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: Salt to the Sea Author: Ruta Sepetys Published: 2016 Length: 221 pages
What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):
While the Titanic and Lusitania are both well-documented disasters, the single greatest tragedy in maritime history is the little-known January 30, 1945 sinking in the Baltic Sea by a Soviet submarine of the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German cruise liner that was supposed to ferry wartime personnel and refugees to safety from the advancing Red Army. The ship was overcrowded with more than 10,500 passengers — the intended capacity was approximately 1,800 — and more than 9,000 people, including 5,000 children, lost their lives.
Sepetys (writer of ‘Between Shades of Gray’) crafts four fictionalized but historically accurate voices to convey the real-life tragedy. Joana, a Lithuanian with nursing experience; Florian, a Prussian soldier fleeing the Nazis with stolen treasure; and Emilia, a Polish girl close to the end of her pregnancy, converge on their escape journeys as Russian troops advance; each will eventually meet Albert, a Nazi peon with delusions of grandeur, assigned to the Gustloff decks.
How and when I got it:
I have a paperback edition on my shelf, which I think I bought at a used book store at least 3 or 4 years ago.
Why I want to read it:
This book had so many great reviews when it came out! I remember reading newspaper reviews (all positive) at the time, plus so many bloggers talked about how powerful it is.
I’ve read one book by Ruta Sepetys before — Out of the Easy — set in 1950s New Orleans. I liked it, but not as much as I’d expected to, and while I’ve heard good things about other books by this author, I haven’t gotten around to exploring any other of her works.
I’m drawn to Salt to the Sea based on the premise — because yes, while I’m quite familiar with the Titanic and the Lusitania, before picking up this book, I’d never heard of the Wilhelm Gustloff. There’s something so awful about ships sinking — the idea of it is absolutely terrifying to me, and the scale of this particular tragedy is so huge that it’s hard to comprehend.
I’m glad I stumbled across my copy of Salt to the Sea while thinking about what book to feature this week! It sounds like an emotional read, and I’m interested in the historical aspects as well as the stories of the individual characters.
Title: Upgrade Author: Blake Crouch Publisher: Ballantine Books Publication date: July 12, 2022 Print length: 352 pages Genre: Science fiction Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
The mind-blowing new thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter and Recursion
“You are the next step in human evolution.”
At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep.
But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways.
The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy.
Worse still, what’s happening to him is just the first step in a much larger plan, one that will inflict the same changes on humanity at large—at a terrifying cost.
Because of his new abilities, Logan’s the one person in the world capable of stopping what’s been set in motion. But to have a chance at winning this war, he’ll have to become something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human.
And even as he’s fighting, he can’t help wondering: what if humanity’s only hope for a future really does lie in engineering our own evolution?
Intimate in scale yet epic in scope, Upgrade is an intricately plotted, lightning-fast tale that charts one man’s thrilling transformation, even as it asks us to ponder the limits of our humanity—and our boundless potential.
Upgrade is a fast-paced science fiction tale set in a not-too-distant future, in which genetic engineering is tightly controlled after the global disaster known as the Great Starvation. Logan Ramsay, once an aspiring genetic engineer, is now an agent with the GPA (Gene Protection Agency), whose mission is to stop illegal gene tinkering and prevent the next genetic disaster.
Logan is also the son of the brilliant scientist whose genetic enhancements inadvertently caused the Great Starvation. His family heritage haunts him, and while the raids and arrests he participates in make him physically ill at times, he sees he work as a penance for his mother’s legacy.
But after a raid gone bad, during which Logan was injured, he begins to feel… not himself. At first, he’s not sure, but eventually, the intense body aches, combined with the undeniable increase in his mental capacity, lead him to suspect that someone or something has tinkered with his genomes.
Things only get more terrifying, as he’s whisked away to a GPA black site for study and interrogation. At first, he’s suspected of self-editing, but even once this is shown not to be the case, the questions are enormous: What exactly was done to Logan? By whom? And the biggest question of all — why?
The action becomes intensely suspenseful, as Logan must evade capture, discover the mystery of his enhanced genetic make-up, and figure out how to stay alive when someone close to him ends up on the opposite side of his mission.
