Michele Celeste García
Off the Shelf

Off the Shelf

Off the Shelf – My Reading Life in Pictures

Off the Shelf displays book covers for most of my reading life. I do DNF books, so if they’re here, they passed a relatively high bar, although I tend to be lenient. Sometimes I write my thoughts about a particular book on my Reveries page. A finished book here doesn’t necessarily mean a recommended book.

Are any of these books “off the shelf” for you, too? If so, what did you think about them? Let me know in the comments section below. Covers appear in no particular order, other than being split out by year.

2024

Book cover for Stranger Things Worlds turned Upside Down Behind the Scenes Companion
Book cover for The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
Book cover for Trial by Fire A Devastating Tragedy, 100 Lives Lost, and a 15-Year Search for Truth by Scott James
Book cover for Absolution by Alice McDermott
Book cover of The War of Art: Break through the Blocks and Win Your Creative Inner Battles by Steven Pressfield. White cover with a red flower growing out of a block of concrete
The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare'
Book cover for Let's Talk About Hard Things by Anna Sale
Book cover for The Sans Pareil Mystery, A Detective Lavender Mystery, by Karen Charlton, smoky green cover showing old white theater with two gentlemen with hats and canes standing in front
Book cover for Babel by R.F. Kuang
Book cover for Be Useful Seven Tools for Life by Arnold Schwarzenegger
Book cover Neil Gaiman Art Matters Because Your Imagination Can Change the World illustrated by Chris Riddell
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
Walizka by Beata Katarzyna Jedryka
Book cover for Love, Pamela, by Pamela Anderson, with large photo of the author on a black and white cover
Book cover for Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
Book cover for Martin Short I Must Say My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend memoir
Book cover Soil The Story of a Black Mother's Garden by Camille T. Dungy
Book cover for The Ruins by Scott Smith
Book cover for Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Book cover for The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin, Book 1 of The Broken Earth Trilogy
Book cover for Righteous, an IQ novel, by Joe Ide
Book cover for My Name is Barbra by Barbra Streisand
Book cover for The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border by Francisco Cantu
Book cover for Big Machine by Victor LaValle
Book cover for Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Book cover for Music is History by Questlove
The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin, Book Two of The Broken Earth Trilogy
Book cover for Waiting for the Monsoon by Rod Nordland
Book cover for Lone Women by Victor LaValle
Book cover for The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir by Griffin Dunne
Breath by James Nestor
The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Story of the Donner Party by Daniel James Brown
The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle
Book cover for Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski
The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy
Book cover for Guilt by Association by Marcia Clark
The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative, by Florence Williams
Book cover for How to Say Sane in an Age of Division by Elif Shafak
book cover Fourteen Days Margaret Atwood Douglas Preston
book cover Karma by Boy George
Book cover for A Calling for Charlie Barnes, by Joshua Ferris
Battle Royale Remastered by Koushun Takami
Book cover for The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Still Life by Louise Penny (Inspector Gamache #1)
Book cover for Hell and Other Destinations by Madeleine Albright
Book cover for Bewilderment by Richard Powers
Book cover for Geiger by Gustaf Skordeman
book cover for Anyone Who Had a Heart: My Life and Music by Burt Bacharach
Book cover for Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
Book cover for The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James
Book cover for brat: an '80s story by Andrew McCarthy
Book cover for Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt
Book cover for Take Me With You by Andrea Gibson
Book cover for The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Book cover for Ladies of the Canyons: A League of Extraordinary Women and Their Adventures in the American Southwest, by Lesley Poling-Kempes
book cover for The Women by Kristin Hannah
book cover for Stolen by Ann-Helen Laestadius
Book cover for Ballad of the Whiskey Robber by Julian Rubinstein
Book cover for Earth to Moon A Memoir by Moon Unit Zappa
Book cover for Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin
Book cover for The Horse by Willy Vlautin
Book cover for The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
Book cover for Whalefall by Daniel Kraus
Book cover for The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
Book cover for American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
Book cover for The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
Book cover for The Sandman by Lars Kepler
Book cover for The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury
Book cover for Feed Newsflesh #1 by Mira Grant
Book cover for Enough by Cassidy Hutchinson
Book cover for The Sentinel by Jeffrey Konvitz
Book cover for Patriot by Alexei Navalny
Book cover for Conclave by Robert Harris
Book cover for Jacket Weather by Mike DeCapite
Book cover for Slow Horses by Mick Herron
Book cover for Stolen Focus by Johann Hari
Book cover for That Librarian by Amanda Jones
Book cover for Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Book cover for Reinvention Poems by Rik Emmett
Book cover for Atomic Habits by James Clear
Book cover for Minor Detail by Adania Shibli

