Tagged: look what just arrived
Look What Just Arrived! (#13)
Yes, it’s that time again: book buying time. I’m not even going to try to justify my addiction at this point. Basically I have lots of reading to get done over the holidays and I can’t wait!
Here are my new books:
- The Stone of Light: Nefer the Silent by Christian Jacq
- The Stone of Light: The Wise Woman by Christian Jacq
- The Stone of Light: The Place of Truth by Christian Jacq
- Accursed Women by Luciana Cavallaro
- A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin
- The Sorcerer: The Fort at River’s Bend by Jack Whyte
- Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser
The reason why I have so many books this time around is that the owners of the local bookstore I frequent sometimes set books aside for me. When I saw they had set aside 3/5 books of The Stone of Light series (gently used) I couldn’t help but buy them. They look like excellent novels and I’ve actually heard of Christian Jacq before, so for $4 each I figured why not give them a try?
Accursed Women is a collection of 5 short stories by Luciana Cavallaro. She sent it to me partly so I could review her latest short story about Medusa, but also as a way of saying thank you for your reviews. (After all, I did review 4 ebook copies of her first four short stories.) I really appreciate when authors do that so I was quite happy to receive this book in the mail.
As you guys know I’m a fan of Game of Thrones, both the books and the television show. Yet I was too cheap to buy A Dance with Dragons when it was still in hardcover, so on the day the paperback edition was released I bought myself one. Yes, I know I’m a horrible cheapskate. The same goes for when I was browsing the used section of the bookstore and saw one of the books in Jack Whyte’s amazing A Dream of Eagles series. Who could resist?
Marie Antoinette: The Journey was meant as a gift for someone until I realized that it was nonfiction. From the blurb it had sounded like fiction, but that just goes to show that one should always read carefully when they’re unsure of a book’s genre. So I decided to read the book myself and so far, so good. Antonia Fraser has a decent writing style for a nonfiction writer.
These are what I’m reading/will be reading soon. What are you reading now? See anything you like here?
Look What Just Arrived! (#12)
Yes, I bought more books! And I received some for my birthday, which was on Sunday. So what are some of the new books I have?
- Thirst No.3 by Christopher Pike
- Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
- Darklight by Lesley Livingston
- Wake by Amanda Hocking
- Othello by William Shakespeare
- Hidden by Sophie Jordan
The book I was most excited about out of all six of these was the one I got for my birthday: Emperor of Thorns. I actually just finished it today and there’ll be a review up soon. I don’t want to spoil anything, but Jorg is up to his usual tricks in the last book in the trilogy. Othello was a book I ordered from Amazon because I won a $20 gift card in one of The Masquerade Crew’s many contests. I used to hate Shakespeare but I find that when I read it on my own without analyzing every single line I quite enjoy it. Also: Iago is an awesome villain.
The other books I received were either second or third books in series, but Wake by Amanda Hocking is a completely new book to me. I’d seen it on bookstore shelves previously but was waiting to find a paperback version to give it a try. I’ve read it already and let’s just say I have mixed feelings about it.
Well, that’s what I’ve been reading lately. So what have you been reading? Do you see anything you like here?
Look What Just Arrived! (#11)
No, I did not just go on yet another book buying spree. In fact, exactly half of these books were given to me by either publishers or authors.
- The Color of Rain by Cori McCarthy
- The Transhumanist Wager by Zoltan Istvan
- Red Dragon White Dragon by Gary Dolman
- The Devil Incarnate by Jill Braden
- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
- The Grass Crown by Colleen McCullough
The Color of Rain is an unusual book that I found through Grace’s blog, Books Without Any Pictures. Her description of it intrigued me so much that I went ahead and ordered it from my bookstore, read it in a day and will be writing my review for it shortly. For those of you that are curious, it’s the book that spurned me to write my ‘The Beauty of Fiction‘ article.
The Transhumanist Wager is something that I’m both excited for and reluctant about because while it’s something I might normally pick up on my own, I know it will be a controversial book to read and review here on my blog. Red Dragon White Dragon was sent to me by Gary Dolman’s publisher ages ago (2-3 months!) and only got here a few days ago. Hooray for Canada Post.
The Devil Incarnate was sent to me by Jill Braden’s publisher because they saw how much I loved The Devil’s Concubine (the first book) after I reviewed it through NetGalley. This second book is not necessarily better than the first, but it is different and I love the cover art even more.