Blake Crouch excels at creating terrifyingly plausible worlds and memorable characters (as in Recursion and Dark Matter), and Upgrade is yet another scarily tangible story. The world in Upgrade is within a century of complete disaster. Humanity faces extinction, not at some far off point in the future that scares those paying attention but can otherwise be ignored, but within a few generations’ lifespans. And yet, people still don’t seem to be mobilized to do anything about the looming catastrophe. As the characters note:
One child dies in a well, the world watches and weeps. But as the number of victims increases, our compassion tends to diminish. At the highest number of casualties — wars, tsunamis, acts of terror — the dead become faceless statistics.
Simply put, humankind can’t internalize and comprehend the scale of loss that looms, and therefore, can’t be made to care enough to do something about it.
While Upgrade is clearly set farther in the future than our own reality, the scenario depicted seems frighteningly possible. Climate change and out-of-control genetic manipulations are driving forces behind Upgrade‘s awful world situation, but neither are unimaginable.
I found myself on the edge of my seat while reading this book, invested in Logan as a person (and oh, how he suffers!) as well as in the action-adventure elements and the futuristic fate of the world. While the science terminology sometimes went completely over my head, I could understand it enough to be both scared and fascinated.
Upgrade is a terrific race against time as well as a cautionary tale, and an altogether exciting and unputdownable read. Don’t miss it!
My Monday tradition, including a look back and a look ahead — what I read last week, what new books came my way, and what books are keeping me busy right now. Plus a smattering of other stuff too.
Life.
Wait… how did it get to be August already? Summer is zipping by!
I made a quick trip to Seattle this past weekend to attend a family wedding, and it was lovely! A truly joyful, loving occasion, plus a wonderful chance to spend time with family I haven’t seen in a long time. What a treat!
Blogging.
I didn’t see a note from WordPress on this (although maybe it happened during a busy week when I wasn’t online much)… but I believe July 2022 marks my 10-year anniversary of blogging! I’ll need to double-check (maybe I have my dates wrong) — but in any case, it’s hard to believe it’s been that long! What a blast it’s all been.
What did I read during the last week?
Heat Wave by TJ Klune: I love the entire The Extraordinaries trilogy, and book #3 is an epic, awesome finale! My review is here.
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck: A surprisingly enjoyable treat! This was my Classics Club spin book for the summer, and I’m so glad I had a challenge to motivate me to read this. My thoughts are here.
Upgrade by Blake Crouch: Finished on the plane home — review to follow. (Short version: Fascinating and impossible to put down).
Pop culture & TV:
Oh dear… I finished season 4 of Virgin River and shared some thoughts, and my post has (I think) become my most-viewed post ever! Not everyone agrees with me… but that’s what blog post discussions are for!
Fresh Catch:
No new books this week.
What will I be reading during the coming week?
Currently in my hands:
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Just getting started, but I’ve yet to be bored by one of this author’s books!
Now playing via audiobook:
The Comeback by Lily Chu (narrated by Phillipa Soo): I’m loving this audiobook! Only about an hour left to listen to — it’s really fun and engaging.
Ongoing reads:
These books will be on my plate for months to come:
Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon: Over at Outlander Book Club, we’ve started our group read of BEES, reading and discussing two chapters per week. If anyone wants to join us, just ask me how! All are welcome.
Hamlet by William Shakespeare: My book group’s current classic read. We’re reading one scene per week — almost done with Act IV.
Tales From Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb: Progress, finally! I read one more story this week — A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Sweet! I’m going to try to read a few each week from here on out.
Cannery Row is a book without much of a plot. Rather, it is an attempt to capture the feeling and people of a place, the cannery district of Monterey, California, which is populated by a mix of those down on their luck and those who choose for other reasons not to live “up the hill” in the more respectable area of town. The flow of the main plot is frequently interrupted by short vignettes that introduce us to various denizens of the Row, most of whom are not directly connected with the central story. These vignettes are often characterized by direct or indirect reference to extreme violence: suicides, corpses, and the cruelty of the natural world.
The “story” of Cannery Row follows the adventures of Mack and the boys, a group of unemployed yet resourceful men who inhabit a converted fish-meal shack on the edge of a vacant lot down on the Row.