2023

Off the shelf, Book cover for How to Write a Novel in 20 Pies by Amy Wallen, illustrated by Emil Wilson, showing a cream-colored background with the title in brush stroke berry-colored text with the subtitle Sweet and Savory Secrets for Surviving the Writing Life below the main title, with a slice of cherry pie topped with white ice cream or whipped cream on a pink plate and the author and illustrator names at the bottom
Off the shelf, Cover of Cormac McCarthy's two-volume set, The Passenger and Stella Maris," with the left half showing a dark orange sky with a view from above a large body of water which seems to be the ocean, with clouds in the middle of the cover, somewhat darker than the orange of the rest of the cover. On the right-hand side is the cover of Stella Maris, which shows what looks to be the bright orange cloud of a nuclear explosion on the left side with the right side showing what appears to be a dead woman lying with her eyes closed in smoky blue tones with what seem to be water drops on her.
Off the shelf, Orange and yellow-green book cover with black line portrait of the outline of a man wearing a pork pie hat and suit jacket, with no facial features but instead the title of the book in black letters across the face area "Deacon King Kong," followed by "a novel" in small print with the name of the author, James McBride, in white letters across the chest area of the portrait. The words "Chosen by Barack Obama as a favorite read of 2020" are underneath the author's name, also in white letters.
Off the shelf, Book cover solid dark green with white title of The Girl Who Fell from the Sky centered across the front with the author's name, Heidi W. Durrow, in sky blue all capital letters centered across the bottom of the cover. A gold seal proclaims "Winner Bellwether Prize for Fiction" in the bottom right-hand corner. A figure of a girl made to look like she is sky blue with white clouds going across her body is falling through space, face up, arms overhead, legs up, near the top of the book title, her hair in two long braids which are also raised to the sky.
Off the shelf, Book cover for Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life, which shows a black and white photo by Peter Hujar called "The Orgasmic Man"
Off the shelf, Book cover for The Girl, A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski, by Samantha Geimer, showing a photo of her when she was a young teenager, 13, at the time of her sexual assault by Polish director Roman Polanski
White book cover for I Got Mine, Confessions of a Midlist Writer, by John Nichols with a hand drawn caricature of a man with a pen stuck behind his left ear, wearing a yellow long-sleeved sweater, blue trousers, and black shoes, as he holds the inside of his left pocket open, with no money in it, with the title slanted from left going up to the right and subtitle below that slanted and going from left to right on the left side of the caricature with the author's name in all capital letters across the bottom of the cover, with the information "author of The Milagro Beanfield War" below that in smaller type
Off the shelf, Book cover for The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón showing an old black and white photograph of a Barcelona city street with a man in a dark overcoat walking towards a street lamp on a misty morning or late afternoon.
Off the shelf, Pale yellow book cover showing actress Jennette McCurdy wearing a pale pink dress holding a bright pink urn on a fuchsia background with the title I'm Glad My Mom Died written in pink above her name, which is written in black shadowbox type lettering.
Off the shelf, Coral-colored book cover with sky blue lettering "Lessons in Chemistry" across the top in all caps with the author's name, Bonnie Garmus, in upper and lower case letters of the same color. In the middle of the cover is a drawing of a woman with blond-brown hair help up in a bun with a yellow pencil. She is wearing black semi-cat eye glasses with blue designs in them showing beakers and other chemistry equipment.
Off the shelf, Cover for Random House vintage edition of The Bat by Jo Nesbo, first book in Harry Hole series showing back of a man walking in an isolated, desert or beach location towards what looks like a house, all done in brown-orange tones with several birds flying above his head and scattered white clouds in a blue gray sky overhead with the title of the book in black letters with the author's name in brown-orange all capital letters across the bottom with a line in black text underneath that says Over 14 million books sold worldwide
Off the shelf, Book cover of Eve L. Ewing's collection of poems, 1919, about the Chicago Race Riots. Sky blue background with drawing of Black person in profile looking up towards the sky with dark blue background underneath with the author's name in pale yellow outline letters
Off the shelf, Book cover of I Am Not Sidney Poitier by Percival Everett showing stylized dark barn hand with pale pink fingernails holding a cream-colored business card with the book title centered in the middle on a taupe background with the name of the author, Percival Everett, in white letters on a black background at the very bottom of the page
Off the shelf, Book cover for Brent Spiner's Mem-Noir Fan Fiction, fire engine red cover with the title in large black letters across the top center of the cover with a representation of the author wearing a black and yellow top with a bright red knife skewering him while he is inside a white envelope with the imprint of red lips on it and the author's name in all capital black letters
Off the shelf, Book cover of A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Bantam Books 1984 edition, vintage paperback, shows main character, Gene, on cover standing next to a tall old tree next to a river, in a New England fall, on the campus of the prep school where the story takes place
