
When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi
The Will of the Many (Hierarchy #1) by James Islington

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

Please link your STS post in the linky below:

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 9-1-24

Posted on September 1, 2024September 1, 2024 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

Today is the first day of September, tomorrow is Labor Day in the U.S., and this feels like the REAL start of the season. Except it doesn’t around here this weekend, as they’re predicting 92°F on Saturday, 90°F on Sunday and 88°F on Monday. Which is too damn hot but climate’s what you expect and weather is what you get and so it goes. (That’s 33°C, 32°C and 31°C for the places we were this time last month!)

I hadn’t realized how symmetrical this week’s reviews are until just now. B books on the outside, Grade A books inside those, and one A- in the middle. Interesting…but also weird.

This picture isn’t exactly symmetrical, but it is certainly adorable. Luna here is squeezed into the middle between Galen and I, looking like the cat who got into the cream or something very much like that. She has the cutest upside-down kitty face, and this time it’s even complete with teefies!

Stacking the Shelves (616)

Posted on August 31, 2024August 30, 2024 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Stacking the Shelves

There are a few, let’s call them themes, in this week’s stack. There are two books about books, two books with pretty much the same premise, some really pretty covers with very similar color schemes, more pretty covers, and one book I just can’t wait to read.

In no particular order, the books about books are pretty obvious, The Banned Books Club and The Booklover’s Library. They’re even first alphabetically, although the book covers sort randomly in the display.

The two books with the same premise are I Made It Out of Clay and Magical Meet Cute. I’m really curious to see just how much the resulting stories resemble each other, because the whole thing about “making” a “perfect” man by cooking up a golem is, well, just a bit different.

Days of Wonder, I’d Rather Be Destroyed and Olive Days are both kind of the same orange-yellow shade – as is Magical Meet Cute.

Days of Shattered Faith (LOTS of ‘Days’ in this bunch) and The Sullivan’s Island Supper Club are pretty – in entirely different ways.

Last but not least, the book I’m most looking forward to is A Snake in the Barley. I have adored the Owen Archer series since all the way back in the first book, The Apothecary Rose, which I read THIRTY YEARS AGO, on a trip to its setting of York, which probably explains a bit about why it stuck with me and I’ve stuck with it all these years. That plus the fact that the series is just an awesome work of historical fiction AND mystery.

What books are tickling your various fancies this last day/week of August/end of the whole entire Summer?

sullivans island supper club by susan m boyer

i'd rather be destroyed by zach goldberg

days of shattered faith by adrian tchaikovsky

street corner dreams by florence reiss kraut

For Review:
The Banned Books Club by Brenda Novak
The Booklover’s Library by Madeline Martin
Days of Shattered Faith (Tyrant Philosophers #3) by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Days of Wonder by Caroline Leavitt
Edenfrost by Amit Tishler, Bruno Frenda, Taylor Esposito
Final Verdict by Tobias Buck
I Made It Out of Clay by Beth Kander
I’d Rather Be Destroyed by Zach Goldberg
Magical Meet Cute by Jean Meltzer
Olive Days by Jessica Elisheva Emerson
One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery
A Snake in the Barley (Owen Archer #15) by Candace Robb
Street Corner Dreams by Florence Reiss Kraut
The Sullivan’s Island Supper Club (Carolina Tales #3) by Susan M. Boyer
Take (Fury Brothers #4) by Anna Hackett

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

Please link your STS post in the linky below:

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 8-25-24

Posted on August 25, 2024August 24, 2024 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand

We’re still back, and it seems like our body clocks are finally catching up with our actual location. Waking up at 6 in the morning without an alarm clock really, really weirds me out. Galen’s mileage varies considerably on that, but I’ve been a night owl all my life and having that temporarily reset itself discombobulated me completely for most of the week!

(Yes, I can read in the early morning but it STILL felt WRONG on so many levels!)

This week’s projected schedule looks fairly solid – although the precise order is subject to change. I’ve already finished Junkyard Roadhouse and (SPOILER!) it’s every bit as good as the rest of the series.