Cannery Row is my summer 2022 Classics Club Spin book, and I’ll admit that I felt a bit ambivalent when my spin landed on this book. I’ve had a copy of Cannery Row on my shelf for a few years now and have been wanting to read more Steinbeck, but meanwhile, my book group read Tortilla Flat last year, and that seemed like enough for the time being!
Still, once I got started, I couldn’t help but be charmed by Steinbeck’s descriptions and unique way with words.
In Cannery Row, as the synopsis above states, there really isn’t much of a plot. Instead, it’s a series of vignettes and moments that capture the spirit of a time and place. As the author explains in the very first passage of the books:
Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.
I read that first line, and I was hooked!
It continues:
Cannery Row is the gathered and scattered, tin and iron and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky tonks, restaurants and whore houses, and little crowded groceries, and laboratories, and flophouses. Its inhabitants are, as the man once said, “whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches,” by which he meant Everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said, “Saints and angels and martyrs and holy men,” and he would have meant the same thing.
If there is a main character in Cannery Row, I suppose it might be Mack:
Mack was the elder, leader, mentor, and to a small extent the exploiter of a little group of men who had in common no families, no money, and no ambitions beyond food, drink, and contentment.
A less generous writer might describe Mack and his group as bums, but Steinbeck instead presents them as well-intentioned pranksters whose endeavors usually go sideways, but who never mean anyone any harm. They drink and go on adventures, and are admirers of Doc, who runs Western Biological, the laboratory and business where he collects, studies, and sells the specimens he finds along the shores and in the tidepools of Monterey Bay and beyond.
Others in the neighborhood include the Bear Flag Restaurant, which is actually a popular brothel run by the kind madam Dora, and Lee Chong’s store, where pretty much anything can be found at any time of year. Then there’s the couple who turned an abandoned cannery boiler in a vacant lot into a makeshift house, and then became landlords by renting out the random pipes on the lot as sleeping shelters for the various men needing a roof over their heads.
The characters interact through business deals and random conversations and unbalanced bargains. An ongoing thread in the book is Mack’s desire to throw a party for Doc to show him how much he and the boys appreciate him. Let’s just say that it does not go as planned — before the night is out, much of Doc’s home and lab is destroyed, and there are frogs everywhere! The gang’s search for frogs is another very funny saga, and even results in a brand-new Cannery Row economy based on the value of frog futures.
Of course, some pieces of Steinbeck’s writing don’t age well. He uses racial terms that would be unacceptable today (“Wops and Chinamen and Polaks”), although to be fair, I think he’s attempting to describe the variety of the people of Monterey — he isn’t being derogatory (although I was uncomfortable with how he writes Lee Chong’s dialogue; perhaps not considered out-of-bounds in the 1940s, but certainly not okay today).
I do love Steinbeck’s writing. He can be beautifully descriptive, and also terribly funny just by virtue of the words he uses:
He can kill anything for need but he could not even hurt a feeling for pleasure.
Describing a changing moment in a tidepool:
A wave breaks over the barrier, and churns the glassy water for a moment and mixes bubbles into the pool, and then it clears and is tranquil and lovely and murderous again.
Small moments made me laugh:
“Henri loves boats but he’s afraid of the ocean.”
“What’s he want a boat for then?” Hazel demanded.
“He likes boats,” said Doc. “But suppose he finishes his boat. Once it’s finished people will say, ‘Why don’t you put it in the water?’ Then if he puts it in the water, he’ll have to go out in it, and he hates the water. So you see, he never finishes the boat — so he doesn’t ever have to launch it.”
And then there’s the time when Mack and the boys manage to restore an old truck just enough to get it running, but with small problems, like the fact that it can only make it up a hill if they go in reverse.
I am truly glad that I read Cannery Row, and I so appreciate the Classics Club Spin challenge that got me to finally take the book off the shelf and give it a try.
I would like to read more by John Steinbeck in the future. So far, besides Cannery Row, I’ve read East of Eden and Of Mice and Men (both very, very long ago) and Tortilla Flat, and I know I should read The Grapes of Wrath at some point too.
Do you have any favorite Steinbeck books? Please let me know if you have recommendations!
