April Aquisitions

Cheating a bit. I purchased these in March, but they won't arrive until April.

I am the Cheese by Robert Cormier - My husband requested this, but the price wasn't enough to collect on the Super Saver Shipping Option, so of course I had to add more.

Fight Club by David Fincher - requested by my son (who is reading a boatload of books all of a sudden! From Dostoevsky to LotR and some dystopian stuff in between). Still not enough, so one for me.

Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth - I believe recommended by our @drneutron.

I bought The Horse Boy today, put on my Nook, to read with the autism group this month. See this thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/135101

I was going to buy a couple of books for my kindle, but the kindle-prices were more than the paperback cost! I decided I'll wait a while and then reconsider.

Added 3 more to the tbr shelves:

The City & The City by China Mieville
Agent 6 by Tom Rob Smith
The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham

I am visiting Powells Books in Portland, Oregon today!!!

Everyone's visiting Portland after I've already been and left. *pout*

I thought I posted this in another thread already, but I can't find it, so I'll have to type it again: My April purchases are The Witch's Daughter (though I actually nabbed that one at the end of March, I haven't read it, yet), Eat, Pray, Love (read it before, but now reading it with friends), and The Hunger Games (to read with friends, as well). I pretty much shrugged when I first saw The Hunger Games gaining steam. Like many other sci-fi/fantasy geeks, I asked, "Isn't that kinda like Battle Royale?" Unlike many others, I wasn't accusing Collins of ripping it off, so I'm glad I wasn't in the presence of any hard-core fans. Hopefully I can get through it quickly...I have a lot of reading to do.

I'm sorry, Rozax. I will not be avoiding Portland in the future, plan to go back and visit with my college buddy often, if I can. I did buy a bunch of books at Powells. You can see them here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/129660

I don't know when I'll be in Portland, next. I'm a hefty distance away, but I have relatives in the area.

I just finished Hunger Games (devoured it, more like), so I can jabber with a couple friends about it tonight at a G+ hangout. It really is a page-turner, though I hear there are problems with the sequels.

I also learned, last night, that my husband went to see the movie! It was a business field trip to celebrate one of their telecommuters being in town, and I'm not angry about him going to see it. I'm just exceedingly exaspirated, because when I ask, "How was your day?" I typically don't get much of an answer. He's a programmer. They don't say much. His reasons for not telling me about this one? "You didn't ask that day/You wouldn't care for the movie." Ahem. To address that first statement, "How was your day?" is a static question. For the second, SOOO??? We don't see movies very often. There are very few movies we look forward to. So seeing this was a bit out of the ordinary. Why wouldn't I want to hear about it???

Okay, I'm good, now.

Another three additions for me:

Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charan Newton
Predator's Gold by Philip Reeve
Mockingbird by Walter Tevis

I picked up The Sisters Brothers at the grocery store at 25% off, the other day. I am completely enjoying it. Great little book. A bit dark, but also funny.

I got a nice stack of gardening books from the next door neighbour who is planning to move soon.

Also WWW wonder by Robert J Sawyer - he was in town for a reading on Wednesday evening so I even got it signed. If he's ever doing a reading in your neck of the woods, I recommend seeing him - very entertaining.

So far this month I've been bad:

The Raphael Affair - Iain Pears
The Straits of Galahesh - Bradley Beaulieu
Requiem for a Mezzo - Carola Dunn
Murder on the Flying Scotsman - Carola Dunn
The Dante Club - Matthew Pearl
Fuzzy Nation - John Scalzi

Added Outcast Blade, by Jon Courtenay Grimwood the other day.

I'm starting to run out of shelf-space.

@Busifer, you have shelf space? I'm not even sure I have any floor space left any more.

