gosh I have a lot of books

It must be time for another Book Roundup! Purchased or acquired lately by me:

• Pure Blood, by blackaire (Caitlin Kittredge), Book 2 of her Nocturne City series. Urban fantasy. Re-purchased in print even though I’d tried to re-buy her books in electronic form, because apparently this is the only book of that series not available on the Barnes and Noble ebook store. They have books 1, 3, 4, and 5, but not 2! Which makes no damn sense to me, and B&N’s customer service can’t tell me anything helpful, so I guess I get to read this ‘un in print.
• Aristoi, by Walter Jon Williams. SF. Y’all may recall I read this already as a library book, since it was recommended to me by gfish. Found a used paperback copy at Third Place, so I leapt on it!
• Where Serpents Sleep, by C.S. Harris. Mystery. Book 4 of the Sebastian St. Cyr series, which I’m enjoying. Bought in print since I’d started buying it in print before and I like to be consistent about these things!
• Dreams of the Compass Rose, by Vera Nazarian. Yoinked for free electronically from Smashwords here, since she’s making it available for the time being in the hopes of building her reader base. I like free books, so hey!
• The Glades: Pilot, by Clifton Campbell. This isn’t actually a novel; it’s the script of the pilot of a forthcoming TV series. B&N had it available as a free download, presumably to promote the show. Again: free stuff! The show’s a crime drama, apparently about a detective who is framed and accused of having an affair with his boss’s wife and exiled to the Everglades.
• Soul Identity, by Dennis Batchelder. Another free download from Barnes and Noble, which seems to be sort of SF/thriller-y.
• Home Safe, by Elizabeth Berg. Yet another free download from B&N, only this time this was via their in-store promotion where if you came in and told them you were a Nook owner, they’d give you a voucher for a download of the free ebook of the week. I happened to grab this ‘un. Don’t know if I’ll like it, since it seems to be more of a “women’s lit” thing, but we’ll see!
• Siren of the Waters, by Michael Genelin. One more free download from B&N; this one seems, again, SF/mystery/thriller-y.
• On Her Trail, by Marcelle Dubé. Romantic suspense. I actually won this as part of Carina Press promoting its launch! Which is neat, since I’d been planning on buying it.

I think that’s everything, and that brings me up to 162 for the year.

Right then, yet another book round-uppie thingie:

• Demon Hunts, by mizkit (C.E. Murphy), in both print AND ebook because Kit is just that awesome. Since this was two separate purchases, I will in fact be counting this book twice for tally purposes! Urban fantasy, book 5 of the Walker Papers.
• The Enchantment Emporium, by andpuff (Tanya Huff), now that it’s been released in paperback. I’m considering if I also want to buy it in ebook form since Huff is another author who warrants it for me, but as of this writing the ebook version is still showing up as $11.99 on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Whoever answers the @dawbooks account on Twitter says this was an error, so presumably that price will drop soon. Until then, I have the paperback anyway! Fantasy.
• Dead of Light, by desperance (Chaz Brenchley), in ebook form from here. This is one of his older novels, and by his own description, it was urban fantasy before there was really a term for it. Picked up because in general, his writing is awesome.
• The Necromancer’s Bones, by my fellow Telgar Weyr alum Deby Fredericks, the sequel to her first book, The Magister’s Mask. Fantasy. Watch this space for a marathon as I finally actually read The Magister’s Mask as well as this one!
• Too Many Princes, also by Deby Fredericks. Fantasy.

153 purchases thus far for the year.

Fictionwise is still trying very hard to remind me that it’s having that anniversary sale, and that this is the last weekend for it. I may or may not go ahead and get yuki_onna‘s (Cat Valente)’s other two books in ebook form, since the print copies I have are trade size and I still don’t like carrying those around in my backpack. Must mull after I get bills paid!

I have a whole lot of interesting samples that I’ve yoinked off of B&N’s site, too, which may or may not become actual purchases in the near future. These include in no particular order: The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry, Darkborn by Alison Sinclair, Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor (which is getting quite a bit of attention on Twitter), Magic Lost, Trouble Found by Lisa Shearin, Moonshine by Alaya Johnson, The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, Song of Scarabaeus by Sara Creasy, Stolen Fury by Elisabeth Naughton, Declare by Tim Powers (previously recommended), Territory by Emma Bull (also previously recommended), and last but not least, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

*whew* Can y’all tell I’m loving me that “grab a sample” feature of the Nook? Though it must be said that it’s also supremely dangerous, how easy it is to just go ahead and buy the book after you’ve read the sample. The effort I expend to not do so if I’m not suitably close to a paycheck is TITANIC, I tell you.

Fictionwise apparently can still get my attention if they have a big enough sale. They have a 40% off thing going on since it’s their anniversary now, and this weekend in particular they’ve also got a 5% off thing going on. So I grabbed ebook versions of Hal Duncan’s Vellum and Ink, as well as yuki_onna‘s first Orphan Tales volume. I’ve got the first Duncan as well as the Valente in print already, but they’re big books, and sure to get torn up if I carry them around in my backpack. So I’ll read ’em in ebook form.

Meanwhile, I’ve also purchased the ebook version of the novelization of Russell Crowe’s new Robin Hood movie. Yeah yeah yeah, I know, movie novelization? Bwuh? Here’s the thing: a well-done movie novelization is often better than the movie, and chances are high that a novelization will have been written off an earlier version of the script, so it’ll have stuff in it that never actually showed up in the movie. Skimming this one, I see already that this is the case; certain plot points get fleshed out in the book.

