Book Review: Scattered Showers by Rainbow Rowell

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Scattered Showers
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Publisher: Wednesday books
Publication date: November 8, 2022
Length: 282 pages
Genre: Short stories
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Rainbow Rowell has won fans all over the world by writing about love and life in a way that feels true.

In her first collection, she gives us nine beautifully crafted love stories. Girl meets boy camping outside a movie theater. Best friends debate the merits of high school dances. A prince romances a troll. A girl romances an imaginary boy. And Simon Snow himself returns for a holiday adventure.

It’s a feast of irresistible characters, hilarious dialogue, and masterful storytelling—in short, everything you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell book.

A new book by Rainbow Rowell is always a treat — and while I tend to shy away from short story collections, there was no way that I’d pass this one by.

Scattered Showers is a collection of nine stories, four previously published (of which I’d read three), and five brand new for this book. Familiar characters make appearances, but there’s lots of new stuff too. Overall, the tone is upbeat and often romantic. Content skews YA, but there’s some adult fiction too.

About the individual stories:

Midnights: Previously published in the anthology My True Love Gave to Me (2014). This one was new to me, A sweet friends-to-romance story, taking place over a series of New Year’s Eves. I liked it!

Kindred Spirits: Previously published as a stand-alone for World Book Day (2016). A re-read for me, but I was happy to read it again. A teen girl who’s a die-hard Star Wars fan decides to wait on line for the four days leading up to the release of the new movie. The experience isn’t what she expected it to be… but it’s just what she needs.

Winter Songs for Summer: New to this edition. Set in a college dorm, a girl who blasts sad music to wallow in her heartbreak is confronted by the boy whose room is directly under hers. At first, he just wants her to listen to something other than the song that’s driving him bananas, but as they share music and then cafeteria meals, they (of course) find an unexpected connection.

The Snow Ball: Also new. Two best friends, Owen and Libby, always spend Christmas Eve at home together watching movies… until the year Owen decides it’s time to go out. Romantic and positive and lots of fun.

If the Fates Allow: Originally published as an Amazon (and Audible) Original in 2021, I’d listened to the story already. The main character is Reagan, who we know from tthe Fangirl novel. Here, college is in the past, and we’re in the first year of the pandemic. Reagan goes to spend Thanksgiving with her isolated grandfather, but finds a surprising friendship with the young man spending the holiday next door. A socially distanced conversation from their neighboring back decks has Reagan reconsidering some of her non-COVID-related solitary ways.

The Prince and the Troll: Another one originally released as a stand-alone Amazon Original (2020), it’s a fairy tale-esque tale of a modern man who encounters a friendly bridge troll. There’s some climate change elements and odd concepts about life on the Road; it feels like a fable at times, but there’s also quite a lot of Starbucks involved. I felt that I didn’t really get it when I first listened to the audiobook, and reading it as part of Scattered Showers, it didn’t feel any clearer for me.

Mixed Messages: This new story mostly consists of texts between two friends, Beth and Jennifer, two main characters from the author’s 2011 novel Attachments. You don’t have to have read Attachments to appreciate the story. The characters are now in their forties, and we get a glimpse of their lives, their hopes and disappointments, and how their friendship has supported them both across the years. It’s lovely.

Snow for Christmas: A Simon Snow story! If you’re a Simon fan (count me in!), you’ll absolutely want to read this sweet story about Simon and Baz’s Christmas. Set after the events of the Simon series, it just made me really happy to see where these two are in their lives.

In Waiting: This quirky story might just be my favorite of the bunch! I won’t say anything about it, but it’s absolutely worth checking out!

Summing it all up:

This book is a treat for Rainbow Rowell fans! And the physical book itself is lovely, with a shiny cover, blue-colored page ends, cute illustrations throughout, and a ribbon placeholder. Definitely a great gift idea for anyone who loves the Simon books or any other of this author’s books and characters.

*https://www.rainbowrowell.com/scattered-showers*

5Jul2022

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing In the Second Half of 2022

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

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 Most Anticipated Books Releasing In the Second Half of 2022.

