gosh I have a lot of books

After a VERY long trip all the way across North America, solarbird and I are back at the Murkworks again following the conclusion of our musical vacation! I will be resuming the writeup posts of everything that went on, including linking up to both Dara’s and framlingem‘s pics as soon as there are links to be had.

But in the meantime, there were books AND CDs aplenty that were bought, and so they must be duly documented! So here we go, first with the books!

Picked up at a queer bookstore in Toronto:

• Three, by Annemarie Monahan. This seems to be a “road not taken” kind of book, about three possible life paths for the same woman, questioning her sexuality. Possibly with some magic realism thrown in, I don’t know; the blurb suggests that these life paths are all about to collide, which suggests something magic-realism-y going on. Anyway, it sounded interesting, so I grabbed it!

Picked up in Quebec at the Archambault right by our hotel, which turned out to be an awesome store full of ALL THE THINGS I COULD EVER HOPE TO BUY, except maybe groceries and underwear. It’s probably a good thing for my pocketbook that I do not in fact live in Montreal:

• Luna: La Cité Maudite, by Élodie Tirel. This is a YA fantasy novel which came recommended by the redoubtable cow, on the grounds that it not only includes drow, it includes pretty much the entire R.A. Salvatore mythos, without even any of the serial numbers filed off. One presumes or at least hopes that there is some kind of licensing going on here, but really, one has no earthly idea! Grabbed it partly because it being YA means that hopefully the French will be easier for me to follow, and partly because the art on the cover is of this silver-haired elf girl riding a wolf, which TOTALLY made both me and Dara think “OH HEY! Clearbrook!”
• La Rivière des Morts, by Esther Rochon. This is straight-up Lovecraftian fantasy, which is generally relevant to my interests, and also recommended by the aforementioned cow. I had the pleasure of reading one of Rochon’s short stories while visiting said Cow, since she’d participated in a story exchange between the Anglophone magazine OnSpec and the Francophone SF zine Polaris, and I really liked the story of hers that got translated into English and which showed up in OnSpec. So I’m going to give this novel of hers a try when I’m feeling ambitious enough with the French.

Picked up while visiting brightbeak in Moncton:

• The Tale of Don l’Orignal, by Antonine Maillet (translated). The blurb on this one describes it as a fantastic tale with callbacks to Acadian history, and the cover art was charming, so I thought I’d give it a go.

And, picked up at the Geo Center on Signal Hill in St. John’s:

• Dictionary of Newfoundland and Labrador, by Ron Young. This appears to be a locally (well, local to St. John’s, that is) compendium of Newfoundland and Labrador dialect, which sounded like an awesome read–not to mention potential research material, given Christopher in Faerie Blood! So I snagged this with great enthusiasm.

Meanwhile, just to clear out some ebook purchases that need accounting for in the queue, all of which were nabbed from Barnes and Noble:

• House of Doors, by Chaz Brenchley. Because desperance is awesome and really, I need to get going on reading all of his backlogged books I’ve been buying up! This one’s got ghosts. YAY!
• A Raging Storm and A Brewing Storm, by Richard Castle. Because I still giggle like mad that stories by Richard Castle actually exist, for values of exist meaning “as the product of clever marketing and ghost writing”, and I’m doubly charmed that they’re extending this fun to include the Derrick Storm character.
• Geekomancy, by Michael R. Underwood. Because this is an interesting experiment in ebook-first publishing, and because seriously, you guys, how could I not check out a book chock full of geeky references AND an entire magic system based on pop culture? It’s almost TOO easy a purchase!

93 so far for the year!

Here are a few quick books I’ve picked up this past week!

• San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats, by Mira Grant. Because how could I NOT? I mean, DAMN. Newsflesh universe, Comic-Con, Browncoats, ZOMBIES. Read it on the way home from work today. SHINY.
• The Chocolatier’s Wife, by Cindy Lynn Speer. I bought this when it came out via Drollerie, and I’m buying it again now that it’s been re-released by Dragonwell Publishing, because I liked this book that much and wanted to support the author by buying new copies! Bought the ebook AND print editions, so I’ll need to count this twice.
• The Bad Beginning, by Lemony Snicket. The first book of A Series of Unfortunate Events, snatched up because it was being offered for the Nook for .99! So I figured what the hey.

