I had to put myself in “kitten jail” to get this done. Hecate really, really, really wanted to play on the top of my desk – while I’m typing. After about the tenth round of “jump on the desk, stalk around the monitors, block the screen, climb into mommy’s lap and jump off” I moved her out of my office and closed the door. It’s driving her crazy – she can see me but she can’t reach me – which makes whatever I’m doing WAY more interesting. My office doors open inwards and they don’t latch, but when she was little closing her out kept her out unless she could convince Freddie to push the door open for her. Now that she’s full grown, I’m sure that she could push the doors open if she tried – but she seems to still remember when kitten-Hecate wasn’t big enough to make it work. So temporary peace has been achieved – even if she is still playing “pawsies” under the door.

For Review:
Always the Last to Know by Kristan Higgins
Blood on the Chesapeake (Haunted Shores #1) by Randy Overbeck
The Book of Dragons edited by Jonathan Strahan
Children of the Stars by Mario Escobar
Crossings by Alex Landragin
The Lion’s Den by Katherine St. John
Malfunction (Dark Desires Origins #1) by Nina Croft
The Marriage Game by Sara Desai
The Moment of Tenderness by Madeleine L’Engle
More Miracle Than Bird by Alice Miller
Passing Fancies (Julia Kydd #2) by Marlowe Benn
We Ride the Storm (Reborn Empire #1) by Devin Madson
The Worst Best Man by Mia Sosa

Purchased from Amazon/Audible:
Skinwalker (Jane Yellowrock #1) by Faith Hunter (review)
Stars Uncharted (Stars Uncharted #1) by S.K. Dunstall
Sweep with Me (Innkeeper Chronicles #5) by Ilona Andrews
Truthwitch (Witchlands #1) by Susan Dennard

And we’re back! Or at least the publishing universe is back after two weeks of not very much. For me it always feels like the time period between New Year’s and the ALA Midwinter Conference is much too short and goes by in a flash.

It isn’t even all that cold here, but it’s still a good time for reading and listening. I’m in the middle of listening to a book that I really want to finish. I have 7 hours left to listen to, but it would be less than 2 hours to read. But the narrators are SO GOOD. Decisions, decisions…

For Review:
Cries from the Lost Island by Kathleen O’Neal Gear
False Value (Rivers of London #8) by Ben Aaronovitch
The Ingredients of You and Me (Hopeless Romantics #3) by Nina Bocci
The Kingdom of Liars (Legacy of the Mercenary King #1) by Nick Martell
The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner
One Perfect Summer by Brenda Novak
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
The Queen’s Bargain (Black Jewels #10) by Anne Bishop
The Sea Glass Cottage by RaeAnne Thayne
Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

Purchased from Amazon/Audible:
By the Light of Camelot edited by J.R. Campbell and Shannon Allen
Junkyard Cats by Faith Hunter (audio)
The Minuteman by Greg Donahue (audio)

Yet another short stack. Probably the last short stack for a while as the publishing world is bound to come back to work on Monday. I’m looking forward to a deluge of new books on NetGalley and Edelweiss.

Pride and Prejudice was actually a freebie from Amazon. The book is WELL out of copyright so there are free kindle versions available. I was reviewing The Other Bennet Sister for Library Journal and wanted to check a couple of things in the original. I read – or rather listened to –  P&P a long time ago. I enjoyed it at the time and the general story stuck, but the whole point of the book I was reviewing was that one sister got overlooked in the original story – which means I remembered nothing because she wasn’t memorable then. She certainly was this time around!

For Review:
Back in Black (McGinnis Investigations #1) by Rhys Ford
Last Day by Luanne Rice
The Secrets of Bones (Jazz Ramsey #2) by Kylie Logan
The Vanishing (Fogg Lake #1) by Jayne Ann Krentz
Westside Saints by W.M. Akers

Purchased from Amazon/Audible:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Not a lot this week, and that’s probably a good thing. It’s the holiday doldrums – lots of time to read, not so many new books out to latch onto. And I’m realizing that I may never adjust to the whole thing about it not really getting “wintry” here in the winter. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love that it doesn’t go there, but it throws me off at holiday time. I still expect the Thanksgiving to New Year’s season to be cold and snowy – but that doesn’t happen in Atlanta. It gets chilly enough to need a decent jacket, and it gets dark way too damn early, but it isn’t really COLD and there’s no snow or even the threat thereof. I don’t miss any of that crap – at all – but it just doesn’t fell quite like the holidays.

On the other hand, January and February also aren’t nearly as crappy as I’m used to – and I’m all over that!

But whatever your weather and whichever your holidays, Season’s Greetings, Happy Holidays and best wishes for the coming New Year!

For Review:
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
Finna by Nino Cipri
The Sea Glass Cottage by RaeAnne Thayne
Tomb of Gods by Brian Moreland
The Unwilling by Kelly Braffet

Purchased from Amazon/Audible:
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (audio)
Witherspin (Starways #1) by Alexis Glynn Latner

What can I say? Audible had a sale – sorta/kinda. I got two audiobooks as part of the settlement from the whole “loss of Audible credits” fiasco. And it kind of rained and snowed books in general. They all just look so pretty when I see the covers. It’s the whole tsundoku thing – I have to have enough books to choose from when I’m looking for something to read!

