The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 4-7-24

Today is the start of National Library Week. As a part of this commemorative week, tomorrow is Right to Read Day, when the list of the 10 most challenged books of 2023 will be released. For most book lists, I would say I’m looking forward to the list – but not in this case, because there is nothing to look forward to in a list of books that have been challenged – especially in a year when challenges have risen so much and are so obviously pointed at books by or about people of color and LGBTQIA+ people.

On a lighter note, my annual Blogo-Birthday Celebration took place last week. The giveaways will be open until this Friday, April 12 and the winners will be announced in next Sunday’s Sunday Post. And again, my deepest and sincerest thanks to all who participated and everyone who has followed along on this journey.

Last but certainly not least, this week’s cat picture features a brightly orange George on a brightly colored comforter playing ‘pawsies’ with Galen.

Current Giveaways:

Any book by Marty Wingate in the Blogo-Birthday Celebration
Any book in the Barker & Llewelyn series by Will Thomas in the Blogo-Birthday Celebration
Any book from the list of Best Books of 2024 so far in the Blogo-Birthday Celebration
(1) $25 Amazon Gift Card and (4) $25 Barnes & Noble Gift Cards in the Lucky 13 Blogo-Birthday Giveaway
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Honey Bunny Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Spring 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Blog Recap:

Honey Bunny Giveaway Hop
A- #BookReview: A Body at the Dance Hall by Marty Wingate + #Giveaway
A+ #BookReview: The Black Hand by Will Thomas + #Giveaway
LUCKY THIRTEENTH Annual Blogo-Birthday Celebration and #Giveaway!
Blogo-Birthday Birthday Book Celebration and #Giveaway!
Stacking the Shelves (595)

Coming This Week:

The House on Widows Hill by Simon R. Green (#BookReview)
In the Shadow of the Greenbrier by Emily Matchar (#BookReview)
Space Holes: First Transmission by B.R. Louis (#BookReview)
A Short Walk Through a Wide World by Douglas Westerbeke (#BookReview)
Court of Wanderers by Rin Chupeco (#BookReview)

Stacking the Shelves (595)

It’s a lot. I know it’s a lot. It’s so many that they won’t all fit into the Instagram post because no one would be able to read it without a TON of magnification. That being said, the book I’ve been looking forward to the most and the longest is one of the shortest books in the stack – Chaotic Aperitifs. I ADORED the first Hidden Dishes book, The Nameless Restaurant and have been itching for this second book for MONTHS.

The book I’m really, really curious about is The Author’s Guide to Murder by Team W (that’s Williams, Willig and White). The authors are three great tastes that really go great together, and the blurb sounds like it might be a bit of Magpie Murders and I’m certainly here for THAT!

There are several very pretty covers this time around. My personal faves are In the Shadow of the Ship, Somewhere Beyond the Sea, The Summer Swap and To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods. The titles that have me shaking my head, at least when seen together, are Things That Cause Inappropriate Happiness and Your Presence is Mandatory because I think they’re sending utterly opposed messages.

We’ll certainly see in the months ahead.

For Review:
The Author’s Guide to Murder by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, Karen White
A Brutal Design by Zachary C. Solomon
Chaotic Aperitifs (Hidden Dishes #2) by Tao Wong
A Cold War Exodus by Shaul Kelner
Cracking the Nazi Code by Jason Bell
Crypt of the Moon Spider (Lunar Gothic Trilogy #1) by Nathan Ballingrud
Deluge edited by Jamie Stern-Weiner
The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo (audio)
Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes (eARC and audio)
Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio
Hugging My Father’s Ghost by Zack Rogow
In the Shadow of the Ship (Xuya Universe) by Aliette de Bodard
Liberty Street by Jason K. Friedman
Love You a Latke by Amanda Elliot
My Thirty-Minute Bar Mitzvah by Denis Hirson
New Adventures in Space Opera edited by Jonathan Strahan
A Plague of Cholera and Other Stories by Jonah Rosenfeld, translated by Rachel Mines
The Rulebreaker by Susan Page
The Secret Mind of Bertha Pappenheim by Gabriel Brownstein
Shylock’s Venice by Harry Freedman
Somewhere Beyond the Sea (Cerulean Chronicles #2) by TJ Klune
The Summer Swap by Sarah Morgan
Tap Dancing on Everest by Mimi Zieman
Things That Cause Inappropriate Happiness by Danila Botha
To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X. Chang (eARC and audio)
Victory Parade by Leela Corman
Your Presence is Mandatory by Sasha Vasilyuk

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes


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 3-31-24

Today is Easter, so Happy Easter (or Hoppy Easter) to those who celebrate!

Speaking of celebrations, this week marks Reading Reality’s LUCKY 13th Annual Blogo-Birthday Celebration. Reading Reality began on April 4, 2011, as Escape Reality, Read Fiction. April 5 is my own birthday, hence “Blogo-Birthday”. This is, as it has been from the beginning, a Hobbit birthday for both the blog and yours truly, so I’ll be giving books and gift cards away every day this week, starting tomorrow with the Honey Bunny Giveaway Hop.