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Off the shelf, Red book cover for Stephen King's collection of novellas If It Bleeds with his name in large black capital letters across the top with the title of the book in large white capital letters next to the image of a man in profile seeming to leap or jump out into the air while at the same time scattering into white particles, no details of his face or clothing are shown
Off the shelf, Book cover with book title Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Sorcerer's Stone) in red letters, Harry Potter #1, showing young boy with round brown glasses wearing a dark robe, cardinal red cape, and various arm and elbow pads, atop a broom with what apear to be two tall buildings in the background and several gold rings shaped like small hoops near the brush end of his broom, title of the author, J.K. Rowling, in all capital white letters on the bottom
Off the shelf, Book cover for IQ by Joe Ide, first in series with neighborhood sleuth Isiaiah Quintabe, black cover with large capital letters for the title IQ with blue and orange capital letters showing the author's name. All of the letters are formed with bricks and the title has a slight blood splatter on the upper right-hand corner of the Q.
Off the shelf, book cover for Walkin' the Dog by Walter Mosley, showing photo of a simple chair behind a table, with a white metal frame and a beige plastic back facing a beige Formica table with two light brown plastic water glasses with water and ice in them, with a white napkin and a set of utensils in between the two cups with the title across the top of the cover, at a slant, with letters formed by black outline, and similar font with the author's name at the bottom left, also at a slant pointed toward the left
Book cover for Trust by Hernan Diaz, 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner, sage green cover showing prominent fictional New York City skyscraper in foreground with other skyscrapers in muted gray and white shades in the background with the italicized title in white all capital letters across the center and the author's name below that at the bottom of the cover, centered, also in white all capital letters
Book cover of Rickie Lee Jones autobiography, Last Chance Texaco, showing black and white photo of the artist leaning against a classic car, wearing her signature beret, a dark sleeveless top and a skirt, holding a bottle of liquor in a paper bag, barefoot, with her name in all capital letters in a red font
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida Shehan Karunatilaka colorful book cover with bright shades of orange, blue, green, purple, teal, pink showing the head of some sort of creature with an open mouth with pale green teeth with the book title superimposed in white capital letters winner of the 2022 Booker Prize
Book cover for Sell Your Story in a Single Sentence by Lane Shefter Bishop, known as "the book whisperer," showing an image of a beige sheet of notebook paper ripped out of a notebook with a film reel and a piece of film unspooling beneath it with the title in typewriter font, initial caps, centered at the bottom of the page, above the author's name with the black outline of a circle showing in all caps ADVICE FROM THE FRONT LINES OF HOLLYWOOD
Book cover for The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honoree Fanone Jeffers, dark orange cover with the image of a yellow-orange sun in the top right above a yellow-orange tree with the dark eye, nose and mouth of a woman to the left of the yellow-orange tree, with a yellow Oprah's Book Club selection sticker on the left and a National Book Award Finalist sticker on the right with the title and author's name in white letters
Book cover The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, white cover with script font, dark blue, with the title and the author's name
Off the shelf, Bloomsbury 2017 book cover for The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, with dark blue background and white writing showing Winner of the Women's Prize across the top followed by a centered title in all capital white letters with a bow and arrow shaped like a heart with the arrow pointing vertically upward with bright red blood on its tip and the author's name below, centered across the page, also in white all capital letters, all framed with a narrow white background
Off the shelf, Book cover for Maja Lunde The Last Wild Horses, cloudy, dark blue cover showing two horses in profile with a slight light above them coming from some clouds. The title is in all capital white letters on the top left with the author's name in all capital white letters on the bottom left and on the bottom right it says International Bestselling Author of The History of Bees
Book cover for So Many Steves, Afternoons with Steve Martin, Audiobook by Steve Martin and Adam Gopnik, sky blue background with trees in the background with a photo of a young Steve Martin holding up a pair of glasses or binoculars to his eyes and in each of the lenses of the glasses there is a photo of Steve Martin, the one on the left is him just looking directly into the camera and the one on the right shows him from the movie Roxanne, with a bird sitting on his big nose
Book cover for movie tie-in edition of Death Wish by Brian Garfield, white cover with red capital letters along the top stating "Now a New Major Motion Picture," with text in black all capital letters below that, centered on the page, They Came for His Family Now He's Coming for Them, with the title centered on two lines Death Wish with the "I" in Death Wish composed of the figure of a man wearing a hoodie and carrying some sort of chain or other weapon, all on a white cover, with the author name Brian Garfield below