Today’s cat picture is from one of our first night’s back. Unlike the one I posted last Sunday, where Luna is clearly ignoring me, this one shows several members of the clowder at least curious about sniffing Galen’s fingers to figure out where he’s been and perhaps if he’s brought them anything with which to beg their forgiveness.

SPOILER ALERT! – they forgave us anyway, and pretty quickly too!

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 in Books in the Old School Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book PLUS EVENT-WIDE AMAZON/PAYPAL PRIZE in the Late Summer Giveaway Event
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the SUMMER 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Blog Recap:

B #AudioBookReview: The Hermit Next Door by Kevin Hearne
A- #BookReview: The Naturalist’s Daughter by Tea Cooper
B+ #BookReview: Memories of the Lost by Barbara O’Neal
A- #BookReview: Hell Bay by Will Thomas
B #BookReview: The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki, translated by Jesse Kirkwood
Stacking the Shelves (615)

Coming This Week:

The Kill List by Nadine Matheson (#BookReview)
The Ghost Cat by Alex Howard (#BlogTour #BookReview)
Saving Susy Sweetchild by Barbara Hambly (#BookReview)
Junkyard Roadhouse by Faith Hunter (#AudioBookReview)
Out of the Drowning Deep by A.C. Wise (#BookReview)

Stacking the Shelves (615)

Posted on August 24, 2024August 23, 2024 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Stacking the Shelves

A slightly less ginormous stack this time around – even if it is no less splendiferous in its offerings. There are several really beautiful covers this time around, including Children of Gods and Fighting Men, Glance, and Upon a Starlit Tide. The two books that I’m most curious about are Picks and Shovels and Symbiote. Picks and Shovels because as much as I loved Doctorow’s first Martin Hench book, Red Team Blues, I didn’t expect the thing to stretch to a second book – which it did with The Bezzle. That there’s now a third makes me wonder where this technostalgia trip is going.

I’m curious about Symbiote because of the author’s c.v. which includes stints as a Space Shuttle engineer and in Antarctica.

And the book I’m most looking forward to, in a peculiar way, is Season of Death – no matter how off-putting the title might be. I’m loving the Barker & Llewelyn series, but I just finished book 8 (Hell Bay) and this is book 16. I’m looking forward to seeing how the series goes but I don’t want to get there TOO fast because then I’ll have to wait each year for the next one!

martian contingency by mary robinette kowal

children of gods and fighting men by shauna lawless

For Review:
The Children of Gods and Fighting Men (Gael Song #1) by Shauna Lawless
Following Similar Paths by Samuel C. Heilman and Mucahit Bilici
Glance by Chanda Feldman
The Library Game (Secret Staircase Mysteries #4) by Gigi Pandian
Marigold Mind Laundry by Jungeun Yun, translated by Shanna Tan
The Martian Contingency (Lady Astronaut #4) by Mary Robinette Kowal
Picks and Shovels (Martin Hench #3) by Cory Doctorow
Season of Death (Barker & Llewelyn #16) by Will Thomas
Symbiote by Michael Nayak
A Tainted Heart Bleeds (House of Croft #2) by Sophie Barnes
Upon a Starlit Tide by Kell Woods

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

Please link your STS post in the linky below:

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 8-18-24

Posted on August 18, 2024August 18, 2024 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

We’re back, but I’ve got to admit that my brain is still in another time zone – or on another continent. Maybe both.

However, we had an absolutely GRAND time. Except for the cold we both caught – that bit was less than stellar. But still, a good time was had by all. Except the cats. The picture is actually pretty typical of the first few hours we were home. Tuna looks confused and Luna is clearly pretending NOT to see me.

It’s been difficult to get back into the swing of things. Three weeks is the longest we’ve EVER been away, and I’m still a bit disbelieving that I managed to get nearly everything for the blog done ahead of time. But the long period off is making it hard to dive back in. Also still tired. And jet-lagged. Definitely jet-lagged. Not sorry we skipped that part on the way over by cruising instead of flying.

But it’s still great to be home. Home is where the kitties are!