This does rather feel like the “embarrassment of riches” edition of Stacking the Shelves. One way or another, an incredible number of books found their way onto my virtual shelves. For me it feels reassuring, that as long as I can power up my iPad I’ll have PLENTY to read, and that’s something that always makes me feel better. We all need to look for little things that make us feel a bit better right now, as so much seems like its falling apart.

For Review:
Afterlife by Julia Alvarez
All Adults Here by Emma Straub
Beach Read by Emily Henry
The Best Man Plan (Boots and Bouquets #1) by Jaci Burton
The City of Tears (Burning Chambers #2) by Kate Mosse
The Down Days by Ilze Hugo
Driving the Deep (Finder Chronicles #2) by Suzanne Palmer
Echoes of Another by Chandra Clarke
The Ghosts of Harvard by Francesca Serritella
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
I’d Give Anything by Marisa de los Santos
The Kingdom of Liars (Legacy of the Mercenary King #1) by Nick Martell
The Mother Code by Carole Stivers
Mousse and Murder (Alaskan Diner Mystery #1) by Elizabeth Logan
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
Out of Body by Jeffrey Ford
Say Yes to the Duke (Wildes of Lindow Castle #5) by Eloisa James
Shakespeare for Squirrels by Christopher Moore
Something to Talk About by Meryl Wilsner
Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls
This is How I Lied by Heather Gudenkauf
Until the End (Final Hour #3) by Juno Rushdan
The Wife Stalker by Liv Constantine

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Kickstarter:
Familiarity by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Kickstarter)
Five Feline Fancies by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Kickstarter)
Servant of the Crown (Dragonslayer #3) by Duncan M. Hamilton (audio)
Skulduggery Pleasant (Skulduggery Pleasant #1) by Derek Landy

As we enter week 2 – or is it week 3 – of the pandemic, are you sheltering in place? Are you working from home? Are you still going to a workplace? Most importantly, ARE YOU OK?

At the moment, it feels like we are all getting an object lesson in the reason why the phrase, “May you live in interesting times” is considered a curse and not a blessing. While there is undoubtedly plenty of cursing going on, there are plenty of blessings to be had if one looks for them – or at least there are if one is safe, healthy, fed and fortunate enough to be not too frantic about one’s immediate future prospects of remaining at least two out of those three.

We’re probably all worrying about our own health, that of our loved ones, and that of our community as a whole. Even in its many, many socially distanced parts. Please stay safe out there, and in there.

Also take some time to remind yourself that a book is a great vehicle for taking you far away from where you are when you have to remain where you are.

For Review:
A Bad Day for Sunshine (Sunshine Vicram #1) by Darynda Jones
The Big Finish by Brooke Fossey
The Book of Koli (Rampart Trilogy #1) by M.R. Carey
The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd
The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate
Dead Land (V.I. Warshawski #22)  by Sara Paretsky
Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh
The Girl and the Stars (Book of the Ice #1) by Mark Lawrence
Godshot by Chelsea Bieker
The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez
He Started It by Samantha Downing
Her Seafaring Scoundrel (Crawfords #3) by Sophie Barnes
The Hocus Girl (Simon Westow #2) by Chris Nickson
How Much of These Hills is Gold by C Pam Zhang
The Human Son by Adrian J. Walker
A Hundred Suns by Karin Tanabe
Island Affair (Keys to Love #1) by Priscilla Oliveras
Jack by Connie Willis
The King’s Beast (Bone Rattler #6) by Eliot Pattison
The Last Emperox (Interdependency #3) by John Scalzi
The Last Hunt (Benny Griessel #7) by Deon Meyer
Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier
Little Siberia by Antti Tuomainen
The Lost Boys of London (Bianca Goddard #5) by Mary Lawrence
The Love Story of Missy Carmichael by Beth Morrey
Master Class by Christina Dalcher
Our Riches by Kaouther Adimi
Paladin (House of Rone #4) by Anna Hackett
Queenie Malone’s Paradise Hotel by Ruth Hogan
The Rakess (Society of Sirens #1) by Scarlett Peckham
The Roxy Letters by Mary Pauline Lowry
A Shadow Intelligence by Oliver Harris
Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles
Sin Eater by Megan Campisi
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
Strike Me Down by Mindy Mejia
To Have and to Hoax by Martha Waters
The Wise Friend by Ramsey Campbell
You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle
You Let Me In by Camilla Bruce

It certainly looks like I’ll have plenty to read while practicing “social distancing” during the current situation! Wherever you are, I hope that you are safe and healthy and taking care of yourself and your loved ones.

