Shelf Control #3: Cinnamon and Gunpowder

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

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

Instead of looking ahead to upcoming new releases, Shelf Control focuses on already released books that I want to read. Consider this a variation of a Wishing & Waiting post… but looking at books already available, and in most cases, books that are either on my shelves or on my Kindle!

Want to join in? See the guidelines and linky at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!

My Shelf Control pick this week is:

Title: Cinnamon and Gunpowder
Author: Eli Brown
Published: 2013
Length: 336 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

A gripping adventure, a seaborne romance, and a twist on the tale of Scheherazade—with the best food ever served aboard a pirate’s ship

The year is 1819, and the renowned chef Owen Wedgwood has been kidnapped by the ruthless pirate Mad Hannah Mabbot. He will be spared, she tells him, as long as he puts exquisite food in front of her every Sunday without fail.

To appease the red-haired captain, Wedgwood gets cracking with the meager supplies on board. His first triumph at sea is actual bread, made from a sourdough starter that he leavens in a tin under his shirt throughout a roaring battle, as men are cutlassed all around him. Soon he’s making tea-smoked eel and brewing pineapple-banana cider.

But Mabbot—who exerts a curious draw on the chef—is under siege. Hunted by a deadly privateer and plagued by a saboteur hidden on her ship, she pushes her crew past exhaustion in her search for the notorious Brass Fox. As Wedgwood begins to sense a method to Mabbot’s madness, he must rely on the bizarre crewmembers he once feared: Mr. Apples, the fearsome giant who loves to knit; Feng and Bai, martial arts masters sworn to defend their captain; and Joshua, the deaf cabin boy who becomes the son Wedgwood never had.

Cinnamon and Gunpowder is a swashbuckling epicure’s adventure simmered over a surprisingly touching love story—with a dash of the strangest, most delightful cookbook never written. Eli Brown has crafted a uniquely entertaining novel full of adventure: the Scheherazade story turned on its head, at sea, with food.

How I got it:

I bought it.

When I got it:

Earlier this year.

Why I want to read it:

Our local public library system picked Cinnamon and Gunpowder as a city-wide discussion book earlier this year (part of the library’s “On the Same Page” program) — and while I didn’t jump on board in time to actually participate in the conversations and activities, I did make a note to myself that I had to track down a copy of the book! I love the sound of a Scheherazade story at sea, and even though I’m not myself much of a foodie, the idea of a master chef and a female pirate captain seems too good to pass up.

__________________________________

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!):

23Sep2015

Thursday Quotables: The Hummingbird

Posted in Thursday Quotables by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome back to Thursday Quotables! This weekly feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week. Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotables is where my favorite lines of the week will be, and you’re invited to join in!

NEW! Thursday Quotables is now using a Linky tool! Be sure to add your link if you have a Thursday Quotables post to share.

The Hummingbird by Stephen P. Kiernan
(released September 8, 2015)

This powerful books looks at people wounded by life and wounded by war, as well as providing a portrait of the people who care for them. Here’s part of a harsh but emotional exchange between one war veteran and the wife of another:

Joel held his arms wide. “Oh beautiful for spacious skies. Another believer in the innocence of noncombatants.”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh yeah… You have no complicity in warfare at all. You are sweet and clean and would never hurt a flea.”

“What are you trying to — ”

“But us soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines, we must be the Other, the stranger, the odd thing that people maybe thank or maybe hate, but either way we are something different and weird and scary and not at all like you good, nice civilized folk.”

I’m getting close to the end of The Hummingbird, and I’m finding the writing and the characters so incredibly moving. I’ll be sharing my thoughts next week when I participate in the blog tour for this book.

What lines made you laugh, cry, or gasp this week? Do tell!

If you’d like to participate in Thursday Quotables, it’s really simple:

Write a Thursday Quotables post on your blog. Try to pick something from whatever you’re reading now. And please be sure to include a link back to Bookshelf Fantasies in your post (http://www.bookshelffantasies.com), if you’d be so kind!
Click on the linky button (look for the cute froggie face) below to add your link.
After you link up, I’d love it if you’d leave a comment about my quote for this week.
Be sure to visit other linked blogs to view their Thursday Quotables, and have fun!