Book cover for Nicola DeRobertis-Theye book The Vietri Project, showing view on an Italian street looking up at buildings with the sky above, title in white capital letters with the words A Novel in yellow-orange capital letters below that followed by the author's name at the bottom, all three lines of text centered on cover
For Every One by Jason Reynolds 9781481486255 book cover
Americanah Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie book cover
9781982147792 book cover for Lisey's Story by Stephen King showing a dark blue sky at night with clouds moving across and a house or barn structure with a kind of glowing green light in front or around it
Book cover Dilla Time by Dan Charnas
Book cover for The Narrows, by Michael Connelly, showing what looks like gold-tinged water on a black background
Book cover for Heavy An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon dark rust red cover with large black capital letters showing the title vertically from top to bottom
Book cover for Stranger Things Runaway Max by Brenna Yovanoff with purple- and blue-toned background and a drawing of the character Max with her skateboard with the title Stranger Things in the Stranger Things font across the top of the cover with the book title on the bottom an the insignia that it is an official Stranger Things novel
Book cover for The Angel of Rome and Other Stories by Jess Walters showing a pink sky with the Tiber river in the foreground, Sant'Angelo Bridge in the middle ground, and Saint Peter's Basilica on the right-hand side in the background
Book cover for Unthinkable Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy by Jamie Raskin showing photo of seditionists attacking the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 on a white background
Book cover for Gentle Writing Advice How to Be a Writer Without Destroying Yourself by Chuck Wendig with the main title of the book in red capital letters at the top of the cover with the subtitle in black on the left-hand side and a drawing showing a man with a birdcage for a head trying to open the doors of the cage with his hands on the right-hand side
Book cover for novella Shopgirl by Steve Martin
Book cover for Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead
Edelman_book_cover_by_Michał_Arkusiński_and_Maciej_Cholewiński
Book cover for The Urban Bizarre edited by Nick Mamatas
Book cover Better Living Through Birding Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World Christian Cooper
Book cover for Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane cover with photo from first day of busing in South Boston September 1974
book cover for Managing Expectations a Memoir in Essays by Minnie Driver
Book cover for Strange Things Happen A Life with the Police, Polo and Pygmies by Steward Copeland black and white photo of drummer Stewart Copeland playing a snare drum
Book cover for That Left Turn at Albuquerque by Scott Phillips photograph of large billboard with the writing "that left turn at Albuquerque" on the roof of a one-story building that looks like a shop with a giant yellow rubber duck in the window with an old American car parked in front
Book cover for Let Me In, Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Book cover for A Game of Thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, Book One, by George R. R. Martin
Book cover for Cockroaches by Jo Nesbo showing scene from a Thai street with the image of a man walking, his back to the camera, wearing dark clothes
Book cover for The Witch Elm, by Tana French. Shows a white cover with a line drawing of a large witch elm tree with the author's name across the front in dark blue letters
Book cover for Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak showing the title with the "I" in Hidden made out of a shovel and a lawn near the beginning of a woods with a car parked and a man using its headlights to dig a hole in the ground
Book cover for The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, by Amy Schumer, showing the author, topless, looking over her left shoulder, her blond hair down her back, with the title printed on the lower left side of her back
9781787601628 Book cover for Conversations with Tom Petty by Paul Zollo, full-page black and white image of the musician Tom Petty looking into the camera, with a black background
Book cover for The Good House by Tananarive Due showing a large spooky house on the top of a hill in what looks like a forested area with dark clouds that seem to come out of the top of the mansion
Book cover for Brookwater's Curse Volume 1 by Steven Van Patten showing man dressed in black holding a bow and arrow with the image of a shadow behind him
Book cover for The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd, showing library stacks with a compass and map
Book cover for Outlive The Science & Art of Longevity, Rethinking Medicine to Live Better and Longer, by Peter Attia MD
Book cover for The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan
Book cover for The Art Thief A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, by Michael Finkel
Book cover for Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald Penguin Classics edition
Book cover for A Life of One's Own Nine Women Writers Begin Again, by Joanna Biggs
Book cover for Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Book cover for Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree showing the main character, an orc, and her friend, a succubus
Book cover for The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende, showing a young woman in profile from the back, with her eyes not visible, with a long, dark braid and a blue butterfly in her hair on a pink background
Book cover for Between Two Kingdoms, Memoir of a Life Interrupted, by Suleika Jaouad
Book cover for Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig, showing a bare apple tree with a single red apple dangling from one of the lower branches

