STACKING THE SHELVES #2

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks! If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page!

※※※※※※※

Remember last month when I said that my Book Outlet order had arrived that day, but it was too dreary out to take decent pictures (if you can call any pics "decent" taken with the Kindle Fire camera, ha), and they would have to wait until this STS, well...

BOOK OUTLET

Three Septimus Heap books.

FLYTE BOOK #2 hardcover

QUESTE BOOK #4 hardcover

THE MAGYKAL PAPERS #7.5 hardcover

&

FAIRYLAND BOOK #3 hardcover

Three ORLEANS paperbacks.

The artwork on the Fairyland covers is GORGEOUS. I want them all! 

I was disturbed in a bookish way that the Septimus Heap novella, the Magical Papers, is not "squarish" like the series books, so no matchy-matchy. Boo Hiss. I hope the other novella, The Darke Toad matches this novella at least. I am starting to collect the Fairyland series in hardcover, also. I was offered both Fairyland #1 and S. Heap #3 for a trade and it was a hard decision, but as you will see farther down the post, I chose the Heap book because I started collecting them first. The three Orleans paperbacks are for giveaways.

ENTER MY ORLEANS GIVEAWAY HERE

Orleans paperback + assorted diversity swag!

BARNES AND NOBLE BOOKSTORE

INKHEART hardcover $26.00

YIKES!

My son and I borrowed this book from the library when they first shelved it in 2003, and read it. Sebastian loved the story so much he didn't want to wait for the library to get books two and three, so we bought them on the days they came out at B&N. I believe back then the hardcovers were about $12.99, ha ha! He has done zero pleasure reading since he started university in 2010, and has promised me every summer he was going to read. He said that he felt like re-reading the Inkheart trilogy, and HE was going to buy the first book in HC so we had all three. We went to B&N and they had to order it. When we went back to get it, he only had $22.00 on his debit card, SO I ENDED UP PAYING FOR IT! Guess what? He hasn't even cracked it open yet!

FROM THE PUBLISHER

GOODREADS

I requested this title as an ARC about a year ago, and last week a finished paperback showed up on my doorstep. SURPRISE! Thanks Scribner.

WON

GOODREADS

I won this in hardcover from Goodreads First Reads. It is an enchanting book about a little prince with Down Syndrome. I am going to send it to my new Kookies and Milk feature's five year old reviewer for a future K&M post.

TRADED FOR

PHYSIK Septimus Heap #3 hardcover

MYSTIC CITY hardcover

I wanted you all to see the cover. I adore it, which is odd because  I don't generally like covers with realistic looking people on them. I just ordered the second book TOXIC HEART in HC.

I can hardly wait to see  the  cover for the third book in the trilogy!

You can  peruse my Goodreads trading page, HERE.

EBOOKS

NETGALLEY

GOOD MOURNING is a memoir, and behind the scenes look, at the goings on in a famous Upper East Side NYC funeral chapel. I saw this on the blog of one of my The Sunday Post feature buddy's TSP posts, and requested it right away. I was a huge fan of HBO's SIX FEET UNDER and also faithfully watched FAMILY PLOTS, an A&E Network reality show that was on in 2004, about a family owned funeral home, so I certainly think I will be entertained by this story.

 EDELWEISS

AN INHERITANCE OF ASHES

Now, I requested this ARC because I adored ABOVE, the author Leah Bobet's other YA novel. However, I find it amusing that she said she only wrote Above to prove YA could be written intelligently, and she was never going to write YA, ever again. Never say never, I guess.

THE FIX

Okay, okay... so I thought this was THE FIXER when I requested it, but it sounds like it might be interesting, even though I don't usually gravitate towards Contemporary YA.

PURCHASED AMAZON

VICIOUS by V.E. Schwab

Bought as an ebook special for $2.99.

I fell in love with Victoria's writing after reading

A DARKER SHADE OF MAGC.

Gah! No matter how hard I try I cannot make the html changes to do side by side images!

