TBR Stack January 2022

December Recap

Well, I’m a tad late on this month’s reading recap and TBR Stack, but that’s because I’ve kind of been just caught up in reading.

I finished five books in December—two ebooks, two audio books, and one physical book.

I also DNF’d three books: one physical book and two ebooks.

• Defy the Night by Brigid Kemmerer (DNF, 2 stars)
• No Choice by Mel Todd (DNF, 2 stars)
• Rebel’s Blade by Frost Kay (DNF, 2 stars)
• One Witch Too Few by Judith Berens (2 stars)
• A Sky Beyond the Storm by Sabaa Tahir (5 stars)
• On the Prowl by Various Authors (3 stars)
• Tunnel of Bones by Victoria Schwab (3 stars)
• Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs (re-read, 4 stars)

Of these eight books, all of them were in my TBR stack for December.

Which is the first time ever this has happened in my remembrance. Gold star for me!

Mercy-verse Re-Read

While these probably won’t show up as a part of my TBR stack, I’m working my way through re-reading all of the Mercy-verse books by Patricia Briggs. Short stories, comics, Anna and Charles novels, Mercy novels… the whole backlog.

All in preparation for a new short story focused around Asil (Dating Terrors, found in the Heroic Hearts anthology), and her new book, Soul Taken.

There’s only a few things in the entire backlog I have not yet read (mainly some Asil short stories and the Hopcross Jilly comics), so I really have no driving desire to focus them as a part of my TBR stack.

That said, they’ll still show up in the monthly recaps!

If you’re interested in checking out the entire chronological order of the books, you can find it here on Patricia Briggs’ site!

Library Run

This section is all about the books I plan to grab from the library or Kindle Prime for my TBR Stack for the month.

• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke – I’ll be grabbing this one from the library. There’s a lot of hype around it, so hopefully it’ll live up to expectations. I’m reading this one for the Creating & Co. Winter Reading Challenge which started in December and lasts through February.
• Bridge of Souls by Victoria Schwab – Finishing out the series by picking it up from the library. This one is also for a prompt in the Creating & Co. Winter Challenge. It is also fulfilling a prompt for the 2022 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge.

Shop My Shelves

This year, I’m hoping that this section is the biggest of my TBR Stack every month.

I’m really trying to work my way through my massive backlog of books—both physical and digital—without purchasing too many more than I’m reading.

While my physical collection may look small compared to others, I still have over 100 physical books to work my way through, including manga and comics.

And we won’t begin to discuss the almost 200 ebooks I have that are untouched.

But without further ado, here’s what I have on my TBR Stack for January (that I own).

• 3 Months to No. 1 by Will Coombe – I’m trying to read a chapter of this one every three days just to get it off my list. I should be done with it sometime in February unless the mood strikes me to read a bunch in one sitting.
• Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo – I’ll be re-reading this one so I can jump right into Crooked Kingdom afterwards. This will fulfill a prompt for both the Creating & Co. Winter Challenge and the POPSUGAR challenge.
• Bacchanal by Veronica Henry – Another read for Creating & Co. Winter Challenge.
• Murder on the Mind by L.L. Bartlett – I picked this one up a while ago (like, 2008 while ago) as a part of the Amazon First reads program. I’m using it to fulfill a prompt for the Creating & Co. Winter Challenge. It’s not my usual fare, but I figured the worst that can happen is that I DNF it. And I’m still counting DNFs as a part of my reading challenges, though I’m sure I’ll blog more about that later at some point.
• Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade – I’m re-reading this one as a part of the Creating & Co. 2022 Level Up Reading Challenge. I loved it so much the first time, and I figured why not re-read it before picking up the second one in the series for the first time?
• All the Feels by Olivia Dade – So freaking excited to read this one!! It fulfills a prompt for the Creating & Co. Winter Reading Challenge. It is also a read for my 12 Challenge by Shadowbooker on Instagram.
• The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood – I wanted to read this one in December but didn’t get to it. It fulfills a prompt for the Creating & Co. Winter Reading Challenge.
• The Diviners by Libba Bray – This is a re-read for me, but I very much want to finish out the series this year. It’s also fulfilling a few prompts in various challenges including the Creating & Co. Winter Reading Challenge, the Creating & Co. 2022 Reading Challenge, and the POPSUGAR Challenge.
• Murder in Wizard’s Wood by Michael J. Allen – I’ve had this on my bookshelf for a while. I picked it up at a small convention that had indie authors, and I’m really hoping I enjoy it. It’s going to fulfill a prompt for the Creating & Co. Winter Reading Challenge.

