Tagged: used books
Look What Just Arrived! (#18)
On Sunday and up until about 8:00pm Monday I was in the city for a business trip. I had some time to myself so I was lucky enough to find both an Indigo store and a used book store so I didn’t entirely blow my budget. Since I didn’t have enough time to read some and I’m exhausted there will obviously be no review today. So let me distract you with pictures of the books I picked up!
- Autumn: Disintegration by David Moody
- Eternal by Cynthia Leitich Smith
- Wake by Lisa McMann
- Fade by Lisa McMann
- Vittorio the Vampire by Anne Rice
- Switched by Amanda Hocking
- Torn by Amanda Hocking
- Ascend by Amanda Hocking
- Heroes: Saviours, Traitors and Supermen by Lucy Hughes-Hallett
- Dust & Decay by Jonathon Maberry
I already read and reviewed the Trylle trilogy by Amanda Hocking but I had to borrow it from a friend. So when I saw the trilogy in the used bookstore I decided to pick it up. They’re sort of a guilty pleasure type of read like Vittorio the Vampire but for a couple of bucks they’re worth it.
Dust & Decay is the sequel to Rot & Ruin, a zombie story by Jonathon Maberry that I thoroughly enjoyed almost a year ago. I’m so glad that I finally found the sequel! In every single bookstore I’ve looked there has only ever been the first book so when I saw the second one I snapped it up.
Most of the others were huge impulse buys because the covers either looked interesting or I’d heard some good things about them in the blogosphere. I’m not an impulsive sort of person but it’s hard to pass up cheap books in a used bookstore when you get the chance. I’m going to be going on a reading binge, so you can probably look forward to some reviews of these books later this month!
Have you read any of these books? If so, how were they? If not, do you see anything that catches your eye?
Look What Just Arrived! (#16)
This is not the best of pictures but I did have to fit ten different books into it. Here are the names if you can’t read the titles:
- Stork by Wendy Delsol
- Frost by Wendy Delsol
- Flock by Wendy Delsol
- Evermore by Alyson Noël
- Blue Moon by Alyson Noël
- Caesar’s Women by Colleen McCullough
- The Wise Woman’s Tale by Phillipa Bowers
- Daughters of the Nile by Stephanie Dray
- Crewel by Gennifer Albin
- Altered by Gennifer Albin
As I mentioned before, my local bookstore is going out of business. So I’ve been stocking up and you may notice that I bought way more books than I usually do. This is because my last trip was likely the last time I’ll set foot in the store so I dropped around a $100 on books. I wanted to get the full series of books as much as possible because I know I won’t be buying books for a long time.
Anyway, I read Daughters of the Nile pretty much on the same day I went shopping. It’s much longer than the other books in the series but I absolutely loved it. Caesar’s Women is the fourth book in Colleen McCullough’s First Man in Rome series and I can’t wait to start it! Crewel is the first book in Gennifer Albin’s Crewel World trilogy and I was thoroughly impressed with it. It was so different from most YA with an entirely unique premise that you can’t help but love it. I’m now reading Altered and have a hard time putting it down.
As for the Stork trilogy I can honestly just say I picked them up for the covers. They’re beautiful and interesting but the blurbs intrigued me. It sounds like Wendy Delsol has a great premise on her hands and I want to see how she carries it out. Evermore is yet another book that’s floated around in the blogosphere forever and I never got around to it. So when I saw it and Blue Moon in the used section I couldn’t resist. I have some high hopes for this one! The same goes for The Wise Woman’s Tale.
Well, these are some of the things I’m reading. What are you guys reading lately? See anything you like here?
Look What Just Arrived! (#15)
As I mentioned my local independent bookstore is closing, so I’ve been stocking up on books. They’re having a big sale so I decided to go to the city yesterday and snap some books up while there’s still a bit of selection. Here’s what I bought:
- The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima
- The Serpent and the Pearl by Kate Quinn
- The Secret Eleanor by Cecelia Holland
- Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright
- Penelope’s Daughter by Laurel Corona
- Alchemy by Maureen Duffy
- The Crown by Nancy Bilyeau
- Mordred’s Curse by Ian McDowell
Out of all these awesome books I bought the other day, I think the one I’m most excited about is The Demon King. I’ve seen it and the other books in the Seven Realms series all around the blogosphere so I figured I’d pick it up. The premise is certainly intriguing and the excerpt I read sounded good, so why not?
Most of the other books I’m not very excited to read, but I’m looking forward to The Serpent and the Pearl as well as The Secret Eleanor. Both are historical fiction and although I’ve never read either author before the blurbs sounded good. I’ve read only one book about Eleanor of Aquitaine and that was a couple years ago, so it will be nice to get a little more detail about her life. And while I’ve read books about the Borgias, seeing their world through the eyes of an outsider will offer a little more perspective.
When I picked up Red Riding Hood I had no idea it was the companion novel to the movie. I’ve never even watched the movie, so we’ll see how things go. Mordred’s Curse sounds interesting because I’ve always felt there was a little more to Mordred’s story than we get in the traditional Arthurian legend. Penelope’s Daughter was a no-brainer for me because I do love Greek mythology and Xanthe is a character I’ve never really encountered before. Alchemy was more of an impulse buy because I thought it had the potential to be good and in all honesty I just bought The Crown because it featured a nun. That’s definitely not the traditional heroine of a story.
So, do you see anything you like? Have you read any of these books?
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! (#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.