Two books by one of my favorite authors MR GRAHAM.

THE MEDIUM, my favorite vamp story about Lenny the stuttering vampire is only 99 cents as an ebook right now, so I snapped it up because I only have the physical ARC, and I want to re-read it.  It is part of a series. She also surprised me by publishing a Science Fiction novella THE SIREN, also just 99 cents. I am a Sci-Fi freak and I ate this story up. Both of these books received FIVE STAR ratings from me. 

What were your favorite grabs this month?

TOP FIVE FRIDAY #THREE

Seeing that I already have a TUESDAY feature, and always frown in a defeated manner about trying to come up with ten items for TOP TEN TUESDAY, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, I have decided to follow the TTT prompt on Fridays with FIVE answers.

Five DIVERSITY reads...

These are all "under the radar" books that need to be talked about, and of course read. It is in itself a genre-diverse list!
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

My top favorite of course is the stellar ORLEANS by Sherri L. Smith.

MY GOODREADS REVIEW

(I read this before book blogging)
This is a gritty, IN YOUR FACE, YA Dystopian with a heroine of color, written by an author of color, set in a future New Orleans. There is no romance in this story, but there is a beautiful plationic relationship between two friends, male and female. This is also a novel about women and how they can be strong, independent, and smart; while still being loving, caring, and nurturing. I love this book so much I buy a couple Orleans paperbacks every time I make a Book Outlet order, so I can give them away.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

Next up, a YA Contemporary, SUMMER ON THE SHORT BUS by Bethany Crandell.

The story is about a spoiled brat of a rich girl sent to work at a summer camp for otherly-abled teens. This book is BRILLIANT because it serves up a painless lesson about compassion and acceptance in a hilarious and extremely non-PC way! When you check out the Goodreads page don't let some of those stinky reviews dissuade you from picking up this book because those readers were so unaware they thought the story was promoting bullying (I think because the brat was written in first person). What a bunch of dunderheads! I talk all about these misconceptions in my blog review, where I also talk a little bit about my oldest nephew who has Asperger's Syndrome. One of Bethany's daughters has cerebral palsy, so when she writes about how some people perceive those with disabilities, she knows what she is talking about. You can read my heartfelt review, HERE.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

Now for my heart love of a story, OF BREAKABLE THINGS.

This YA Paranormal brought me so much comfort because although it IS NOT LIKE HARRY POTTER, it has this strange HP vibe, and gives me the same wrapped up and calming feeling. I am not the only one who felt this way because I saw some other reviews on Goodreads mention it. If youn want to read my thoughts on this, you can see that review, HERE.

The main character has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. The story shows how serious illnesses shape personalities, and also how people perceive and react to those dealing with serious illness.
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
How about some Science Fiction? This is TIN STAR.

This book is diverse in that it brings up racism, or actually "speciesism", in that on this spacestation, and within the current intergalactic government; humans are seen as the lowest of the low and treated as inferiors based on nothing but being of the human race. There is a wonderful array of alien races and cultures on the spacestation Yertina Feray. This novel is part of a dualogy with STONE IN THE SKY. If you want a little taste of the author's writing you can read a free short story about one of the characters on the spacestation , HERE. I gave this novel FIVE STARS on Goodreads.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

Vampires? Why yes... THE MEDIUM.

Lenny is a stuttering Physics teacher, lover of electric blankets, and a vampire. He is also considered one of the "broken" among "normal" vampires. Why? Well I cannot tell you here because it would be a spoiler! Lenny is shunned by both humans and fellow vampires; humans because they fear him, and vampires because he is "different".  This is Adult paranormal fiction and is part of a series. THE MORA, the second book in the series, The Books of Lost Knowledge, is also out. It is 99¢ as an ebook on Amazon! This was a FIVE STAR read for me on Goodreads.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

