Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.
Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up! For more info on what Shelf Control is all about, check out my introductory post, here.
Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!
Title: Strange Weather
Author: Joe Hill
Published: 2017
Length: 432 pages
What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):
A collection of four chilling novels, ingeniously wrought gems of terror from the brilliantly imaginative, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Fireman, Joe Hill
“Snapshot” is the disturbing story of a Silicon Valley adolescent who finds himself threatened by “The Phoenician,” a tattooed thug who possesses a Polaroid Instant Camera that erases memories, snap by snap.
A young man takes to the skies to experience his first parachute jump. . . and winds up a castaway on an impossibly solid cloud, a Prospero’s island of roiling vapor that seems animated by a mind of its own in “Aloft.”
On a seemingly ordinary day in Boulder, Colorado, the clouds open up in a downpour of nails—splinters of bright crystal that shred the skin of anyone not safely under cover. “Rain” explores this escalating apocalyptic event, as the deluge of nails spreads out across the country and around the world.
In “Loaded,” a mall security guard in a coastal Florida town courageously stops a mass shooting and becomes a hero to the modern gun rights movement. But under the glare of the spotlights, his story begins to unravel, taking his sanity with it. When an out-of-control summer blaze approaches the town, he will reach for the gun again and embark on one last day of reckoning.
How and when I got it:
I got a copy the day it came out! I love Joe Hill’s books, and had this one on preorder months ahead of time.
Why I want to read it:
I love, love, love Joe Hill’s writing… but the problem is, I’m very much not a short story reader. I get that this is more a collection of “short novels” than “short stories”, but I always have to force myself into reading a book that isn’t just one overarching tale. I know this collection is supposed to be excellent — I just need to convince myself to start!
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- Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
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Have fun!
Bookshelf Fantasies 
I get that, which is why I don’t often read short story collections either. He did an excellent job with these though. They are definitely long enough to get a full story feel so I don’t think you have too much to worry about. 😉
I think I just need to push myself over the edge and get started. I know I always love Joe Hill, so there’s really no excuse.
Well short fiction is one of my favorite genres, but I totally understand what you’re saying about getting geared up to read a genre that isn’t a favorite. I’m always glad I did, though, and since you like the author so much, it’s all good!
Oh, I definitely want to read this — but yes, it’s all about getting geared up and charging ahead!