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gosh I have a lot of books

Books

Quite a few book purchases make a post

Oh hey look, posting about something that isn’t Quebec music! It’s my OTHER fandom! Books!

I’ve managed to get hit with a big swath of library checkouts all at the same time, an unexpectedly fun side effect of shunting so many titles on my To Read list over onto the list of things to be checked out from the library first. This does, however, mean I’ve been a bit swamped trying to keep track of them and make sure I can get them read or otherwise dealt with before their due dates! So I’ve decided to chug through my current library books and if I’m engaged enough in the first 100 pages or so, go ahead and commit to buying that title and then jump over to the next one.

Here’s my current list!

  • The Dark Wife, by Sarah Diemer. Picked up because it’s a lesbian retelling of the Persephone and Hades story, and as y’all know, I’m a big ol’ sucker for that story. Had previously been aware of this thanks to the Outer Alliance, and was reminded again of it by userinfomarzipan_pig.
  • Pirate King, by Laurie R. King. The latest in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series, which promises to be silly fun.
  • “To Read or Not to Read”, by Vincent Hobbes. Freebie short story. Picked this up as it was recommended to me on Goodreads, and also, free things are awesome!
  • “Beekeeping for Beginners”, by Laurie R. King. This is a short story of hers, the tale of how Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell met–which was covered from Mary’s POV way back in Book 1, but here, it’s Holmes’ POV. I figured this would be worth 99 cents!
  • The Spirit Lens, by Carol Berg. Fantasy, the first of the Collegia Magica series, recommended to me by userinfokisanthe! Initially I checked this out from the library, but got a good way in and decided, yes, I like this very much and want to own it. Will be finishing it up ASAP. High marks for a vaguely French-flavored fantasy setting, as well as very colorful characters and a hapless protagonist who’s a failed mage.
  • Heat Rises, by Richard Castle! Bought for reasons which ought to be obvious. Third of the Nikki Heat series!
  • Zazen, by Vanessa Veselka. This is another Goodreads recommendation, and another initial library checkout. Of this list, it’s the most unusual thing by far to show up in my reading material for a while and I’m quite enjoying it. It’s hard enough to describe that I can only point you to the Goodreads page for it, and the blurb there. The writing is vivid enough and the characters compelling enough that no matter how it ends, I’ve decided I want to own it. More on this to come.

And that kicks me up to 201 for the year. I’ll be grabbing Cherie Priest’s new release next week–AND a new one called The Hum and the Shiver which looks interesting as well. More on these to come too.

Books

The Anna is on Vacation book roundup post

This was actually written during my downtime the week of September 5th, though in keeping with my radio silence, I’m scheduling it to be posted on Monday the 12th! So here we go folks, various and sundry books to add to the Stuff I’ve Bought This Year list.

Picked up in print:

  • Aftermath, by Ann Aguirre. Another of her Sirantha Jax SF series, on which I am horribly behind! Continuing to buy this series in print because that’s how I started buying it, and I’m not a fan of mixing and matching formats in the same series.
  • Omnitopia Dawn, by Diane Duane. SF. Recommended to me some time ago, and I finally opted to pick it up in mass market paperback rather than ebook form, just because Diane Duane seems worthy of having around in print!
  • Look Closely, by Laura Caldwell. Mystery. Actually picked this up a few weeks ago, when userinfosolarbird had her gig at Inner Chapters, but forgot to note it on the book log.
  • Hellbent, by userinfocmpriest. Book 2 of her current urban fantasy series. It features a vampire, but hey, I’ll put up with that for Cherie Priest!
  • Wayfinder, by userinfomizkit. The second half of her urban fantasy Worldwalker duology. Picked up because, as always, Kit rocks.
  • One Salt Sea, by userinfoseanan_mcguire. Book 5 of the Toby Daye series, on which I am woefully, woefully behind!
  • The Truth of Valor, by userinfoandpuff. Book 5 of her ongoing SF series featuring Torin Kerr, which I am also behind on, and I need to get caught up on her too because Tanya Huff ALSO rocks.

