Showing posts with label november 2024. Show all posts
Showing posts with label november 2024. Show all posts

Monday, December 2, 2024

Month in Review: November 2024

So, November has been.. rough, for a variety of reasons that I'm sure we're all aware of. But fortunately some really good things also happening this month, such as my husband and I taking a trip to Japan together! My husband has visited Japan a few times in the past and has always wanted to take me–and I've also been wanting to visit–so we finally got to go and it was such a wonderful experience. We only had a week, so we tried to make the most of our limited time and stayed in Kyoto, with some day trips to Osaka and Nara. It was really an incredible time and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to go.

The downside to traveling (for me, at least) is that it puts me incredible behind on everything else, haha. I am ashamed to say that I only got three reviews up this month (yikes), but I do already have two reviews finished and scheduled for December and with more on the way, so I'll do my best to make up for that. It was a slow blogging month for me in general, but maybe in December I'll (finally?) get back on track. I read nine books this month–a bit less than anticipated–but there were some really great ones in there. Some highlights were A Sorceress Comes to Call, Sorcery and Small Magics, and After the People Lights have Gone Off

How was your November and what books have you been reading?  Let me know how your month was below and what you've been reading!
   

# books read: 9

After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones ★★★★
Source: Owned | Format: Paperback

We Do Not Part by Han Kang ★★★.75
Source: Publisher | Format: Physical ARC

Darkly by Marisha Pessl ★★★★
Source: NetGalley | Format: eARC

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher ★★★★★
Source: Owned | Format: Hardcover

Sorcery and Small Magics by Maiga Doocy ★★★★.75
Source: Publisher | Format: Paperback

The Way by Cary Groner ★★★★
Source: NetGalley | Format: eARC

We'll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida ★★★★
Source: NetGalley | Format: eARC

The Gate of the Feral Gods (Dungeon Crawler Carl #4) ★★★★
Source: Owned | Format: Audiobook

Beholder by Ryan La Sala ★★★
Source: Library | Format: Audiobook

DNF/To-Be-Finished:
None! (that I can recall...)
 Posts:
Blog Memes:


The Friday Face-Off:
Current Read #33

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Can't-Wait Wednesday: Dead Girls Don't Dream by Nino Cipri & The Estate by Sarah Jost

     

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! This meme is based off of Jill @ Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday meme.

Dead Girls Don't Dream by Nino Cipri
Publication: November 12th, 2024
Henry Holt and Co.
Hardcover. 304 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"There are rules for Voynich Woods: Always carry a whistle. Never go alone. Always come home before dark. And if anyone calls your name, don't answer. Because everyone who wanders from the path is never seen again.

Except for Riley Walcott.

Riley knows better than to stray from the trail in the woods behind her uncle Toby's house. But her little sister Sam breaks the rules in pursuit of a local legend, so Riley chases after her and discovers a knife-wielding figure and a waiting grave.

Madelyn lives deep in the forest. Subject to her mother's strict rules, she's forbidden from leaving home or using her magic―but one night, she risks everything to help a stranger who's lost in the woods.

Riley is murdered in a strange ritual, Madelyn uses her magic to resurrect her, and their lives are immediately entwined in the gnarled history of Voynich Woods. Riley, who feels trapped in her small town but too afraid to leave, was never a believer, but now the evidence is taking root under her skin. Madelyn has the scars to prove how terrible magic can be, and longs for a life beyond her mother's grasp. As the legends become all too real, Riley and Madelyn must confront their deepest fears to uncover the truth about Voynich Woods.
"

I'm always up for any horror with a mysterious forest! I'm really curious to see what the author does with this premise.

The Estate by Sarah Jost
Publication: November 19th, 2024
Sourcebooks Landmark
Paperback. 416 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"For fans of The Cloisters and The Cartographers comes a gripping speculative suspense that follows one woman with the ability to enter the dimension of art, who finds herself trapped in a French estate as the pawn in a rich man's game…

Not all art is safe.