For Review:
88 Names by Matt Ruff
Across the Void by S.K. Vaughn
Bears Behaving Badly (BeWere My Heart #1) by MaryJanice Davidson
Beheld by TaraShea Nesbit
Code Name Hélène by Ariel Lawhon
A Conspiracy of Bones (Temperance Brennan #19) by Kathy Reichs
Daisy Cooper’s Rules for Living by Tamsin Keily
Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel
The Deep by Alma Katsu
Deprivation by Roy Freirich
Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson
The Everlasting by Katy Simpson Smith
The Grace Kelly Dress by Brenda Janowitz
Grown-Up Pose by Sonya Lalli
Hammer to Fall (Joe Wilderness #3) by John Lawton
Hannah’s War by Jan Eliasberg
Hide Away (Rachel Marin #1) by Jason Pinter
House of Lies (Cat Carlisle #3) by Terry Lynn Thomas
If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane
If She Were Dead by J.P. Smith
The Land Beyond the Sea by Sharon Kay Penman
The Mail Order Bride by R. Kent
Mrs. Mohr Goes Missing (Profesorowa Szczupaczyńska #1) by Maryla Szymiczkowa
Please See Us by Caitlin Mullen
The Return by Rachel Harrison
Untamed Shore by Silvia Morena-Garcia
Writers & Lovers by Lily King

Purchased from Amazon/Audible:
Bygone Badass Broads: 52 Forgotten Women Who Changed the World
by Mackenzi Lee (audio)
Condor (Miranda Chase #3) by M.L. Buchman
Origins of Honor: An Action-Thriller Collection by M.L. Buchman et al

It kind of rained and snowed books here. That seems all too real, as it’s also been teeming rain here, to the point where I expect to see the old dude walking down the highway with a trail of animals behind him. It’s wet around here.

Which makes it perfect reading weather. Good thing I have LOTS of books! Perhaps I went just a little overboard?

For Review:
American Sweethearts (Dreamers #4) by Adriana Herrera
The Antidote for Everything by Kimmery Martin
The Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda
Chasing Cassandra (Ravenels #6) by Lisa Kleypas
The Lane Betrayal (Time Box #1) by John A. Heldt
The Last Day by Andrew Hunter Murray
Murder at Pirate’s Cove (Secrets and Scrabble #1) by Josh Lanyon
Providence by Max Barry
Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown
Red Letter Days by Sarah-Jane Stratford
Remembrance by Rita Woods
Stazr The World of Z: The Dawn of Athir by Anay Ayarovu
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James
Trouble is What I Do (Leonid McGill #6) by Walter Mosley

Purchased from Amazon/Audible:
Aunt Gertrude’s Red Hot Christmas Beau (Christmas Belles #6) by Cerise DeLand
Battle Bond (Death Before Dragons #2) by Lindsay Buroker
Driving the Deep (Finder Chronicles #2) by Suzanne Palmer (audio)(preorder)
The Killing Fog (Grave Kingdom #1) by Jeff Wheeler
The Memory of Souls (Chorus of Dragons #3) by Jenn Lyons (audio)(preorder)
Nevertheless She Persisted: Flash Fiction Project: A Tor.com Original

This is a list in which pretty things abound. Also interesting things. And fascinating things. And Audible had another sale. This seemed to be a week in which books just appeared, like magic. And they all look marvelous!