22Sep2015

Shelf Control #2: The Accident

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!

My Shelf Control pick this week is:

Title: The Accident
Author: Chris Pavone
Published: 2014
Length: 416 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

From the author of the New York Times-bestselling and Edgar Award-winning The Expats

As dawn approaches in New York, literary agent Isabel Reed is turning the final pages of a mysterious, anonymous manuscript, racing through the explosive revelations about powerful people, as well as long-hidden secrets about her own past. In Copenhagen, veteran CIA operative Hayden Gray, determined that this sweeping story be buried, is suddenly staring down the barrel of an unexpected gun. And in Zurich, the author himself is hiding in a shadowy expat life, trying to atone for a lifetime’s worth of lies and betrayals with publication of The Accident, while always looking over his shoulder.

Over the course of one long, desperate, increasingly perilous day, these lives collide as the book begins its dangerous march toward publication, toward saving or ruining careers and companies, placing everything at risk—and everyone in mortal peril. The rich cast of characters—in publishing and film, politics and espionage—are all forced to confront the consequences of their ambitions, the schisms between their ideal selves and the people they actually became.

The action rockets around Europe and across America, with an intricate web of duplicities stretching back a quarter-century to a dark winding road in upstate New York, where the shocking truth about the accident itself is buried.

Gripping, sophisticated, layered, and impossible to put down, The Accident proves once again that Chris Pavone is a true master of suspense.

How I got it:

I bought it.

When I got it:

A few months ago.

Why I want to read it:

I read this author’s first novel, The Expats, earlier this year, and thought it was a terrific espionage thriller (review). So not only am I excited to read more by Chris Pavone, but I’m also delighted to see that one of my favorite characters from The Expats appears in The Accident as well — and the fact that the plot has to do with a secret manuscript and publishing makes it even more appealing!

__________________________________

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!):

21Sep2015

Top Ten Tuesday: Top ten books on my TBR list for fall 2015

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 the top ten books on our fall to-be-read lists. Sigh… I love these TBR topics. Ten books that I want to read? No problem.

New books, recently released and soon to be released:

1) The Marvels by Brian Selznick

2) The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood

3) Saga, volume 5 by Brian K. Vaughan

4) The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone

5) Until We Meet Again by Renee Collins

6) The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher

And some books that I’ve had for a while, but need to actually read:

7) The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

8) Depth by Lev AC Rosen

9) Lock In by John Scalzi

10) And wrapping it all up, I want to finally get to one of the three Austen Project books currently sitting on my shelves:

One more for good luck? Why not? I got all the way to ten, and realized I forgot to include a book that I’m really looking forward to:

So, there you have it — my top ELEVEN reading projects for fall 2015. What books are on your fall TBR list? Share your link, please, and I’ll come check out your top 10!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies! And don’t forget to check out my 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 host a Book Blog Meme Directory, and I’m always looking for new additions! 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!

16Sep2015

Thursday Quotables: A Curious Beginning

Posted in Thursday Quotables by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome back to Thursday Quotables! This weekly feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week. Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotables is where my favorite lines of the week will be, and you’re invited to join in!

NEW! Thursday Quotables is now using a Linky tool! Be sure to add your link if you have a Thursday Quotables post to share.

A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn
(released September 1, 2015)

I’ve just started this new book by Deanna Raybourn, and I’m pretty amused so far. Set in Victorian England, A Curious Beginning centers on Veronica Speedwell, an assertive, independent young woman (and a successful lepidopterist), whose mysterious past seems to be catching up with her. Her tart statements and unwillingness to be pushed around remind me a lot of Alexia Tarabotti of The Parasol Protectorate, and that’s very good indeed.

He shook his head. “I cannot seem to formulate a clear thought in the face of such original thinking, Miss Speedwell. You have a high opinion of your sex.”