Camille Lerray has spent her career as an art historian surrounding herself with fineries, learning how to appeal to the rich, and selling art for millions. But she harbors a secret that could ruin the life she has so meticulously she has the magic ability to enter the world of the art she surrounds herself with, and she can take others with her. But tapping into history comes at a great risk.

And someone has been watching, someone who knows about her magic, and her mistakes...

After Camille ruins her career and reputation after misusing her powers, she vows to do anything to get her old life back, even if that means tamping down her magic. So when Maxime Foucault, an enigmatic aristocrat who owns a sprawling French estate, enlists her help in authenticating the statues of a mysterious artist who was deemed a madwoman, she knows this could be her chance to turn her career around and get the man of her dreams.

But something isn't quite right about the Foucault family and the grand chateau they inhabit, and as Camille gets sucked into its walls, she finds a world of luxury and greed, and risks losing herself, and everything she has ever known, forever.
"

This sounds so interesting and unique! I love the idea of being able to enter the worlds of art (!) and am so curious about this book. 

Friday, October 25, 2024

November Anticipated Releases


November is right around the corner (but don't worry, it's not here just yet–we're not bulldozing over Halloween!) which means more new releases are coming our way! Once again, we have a huge array of books to get excited for and I've done my best to share some of those below. Be sure to let me know which ones you're looking forward to, and I've no doubt that I've left some out so let me know in the comments if I've missed any that you are excited about. Happy reading!


The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami || November 19th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

We Shall Be Monsters by Alyssa Wees || November 12th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Darkly by Marisha Pessl || November 26th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso || November 19th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Where the Library Hides by Isabel Ibanez || November 5th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Daughters of Bronze by A.D. RHine || November 26th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Courting of Bristol Keats by Mary E. Pearson || November 12th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Eleanore of Avignon by Elizabeth DeLozier || November 5th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Servant of Earth by Sarah Hawley || November 12th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong || November 5th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Dead Girls Don't Dream by Nino Cipri || November 12th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

A Trinket for the Taking by Victoria Laurie || November 26th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Author's Guide to Murder by Beatriz Williams || November 5th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Estate by Sarah Jost || November 19th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Lazarus Man by Richard Price || November 12th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Half King by Melissa Landers || November 19th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Snow Drowned by Jennifer D. Lyle || November 5th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers || November 12th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Magnificent Ruins by Roy Nayantara || November 12th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures by Katherine Rundell || November 12th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Her Lotus Year: Chine, The Roaring Twenties, and the Making of Wallis Simpson by || November 12th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Red Sonja: Consumed by Gail Simone || November 19th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Twice-Sold Soul by Katie Hallahan || November 12th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Not for the Faint of Heart by Lex Croucher || November 26th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

What are your anticipated November releases?

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Can't-Wait Wednesday: The Courting of Bristol Keats by Mary E. Pearson & Eleanore of Avignon Elizabeth DeLozier

    

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! This meme is based off of Jill @ Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday meme.


The Courting of Bristol Keats by Mary E. Pearson
Publication: November 12th, 2024
Flatiron Books
Hardcover. 560 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"After losing both their parents, Bristol Keats and her sisters struggle to stay afloat in their small, quiet town of Bowskeep. When Bristol begins to receive letters from an “aunt” she’s never heard of who promises she can help, she reluctantly agrees to meet—and discovers that everything she thought she knew about her family is a lie. Even her father might still be alive, not killed but kidnapped by terrifying creatures to a whole other realm—the one he is from.

Desperate to save her father and find the truth, Bristol journeys to a land of gods and fae and monsters. Pulled into a dangerous world of magic and intrigue, she makes a deadly bargain with the fae king, Tyghan. But what she doesn't know is that he's the one who drove her parents to live a life on the run. And he is just as determined as she is to find her father—dead or alive.
"

I'm excited for Mary E. Pearson and think this sounds so interesting! I'm always down to travel to other lands and fae realms. 

