Books Brought Home -- January, 2011

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks.

Tomcat in Love by Tim O'Brien
Clouds by Aristophanes
Night Train to Lisbon by Emily Grayson

I was out and about on Saturday for a variety of reasons, among others a Borders half off coupon.

Party of One by Anneli Rufus. I'm something of a loner, and this came recommended in a thread I came across on LibraryThing. I couldn't find anything higher priced at Borders to inflate the value of the coupon, so I lit on this.

Simple Times by Amy Sedaris. So between one place and another there was a Barny Noble brick and mortar store, and I had a few minutes (during which I perhaps would better have bought a Jamba Juice). I already have her first book bought at a similar discount. I thought I could add this one at a 50% discount and have two unread oversized hardcovers in my stack.

Robert

Yesterday, I picked up Room by Emma Donoghue, and today I picked up The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz and Numb by Sean Ferrell. Also ordered Kanji in Mangaland and Japanese in Mangaland for some teaching/tutoring material.

I really want to pick up Another Pan by Daniel & Dina Nayeri, and The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender, both are hardcover, and I'm fresh out of coupons...

@1: Is Black Prism a standalone, or the start of a new series? Either way, hope you enjoy it!

I found a copy of Fareed Zakaria's The Post-American World on my local library's sale table yesterday and was happy to add it to my library.

#5 AmyLynn: The Black Prism is the start of a series. I'm currently reading it and Weeks is trying to be clever about magic, but he doesn't pull it off quite as well as Brandon Sanderson does.

This morning, I was reading some article about the best boring books in my Guardian Books feed. Pendennis by William MakepeaceThackeray didn't sound very boring to me, so I got the free eBook.

I was given a Borders gift card (yay!) for Christmas. Picked up True Grit, House Rules and Unbroken- now to have time to curl up with these books - that is what I really need!

Happy New Year!

Cleopatra: A Life
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

with a 25% off coupon.

Went to the library today and picked up Nobody's Fool .

I had a 33% off coupon for Borders that expired today so I went to buy Room by Emma Donoghue. They didn't have it in stock. I will be checking for the book when I go back. I did buy Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay. I only paid $3.94 for the book. It was regularly $14.00.

Super clearance shelves at BAM today:
The Dark Part of Town by Julia Pomeroy - wrong touchstone :(
The Defenestration of Bob T. Hash III by David Deans - anything with defenestration in the title has to be good fun!
Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love - this was less than $1 and it actually looks really cool. Curiosity got the better of me on this one

A couple of readers on LibraryThing made Hav by Jan Morris sound appealing. It was not available everywhere, so when I finally found it at the Book Depository I ordered it. It was in the mail today.

Robert

My books for 2011 with some carryovers from 2010.

City of the Gods by Patrick Garone (ebook)
Lester Higata's 20th Century by Barbara Hamby
Teotihuacan Trilogy by Annabeth Headrick
Valeria's Last Stand by Marc Fitten (ebook)
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman (ebook)
The Day the World Came to Town by Jim Defede
Escape from Slavery by Francis Bok

I have the following new books waiting for me:

Blood at the Root, Past Reason Hated and Wednesday's Child by Peter Robinson
Red Square by Martin Cruz Smith
Two Secret Santa books Absolution by Murder by Peter Tremayne and Dragon's Lair by Sharon Kay Penman.

And on Monday I will have Talking About Detective Fiction by P.D. James and A Play Of Piety by Margaret Frazer to add to the TBR shelf.

Oh what fun!!!

Bought No! I don't want to join a Book Club yesterday. Mind you I am 21 but I really am interested in this one. It's a real bestseller in the book store where I work.

Just about to start A Summer Fling by Milly Johnson. Don't normally read this type of book, but have been asked to read it and review it.

I just went and picked up Eggsecutive Orders by Julie Hyzy, the third book in her White House Chef series, because I had the first two and fourth books already.

Spent my B&N gift card on Galileo's Daughter . I've been thinking about getting this book for months , Of course now its sitting on my TBR pile . LOL !

I went out to our used book store today and bought 4 books. They will be added to my TBR piles. Here are what I bought:

The Last White Knight by Tami Hoag
Heart of Gold by Tami Hoag
Man of her Dreams by Tami Hoag
White Oleander by Janet Fitch

Went to the Friends of the Library yesterday and found two pristine hard backs:

Roughing It by Mark Twain
True Compass by Ted Kennedy

I'm not much of a fan of autobiographies, but for $3 thought it was worth trying Kennedy's.

