TBR Status: 1.5 books past DEFCON-1. May Cthulhu be with you all.

Remember when I said I was slowing down my book acquisition? HAHAHAHAHAHA. To be fair, I did slow it down … but maybe not as slow as I’d had in mind? On the physical front, I’ve mostly been doing pretty well. But on the Kindle front? I may have had a problem.

In my defense, there were a lot of freaking good books dropped onto NetGalley recently, and I’m only human.

How can I possibly be expected to say no, huh? That’s not a thing. So here we are again. I need to get better at staying on top of the ARC reading thing, but it’s a work in progress. I promise.

Physical Haul

So many thanks to Scholastic, which really came through. We’d been trying to put in an order when schools closed, and everything was up in the air, and finally, because of them working with teachers and parents, we were able to have our books safely delivered to Minion’s teacher and scheduled a drop-off exchange! Minion got six books and I got three, and that didn’t seem very fair to me, but okay, I suppose it was her Scholastic order, so fine.

Ghost Squad: I’ve been waiting on this one forever, and I probably should’ve taken an actual picture of the cover, come to think of it, since it’s the sweet one with the cat with smokey eyes, and I love it.

Tunnel of Bones: I’ve been saving City of Ghosts, knowing this would come in, so now I can read them back to back. I’m really looking forward to it!

Arlo Finch in the Lake of the Moon: I bought the first one of this, and it sounded absolutely fantastic, so when I saw this one on sale for cheap, I figured I might as well grab it and read them together, too. See? Sometimes being a slacker has its benefits.

The Darkdeep: This one was a hit in the whole household. Everyone loved the sound of it, and my mother-in-law has called dibs on it as soon as I finish reading, so I guess I’d probably better place this one at the top of my list.

The Black Sky: Many thanks to the author for this one! It sounds fabulous. Plus, it’s set in my home state of New York, and I’m a sucker for that. Combine that with some post-apocalyptic adventure vibes and I’m so ready for this one!

Kindle Haul

                   

Maya and the Rising Dark: Look at that cover! I’ve been waiting on this one for a century now. Everything about this sounds absolutely perfect for me, AND it has a mention of orisha! So I’m super excited to see what the author does with all this. I suspect I’m going to love it.

Sherlock Bones and the Natural History Mystery: Okay, I’m so curious about this one. First, it sounds perfect for our patrons, and that caught my attention right away. More than that, though, humor + mystery is a big thing for me, and this sounds like it’s going to be one heck of a romp.

The Way Back: First, that cover? Gorgeous. Second, comped to Gaiman AND Pullman. Third, IT’S A BOOK ABOUT JEWISH TRADITION AND FOLKLORE! How often does that freaking happen? There’s demons and a war against Death and I just couldn’t click the request button fast enough on this one.

Harrow Lake: I’ll be part of the giant blog tour by The Write Reads for this one, and I’m really looking forward to it! I’ve been hearing some fantastic things about it already. It sounds all creepy and fabulous and like something I don’t want to read at night but obviously will because I’m a glutton for punishment and never learn my lesson and who needs to sleep, anyway?

Tristan Strong Destroys the World: *takes deep breath* AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Guys. GUYS. Do you know how much I’ve been waiting for this?! And I got an eARC. I donated my copy of the first book to the library and started throwing it at people, and our patrons have loved it so far. So much so that our director already asked when the next one comes out, plans on preordering it, and has started purchasing the rest of the Rick Riordan Presents imprint books. My job here is done. I can die happy now.

                   

The Mulberry Tree: Oh, look, more creepy books! The summary opens with a creepy rhyme (“Do naught wrong by the mulberry tree, or she’ll take your daughters … one, two, three.”) and from that point, I knew I needed to read it. Nope, don’t care what’s in the rest of the summary. Yup, this one’s obviously for me.

The Time of Green Magic: This book sounds so cute and charming and full of good family bonds that I’m already predicting it’s going to make me melt. That’s the vibe I’m getting. But also … a little bit of a creepy mystery? So it sounds like the best of all worlds, honestly.

The Fallen Hero: Okay, it has a dragon on the cover, guys. This doesn’t really need much explanation here. But more than that, I love Asian-inspired books. All the cultures there are so rich and varied that yes, I will absolutely snap up as many as I can. The Monkey King, though? It’s a legend that’s done so often, yet I’m always curious how different authors approach it.

A Deadly Education: Naomi Novik’s (Uprooted) new book will be arriving soon, and I had to try to get my hands on a copy. A school for magic people! Except if you fail, you die, so … I’m kind of liking these odds. I’m all for the dark magic and high stakes here.