Where do I even start? I want to read ALL the books… but here are ten I’m really excited about.. while also trying not to repeat books I’ve highlighted in other TBR posts already!

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (7/19)
The Bodyguard by Katherine Center (7/19)
Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid (8/30)
Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn (9/6)
Be the Serpent (October Daye, #16) by Seanan McGuire (9/6)
Fairy Tale by Stephen King (9/6)
Drunk on Love by Jasmine Guillory (9/20)
The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal (10/11)
Scattered Showers by Rainbow Rowell (11/8)
Well Traveled by Jen DeLuca (12/6)

What new releases are you most looking forward to? Please share your links!

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22Jul2021

Book Review: Any Way the Wind Blows (Simon Snow, #3) by Rainbow Rowell

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Any Way the Wind Blows (Simon Snow, #3)
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Publication date: July 6, 2021
Length: 579 pages
Genre: Young adult fantasy
Source: Purchased
Rating:

In Carry On, Simon Snow and his friends realized that everything they thought they understood about the world might be wrong. And in Wayward Son, they wondered whether everything they understood about themselves might be wrong.
In Any Way the Wind Blows, Simon and Baz and Penelope and Agatha have to decide how to move forward.
For Simon, that means deciding whether he still wants to be part of the World of Mages — and if he doesn’t, what does that mean for his relationship with Baz? Meanwhile Baz is bouncing between two family crises and not finding any time to talk to anyone about his newfound vampire knowledge. Penelope would love to help, but she’s smuggled an American Normal into London, and now she isn’t sure what to do with him. And Agatha? Well, Agatha Wellbelove has had enough.
Any Way the Wind Blows takes the gang back to England, back to Watford, and back to their families for their longest and most emotionally wrenching adventure yet.
This book is a finale. It tells secrets and answers questions and lays ghosts to rest.
Carry On was conceived as a book about Chosen One stories; Any Way the Wind Blows is an ending about endings. About catharsis and closure, and how we choose to move on from the traumas and triumphs that try to define us.

Note: I’ll try not to be too spoiler-y about Any Way the Wind Blows, but since this is the 3rd book in a trilogy, there will be spoilers for the first two books. You have been warned!

In Carry On, we meet Simon Snow, the most powerful magician of his generation. Simon is the Chosen One, the boy destined to save the World of Mages from its most dastardly threats. Carry On is very much a Harry Potter-esque story — Simon is an orphan, brought to Watford, England’s school of magic, and nurtured as the protégé of the Mage, the school’s powerful, dashing headmaster who exerts influence over all elements of the magical world.

But what would have happened to Harry Potter if, rather than killing the evil Lord Voldemort, he grew in power only to discover that his beloved mentor Albus Dumbledore was actually the villain, set on gathering all power for himself and bending the magical world to his own wishes? This is more or less where Simon finds himself at the end of Carry On. He and his friends confront the greatest evil, ready for the ultimate showdown, only to discover that it’s the Mage himself who’s behind all the bad. And then, inadvertently, Simon kills him.

The end.

But what happens to Simon next? What happens after you face your biggest foe and win, but cause death and the end of the life you knew?

In Wayward Son, Simon and his friends go on a roadtrip in America, experiencing challenges and dangers and adventure, while also giving Simon time to process how very upended his life has become. It’s very action-packed, and there isn’t a whole lot of time for contemplation.

But in Any Way the Wind Blows, back in England, it’s time to confront their futures. For Simon, he’s finally romantically involved with Baz, who was his nemesis and awful roommate during their years at Watford, only to eventually realize that beneath their mutual distrust and dislike was a simmering attraction and depth of feelings. For Simon’s bestie Penelope, she’s ready to resume being the cleverest magician around, except she’s brought a Normal (Muggle) back from American on a mission to cure him of a demonic curse — and as a result, has to not only put all her magical skills to the test, but also challenge magical society’s prejudices about non-magical people. And for Agatha, Simon’s former school girlfriend, she has to find a way to make sense of her life apart from being the beautiful girl always being rescued by Simon.

