Shelf Control #288: This Is How We Fly by Anna Meriano

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

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: This Is How We Fly
Author: Anna Meriano
Published: 2020
Length: 480 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

A loose retelling of Cinderella, about a high-school graduate who–after getting grounded for the whole summer–joins a local Quidditch league and finds her footing.
17-year-old vegan feminist Ellen Lopez-Rourke has one muggy Houston summer left before college. She plans to spend every last moment with her two best friends before they go off to the opposite ends of Texas for school. But when Ellen is grounded for the entire summer by her (sometimes) evil stepmother, all her plans are thrown out the window.
Determined to do something with her time, Ellen (with the help of BFF Melissa) convinces her parents to let her join the local muggle Quidditch team. An all-gender, full-contact game, Quidditch isn’t quite what Ellen expects. There’s no flying, no magic, just a bunch of scrappy players holding PVC pipe between their legs and throwing dodgeballs. Suddenly Ellen is thrown into the very different world of sports: her life is all practices, training, and running with a group of Harry Potter fans.
Even as Melissa pulls away to pursue new relationships and their other BFF Xiumiao seems more interested in moving on from high school (and from Ellen), Ellen is steadily finding a place among her teammates. Maybe Quidditch is where she belongs.
But with her home life and friend troubles quickly spinning out of control–Ellen must fight for the future that she wants, now she’s playing for keeps.

How and when I got it:

I bought the Kindle version at the end of last year.

Why I want to read it:

I mean… Quidditch, obviously!

That’s really what drew me to this book when I first heard about it, but I do think the synopsis sounds really charming. There’s so much to explore when it comes to the transition from high school to college — leaving old friends, finding new ones, realizing that BFFs may want completely new experiences, following one’s passions… This book seems to take on these issues within the framework of playing Quidditch, and I am so there for it!

What do you think? Would you read this book?

Please share your thoughts!

LIterary Potpourri

__________________________________

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 in the comments or link back from your own post, so I can add you to the participant list.
Check out other posts, and…

Have fun!

Through affiliate programs, I may earn commissions from purchases made when you click through these links, at no cost to you.

Buy now: Amazon – Book Depository – Bookshop.org

4Oct2021

The Monday Check-In ~ 10/4/2021

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.

For the first time since my high school graduation, I made it to a reunion! I can’t even begin to describe how wonderful it was to reunite with old friends and reconnect with people I haven’t seen in way too many years. Since I live on the other side of the country from where I grew up, it’s never worked for me to attend a reunion until now… I’m so glad I did!

I’ll be here (Connecticut) for another week, working remotely, but also connecting with family and friends, and then celebrating my dad’s birthday next weekend. It’ll be busy — but it’s so great to be here!

What did I read during the last week?

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune: Loved it! My review is here.

The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley: An audiobook re-read, so lovely to listen to.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo: The first in a duology following up the Grisha trilogy, Six of Crows has excitement, danger, and great new characters. I really liked it!

Pop culture & TV:

I finished season 3 of Sex Education — terrific season! I started On the Verge on Netflix, which I’m still a bit half-hearted about. And I’m loving the new season of Survivor so far!

Fresh Catch:

No new books this week.

What will I be reading during the coming week?

Currently in my hands:

Ack! I finished the book I was reading (Six of Crows) late last night, and I can’t quite decide which of these to start next!

Now playing via audiobook:

The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley: Another re-read — after finishing The Winter Sea, I just had to continue the story!

Ongoing reads:

Outlander Book Club is doing a speed-re-read of Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, #8 in the Outlander series. We’re reading and discussing 5 chapters per week. This week: Chapters 111 – 115.

Doctor Zhivago is our group classic read. We’re discussing twice per week, and expect to have the group read go through early 2022. Slow and steady!

It’s October, and that means it’s time for A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny! The book is organized into chapters corresponding to each day of the month. I know there are folks who re-read this book every October. I kept up with it through about half the month the last time I tried, but this time I want to see it through!

So many books, so little time…

29Sep2021

Shelf Control #287: Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction by Annalee Newitz

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.