Picked up electronically:

  • Knight’s Curse, by Karen Duvall. Urban fantasy. This is a release by Luna, the same folks who publish userinfomizkit‘s Walker Papers, and I know Karen via the Paranormal Mystery list I’m on. Looking forward to reading her work.
  • The Murder at the Vicarage, by Agatha Christie. Mystery, as should of course be obvious; this is a Miss Marple, in particular. Picked up as a B&N freebie, due to the woeful general lack of Agatha Christie in my library.
  • Spider’s Bite, by Jennifer Estep. Urban fantasy. This one has been on my radar for a while as a probable library book, but it was on sale for $1.99, which was too good an opportunity to pass up. *yoink!*

Up to 194 for the year.

Books

Haven’t done one of these in a bit

And since I’m going on Internet Furlough next week, here, have a massive book roundup post!

Picked up from Alert Nerd:

  • One Con Glory, by Sarah Kuhn. Checked this out from the library, after hearing it raved about on Smart Bitches, and liked it quite a bit. So I bought the PDF version of it. Very quick read, very geek-friendly short romance. Recommended!

Picked up from Carina Press, electronically:

  • Lure of the Mummy, by Janis Susan May. This is Carina’s first horror release, and I grabbed it partly on those grounds–just to support Carina’s releasing of non-romance-related genres. But also, the protagonist is described as ‘pudgy, balding, and awkward’, and I felt I wanted to support a story with a non-pretty protagonist on general principle.
  • A Line in the Ice, by Jamie Craig. An SF Carina release, likely to be sci-fi-romance based on the description, but I’m okay with that!
  • Last Car to Annwn Station, by Michael Merriam. Urban fantasy. The title alone got my interest.
  • Quarter Square, by David Bridger. Again, urban fantasy.
  • The Devil’s Garden, by Jane Kindred. A fantasy novella, which I grabbed in no small part because the character is genderqueer and spends some time living as both a female and a male, given what’s in the blurb. Stories about non-traditional gender roles FTW!
  • Endless Night, by Maureen A. Miller. Romantic suspense.
  • Courting Death and Courting Disaster, by Carol Stephenson. Romantic suspense.
  • Portrait of Seduction, by Carrie Lofty. Historical romance.
  • Alchemy of Desire, by Crista McHugh. Historical/steampunk romance, it looks like.
  • Hunting Human, by Amanda E. Alvarez. I’d call this urban fantasy except it doesn’t seem to have an urban setting. There are werewolves!

Picked up from Barnes and Noble:

  • The Hour of the Time, by Vincent Hobbes. Short story, available for free. Grabbed it because I like free things!
  • First, There Is a River, by Kathy Steffen. Historical fiction, grabbed it when it was the Nook freebie of the week.
  • Untouchable, by Scott O’Connor. Another Nook freebie. Looks like it’ll probably be grim. Will hold this one until I’m in the proper mood.
  • What Angels Fear and When Gods Die, both by C.S. Harris. The first two of her Sebastian St. Cyr historical mysteries, re-purchased in ebook form.
  • Raven’s Shadow and Raven’s Strike, by Patricia Briggs. A fantasy duology of hers. I’d already read the first in print and wasn’t very impressed at the time but want to give it another shot, so I re-bought it in ebook and got the second one as well.
  • The Flower to the Painter, by Gary Inbinder. Picked up because Gary’s a fellow Drollerie Press author and because I liked his previous book, Confessions of the Creature, his Frankenstein sequel.
  • Southern Gods, by John Hornor Jacobs. Picked up after seeing this in a Big Idea column on John Scalzi’s blog, and because the idea of a Southern Gothic horror story with blues and Lovecraftian monsters is RIGHT UP MY ALLEY, yo. Also, Mr. Jacobs, I totally see what you did there with your mysterious bluesman’s name.