Eleanore of Avignon by Elizabeth DeLozier
Publication: November 5th, 2024
Riverhead Books
Hardcover. 320 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"Eleanore of Avignon is the story of a woman who is unwilling to bend to the limitations her society places upon her when she becomes the unlikely apprentice to the pope’s physician at the most challenging and dangerous moment in medieval European history.

Provence, 1347. Eleanore (Elea) Blanchet is a midwife and budding herbalist with remarkable skills. But as she knows all too well from her late mother’s fate, she must be careful to stay within her station. So, she quietly accepts her role tending to the pregnant women in her home city of Avignon; spending time with her father and beloved twin sister, Margot; and escaping to the surrounding woods to forage for herbs when she can. At the very least, she is determined to preserve the little freedom she does have by staying unwed—unlike Margot, who is about to marry a man with painful connections to their mother’s death.

Then, in a chance encounter, Elea meets Guy de Chauliac, “Guigo,” the enigmatic personal physician to the powerful Pope Clement, who, against all odds, agrees to take her on as his apprentice. Under his tutelage, a whole new world opens to Elea—a world of status, wealth, and fascinating medical cases—but just as she starts to settle into her new position, the much-feared plague hits Europe, making Elea and Guigo's work more urgent than ever. And as if that weren’t enough, the disgraced Queen Joanna of Naples arrives in Avignon to stand trial for her husband’s murder—and she is pregnant and in need of a midwife, a role only Elea can fill.

As the Black Death spreads like wildfire, leaving half the city dead in its wake—and as the queen's childbirth approaches—Elea finds herself battling what seems to be an unwinnable war. All the while, the people of Avignon are becoming more and more desperate for a scapegoat, and a group of religious heretics launch a witch hunt, one that could cost her everything.
"

I've been looking for a good historical fiction lately, and this sounds really promising–I only wish it were a bit longer, haha. Can't wait to check this one out!

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Can't-Wait Wednesday: Darkly by Marisha Pessl & The Author's Guide to Murder by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, & Karen White

     

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! This meme is based off of Jill @ Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday meme.

Darkly by Marisha Pessl
Publication: November 26th, 2024
Delacorte Press
Hardcover. 416 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"What would you kill for?

When an ad for an internship with the Louisiana Veda Foundation poses this question, seemingly every high school student in the country rushes to apply. Arcadia “Dia” Gannon has been obsessed with Louisiana Veda, the late game designer whose obsessive creations have attained a cultlike status, ever since she and her mom played Disappearing Act—but Dia has never won anything in her life. So she’s shocked when she’s chosen as an intern, along with six other teenagers from around the world.

Little is known about Louisiana Veda. Her game-making empire, Darkly, was renowned for its ingenious, terrifying toys and games, rife with hidden symbols and secrets. But after Veda’s mysterious death, Darkly went bankrupt, and production was discontinued. The remaining games are priced like highly sought-after works of art, with the rarest and most notorious items commanding tens of millions of dollars at auction.

Now the interns are thrust into the enigmatic heart of Louisiana Veda’s operation, and Dia immediately questions everything: Who are these other kids? Why do they all seem to have something to hide? And why was she really chosen? It soon becomes clear that this summer will be the most twisted Darkly game of all.
"

My experience reading Marisha Pessl's past books is that she always has really neat premises and always explores them fully, so I'm really curious and excited about this one!

The Author's Guide to Murder by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, Karen White
Publication: November 5th, 2024
William Morrow
Hardcover. 416 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"There’s been a sensational murder at historic Castle Kinloch, a gothic fantasy of grey granite on a remote island in the Highlands of Scotland. Literary superstar Brett Saffron Presley has been found dead—under bizarre circumstances—in the castle tower’s book-lined study. Years ago, Presley purchased the castle as a showpiece for his brand and to lure paying guests with a taste for writerly glamour. Now it seems, the castle has done him in…or, possibly, one of the castle’s guests has. Detective Chief Inspector Euan McIntosh, a local with no love for this literary American show-off (or Americans in general), finds himself with the unenviable task of extracting statements from three American lady novelists.