Just got Pegasus by Robin McKinley.

Thanks to a $25 gift certificate from B&N I picked up Babycakes and Michael Tolliver lives, both by Armistead Maupin

Just back from the library with:

Parnassus on Wheels and The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley.

and, Miracle Mongers and Their Methods by Harry Houdini.

Now reading (The bay at midnight) by ((Diane Chamberlain)) received in a book swap.

I just spent a quarter on Arrowsmith, a 1945 edition. I understand it's on everyone's "must read" list.

#26
Faith76: Use brackets in place of parentheses to get the touchstones.

The jerks at Barnes and Noble dot com are messin' with me. On December 30 I ordered four books all normally shipping with 24 hours. I got back an e-mail that said they were scheduled to ship January 20. I contacted customer service through the internet and got an answer of substantially, "Read the FAQ." That's the last I've heard from them. Today I had a package in the mail with an invoice that said the order date was January 5. I made no order on January 5, but this book was from my order of December 30. The record for that order still shows that all four books will ship on January 20.

Meanwhile the challenge to read Beowulf goes on without me.

What came today is:

Empire of Illusion by Chris Hedges. I already have his I Don't Believe in Atheists to read; his subjects are interesting.

Robert

Rumours abound, Mr. Durick, of a Barnes & Noble/Borders merger. An aquaintance has had similar experience with B&N.com recently, and was later told by an in-store employee that "things are in an uproar." Not an excuse for poor customer service, to be sure. There's enough of that when there are NO rumours of impending mergers.

Beowulf is a (an) _itch.

At work (I work at our national library) there is a 'White Bookcase' for employees, where we can leave books for each other and pick them up, all for free. A couple of days ago I found Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood, a book that was on my wishlist even. Very nice :D

Hooray! My Kindle arrived last night, and I made my first book purchase of 2011 for it this morning: The Crimson Petal and the White. Somewhere on LT--I can't remember where--I've seen many people saying how wonderful it is. I should finish my current book The Penwyth Curse tonight, and start my new book tomorrow night.

As a subscriber to the American Institute for Economic Research I get occasional books on economics, both personal and governmental, in the mail. I had two identical packets in today's mail from them. It turns out they had identical contents.

68880639::Money & Marriage: How to Choose a Financially Compatible Spouse by sionmichael::Michael Sion.

I am sixty-six, unmarried, and not likely to marry. These books were not the joy that they might have been to someone else.

Robert

PS Curse the Touchstones. I am the only owner on LibraryThing, but it should still be able to find the listing.

R

Today I received 2 ER books. One from July Damaged by Alex Kava The other was my August one Blind Man's Alley by Justin Peacock

I received a box of books from Amazon today:

Just Kids by Patti Smith
The Empty Family by Colm Toibin

Several of the Wallander mysteries by Henning Mankell:
The Dogs of Riga
The Man Who Smiled
The White Lioness
The Pyramid

I found a hardcover book by Arnaldur Indridason in the Inspector Ernuldir series for just five euros. Not for me, for the BF but still a book I brought home.

Went to the Friends of the Library yesterday and snagged a copy of Lark and Termite for $1.50. I've already read the book and loved it, but got it from the library. Now I can put this copy in my Permanent Collection for re-reading.

The first of my latest book order arrived today, The Enemy by Charlie Higson, a YA fantasy involving Zombies. The rest of the order will probably trickle in over the next week.

They won't ship until January 20, but they were in my mailbox today from BN.COM.

Beowulf, a verse translation translated by Seamus Heaney and edited by Daniel Donoghue. Touchstone gone sour, this is the Norton Critical Edition. I've read this translation and have a copy somewhere around my home; I wanted to reread it for a discussion in the 75 Books Challenge and get the additional information that this book, I hope, provides. We are also going to discuss this book at my church book group in March.

Beowulf translated and read by Seamus Heaney. This is an audio of excerpts from the epic. See above.

CURSE THE TOUCHSTONES. I made a mistake with the book numbers, but touchstones being so squirrelly I was sure that it was their fault. It was very frustrating. Curse them. I fixed them.

In the same box I had the complete series of the television show The Wire. I wonder whether I will ever watch it.

Robert

I needed an airplane and beach book for next week and found a mass-market paperback in tiny type of The Pillars of the Earth. It has to have the best content-to-weight ratio this side of a Kindle.

so far, I've brought only two books into my home in January.

Sisters of the Sinai by Janet Soskice, which I had requested from the library, and Tell it to the skies by Erica James, which a fellow bookcrosser was kind enough to send me.