And last but not least, just grabbed from Drollerie since this sounded halfway intriguing:

  • Iodine, by C.L. Hilbert. A futuristic/apocalyptic treatment of the Little Red Riding Hood story.

185 for the year.

Books

And, yet a few more books

Picked up electronically:

  • Sasha: A Trial of Blood and Steel, by Joel Shepherd. Fantasy, one of Pyr’s line. Currently available for free on the Kindle store, so I snagged it for reading on either the phone or the iPad when I’m in the mood. Pyr unfortunately doesn’t hand nearly as much electronic love to the Nook store; the title’s available for sale there, but free beats nearly ten bucks, so.
  • Countdown: A Newsflesh Novella, by Mira Grant. For reasons which should be ENTIRELY OBVIOUS, given my love of Feed and Deadline. Those of you who follow userinfoseanan_mcguire know she was posting snippets of this leading up to the release of Deadline, but this is the polished up, edited version. Those of you who are e-inclined, grab this–it’ll help convince her publisher to let her do another one leading up to the release of Blackout.
  • The Door into Sunset, The Door into Fire, and The Door into Shadow, all by userinfodduane. Ebook editions of the “Door Into” books by Diane Duane, currently available for sale directly from the author over on her site. Those of you who are longtime fans of hers and in particular of this series may wish to check her post about the STARLIGHTGUILT discount currently active, and why she hasn’t finished this series in the last thirty years.
  • Prince Ivan, Firebird, and The Golden Horde, all by Peter Morwood, also available for direct sale on Diane Duane’s ebook site. These are re-releases of the Tales of Old Russia, and y’all should check Ms. Diane’s LJ post about that, including an OLDRUSSIA coupon code. Act fast, I don’t know how long this discount will be active!
  • Footsteps in the Dark, by Georgette Heyer. Old-school romantic/paranormal suspense, this week’s freebie from B&N.

163!

Books

And now, a great big ol’ pile of books

Here’s what I spent my tasty store credit at Third Place on:

  • Downpour, by userinfokatatomic. Book 6 of her Greywalker series. I’m working on reading book 4 right now and hope to be caught up on this series soon! (Also, the observant reader will note that I already bought the ebook before; this is the hardback. Because I did indeed buy this book twice! I do that for fellow authors who love Twice Upon a Time, you know.)
  • Working Stiff, by userinforachelcaine. First book of her new series.
  • Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel, by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris. Steampunk/paranormal investigation type novel, set in Victorian England. Sounded like fun, so I snagged it.

Meanwhile, this is how I spent my money from the sale of my original nook:

  • Hounded, by Kevin Hearne. Book 1 of the Iron Druid Chronicles. Urban fantasy, starring a protagonist who’s an ancient druid trying to keep a low profile in the modern world. I expect his attempts to pull this off will go very badly, or otherwise we wouldn’t have a series, now would we?
  • Crossed, by J.F. Lewis. Book 3 of his Void City series. Urban fantasy, starring a vampire protagonist, and y’all may remember I quite liked the first two of these.
  • The Hob’s Bargain, by Patricia Briggs. Fantasy, re-buy of a book previously owned in print.
  • Steal the Dragon, by Patricia Briggs. Another re-buy of a previously owned fantasy, one which I quite liked, I note–but Briggs has so many books now that it’ll be easier for me to track her electronically. But I liked this one in particular
  • Out of the Deep I Cry, by Julia Spencer-Fleming. Book 3 of her Clare Fergusson mystery series, starring a young woman who’s an Episcopalian priest and the town sherriff with whom she’s developing a relationship with–even though both are fighting against it, because he’s married.
  • Death Most Definite, by Trent Jamieson. Book 1 of his Steven de Selby series, picked up in no small part because userinfoseanan_mcguire spoke highly of it. Hero’s working for the Grim Reaper.
  • Masques, by Patricia Briggs. Fantasy, another re-buy of a book I’d previously bought in print, but in this case I hadn’t actually read it yet. This is a re-issue of her very first novel, set in the same universe as Steal the Dragon and When Demons Walk and Wolfsbane.
  • Wolfsbane, by Patricia Briggs. Fantasy, yet another re-buy, one which I hadn’t read yet in print. Most recent of her Sianim universe fantasy novels.
  • When Demons Walk, by Patricia Briggs. The last of my Sianim universe fantasy novel re-buys, and I very much liked this one, as the heroine must pose as the mistress of a crippled nobleman to discover who’s been killing others of noble blood–and who caused the accident that crippled him. This was great fun and I look forward to re-reading it.
  • Follow My Lead, by Kate Noble. Romance. Bought due to really liking all her previous novels I’ve read, thanks to the fine ladies at the Smart Bitches site! Third of her Blue Raven series.
  • The Young Widow, by Cassandra Chan. Mystery, the first of her Bethancourt-Gibbons series, which I’ve already read and highly enjoyed. Buying this now because it finally hit ebook and I hadn’t been able to find a print copy; my prior read of it was from the library.