84 for the year!

So there I was at Westercon yesterday, wandering through the dealers room like ya do, when I came across a table run by these folks! PNW-based organization of independent writers, banding together to establish quality standards for their work–which struck me as, of course, AWESOME. But just as importantly, OH LOOK BOOKS. So I stopped to say hi, indicate my sympathy by holding up my OWN big box of books I was hauling around with (because yeah, over a dozen copies of Faerie Blood is pretty much my card-carrying membership in the club of Great Sympathy for Independent Writers), and ask them to tell me about the books on their table. Which ultimately led me to getting:

• Fugitives from Earth, by Brad Wheeler. SF/Space opera. Pitched to me as containing political and industrial intrigue, OHNOEZ!
• Faces in the Water, by Tonya Macalino. Fantasy/paranormal. An artist is trapped in the flooded ruins of Venice under quarantine, only to discover that legends are coming to life in the city.

(Big props to the NIWA folks for being very personable and signing both the books for me, and to Tonya in particular for telling me something interesting about most of the books on the table! Also, big giggles for NIWA’s little questionnaire card asking how many books you buy in a year. I noted that “all of them” was not an option on this card, so had to settle for >10!)

And I also got from the Book Universe folks, because really I can’t go to a PNW con without getting SOMETHING from them:

• Whedonistas!, edited by Lynne Thomas and Deborah Stanish, by the same fine team that brought us Chicks Dig Time Lords. I’ve been meaning to get this for ages.
• The Tempering of Men, by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear. Because even if I haven’t been reading this series yet, Dara HAS, and she totally wanted this.

Meanwhile, I finally ordered a copy of this from Third Place Books, which I’ve also been meaning to do for ages:

• The Last Hot Time, by John M. Ford. Previously read as a library book, deeply appreciated as an early urban fantasy novel and a pretty excellent portrayal of elves.

80 for the year!

Because even though working on my own words lately has put a big dent in the rate at which I’m reading other people’s words, I am still also BUYING other people’s words, so here ya go.

Picked up in print from Third Place Books, bought new even though they had a delicious 40 percent off Used Books sale going on at the time:

• Mechanique, by Genevieve Valentine. Steampunk. Picked up pretty much because Kiri Moth did the cover art, and hey, she’s MY cover artist, so we’re talking cover artist solidarity here. Also, the book sounded like fun and I’d been meaning to get it for some time regardless.
• The Inimitable Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse. Bought because the Murkworks loves us some Jeeves and Wooster, and the original stories were heartily recommended to me!

Picked up in electronic form from Barnes and Noble:

• A Kiss at Midnight, by Eloisa James. Grabbed because B&N had it available for .99, and Eloisa James has been spoken well of on the Smart Bitches site. Also because this story’s influenced by fairy tales and I’m a sucker for that, and interested in seeing how a historical romance plays off of fairy tale tropes.
• Canadian French for Better Travel. Grabbed this since it was available in ebook form for cheap, and because I’m interested in Canadian/Quebecois French, and hey, because I’m going to Montreal for a weekend soon!

75 for the year.

Picked up in print from B&N:

• Glamour in Glass, by Mary Robinette Kowal. Fantasy, book 2 of her Shades of Milk and Honey series. Grabbed this one in hardback in no small part because of Kowal’s awesome, creative handling of the problem of the problem of what happened to the first sentence in the book.

And, picked up electronically from B&N:

Nights of the Round Table and Other Stories of Heroic Fantasy and February Thaw and Other Tales of Contemporary Fantasy, both by Tanya Huff. These are two short story collections, available electronically. Because, of course, Tanya Huff is awesome and I need every word she’s ever written!

51 for the year. And hopefully once I’m done with Kickstarter adventures, I can get in more progress on my sadly backlogged book reviews!