If you wanted to know what my most anticipated read of the year is, it’s this beautiful book I’m holding up right here: The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I couldn’t be happier to finally hold this incredibly beautiful book in my hands!
To provide a little bit of history, I am a huge fan of Silvia Moreno-Garcia and ever since I finished reading the last page of Mexican Gothic with our book club, The Top Shelf Society, I have wanted to read another gorgeous, historical fiction SMG gothic horror. Mexican Gothic is beautiful, tragic, strange, and has very important themes discussed within. SMG’s writing is enchanting and we feel this book has the potential to sweep us off of our feet yet again.
And finally … it’s here! Gah!
Yes, my expectations are very high. It’s SMG, after-all! Regardless, I’m just so excited to enter another one of SMG’s worlds and spend a little bit of time with with our heroine, Carlota, as I turn the pages of this gorgeous read. We will likely be doing a buddy read, details to come.
QOTD: What is/has been your most anticipated read of the year?
Olivia had a wonderful week! We recently purchased some tuna Smooth & Savory squeezies, which are her absolute favourite treats.
The image above provides evidence of a very rare spontaneous hammock spotting – Olivia has started to spend time on her hammock! I couldn’t believe my eyes but I really did spot her enjoying her hammock two days ago when I came home from work. I was shocked and I very quickly rushed to take a photo, which is not of very good quality. But, I’m so happy I now have some photographic evidence that she, indeed, is enjoying her hammock. Encouraging!
LifeUpdate
Fresh salad with beautiful veggies.Avocado sushi roll – yum!Cucumber rolls.
This week was a lot of fun. I spent time with family and even had some delicious sushi and salad. My partner’s family lives close to the Farmer’s Market and so all of the veggies are super fresh and very delicious. The sushi rolls were from a local sushi factory and I have to say – the avocado rolls were some of the best I’ve had in a long time!
This weekend I was able to watch my partner play his tennis tournament and sneak in a bit of reading at the same time. The matches were quite long and challenging, and the weather was very hot, but it was just wonderful to watch him have some great tennis this season. He loves the sport and I know it’s a highlight of his to play every summer in the beautiful weather.
ReadingUpdate
Here is where we will insert our stacking the shelves and reading updates!
Yesterday I finished reading A History of Women in the World by Marilyn French via my Libby app. It was a fascinating read about women and their roles in society throughout history as well as various religions and female roles within them. I thought it was just a marvellous book and I learned so much from it that it was difficult to put down – to be honest, this book wasn’t even on my radar until I saw an interview by Margaret Atwood in which she referenced it. I wanted to read it because I thought, well if Margaret Atwood is referencing this novel then I want a bit of an inside look into reference material she may have drawn inspiration from – and I was pleasantly surprised to see that she had actually provided Forwards for each of the various volumes.
The book can be a bit dense at times, and I think there is still a lot of various issues to cover, so I’m looking forward to reading further volumes. I also want to read more recently published material and see a more expansive and extensive approach that reflects feminism today and how the definition is constantly evolving.
I am still reading Always Never by Jordi Lafebre via my Hoopla app. Still feeling a bit lukewarm about this read, but I’m hoping to finish it today since I have some time to read this afternoon and evening. It’s a love story of 40 years told in reverse, and I think the art style is just not my favourite – not sure, but I’m hoping it will grow on me and I will just love the book. It does have high ratings, so I hope that is the trajectory moving forward.
I am a Cat by Sōseki Natsume. This is a three volume translated collection of work written from the perspective of a cat – a dialogue on human nature. I’ve heard a lot about Sōseki’s writing and can’t to dig in! Olivia, especially.
A Lot Like Adiós by Alexis Daria. We have mentioned this book before – it is a second chance romance and we think it will be just perfect to read this week.
Lore by Alexandra Bracken. Finally, we can’t wait to finish Lore by Alexandria Bracken! Greek mythology is something we’re especially looking forward to after reading Marilyn French’s book, mentioned earlier, in which she discusses women’s roles in ancient greece as well as after the common era. Note: all three books were independently purchased via Indigo, Chapters.