They all have a lot to deal with, clearly.

Simon suffers the most of all of them. At the end of Carry On, he lost all his magic, but ended up with dragon wings and a tail. He’s madly and passionately in love with Baz, and they’re trying to have a relationship, but at the same time, Simon absolutely doesn’t know how to be intimate or open with another person. It’s not just about physical intimacy — he loves Baz and knows that Baz loves him, but he has literal panic attacks when they get too close. Simon has spent his early life in foster homes, has no family, and has spent his formative years being a savior. What does he do when he has no magic, can’t save anyone, and no longer belongs in the world he thought he was meant to save? And how does he let Baz in when he doesn’t understand himself or who he is?

Simon and Baz’s relationship has ups and downs throughout the book, and parts are painful to read. They’re awkward, and Simon is so clearly suffering. He’s so full of want, but also so fearful, and he just doesn’t know how to be. Baz is absolutely lovely with Simon, even as he also learns more about his own (vampiric) nature and what that might mean for the rest of his life.

To be honest, while I wasn’t exactly bored at any point, I did find Penelope and Agatha’s storylines less interesting than Simon and Baz’s, and since the book alternates focus between the characters from chapter to chapter and section to section, I was always a little reluctant to move away from the main points of interest to delve into the supporting plotlines.

At almost 600 pages, this book is much longer than the previous one, and while I loved it as a whole, I think a large part of that is due to how much I love the characters. When you read a long, involved series, the characters can become more than just people on a page — or at least, that’s true for me when reading really excellent stories with amazing world-building and character development. It’s something of a double-edged sword though, because I become so invested in the characters I love that I don’t particularly want any plot points to get in the way of their happiness… which wouldn’t lead to a very interesting story.

In the case of Any Way the Wind Blows, this means that I was unhappy whenever Simon and Baz were unhappy, even if their unhappiness was part of their journey toward finding their way forward in their relationship. (If I’m making any sense at all…)

In terms of the plot, I enjoyed a lot of this book, although the overarching mystery/drama about the rise of a new Chosen One didn’t particularly resonate for me. There were things I was hoping would happen by the end of the book that didn’t (being cryptic here), and even though that’s hard for me to accept, it makes sense. At the same time, I felt unsatisfied by the lack of answers to certain questions, and felt that the story just kind of ended. There’s an epilogue that gives a lovely ending situation to one character, but it’s a year after the main events of the book… so what happened to everyone else and where are they now??

I love the Simon Snow books as a whole, and I love Simon and Baz so much (and yes, even Penelope and Agatha)… but I wish I’d felt a little more fulfilled when all was said and done. I may need to let this one simmer for a bit and come back to it again, to see if my feelings change over time.

Meanwhile, I think I’ll go back and listen to Carry On all over again, to revisit the origin story with full knowledge of how it all turns out. Carry On is an introduction to a trilogy that — with Wayward Son and Any Way the Wind Blows — ends up not being about a powerful magician in a magical world, but what happens to a formerly powerful magician who doesn’t fit in in any world.

Overall, it’s a fabulous journey with characters who can make my heart happy and also break it into pieces. Come for the magic wands, stay for the Simon and Baz lovefest. And Agatha. And goats (yes, really). And even Penelope and her Normal. As a whole, I heartily recommend the Simon Snow trilogy. It’s not what it seems like it’s going to be, but what it is is very, very cool.

**********

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15Jun2021

Top Ten Tuesday: Books On My Summer 2021 TBR

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

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 On My Summer 2021 TBR.

This is really just scratching the surface — so many books to read! Here are 10 of my upcoming reads, all being released in June, July or August. Six out of ten are sequels or continuations of series, and four are new stand-alones. They all sound amazing!

Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon
The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison (set in the world of The Goblin Emperor)
The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig
While We Were Dating by Jasmine Guillory
The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell (the 3rd Simon Snow book)
Incense and Sensibility by Sonali Dev (fun series of Jane Austen retellings)
Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Feral Creatures by Kira Jane Buxton (sequel to Hollow Kingdom)
Sunrise By the Sea by Jenny Colgan (another book in the Little Beach Street Bakery series!)