Today’s Cannery Row in Monterey
Who knew? There was a movie of Cannery Row released in the 1980s!
As I said when I wrote up my post about season 3 of Virgin River…
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Back we go to the fictional town of Virgin River, California, a gorgeous place somewhere in Humboldt County, with beautiful rivers, mountains, and forests, quirky townspeople, amazing baked goods, and a teensy little problem with drug runners.
But romance! Especially romance!
Four seasons in, I can’t deny that I’m invested and care about these characters’ lives… and at the same time, absolutely nothing happens on this show!! Or so it seems most of the time.
Season four has 12 episodes, each about 45 minutes, so that’s plenty of opportunity to move the plot forward in a meaningful way, right?
Well, let’s take a look at the timespan of the show, shall we? Season 1 (which initially aired in 2019) included the announcement of an unplanned pregnancy at the end of the season. So here in season 4, the babies should be in preschool, right?
Nope. The pregnant character from season 1 is STILL pregnant, and according to a comment in the final episode of season 4, she’s 5 months pregnant at this point. FIVE MONTHS.
In terms of season 4 itself, as far as I could tell, it all takes place within no more than 4 weeks. So, those babies from season 1 will be born… I don’t know, season 7 or 8, maybe?
The bummer about this timespan weirdness is that all of season 4 takes place over no more than a month (possibly two), and guess what? It’s apparently not sweater season! (For context, one of my absolutely ridiculous obsessions with earlier seasons is drooling over main character Mel’s amazingly big and cozy sweaters… but this time around, they were sadly missing.)
Onward to talking about season 4. SPOILER ALERT!! I’m going to be discussing plot points from the season, so if you haven’t watched, you may want to look away!!
Season 4 continues shortly after the end of season 3, in terms of story chronology. Season 3 ended with Jack trying to propose to Mel, who interrupts so she can inform him that she’s pregnant, and he might not be the father. This would have been much more shocking if we viewers didn’t already know that she’d gone to a fertility clinic in LA while she and Jack were on a brief break and had her and her late husband’s embryos transferred. (Don’t get me started — the process is so ridiculous and unrealistic, but that’s a season 3 issue).
Jack, of course, is supportive, loves Mel no matter what, and insists that this baby will be their baby, no matter who the biological father actually is. But, he doesn’t want to do a paternity test — he’s afraid that a definitive answer might affect how he feels about the baby, so he’d rather not know.
In case you’re keeping score, that makes Jack the expectant father of three babies!
Meanwhile, he continues to struggle with PTSD from his Marine days, and seems be in denial about a drinking problem too. Also lingering is the question of who shot him (at the end of season 2) — his former Marine buddy is in prison for attempted murder, but Brady has been shown to have a heart of gold (thanks to his relationship with Jack’s sister), so we know it wasn’t him!!
What else? Other plot points this season include:
A kidnapped child
Ongoing drug business
Recovery from a traumatic brain injury
A surprise grandchild showing up in town
A new doctor at the clinic
Mel’s sister getting married to a guy she’s known for one month
A local teen leaving his girlfriend behind to join the Marines
Aikido lessons for Preacher (and a new love interest)
There’s a Renaissance Faire!!
And on and on. There are dramatic reveals set up as cliffhangers at the end of various episodes (OMG, the pilot of the small plane is having a heart attack mid-flight!) which get resolved neatly and easily as soon as the next episode starts (the pilot is fine, Jack landed the plane, everybody is good!).
There are weird developments –a young couple eating at Jack’s bar mention how excited they are about a glamping getaway in an Airstream, and within minutes, Jack has decided that his new side business will be… buying Airstreams to set up a glamping business! Way to jump in with zero research, Jack.
There’s a hugely over-the-top baby shower (for Charmaine, mother of Jack’s unborn twins — due sometime in 2026, perhaps?) that looks like the most painful and boring event of all times. Maybe it’s supposed to look like how rich people would throw a baby shower, but to me, it looked like a super awkward business event that’s trying to be fun. Give me baby Pictionary and silly games with balls of yarn in someone’s living room any day!