Only two books in half a month isn't bad! Now, I just have to get as many or more books out the door, and I can start shaving down Mt. TBR! :-)

(I do have loads of books that are ready to release through Bookcrossing. I need to get busy! Hopefully, I'll feel up to going on a release run soon. I did manage to release one yesterday at the doctor's office, so that's something, anyway.)

Mr. Durick #39, I'd like to go to your church or any church which has a group within desiring to discuss Beowulf. If I mention that title where I attend, everyone would think I said Bay Wolf, believing it to be a wildlife tale of a canine cavorting along the Chesapeake.

The Seamus Heaney version is said to be by those in the know the most "accessible" and seems to be rather popular. Have fun!

39, 42 > Heaney's version is really good. He is a an awesome writer.

I received The Gypsy Pall through Member Giveaway today - super fast shipping on that one!

I've also been downloading books for my nook like crazy, and today I got 21 Anne Rice novels free!
All the books from The Vampire Chronicles, The New Vampire Tales,The Mayfair Witches, and The Sleeping Beauty trilogy

Also got a few more ebooks:
A Matter of Magic by Patricia Wrede (wrong touchstone)
The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie (all 3 books)
The Healer's Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson
The Heir of Night by Helen Lowe
The Hunchback Assignments by Arthur Slade
The Infinity Gate by Sara Douglass (final book in her Darkglass Mountain trilogy)

My TBR molehill is really becoming a mountain - and it's different with the nook because I don't see any stacks!

Went to Border's and bought Gulliver's Travels .

U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton, bought and started yesterday, January 14.

Swapping books at work and got:

Birds without wings by Louis de Bernieres
My name is red by Orhan Pamuk
Goodnight Steve McQueen by Louise Wener

Out from the library pile:

The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey
Testimony by Anita Shreve

Just borrowed A Glastonbury Romance by John Cowper Powys under the recommendation of someone here at LT.

I got The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Strain by Guillermo del Toro, and Angel Time by Anne Rice, but I haven't started any of them yet.

Was naughty last week and got:

Twenty One Stories by Graham Greene
EM Forster's Collected Stories
Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving
Blackwater by Kerstin Ekman
When the Devil Holds the Candle by Karin Fossum
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolano
Room by Emma Donoghue
Fatherland by Robert Harris
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman
Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor

#48 yokanyabuta - The Gargoyle is the best book I read in 2010, by far! It is amazing!

I've done plenty of damage this month...

From the school bookstore, I picked up:
Guide to Writing Kanji & Kana
Excellent 11 by Ron Clark
Teacher Miracles by Brian Thornton
Teach with Your Heart by Erin Gruwell
Other People's Children by Lisa Delpit
Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen
Sundown Towns by James W. Loewen

And then I headed off to BN.com and got these clothbound beauties in the mail...
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Emma by Jane Austen

And after my husband bought a $100 board game, I decided I wanted $100 in books. In spite of having run out of bookshelves. Logic abandons me as soon as I'm in a bookstore.

Possible Side Effects by Augusten Burroughs
Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter
Don't Judge a Girl by her Cover by Ally Carter
The Calligrapher's Daughter by by Eugenia Kim
Okimono Kimono by CLAMP
Tegami Bachi 1 & 2
Black Butler 2 & 3
Arata 2 & 3
Full Moon 4
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
Time Stranger Kyoko 1

When the cashier rang me up, she said teasingly, "That should last you...about a week, right?" Though, now that I'm home, I'm wondering if I already bought one of those volumes of manga.

>43 VivalaErin: bibliolee
Where did you find the Anne Rice books for free?

Just got all of Jane Austen, and all of Balzac, for free on my Kindle. I own all of Jane Austen in several different editions (including Folio Society), and some Balzac, but they were FREE, so I can take them anywhere, and read them anytime . . . .

I'm going to get some Dickens for free as well.

>51 AmyLynn: I totally understand your logic, but you've got me curious: what board game cost him $100?

covered a book sale the other day and took the last 10 min to grab a few books ($1 each!) which they found amusing, but really who could resist?

The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
Russka by Edward Rutherfurd
The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
A walk in the woods by Bill Bryson
The Hermitage by Geraldine Norman
Wednesday Letters by Jason Wright
The Botticelli Secret by Marina Fiorato

Planning on going back to today with more time to browse!

From the library Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly. Recommended by msf59 and many others.

I went to the Library tonight and I came home with:

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
To Hold the Crown by Jean Plaidy

I felt so bad for the mailman standing at my doorstep in the pouring rain, but I felt so happy when I realized he had books for me!