What are you planning to read this summer? Please share your links!

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23Oct2020

Mini-reviews: Three short takes on short-ish reads (or listens)

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

I managed to squeeze in a few quick and short books this week, in between a heavier book club pick and a book requiring more concentration than I anticipated. Here are my quick takes!

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Title: Fangirl (Manga), Volume 1
Author: Rainbow Rowell, Sam Maggs, Gabi Nam
Published: 2020
Length: 216 pages

The manga adaptation of the beloved novel by #1 Bestselling author Rainbow Rowell!
New York Journal of Books
Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, everybody is a Simon Snow fan, but for Cath, being a fan is her life. Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath just can’t let go. Now that they’re in college, Cath must decide if she’s ready to start living her own life. But does she even want to if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?
Cath doesn’t need friends IRL. She has her twin sister, Wren, and she’s a popular fanfic writer in the Simon Snow community with thousands of fans online. But now that she’s in college, Cath is completely outside of her comfort zone. There are suddenly all these new people in her life. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming boyfriend, a writing professor who thinks fanfiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome new writing partner … And she’s barely heard from Wren all semester!

The Fangirl manga is everything I could hope for! I loved the Fangirl novel when it came out, as well as the spin-off Simon Snow books. In the manga, it’s a wonderful chance to revisit the Fangirl characters all over again. The illustrations are clever, and the dialogue and pacing is well done. I really felt like Cath and Levi’s characters came across loud and clear.

My only complaint is that the story stops in the middle! This is volume 1 (of I don’t know how many), and it felt really jarring to have to stop just when I was getting into it.

Still, so much fun! But now, I immediately want to (a) reread Fangirl (the novel), (b) reread Carry On, and (c) know when the 2nd volume of the manga is coming out! Please let it be soon!

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Title: Serpentine
Author: Philip Pullman
Published: 2020
Length: 80 pages

A brand new short story set in the world of His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust by master storyteller, Philip Pullman.

Serpentine is a perfect gift for every Pullman fan, new and old.

‘Lyra Silvertongue, you’re very welcome . . . Yes, I know your new name. Serafina Pekkala told me everything about your exploits’
Lyra and her daemon Pantalaimon have left the events of His Dark Materials far behind.
In this snapshot of their forever-changed lives they return to the North to visit an old friend, where we will learn that things are not exactly as they seem . . .
Illustrated throughout by Tom Duxbury, the perfect re-entry for fans of His Dark Materials and a wonderful companion to The Book of Dust.

This is a slim, hardcover volume, beautifully highlighted by woodcut-style black and white illustrations, that tells a story about Lyra and Pan set after the events of The Amber Spyglass (and before the subsequent events in the Book of Dust series).

Lyra and Pan are still dealing with their changed relationship, so terribly affected by the trauma of The Amber Spyglass. They’re still together, but everything is different. In Serpentine, it seems as though they’re finally starting to face their new reality together.

This is a lovely little book, and those invested in His Dark Materials will want to read it — but it feels a little slight to take up a hardcover of its own (and sell at a hardcover price).

(For what it’s worth, I’m glad to own it — it will look quite handsome on the shelf next to Lyra’s Oxford and Once Upon a Time in the North, two other small but lovely installments in the greater world of the series.)

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Title: Once More Upon a Time
Author: Roshani Chokshi
Published: 2020
Audiobook length: 3 hours, 26 minutes

A dazzling fairy tale about falling in love again by The New York Times best-selling author of The Star-Touched Queen and The Gilded Wolves.
Once upon a Time, there was a king and queen in a land called Love’s Keep who once loved one another, but alas, no more. Without love, they were doomed to be ousted from their kingdom at the end of a year and a day.
A year and a day passed.
This is where their story starts.
Imelda and Ambrose can’t remember why they got married. A year and a day ago, Ambrose consulted a witch, trading their love to save Imelda’s life—and they’ve been stuck with one another ever since. When that same witch pays them a visit on the day they lose their kingdom, she promises to make their deepest wishes come true in exchange for a simple favor and a short journey. With nothing left to lose, Imelda and Ambrose agree. But, over the course of their enchanted road trip peppered with a delirious cloak, cannibals, and at least one honey badger, something magical happens…little by little, step by step, they regain what they had forgotten.
They remember why they fell in love.
When the end of their journey nears and they confront parting ways forever, a new decision faces them. Will Imelda and Ambrose choose their deepest wishes, or will they choose each other—again?

