Can't-Wait Wednesday: Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire & My Friends by Hisham Matar

 

 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.

This week's upcoming book spotlights are:

Mislaid in Parts Half-Known (Wayward Children #9) by Seanan McGuire
Publication: January 9th, 2024
Tordotcom
Hardcover. 160 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"Antsy is the latest student to pass through the doors at Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children.

When her fellow students realize that Antsy's talent for finding absolutely anything may extend to doors, she's forced to flee in the company of a small group of friends, looking for a way back to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go to be sure that Vineta and Hudson are keeping their promise.

Along the way, temptations are dangled, decisions are reinforced, and a departure to a world populated by dinosaurs brings untold dangers and one or two other surprises!

A story that reminds us that finding what you want doesn't always mean finding what you need."

I think I'm still one book behind in this series, but I'm hoping to catch up soon in time for the release of this latest installment. This series has its ups and downs, but I'm always drawn to them and have really loved the creativity from Seanan McGuire! Also, I'm always down for dinosaurs. 

My Friends by Hisham Matar
Publication: January 9th, 2024
Random House
Hardcover. 416 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:

"The trick time plays is to lull us into the belief that everything lasts forever, and although nothing does, we continue, inside our dream.

One evening, as a young boy growing up in Benghazi, Khaled hears a bizarre short story read aloud on the radio, about a man being eaten alive by a cat. Obsessed by the power of those words—and by their enigmatic author, Hosam Zowa—Khaled eventually embarks on a journey that will take him far from home, to pursue a life of the mind at the University of Edinburgh.

There, thrust into an open society that is light years away from the world he knew in Libya, Khaled begins to change. He attends a protest against the Qaddafi regime in London, only to watch it explode in tragedy. In a flash, Khaled finds himself injured, clinging to life, an exile, unable to leave England, much less return to the country of his birth. To even tell his mother and father back home what he has done, on tapped phone lines, would jeopardize their safety.

When a chance encounter in a hotel brings Khaled face to face with Hosam Zowa, the author of the fateful short story, he is subsumed into the deepest friendship of his life. It is a friendship that not only sustains him, but eventually forces him, as the Arab Spring erupts, to confront agonizing tensions between revolution and safety, family and exile, and how to define his own sense of self against those closest to him.

A devastating meditation on friendship and family, and the ways in which time tests—and frays—those bonds, My Friends is an achingly beautiful work of literature by an author at the peak of his powers."

Something about this book just really calls out to me and I'm really curious to check it out. It sounds like it'll hit on a lot of different topics and events, which should make for an interesting read.  

Can't-Wait Wednesday: Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire & What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall

 

 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.

This week, we're diving in early to take a peek at some of January's upcoming releases!
This week's upcoming book spotlights are: 

Lost in the Moment and Found (Wayward Children #8) by Seanan McGuire
Publication: January 10th, 2023
Tordotcom
Hardcover. 160 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:

"Welcome to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go. 

If you ever lost a sock, you’ll find it here. 

If you ever wondered about favorite toy from childhood... it’s probably sitting on a shelf in the back. 

And the headphones that you swore that this time you’d keep safe? You guessed it…. 

Antoinette has lost her father. Metaphorically. He’s not in the shop, and she’ll never see him again. But when Antsy finds herself lost (literally, this time), she finds that however many doors open for her, leaving the Shop for good might not be as simple as it sounds. 

And stepping through those doors exacts a price. 

Lost in the Moment and Found tells us that childhood and innocence, once lost, can never be found."

I have found that the books in this series can be a little hit or miss sometimes at this point, but I'm always so excited to read the new installments, and Lost in the Moment and Found sounds very promising! I love diving into McGuire's seemingly boundless imagination. 

and...

What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall
Publication: January 17th, 2023
Flatiron
Hardcover. 336 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:

"They were eleven when they sent a killer to prison . . . They were heroes . . . but they were liars. 

Naomi Shaw used to believe in magic. Twenty-two years ago, she and her two best friends, Cassidy and Olivia, spent the summer roaming the woods, imagining a world of ceremony and wonder. They called it the Goddess Game. The summer ended suddenly when Naomi was attacked. Miraculously, she survived her seventeen stab wounds and lived to identify the man who had hurt her. The girls’ testimony put away a serial killer, wanted for murdering six women. They were heroes. 

And they were liars. 

For decades, the friends have kept a secret worth killing for. But now Olivia wants to tell, and Naomi sets out to find out what really happened in the woods—no matter how dangerous the truth turns out to be."

I've really enjoyed what I've read from Kate Alice Marshall so far, and although I'm behind on a couple of her releases, I'm really looking forward to this one now as well!

What do you think about these upcoming releases? What are your anticipated upcoming releases?

Can't-Wait Wednesday: How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu & Where the Drowned Girls Go (Wayward Children #7) by Seanan McGuire

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.

This week's upcoming book spotlights are: 

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
Publication: January 18th, 2022

William Morrow

Hardcover. 304 pages.

Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:

"Follow a cast of intricately linked characters over hundreds of years as humanity struggles to rebuild itself in the aftermath of a climate plague 

Beginning in 2030, a grieving archeologist arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue the work of his recently deceased daughter at the Batagaika crater, where researchers are studying long-buried secrets now revealed in melting permafrost, including the perfectly preserved remains of a girl who appears to have died of an ancient virus. 

Once unleashed, the Arctic Plague will reshape life on Earth for generations to come, quickly traversing the globe, forcing humanity to devise a myriad of moving and inventive ways to embrace possibility in the face of tragedy. In a theme park designed for terminally ill children, a cynical employee falls in love with a mother desperate to hold on to her infected son. A heartbroken scientist searching for a cure finds a second chance at fatherhood when one of his test subjects—a pig—develops the capacity for human speech. A widowed painter and her teenaged granddaughter embark on a cosmic quest to locate a new home planet. 