New Arrivals
Unfortunately, we have not added anything to our physical or library shelves this week as we’re still chugging along, finishing up our July TBR books. However, I’ll add a few books here we’ve added to our Goodreads and Storygraph TBR shelves recently!
Tuesday: Top Ten Tuesday: Books From My Past Seasonal TBR Posts I STILL Haven’t Read
Friday: Let’s Talk Bookish – Topic TBD
Friday: Reading Sprints Invitation for Saturday Sprints
Saturday/Sunday: Stacking the Shelves, The Sunday Post, The Sunday Salon
Bookstagram
We have been having some fun making reels lately! Here are our latest bookstagram posts:
Booktube
Latest Booktube Videos
Alas! We still have not made all of our mid year booktube videos, but these are to come. Potentials include the mid-year freakout tag, mid-year bookish wrap up OR favourites, and a mid-year reading journal flip through.
QOTD: What are you looking forward to reading this week? Let us know!
Want to read with my cat Olivia and I tomorrow? Make sure you head over to our booktube channel for reading sprints! Bring your books, have a beverage ready – it’s going to be a bookish Caturday.
Author: Marti Dumas Title: Wildseed Witch Published: May 10, 2022 Pages: 352 Format: E-ARC and Hoopla Rating: 4 stars
Today I am reviewing Wildseed Witch by Marti Dumas, a middle grade fantasy featuring an all-BIPOC cast. This is about an aspiring and raising makeup YouTuber who learns that she’s a witch and gets sent off to a private Witch Camp/finishing school. While at Les Belles Demoiselles, she learns to be a witch alongside extremely talented and powerful girls; however, she is a “Wildseed” as she comes from a family of non-witches, unlike the other girls who attend the school. Hasani must learn how to succeed and harness her magical abilities in her own way.
I thought that this book was a lot of fun and very thoughtful. Hasani is a very relatable and likeable character that has flaws, insecurities, and also amazing strengths, thus making her an awesome protagonist. You see how she learns to navigate exclusive social groups within her school, forming friendships and facing obstacles within them. You also see her grow personally within domains in her life, be it: accepting responsibility, learning to live with difficult family dynamics, and learning how to forgive others (and herself). Additionally, I enjoyed the incorporation of Creole heritage and New Orleans/Louisiana history into the book.
In regards to pacing, the first half of the book is pretty easy to fall into as you learn about Hasani and her background and I felt like this was fairly quickly paced. Towards the middle it was a bit slow, but then it picked right back up again in the last third of the book.
I’m looking forward to reading more in the series as I want to learn more about how the magic system works and know the range of Hasani’s potential magical capabilities. My cat Olivia and I would also like to see more cat appearances in the future! And, gosh, Erick Davila is such a talented artist. This artist illustrated the covers for: The Inheritance of Zoraida Cordova, With the Fire on High, and Clap When You Land (among others!)- I can’t wait to see what book cover number 2 will look like.
Olivia and I definitely recommend this book and hope you will enjoy it! It’s perfect if you would like a book about young witches that ultimately shows character development, friendships, and family.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This week has been a very restful week for Olivia, though we did manage to sneak in a few adventures here and there.
We’ve gone on the netted balcony/catio together quite a few times for some fun in the sun. She absolutely loves to sniff all the outdoor smells she possibly can.
The weather has been very sunny with clear skies and warm days. Although I personally may enjoy the summer breeze, Olivia is fearful of the wind, a fear that she bravely manages to conquer by the end of each summer season. She inspires me!
We have also discussed our recent reads and she is quite annoyed at the lack of cat books this week – I just must keep reminding her that we will be starting one soon. Now, this clearly provides little reassurance for her – but we really do have a fantastic Cat book coming up soon. So, hold tight, Olivia! We’re almost there!
