This week’s covers fall into two categories. Either they’re really pretty or they’re just pretty weird, and not much in the middle. As much as I can’t resist a library, I think the prettiest covers are Daughter of the Merciful Deep and The God and the Gumiho, although I could certainly understand if someone liked Lady Eve’s Last Con better than either. As far as weird goes, well, I was already headed down an internet rabbit hole when I spotted Centaur and Sensibility and decided “what the heck” because seriously, WTF?

After having said all of that the book in this stack I’ve been most looking forward to is the next Gamache book by Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf. Nineteen books in and that series is STILL awesome.

For Review:
Convergence Problems by Wole Talabi
Daughter of the Merciful Deep by Leslye Penelope
The God and the Gumiho (Fate’s Thread #1) by Sophie Kim
The Grey Wolf (Chief Inspector Gamache #19) by Louise Penny
Lady Eve’s Last Con by Rebecca Fraimow
The Underground Library by Jennifer Ryan

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed (ebook and audio)
Centaur and Sensibility (Regency Bestiary for Fine Ladies and Gentlemen #1) by Quenby Olson
Manticore Park (Regency Bestiary for Fine Ladies and Gentlemen #2) by Quenby Olson

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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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