Shows with small town settings like this seem to be required to include (a) nosy residents who love to gossip (b) a sewing or knitting circle and (c) a festival or fair of some kind. Check, check, and check! The Renaissance Faire is very fun to watch while also being totally goofy. Of course, everyone has amazing costumes! They even get the new town doc to dance around the maypole, and naturally, Jack gets to play a knight in a mock sword fight. It’s awesome.
To be fair, a few plot points do get somewhat straightened out by the end of the season. Again, SPOILER ALERT, because this gives away some big reveals:
The kidnapped child is saved!
The kidnapper is also Jack’s shooter, and it looks like he’s finally been caught!
And….
… the biggest reveal…
Jack is NOT actually the father of Charmaine’s babies! Dun dun dun….
My biggest complaint about the show overall is that I absolutely hate the drug smuggling plotline, but it doesn’t appear to be going away any time soon. And now there’s a new crime boss in town with a surprising connection to one of the local families. You know this can’t be good. I really, really, really can’t stand any aspect of this storyline, which seems completely unnecessary to an otherwise nice show about people in a small town — but I understand that this plot is from the books, so I guess we’re stuck with the awful drug running stuff for a while longer.
Why do I keep watching this show, when clearly I have issues with it?
Because it still has enough good stuff, like…
You guessed it, the amazing scenery! I want to LIVE in this town, wander through the woods, and sit and gaze at the rivers.
We get to watch Tim Matheson! He remains a delight as Doc Mullins, and I love every moment he’s on screen.
Mel… well, I’m on the fence. I’ve loved her up to now, and I do love seeing her in action as a highly skilled, highly compassionate medical professional. Unfortunately, she spends a lot of this season moping and being sad — often with good reason, but it’s just not very much fun.
Bree, introduced last season, gets more screen time, and I enjoy her a lot too. Yay for another strong woman in town!
So, for now, I’m sticking with it! But if those babies don’t start getting born in season 5, I may finally reach my breaking point.
What about you? Who’s still watching Virgin River? What do you think of season 4?
And still the lingering question — should I give the books a try?
Title: Heat Wave (The Extraordinaries, #3) Author: TJ Klune Publisher: Tor Teen Publication date: July 19, 2022 Length: 384 pages Genre: Young adult fantasy Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Heat Wave is the explosive finale to the thrilling Extraordinaries trilogy by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author TJ Klune!
Nick, Seth, Gibby, and Jazz are back in action bringing justice, protection, and disaster energy to the people of Nova City.
An unexpected hero returns to Nova City and crash lands into Nick’s home, upturning his life, his family, and his understanding of what it means to be a hero in the explosive finale of the thrilling and hilarious Extraordinaries trilogy by New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune.
This series! This book! These characters! At this point, I love the characters so much that I just want to tuck them all away somewhere safe and shower them with love and ice cream. THEY ARE SO ADORABLE AND AMAZING.
Heat Wave, the 3rd and final book in the Extraordinaries trilogy, opens as a hot summer rolls through Nova City. The main characters are on summer break, hanging out, fighting crime… you know, like kids do! But it doesn’t take very long before something starts to seem just a little bit off. I won’t say what, but at first it was just a nagging little “huh?’ voice in my head, which soon escalate to full-on shouts of WTF?
Never fear, it all makes sense eventually. Our gang – the incredibly lovely and awesome and over the top Nicky, his true love Seth, and their best friends (who are also deeply in love) Gibby and Jazz — continue their Extraordinary activities as, respectively, superheroes Guardian and PyroStorm, with Gibby and Jazz as their tech support and secret lair gurus, aka Lighthouse. Also involved are the various parental units of our four teens, and the parents are equal measures supportive, loving, and totally embarrassing. (Oh, the Dad jokes! These people are just so much).
I really don’t want to say too much about the plot. There’s action, adventure, danger, and telekinetic and fire-power heroics! There are also bad guys who are very, very bad and very, very powerful. Plus, a mayoral election that’s truly a battle for the heart and soul of Nova City, and a police reckoning that’s very much a reflection of today’s real-world society.