Life
Last weekend we had a lot of fun and went to a local cafe. They have delicious vegan muffins that have so much flavour, I often need to get a second helping after finishing muffin #1!
Just typing this out makes me want to have another muffin so badly!
After our muffin and caffeine fixes were complete, we then went to our local garden centre and purchased roses, succulents, and plants for our balcony. The garden centre usually has so many choices, but this late in the season it can be difficult to find exactly what you are looking for. But, better late than never!
Reading
Here is where we will insert our Stacking the Shelves and reading updates!
Recently Finished:
We are happy to report that we finished both Radium Girls and Wildseed Witch! Both will both be given full reviews here on the blog very soon (Note: these are NetGalley reads and all of my NetGalley books are provided in exchange for honest reviews), but we are a bit behind at the moment. We also finished Surviving the City which was quite an emotional read. Quickly, we recommend all books if you are looking for a good nonfiction graphic novel (Radium Girls), a magical middle grade fantasy (Wildseed Witch), and/or a powerful and emotional contemporary graphic novel (Surviving the City).
Currently Reading:
Currently, I am reading A History of Women in the World by Marilyn French and Always Never by Jordi Lafebre, taken out from my library via the Libby and Hoopla apps, respectively.
I am learning so much in Marilyn French’s book, and am about 30% of the way through, so far. The book provides insights into the roles of women in society throughout history in ancient Egypt, China, India, Peru, Mexico, Greece, and Rome (among other places). It is eerie to read this book at this moment in time and I am just devouring the book. The Foreword by Margaret Atwood is just awesome.
Always Never tells a love story in reverse over a span of forty years. I’m not quite sure how I’ll end up enjoying this one – I think the art style is not for me, perhaps? But I think the story has a lot of potential, so we will keep moving forward! And perhaps I’ll end up loving it by the end.
Next Reads
All my next reads are books that are picks from my July TBR game. And, frankly, I’m a bit concerned I may not get through all of my books this month! If we can finish these three by the end of next week, oh gosh, then I’ll be on my way to completing the list and all fears re: not finishing will be alleviated swiftly!
Olivia is most looking forward to I am a Cat by Soseki Natsume, a dialogue of human nature from the perspective of a cat. I am looking forward to all three books but think that A Lot Like Adios might be exactly what I’m looking for after some nonfiction and philosophical reads since it is a contemporary romance with a super intriguing synopsis! And it may just be perfect for this point in the summer. Finally, Lore might be interesting to read after reading my current read: A History of Women in the World since they mention ancient Greece quite a bit in the book.
New Arrivals
NetGalley
We have been approved for two books by NetGalley this week and are happy to give our full review soon! The first book is a cozy mystery and is the second book in the Cambridge Bookshop Series – A Treacherous Tale by Elizabeth Penney. We had so much fun reading the first novel that of course we had to request this title! And we cannot wait to see what new mystery Molly Kimball will fall into this time around!
Additionally, we have been approved to read The Lost Witch by Paige Crutcher. It is a fantasy/romance about a time-travelling witch who loses her memory after waking up in her own home 100 years later. Oh, and there are monsters. We are intrigued and hope this will be a great read before heading into Autumn!
Tuesday – Top Ten Tuesdays: Freebie (Note: What topic would you like to see?)
Saturday – Stacking the Shelves
Sunday – The Sunday Post and The Sunday Salon
TBD: Wildseed Witch Review
We will also be hosting our Caturday Reading Sprints on our booktube channel this week! And, still on the list is a mid-year bullet journal flip through.
Update!
Booktube: Here is our Recent Reads video which goes over our weekly reading. Enjoy!
Here are my Top Ten book covers that feel like summer!
Title: Untamed Shore
Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Genre: Historical Fiction, Thriller, Mystery
Published: 28 February 2021
Goodreads Description: A coming-of-age story set in Mexico quickly turns dark when a young woman meets three enigmatic tourists.
Baja California, 1979. Viridiana spends her days watching the dead sharks piled beside the seashore, as the fishermen pull their nets. There is nothing else to do, nothing else to watch, under the harsh sun. She’s bored. Terribly bored. Yet her head is filled with dreams of Hollywood films, of romance, of a future beyond the drab town where her only option is to marry and have children.
Three wealthy American tourists arrive for the summer, and Viridiana is magnetized. She immediately becomes entwined in the glamorous foreigners’ lives. They offer excitement, and perhaps an escape from the promise of a humdrum future.
When one of them dies, Viridiana lies to protect her friends. Soon enough, someone’s asking questions, and Viridiana has some of her own about the identity of her new acquaintances. Sharks may be dangerous, but there are worse predators nearby, ready to devour a naïve young woman who is quickly being tangled in a web of deceit.
Silvia Moreno-Garcia is one of the most exciting voices in fiction, and with her first crime novel, UNTAMED SHORE, she crafts a blazing novel of suspense with an eerie seaside setting and a literary edge that proves her a master of the genre.
Title: Every Summer After
Author: Carley Fortune
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Berkley
Published: 10 May 2022
Goodreads Description: They say you can never go home again, and for Persephone Fraser, ever since she made the biggest mistake of her life a decade ago, that has felt too true. Instead of glittering summers on the lakeshore of her childhood, she spends them in a stylish apartment in the city, going out with friends, and keeping everyone a safe distance from her heart.
Until she receives the call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek—the man she never thought she’d have to live without.
For six summers, through hazy afternoons on the water and warm summer nights working in his family’s restaurant and curling up together with books—medical textbooks for him and work-in-progress horror short stories for her—Percy and Sam had been inseparable. Eventually that friendship turned into something breathtakingly more, before it fell spectacularly apart.
When Percy returns to the lake for Sam’s mother’s funeral, their connection is as undeniable as it had always been. But until Percy can confront the decisions she made and the years she’s spent punishing herself for them, they’ll never know whether their love might be bigger than the biggest mistakes of their past.
Told over the course of six years and one weekend, Every Summer After is a big, sweeping nostalgic look at love and the people and choices that mark us forever.
Georgina Fernweh waits with growing impatience for the tingle of magic in her fingers—magic that has been passed down through every woman in her family. Her twin sister, Mary, already shows an ability to defy gravity. But with their eighteenth birthday looming at the end of this summer, Georgina fears her gift will never come.
An island where strange things happen . . .
No one on the island of By-the-Sea would ever call the Fernwehs what they really are, but if you need the odd bit of help—say, a sleeping aid concocted by moonlight—they are the ones to ask.
No one questions the weather, as moody and erratic as a summer storm.
No one questions the (allegedly) three-hundred-year-old bird who comes to roost on the island every year.
A summer that will become legend . . .
When tragedy strikes, what made the Fernweh women special suddenly casts them in suspicion. Over the course of her last summer on the island—a summer of storms, of love, of salt—Georgina will learn the truth about magic, in all its many forms.
Title: The Proposal
Series: The Wedding Date
Author: Jasmine Guillory
Genre: Romance, Fiction, Contemporary
Published: 30 October 2018
Goodreads Description: The author of The Wedding Date serves up a novel about what happens when a public proposal doesn’t turn into a happy ending, thanks to a woman who knows exactly how to make one on her own…
When someone asks you to spend your life with him, it shouldn’t come as a surprise–or happen in front of 45,000 people.
When freelance writer Nikole Paterson goes to a Dodgers game with her actor boyfriend, his man bun, and his bros, the last thing she expects is a scoreboard proposal. Saying no isn’t the hard part–they’ve only been dating for five months, and he can’t even spell her name correctly. The hard part is having to face a stadium full of disappointed fans…
At the game with his sister, Carlos Ibarra comes to Nik’s rescue and rushes her away from a camera crew. He’s even there for her when the video goes viral and Nik’s social media blows up–in a bad way. Nik knows that in the wilds of LA, a handsome doctor like Carlos can’t be looking for anything serious, so she embarks on an epic rebound with him, filled with food, fun, and fantastic sex. But when their glorified hookups start breaking the rules, one of them has to be smart enough to put on the brakes…
Title: The House Across The Lake
Author: Riley Sager
Genre: Thriller, Mystery
Published: 21 June 2022
Goodreads Description: The New York Times best-selling author of Final Girls and Survive the Night (“a master of the twist and the turn” – Rolling Stone) is back with his most unexpected thriller yet.