For Review:
The Age of Witches by Louisa Morgan
And They Called It Camelot by Stephanie Marie Thornton
Fast Girls by Elise Hooper
An Inconvenient Duke (Lords of the Armory #1) by Anna Harrington
Legacy of Ash (Legacy #1) by Matthew Ward
The Moonglow Sisters by Lori Wilde
One Little Lie (Pelican Harbor #1) by Colleen Coble
The Poet King (Harp and Ring #3) by Ilana C. Myer
Race the Sands by Sarah Beth Durst
Thunderbolt (Miranda Chase NTSB #2) by M.L. Buchman
Undercover Bromance (Bromance Book Club #2) by Lyssa Kay Adams
Until the End (Final Hour #3) by Juno Rushdan
Wild Cards I: Expanded Edition edited by George R.R. Martin (Tor.com Book Club)
Wild, Wild Rake (Cavensham Heiresses #6) by Janna MacGregor

Purchased from Amazon/Audible:
The Girl Who Reads on the Metro by Christine Feret-Fleury
The Half-Life of Marie Curie by Lauren Gunderson (audio)
Pont Neuf by Max Byrd (audio)
Wellspring of Chaos (Saga of Recluce #12) by L.E. Modesitt Jr. (audio)
The White Order (Saga of Recluce #8) by L.E. Modesitt Jr. (audio)

I got my first audio review copy this week. I’ve already started it and so far, so good, but the real test will be Monday on the treadmill. Anything that can make that process less boring is a winner!

Also, after last week’s tiny stack, this one feels like a deluge. Books came flying at me from everywhere! Also Audible had a bit of a sale. And the author of The Starless Sea said that she was inspired by Dragon Age. And we were in Savannah for Thanksgiving – but I’ve never read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. So that became irresistible too.

So many books, so little time!

For Review:
The A.I. Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole (audio)
The Boy from the Woods by Harlan Coben
Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth
The City We Became (City #1) by N.K. Jemisin
A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H.G. Parry
The Honey-Don’t List by Christina Lauren
It’s Not All Downhill From Here by Terry McMillan
Mazes of Power (Broken Trust #1) by Juliette Wade
No Winter Lasts Forever by Jonathan Epps
The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow
Queen of Storms (Firemane #2) by Raymond E. Feist
The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles
Sixteenth Watch by Myke Cole
Stormsong (Kingston Cycle #2) by C.L. Polk
Sword of Fire (Deverry #1) by Katharine Kerr
Sword of Shadows (Crispin Guest #13) by Jeri Westerson

Purchased from Amazon/Audible:
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson (audio)
The Hanged Man (Tarot Sequence #2) by K.D. Edwards
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern (audio)

Borrowed from the Library:
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

This is going to be one of my weird STS posts, where I have books without covers. Well, presumably books without covers yet, at any rate. This is in service of the Thanksgiving holiday, as we’ll be away this week so I’m putting things together early – or at least as early as possible. Or too, early in the case of most of these books.

For Review:
Automatic Reload by Ferrett Steinmetz
The Four Symbols (Black Sun #1) by Eric Giacometti & Jacques Ravenne
Her Last Flight by Beatriz Williams
The Ranger of Marzanna (Goddess War #1) by Jon Skovron
The Sin in the Steel (Fall of the Gods #1) by Ryan Van Loan

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m having the damnedest time wrapping my head about Thanksgiving being this coming week. I know it’s not too early, but my brain keeps expecting it to be colder if it’s really Thanksgiving. Which it really is – no matter what I think of the subject.

For Review:
An Alaskan Christmas (Wild River #1) by Jennifer Snow
Country Strong (Painted Pony Creek #1) by Linda Lael Miller
Hanukkah at the Great Greenwich Ice Creamery by Sharon Ibbotson
How to Be A Movie Star (How to Be #2) by TJ Klune
The Last Tourist (Milo Weaver #4) by Olen Steinhauer
Sea Change by Nancy Kress
Who Speaks for the Damned (Sebastian St. Cyr #15) by C.S. Harris

Purchased from Amazon/Audible:
Upon the Flight of the Queen (Ring-Sworn Trilogy #2) by Howard Andrew Jones (audio)

I think that Macmillan dumped their latest catalog into Edelweiss about five minutes after I closed last week’s Stacking the Shelves. Which gave me a week to privately chortle with glee over getting the eARC for Network Effect. I absolutely LOVE Murderbot and can’t wait to read its next story. I’m also thrilled to get Tevinter Nights. I’ve lost count of just how many times I’ve replayed Dragon Age Inquisition at this point. Oh well, I suppose everyone needs a hobby.

For Review:
Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights edited by Patrick Weekes
Drone (Miranda Chase NTSB #1) by M.L. Buchman
The Girl in White Gloves by Kerri Maher
Harrow the Ninth (Locked Tomb #2) by Tamsyn Muir
Hideaway by Nora Roberts
The Hollows (Kinship #2) by Jess Montgomery
The Library of Legends by Janie Chang
Miss Austen by Gill Hornby
Much Ado about Nutmeg (Pancake House Mystery #6) by Sarah Fox
Network Effect (Murderbot Diaries #5) by Martha Wells
The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho
The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson
The Stolen Gold Affair (Carpenter and Quincannon #8) by Bill Pronzini
Starborn (Born Prophecy #2) by Katie MacAlister

Purchased from Amazon/Audible:
The Name of All Things (Chorus of Dragons #2) by Jenn Lyons (audio)