Also, I wanted to buy it because it was written by David B. Coe, who alert persons may remember as the author of Children of Amarid, lately recommended to me by framlingem! Also, I saw him post about it on one of the SF/F blogs I follow–specifically, about the challenges of writing a media tie-in novel and what he could do to put his own stamp upon it. Which was kind of neat.

Last but not least I have grabbed two more things in print: a very strangely titled book called Orion You Came and You Took All My Marbles, by Kira Henehan, which I spotted reviewed on another blog I follow. The concept sounded fun, and I couldn’t find it available for the Nook, so I went ahead and got it in print.

And, the other thing was Jar City, by Icelandic author Arnaldur Indriðason. His series was plugged on a mailing list I’m on, and apparently this guy has quite the international following. So since I like to break out of my American-and-Canadian-centric reading habits every so often, I wanted to check him out. This is actually the third novel of his series, but the first one to be translated into English, so hopefully it’ll be neat.

This brings me up to 147 for the year, y’all!

Meanwhile I’m now on a jimhines marathon, having started his Goblin trilogy, finally. Further author marathons will be happening this summer, as I’m aiming to clear out a lot of the folks for whom I have multiple books queued up. rachelcaine, mizkit, mevennen, desperance, matociquala, jpsorrow, Patricia Briggs, Deby Fredericks, and John Scalzi will all be duking it out for my attention!

Just to follow up on my AmazonWin post, I wanted to officially note my purchase of the print edition of klages‘s The Green Glass Sea here. Since, as mentioned, my ebook version was completely in italics and tough to read, so I got the print version instead!

Along with that, with a hat tip to mmegaera, I also purchased a print copy of Cordelia’s Honor, the omnibus paperback that contains both Shards of Honor and Barrayar. This is because a) I really ought to read me some Lois McMaster Bujold, b) solarbird has Barrayar but not Shards of Honor, and c) there are ebook versions of both of these books available but I frankly don’t like the cover art, so hey.

(Yes, folks, cover art is still a selling point even if your book is electronic. In case you were wondering.)

Meanwhile, I’ve also picked up two more ebooks from Barnes and Noble: Well of Sorrows by Benjamin Tate (who, don’t look now, is also known as jpsorrow shhh), which I’d read in ARC form but which I definitely wanted to purchase by way of support. Review post is forthcoming!

And, also, J.A. Pitts’ Black Blade Blues, which I had to buy pretty much on principle because it’s yet another urban fantasy set in Seattle–but this time, it’s got a lesbian heroine who’s a blacksmith. Dude. I am THERE. Dyke urban fantasy heroines FTW!

This, my friends, brings me up to 142 for the year.

I’m really kind of bummed that Fictionwise has gotten a lot less interesting now that the various publishers are implementing agency pricing; a lot of the electronic books I’ve wanted to buy have vanished out of Fictionwise’s database, and they’ve cut back hard on handing out rebates as well. So now it’s turned out that a lot of the books I want are actually cheaper with Barnes and Noble, and I can’t help but wonder if B&N’s eventually going to phase Fictionwise out entirely.

But that said, Fictionwise did at least fling a 20% off coupon to its users this weekend, so I picked up some more ebooks!

• Angel Fire East and A Knight of the Word by Terry Brooks, just to round out the trilogy about how our own world becomes the world of the Shannara books. Fantasy.
• The Wolf King, by Alice Borchardt, rounding out her trilogy of historical fantasy novels about werewolves. I’d never purchased or read this one, and will be re-reading the first two before I swing into this. Fantasy.
• And last but not least, all three of Cate Dermody’s Strongbox Chronicles, The Cardinal Rule, The Firebird Deception, and The Phoenix Law! She is of course mizkit, whose books I’ve been meaning to buy electronically as well as in print for a while now, just because she’s awesome thattaway!

This brings me up to 134 books purchased thus far this year, and given that there are rumors of a sale going on at Third Place this weekend, that number may be about to jump again. Woo!

Got some nice crunchy ones on the purchase list this time around, you guys!

First and foremost, in print, the shiny new zombie novel Feed by Mira Grant, a.k.a. seanan_mcguire! I’m already a hundred pages into this and into it way more than I’ve been with her Toby Daye novels–and I certainly liked the first of those. But I love me a good zombie novel, and this one is a cut above even those, so far. I’ve seen someone on Goodreads say that this book contains zombies, but what it’s actually about is politics and journalism and conspiracy. So far, it’s all about the awesome. I will of course be reviewing it in full when I’m done.

Meanwhile, purchased electronically even though I’d already bought a hardcover copy, is Malinda Lo’s excellent Ash! I was waffling on getting it read just because the hardcover edition is a lovely, lovely thing, and I was quite reluctant to take it out of the house and subject it to the usual rigors of being carried around in my backpack on my commute. So I eventually just decided, screw it, I’ll get the ebook and read that instead. I did. It was lovely, and I highly recommend it. Again, a review post is forthcoming!

Last but most certainly not least, and going head to head in the general category of Awesome occupied by the previous two books, is Laurie King’s The God of the Hive. I believe I mentioned before that I’d won an ARC of this on Goodreads, and now that it’s actually released I definitely had to put down for an ebook copy. Just because a story that good deserves my financial support!

Now up to 128 books for the year, and my ebook wish list on Barnes and Noble’s site is growing by the week. Betting-inclined persons may wish to start considering how much space I’ll fill up on my Nook before the year is out, and whether B&N will improve the chances of that by actually rolling out some fixes to the firmware so I can actually better organize said ebooks!