The Sunday Post: Reviewing the Week and Looking Ahead – 12/31/2023

Welcome back to Back Shelf Books! It’s time again for Sunday Posts, my favorite day in the blogosphere!

News & Fun

It’s been a busy week here on the blog! Stuff Your Kindle Day was earlier in the week, and I scoured the whole list to find the top 20 SFF picks from Stuff Your Kindle Day. Some are the books on my list are still free, so be sure to check it out if you like romantasy, dystopian romance, or other romance heavy SFF reads!

I also introduced my main blog intention for 2024 this week. I’m calling 2024 “The Year of the Novella” here on Back Shelf Books. I’m on a quest to find the best novellas out there, so get ready for a whole lot of SFF novella reviews and recommendations.

Did anyone else try out the My Year in Books wrap-up?? I adore what this developer is doing, and a Spotify-like wrap-up for Goodreads is genius.

Recent Posts & Reviews

The Year of the Novella: My Top 25 SFF Novellas

The Year of the Novella: 2024 Book Challenges and Intentions

Graphic Novel Review: Where the Body Was by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

Review: Tales of Light and Life by Zoraida Córdova, Claudia Gray, Charles Soule, Justina Ireland, Cavan Scott, and more

Graphic Novel Review: The Dyatlov Pass Mystery by Cédric Mayen and Jandro González

Top 20 SFF Picks From Stuff Your Kindle Day (12-27-2023)

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Recent (Second-Hand) Additions To My Bookshelf

The Great Doctor Who Christmas Special Rewatch and Ranking – Ranking All 13 Christmas Specials

Upcoming Posts & Reviews

I’m back to posting reviews of upcoming books (instead of just backlist titles!). I enjoyed reading so many backlist titles this month, but I have a slew of great ARC reviews coming up in January.

What I Read This Week

I had another pretty light reading week! I’m part-way through on a ton of books, but these are the only one’s I’ve actually finished.

Currently Watching & Reading

Currently Watching:

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine! It’s our first time going through the series and we love it.

Currently Reading:

I have quite a few ARCs I’m making my way through in the upcoming week. I’m part-way through Deep Freeze, Idolatry, and Three Eight One and I’m very nearly finished with Mislaid in Parts Half-Known and Servant Mage.

Stuff Your Kindle Free Pick-Ups

I’m actually REALLY proud of myself for only getting thirty books. Last time I picked up hundreds. Some of these are indie gems I hear talked about all the time, so I’m thankful to have gotten them free. If you picked up anything, I’d love to know what you got!

Final Thoughts on the Week

Happy New Year, guys! I can’t wait to see what the new year holds, and I hope January treats you all well.

Please share your Sunday Post in the comments below so I can check out your blog and post. Thanks for stopping by!

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Posted by:

Hannah @ Back Shelf Books

Book Blogger. Coffee Drinker. Promoter of Weird Books. Probably petting a dog somewhere. backshelfbooks.com

30 responses to “The Sunday Post: Reviewing the Week and Looking Ahead – 12/31/2023”

  1. shanaqui Avatar
    shanaqui

    Oh man, I forgot about the free books and didn’t go look… though honestly, maybe that’s for the best! A lot of them are on Kindle Unlimited anyway, most of the time. Looks like you got some good ones: I’ve been curious about The Lord of Stariel for ages. Hope you enjoy them all!

    My weekly roundup!

    Reply
    1. hhbennett Avatar
      hhbennett

      You’re totally right about a lot of them being on KU! I only keep KU sporadically, but that’s a great option.

      Reply
  2. Lola Avatar
    Lola

    I grabbed a bunch of books during the Stuff your Kindle days as well, I’ll have to check out the ones you listed and see if any are still free. As for your novella goal, I would recommend checking out Laura Greenwood’s books, she has a lot of shorter reads. Not quite sure what your cut-off point is for it to count as a novella.

    Reply
    1. hhbennett Avatar
      hhbennett

      Just looked at her books! Have you read the Untold Tales series? Those look interesting!! Thinking about trying one of those!

      Reply
      1. Lola Avatar
        Lola

        I haven’t read that series, but I do own one of the books in that series. So far all the books I’ve read by her are great, her Obscure Academy series is one of my favorite so far.

  3. Aj @ Read All The Things! Avatar
    Aj @ Read All The Things!

    I love novellas and want to read more of them. I think a lot of modern books are too long. I hope you have a great week!

    Reply
  4. Deb Nance at Readerbuzz Avatar
    Deb Nance at Readerbuzz

    I enjoyed trying the My Year in Books app based on Goodreads data. Thanks for sharing it.

    I hope to read more novellas next year, too.

    Reply
  5. buffywnabe Avatar
    buffywnabe

    Love the novella idea! Will be looking forward to reading your reviews. A Fragile Enchantment is on my TBR, so can’t wait to see your review of that as well. I did a little too many from the Stuff Your Kindle sale, too, lol. I also did the year in books thing, but will share it with my yearly wrap-up post tomorrow. Happy New Year!
    https://lisalovesliterature.bookblog.io/2023/12/31/weekly-wrap-up-150-december-31st-2023/

    Reply
    1. hhbennett Avatar
      hhbennett

      Review of A Fragile Enchantment is coming tomorrow!!!