I need to stop and mention that Nick and his dad Aaron have THE BEST father-son dynamic I’ve ever witnessed. Aaron is excruciatingly in Nick’s face in the most cringe-y ways, and it’s so clearly coming from a place of unconditional support and love that you want to stand up and shout “YES!” whenever they have a scene together. This book does also include the most cringe-worthy Nick and Aaron scene of the entire series. Suffice it to say that Aaron loves his gay son and wants him to be fully informed, prepared, and safe when it comes to moving things forward with Seth. I kind of wanted to die of embarrassment reading this scene, and at the same, I couldn’t help thinking how absolutely affirming it might be for gay teens who need that kind of open information and communication in their own lives.
Likewise, Seth and Nicky’s physical relationship moves forward, and the author does not shy away from the details… but it’s not at all gratuitous. Again, all I could think was that there are probably teen readers who really need to see a healthy, loving, consensual relationship depicted in such a positive way, and I hope this book finds its way to those who need it.
But anyway… even putting aside how amazing all of the above is, this is just a GOOD STORY. The action zips along, there are some astonishing surprises and big reveals, and a major blam-pow-kabam superhero battle to finish it all off. (Also, there’s the introduction of a new character named Burrito Jerry, and he’s pretty amazing, so there’s that too.)
The book’s epilogue ties up the story and gives us a flash forward into the characters’ lives several years down the road, and while it’s a little disconcerting to see them all as adults, it’s also wonderful. And yes, the conclusion is quite definitely a conclusion… but I’d pay oodles to get to spend more time with Nicky, Seth, Gibby and Jazz! I’m sure they’re all going to go on to lead fabulous, fascinating lives, and I just wish we could see it!
As always, the writing in Heat Wave is smart and funny, and I’ll wrap up this big gushy love letter to The Extraordinaries trilogy by sharing some favorite bits and pieces:
“We’re queer. We walk fast because of our survival instinct.”
He snorted. “Okay, that was funny in a really sad way. I feel bad for the heteros. They wanted us to run from them, and so we did, and now we evolved to be much quicker than they are. They really don’t get anything aside from having all the rights they could ever ask for.”
If he’d known how much worse it was about to get, Nick would’ve probably fled the house, moved to Canada, and spent the rest of his days living in a cabin while making maple syrup, or whatever it was Canadians did aside from being pleasant and supportive, most likely because they enjoyed the benefits of universal healthcare.
Owen had been Nick’s first… well. Almost first everything. First kiss. First sort-of boyfriend. First breakup. First (and so far only) former flame who’d turned into a villain and had tried to kill them.
You never forgot your first.
“I’m supposed to be in a romantic comedy, not a horror movie!” Nick cried as the blade wiggled from side to side as if it was stuck…
But before Nick could be dragged away he leaned forward, knowing he’d never get the chance again to have this many people listening to him. “Queer rights!” he shouted. “Down with the patriarchy! Defund the police! Support fanfic writers!”
“We’re going to hug you, but then we’re going to yell at you. It’s going to be very loud, but you will sit there and take it.”
I’m tearing up just thinking about these characters and their lives and how amazing they are. I can’t believe the story is over!
The 3rd book, and the trilogy as a whole, get five glittery stars!
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: Red Moon Author: Benjamin Percy Published: 2013 Length: 544 pages
What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):
They live among us.
They are our neighbors, our mothers, our lovers.
They change.
When government agents kick down Claire Forrester’s front door and murder her parents, Claire realizes just how different she is. Patrick Gamble was nothing special until the day he got on a plane and hours later stepped off it, the only passenger left alive, a hero. Chase Williams has sworn to protect the people of the United States from the menace in their midst, but he is becoming the very thing he has promised to destroy. So far, the threat has been controlled by laws and violence and drugs. But the night of the red moon is coming, when an unrecognizable world will emerge…and the battle for humanity will begin.
How and when I got it:
I picked up a paperback edition several years ago, most likely through a local used book store.
Why I want to read it:
In case it’s not entirely clear from the synopsis, this is a werewolf book! I remember hearing about Red Moon when it was first released — especially, that this is not the story of a werewolf as an urban fantasy love interest, but a gory, violent, disturbing tale with (if I remember correctly) plenty of political allegory as well. (I could be wrong on that point).
I’ve read all sorts of werewolf stories, from before and after this one was published, and I enjoy a variety of approaches, but the only other truly super dark one I’ve read is The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan, which is very, very dark indeed (but also excellent).