I received:

Shipwrecks, Monsters, and Mysteries of the Great Lakes by Ed Butts - an Early Reviewers Copy

Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry - first book in the Pine Deep horror series
Monster Island by David Wellington - first book in a Zombie series
To My Daughter In France by Barbara & Stephanie Keating - a family drama

** Can't seem to get the touchstones to work at all!!

From the Library Shelter of Stone in preparation of her new book coming out in March. Pet Peave... someone used a yellow highlighter to mark their place! Why would someone do that.. to a library book - or any book for that matter? Ok I am done ranting. =:0)

>52 jmaloney17: jmaloney17
it's called freebookspot - and they have practically everything in pdf form. I've gotten plenty in EPUB for my nook too - not sure what the type is for kindle but it's probably included. Try it as a .com first; it comes through another country and it changes (but in the .com it should redirect you).

>60 VivalaErin:,
The books at that site are all pirated though, aren't they?

I was happy to receive in today's mail a copy of Suzanne McGee's Chasing Goldman Sachs. This robbery of the American public continues to fascinate me and to have a book by a LibraryThing member (Chatterbox) on the subject cheers me.

Robert

Promises in Death by J.D. Robb.

>60 VivalaErin:, 61
Most definitely pirated.

>64 divinenanny:,
That's what I thought.

In three packages in today's mail:

From Barny Noble:

The Brothers Karamazov, worlds of the novel by Robin Feuer Miller. I read the novel last year for a discussion that continues in Le Salon... I'm not sure what it is that I have read, even with the discussion, so I thought I'd try to let a professor tell me.

The Essence of Religion by Ludwig Feuerbach. The author moved a lot of people including very religious ones regarding their religion. This looked like a skinny book that I might start with.

From an Abe Books vendor:

A World of Great Stories edited by Hiram Haydn and John Cournos. I don't need more short stories; I hardly read them. But more can't hurt; they're cheap, and this is also for discussion in Le Salon...

Robert

The other day I received one of my Santa Thing books. The book I received was:

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

I have never heard of this book or the author. It looks interesting.

Wilkie Collins is pretty well liked on LibraryThing for your book and The Moonstone. He has a reputation for having established the mystery novel in English literature.

Robert

LibraryThing liked my message so much that it posted it twice.

Robert

Will be starting The Unwritten Inside Man by Mike Carey. This is a graphic novel.

I normally do not read reviews before reading a book. For some reason I did this particular time. Good thing. This is a series that reviewer said definately start with Vol. I. My library does not have it. Books have received very good reviews.
Well, I have another Graphic novel to start. Blacksad by Diaz Canales

Spent my Borders gift card today on Tarquin Hall's The Case of the Missing Servant.

Spent my B-day giftcard from B&N on The Joy Luck Club .

I received my December ER book today:

Dead Center by Joanna Higgins

Now I just need to finish my current ER and start this one.

My books that I have entered in January:

SF
Gnoll Credo by J. Stanton
The Age of Odin by James Lovegrove

Fantasy
Through Stone and Sea by Barb Hendee
Dust of Dreams by Steven Erikson
First Lord's Fury by Jim Butcher
Black Magic Sanction by Kim Harrison
The Good, The Bad and the Uncanny by Simon R. Green
Harbinger of the Storm by Aliette de Bodard, Ebook
Servant of a Dark God by John Brown

Historical Mystery
Eye of the Raven by Eliot Pattison
The Cloud Pavilion by Laura Joh Rowland
The Fire Kimono by Laura Joh Rowland

Mystery
Village of the Ghost Bears by Stan Jones

Fiction
The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna
Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa

Short Stories
Haiti Noir edited by Edwidge Danticat

Non-Fiction
The Lady in the Tower by Alison Weir

Last week I received three books. From Amazon.com:

Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century by Tony Judt
The Burden of Responsibility: Blum, Camus, Aron, and the French Twentieth Century by Tony Judt

I also received a gift book, A Murder of Crows, the latest poetry collection by Larry D. Thomas.

In yesterday's mail from Barny Noble:

God, Power, & Evil by David Ray Griffin. The big question about an all powerful good God is the mystery of evil. Process theology, among other things, does away with God's omnipotence. I'm eager to see what this book says about it.

I had the author touchstone briefly, but while trying to force the work touchstone I lost it. These are links, not touchstones. CURSE THE TOUCHSTONES

Robert

Two came from PBS:
Legends: short novels by the masters of modern fantasy - love a good anthology
The Somnambulist which I cannot wait to start. It looks so weird and fun!