Casey Fletcher, a recently widowed actress trying to escape a streak of bad press, has retreated to the peace and quiet of her family’s lake house in Vermont. Armed with a pair of binoculars and several bottles of liquor, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamorous couple who live in the house across the lake. They make for good viewing—a tech innovator, Tom is rich; and a former model, Katherine is gorgeous.
One day on the lake, Casey saves Katherine from drowning, and the two strike up a budding friendship. But the more they get to know each other—and the longer Casey watches—it becomes clear that Katherine and Tom’s marriage is not as perfect and placid as it appears. When Katherine suddenly vanishes, Casey becomes consumed with finding out what happened to her. In the process, she uncovers eerie, darker truths that turn a tale of voyeurism and suspicion into a story of guilt, obsession and how looks can be very deceiving.
With his trademark blend of sharp characters, psychological suspense, and gasp-worthy surprises, Riley Sager’s The House Across the Lake unveils more than one twist that will shock readers until the very last page.
Title: One Italian Summer
Author: Rebecca Serle
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Romance
Published: 1 March 2022
Goodreads Description: When Katy’s mother dies, she is left reeling. Carol wasn’t just Katy’s mom, but her best friend and first phone call. She had all the answers and now, when Katy needs her the most, she is gone. To make matters worse, their planned mother-daughter trip of a lifetime looms: two weeks in Positano, the magical town Carol spent the summer right before she met Katy’s father. Katy has been waiting years for Carol to take her, and now she is faced with embarking on the adventure alone.
But as soon as she steps foot on the Amalfi Coast, Katy begins to feel her mother’s spirit. Buoyed by the stunning waters, beautiful cliffsides, delightful residents, and, of course, delectable food, Katy feels herself coming back to life.
And then Carol appears—in the flesh, healthy, sun-tanned, and thirty years old. Katy doesn’t understand what is happening, or how—all she can focus on is that she has somehow, impossibly, gotten her mother back. Over the course of one Italian summer, Katy gets to know Carol, not as her mother, but as the young woman before her. She is not exactly who Katy imagined she might be, however, and soon Katy must reconcile the mother who knew everything with the young woman who does not yet have a clue.
Title: Death by Beach Read
Author: Eva Gates
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Published: 7 June 2022
Goodreads Description: Librarian Lucy’s new historic house comes with a lot of baggage and family secrets. Can she put them to rest or will a killer bring Lucy’s family to their downfall, in the 9th Lighthouse Library mystery.
It’s spring in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and Lucy and Connor have moved into their new home at last, a historic cottage on the Nags Head Beach. The house needs a lot of renovations, but they worked hard over the winter to get it ready. Lucy is now happily immersed in her work at the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library, planning her wedding, and decorating the house. That is, until a dead body disrupts their peaceful new abode.
The first night Lucy’s alone in the house, with the company of Charles the library cat, she hears sounds. Investigating they see footsteps in the dust of the unfinished living room, and the door to the outside is open. Lucy’s reminded that the house is said to be haunted: forty years ago the teenage daughter of the owners fled in the night, and never again stepped foot inside her family home.
But the sounds have an all-too-human origin and one evening Lucy and Connor find the dead body of a man they don’t even recognize in their kitchen. They soon realize he has a long-time connection to their house. Lucy’s forced to find out what happened all those years ago and why it’s threatening her happiness today.
Meanwhile, the Classic Novel Reading Club is reading The House of the Seven Gables by Nathanial Hawthorne, a book about another old house full of secrets. Can Lucy find parallels to her own situation in Hawthorne’s fiction before the killer strikes again?
Title: Summer Bird Blue
Author: Akemi Dawn Bowman
Genre: Contemporary, YA, LGBT
Published: 11 September 2018
Goodreads Description: Rumi Seto spends a lot of time worrying she doesn’t have the answers to everything. What to eat, where to go, whom to love. But there is one thing she is absolutely sure of—she wants to spend the rest of her life writing music with her younger sister, Lea.
Then Lea dies in a car accident, and her mother sends her away to live with her aunt in Hawaii while she deals with her own grief. Now thousands of miles from home, Rumi struggles to navigate the loss of her sister, being abandoned by her mother, and the absence of music in her life. With the help of the “boys next door”—a teenage surfer named Kai, who smiles too much and doesn’t take anything seriously, and an eighty-year-old named George Watanabe, who succumbed to his own grief years ago—Rumi attempts to find her way back to her music, to write the song she and Lea never had the chance to finish.
Aching, powerful, and unflinchingly honest, Summer Bird Blue explores big truths about insurmountable grief, unconditional love, and how to forgive even when it feels impossible.
Title: Sand Chronicles
Author: Hinako Ashihara
Genre: Manga, Romance, YA
Published: 1 January 2008
Goodreads Description: After her parents get divorced, Ann Uekusa and her mother move from Tokyo to rural Shimane. Accustomed to the anonymity of city living, Ann can’t get used to the almost overbearing kindness of the people in her mother’s hometown. But when personal tragedy strikes, Ann discovers how much she needs that kindness.
Title: A Cuban Girls Guide to Tea and Tomorrow
Author: Laura Taylor Namey
Genre: YA, Romance, Contemporary
Published: 30 May 2017
Goodreads Description: For Lila Reyes, a summer in England was never part of the plan. The plan was 1) take over her abuela’s role as head baker at their panadería, 2) move in with her best friend after graduation, and 3) live happily ever after with her boyfriend. But then the Trifecta happened, and everything—including Lila herself—fell apart.
Worried about Lila’s mental health, her parents make a new plan for her: spend three months with family friends in Winchester, England, to relax and reset. But with the lack of sun, a grumpy inn cook, and a small town lacking Miami flavor (both in food and otherwise), what would be a dream trip for some feels more like a nightmare to Lila…until she meets Orion Maxwell.
A teashop clerk with troubles of his own, Orion is determined to help Lila out of her funk, and appoints himself as her personal tour guide. From Winchester’s drama-filled music scene to the sweeping English countryside, it isn’t long before Lila is not only charmed by Orion, but England itself. Soon a new future is beginning to form in Lila’s mind—one that would mean leaving everything she ever planned behind.
QOTD: What books covers feel like summer to you? Let us know!
We are so excited to be posting our second Sunday Post update! We are linking up to The Sunday Post via the Caffeinated Book Reviewer and The Sunday Salon at Readerbuzz!
Update
Olivia Update
Olivia 😸 has been on the prowl this morning! She is always assessing her environment to find hidden catnip toys (her favourite is Yeowww catnip Purr!-muda Triangle – she is very happy with it).
On the prowl.
Another favourite of hers this summer is her cooling mat which she loves to lounge on in her office. Though, she has little to no interest in her hammock. We’ve tried placing a familiar blanket her grandmother made for her on top which helps a bit. But, alas, the cat hammock is still an unknown situation in the household!
Olivia, uncertain re: her new hammock. Plotting her escape.
Life
The weather outside has been a mixture of rain/thunderstorms and clear, sunny weather. The rain has been very much welcome, though, as the last few summers have been terribly hot and dry. It looks as though today is the perfect day to get a few plants for our garden – look for a garden update next week!