BONUS BOOK

BROWN GIRL DREAMING

You know I am all about promoting lesser known books here on my blog, but I couldn't leave out my favorite audiobook from this year. This book was mega popular, won tons of awards; and even President Obama read it. The only iffy reviews it got were from people who said they didn't care for the fact it was written in verse, but it is FREE VERSE. In fact, I didn't know this when I first started listening to the audiobook. I thought it was just beautifully written, deeply lyrical prose. I didn't find out it was in verse until I went to mark it '"currently reading" on Goodreads, and took a glance at the synopsis. In most cases, I don't think most of the naysayers actually read the book, because they were making it sound like it was reading Walt Whitman, or similar. Not so. I guarantee you will at least like, if not love this story. l'd recommend the audiobook if you think the written verse is going to throw you off. Mine was narrated by the author; she has a smooth soothing voice. I rated it FIVE STARS on Goodreads.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

TELL ME TUESDAY #53

TELL ME TUESDAY is a feature that oozed from my post Twitter party fried-brains. It is a weekly, or bi-weekly feature (depending on your reading style), where you tell us what you are reading now, and why, and what you will be reading in the future from your tbr pile, and why. I am oh so curious why people read what they read. So tell me!

JOINING US THIS WEEK

Shannon from REX ROBOT REVIEWS

&

Pili from IN LOVE WITH HANDEMADE

Go have a peek at their newest book grabs and tell them yours.

※※※※※※※

I am in a reading slump because of this book and not for good reasons. I rated it one star.

The ending was such a torturous read that it burned me out. I wanted to DNF because the finale got too ridiculous, to quote my GOODREADS REVIEW...

"The finale read like an unedited brain puke of a first draft. It was like listening to a five year old tell a made up story at the dinner table." 

She either didn't do her homework on wolves , or she just ignored their biology to fit the needs of her story. If that is what she wanted to do she should have reworked it as a Middle Grade Fantasy. This book left me cold, just like her wolves out in the winter wind and snow. 

I uploaded VICIOUS to my Kindle, but I just can't read right now.

What are you reading? Tell me!

THE SUNDAY POST #19

THE SUNDAY POST is a weekly feature hosted by Kimba at the Caffinated Book Reviewer. It is a chance to recap the previous week, share news, showcase books and/or bookish things we have received, and tell about what is coming up on our blog in the next week. You can view the guidelines, HERE

※※※※※※※

THIS WEEK

MONDAY (revamped) REVIEW

BLINDED BY THE LIGHT

Don't worry, it isn't a religious book. It is a wonderful dystopian set in future England with a fresh dystopic storyline. I loved it with a 4.5 star rating!

I also got the REVIEWS BY TITLE page done and up on the tabs bar. 

It showed me that I need to do a lot more reviews! 

TELL ME TUESDAY

The current ARC I was discussing in my TMT ended up being a ONE star rating. The story got so ridiculous I didn't want to finish reading the last 15% of the book.

TOP FIVE FRIDAY

Which ended up being a true TOP TEN because the feature prompt for TTT was "last ten books acquired", and I did five physical and five ebooks.


IN REAL LIFE

It has been HOT here, but all the worse HUMID in Upstate NY. My apartment building is older and because of the electrical wiring, we are not allowed to use air conditioners. I bought a quart of ice cream on Thursday and I just finished it (two and a half days later). My son thinks that is awful. Hmm... what do you think?

AROUND THE WEB

Erin, from THE BOOK NUT, posted a wonderful list of  LGBT YA, HERE

Faye, from THE SOCIAL POTATO, has taken her review comic, BUBBLES, mainstream with Bubble's very own comic strip! You can read it, HERE.

NEEDFUL THING

Details here at IMAGINE METAL ART.


NEXT WEEK

I am putting the final touches on my, THE INFINITE, review (sequel to the Gates of Thread and Stone). It will be going up on Monday.

I will also be adding the REVIEWS BY AUTHOR index to the Reviews Page.

There will be a TELL ME TUESDAY as usual.