I stumbled across this fairy tale audiobook while poking around on Audible and thought it would make a nice break in between longer listens. And I was right!

Once More Upon a Time is a light, fun fairy tale that takes a happily ever after that wasn’t, and turns that into a starting place. The two main characters are king and queen of a kingdom which magically dictates that it can only be ruled by people experiencing true love. The problem is, while Ambrose and Imelda were madly in love when they married, their love was traded away for a cure for Imelda’s accidental poisoning. Ever since, they’ve been living as strangers, aware that they must have once loved each other, but unable to remember what it felt like.

Forced to leave their kingdom, they’re offered a quest, with the promise of having whatever they want at the end. Ambrose wants a kingdom, Imelda wants freedom… but what they get turns out to be just what they need.

Some of the fairy tale elements work better than others, and some are just downright silly and unconvincing, but still, this was a nice, quick listen with some sweet touches.

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Of these three, I’d say my favorite was Fangirl, but I enjoyed the other two as well. Have you read or listened to any short fiction lately? Please share anything you’d like to recommend!

30Sep2019

Book Review: Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

The story is supposed to be over.

Simon Snow did everything he was supposed to do. He beat the villain. He won the war. He even fell in love. Now comes the good part, right? Now comes the happily ever after…

So why can’t Simon Snow get off the couch?

What he needs, according to his best friend, is a change of scenery. He just needs to see himself in a new light…

That’s how Simon and Penny and Baz end up in a vintage convertible, tearing across the American West.

They find trouble, of course. (Dragons, vampires, skunk-headed things with shotguns.) And they get lost. They get so lost, they start to wonder whether they ever knew where they were headed in the first place…

With Wayward Son, Rainbow Rowell has written a book for everyone who ever wondered what happened to the Chosen One after he saved the day. And a book for everyone who was ever more curious about the second kiss than the first. It’s another helping of sour cherry scones with an absolutely decadent amount of butter.

Come on, Simon Snow. Your hero’s journey might be over – but your life has just begun.

Note: Spoilers ahead for Carry on and Wayward Son!

Poor Simon Snow. In Carry On, he beats the big bad (the Insidious Humdrum) and the other big bad (the Mage), but at the cost of his own magic. Now Simon is a former magician with no magical power, and he still has the enormous wings and tail he spelled onto himself before his magic went away. And now, a year after the big showdown, he mostly just hangs around listlessly, sharing a flat with Penelope, still in a romance with Baz, but one that seems to not be particularly romantic or much of anything at all.

Meanwhile, their friend (and Simon’s ex) Agatha is trying to lead a magic-free life in San Diego among the Normals, going to school and hanging out with a health-conscious friend who’s trying to convince her to “level up” in her new, exclusive club (cult?).

When Penelope becomes convinced that Agatha is in danger, she talks Baz and Simon into coming to America with her (using magicked airplane tickets and cash), and off they go to explore a brave new world. First stop? Chicago, where Penelope hopes to set off some new sparks with her long-term, long-distance boyfriend Micah. But it turns out that Penelope’s determination (and inability to really listen) mean that she missed something important. What follows is one of the funniest break-up conversations I’ve ever read:

“You. Don’t. Listen. To me.”

“I certainly do.”

“Really? I told you I was tired of being in a long-distance relationship — ”

“And I agreed that it was tiring!” I say.

“I told you that I thought we’d grown apart –”

“And I said that was natural!” I half shout.

