HeyJaredShelf By Shelf
A (mostly) weekly newsletter discussing the books I'm currently loving, tracking my National Book Award reading project, and giving casual, funny updates on life itself.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 2
- Latest publication
- Aug 31, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 13, 2026
Latest issues
First Chapter Book Reviews: Volume One (opens the original)
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Hi, Y’all! Glad You’re Here—I don’t typically read what a book is about before I start it. I’m of the belief that a good opening chapter should give me everything I need—not the plot, but the trajectory, a sample of the voice, what questions the story will explore throughout the book. I know my reading taste and can usually tell from the first page whether or not a book is a “me” book. But I have also been surprised by books that I was initially hesitant about, or have restarted books that grab
Sad Boy Writes A Novel (opens the original)
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Hi, Y’all! Glad You’re Here—Tomorrow, I head up to Southampton for a writer’s conference. A few months ago, I was accepted into the Book Ends Novel Revision Fellowship; I’d submitted the manuscript for my latest project, a novel titled 34% Of This Story Is A Lie, a book about a boy who lies about going to Heaven in a dream.. This is the second novel I’ve worked on over this last three years—the last novel was a book about gay marriage and gay divorce (a story that eventually mirrored my own real
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