Shelf Control Wednesdays

Shelf Control Wednesdays: December 6, 2023

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Shelf Control is hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies. 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!

Title: The Dark Forest

Author: Cixin Liu

Published: 2008

Length: 512 pages

Brief Synopsis from Goodreads: This is the second novel in “Remembrance of Earth’s Past”, the near-future trilogy written by China’s multiple-award-winning science fiction author, Cixin Liu.

In The Dark Forest, Earth is reeling from the revelation of a coming alien invasion — four centuries in the future. The aliens’ human collaborators have been defeated but the presence of the sophons, the subatomic particles that allow Trisolaris instant access to all human information, means that Earth’s defense plans are exposed to the enemy. Only the human mind remains a secret.

This is the motivation for the Wallfacer Project, a daring plan that grants four men enormous resources to design secret strategies hidden through deceit and misdirection from Earth and Trisolaris alike. Three of the Wallfacers are influential statesmen and scientists but the fourth is a total unknown. Luo Ji, an unambitious Chinese astronomer and sociologist, is baffled by his new status. All he knows is that he’s the one Wallfacer that Trisolaris wants dead.

How I got it: Finally, my wait was over at the library.

When I got it: 2023

Why I want to read it: This is the second book in a trilogy and after reading the first book, I just knew that I had to read the second one.

Shelf Control Wednesdays: November 29, 2023

/ E.A. Hoffmann / 4 Comments

Shelf Control is hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies. 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!

Title: The Circle

Author: Dave Eggers

Published: 2013

Length: 493 pages

Brief Synopsis from Goodreads: When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users’ personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency.

As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company’s modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO.

Mae can’t believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in the world—even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public.

What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.

How I got it: On vacation in South Carolina at a library book sale.

When I got it: 2023

Why I want to read it: I’ve been wanting to read this book for a really long time, but haven’t gotten around to it yet.

Shelf Control Wednesdays: November 1, 2023

/ E.A. Hoffmann / Leave a comment

Shelf Control is hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies. 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!

Title: Sisters of the Lost Nation

Author: Nick Medina

Published: 2023

Length: 331 pages

Brief Synopsis from Goodreads: A young Native girl’s hunt for answers about the women mysteriously disappearing from her tribe’s reservation lead her to delve into the myths and stories of her people, all while being haunted herself, in this atmospheric and stunningly poignant debut.

Anna Horn is always looking over her shoulder. For the bullies who torment her, for the entitled visitors at the reservation’s casino…and for the nameless, disembodied entity that stalks her every step–an ancient tribal myth come-to-life, one that’s intent on devouring her whole.

With strange and sinister happenings occurring around the casino, Anna starts to suspect that not all the horrors on the reservation are old. As girls begin to go missing and the tribe scrambles to find answers, Anna struggles with her place on the rez, desperately searching for the key she’s sure lies in the legends of her tribe’s past.

When Anna’s own little sister also disappears, she’ll do anything to bring Grace home. But the demons plaguing the reservation–both ancient and new–are strong, and sometimes, it’s the stories that never get told that are the most important.

Part gripping thriller and part mythological horror, author Nick Medina spins an incisive and timely novel of life as an outcast, the cost of forgetting tradition, and the courage it takes to become who you were always meant to be.

How I got it: I checked this book out at the library on a 14 day loan when I was visiting my parents. Last night it was hard to sleep because I kept wanting to read.

When I got it: 2023

Why I want to read it: The synopsis sounded really good!

Shelf Control Wednesdays: October 11, 2023

/ E.A. Hoffmann / Leave a comment

Shelf Control is hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies. 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!

Title: Shallow Graves

Author: Ray Fysh

Published: 2023

Length: 318 pages

Brief Synopsis from Goodreads: Shortlisted for the True Crime Awards 2023 Best New True Crime Author

The murder of Sarah Payne, Adam the Thames Torso, the London bombings, the Night Stalker and the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko… The solving of all these cases can be linked to one Ray Fysh, a beer-swigging Charlton Athletic fan from Woolwich, a natural raconteur and also one of the finest forensic detectives the country has ever seen.

Ray began work for the Met Police in the 1970s when forensic investigation was seen as little more than a geeky side show, only in existence to confirm or eliminate evidence. But by the mid 90s Ray and his team had made huge progress in their field, contributing to the UK becoming a world-leading innovator in forensic techniques, with Ray himself being named as Special Adviser to the Forensic Science Service. As the SA, Ray worked alongside Senior Investigating Officers from day one of a case, directing his team to identify forensic opportunities and harvest case-cracking clues.

As Ray looks back over his career at the cases he worked on, the reader is given unparalleled insight into the highs and lows of an astonishing career, the historic classist snobbery of the Met and the stunning realities of crime and forensics

How I got it: I bought this book at a mall in Meadowhall / Sheffield, England. Having lived in Austria since 2017, I am used to inner city train systems that function relatively on time and without issue. Apparently, in England there is a massive worker shortage, which affects the trains because there aren’t enough operators. So even though Sheffield and Meadowhall are one stop away from each other, it took me nearly an hour to travel one way because there were at least 3 trains cancelled before one showed up due to having no operator to run it. I didn’t have a book with me, so I bought this one for 4 pounds to read on the way back to the hotel.

When I got it: 2023

Why I want to read it: The synopsis sounded really good!

Shelf Control Wednesdays: October 4, 2023

/ E.A. Hoffmann / 1 Comment

Shelf Control is hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies. 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!

Title: The Hike

Author: Lucy Clarke

Published: 2023

Length: 384 pages

Brief Synopsis from Goodreads: Maggie, Liz, Helena & Joni. Old friends bound by history, adventures, old secrets.

And now, bound by murder.

They lace up their hiking boots for the adventure of a lifetime in the Norwegian wilderness: a place of towering mountains, glass-like lakes, log cabins and forests stolen from a fairytale.

It’s the perfect place to lose yourself – until a broken body is found at the bottom of a ravine.

Somewhere out there, someone knows exactly why a woman has died. And in this deep, dark wilderness, there’s a killer on the trail . . .

How I got it: I bought this book at the airport in Manchester because I needed something to read on the plane and I had a remaining 20 pound note that I needed to spend.

When I got it: 2023

Why I want to read it: The synopsis sounded really good!

Shelf Control Wednesdays: September 13, 2023

/ E.A. Hoffmann / Leave a comment

Shelf Control is hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies. 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!

Title: The Doom Magnetic Trilogy

Author: William Pauley III

Published: 2010

Length: 356 pages

Brief Synopsis from Goodreads: CHORIZO, NEVADA is filled with the grittiest of men and the filthiest of women—the perfect place for a man chockful of secrets to hide. But one fateful day, his past catches up to him…

A Japanese assassin, with a cue-ball for an eye, invades the town with an army of two-foot eyeless minions who thirst for human blood. This man has two things on his mind: Where is his purple television? And who is the dead man that stole it from him?

The Doom Magnetic Trilogy is a fast-paced sci-fi western, packed plum-full of sex, violence, cosmic voids, coliseum-style combat, genetically engineered mutants, breathy brain whispers, cigar smoke torture chambers, and a sea of electric television zombies.

This is the weirdest book you will ever read.

How I got it: I got this book as an ARC from Netgalley.

When I got it: 2023

Why I want to read it: I have read several of Pauley’s works, and I love them all.

Shelf Control Wednesdays: September 6, 2023

/ E.A. Hoffmann / Leave a comment

Shelf Control is hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies. 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!

Title: Baby Proof

Author: Emily Giffin

Published: 2006

Length: 356 pages

Brief Synopsis from Goodreads: From the author of the smash hits Something Borrowed and Something Blue comes a novel that explores the question: is there ever a deal-breaker when it comes to true love?

First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes . . . a baby carriage? Isn’t that what all women want?

Not so for Claudia Parr. And just as she gives up on finding a man who feels the same way, she meets warm, wonderful Ben. Things seem too good to be true when they fall in love and agree to buck tradition with a satisfying, child-free marriage. Then the unexpected occurs: one of them has a change of heart. One of them wants children after all.

This is the witty, heartfelt story about what happens to the perfect couple when they suddenly want different things. It’s about feeling that your life is set and then realizing that nothing is as you thought it was—and that there is no possible compromise. It’s about deciding what is most important in life, and taking chances to get it. But most of all, it’s about the things we will do—and won’t do—for love.