From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead to interstellar starships, Sequoia Nagamatsu takes readers on a wildly original and compassionate journey, spanning continents, centuries, and even celestial bodies to tell a story about the resiliency of the human spirit, our infinite capacity to dream, and the connective threads that tie us all together in the universe."

This premise is everything to me. I feel like this is the book I've been hoping for, so I can't wait to have a chance to check it out and hopefully love it as much as I'm hoping to!

and...

Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire (Wayward Children #7)

Publication: January 4th, 2022

Tordotcom

Hardcover. 160 pages.

Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:

"Welcome to the Whitethorn Institute. The first step is always admitting you need help, and you've already taken that step by requesting a transfer into our company. 

There is another school for children who fall through doors and fall back out again. 

It isn't as friendly as Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. 

And it isn't as safe. 

When Eleanor West decided to open her school, her sanctuary, her Home for Wayward Children, she knew from the beginning that there would be children she couldn't save; when Cora decides she needs a different direction, a different fate, a different prophecy, Miss West reluctantly agrees to transfer her to the other school, where things are run very differently by Whitethorn, the Headmaster. 

She will soon discover that not all doors are welcoming..."

I have adored the Wayward Children series and I think this installment sounds like it's really going to get into something new and interesting. I'm very curious and excited to read this one!

What do you think about these upcoming releases? What are your anticipated upcoming releases?

Can't-Wait Wednesday: Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire, The Forever Sea by Joshua Phillip Johnson, & The Divines by Ellie Eaton

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.

This week's upcoming book spotlights are: 

Across the Green Grass Fields (Wayward Children #6) by Seanan McGuire
Publication: January 12th, 2021

Tor

Hardcover. 176 pages.

Pre-order: Amazon | IndieBound

From Goodreads:

"'Welcome to the Hooflands. We’re happy to have you, even if you being here means something’s coming.'

 

Regan loves, and is loved, though her school-friend situation has become complicated, of late.

 

When she suddenly finds herself thrust through a doorway that asks her to "Be Sure" before swallowing her whole, Regan must learn to live in a world filled with centaurs, kelpies, and other magical equines―a world that expects its human visitors to step up and be heroes.

 

But after embracing her time with the herd, Regan discovers that not all forms of heroism are equal, and not all quests are as they seem…"

I have been really enjoying the Wayward Children series and I'm really excited to see what Regan's story is going to be!

and...

The Forever Sea by Joshua Phillip Johnson

Publication: January 19th, 2021

DAW Books

Hardcover. 464 pages.

Pre-order: Amazon | IndieBound

From Goodreads:

"The first book in a new environmental epic fantasy series set in a world where ships kept afloat by magical hearthfires sail an endless grass sea.

 

On the never-ending, miles-high expanse of prairie grasses known as the Forever Sea, Kindred Greyreach, hearthfire keeper and sailor aboard harvesting vessel The Errant, is just beginning to fit in with the crew of her new ship when she receives devastating news. Her grandmother--The Marchess, legendary captain and hearthfire keeper--has stepped from her vessel and disappeared into the sea.

 

But the note she leaves Kindred suggests this was not an act of suicide. Something waits in the depths, and the Marchess has set out to find it.

 

To follow in her grandmother's footsteps, Kindred must embroil herself in conflicts bigger than she could imagine: a water war simmering below the surface of two cultures; the politics of a mythic pirate city floating beyond the edges of safe seas; battles against beasts of the deep, driven to the brink of madness; and the elusive promise of a world below the waves.

 

Kindred finds that she will sacrifice almost everything--ship, crew, and a life sailing in the sun--to discover the truth of the darkness that waits below the Forever Sea."

Is that cover not so intriguing!? I haven't heard much about this one at all, but I am so intrigued by its premise. (And on a side note--anyone think that cover would make a great puzzle?)

and...

The Divines by Ellie Eaton

William Morrow

Publication: January 19th, 2021

Hardcover. 320 pages.

Pre-order: Amazon | IndieBound

From Goodreads:

"Can we ever really escape our past?

 

 The girls of St John the Divine, an elite English boarding school, were notorious for flipping their hair, harassing teachers, chasing boys, and chain-smoking cigarettes. They were fiercely loyal, sharp-tongued, and cuttingly humorous in the way that only teenage girls can be. For Josephine, now in her thirties, the years at St John were a lifetime ago. She hasn’t spoken to another Divine in fifteen years, not since the day the school shuttered its doors in disgrace.

 

Yet now Josephine inexplicably finds herself returning to her old stomping grounds. The visit provokes blurry recollections of those doomed final weeks that rocked the community. Ruminating on the past, Josephine becomes obsessed with her teenage identity and the forgotten girls of her one-time orbit. With each memory that resurfaces, she circles closer to the violent secret at the heart of the school’s scandal. But the more Josephine recalls, the further her life unravels, derailing not just her marriage and career, but her entire sense of self.

 

Moving between present-day Los Angeles and 1990s Britain, The Divines is a scorching examination of the power of adolescent sexuality, female identity, and the destructive class divide. Exposing the tension between the lives we lead as adults and the experiences that form us, Eaton probes us to consider how our memories as adults compel us to reexamine our pasts. "

I'm also intrigued by books with this sort of premise, though they can be so hit or miss and I'm not sure what to expect! I recently received an ARC of it, though, so I'm excited to find out. 

What do you think about these upcoming releases? What are your anticipated upcoming releases?