I pursed my lips. “Not all of it. We are, as a gender, undereducated and infantalized to the point of idiocy. but those of us who have been given the benefit of learning and useful occupation, well, we are proof that the traditional notions of feminine delicacy and helplessness are the purest poppycock.”

A little confidence goes a long way:

“The moonlight has addled your brain, Miss Speedwell. I have no intention of arming you, much less facing off in a duel.”

I did not take the opportunity to instruct him on the lethal properties of a cunningly wielded hatpin.

What lines made you laugh, cry, or gasp this week? Do tell!

If you’d like to participate in Thursday Quotables, it’s really simple:

Write a Thursday Quotables post on your blog. Try to pick something from whatever you’re reading now. And please be sure to include a link back to Bookshelf Fantasies in your post (http://www.bookshelffantasies.com), if you’d be so kind!
Click on the linky button (look for the cute froggie face) below to add your link.
After you link up, I’d love it if you’d leave a comment about my quote for this week.
Be sure to visit other linked blogs to view their Thursday Quotables, and have fun!

15Sep2015

Shelf Control: Kicking off a new weekly feature!

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to my new weekly feature here at Bookshelf Fantasies… Shelf Control!

Instead of always looking ahead to upcoming new releases, I thought I’d start a weekly feature focusing on already released books that I want to read. Consider this a variation of a Wishing & Waiting post… but looking at books already available, and in most cases, books that are either on my shelves or on my Kindle!

If you’re like me…

… simply drowning in books you’ve yet to read, then join me for Shelf Control! See the guidelines and linky at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!

For my inaugural post, this week’s Shelf Control pick is:

Title: My Name is Mary Sutter
Author: Robin Oliveira
Published: 2010
Length: 364 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

A New York Times bestseller and a moving Civil War novel about a young midwife who dreams of becoming a surgeon

Fans of Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks, Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier, and Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini will love this New York Times bestselling tale of the Civil War. Mary Sutter is a brilliant young midwife who dreams of becoming a surgeon. Eager to run away from recent heartbreak, Mary travels to Washington, D.C., to help tend the legions of Civil War wounded. Under the guidance of two surgeons, who both fall unwittingly in love with her, and resisting her mother’s pleas to return home to help with the difficult birth of her twin sister’s baby, Mary pursues her medical career against all odds. Rich with historical detail-including cameo appearances by Abraham Lincoln and Dorothea Dix, among others-My Name Is Mary Sutter is certain to be recognized as one of the great novels about the Civil War.

How I got it:

I picked it up at the big annual book sale sponsored by our public library, which is always a ton of fun. You never know what you’ll find!

When I got it:

Last year.

Why I want to read it:

I love historical fiction, and Civil War-era US history fascinates me. Add in a strong female lead character pursuing a non-traditional path, and it sounds just perfect for me.

__________________________________

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!

Let me know what you think of Shelf Control! I’m looking forward to sharing more goodies from my shelves… and I’m hoping this will give me the added motivation to start focusing on reading books I already have!

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!):

14Sep2015

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten books over 1,000 pages… and yes, I’ve read them!

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 is a FREEBIE week, meaning we can choose our own Top Ten topic, whatever strikes our fancy.

I came up with a bunch of ideas, but then thought I’d keep it simple and go by the numbers — in this case, page numbers. I can’t say for sure that these are absolutely the ten longest books I’ve ever read, since it was hard to be certain if I was always comparing similar editions. For consistency’s sake, whenever possible, I’m using the page count from the mass market paperback edition, just to get an apples-to-apples comparison — but I can’t be 100% sure that I’ve always picked the right version. So let’s just say that my figures are using the *close enough* standard…

Without further ado, here are (according to Goodreads) ten of the longest books I’ve ever read:

1. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (1,463 pages)

2. The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon (1, 443 pages)

3. A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon (1,439 pages)

4. A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin (1,177 pages)

5. The Stand by Stephen King (1,167 pages)

6. Shogun by James Clavell (1,210 pages)

7. War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk (1,056 pages)

8. The Witching Hour by Anne Rice (1,038 pages)

9. Hawaii by James Michener (1,036 pages)

10. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (1,011 pages)

Honorable mention: In some cases, it was really too close to call. Depending on the edition, I could also easily have included:

A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon
It or Under the Dome by Stephen King
Alaska by James Michener
The Autobiography of Henry VIII by Margaret George
The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye

What’s the longest book you’ve ever read? Let me know if we have any of these HUGE books in common.

