book-blog
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The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark: REVIEW
The Dead Cat Tail Assassins shot to the top of my most anticipated reads of 2024 after reading P. Djèlí Clark’s Ring Shout, which is one of my favorite SFF novellas of all time. Clark’s writing is among the best in the SFF community, and his world-building in Ring Shout is immensely captivating. I went into… Continue reading
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A Tribute of Fire by Sariah Wilson – REVIEW
I have a confession. I’ve never read a Reylo book. You see, I’m a huge Star Wars fan, and I thought I could never enjoy reading books based on the Rey/Kylo Ren ship. However, I recently decided to try a Reylo book for the first time. A Tribute of Fire fit the bill! It’s a… Continue reading
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Lost Ark Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbowa – REVIEW
Lost Ark Dreaming pulled me in with the promise of Snowpiercer meets River Solomon’s The Deep. What more could I want? I love it when speculative fiction really “goes there,” like both Snowpiercer and The Deep did. Please give me brutality, economic divides, and world collapse in speculative fiction. I want to think and feel… Continue reading
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For She is Wrath by Emily Varga – REVIEW
If you tell me a book is a fantasy retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo, I’m already going to be sitting down, ready to listen. Add in some Djinn magic, a stabby heroine, a killer revenge plot, and an incredible female friendship, and you have the makings of a five-star book. Did I mention… Continue reading
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Time’s Agent by Brenda Peynado – REVIEW
I have always loved books about time travel, especially those that involve multi-dimensional travel, which made me immediately curious about Time’s Agent. One of my favorite Young Adult series is Claudia Gray’s Firebird series, which involves interdimensional travel, an intelligent group of protagonists, and a corporation that wants to exploit the dimensions for its own… Continue reading
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The Hunger and the Dusk, Vol. 1 by G. Willow Wilson & Chris Wildgoose – REVIEW
Is this a safe place to admit that I’m not usually a fan of fantasy comics? I will devour a sci-fi or speculative comic all day, but I am always leery of fantasy comics. I find they either don’t catch my attention quick enough or they are similar to other stories I’ve already read. I… Continue reading
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Ten Books I Need to Read This Year
Does anyone else keep only a small selection of physical books? I used to keep up with all the book boxes and special editions and had huge shelves of physical books, but I realized that I wasn’t ever actually reading the books on my shelves. While there are certain books I buy multiple editions of,… Continue reading
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Sunday Post: Eclipse Trip of a Lifetime
Welcome back to Back Shelf Books for another Sunday Post! Did everyone have a good eclipse week? I actually traveled out of town for the eclipse. We decided on the trip about two weeks ahead of time and were lucky enough to be able to drive four hours to a location with 100% totality. My… Continue reading
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Ten Hugo Finalists I Picked Up This Week – ROAD TO THE HUGOS
In case you missed my Sunday Post, the 2024 Hugo Award Finalists were recently announced. One thing I realized very quickly after the announcement is that I am very behind this year. While we wait for the Voter Packet to be prepared for the voters, I desperately needed to start reading some of the finalists… Continue reading
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Sunday Post – Hugo Nominees and Thoughts
Welcome back to Back Shelf Books for another Sunday Post! How is it already April?? It feels like it was just January! I can’t believe we’re a quarter of the way through the year already. The 2024 Hugo Award nominees were announced this past week. While I’m extremely disappointed in what happened with the 2023… Continue reading