What's New? Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews. Hop on over there to ogle what other bloggers got this week.

For review:
When I started reading the email asking if I would be interested in Foulsham, book 2 in the series, I nearly stopped reading. I was about to beg off because whenever I haven't read a series from the beginning, I feel compelled to read the first books before reading the book I've been asked to review. I am so booked that I didn't think I'd have the time or energy. But then I read the synopsis and it sounds like the kind of book I'd enjoy. When the rep offered to supply book one along with the arc of book two, how could I not?

Heap House written and illustrated by Edward Carey. Iremonger series #1. 405 p. The Overlook Press, January, 2015. 9781468309539.

Publisher synopsis: Welcome to Heap House, the sprawling, slipshod maze of a mansion, built on the “Heaps,” a collection of forgotten trash and curios.
Young Clod Iremonger and his eccentric family, the “kings of mildew, moguls of mold,” made their fortune from this collected detritus. The Iremongers are an odd old family, each the owner of the birth object they must keep with them at all times. Clod is perhaps the oddest of all—his gift and his curse is that he can hear all of the objects of Heap House whispering.
Yes, a storm is brewing over Heap House and the house’s many objects are showing strange signs of life. Clod is on the cusp of being “trousered” and married off (unhappily) to his cousin Pinalippy when he meets the plucky orphan servant Lucy Pennant, with whose help he begins to uncover the dark secrets of his family’s empire.
The first installment of the Iremonger Trilogy, Heap House introduces readers to a gloriously imagined dark world whose inhabitants come alive on the page—and in Edward Carey’s fantastical illustrations. Heap House is a book that will appeal to fans of Neil Gaiman, Roald Dahl and Mervyn Peake, young and old alike. Mystery, romance, and the perils of the Heaps await!

Foulsham written and illustrated by Edward Carey. Iremonger series #2. 325 p. The Overlook Press, July 7, 2015. 9781468309546.

Publisher synopsis: At the Iremonger family offices in the aptly named borough of Foulsham, London's great repository of filth, Grandfather Umbitt Iremonger has found a way to make objects assume the shapes of people, and how to turn people into objects. Clod, whom he sees as a threat, has been turned into a gold coin and is being passed as currency from hand-to-hand through the town. Meanwhile, Lucy Pennant has been discarded as a clay button, abandoned in the depths of the Heaps. Will they be found and returned to human form? Enter Binadit and Rippit...Meanwhile Umbitt builds an army of animated objects to retrieve the missing gold coin. All around the city, thing—ordinary things—are twitching into life, and the reader is held in breathless suspense as questions of life and death, value and disposability, rumble through this dark and mesmerizing world.

Purchased: I know, I know I should not be spending any more money on books! Especially when I have so many to read for review!

Some Kind of Normal by Juliana Stone. 311 p. Sourcebooks Fire, May, 2015. 9781402291500.

Publisher synopsis: WHAT IS NORMAL?

For Trevor, normal was fast guitar licks, catching game-winning passes, and partying all night. Until a car accident leaves him with no band, no teammates, and no chance of graduating. It's kinda hard to ace your finals when you've been in a coma. The last thing he needs is stuck-up Everly Jenkins as his new tutor-those beautiful blue eyes catching every last flaw.

For Everly, normal was a perfect family around the dinner table, playing piano at Sunday service, and sunning by the pool. Until she discovers her whole life is a lie. Now the perfect pastor's daughter is hiding a life-changing secret, one that is slowly tearing her family apart. And spending the summer with notorious flirt Trevor Lewis means her darkest secret could be exposed.

This achingly beautiful story about two damaged teens struggling through pain and loss to redefine who they are-to their family, to themselves, and to each other-is sure to melt your heart.

I can't remember where I read a review of this and it seems a tad old for my crowd; but there was something about it that called to me. 

Galgorithm: a guy. A girl. A formula. by Aaron Karo. 310 p. Simon Pulse/ Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, May, 2015. 9781481440639.

Publisher synopsis: A romantic comedy about high school, heartbreak, and having all the answers.

What if the secrets of dating and love were revealed in one simple formula? That’s the tantalizing proposition high school senior Shane Chambliss offers the hopeless and hapless guys who come to him for relationship advice.

After the girl of his dreams breaks his heart, Shane devises a mysterious formula called the Galgorithm and establishes himself as the resident dating guru at Kingsview High School. But his attempts to master the art of romance go outrageously awry.

As Shane tries to navigate the ensuing drama, he must follow his heart, abandon all the rules, and ignore his own advice in a quest for true love. What he discovers, no formula could ever predict...

I really enjoyed an earlier book of his called Lexapros and Cons. While the description somewhat evokes John Green's An Abundance of Katherines, I am eager to be delighted and surprised

That's what's new with me. What's new with you?