      Reply
  6. Northwoman Avatar
    Northwoman

    I got a bunch of the freebies but didn’t share them. You got the ones with the prettiest covers! Thanks for sharing the My Year in Books. Happy New Year!

    Anne – Books of My Heart

    Reply
    1. hhbennett Avatar
      hhbennett

      So many good free books this time! Thanks for stopping by!

      Reply
  7. jennielyse Avatar
    jennielyse

    Thanks for posting a link to My Year in Books. That was fun to read. Looks like you had a great reading year! I hope 2024 treats you well too and you can find those novellas you’re looking for.

    https://jennielyse.com/sunday-news-49/

    Reply
    1. hhbennett Avatar
      hhbennett

      Thanks so much! I loved the My Year in Books! I can’t believe it was just a student who created it – he did such a great job!

      Reply
  8. Haze Avatar
    Haze

    Wow, the books you got for Stuff Your Kindle look so good! I’ll have to bookmark and come back to check them all out – there are so many.

    Also, thank you so much for sharing the link to “My Year In Books”. I had no idea it exists but I love it!

    Haze @ The Book Haze
    https://thebookhaze.com/

    Reply
    1. hhbennett Avatar
      hhbennett

      So, so many!! There are always so many free on that day, but you definitely have to sift through them all!

      Reply
  9. Tessa Pulyer Avatar
    Tessa Pulyer

    I enjoyed A Fragile Enchantment! Looks like you had a great bookish year! I read 200 books on the dot. Happy New Year!

    Reply
  10. Tessa Pulyer Avatar
    Tessa Pulyer

    Looks like you had a wonderful bookish year! I read 200 books on the dot which is 50 more than usual. Happy New Year!

    Reply
  11. Victoria Hamel Avatar
    Victoria Hamel

    When I think about SFF novellas, I think of Ilona Andrews! Happy New Year!

    Reply
    1. hhbennett Avatar
      hhbennett

      Ooooh I’ve definitely heard of their books! Any of the novellas work as stand-alones? I haven’t read any of the Kate Daniels world yet!

      Reply
  12. Jinjer Avatar
    Jinjer

    That Last Delivery cover!!! Why doesn’t my library seem to carry graphic novels? I was all excited to borrow it.

    I love that you’re doing a year of novellas because I just discovered them a couple years ago and was immediately hooked. I look forward to your reviews. Let me make sure you’re in my Feedly so I see more than just your Sunday posts.

    Reply
  13. A Voracious Reader Avatar
    A Voracious Reader

    Great book haul! I didn’t know about the Stuff Your Kindle thingy. Maybe the next time it comes up. Not that I need any more books *coughs* Happy New Year!

    Reply
  14. sarasreadingnook Avatar
    sarasreadingnook

    Excellent books! Happy New Year!

    Reply
  15. Rachel @Waves of Fiction Avatar
    Rachel @Waves of Fiction

    210 book for 2023 is wonderful! I enjoy novellas a lot. I loved the new Ilona Andrews ones this last year. I just re-read (audio) Ice by Linda Howard a novella, and I listened to Tell Her Story by Margot Hunt, also a novella, which was free in the Audible Plus catalog. Happy New Year!

    Reply
  16. BonnieReadsAndWrites Avatar
    BonnieReadsAndWrites

    I like your Novella idea! I love Deep Space 9. Might be time to watch it again.

    Reply
  17. Book of Secrets Avatar
    Book of Secrets

    My Year in Books was fun to do. Thanks for sharing! I love reading wrap-up reports. Enjoy your Kindle haul!

    Reply
  18. girlplusbooks Avatar
    girlplusbooks

    I loved the My Year in Books thing on IG. No surprises on mine but it was fun to see everyone else’s. 🙂 Hooray for taking advantage of all the free Kindle books last week!

    Reply
    1. hhbennett Avatar
      hhbennett

      I always love free books! Happy New Year!

      Reply
  19. Literary Feline Avatar
    Literary Feline

    It sounds like you had a great reading year! Thank you for pointing me in the direction of the Your Year in Books wrap up. That was fun! The Year of the Novella is such a great idea.

    I am very behind in my Doctor Who watching. It’s shameful, really. I think I am three or four Doctors behind now. I’m working on catching up though as I work my way through re-watching some of the older seasons.

    It looks like you have a lot of great reading ahead of you! Enjoy your new books and current reads! Have a Happy New Year!

    Reply
    1. hhbennett Avatar
      hhbennett

      There is ZERO shame in behind behind on Doctor Who. During Jodie’s run, I was painfully behind – I had never even seen any of Matt Smith’s run!!! It’s such a fun show.
      Thanks for stopping by!

      Reply
  20. Sunday Post – 7 January 2024 – Books of My Heart

    […] Hannah at Back Shelf Books included the My Year in Books in her last Sunday post. […]

    Reply

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