I’ve held onto Red Moon for years, and since then, have read several other of Benjamin Percy’s books. He’s a gifted, inventive writer with a flair for telling unexpected stories. I think my favorite of his so far is The Dead Lands (published 2015), which is soooo icky at times but also mesmerizing and unlike anything else I’ve read.
I do think I still want to read Red Moon, but given how long it is and how much time has passed since I added it to my TBR pile, I’m going to really have to talk myself into giving it a try.
In case you want to know more, here are a couple of reviews that I bookmarked for future reference: New York Times NPR
Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Books From My Past Seasonal TBR Posts I STILL Haven’t Read.
My initial thought was — um… yes, I have those! Don’t we all?
BUT — as I went back through my seaosnal TBR posts, I had to go all the way back to winter 2019/2020 (and doesn’t that feel like another lifetime?) in order to come up with 10 that I (a) haven’t read yet and (b) still do really want to read!
Moving backwards chronologically, my 10 are:
Spring 2022:
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
(High priority — I hope to read or listen to this one by the end of August!)
Winter 2021/2022:
Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q Sutanto
Spring 2021:
Ambush or Adore by Gail Carriger
A Twist of Fate by Kelley Armstrong
Gilded by Marissa Meyer
Winter 2020/2021:
One By One by Ruth Ware
Fall 2020:
The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman
Dying With Her Cheer Pants On by Seanan McGuire
Spring 2020:
Red Sky Over Hawaii by Sara Ackerman
The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward
Winter 2019/2020:
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Yes, that’s actually 11 — I couldn’t leave out one from a TBR list that still had two left!
I have to say… I’m a little proud of myself, because having to go back three years to come up with 10 books means that I’ve been pretty good at sticking to my reading plans!! Either that, or I’ve gotten much better at picking books for my TBR that I know I’ll want to read.
For the sake of being complete, I thought I’d also include a look at the books from the same timeframe’s TBR lists that I ended up DNFing. For the books below, I thought I’d want to read them, but for all sorts of reasons, they either didn’t end up holding my interest or didn’t appeal to me enough to see all the way through:
Are there any of my remaining TBR picks (in my top 11) that you’d especially recommend?
If you wrote a TTT post this week, please let me know your freebie topic and share your link!
My Monday tradition, including a look back and a look ahead — what I read last week, what new books came my way, and what books are keeping me busy right now. Plus a smattering of other stuff too.
Life.
A nice relaxing weekend after an intense workweek!
This will probably sound silly, but one of the little things I started doing for myself recently is getting my nails all prettified! I hadn’t had a manicure in over 10 years, but last month indulged prior to going to a wedding, and I realized that I really liked it… so I went again yesterday and ended up pink and sparkly.
Kind of fun doing something just for the sake of feeling upbeat — and the process itself felt relaxing and pampering, so a big win all the way around!
What did I read during the last week?
The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate: The real history behind the story is interesting, but the novel itself feels muddled and unengaging. If this hadn’t been for my book group, I’m not sure I would have finished. My review is here.
Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey: Creepy and surprising. My review is here.
The No-Show by Beth O’Leary: Excellent! So much more depth and emotion than you might guess from looking at the cover. My review is here.
Pop culture & TV:
I finished watching Stranger Things! Season 4 was a bit oddly constructed, with super long episodes (that season finale was almost 2.5 hours!!) — but overall, I thought it was SO good, and loved how it ties together so much going all the way back to season 1.
I started my Stranger Things binge with season 3, since I’d already seen 1 & 2 when they first dropped… but now I’m thinking I should go back and re-watch season 1 at the very least.
Meanwhile, the new season of Virgin River dropped on Netflix this week. I’ve only had time to watch about half of the episodes. It’s comfort watching — nothing you wouldn’t expect, same gorgeous scenery, same small town quirkiness… all taking place within the same year as seasons 1, 2, and 3! Man, this show moves slowly.
Heat Wave by TJ Klune: It’s the 3rd and final book in the Extraordinaries trilogy! I love these characters SO much. I have a feeling I’m going to want to listen to the audiobook as soon as I finish the print version — I did audio re-reads of books 1 & 2 recently, and the narrator is amazing.