So once Penny’s heart has been broken, she, Baz, and Simon get back in the car and hit the open road on the way to California, but of course, their road trip doesn’t go exactly as planned. Along the way, they discover that what they don’t know about America can definitely hurt them. Magic is much less regulated, and is very much tied to the Normal population, so as they head across the great wide open of states like Iowa and Nebraska, they hit dead spots where their magic sputters and fails, leaving them easy prey for other magickal creatures who have a rather strong dislike for magicians. Oh, and they kill vampires. Publicly. And pick up a Normal sidekick, who seems to know an awful lot about the magickal world.

There’s adventure after adventure, all leading to a showdown with vampires in the vampire capital — Las Vegas, of course. And a big rescue. And lots of fabulous fashion.

I ate this book up — I think I finished it within 24 hours of starting. And it’s glorious fun, but left me hungry for (a) MORE and (b) maybe a bit more content?

Here’s what I wish and wonder, now that I’ve finished Wayward Son:

♥ I want Simon to get his power back! I know, that’s not the way it works… but still, it’s just so sad to see the greatest magician of all times without his power. Although he is still a fierce fighter, wings and all.

♥ At the end, Simon seems to be contemplating getting his wings and tail removed, starting uni, and leaving the magickal world behind for good. Does this mean leaving Baz behind too? SAD.

♥ Poor Baz and Simon love each other so much, yet they can’ seem to connect. Will Simon come around, or is their relationship doomed?

♥ We learn that a vampire bite doesn’t automatically turn a human into a vampire, which is what Baz has believed all along. So how does it work? How does a human get turned?

♥ Agatha is still the only person who knows who Simon’s parents are. It’s never mentioned in Wayward Son. Will Simon ever find out? What will it do to him when he does? And does the ritual that gave him all his power in the first place hold some key to getting it back? (Yeah, I really, really do want Simon to get magic back. Can’t help it. What would the rest of Harry Potter’s life be like if he defeated Voldemort but lost all his wizarding gifts as a result? Pretty sad, huh?)

Oh, Simon.

It’s time for me to stop pretending that I’m some sort of superhero. I was that — I really was — but I’m not anymore. I don’t belong in the same world as sorcerers and vampires. That’s not my story.

Baz wants a future with Simon. Simon seems about to tell Baz that he’s leaving their world (and Baz, too, in that case), when Penny rushes up to tell them that they need to get back to England immediately to deal with an emergeny at Watford.

Will Simon go? Will the crew save the day? WILL THERE BE ANOTHER SIMON SNOW BOOK?

I do really and truly love this world of Rainbow Rowell’s, and as always, I love her writing. There’s deep emotion and connection and searches for meaning, but it’s also just really funny.

We literally have three “pickup trucks” in all of England, but here they’re everywhere. What is it that Americans have to pick up that the rest of the world doesn’t?

But she can also break your heart:

There’s no safe time for me to see you, nothing about you that doesn’t tear my heart from my chest and leave it breakable outside my body.

I adore the characters (BAZ FOR THE WIN!), and the author’s spin on a magickal world and what it means for the various types of people who inhabit it. Wayward Son is very much a road-trip book, and I did wish for a little more of the sense of world-building wonder that was so powerful in Carry On.

Please, please, please let there be a book #3! I don’t think I can stand leaving the characters and the story this way. MORE, PLEASE!

_________________________________________

The details:

Title: Wayward Son (Simon Snow, #2)
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Publication date: September 24 2019
Length: 368 pages
Genre: Young adult fiction
Source: Purchased

30Sep2019

The Monday Check-In ~ 9/30/2019

Posted in The Monday Check-In by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

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.

Wishing all who celebrate a sweet and happy new year!

And in other news…

No more cast! The cast came off this past Friday, and now I have a brace to wear for about six weeks. Freedom! You have no idea how great it feels to take a shower without having to wrap my arm in plastic first. Now comes the hard part — I start physical therapy on Tuesday, and I’ve been warned already that it will hurt.

But yay for being on the road to recovery!

What did I read during the last week?