For Review:
Anthropocene Rag by Alex Irvine
The Friendship List by Susan Mallery
Hearts of Oak by Eddie Robson
The Light of Days by Judy Batalion
The Residence by Andrew Pyper
Secrets from a Happy Marriage by Maisey Yates
The Sisters Grimm by Menna van Praag
Sunrise on Half Moon Bay by Robyn Carr
Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/etc.:
Abbadon’s Gate (The Expanse #3) by James S.A. Corey (audio)
Caliban’s War (The Expanse #2) by James S.A. Corey (audio)
The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel by Margaret Atwood, Art & Adaptation by Renee Nault (Half Price Books)
Killing Gravity (Voidwitch Saga #1) by Corey J. White (Tor.com eBook Club)
Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse #1) by James S.A. Corey (audio)
A Rising Man (Sam Wyndham #1) by Abir Mukherjee (audio)
Sinister Magic (Death Before Dragons #1) by Lindsay Buroker

I picked up some interesting books this week. Especially since Audible had a sale – again – and I had a $5 Audible gift card burning the proverbial hole in my pocket.

But the book I really want to talk about isn’t exactly new, not even to me. But maybe it will be to you. I read The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford when it first came out back in the early 1980s. I still have my original paperback, because I just loved it so much. It was the perfect blend of history with fantasy, focusing on a historical period that I had studied excessively because I adored it. It was the Wars of the Roses, but with wizards and vampires. It’s one of those books that lived in memory, and I always intended to read it again but just never got a round tuit. Ford was a writer who was quirky and beloved and who died much too soon. Then his work – except for his Star Trek novels which were marvelous – disappeared. After a long but ultimately fruitful investigation into “where the books went” or “where the rights to the books went”, outlined in Slate last November, the tangle was finally unwoven, and Tor Books is able, at long last, to bring Ford’s work back in print and finally bring it into ebook. Which I pre-ordered as soon as available. That dragon has been waiting a long time, and I’m finally going to get to visit him again.

For Review:
Catch Me When I Fall (Falling Stars #1) by A.L. Jackson (audio)
A Forgotten Murder (Medlar Mystery #3) by Jude Deveraux
The Glass Magician by Caroline Stevermer
The Haunting of H.G. Wells by Robert Masello
Matzah Ball Surprise by Laura Brown
The Mountains Wild by Sarah Stewart Taylor
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
The Taste of Sugar by Marisel Vera
To Catch an Earl (Bow Street Bachelors #2) by Kate Bateman

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Kickstarter:
The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford (pre-order)
The Emperor’s Blades (Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne #1) by Brian Steveley (audio)
Escaping Amnthra (Diving Universe) by Kristine Kathryn Rush
The Science of Sci-Fi by Erin Macdonald (audio
Terms of Enlistment (Frontlines #1) by Marko Kloos (audio)

This stack is, well, not too big and not too small. It feels like it’s JUUUUST right. And has some lovely and interesting things in it. I’m particularly looking forward to Close Up, and particularly curious about Murder at the Mena House. We’ll just have to see if they live up to expectations!

For Review:
Burn-In by P.W. Singer and August Cole
Close Up (Burning Cove #4) by Amanda Quick
Love Hard (Hard Play #3) by Nalini Singh
Murder at the Mena House (Jane Wunderly #1) by Erica Ruth Neubauer
Shake Down (Elliot Lisbon #5) by Kendel Lynn
Stages of the Heart by Jo Goodman
Three Hours in Paris by Cara Black

Borrowed from the Library:
Barefoot Season (Blackberry Island #1) by Susan Mallery
Evening Stars (Blackberry Island #3) by Susan Mallery
Three Sisters (Blackberry Island #2) by Susan Mallery

It may be winter outside, but it is definitely spring in the publishing world. And summer, not to mention fall. I already have books for August and September. “Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.” – attributed, incorrectly according to Wikipedia, to Groucho Marx.

One thing is certainly true. Books fly off my shelves when the cats get behind them and knock them off!