The prime suspects are Kat de Noir, a slinky, sexy erotica writer; Cassie Pringle, a Southern mom of six juggling multiple cozy mystery series; and Emma Endicott, a New England blue blood and author of critically acclaimed historical fiction. The women claim to be best friends writing a book a historical novel about the castle’s lurid past and its debauched laird, who himself ended up creatively murdered. But the authors’ stories about how they know Brett Saffron Presley don’t quite line up, and the detective is getting increasingly suspicious.

Why did the authors really come to Castle Kinloch? Is the murder of the long-ago laird somehow connected with the playboy author’s unfortunate demise? And what really happened the night of the great Kinloch ceilidh, when Brett Saffron Presley skipped the folk dancing for a rendezvous with death?

A crafty locked-room mystery, a pointed satire about the literary world, and a tale of unexpected friendship and romance—this novel has it all, as only three bestselling authors can tell it!.
"

This sounds like a lot of fun and this trio of authors always does a great job with their collaborations. I am always up for a good satire! 

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Can't-Wait Wednesday: We Shall Be Monsters by Alyssa Sees & Daughters of Bronze by A.D. Rhine

     

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! This meme is based off of Jill @ Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday meme.


We Shall Be Monsters by Alyssa Wees
Publication: November 12th, 2024
Del Rey
Paperback. 320 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"A dark, lyrical fantasy blending the world of the Fae with the stories mothers tell to keep their daughters safe - and the consequences of disregarding the truth, no matter how sinister.

Gemma lives with her mother in an isolated antique shop in Michigan, near a small patch of woods that conceals an enchanted gateway to fairyland. She knows she's not supposed to go into the woods - her mother Virginia has warned her multiple times about the monsters that lurk there - and yet defiantly, curiously, she goes anyway.

Virginia understands her daughter's defiance. She knows the lure of the woods all too well. Her own mother warned her about the monsters that resided there, and she also did not listen. Until a witch cursed her true love, Ash - Gemma's father - into the form of a beast in the days before Gemma's birth. And if Virginia cannot break the curse before her daughter turns fifteen, Ash will eat Virginia's heart and Gemma will belong to the witch. So Virginia will do whatever she can to protect her daughter - even if it means stealing Gemma's memories away.

But everything changes when Gemma inadvertently gets too close to the truth, and the witch steals Virginia away instead. Now it is up to Gemma to venture deep into Fae lands to try and rescue her mother and break the curse.
"

This sounds like such an intriguing premise between mother/daughter and I'm so curious about exploring the Fae world in this. 

Daughters of Bronze by A.D. Rhine
Publication: November 26th, 2024
Dutton
Paperback. 512 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"Song of great sorrow. Even greater love.

Lost between the timeless lines of Homer’s epic, the women of Troy finally stand to be counted. Their story is one you’ve never encountered, and it will change the fate of Troy forever.

Andromache has proven herself a capable leader, but can she maintain that hard-won status now that she is the mother to the city’s long-awaited heir? With enemies closing in, Andromache must bring together a divided city in time to make a final stand.

Rhea is a Trojan spy, but she never expected to find love in the enemy camp. When the final battle lines are drawn, Rhea must decide where her loyalties lie and how much she is willing to lose.

Helen is no longer the same broken woman first brought to Troy as a captive. Given a second chance at life, she must cast off her shroud of grief and use her healing gifts to save Troy’s greatest hope.

Cassandra has seen Troy’s fate. But she knows the truth is only as valuable as the person who tells it . . . and few in Troy value her. All that is about to change. One hero will rise, another will fall . . . and this time, Cassandra will have her say.
"

I just can't ever say not to these Greek myth-inspired stories/retellings and this is no exception! Really looking forward to this one, I've heard amazing things.