In the mail from Barny Noble:

The Atomic Bazaar by William Langewiesche. This is labeled 'Current Affairs,' but I got it for its apocalyptic interest.

The Day the World Came to Town by Jim Defede. Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances and airliners -- I guess those are the reasons I wanted this.

Grendel by John Gardner. The Beowulf monster tells his own story. This'll be a rereading following my rereading of Beowulf.

Robert

From Borders online:

Dead to the World By Charlaine Harris (in order to discuss with my niece)
Filthy shakespeare by Pauline Kiernan (because deep down I'm vile)
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson (becaue of LT recommendations)
The Outlander by Gil Adamson (becaue of LT recommendations)

My Kindle arrived today and boy, is it ever easy to buy and download books. Before I knew it, I had quite a bundle:

The Complete Works of Charles Dickens - 53 books
Devil's Cub by Georgette Heyer
Pale Immortal by Anne Frasier
Garden of Darkness by Anne Frasier
Springtime in Burracombe by Lilian Harry
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Just Kids by Patti Smith
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

I'm going to have to learn restraint!

@80 RESTRAINT used with regards to book buying ????? hahahaha--let us know how that works out for you :)

Seriously though, I wish you luck with it ;)

I went to town yesterday not sure that I would stay there after lunch, but, just in case, I took a couple of coupon numbers with me. I did stay to my considerable advantage, among which were two new books.

From Borders:

The Greatest Trade Ever by Gregory Zuckerman. There were credible predictions of the financial mess of 2008. John Paulson got rich on his prediction, and this is that story.

From Barny Noble:

The Quants by Scott Patterson. With sufficient high end mathematics all risks in the financial markets can be allowed for. The mathematics leading up to 2008 were not sufficient. This is the story of the PhD mathematicians and physicists dong the risk calculations and their failure.

Robert

Stopped at B&N after lunch today and walked out with The Redbreast by Jo Nesbø, The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, and Gallows View by Peter robinson.

>55 dancingstarfish:: Castle Raven Loft? I'm not sure of the title, as whenever I try and say it, I say Raven's Wood.

Picked up some beautiful boxed sets of A Dream of Red Mansions and Outlaws of the Marsh at a used bookstore. I was so happy I didn't pay $40 for each set individually.

Got one of my SantaThing books today, The Mockingbirds! Extremely excited to start that one. Also got my preorder of Silver Borne in. It was extremely difficult waiting for the paperback to come out, let me tell you.

I'm setting a personal goal to finish 10 books before I buy any new ones. Well, unless I come across the other two box sets, Journey to the West or Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Those books are hard to find, let me tell you!

Now I'm off to go find places for these books on my overburdened bookshelves...

Just finished reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett - great read! Very well written.

Reading My Reading Life by Pat Conroy - it is so, so. I find it does not keep my attention for a very long period of time.

Also getting ready to read To Kill a Mockingbird for the first time! I like to have several books going at one time.

Investory

Went to my favorite used bookstore today where I found several titles on my "to read" list. Hurrah! Better yet, I still have $15.00 store credit for next time. :)

I first heard about most of these titles on LibraryThing -- thanks fellow readers!

The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier

The Kommandant's Girl by Pam Jenoff

Birdsong: a Novel of Love and War by Sebastian Faulks

Night Soldiers by Alan Furst

Roosevelt and Churchill: Men of Secrets by David Stafford

I had to take my daughter to Borders because she needed a book for school. I bought myself two books:
Silver Angel by Johanna Lindsey
Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris

I picked up Room yesterday at a fabulous new bookstore in my neighborhood and have an order in for the Morton edition of Great Expectations

Got to go to Barnes & Noble Saturday - oh how I've missed that place. I've had a giftcard since Christmas that I just haven't had the time to use! Along with a case for my nook covered in book quotes ;) I picked up some books:
From the bargain section:
History of Witchcraft and Demonology because it just looks so interesting!

Agent Provocateur: secrets: a collection of erotic fiction because it was on sale and not all mushy like the rest of the V-day books.

Dreaming Anastasia because I can't stay out of the teen section ;)

Moving into the fantasy section:
The Broken Kingdoms - I loved the first book and this one has been on my wishlist for a while.

The Fallen Blade seems excellent - at least when I opened it to a page in the middle

I also found a copy of my favorite magazine: Interview
I think that's all of them (I'm in my office before teaching my last class of the day so this is from memory)...having payday before this trip also helped a lot!