The prompt for TTT, and my TOP FIVE FRIDAY is, ten  FIVE books that represent diversity. Maybe I will do a giveaway of  one of those paperback copies of my favorite DIVERSE YA that I have been buying from Book Outlet, ORLEANS. I think that sounds like a wonderful idea!

SATURDAY will be my monthly wrap-up STACKING THE SHELVES.

※※※※※※※

STAY COOL

Have a magical week!

TOP FIVE FRIDAY #TWO

Seeing that I already have a TUESDAY feature, and always frown in a defeated manner about trying to come up with ten items for TOP TEN TUESDAY, I have decided to follow the TTT prompt on Fridays with FIVE answers.

Ha ha ha! As you can see my fickle little self has already changed my changed feature to TOP FIVE FRIDAY from TOP FOUR FRIDAY. I decided four was a little too lazy!

This week"s prompt was LAST TEN BOOKS ACQUIRED.

I am going to split them into FIVE physical books and FIVE books aquired on my Kindle. So... I guess in reality I am actually doing a TOP TEN. Hehe!


PHYSICAL BOOKS

THE SHORT AND TRAGIC LIFE OF ROBERT PEACE
 by Jeff Hobbs
I requested an ARC of this title from the publisher about a year ago, and this finished softcover showed up on my doorstep on Monday. Thanks, Scribner.

MYSTIC CITY by Theo Lawrence

I traded for a hardcover with a hardcover of The Darkest Part of the Forest. I read this story forever ago from the library, but it is one of those most loved novels, and I am working on getting the entire trilogy in HC for my shelves!

SEPTIMUS HEAP BOOKS

by Angie Sage

BOOK OUTLET ORDER

FLYTE BOOK #2

QUESTE BOOK #4

THE MAGYKAL PAPERS #7.5

I was a tad bit disturbed that The Magical Papers novella wasn't a squarish book like the others and DOES NOT MATCHY-MATCHY!

I am trying to get the entire seven books and the two novellas in hardcover (I hope The Darke Toad novella matches the size of TMP at least, geesh). I have FLYTE, QUESTE, DARKE, and FYRE from Book Outlet; and I just traded for PHYSICK yesterday. I think I am going to order MAGYK and SYREN from Book outlet tomorrow. I really shouldn't because I bought INKHEART in hardcover at Barnes and Noble, a couple of weeks ago, for $26.00 to complete our bookshelf trilogy!! Yikes! 

INFACT...

INKHEART should be included here before the Book Outlet books because I purchased it after the BO order arrived. We borrowed Inkheart from the library back when it first came out . My son didn't want to wait for the library to get the sequels, so we purchased them in hardcover the days they came out. Therefore, we didn't have Inkheart for the longest time. My son decided he was finally going to reread them this summer, so I had to buy it.

ON MY KINDLE

AN INHERITANCE OF ASHES

by Leah Bobet

Edelweiss eARC

Now, I requested this ARC because I adored ABOVE, the author's other YA novel. However, I find it amusing that she said she only wrote Above to prove that YA could be written intelligently, and that she was never going to write YA, ever again. Never say never, I guess. 

THE SIREN by MR Graham

Adult Science Fiction novella bought for 99 cents.

This is a foray into SciFi for the author of two of my favorite vampire books, THE MEDIUM and THE MORA (I love my Lenny). I loved it, and rated it FIVE STARS on Goodreads.

VICIOUS by V.E. Schwab

Bought as an ebook special for $2.99.

I fell in love with Victoria's writing after reading

A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC.

SANDRIDER TodHunter Moon #2 by Angie Sage
A Septimus Heap World book

Edelweiss eARC

This continuation of the Septimus Heap story comes out in October, so I have 2.5 months to read Septimus Heaps 4-7, and the first book of this new series arc, PATHFINDER TodHunter Moon #1.

A TALE OF HIGHLY UNUSUAL MAGIC

by Lisa Papademetrious

Edelweiss eARC

I was sucked in by the cover of this title and really have no clue as to what this book is about other than it is a Middle Grade and it has MAGIC in it. 

What were your last grabs?