The Angel of Crows: “This is not the story you think it is. These are not the characters you think they are. This is not the book you are expecting.” This is an alternate London with angels, werewolves, vampires, etc., with Jack the Ripper prowling the streets of the city. Everything about this just screams YES!

                   

The Gryphon’s Lair: This series just sounds absolutely perfect. I haven’t read the first book yet, but I read the Look Inside peek on Amazon and immediately fell in love. This is also just a duology, which is kind of weird in Middle Grade, but at the same time, I love that I don’t have to sign up to read 21930 books in the series by starting this.

We Were Restless Things: This is such a dark mystery (someone impossibly drowning in the woods) and it sounds so creepy that I just had to read it.

No Place for Monsters: You know, dark and creepy seems to be the theme for this month. Hmm. This one sounds like it’ll hit the spot! It’s got some really negative reviews already, but I’m still very curious to check it out.

The Beast Player: DOES THIS COVER NOT GIVE YOU ALL THE PRINCESS MONONOKE VIBES?! Oh my gosh, I love it already. This summary feels like a mix of all my favorite Studio Ghibli movies, and I want to love it so much.

The Midnight Library: I confess that I didn’t love How to Stop Time by Matt Haig, but I did really enjoy it. Haig has such an interesting writing style, and he’s a real joy to follow on Twitter. This book, though? Clearly written just for me. A book about libraries with some big philosophical ideas. Yes, please. I expect this, like all of his books, will be incredibly quotable.

                   

Hush: Language is magic, and the truth is dangerous. Yes. This has all the magical plus dystopian vibes combined, and it sounds like it’s going to be a really powerful social commentary sort of read.

Network Effect: Oh, hai, look at me already being late to read one of the books on this list. In my defense, the approval was kinda late. BUT OMG I CAN’T WAIT TO READ THIS. Thanks to everyone who repeatedly yelled about Murderbot to me (you know who you are), I’ve completely fallen in love with this socially awkward, totally sarcastic robot.

Black Sun: I can’t even tell you exactly what pulled me to this book. Everything? It’s inspired by pre-Columbian American civilizations, for a start, so that’s interesting. The whole thing sounds like it’s going to be one heck of an adventure.

City Under the Stars: This just sounds like a really interesting, philosophical read. “God was in his Heaven—which was fifteen miles away, due east.” This sounds like a big topic to tackle, and I love the way it sounds already.

The Edge of Everywhen: Book nerds, unite! I love MG books about book nerds. Because I was one. I am one? Whatever. I don’t usually read a lot of Christian fic, but our patrons tend to be a highly religious crowd, so when I saw a book nerd combined with Christianity in what seems like a clean read? Yup. That’s our target audience. So I’m definitely curious!

                   

The Obsidian Tower: Broken magic, high stakes, and what sounds like a crew. Check, check, and check. While I feel like the summary doesn’t give me a great feel for what the book is about, it definitely piques my interest!

We Ride the Storm: I’m a sucker for assassins, okay? What can I say? Also, the three main characters sound so different from each other, and yet I imagine they’ll end up working together, and now I’m super curious about the characters.

A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians: I’ve been waiting for this book since the day I finished reading The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep and looked up the author and realized she had another book coming. I loved her first book, and I have no doubt I’m going to love this one. Also … necromancers. I will always show up for necromancy.

A Wolf for a Spell: This combines two of my favorite things: wolves and Baba Yaga. I will gladly read books about either, but combine the two and yes, I was obviously always going to pick this up.

Cast in Firelight: I am all about these covers with women looking fierce and badass lately. More of these, okay? This sounds like an enemies-to-lovers, potentially, or at the very least, the relationship between these two will be complicated and messy, and this is very much my sort of romance. I’m also a fan of enemies being forced to work together, so it’s a yes from me.

       

Escaping Ordinary: Another dragon! I feel like, at this point, I need to offset all these MG dragon books with some adult dragon books, but hey, is it my fault if MG is killing it with the dragons, lately? If anything, adult needs to step up their game. This also happens to be by the author of Ashlords, which I’m still looking forward to reading and very much anticipated, so I’m extra curious.

Once Upon a Unicorn: Minion informed me that I had to read this, because it has unicorns on the front and it’s about unicorns, and I’m pretty sure this was a not-so-subtle hint that I should buy it for her when it comes out. I’m also low-key excited that one of the unicorns is really into science, because I love seeing things like that in books (especially since Minion is on the cusp where she likes science, but society is telling her it’s a “boy” thing, so everything I can do to encourage that, I’ll take … even if it’s throwing science unicorns at her).

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