Today’s cat picture is a close up of Hecate and her very pretty copper eyes. It’s also as appropriate for Easter as anything ever gets around here. We have a ritual, involving eggs, that is ALL for Hecate. On Sunday mornings, Galen makes hard boiled eggs for us for breakfast, a process which involves a big bowl of chilled water. Hecate makes a bee line for the bowl of “egg water” the minute the eggs are out of it. It’s just water, with maybe the wisp of essence of egg, but no egg. No salt, no flavoring that we can sense. But it’s all hers! Unless she catches Tuna ‘poaching’ it, that is.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Spring 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Blog Recap:

Grade A #AudioBookReview: What You Are Looking For Is In the Library by Michiko Aoyama, translated by Alison Watts
B+ #BookReview: A Cast of Falcons by Sarah Yarwood-Lovett
Cover Reveal: Shoestring Theory by Mariana Costa
A- #BookReview: The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang
A- #AudioBookReview: The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed
Stacking the Shelves (594)

Coming This Week:

Honey Bunny Giveaway Hop
A Body at the Dance Hall by Marty Wingate (#BookReview)
The Black Hand by Will Thomas (#BookReview)
THIRTEENTH Annual Blogo-Birthday Celebration and Giveaway
Blogo-Birthday Birthday Celebration and Giveaway

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 3-24-24

It turned out to be an excellent reading week this week – although I did have a ‘flail and bail’ along the way. I have to admit that the later parts of this coming week are looking a bit shaky as well.

The week after this one, however, is sure and certain and celebratory, because April 1-5 will be Reading Reality’s Lucky 13th Blogo-Birthday Celebration with giveaways every day for the whole week. Come celebrate with me!

I’m celebrating, hopefully you’re celebrating, but George and Tuna are cats so they are much more blasé about the whole thing. Here they are out on the catio with Tuna clearly on overwatch checking out what the neighbors are doing.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Spring 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Winter 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop is Anne P.

Blog Recap:

A- #BookReview: The Graveyard of the Hesperides by Lindsey Davis
Spring 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop
A+ #BookReview: The Hellfire Conspiracy by Will Thomas
A- #BookReview: Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
A- #BookReview: The Citadel of Weeping Pearls by Aliette de Bodard
Stacking the Shelves (593)

Coming This Week:

What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama (#AudioBookReview)
A Cast of Falcons by Sarah Yarwood-Lovett (#BookReview)
Shoestring Theory by Mariana Costa (#Spotlight + #CoverReveal)
The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang (#BookReview)
To Slip the Bonds of Earth by Amanda Flower (#BookReview)

Stacking the Shelves (593)

In this week’s stack I have some real gems, some real curiosities, and some books I’m just plain looking forward to.

There are several pretty covers this time around. My personal faves are The Night Ends with Fire, The Price of Redemption and Rough Pages. Rough Pages is also the book I’m most looking forward to because I’ve adored the Evander “Andy” Mills series so far, especially in audio.

The books I’m seriously curious about are The Mercy of Gods, The Secret War of Julia Child and The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society.

I’ve never read (or watched) The Expanse. By the time it got to be a big thing it was already several books in, they are none of them short, and I just couldn’t make myself pick it up in the middle. The Mercy of Gods is the first book in a new series, so I’ll finally get to see what all the fuss is about and get in on the ground floor, so to speak. I picked up The Secret War of Julia Child because I loved Mastering the Art of French Murder and now I’m just so curious that I could not resist this one. I got The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society for the title. Really, truly. When I read the description of Buffy mixed with Murder, She Wrote featuring a librarian as the amateur detective, I was all in.

Yes, this stack is huge. And…they’re going to be like this for a while. Because…reasons. I’m on a book judging committee for one of  the American Library Association’s Book and Media Awards. Which committee has changed over the years, but the deluge of books is a constant. I review a minimum of five books every month for Library Journal – sometimes more if I’m lucky. This is one of the ‘lucky’ months. And then there are the books I pick up because I simply can’t resist, which generally explains the rest of any given stack. In the end, I review about half of what I get, for a ‘long tail’ definition of eventually. But upfront it always looks like a LOT – only because it is.

For Review:
The Amen Effect by Sharon Brous
Blood of the Old Kings by Sung-il Kim
The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville
Elusive (Scarlet Revolution #2) by Genevieve Cogman
The Ghost Cat by Alex Howard
This Great Hemisphere by Mateo Askaripour
Investigating Babyn Yar by Martin C. Dean
L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 40 edited by Jody Lynn Nye
Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid
The Mercy of Gods (Captive’s War #1) by James S.A. Corey
The Night Ends with Fire (Night Ends with Fire #1) by K.X. Song
The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love (Love’s Academic #1) by India Holton
The Price of Redemption (Tides of Magic #1) by Shawn Carpenter
A Revolution in Type by Ayelet Brinn
Rough Pages (Evander Mills #3) by Lev AC Rosen
The Secret of the Three Fates (Ruby Vaughn #2) by Jess Armstrong
The Secret War of Julia Child by Diana R. Chambers
A Sephardi Turkish Patriot by Anthony Gad Bigio
Subculture Vulture by Moshe Kasher (Jan)
This World is Not Yours by Kemi Ashing-Giwa
The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C.M. Waggoner
We Are Only Ghosts by Jeffrey L. Richards
Writings on Yiddish and Yiddishkayt: The War Years, 1939-1945 by Isaac Bashevis Singer


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: