Shelf Control #55: Fellside

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to the newest weekly feature here at Bookshelf Fantasies… Shelf Control!

Shelf Control is all about the books we want to read — and already own! Consider this a variation of a Wishing & Waiting post… but looking at books already available, and in most cases, sitting right there on our shelves and e-readers.

Want to join in? See the guidelines and linky at the bottom of the post, and jump on board! Let’s take control of our shelves!

My Shelf Control pick this week is:

Title: Fellside
Author: M. R. Carey
Published: 2016
Length: 486 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

Jess Moulson is convicted of murder. But it’s a murder she can’t remember committing.

Nothing is quite clear from the drug-fuelled night when a blaze set in her apartment killed the little boy upstairs. But when the media brands Jess a child killer, she starts to believe it herself.

Now she’s on her way to Fellside, the biggest, most formidable women’s prison in Europe, standing in the bleak Yorkshire moors.

But Jess won’t be alone in her prison cell. Lurking in the shadows is an unexpected visitor… the ghost of the ten-year-old boy she killed. He says he needs her help – and he won’t take no for an answer.

How I got it:

I bought it.

When I got it:

Pretty much the second it was released, this past May.

Why I want to read it:

I just loved The Girl With All the Gifts (review), and so I preordered the author’s newest book as soon as I could, and had it in my hands as of release day. And still haven’t gotten around to reading it. The only excuse I have is that it’s a big fat hardcover and I’ve been gravitating lately toward more… um… portable books. But I will read it — fingers crossed, by the end of this year.

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Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link below!
And if you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
Check out other posts, and have fun!

For more on why I’ve started Shelf Control, check out my introductory post here, or read all about my out-of-control book inventory, here.

And if you’d like to post a Shelf Control button on your own blog, here’s an image to download (with my gratitude, of course!):

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4Oct2016

Shelf Control #54: To Say Nothing of the Dog

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to the newest weekly feature here at Bookshelf Fantasies… Shelf Control!

Want to join in? See the guidelines and linky at the bottom of the post, and jump on board! Let’s take control of our shelves!

My Shelf Control pick this week is:

Title: To Say Nothing of the Dog
Author: Connie Willis
Published: 1998
Length: 493 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

Ned Henry is badly in need of a rest. He’s been shuttling between the 21st century and the 1940s searching for a Victorian atrocity called the bishop’s bird stump. It’s part of a project to restore the famed Coventry Cathedral, destroyed in a Nazi air raid over a hundred years earlier.

But then Verity Kindle, a fellow time traveler, inadvertently brings back something from the past. Now Ned must jump back to the Victorian era to help Verity put things right–not only to save the project but to prevent altering history itself.

How I got it:

I bought it.

When I got it:

About five years ago, after reading about another Connie Willis book that also had to do with time travel.

Why I want to read it:

I always love a good time travel story, and Connie Willis’s books (the Oxford time travel series) are considered modern sci-fi classics. Plus, that title! The title alone makes me want to read this book, just because it’s so much fun to say. I’d more or less forgotten that I have copies of the Oxford books, but now I’m reading the author’s newest book (Crosstalk), and I’m realizing that I should finally make time for some of her older works too.

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Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link below!
And if you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
Check out other posts, and have fun!

For more on why I’ve started Shelf Control, check out my introductory post here, or read all about my out-of-control book inventory, here.

And if you’d like to post a Shelf Control button on your own blog, here’s an image to download (with my gratitude, of course!):

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27Sep2016

Shelf Control #53: The Mercy of Thin Air

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to the newest weekly feature here at Bookshelf Fantasies… Shelf Control!

Want to join in? See the guidelines and linky at the bottom of the post, and jump on board! Let’s take control of our shelves!

My Shelf Control pick this week is:

Title: The Mercy of Thin Air
Author: Ronlyn Domingue
Published: 2006
Length: 336 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

New Orleans, 1920s. Raziela Nolan is in the throes of a magnificent love affair when she dies in a tragic accident. In an instant, she leaves behind her one true love and her dream of becoming a doctor — but somehow, she still remains. Immediately after her death, Razi chooses to stay between — a realm that exists after life and before whatever lies beyond it.

From this remarkable vantage point, Razi narrates the stories of her lost love, Andrew, and the relationship of Amy and Scott, a couple whose house she haunts almost seventy-five years later. The Mercy of Thin Air entwines these two fateful and redemptive love stories that echo across three generations. From ambitious, forward-thinking Razi, who illegally slips birth control guides into library books; to hip Web designer Amy, who begins to fall off the edge of grief; to Eugenia, caught between since the Civil War, the characters in this wondrous novel sing with life. Evoking the power of love, memory, and time, The Mercy of Thin Air culminates in a startling finish that will leave readers breathless.

How I got it:

I bought it.

When I got it:

About two years ago, after a friend mentioned another book by this author.

Why I want to read it:

Ghost story, New Orleans, romance… plus a timeline that spans years and eras. Absolutely sets my pulse racing just thinking about it!

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Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link below!
And if you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
Check out other posts, and have fun!

For more on why I’ve started Shelf Control, check out my introductory post here, or read all about my out-of-control book inventory, here.

And if you’d like to post a Shelf Control button on your own blog, here’s an image to download (with my gratitude, of course!):

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20Sep2016

Shelf Control #52: The Monstrumologist

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to the newest weekly feature here at Bookshelf Fantasies… Shelf Control!

Want to join in? See the guidelines and linky at the bottom of the post, and jump on board! Let’s take control of our shelves!

My Shelf Control pick this week is:

Title: The Monstrumologist
Author: Rick Yancey
Published: 2009
Length: 434 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I never betrayed. But he is dead now and has been for more than forty years, the one who gave me his trust, the one for whom I kept these secrets. The one who saved me . . . and the one who cursed me.

So starts the diary of Will Henry, orphaned assistant to Dr. Pellinore Warthorpe, a man with a most unusual specialty: monstrumology, the study of monsters. In his time with the doctor, Will has met many a mysterious late-night visitor, and seen things he never imagined were real. But when a grave robber comes calling in the middle of the night with a gruesome find, he brings with him their most deadly case yet.

A gothic tour de force that explores the darkest heart of man and monster and asks the question: When does man become the very thing he hunts?

How I got it:

I bought it.

When I got it:

Absolutely no idea… but it was a while ago!

Why I want to read it:

A good friend (and trusted book source) describes this book as “a wonderful, terrible, hilarious, disgusting, compelling adventure yarn“. Sold! Seriously, it sounds gross and original and engaging, and despite the fact that this cover creeps me out (I have a copy with a different cover), I’m interested enough to want to read it. I think I’ve postponed starting it because The Monstrumologist is the first in a 4-book series, and I’m really trying to avoid getting involved in any more series… but I know from The 5th Wave that I like Rick Yancey’s writing, so that’s probably reason enough to at least give the first Monstrumologist book a try.

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Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link below!
And if you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
Check out other posts, and have fun!

For more on why I’ve started Shelf Control, check out my introductory post here, or read all about my out-of-control book inventory, here.

And if you’d like to post a Shelf Control button on your own blog, here’s an image to download (with my gratitude, of course!):

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13Sep2016

Shelf Control #51: The Post-Birthday World

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to the newest weekly feature here at Bookshelf Fantasies… Shelf Control!

Want to join in? See the guidelines and linky at the bottom of the post, and jump on board! Let’s take control of our shelves!

My Shelf Control pick this week is:

Title: The Post-Birthday World
Author: Lionel Shriver
Published: 2007
Length: 528 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

In this eagerly awaited new novel, Lionel Shriver, the Orange Prize-winning author of the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin, delivers an imaginative and entertaining look at the implications, large and small, of whom we choose to love. Using a playful parallel-universe structure, The Post-Birthday World follows one woman’s future as it unfolds under the influence of two drastically different men.

Children’s book illustrator Irina McGovern enjoys a quiet and settled life in London with her partner, fellow American expatriate Lawrence Trainer, a smart, loyal, disciplined intellectual at a prestigious think tank. To their small circle of friends, their relationship is rock solid. Until the night Irina unaccountably finds herself dying to kiss another man: their old friend from South London, the stylish, extravagant, passionate top-ranking snooker player Ramsey Acton. The decision to give in to temptation will have consequences for her career, her relationships with family and friends, and perhaps most importantly the texture of her daily life.

Hinging on a single kiss, this enchanting work of fiction depicts Irina’s alternating futures with two men temperamentally worlds apart yet equally honorable. With which true love Irina is better off is neither obvious nor easy to determine, but Shriver’s exploration of the two destinies is memorable and gripping. Poignant and deeply honest, written with the subtlety and wit that are the hallmarks of Shriver’s work, The Post-Birthday World appeals to the what-if in us all.

How I got it:

I bought it.

When I got it:

Way back in 2007, when the book was first released.

Why I want to read it:

This big, huge hardcover has been sitting on my shelf for far too many years by now! It may be time to finally either read it or say good-bye. I was drawn to this book by the “sliding doors” nature of the story — two possible outcomes, two possible futures, hinging on one small moment. I tend to love this sort of thing, but that’s part of the problem. By now, there are lots and lots of novels with similar set-ups, and I’ve read a bunch, and I’m not sure I need to read more. Plus, let’s face it, this is a big doorstopper of a book, and every time I reach up to take it off the shelf, something about it makes me turn away and say, “Nah. Maybe some other time.”

So if I never actually feel like reading it, why am I holding onto it? If you’ve read The Post-Birthday World, please let me know your opinion! I think I need a little nudge, one way or the other, and then I’ll finally take action.

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Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link below!
And if you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
Check out other posts, and have fun!

For more on why I’ve started Shelf Control, check out my introductory post here, or read all about my out-of-control book inventory, here.

And if you’d like to post a Shelf Control button on your own blog, here’s an image to download (with my gratitude, of course!):

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6Sep2016

Shelf Control #50: Oh Dear Silvia

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to the newest weekly feature here at Bookshelf Fantasies… Shelf Control!

Want to join in? See the guidelines and linky at the bottom of the post, and jump on board! Let’s take control of our shelves!

My Shelf Control pick this week is:

Title: Oh Dear Silvia
Author: Dawn French
Published: 2012
Length: 352 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

Who is in Coma Suite Number 5?

A matchless lover? A supreme egotist? A selfless martyr? A bad mother? A cherished sister? A selfish wife?

All of these. For this is Silvia Shute who has always done exactly what she wants. Until now, when her life suddenly, shockingly stops.

Her past holds a dark and terrible secret, and now that she is unconscious in a hospital bed, her constant stream of visitors are set to uncover the mystery of her broken life. And she must lie there, victim of the beloveds, the borings, the babblings and the plain bonkers.

Like it or not, the truth is about to pay Silvia a visit. Again, and again and again…

How I got it:

I bought it.

When I got it:

A couple of years ago, when I came across a Kindle price drop.

Why I want to read it:

My daughter and I were away on a weekend trip for her birthday, so naturally we scoped out the nearest used book store in the town we were visiting. She picked up Oh Dear Silvia and thought it sounded hilarious. We both made a note of it (didn’t buy it at the time, as we were traveling light), and when I stumbled across it again, I just had to get us each a copy. The description above doesn’t actually sound all that funny, so maybe the edition we looked at had a very different cover blurb. In any case, the plot sounds like it’ll hold my attention, and as a bonus, reading this book will make me think of a wonderful time with my wonderful daughter!

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Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link below!
And if you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
Check out other posts, and have fun!

For more on why I’ve started Shelf Control, check out my introductory post here, or read all about my out-of-control book inventory, here.

And if you’d like to post a Shelf Control button on your own blog, here’s an image to download (with my gratitude, of course!):

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30Aug2016

Shelf Control #49: Riverworld

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to the newest weekly feature here at Bookshelf Fantasies… Shelf Control!

Want to join in? See the guidelines and linky at the bottom of the post, and jump on board! Let’s take control of our shelves!

My Shelf Control pick this week is:

Title: River world
Author: Philip José Farmer
Published: 1971
Length: 448 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

From award-winning author Philip Jose Farmer comes his most famous science fiction work: the first combined edition of the first two Riverworld novels, To Your Scattered Bodies Go and The Fabulous Riverboat.

Imagine that every human who ever lived, from the earliest Neanderthals to the present, is resurrected after death on the banks of an astonishing and seemingly endless river on an unknown world. They are miraculously provided with food, but with not a clue to the possible meaning of this strange afterlife. And so billions of people from history, and before, must start living again.

Some set sail on the great river questing for the meaning of their resurrection, and to find and confront their mysterious benefactors. On this long journey, we meet Sir Richard Francis Burton, Mark Twain, Odysseus, Cyrano de Bergerac, and many others, most of whom embark upon searches of their own in this huge afterlife.

How I got it:

I bought it.

When I got it:

About five years ago.

Why I want to read it:

Long story (okay, maybe not that long) — I reconnected with an old high school friend on Facebook after being out of touch for many years. We discovered that we shared a geeky love for all sorts of science fiction, and he began rather mercilessly pushing me to read the Riverworld series. I kept promising to do it, and even bought myself a copy. And then, well… it kind of fell off my radar. My old friend and I are still FB friends, but haven’t been in touch much lately. I do feel guilty every time I see this book on my shelf!

And since I do love sci-fi and haven’t started any new series in a while, maybe I should finally give this one a try. It sounds weird and trippy enough to be something I’d probably enjoy!

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Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link below!
And if you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
Check out other posts, and have fun!

For more on why I’ve started Shelf Control, check out my introductory post here, or read all about my out-of-control book inventory, here.

And if you’d like to post a Shelf Control button on your own blog, here’s an image to download (with my gratitude, of course!):

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23Aug2016

Shelf Control #48: A Place Called Freedom

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to the newest weekly feature here at Bookshelf Fantasies… Shelf Control!

Want to join in? See the guidelines and linky at the bottom of the post, and jump on board! Let’s take control of our shelves!

My Shelf Control pick this week is:

Title: A Place Called Freedom
Author: Ken Follett
Published: 1995
Length: 437 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

Scotland, 1766. Sentenced to a life of misery in the brutal coal mines, twenty-one-year-old Mack McAsh hungers for escape. His only ally: the beautiful, highborn Lizzie Hallim, who is trapped in her own kind of hell. Though separated by politics and position, these two restless young people are bound by their passionate search for a place called freedom.

From the teeming streets of London to the infernal hold of a slave ship to a sprawling Virginia plantation, Ken Follett’s turbulent, unforgettable novel of liberty and revolution brings together a vivid cast of heroes and villains, lovers and rebels, hypocrites and hell-raisers—all propelled by destiny toward an epic struggle that will change their lives forever.

How I got it:

I picked up a used copy on a whim after seeing a mention of the book on Goodreads.

When I got it:

Several years ago.

Why I want to read it:

Okay, first off — Scotland. Second — 18th century. Third — colonial America. Those all sound like delicious ingredients to me! The setting and time period absolutely appeal to me, and I just hope it’s as good as it sounds.

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Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link below!
And if you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
Check out other posts, and have fun!

For more on why I’ve started Shelf Control, check out my introductory post here, or read all about my out-of-control book inventory, here.

And if you’d like to post a Shelf Control button on your own blog, here’s an image to download (with my gratitude, of course!):

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22Aug2016

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten books I’ve been meaning to read since before I started blogging

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Ten Books That Have Been On Your Shelf (Or TBR) From Before You Started Blogging That You STILL Haven’t Read Yet.

As of this summer, I’ve been blogging for four years. FOUR YEARS. Incredible. I started it on a whim, and here I am, all this time later, still blogging away. Just because I’m blogging about books doesn’t mean that I’m reading more books — in fact, it’s probably the opposite. Sad to say, there are enough unread books in my house and on my Kindle that I could probably go a few years without buying a single book before I’d run out of new stuff to read.

So, here are 10 books that I swear I want to read, which I’ve owned for over four years… and which I still haven’t gotten around to.

1) Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest

2) Affinity by Sarah Waters

3) In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

4) Lilith’s Brood by Octavia Butler

5) Little, Big by John Crowley

6) World War Z by Max Brooks

7) Other Kingdoms by Richard Matheson

8) Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir

9) The Children of Men by P. D. James

10) Sorcery & Cecelia by Patricia C. Wrede

Have you read any of my TBR books? What books made your list this week? Please share your TTT links!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies! And don’t forget to check out our regular weekly features, Shelf Control and Thursday Quotables. Happy reading!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Do you host a book blog meme? Do you participate in a meme that you really, really love? I’m building a Book Blog Meme Directory, and need your help! If you know of a great meme to include — or if you host one yourself — please drop me a note on my Contact page and I’ll be sure to add your info!

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16Aug2016

Shelf Control #47: The Ice Twins

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to the newest weekly feature here at Bookshelf Fantasies… Shelf Control!

Want to join in? See the guidelines and linky at the bottom of the post, and jump on board! Let’s take control of our shelves!

My Shelf Control pick this week is:

Title: The Ice Twins
Author: S. K. Tremayne
Published: 2015
Length: 373 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

A year after one of their identical twin daughters, Lydia, dies in an accident, Angus and Sarah Moorcraft move to the tiny Scottish island Angus inherited from his grandmother, hoping to put together the pieces of their shattered lives.

But when their surviving daughter, Kirstie, claims they have mistaken her identity—that she, in fact, is Lydia—their world comes crashing down once again.

As winter encroaches, Angus is forced to travel away from the island for work, Sarah is feeling isolated, and Kirstie (or is it Lydia?) is growing more disturbed. When a violent storm leaves Sarah and her daughter stranded, Sarah finds herself tortured by the past—what really happened on that fateful day one of her daughters died?

How I got it:

I received an ARC via NetGalley (and feel really guilty about not reading it yet).

When I got it:

Last year, right before publication.

Why I want to read it:

Twin stories can be so great and creepy, and I love the sound of the possibly mistaken identity, as well as the setting on an isolated Scottish island. I remember seeing a few reviews from other bloggers when the book came out, and the consensus seemed to be that this is a great suspense story. Definitely seems like something I’d enjoy!

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Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how: