Stacking the Shelves (#35)

It seems I’m adding fewer and fewer books to my TBR each month this year. Despite being home and online so much, I think I’ve spent a bit less time on Goodreads in general, which has definitely meant that I’m not finding quite so many new books to add. In the past month, my work has also started gearing up even more as we prepare to go back full-time in person, so we’ve had more meetings, more in-person shifts, and a lot of planning and preparing. I’d commented in my last Stacking the Shelves post that I wouldn’t be surprised if I had even fewer books added this month, and that definitely has come true. Last month, I’d added 44 new books to my TBR, and this month I added a tiny bit less, with 39 books! That still seems like a lot, but there have been many months in the past where I added upwards of 100 books. In fact, this may be one of my lowest overall totals so far.

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme all about the books we are adding to our shelves each week. It is hosted by TyngaReviewsand ReadingReality.

1) Fangs by Sarah Andersen

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Right at the start of September, I found this new graphic novel by Sarah Andersen, whose name I recognized from the Sarah’s Scribbles series of comics. I think Fangs might be her first departure from this series. it is about a 300-year-old vampire named Elsie, who finally meets her match when she meets a werewolf named Jimmy at a bar. The two of them soon bond over scary movies, evening walks, and a genuine fondness for each other’s lifestyles. Aside from the author’s name alone, I was immediately drawn to this book because it gave me serious Addams Family vibes, and it seemed like something that would be really fun to read. I first discovered Sarah Andersen’s comics because her Sarah’s Scribbles series frequently came up in various Facebook groups that I was a part of, and I immediately related very strongly to her character. I’m very interested to see something so different from her, and I’d love to try it!

2) Foreshadow: Stories to Celebrate the Magic of Reading and Writing YA edited by Emily X.R. Pan and Nova Ren Suma

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I have a handful of anthologies on my TBR even though they are not something that I read frequently. I found this one because I was trying to look up whether Emily X.R. Pan had a new book coming out next year. Instead, I found this book which collects thirteen short stories from a variety of YA authors, with accompanying essays. To be honest, I didn’t recognize any of the authors listed, which was a bit unusual for me with these kinds of collections. After doing a bit more research, I realized that this book collects stories from a digital anthology Foreshadow YA, which featured monthly issues throughout 2019 that included three stories from established authors as well as introduced some brand new ones. This book is the first print collection of stories by 13 new authors, each of which was selected and introduced by a well-known YA author, such as Sabaa Tahir or Laurie Halse Anderson. I think this collection is such a cool idea, and I’m looking forward to finding some great new authors through it.

3) Silent Night by Nell Pattison

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I added this book as well as the upcoming The Silent Suspect by this author upon reading her debut, The Silent House. There is no information out yet about The Silent Suspect, except that it is due out in April. These books are part of a new mystery/thriller series featuring Paige Northwood, a sign language interpreter who is brought in to help the police with crimes that involve the Deaf community. I thought The Silent House was such a unique and interesting thriller, and I’m very excited to try more books by this author. Silent Night is due out this November, and it focuses on an overnight trip for students from a school for the deaf. During the night, one of the five students goes missing and a teacher’s body is found in the forest. Paige is brought in to help with the investigations, and soon realizes that everyone at the school has a motive but they also have an alibi. Part of what drew me to The Silent House in the first place was the unique angle of a case where the potential witnesses were all deaf and may have missed the crime taking place because they would not have heard it. At first, it seems like this book has a very similar storyline, but I’m interested to see what the author does with it.

4) Hot British Boyfriend by Kristy Boyce

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I added this book on a whim because it seemed like it might be fun. It is about a girl named Ellie who decides to join her school’s study abroad trip to England to get away from a horrible public rejection. Most of her classmates are there to study and build their college applications, but Ellie is more interested in rebuilding her reputation and decides that a British boyfriend is the best way to do it. When Ellie meets Will, she is determined to avoid making the same mistakes as she did last time, and makes a bargain with a classmate, Dev. If he helps her win Will over, then she will help him win over his crush too. Ellie soon must figure out if finding a boyfriend is really the answer to her problems, and if Will is actually the perfect boy for her. I’m usually not too interested in books that focus on a character travelling, and the storyline does seem a little predictable, but something about this book keeps me thinking that it will just be so much fun to try.

5) Wife After Wife by Olivia Hayfield

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I clicked on this book originally because I assumed it was a thriller, so I was a bit surprised to find that it is actually a modernized version of Henry VIII. Lucky for me, that was still very intriguing. I’ve always been very interested in Tudor England, and especially Henry VIII’s many wives. This book brings the story into the 21st century, with Harry Rose, the head of the Rose Corporation who has recently married his sixth wife. In 2018, his perfect world is falling apart, with both his business and his love life under scrutiny. I’m very intrigued to see how the author modernizes this story, especially elements around his wife’s deaths that can’t be so easily recreated. Two of Henry VIII’s real wives were beheaded and I highly doubt the author will go that route. I’ve seen a ton of books that tell Henry VIII’s story in general, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that modernized it like this, and I’m very interested to see how that will work.

6) The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes by Elissa R. Sloan

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I saw this book mentioned very recently in a video I was watching, but I can’t remember whose video it was! It might have been Heather at Bookables. I was immediately curious about this one because it was compared to either (or possibly both) Daisy Jones and the Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, both of which I loved! This book is about a woman named Cassidy Holmes who was the fourth member of an extremely popular girl group that suddenly imploded in 2002. Fifteen years later, Cassidy appears to have committed suicide, leaving everyone to wonder how this could have happened. The book alternates between Cassidy’s rise to fame and the perspectives of the other members of the group as they try to figure out what happened to her, with each believing that they were the one who knew Cassidy best. Usually books about fame tend to put me off, but this one sounds very interesting. It definitely helps that it has been compared to two of my favourite books from the past few years, and I’m excited to give it a try.

7) Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous by Suzanne Park

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I think of all the books I added within the past month, this is the one that I’m most on the fence about whether I’ll actually enjoy it. This book is about a teenage girl named Sunny Song who is shipped off to a digital detox camp for a whole month after accidentally filming a PG-13 cooking video that goes viral. This spoils her summer goals to hit 100,000 followers and enjoy her last summer before finishing high school, as well as her plan to make Rafael Kim her boyfriend. Now forced to be offline, Sunny is surprised to notice the connections she is forming with some of the people around her, including a cute farm boy. The main reason I’m a little hesitant about this one is because it is tagged as being great for fans of Jenny Han and Love and Gelato, both of which I found skewed a little too young for me. On the other hand, I love books that have a focus on social media, so that alone gives me reason to try this one (plus I want to find out what was so bad about the “PG-13” video, since that doesn’t seem like such a big deal to me).

8) A Thousand Questions by Sadia Faruqi

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I don’t usually add much middle grade to my TBR, but I recently watched a video on BookishRealm which included several upcoming middle grade books, and I ended up adding a few to my list. This book in particular was one that stood out, although I think I’d assumed it was a graphic novel when it actually isn’t. This book is about a girl named Mimi who is not happy to be spending her summer in Pakistan with her grandparents whom she has never met. She wishes to find her father and secretly plans to write to him. While there, she meets Sakina, the daughter of her family’s cook, who hasn’t told her parents that she will be accepted to school only if she can improve her English test scores, but also worries about how her family will survive if they lose the money she makes by working. Although the two girls seem so different when they first meet, they soon realize they have a lot more in common than they thought and decide to help each other get what they want most. I’m a bit worried that I won’t really connect with this book since it’s geared toward a younger audience, but it sounds like an interesting story and I’d love to give it a try.

9) People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

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Beach Read has been one of my favourite books of the year so far, so I was very excited to see another adult contemporary from Emily Henry coming next year! I also read The Love That Split the World earlier in the year and wasn’t completely sold on it, so I was a bit surprised by how much I loved Beach Read. This book is due out in May, and it is about best friends Poppy and Alex, who have very little in common but every summer for a decade, they took a week-long vacation together. Two years ago, everything was ruined and they have not spoken ever since. After realizing that the last time she was truly happy was their last vacation together, Poppy decides to convince Alex to take one more vacation together, giving her just one week to try and fix everything. I tend to love romances that have this kind of second chance storyline, and this seems like something I might really enjoy. I’m looking forward to giving it a try!

10) Not My Problem by Ciara Smyth

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This book was a last-minute addition to my TBR which I found just yesterday, and it sounded very unusual. It is about a girl named Aideen whose life is full of problems that she cannot fix. When she stumbles upon her nemesis Meabh (apparently that is pronounced Maeve, it’s an Irish version of the name) who is having a meltdown over having a crushing pile of extracurricular activities. Aideen volunteers to help her by pushing her down the stairs, which gives Meabh a sprained ankle and the perfect excuse to get out of some of her activities. When another student hears about the incident and brings Aideen another person who needs her “help,” it begins a semester of trading favours and she soon realizes that solving other people’s problems might give her the push she needs to start fixing some of her own. Ciara Smyth’s debut The Falling in Love Montage is already high on my list to try next year, so it was great to see another new book coming out already. This one seems like such a strange concept and definitely on the more unique side for YA, so it may end up on my list to read next year too.

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