2022

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Off the shelf, Solid dark blue book cover with Diana Gabaldon's name in all capital letters in an orange font across the top with an orange crown or royal type design with a gold thistle coming up out of the center of the crown, all centered on the page with the title of the book Outlander underneath this figure, also in a light orange all capital font. This is the first book in her Outlander series.
Off the shelf, book cover for Grant Faulkner's 52 Pep Talks for Writers, with a modern look, a yellow vertical border on the left and the subtitle 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo in yellow font above the main title Pep Talks for Writers, which is in white capital letters in a shadow font with black as the second color, with the author's name in white font on the bottom right-hand corner
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Off the shelf, book cover for Claire Keegan's novella Small Things Like These, winner of the Booker Prize in 2022, white background with a dark green sky showing slanted rooftops of houses covered with white snow with snow falling in the dark green sky, with the title in white capital letters centered on the page with the author's name also in white capital letters centered below the title

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2 Comments

  1. Kendra

    This was nice to see. We have some overlaps with Jodi Picolt, Outlander, Harry Potter, Claire Keegan, The Girl Who Fell From The Sky,and now I have some new books to check out. Thank you.

    1. Michele G

      I just read the first Harry Potter for the first time, if you can believe it. Have read Small Things Like These twice now (listened, love the audiobook) and will reread it every Christmas, I think. I LOVED The Girl Who Fell from the Sky. The audiobook is really great. What did you think about the change in direction in Wish You Were Here (without giving any spoilers)?

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