2015

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.

What did I read last week?

The Uninvited by Cat Winters: A really terrific, memorable read. My blog tour post and review is here.

In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume: Done! My review is here.

Off-line:

In real life, we celebrated my kiddo’s 13th birthday last week. It’s hard to believe my baby is a teen! And as of today, he’s also an 8th-grader. Yup, today is the first day of school here… and yes, I do think the middle of August is too early! I’m not sure which of us is grumpier about the return to the morning bustle and the nagging about homework. (Here’s hoping that as the mother of a mature 8th grader, the nagging routine will be a thing of the past for me!)

Fresh Catch:

Two book I’ve been wanting arrived this week:

It may be a while before I get to these, but I’m so excited to have them here!

What will I be reading during the coming week?

Currently in my hands:

I’ve about halfway through What You Left Behind by Jessica Verdi. Once I finish, I have a library book to read before it’s due back (I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest) and then I need to start the next blog tour book on my list, The Last Summer at Chelsea Beach by Pam Jenoff. How’s that for an eclectic reading week?

Now playing via audiobook:

I had a lot of fun listening to Jim Butcher’s Working For Bigfoot, a collection of three linked short stories set in the world of the Dresden Files. In each story, a reclusive but powerful sasquatch named River Shoulders hires Harry to watch out for his half-human son, and it’s all great fun. Plus, you know, the audiobook narrator is James Marsters, so obviously it’s fabulous.

My book group’s discussion of The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd starts later this week, and I didn’t think I’d get to it at all — until I had the brilliant idea to start the audiobook while out walking this weekend. The audio is wonderful so far, and I love the two narrators and how they portray the two main characters. I have a feeling I’ll be taking the long way on all my walks and drives this week, just so I can extend my listening time!

Ongoing reads:

Two chapters per week for each of these, for my online book group discussions with Outlander Book Club. Both books should be done by December!

So many book, so little time…

11Aug2015

Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday: Until We Meet Again

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

There’s nothing like a Wednesday for thinking about the books we want to read! My Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday post is linking up with two fabulous book memes, Wishlist Wednesday (hosted by Pen to Paper) and Waiting on Wednesday (hosted by Breaking the Spine).

My most wished-for book this week is:

Until We Meet Again by Renee Collins
(to be released November 3, 2015)

Synopsis via Goodreads:

They exist in two different centuries, but their love defies time

Cassandra craves drama and adventure, so the last thing she wants is to spend her summer marooned with her mother and stepfather in a snooty Massachusetts shore town. But when a dreamy stranger shows up on their private beach claiming it’s his own—and that the year is 1925—she is swept into a mystery a hundred years in the making.

As she searches for answers in the present, Cassandra discovers a truth that puts their growing love—and Lawrence’s life—into jeopardy. Desperate to save him, Cassandra must find a way to change history…or risk losing Lawrence forever.

Time slip… romance… and a gorgeous cover! What’s not to love?

What are you wishing for this Wednesday?

Looking for some bookish fun on Thursdays? Come join me for my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables! You can find out more here — come share the book love!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Do you host a book blog meme? Do you participate in a meme that you really, really love? I host 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!

28Jul2015

Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday: The Guest Room

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

My most wished-for book this week is:

The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian
(to be released January 5, 2016)

Synopsis via Goodreads:

When Richard Chapman offers to host his younger brother’s bachelor party, he expects a certain amount of debauchery. He sends his wife, Kristin, and young daughter off to his mother-in-law’s for the weekend, and he opens his Westchester home to his brother’s friends and their hired entertainment. What he does not expect is this: bacchanalian drunkenness, a dangerously intimate moment in his guest bedroom, and two naked women stabbing and killing their Russian bodyguards before driving off into the night. In the aftermath, Richard’s life rapidly spirals into a nightmare. The police throw him out of his home, now a crime scene; his investment banking firm puts him on indefinite leave; and his wife finds herself unable to forgive him for the moment he shared with a dark-haired girl in the guest room. But the dark-haired girl, Alexandra, faces a much graver danger. In one breathless, violent night, she is free, running to escape the police who will arrest her and the gangsters who will kill her in a heartbeat. A captivating, chilling story about shame and scandal, The Guest Room is a riveting novel from one of our greatest storytellers

This is my first Wishing & Waiting post in about a month — and what better way to jump back in than with a new book by Chris Bohjalian? It almost doesn’t matter what the plot is about — I just have complete faith that whatever he writes will be great!

What are you wishing for this Wednesday?

Looking for some bookish fun on Thursdays? Come join me for my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables! You can find out more here — come share the book love!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

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!

1Jul2015

Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday: Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

This week’s pick:
Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between by Jennifer E. Smith
(to be released September 1, 2015 )

On the night before they leave for college, Clare and Aidan only have one thing left to do: figure out whether they should stay together or break up. Over the course of twelve hours, they’ll retrace the steps of their relationship, trying to find something in their past that might help them decide what their future should be. The night will lead them to friends and family, familiar landmarks and unexpected places, hard truths and surprising revelations. But as the clock winds down and morning approaches, so does their inevitable goodbye. The question is, will it be goodbye for now or goodbye forever?