New Purchases to the TBR Stack

I’m not going to lie… I’ve picked up quite a few books between this post and my December TBR Stack. The vast majority of them are ebooks, with a sprinkling of audiobooks and physical books.

• The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson – I realized I didn’t have anything by one of the classic gothic authors out there, so also had to remedy it. (Because I Could Not Stop for Death has been one of my favorite poems since I first discovered it in middle school.)
• The Complete Stories of Edgar Allan Poe – Another realization that I didn’t have anything by another one of the classic gothic horror authors, so had to remedy that.
• The Raven Spell by Luanne G. Smith – This was my Amazon First pick for January. It was really the only one that even caught my interest.
• Lirael by Garth Nix – I’m so excited to finally read this one! I’ve owned the physical book for a while, but there’s just something about having Tim Curry purr to me as Mogget that I’ve wanted to wait for. This is the only audiobook I picked up.
• A Shadow in the Ember by Jennifer L. Armentrout – This is the group read choice for the Creating & Co. Winter Reading Challenge. The library didn’t have it, so I picked it up for kindle. I don’t know if I’ll enjoy it or not. Group reads can be a hit or miss for me in the Creating & Co. Challenges.
• A Curse of Ash and Embers by Jo Spurrier – This one fulfills a prompt for the Creating & Co. Winter Challenge. I’ve wanted to grab it for a while and decided why not. I plan on trying to read it this month.
• H.P. Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction – I picked this one up because it was on sale. I figured why not have all his stories in one place instead of picking them up piecemeal. I mean, there’s better cosmic horror out there nowadays, but his racist ass did kickstart the genre.
• Temple of the Inner Flame by Amber Fisher – If you didn’t already know, Urban Fantasy, and by extension Paranormal Romance (UF/PNR) are my two favorite genres out there. I’m trying to broaden my UF reads, and I was excited to find more POC authors and characters, starting with this one!
• Storm Front by Jim Butcher – I picked up this one since I figured I’d cave to the “Dresden are some of the best UF books out there!” hype. Might as well give Mr. Butcher a try, but also attempt to get over some baggage related to my ex really enjoying the Dresden series. It also fulfills a prompt for the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge. I’m going to use it for the “Sister Cities” advanced challenge. Chicago is a sister city to Shanghai, and I already knew I wanted to read These Violent Delights again… so all that to say, I’m giving it a try.
• Scales Like Stars by D.J. Russo – I picked this up to support a Twitter friend, but it also just looks super cute and interesting!
• The Eclectic Witch’s Book of Shadows by Deborah Blake – This was a recommendation from a friend so I picked it up.
• Dessa: Spirit of Vengeance by Andreya Lombardi – This was a free book on Kindle, and looked at least intriguing so I picked it up. (The freebies are dangerous, y’all.)
• The Absinthe Earl by Sharon Lynn Fisher – I like Fae. And as I have already stated, I love UF/PNR. And this takes place in Ireland, which is one of my favorite places I’ve visited. So why the heck not pick it up?
• The Visit by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Part of the Black Stars Collection. I had wanted to pick this collection up as a part of the Kindle Prime offerings, but then figured I’d rather actually support more black authors and purchased the entire series up instead.
• The Black Pages by Nnedi Okrafor – Part of the Black Stars Collection.
• 2043… A Merman I Should Turn to Be by Nisi Shawl – Part of the Black Stars Collection.
• These Alien Skies by C.T. Rwizi – Part of the Black Stars Collection.
• Clap Back by Nalo Hopkinson – Part of the Black Stars Collection.
• We Travel the Spaceways by Victor LaValle – Part of the Black Stars Collection.
• The Green Witch by Arin Murphy-Hiscock – One of the few physical books I picked up. I was ordering another book, and this was on sale so figured why not. I’ve heard good things about it.
• The Big Little Book of Magick by D.J. Conway – While I don’t classify myself as Wiccan, candle and pendulum magic are things that really resonate with me. I originally picked this up at the library, but I liked what I read and skimmed so I decided to just purchase the physical book instead since I had some gift cards from the holidays.
• Necromancer Academy by Lindsey R. Loucks – Another one of those Kindle freebies that popped up in that, “Readers also purchased…” area. Like I said—they’re dangerous.