The Kite Runner was a book recommended to me by a fellow book lover in real life and when I saw it at the library’s “fill a bag of books for $1” I knew I had to get it. It may be a while before I actually get around to reading it, but I’m definitely anxious to see what all of the hype is about. And of course the last book I bought for myself was The Grass Crown, the second book in Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series. It’ll take me a while to read, being over a thousand pages, but it will be great in that since I’m so far ahead in my book challenge I’m going to skew my results by only counting books with larger page counts. That, and Colleen McCullough is a great author.
So what are you guys reading lately? See anything you like here?
Look What Just Arrived! (#10)
Yes, I admit it: I have a problem with buying books!
So obviously by the title of this entry (and the melodramatic hook), I bought more books and want to share them with you. Some of these I bought and others I received via mail from authors looking for a review. Here they are:
- Cathedral of the Sea by Ildefonso Falcones
- The Wicked Day by Mary Stewart
- Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles by Margaret George
- A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin
- Firelight by Sophie Jordan
- Starlet’s Run by Carla J. Hanna
- Fun to be Russian by Theodor Rasputin
- Black Crow White Lie by Candi Sary
The first three books were bought used either because a) I read and liked the author or b) the owner of the bookstore was really, really trying to free up space because he’s getting so many used books. Only Cathedral of the Sea is really the latter, but The Wicked Day and Mary are by authors I know and/or have enjoyed.
Of course A Feast for Crows is the fourth book in A Song of Ice and Fire and I really just had to get my hands on it after the third book. I’ve already started it and so far, it’s amazing. Firelight is one I picked out because there was quite a bit of hype about it a couple of years ago and the blurb sounded intriguing. I had a passing interest in it when it came out in 2010, but by now my curiosity has gotten the better of me and I bought it.
The last three books I was sent by authors. Starlet’s Run was part of the giveaway prize pack that Carla J. Hanna awarded to everyone who participated in my giveaway (which included myself for hosting it). The other book she sent me, Starlet’s Light is not pictured because I left it at work where I was last reading it. Fun to be Russian sounds like it could be ridiculously funny, so I’m actually quite anxious to read it. White Crow Black Lie also arrived from Candi Sary and it’s one of those books that I’ve had my eye on for a bit, but never got around to buying. That’s why it’s awesome that the author contacted me first.
But it’s not only books that arrived this week! Yesterday evening I got something in the mail that made me tear up just a bit:
It’s kind of hard to tell from the admittedly terrible picture, but that is a ‘Get Better’ card sent to me by my blogger-friend Savindi of The Streetlight Reader. How she got my mailing address, I really don’t care, but what I do care about is that she went through the trouble to obtain it, write out a really thoughtful message and send a physical card, not just an email! So yes, I did tear up just a bit when I received it and read the message. That’s why it now sits in a place of honour next to my late grandmother’s portrait on my desk.
So thank you for caring, Savindi. And thanks to everyone else who has offered their sympathies and get better wishes. It really does mean a lot to me.
Look What Just Arrived! (#9)
As you guys know, I was travelling. As you also know, that means only one thing: new books. The only real question is: what did I buy? So here we go:
- Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
- The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
- The Singing Sword by Jack Whyte
- The Courtesan’s Lover by Gabrielle Kimm
- Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers
- Beyonders: Seeds of Rebellion by Brandon Mull
To be fair, I’ve already read and scheduled my review for The Singing Sword because I took it with me to read on the plane. So I’m not as far behind on buying, reading and reviewing as it seems like.
I picked up Prince of Thorns because Savindi from The Streetlight Reader has been raving about Prince of Thorns for a while now, so I decided to see what all the fuss was about. Grave Mercy both appealed to me when I read the blurb on Amazon a while back and because it was the talk of the YA blogosphere for a fair bit of time. We’ll see if it’s worth the hype.
I picked up Beyonders: Seeds of Rebellion by Brandon Mull because although I absolutely hated Fablehaven, I enjoyed the first book in his new Beyonders series. Also, I needed a new book at the airport in case I finished The Singing Sword on the way back. The Courtesan’s Lover had both an intriguing blurb and was on sale, so I picked that up as well at the bookstore. The Ghost Brigades is the second part of John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series. I figure that since the first book was so funny I cried from laughing at some parts that if nothing else, the second book will be an entertaining read. Knowing John Scalzi, though, I’m pretty sure it will be far more than that.
So what books are you guys reading this month? See any books here that you loved/hated/need to read?