How I got it: I bought it from a used bookstore website in Germany.

When I got it: 2023

Why I want to read it: I bought several women’s fiction novels to read while I was writing my own so that I could be in the women’s fiction frame of mind as I wrote.

Shelf Control Wednesdays: August 30, 2023

/ E.A. Hoffmann / Leave a comment

Shelf Control is hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies. 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!

Title: Love Will Tear Us Apart

Author: C.K. McDonnell

Published: 2023

Length: 448 pages

Brief Synopsis from Goodreads: Love can be a truly terrible thing.

Marriages are tricky at the best of times, especially when one of you is dead.

Vincent Banecroft, the irascible editor of The Stranger Times, has never believed his wife died despite emphatic evidence to the contrary. Now, against all odds, it seems he may actually be proved right; but what lengths will he go to in an attempt to rescue her?

With Banecroft distracted, the shock resignation of assistant editor, Hannah Willis, couldn’t have come at a worse time. It speaks volumes that her decision to reconcile with her philandering ex-husband is only marginally less surprising than Banecroft and his wife getting back together. In this time of crisis, is her decision to swan off to a fancy new-age retreat run by a celebrity cult really the best thing for anyone?

As if that wasn’t enough, one of the paper’s ex-columnists has disappeared, a particularly impressive trick seeing as he never existed in the first place.

Floating statues, hijacked ghosts, homicidal cherubs, irate starlings, Reliant Robins and quite possibly several deeply sinister conspiracies; all-in-all, a typical week for the staff of The Stranger Times.

How I got it: I checked this book out from the library.

When I got it: 2023

Why I want to read it: I read the first two books and they are hilarious! I love this series.

Shelf Control Wednesdays: August 9, 2023

/ E.A. Hoffmann / Leave a comment

Shelf Control is hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies. 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!

Title: Leviathan Wakes

Author: James S.A. Corey

Published: 2011

Length: 592 pages

Brief Synopsis from Goodreads: Humanity has colonized the solar system—Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond—but the stars are still out of our reach.

Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, the Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for—and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to the Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations—and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.

How I got it: I bought this book from Thalia, which is a chain bookstore in Austria similar to Barnes & Noble in the US.

When I got it: 2020

Why I want to read it: My boyfriend raved about this series, but I never got around to reading it yet.

Shelf Control Wednesdays: March 8, 2023

/ E.A. Hoffmann / Leave a comment

Shelf Control is hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies. 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!

Title: Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and The Drug Company that Additcted America

Author: Beth Macy

Published: 2018

Length: 384 pages

Synopsis via Goodreads: Beth Macy takes us into the epicenter of America’s twenty-plus year struggle with opioid addiction. From distressed small communities in Central Appalachia to wealthy suburbs; from disparate cities to once-idyllic farm towns; it’s a heartbreaking trajectory that illustrates how this national crisis has persisted for so long and become so firmly entrenched.

Beginning with a single dealer who lands in a small Virginia town and sets about turning high school football stars into heroin overdose statistics, Macy endeavors to answer a grieving mother’s question-why her only son died-and comes away with a harrowing story of greed and need. From the introduction of OxyContin in 1996, Macy parses how America embraced a medical culture where overtreatment with painkillers became the norm. In some of the same distressed communities featured in her bestselling book Factory Man, the unemployed use painkillers both to numb the pain of joblessness and pay their bills, while privileged teens trade pills in cul-de-sacs, and even high school standouts fall prey to prostitution, jail, and death.

Through unsparing, yet deeply human portraits of the families and first responders struggling to ameliorate this epidemic, each facet of the crisis comes into focus. In these politically fragmented times, Beth Macy shows, astonishingly, that the only thing that unites Americans across geographic and class lines is opioid drug abuse. But in a country unable to provide basic healthcare for all, Macy still finds reason to hope-and signs of the spirit and tenacity necessary in those facing addiction to build a better future for themselves and their families.

How I got it: I bought this book as a used book from the library in South Carolina.

When I got it: 2023

Why I want to read it: America has a huge problem with drug (especially prescription drug) dependency. I am interested to learn more about this issue.