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: Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction
Author: Annalee Newitz
Published: 2013
Length: 305 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

In its 4.5 billion–year history, life on Earth has been almost erased at least half a dozen times: shattered by asteroid impacts, entombed in ice, smothered by methane, and torn apart by unfathomably powerful megavolcanoes. And we know that another global disaster is eventually headed our way. Can we survive it? How?
As a species, Homo sapiens is at a crossroads. Study of our planet’s turbulent past suggests that we are overdue for a catastrophic disaster, whether caused by nature or by human interference.
It’s a frightening prospect, as each of the Earth’s past major disasters—from meteor strikes to bombardment by cosmic radiation—resulted in a mass extinction, where more than 75 percent of the planet’s species died out. But in Scatter, Adapt, and Remember, Annalee Newitz, science journalist and editor of the science Web site io9.com explains that although global disaster is all but inevitable, our chances of long-term species survival are better than ever. Life on Earth has come close to annihilation—humans have, more than once, narrowly avoided extinction just during the last million years—but every single time a few creatures survived, evolving to adapt to the harshest of conditions.
This brilliantly speculative work of popular science focuses on humanity’s long history of dodging the bullet, as well as on new threats that we may face in years to come. Most important, it explores how scientific breakthroughs today will help us avoid disasters tomorrow. From simulating tsunamis to studying central Turkey’s ancient underground cities; from cultivating cyanobacteria for “living cities” to designing space elevators to make space colonies cost-effective; from using math to stop pandemics to studying the remarkable survival strategies of gray whales, scientists and researchers the world over are discovering the keys to long-term resilience and learning how humans can choose life over death.
Newitz’s remarkable and fascinating journey through the science of mass extinctions is a powerful argument about human ingenuity and our ability to change. In a world populated by doomsday preppers and media commentators obsessively forecasting our demise, Scatter, Adapt, and Remember is a compelling voice of hope. It leads us away from apocalyptic thinking into a future where we live to build a better world—on this planet and perhaps on others. Readers of this book will be equipped scientifically, intellectually, and emotionally to face whatever the future holds.

How and when I got it:

I know exactly when I bought a copy of this book — summer of 2019.

Why I want to read it:

The reason I know when I bought this book is that I know why I bought this book — this non-fiction pop science look at human survival patterns was mentioned in Wanderers by Chuck Wendig. Wanderers was published in July 2019, and I loved it (check out my review, if interested). In short, Wanderers is all about a mass extinction event and the small group who survive it. One of the survivors pulls together important reading material, and one of his selected books is this work by Annalee Newitz.

I would have assumed that a book mentioned in a work of fiction was also fictional, but I recognized the author’s name (having also recently picked up one of her works of fiction), and so I had to know more.

Non-fiction is not usually my jam, but I do make exceptions, and this book sounds fascinating. While I most likely wouldn’t have come across it without Wanderers, I’m intrigued enough to want to check it out. (I still need to read the two books of fiction by this author I now own, and those will probably come first in my reading priority, to be honest…)

Once the pandemic started, I was not in the mood to read anything about the potential doom of humanity, but maybe in the coming year, I’ll finally give it a try.

What do you think? Would you read this book?

Please share your thoughts!

Literary Potpourri

__________________________________

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 in the comments or link back from your own post, so I can add you to the participant list.
Check out other posts, and…

Have fun!

Through affiliate programs, I may earn commissions from purchases made when you click through these links, at no cost to you.

Buy now: Amazon – Book Depository – Bookshop.org

27Sep2021

The Monday Check-In ~ 9/27/2021

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

Life.

Another busy week ahead! I’m heading back east — again!! — later in the week, and I’ll be there for about 10 days. We have a couple of family events coming up, and in between, I’ll be seeing how the working-remotely-from-another-timezone thing works out.

This past week flew by! I had a day off for a Jewish holiday (Sukkot), and we ended up getting together with friends we haven’t seen in a while. Nice and mellow, but really fun.

What did I read during the last week?

Miss Kopp Investigates (Kopp Sisters, #7) by Amy Stewart: Yet another terrific addition to a great series! My review is here.

An Observant Wife by Naomi Ragen: A follow-up to the author’s earlier novel, An Unorthodox Match. My review is here.

Puzzle of the Week:

Woo hoo! I did my first puzzle in about a month! It was nice to finally take some time, and this was a fun one:

Pop culture & TV:

Sex Education is back! Season 3 dropped on Netflix last week, and I’m about halfway done.

Fresh Catch:

Even though I already had an e-ARC, I ended up buying myself a physical copy of Miss Kopp Investigates from the author’s husband’s bookstore. It came signed by the author, plus “signed” by Fleurette Kopp too!

What will I be reading during the coming week?