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Books

Multi-lingual OH hey I got ebook credit! book roundup

If you’re a regular buyer of ebooks, you may be aware that a lot of the ebook vendors have had to issue credits to customers because of a court settlement pertaining to ebook pricing. I’ve gotten credit now from both the iBookstore AND Barnes and Noble, and should have something from Kobo showing up eventually, too!

The fun part? My credit from B&N was substantial. So I breezed through a lot of books that’d been sitting on my wishlist for a while, mostly things I’d previously owned in print, and which I wanted to replace with ebook versions!

From B&N:

  • The Witness, Whiskey Beach, Dark Witch, and Shadow Spell, by Nora Roberts. Assorted romantic suspense and paranormal romance, on general principles of “Because I like Nora Roberts”!
  • Prior Bad Acts, Dark Paradise, Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, The Alibi Man, Dark Horse, Magic, Deeper Than the Dead, and Secrets to the Grave, all by Tami Hoag. A bunch of Hoag that had previously been in my collection in print, plus some newer stuff I haven’t read yet.
  • Storm Kissed, by Jessica Andersen. Book 6 of her Night Keepers series, which I am sadly behind on! Paranormal romance.
  • And last but most assuredly not least, Circle of Shadows by Imogen Robertson, Book 4 of her Crowther and Westerman series. Historical mystery. Yum.

Meanwhile, from the iBookstore, from which I don’t usually buy books unless they’re DRM free, I scarfed:

  • Servant of the Underworld, Harbinger of the Storm, and Master of the House of Darts, all by Aliette de Bodard. Aztec-mythos fantasy from Angry Robot. Sounded like a change of pace, and since Angry Robot is delicious DRM free goodness, decided to pick these up.

MEANWHILE! Picked up in print, ordered directly from Lulu since this is the only way of getting this book:

  • Le québécois en 10 leçons, by Alexandre Coutu. I’m given to understand that this is an excellent reference source for Quebecois French, and I’m quite looking forward to digging into it. 😀

And last but most assuredly not least, a book which gets special mention since I learned about it from this post on OffQc, a blog I follow for daily tidbits of information about the Quebec language and life in Montreal:

  • Ah shit, j’ai pogné le cancer, by Maude Schiltz. This is an autobiography by a cancer patient in Quebec, in which she presents the story of her diagnosis and how she dealt with it. As a cancer survivor myself and a student of Quebec French, I pretty much had to read this. I love her title, because YEAH. And I’ve had the pleasure of chatting briefly with the author on Facebook as well, and was delighted by how happy she was that her book made it out of Quebec and into the hands of an Anglophone. She uses a lot of humor in her story, and she seems like an awesome lady in general. So if any of y’all have enough French to be able to read something in that language, consider checking this out too.

This puts me at 37 books acquired so far for the year.

Books

Going back to Canada second week in a row book roundup!

Because I haven’t done one of these in a while, and because I’d like to clear out my list of Stuff I Really Need to Get Done before I scamper back up to Canada tomorrow for Le Vent du Nord goodness, here’s a roundup of recent book acquisitions!

From Amazon:

  • Stronger Than Blood, by Genevieve Griffin. Urban fantasy YA, as I’ve posted about before. I don’t normally buy ebooks from Amazon, but for this, I make an exception.

From Barnes and Noble, because I was in the mood to augment my French ebooks collection and because I’ve got credit to blow on the B&N store:

  • Luna: La cité maudite, by Élodie Tirel. Fantasy YA, in French, as I’ve posted about before. I already had a print copy of this, but I wanted an ebook copy, in no small part because getting a print copy of this book means I have to order it from Quebec, and I’d be sad if I lost it or spilled anything on it!
  • Gaïg 1: La prophétie des nains, by Dynah Psyche. Again, fantasy YA. Grabbing this because it’s by the same imprint that does Élodie Tirel, and I’m interested in the apparent main character on the cover being a female dwarf. (Yes, folks, if I have to stuff an entire extra language into my head in order to read me some fantasy featuring a female dwarf, I AM PREPARED TO DO THAT. However, not all of us are language nerds. Hey, US fantasy market, step up to the plate here, won’t you?)
  • Rivière des morts, by Esther Rochon. Not sure whether to call this fantasy or horror, given that as I understand it, there’s some Lovecraftian mythos fun going on in here. Can’t wait to tackle reading it! And, this is another book I have a paperback copy of, but again, reluctant to let it out of the house for fear of damaging it or losing it, ’cause ordering books from Quebec is spendy!
  • Sentinels: Lynx Destiny, by Doranna Durgin. Paranormal romance. ‘Cause I’ve liked the others in this series so far, and hey, Doranna Durgin is pretty much auto-buy in these parts.