And sometime in the coming week, I need to start:
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck: This is my Classics Club Spin book, and the due date is fast approaching! I haven’t felt really in the mood to pick this up so far, but I think I’m going to need to push myself a bit and just make it happen.
Now playing via audiobook:
The Comeback by Lily Chu (narrated by Phillipa Soo): I really liked my last audiobook by this author and narrator (The Stand-In), and this one is off to a great start!
Ongoing reads:
These books will be on my plate for months to come:
Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon: Over at Outlander Book Club, we’ve started our group read of BEES, reading and discussing two chapters per week. If anyone wants to join us, just ask me how! All are welcome.
Hamlet by William Shakespeare: My book group’s current classic read. We’re reading one scene per week — almost done with Act IV.
Tales From Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb: No progress… but since I’m still planning to get to it, in little bits and pieces, I’m leaving it here a bit longer.
Siobhan is a quick-tempered life coach with way too much on her plate. Miranda is a tree surgeon used to being treated as just one of the guys on the job. Jane is a soft-spoken volunteer for the local charity shop with zero sense of self-worth.
These three women are strangers who have only one thing in common: They’ve all been stood up on the same day, the very worst day to be stood up–Valentine’s Day. And, unbeknownst to them, they’ve all been stood up by the same man.
Once they’ve each forgiven him for standing them up, they let him back into their lives and are in serious danger of falling in love with a man who seems to have not just one or two but three women on the go….
Is there more to him than meets the eye? And will they each untangle the truth before they all get their hearts broken?
Three women who seemingly have nothing in common find that they’re involved with the same man in this smart new rom-com by Beth O’Leary, bestselling author of The Flatshare.
It’s going to be hard to talk about The No-Show without giving away too much — but let me offer this caution up front: This book is delicious, and really and truly, you should avoid reading reviews that go into details. Trust me — not knowing is what’s in store is key to appreciating how great this story is.
As the book opens, we meet three women who have all been stood up by Joseph Carter: Siobhan waited for him for a breakfast date; Miranda sat at a restaurant way longer than she should have waiting for him to show up for lunch; and Jane ended up abandoned at an engagement party he’d promised to be her “friend date” for.
And all I could think through these initial chapters was: What a jerk! Who is this guy who (a) is dating three woman simultaneously and (b) is so rude and inconsiderate that he no-shows on all three of them?
There’s more to the story, of course. As the plot moves forward, told through chapters that alternate between Siobhan, Miranda, and Jane, we learn more about Joseph’s involvement with each woman — how they met, how their relationships developed, what their big challenges are. At the same time, we get to know each of these three women, and get to see how fabulous they are.
All quite different, Siobhan, Miranda, and Jane have distinct personalities and very different lives. Jane is perhaps the hardest to get a handle on — she’s scared and shy and completely lacking in self-esteem when we meet her, and it’s hard for us (and Joseph) to get past her protective shell to see the person she is inside.
Connections between the different characters’ worlds become apparent as the story unfolds. And just when I thought I had it all figured out (feeling rather self-satisfied, to be honest), it turns out that I didn’t. Beth O’Leary pulled the rug out from under me in an amazing way — and I love when fiction surprises me like that, giving me something that I didn’t see coming, but that completely fits and makes sense.
So… I absolutely refuse to give anything away about the plot, but let me just say that Joseph is not the jerk I initially suspected him of being, and that everything will eventually make sense!
I love the writing, the character development, and the fresh take on strong women who feel deeply and have interesting lives. The characters are all terrific, and for the audiobook, different narrators take the different characters’ chapters. The voices and delivery really suit each of the characters, and the whole story flows quickly and really works.
I was completely engaged, and as often happens with good audiobooks, I found myself dying for my next car ride or walk so I’d have an excuse to listen more! The audiobook even brought me to tears (but fortunately, I was alone in my car at the time, so managed to avoid public embarrassment over the waterworks).
Based on its cover, The No-Show seems like it should be a light, silly story, but really, it’s so much more than that. This book has light, romantic moments, but also deeply felt emotions, sorrow, and struggles, and really well told character arcs as well.
Definitely one of my favorite books of summer 2022!
Bookshelf Fantasies 