And hey — what was your freebie topic this week? Share your links, please, and I’ll come check out your top 10!

NEW THIS WEEK! I’m starting a new Wednesday Feature… please come back tomorrow and check it out!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies! And don’t forget to check out my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables. Happy reading!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

9Sep2015

Thursday Quotables: Another Day

Posted in Thursday Quotables by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome back to Thursday Quotables! This weekly feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week. Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotables is where my favorite lines of the week will be, and you’re invited to join in!

NEW! Thursday Quotables is now using a Linky tool! Be sure to add your link if you have a Thursday Quotables post to share.

Another Day by David Levithan
(released August 25, 2015)

This lovely book is a companion to Every Day, and offers a peek inside the head of a thoughtful teen girl who finds herself in a unique situation.

Contemplating how much of self is defined by the body:

If I were a stranger in my body, what would I think of it? I open my eyes and I’m not sure. A stranger wouldn’t know any of the stories behind any of the small scars — the tricycle fall, the lightbulb smash. A stranger might not care if my boobs aren’t identical, or if the mole on my arm has more hair than the rest of my arm. Why bother judging if you’re a stranger in a body? It’s almost like driving a car. Yes, you don’t want the car to be a shitheap, but pretty much a car is a car. It doesn’t matter what it looks like as long as it gets you where you need to go.

I know I am not a car. But as I walk through school, I imagine this smaller Rhiannon driving my body. She is my real self. The body is just a car. And I wonder. When Preston talks to me, it feel like he’s talking to the driver. But when a guy I don’t know looks at me in the hall, he’s staring at the car. When my teacher looks out at the class as he’s droning on about history, he’s not seeing the drivers, he’s seeing the parked cars. And when Justin kisses me — I don’t know. Sometimes it feels like he’s trying to kiss the driver. Other times, he’s just kissing the car.

I love David Levithan’s writing and how he captures the meaning in small moments:

There are still people looking at us. Imagining we’re having a fight. Or imagining we’re a couple. Or imagining this is a first date that’s been a total bust.

Fact: It is none of these things.

Feeling: It is all of these things.

I really enjoyed this book… and plan to write up a review as soon as I have time to sit down for more than 10 minutes at a time.

What lines made you laugh, cry, or gasp this week? Do tell!

If you’d like to participate in Thursday Quotables, it’s really simple:

Write a Thursday Quotables post on your blog. Try to pick something from whatever you’re reading now. And please be sure to include a link back to Bookshelf Fantasies in your post (http://www.bookshelffantasies.com), if you’d be so kind!
Click on the linky button (look for the cute froggie face) below to add your link.
After you link up, I’d love it if you’d leave a comment about my quote for this week.
Be sure to visit other linked blogs to view their Thursday Quotables, and have fun!

8Sep2015

Coming soon… Shelf Control!

Posted in The Reading Life by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Thank you to one and all who voted in my poll over the weekend to help me choose a title for my new weekly feature here at Bookshelf Fantasies.

Drumroll, please…

We have a name!

I’m excited to introduce you to…

Up to now, my Wednesday posts (Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday) — inspired by Waiting on Wednesday and Wishlist Wednesday — have been focused on upcoming new releases, highlighting not-yet-published books that I want to read. And while I’ll never run out of those, I’m realizing more and more that I need to regroup and focus on the books I already have. (Want to know more? Check out my recent post, Counting up the books).

With that in mind, I’m bouncing with joy as I introduce Shelf Control. My Shelf Control feature will run each Wednesday (starting next week) — and much like my Wishing & Waiting posts, will focus on a book that I really want to read. But with a catch!