That’ll bring me up to 154 for the year and this should sustain me nicely until the releases I’m eying for September. userinfomizkit, userinfocmpriest, and Mr. Richard Castle!

Books

Screw it, the hiatus is pretty kicked in the head

Yes yes yes, I know, you all knew that already. Work with me here. 😉

Due to selling my old first generation nook to , I now have a hundred bucks’ worth of unexpected money–and it will surprise none of you that that’s going right back into ebooks for the new nook as soon as I decide what I want to get.

Meanwhile, I took a big ol’ bunch of books down to Third Place because I was out of space for trades and hardbacks. I also took a bag of mass market paperbacks, half Patricia Briggs and half Star Wars novels, and everything I took down is going to be re-purchased for the nook as well. But that also scored me $45 of store credit to use!

Conveniently, userinfokatatomic drops a new release this week so that’ll eat up a good chunk of that credit right there, since I do buy Ms. Richardson in hardcover. I’ll also be grabbing userinforachelcaine‘s newest in paperback since she maintains her status on the Buy in Print Because I Would Be Sad If I Could Not Read Her When the Power Is Out.

All of which leads me into noting that I took a second pop into the downtown Borders, looking for stuff I could buy in print that wasn’t available in e. I picked up Dorothy Sayers’ Busman’s Honeymoon, on the grounds that more Lord Peter Wimsey is always a good thing to have in one’s library.

And also, I grabbed Sheri Tepper’s The Gate to Women’s Country at the Friends of the Library sales rack down at the Lake Forest Park library. They were selling it for a quarter. Works for me, given that that was on my To Read list anyway!

140 for the year, though that number will be going up sharply once I spend the nook sales money and the store credit. Stay tuned!

Books

And okay yeah fine more books

Barnes and Noble tempted me with its 15 percent off coupon temptations, and there was this Borders, like, y’know, right there and stuff, with a going out of business sale and 30 percent off of Nora Roberts titles and um…

Yeah, I know. Any excuse in a book hiatus, right? Right.

Anyway! Picked up in print:

  • Midnight Bayou, Divine Evil, and Genuine Lies, all by Nora Roberts. Picked up since these are standalone romantic suspense titles of hers that I hadn’t read yet, and I tend to like those of hers better than her paranormals. (Special side note to userinfokisanthe if she reads this: I know you didn’t like Midnight Bayou, but I wanted to check it out for curiosity’s sake, and hey, 30 percent off.)
  • Johannes Cabal the Necromancer, by Jonathan L. Howard. Picked up because I had a coupon, and also because the blurb on the back described it as a “charmingly gothic, fiendishly funny Faustian tale about a brilliant scientist who makes a deal with the Devil, twice”. Noted it because Book 2 was on the new releases table at B&N, and it looked interesting, so I went back and found Book 1 to actually read first.

And picked up electronically, since it was a freebie that I saw mentioned in passing on Google+:

  • The Midnight Eye, by William Meikle. Detective story, and hey, free book.

138 for the year.