This new must-read novel from Jennifer E. Smith, author of The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, explores the difficult choices that must be made when life and love lead in different directions.

Sometimes, nothing will do but a good contemporary young adult romance, and Jennifer E. Smith’s books are perfect for that kind of mood! I always enjoy her characters and their dilemmas, and I’m really looking forward to this upcoming new release.

What are you wishing for this Wednesday?

Looking for some bookish fun on Thursdays? Come join me for my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables. You can find out more here — come play!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

23Jun2015

Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday: Career of Evil

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

My most wished-for book this week is:

Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith
(expected US publication date: October 20, 2015)

Synopsis via Goodreads:

When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman’s severed leg.

Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed. There are four people from his past who he thinks could be responsible – and Strike knows that any one of them is capable of sustained and unspeakable brutality.

With the police focusing on the one suspect Strike is increasingly sure is not the perpetrator, he and Robin take matters into their own hands, and delve into the dark and twisted worlds of the other three men. But as more horrendous acts occur, time is running out for the two of them…

Career of Evil is the third in the highly acclaimed series featuring private detective Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin Ellacott. A fiendishly clever mystery with unexpected twists around every corner, it is also a gripping story of a man and a woman at a crossroads in their personal and professional lives.

Cormoran Strike is back, with his assistant Robin Ellacott, in a mystery based around soldiers returning from war.

Ooh, ooh, ooh! A new Cormoran Strike book! Can’t wait!

What are you wishing for this Wednesday?

Looking for some bookish fun on Thursdays and Fridays? Come join me for my regular weekly features, Thursday Quotables and Flashback Friday! You can find out more here — come share the book love!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

16Jun2015

Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday: Secondhand Souls

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

I realize that I haven’t done one of these wishlist posts in quite a while… but how could I resist?

This week’s pick:
Secondhand Souls by Christopher Moore
(to be released August 25, 2015 )

In San Francisco, the souls of the dead are mysteriously disappearing—and you know that can’t be good—in New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore’s delightfully funny sequel to A Dirty Job.

Something really strange is happening in the City by the Bay. People are dying, but their souls are not being collected. Someone—or something—is stealing them and no one knows where they are going, or why, but it has something to do with that big orange bridge. Death Merchant Charlie Asher is just as flummoxed as everyone else. He’s trapped in the body of a fourteen-inch-tall “meat” waiting for his Buddhist nun girlfriend, Audrey, to find him a suitable new body to play host.

To get to the bottom of this abomination, a motley crew of heroes will band together: the seven-foot-tall death merchant Minty Fresh; retired policeman turned bookseller Alphonse Rivera; the Emperor of San Francisco and his dogs, Bummer and Lazarus; and Lily, the former Goth girl. Now if only they can get little Sophie to stop babbling about the coming battle for the very soul of humankind…

I love Christopher Moore pretty much always, and I’m really looking forward to this sequel to a book that thoroughly entertained me. Now I just need to squeeze in a re-read of A Dirty Job before the end of August!

What are you wishing for this Wednesday?

Looking for some bookish fun on Thursdays? Come join me for my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables. You can find out more here — come play!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

25May2015

The Monday Check-In ~ 5/25/2015

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

What did I read last week?

I finished the book I’d started on the plane ride home from vacation last week, The Expats, and read a YA ARC and a graphic novel as well:

My review of The Expats is here. A really enjoyable thriller!

5 to 1 by Holly Bodger: The best things I can say about this YA dystopian novel is a) it’s short and b) it has a really pretty cover. The writing annoyed me, told half in verse and half in prose, and the whole set-up was pretty boring and predictable. Just… nope. I didn’t bother writing a review.

I also read the newest Fables volume (#21 – Happily Ever After). I love this graphic novel series so, so much — and I’m so sad it’s coming to an end! Happily Ever After is an odd title for this volume, as many characters are most decidedly not happy at all, and it’s also not the last. There’s one more volume to come, and I’d dying to read it while also scared to death that I’ll be upset with the fate of certain characters. I especially want an HEA ending for my favorite couple, but all signs point to NO. Sigh… According to Amazon, we’ll have all our answers at the end of July. Meanwhile, I suppose I should catch up on the Fables spin-off series, Fairest.

Also this past week, I posted reviews of some of the books I read while on vacation the prior week. Here are the links:

The Dead Lands by Benjamin Percy
All I Love and Know by Judith Frank

Elsewhere on the blog:

Prompted in part by my underwhelming experience with 5 to 1, I wrote a blog post about book plots and genres that I am just so over.

On a much more positive note — wanna see where I was the week before last? Check out my Alaska post!

Fresh Catch:

I did a bunch of random book ordering from my favorite online used book sources prior to my vacation, and all of my new pretties arrived while I was away! This was definitely fun to come home to:

What will I be reading during the coming week?