Directly from Gary Botting, as a “from one author to another” gift at the De Temps Antan show at the Rogue:

  • Chief Smallboy: The Pursuit of Freedom, by Gary Botting. This is a biography about a chief of the Cree, Bob Smallboy, and a part of Canadian history with which I am unfamiliar. It should be an interesting and informative read!

And again from Barnes and Noble, this time in print:

  • Half-Off Ragnarok, by Seanan McGuire. Urban fantasy, book 3 of her Incryptid series. Because Seanan.
  • A Turn of Light, by Julie E. Czerneda. Fantasy. Already have this in ebook, but Ms. Czerneda is definitely on my list of “must have in both formats” authors.

Lastly, from Angry Robot:

  • Blades of the Old Empire, by Anna Kashina. Fantasy. Astute readers may observe that this is the book I featured last week on Boosting the Signal!
  • The Thief’s Gamble, by Juliet E. McKenna. Fantasy. Because I need more fantasy novels by women!

17 for the year so far.

Books

Gift card ebook roundup post

The book-buying gods have smiled upon me, for lo, I received not only a B&N gift card for my birthday, I also got a VISA gift card from work for hitting my five-year mark with them. I took the latter over to a B&N to get myself a gift card loaded up with that card’s balance (after nabbing a copy of the soundtrack for Desolation of Smaug). Which means, of course, a tasty, tasty book roundup post!

Nabbed therefore from B&N:

  • The Splendour Falls, by Susanna Kearsley. For general “I buy everything by Susanna Kearsley” reasons, and this is one of her older books I haven’t managed to read yet. I have a paperback copy, but I buy her in both formats, and this is the first this ebook’s finally been made available to US markets.
  • What Remains of Heaven and Where Shadows Dance, by C.S. Harris. Books 5 and 6 of her Sebastian St. Cyr historical mystery series.
  • To Darkness and to Death, All Mortal Flesh, and I Shall Not Want, by Julia Spencer-Fleming. Books 4, 5, and 6 of her Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mystery series.
  • Magic Bleeds, by Ilona Andrews. Book 4 of the Kate Daniels urban fantasy series.

7 for the year so far.

Trilingual Hobbit Reread

Tri-lingual Hobbit re-read: Chapter 16

When last we left Thorin’s company in the Lonely Mountain, Bard’s army and that of the Elvenking had shown up to deliver them a Siege-o-gram. Postage due: a share of the treasure of Smaug. Not terribly surprisingly, this didn’t go over well at all. Particularly given how Thorin’s getting crankier what with the lust for the Arkenstone being well and thoroughly on him.

Chapter 16, “A Thief in the Night”, kicks in with that very question. ‘Cause yeah, Thorin, about that Arkenstone? Bilbo might know something about that…

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Books

Solstice book acquisition roundup

Immortal Lies

Immortal Lies

And now, for a quick post-Solstice roundup of stuff I’ve recently acquired for my electronic reading amusement!

Scarfed off of Project Gutenberg (yay! Project Gutenberg! Because free books are awesome!) because of this article about women doing horror writing in the 19th century, and I wanted to check out some of the titles they mentioned:

A Night on the Borders of the Black Forest, by Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards. Grabbed this one in no small part because of this woman being the model for the character of Amelia Peabody, who, as you know, is EXTREMELY relevant to my interests.

The Uninhabited House, by Mrs. J.H. Riddell.

A Phantom Lover, by Vernon Lee.

And, grabbed off of Kobo (to whom I must give props for FINALLY implementing an actual shopping cart, because WOW it annoys me to have to buy a bunch of ebooks one at a time!):

Immortal Lies, by S.L. Gray. A.k.a. my Willowholt tribesmate userinfoshadowhwk, whose official site now lives right over here! This is her first urban fantasy and I look forward to reading it.

On a Red Station, Drifting, by Aliette de Bodard. SF. Grabbed this one due to Tor.com speaking well of it, and also because I want to expand my horizons a bit. The thought of some SF written with non-Western sensibilities appeals.

181 for the year.

Trilingual Hobbit Reread

Tri-lingual Hobbit re-read: Chapter 15

Well, all this fun with dragons strafing Lake-town is all very well and good, but I know what you’re thinking, Internets: what’s going on with Bilbo? Good question, for which I’m sure that Chapter 15, “The Gathering of the Clouds”, will have answers!

And since I’m so far behind on getting these posts done, I’ve actually read the rest of the English edition as I write this. This post, however, will stay focused on Chapter 15.

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Trilingual Hobbit Reread

Tri-lingual Hobbit re-read: Chapter 14

Fell behind on this again due to being in MASSIVE DEADLINE mode with Vengeance of the Hunter–for the past several months. But now that Vengeance is signed off on text-wise, and with the coming of The Desolation of the Smaug VERY NIGH, I feel a mighty need to return to this project.

So let’s get cracking with Chapter 14, shall we? Esgaroth has a pissed-off dragon to contend with, after all!

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