What’s the catch? Quite simple. My Shelf Control picks will be books that I already own — either physical copies from my overflowing shelves, or one of the many unread titles elbowing each other out of the way on my Kindle.

I was originally thinking of this as something I’d do myself each week, but based on some comments received, it sounds like there might be interest out there for others to join in! So, I’ll be adding in a linky tool, and would love to share the love!

I’m looking forward to highlighting some of the goodies from my shelves… and I’m hoping this will give me the added motivation to start focusing on reading books I already have!

Because some days, when I look at my shelves, I worry that I’ll end up like this:

See you next week for Shelf Control!

7Sep2015

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten completed series that I never finished reading

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 Finished Series I Have YET to Finish.

Well, I have plenty of those. And this is why I’m trying not to start new series, at least not while they’re still in progress. Because I lose interest between books, or just never care enough in the first place to continue — or by the time the next book comes out, I’d have to go back and re-read the earlier ones to remember what’s happened, and who has time for that?

My top ten didn’t-finish-’em series (with pictures of the book I’d need to read next, if I ever ended up reading further):

1. Locke & Key by Joe Hill: This one is a crying shame, and I swear I will finish! I absolutely adored this scary, creepy graphic novel series, and I’ve read five of the six volumes. But when #6 came out, I thought I should read #1 – 5 again first so that I’d fully appreciate the grand finale… and then I just didn’t make time for it. So, I do intend to finish reading this series. This year, maybe?

2. The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I read the first three books in the series and thought they were great, then decided to take a little break — and I’ve just never gone back. No particular reason, except that every time I picked up the 4th book, I’d always find something else I was more in the mood to read at that moment. Someday, perhaps.

3. Birthright series by Gabrielle Zevin: I liked the first two books well enough, but by the time the third came out, I just didn’t have the story on my mind any more, and didn’t feel a need to go back to it.

4. Mara Dyer series by Michelle Hodkin: This was a weird one for me. I really liked the first book, started the 2nd, and just didn’t feel at all drawn into the story. I ended up DNFing the 2nd book, and haven’t been curious enough to give it another try.

5. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series by Stieg Larsson: I finished the first book, but hated it, and had no interest at all in reading any further.

6. The Finishing School series by Gail Carriger: This one isn’t a perfect fit for the topic, since the final book doesn’t come out until November. I adored the Parasol Protectorate series, but after reading the 1st book in this YA series (Etiquette and Espionage), I decided I’d pass. I didn’t particularly enjoy the main character or the younger tone, and I haven’t heard anything yet about the rest of the series that’s been enough to make me want to give it another try.

7. Inheritance Cycle by Chris Paolini: I read Eragon as a joint reading project with my son, and I thought we’d continue with the rest of the books. But as he doesn’t seem interested in the 2nd book, Eldest, I’m not going to bother either. I didn’t really enjoy Eragon all that much, and I’d only continue if I had my kiddo to share the experience with.

8.Sally Lockhart Quartet by Philip Pullman: This one was not intentional. I read The Ruby in the Smoke after picking it up at a used book sale and really liked it, but since I didn’t have the next book, I forgot about it for a while. I would like to finish the series, but I’d have to start over again from the beginning.

9. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams: I read three (or perhaps four?) of these books way back when, and I know I have at least one more to go. Maybe I just didn’t have the remaining one(s) at that time? I have no idea why I never finished, because I adore these books!

10. The Last Werewolf trilogy by Glen Duncan: I really liked the first two (ultra violent and bloody) books in this trilogy, and I do have the 3rd… but just haven’t felt like reading it yet. To be honest, I’m not sure I care enough anymore to go back to this story, and I’m not sure why. Still, I do own the book, so I’m not ruling it out!

Do we have any unfinished series in common? Or can you convince me to give any on my list another try?

Share your links, please, and I’ll come check out your top 10!

NEW THIS WEEK! I’m starting a new Wednesday Feature… please come back tomorrow and check it out!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies! And don’t forget to check out my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables. Happy reading!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