In brand-new fiction:

An Unorthodox Match by Naomi Ragen: Don’t be put off by the misleading cover image — this is a thoughtful, touching novel about a woman who chooses a new life in the ultra-orthodox Jewish community of Brooklyn. My review is here.

The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman: Beautiful and tragic. My review is here.

In audiobooks:

Kopp Sisters on the March by Amy Stewart: The Kopp Sisters series continues strong in this, the 5th installment, and the audiobook narrator is as terrific as always. My review is here.

Book group reads:

I couldn’t help it — I was so frustrated by reading The Pickwick Papers in tiny increments that I ended up reading through to the end. I suppose I’m glad to have read it, but of the four Dickens novels I’ve now read, this one would go at the bottom of the list for me.

We wrapped up our group read of Virgins by Diana Gabaldon this past week. For me, it was my 3rd time reading this novella. If you’re an Outlander fan and haven’t read this yet, definitely check it out!

Pop Culture

While on the plane traveling to a conference this week, I started watching season 1 of Fleabag.

Man, is it funny. And man, do you not want to be watching this in public! I didn’t realize how filthy (in a good way, IMHO) this show is, but watching on a plane, I felt like I had to keep hiding my screen — especially since I was using captions. Hilarious — can’t wait to continue!

Fresh Catch:

Hurray! My copy of the new Simon Snow book arrived this week while I was away.

And thank you, Orbit Books, for sending me a copy of Ghoster! Sounds creepy and delicious — can’t wait to start!

What will I be reading during the coming week?

Currently in my hands:

The Library of the Unwritten by A. J. Hackwith: I’m only just getting started.. but a library in hell? Yes, please.

Now playing via audiobook:

The Matchmaker’s List by Sonya Lalli I was in the mood for a light-hearted listen, and so far, this seems to be hitting the spot.

Ongoing reads:

None at the moment! My book group has a new novella starting next week, but our next classic read doesn’t start until December. What will I do with all my reading freedom for the next two months? (I’m sure I’ll figure it out…)

So many books, so little time…

23Sep2019

The Monday Check-In ~ 9/23/2019

Posted in The Monday Check-In by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Life.

Woo hoo — I finally get my cast off at the end of this week! I can’t wait to be done… although then I’ll be starting physical therapy, and I’ve been warned already that’s it’s going to be HARD.

I’m heading out of town for a few days this week for a work conference, and you know what that means? Four hours on a plane each way to read!

What did I read during the last week?

In brand-new fiction:

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood: I’m really surprised by how many negative reviews there are on Goodreads for this book. I gave it 5 stars! My review is here.

In audiobooks:

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell: I finished the audiobook (as a reread), and loved it. Still not sure I get everything about the Insidious Humdrum, but oh well. At least I’m ready to dive right in when the sequel comes out this week!

In middle grade:

Dead Voices by Katherine Arden: The follow-up to Small Spaces, Dead Voices is another fun ghost adventure for middle grade readers. It’s got some good thrills and chills (nothing too terrifying) and a nice focus on friendship and family.

And in graphic novels…

The Walking Dead, volume 32: Rest in Peace: I can’t believe it’s all over! While the TV series may keep going for decades longer, the comic series has come to an end. Rest in Peace is actually a very good ending for this series, which has had some ups and downs, but overall, has been an incredible journey.

Pop Culture

I couldn’t resist — I went ahead and started season 3 of Veronica Mars. And I’ve got the same mixed feelings about this season as I had the first time around. But hey, on the bright side, when I finish this season, I’ll have the movie up next!

And speaking of movies, I took myself to see this over the weekend:

There really isn’t much of a plot, but it doesn’t matter — the whole point is spending a couple more hours with all the characters. And hearing the Dowager Countess get in some good zingers.

Fresh Catch:

I treated myself to two books this week:

An adorable hardcover edition of Little Women, to go with my copy of Anne of Green Gables from the same series (Puffin in Bloom); and…

… this amazing-looking two-sided, accordion-style book. Can’t wait to start it!

I also hit the big library sale last week, and showed remarkable self-restraint! I spent $30 and came home with 11 books. Not too shabby!

What will I be reading during the coming week?