Shelf Control, Books From the Backlog, Can't Wait Wednesday
These mid-week memes suit me well because they provide me a quick reminder to check my own shelves and see what interesting books are lingering there. How about you? Why don't you feature one of your shelf books (or e-reader) and see if that helps you decide to read it or toss it. Since this is a split focus post, I'll share a book from my bookshelf or Kindle first and then a newer release (often an ARC I've received) that I'm eager to read.
Book I Own and Still Want to Read
I thought I'd look for one of the oldest books on my list and I've had this book since 2016! I picked it up at a thrift store, it's an award winner, my sister loved it, and yet, it's still on my shelf. I need to try to remedy that!
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Goodreads Blurb:
Welcome to Empire Falls, a blue-collar town full of abandoned mills whose citizens surround themselves with the comforts and feuds provided by lifelong friends and neighbors and who find humor and hope in the most unlikely places, in this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Richard Russo.
Miles Roby has been slinging burgers at the Empire Grill for 20 years, a job that cost him his college education and much of his self-respect. What keeps him there? It could be his bright, sensitive daughter Tick, who needs all his help surviving the local high school. Or maybe it’s Janine, Miles’ soon-to-be ex-wife, who’s taken up with a noxiously vain health-club proprietor. Or perhaps it’s the imperious Francine Whiting, who owns everything in town–and seems to believe that “everything” includes Miles himself. In Empire Falls Richard Russo delves deep into the blue-collar heart of America in a work that overflows with hilarity, heartache, and grace.
I'm linking to:
Shelf Control is hosted by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies every Wednesday. Details here.
Books From the Backlog is hosted by Carole's Random Life. posted weekly on Thursdays.
New Release Book I Want to Read
I received an advance copy from #netgalley and the publisher #simonschuster. I don't think I realized it's almost 900 pages when I requested this book. The publish date is fast approaching - guess I better get started!
The Deluge by Stephen Markley
Publish Date 1/10/23
“This book is, simply put, a modern classic. If you read it, you'll never forget it. Prophetic, terrifying, uplifting.” —Stephen King
From the bestselling author of Ohio, a masterful American epic charting a near future approaching collapse and a nascent but strengthening solidarity.
In the first decades of the 21st century, the world is convulsing, its governments mired in gridlock while a patient but unrelenting ecological crisis looms. America is in upheaval, battered by violent weather and extreme politics. In California in 2013, Tony Pietrus, a scientist studying deposits of undersea methane, receives a death threat. His fate will become bound to a stunning cast of characters—a broken drug addict, a star advertising strategist, a neurodivergent mathematician, a cunning eco-terrorist, an actor turned religious zealot, and a brazen young activist named Kate Morris, who, in the mountains of Wyoming, begins a project that will alter the course of the decades to come.
From the Gulf Coast to Los Angeles, the Midwest to Washington, DC, their intertwined odysseys unfold against a stark backdrop of accelerating chaos as they summon courage, galvanize a nation, fall to their own fear, and find wild hope in the face of staggering odds. As their stories hurtle toward a spectacular climax, each faces a reckoning: what will they sacrifice to salvage humanity’s last chance at a future? A singular achievement, The Deluge is a once-in-a-generation novel that meets the moment as few works of art ever have.
I'm linking to Can't Wait Wednesday hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings to spotlight the upcoming books I'm excited about.
Have you read either of these? What did you think - worth having on my shelves? Hope you join the fun and share what's been lingering a LONG time on your shelves OR a new release that you're excited to read. Happy Reading.