Reading
We are still working our way through Radium Girls, Wildseed Witch, and Surviving the City. Alas … we have not completed any books this week! However, we did host reading sprints on our booktube channel yesterday which were a ton of fun; thus, we’ve made a fair bit of progress on Wildseed Witch and hope to finish it today!
Blog
This week was all about setting up our new blog! I transferred from Blogger to WordPress.com simply because I wanted to easily use various plugins, I like the community aspect and various other features, and finally I wanted to learn how to use a new-to-me platform.
One minor hiccup when changing domain hosting platforms … What I did not expect was how long it would take for my DNS to propagate – basically meaning that I was unable to access my site for more than a day 😅
But we are still here!
And my cat Olivia and I are SO happy to continue blogging so we can share our thoughts about books and check out everyone’s posts. Thank you for being here!
Thank you!
Last Week On the Blog
Here are our posts from this past week! We’ve been able to write and connect with others. And that’s just so great!
Tuesday: Top Ten Tuesdays (#2): Book Covers That Feel Like Summer
Friday: Friday Reads #2
Saturday: Stacking the Shelves #2
Sunday: The Sunday Post #3
Wildseed Witch and Radium Girls NetGalley Reviews (TBD)
Also, we are planning to host reading sprints next Saturday (Caturday!) on our booktube channel and at the very least film our mid-year reading journal flip-through.
Check out our Reading Journal Setup video from the beginning of the year!
New Arrivals
Definitely check out our Saturday Stacking the Shelves post for this! We purchased new new books and have checked out some books from our library.
This is my first time participating in Stacking the Shelves, hosted by Marlene at Reading Reality!
“Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks! And audiobooks. Don’t forget audiobooks! In other words, if you can read it or if it can be read to you – no matter how you got it – it belongs in Stacking the Shelves. The Stacking the Shelves meme was originally hosted at Team Tynga’s Reviews. For the last few years it’s been co-hosted at Team Tynga’s and here at Reading Reality.” (Source)
We have purchased and are adding two new books to our shelves! Let’s takes a lot at our bookish finds.
Purchases
We recently pre-ordered our most anticipated book of the year “The Daughter of Doctor Moreau” by one of our favourite authors, Silvia Moreno-Garcia! This was purchased via Indigo, Chapters in hardcover form and we are SO excited welcome this beauty onto our shelves! Just look at it!
We gushed over SMG’s new novel in our Anticipated 2022 Reads blog post and we are happy to gush over it again here! And from reading everyone’s lovely comments, it appears though MANY of us cannot wait to read it!
Let’s take a look at our second purchase from Indigo.
We are so lucky to have found these wonderful Sailor Moon editions! Thus far, I have acquired Eternal Editions 1-5, and now I am happy to continue adding more to the collection. If you’ve previously read this manga, these books are such a treat as they are so large (10.02 x 7.13 x 0.91 inches!) allowing you to really immerse yourself into the story. They also include additional notes at the back of each copy to learn more about the world of Sailor Moon both as you are reading or afterward for review.
Library
Finally, we have shelved and are reading two books from the library!
This book is about Miikwan (Anishinaabe) and Dez (Inninew) who have to face and maneuver various challenges they encounter while growing up Indigenous in the city. I’m already 77% of the way through – it is beautifully illustrated and an emotional read as it deals with grief, loss, and other sensitive topics. Fortunate to have found this in our Libby app and to be reading it this month as part of our July TBR!
Finally, another book that I’ve put on my July TBR based off of our TBR Game, Fighting Evil by Booklight is Always Never by Jodi LaFebre. We were able to access this book via Hoopla. It tells a 40 year love story in reverse and I’m so curious to see how it will be done! I’ve seen wonderful reviews and I can’t wait to dig in!
QOTD: What books have you recently placed on your shelves?
Note: I am not sponsored or affiliated with any stores/brands/companies/products mentioned.
Want to read with my cat Olivia and I tomorrow? Make sure you head over to our booktube channel for reading sprints! Bring your books, have a beverage ready – it’s going to be a bookish Caturday.