For Review:
The Clutter Corpse (Decluttering #1) by Simon Brett
Cry of Metal & Bone (Earthsinger Chronicles #3) by L. Penelope
The Devil of Downtown (Uptown Girls #3) by Joanna Shupe
The Empire of Gold (Daevabad Trilogy #3) by S.A. Chakraborty
Every Sky a Grave (Ascendance #1) by Jay Posey
The Fate of the Tala (Uncharted Realms #5) by Jeffe Kennedy
The Fiery Crown (Forgotten Empires #2) by Jeffe Kennedy
The First Sister (First Sister #1) by Linden A. Lewis
Ghost Money (Eric Carter #5) by Stephen Blackmoore
Hell Squad: Survivors (Hell Squad #19) by Anna Hackett
The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis
The Lost and Found Bookshop by Susan Wiggs
Nothing Compares to the Duke (Duke’s Den #3) by Christy Carlyle
One Fatal Flaw (Daniel Pitt #3) by Anne Perry
Titan’s Day (Carter Archives #2) by Dan Stout
Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

Purchased from Amazon/Audible:
A Blight of Blackwings (Seven Kennings #2) by Kevin Hearne (audio)
Nottingham by Nathan Makaryk (audio)
Song of Blood & Stone (Earthsinger Chronicles #1) by L. Penelope

And this would be the gigantic post-ALA Midwinter stack. The height of the stack is a combination of three factors – 1)that I cut off last week’s stack early in order to have it out of the way before I left for conference, 2) that I saw or heard about new books at conference that I wanted to read and 3) that the spring, summer and now FALL books are showing up on Edelweiss and NetGalley with their typical post-holiday vengeance.

I’m just glad, as I have been every year since I got into ebooks seriously, that I didn’t have to carry these around the exhibits. This many books would be really, really heavy.

For Review:
Beachside Beginnings (Moonlight Harbor #4) by Sheila Roberts
The Beast Hunter (Adventures of Keltin Moore #1) by Lindsay Schopfer
Book of the Little Axe by Lauren Francis-Sharma
The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne by Elsa Hart
Christmas Flowers (Draegers of Last Stand, Texas #2) by Sasha Summers
Crooked Hallelujah by Kelli Jo Ford
Dangerous Territory (Adventures of Keltin Moore #3) by Lindsay Schopfer
The Deadly Hours by Susanna Kearsley, C.S. Harris, Anna Lee Huber, Christine Trent
Devolution by Max Brooks
The Familiar Dark by Amy Engel
Goldilocks by Laura Lam
Healing Hannah’s Heart by Preslaysa Williams
Jaguar’s Mate (Crescent Moon #8) by Katie Reus
The Krinar Eclipse (Krinar World) by Lauren Smith
The Lost Diary of Venice by Margaux DeRoux
Pretty Things by Janelle Brown
Puppy Kisses (Forever Home #3) by Lucy Gilmore
Real Men Knit by Kwana Jackson
Recipe for Persuasion by Sonali Dev
Ripples & Waves by L.A. Witt
A Royal Affair (Sparks & Bainbridge #2) by Allison Montclair
Sweet Deceit (Layovers #2) by Saskia Laine

Purchased from Amazon/Audible:
Dragonslayer (Dragonslayer #1) by Duncan M. Hamilton (audio)
Knight of the Silver Circle (Dragonslayer #2) by Duncan M. Hamilton (audio)
Seven Blades in Black (Grave of Empires #1) by Sam Sykes (audio)
Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2019 Edition by Elizabeth Bear, Siobhan Carroll, John Chu et al (FREE)

Audible had a sale. Again. I’m kind of a sucker whenever they have a sale.

I didn’t get a lot of review copies this week, and that’s mostly because I cut the list off early. When you read this I’ll be in my second all-day meeting at the ALA Midwinter Conference in hopefully-not-too-chilly Philly. Probably missing the cats – and hopefully vice-versa!

For Review:
A Cowboy for All Seasons by Maisey Yates, Caitlin Crews, Nicole Helm, Jackie Ashenden
The Somerset Girls by Lori Foster

Purchased from Amazon/Audible:
Children of Time (Children of Time #1) by Adrian Tchaikovsky (audio)
The Cuckoo’s Calling (Cormoran Strike #1) by Robert Galbraith (audio)
A Hero Born (Legends of the Condor Heroes #1) by Jin Yong (audio)
IQ (IQ #1) by Joe Ide (audio)