Just got back from Broken Bow - which has a new little used book store. My finds:

Chilling Stories from Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone
The Story of Mankind - Hendrik Van Loon (The very first Caldecott Winner!)
Speak Up! - Harlen Martin Adams (no touchstone - a vintage speech text book. I collect them)
Death Comes As the End - Agatha Christie
Kitchen Economy Comfort Cooking - no touchstone. A vintage handbook and recipe book for the Malleable Steel Range Mfg Co. circa 1900
Hailstones and Halibut Bones - Mary O'Neill
The Journal of Patrick Seamus Flaherty - Ellen Emerson White
Mike's House - Julia L. Sauer

Confessions of a D-Grade Supervillain on Kindle. It's not looking too bad.

My latest treat to myself:



Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami

I also put on layaway two others by him, because I did *not* have any money to buy books, but I still was in the bookstore in an attempt to cheer myself up. (It's been a bad month.) I walked there with a book in my backpack with the intention of just sitting in the sofa at the bookstore's coffee bar and read while sipping on a hot cocoa.

But I just couldn't resist the Murakamis winking at me. ;)

#14 - I really REALLY don't want them on the floor. When in need of more storage space for books I generally get a new shelf (or clean out an old one - we have some that are used to shelf paperwork. I might get rid of some of that, as a solution...)

I went on a little trek to Hay-on-Wye today, and came home with:

Nazi Germany and the Jews by Saul Friedlander
Mischling, Second Degree by Ilse Koehn
The Woman Who Loved an Octopus: and other saints' tales by Imogen Rhia Herrad
E is for eating by Tom Parker Bowles
Seventh Heaven by Alice Hoffman
Wilderness Tips by Margaret Atwood
So Much for That by Lionel Shriver
A Special Relationship by Douglas Kennedy
The Way Things Look to Me by Roopa Farooki
Grace Williams Says It Loud by Emma Henderson
Written On The Body by Jeanette Winterson

Bought online Stranger at the wedding which I didn't know existed - bad LT for telling me these things and making me spend money - SLAP ;)

Stranger at the Wedding is Hambly at her best! did you get an e book, or the edition with Don's cover?

Ok, I've been inspired to pick up the ebook of Stranger at the Wedding.

This week I also picked up Unwanted by Kristina Ohlsson ,White Horse by Alex Adams and an ebook version of Reboots.

And today I got an order from bookcloseouts:

Mr. Monster
I Don't Want to Kill You both by Dan Wells
The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi
The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill and
The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo.

Tomorrow I'm expecting Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer and Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

I'm in danger of being buried by my TBR pile, but it's not a bad way to go.

I'm still waiting for two books I ordered a month ago. Surely it would have arrived from Mongolia by now, let alone western Europe.

Picked up Cop Hater, the first in the long running 87th Precinct series by Ed McBain. Also placed an order for Seeking Whom He May Devour, as that's a series I definitely want to continue sooner rather than later, and Scaramouche, a long time wants list item.

My daughter and I visited a little town called Almonte today, lovely old junk/antique stores, plus a delightful little independent bookstore. I was so tickled to find Maggie Muggins "Again" as well as Chronicles of Avonlea. I've been on the hunt for both for years. So fun to finally find them! Maggie Muggins is a children's book that I devoured up at our cottage when I was little. I so wanted to find a copy to read to my girls, but never had any luck. Now I'll be able to read it to my granddaughter! :D

#24 - I'd like to know what you think about that, I purchased it for the Kindle not long ago, but haven't tried it yet.

Oh katylit - I remember Maggie Muggins! What fun to find some old favourites.

NorthernStar - yay! Someone who knows Maggie! I was so excited yesterday and my family just kinda looked at me and nodded (just humour her, she'll calm down) ;) I read it last night and it's still charming.

Took four paper bags/boxes of books to the Friends of the Library and the Trade used bookstore today. Came home with only two books.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
True Grit by Charles Portis

I got a way into Sailing to Sarantium by Guy Gavriel Kay before realising it wasnt a standalone, so have ordered Lord of Emperors through Alibris this week... Problem is I'm only a few pages from the end of book 1 & book 2 has to come from the UK all the way to Oz... I'll have to read some Roald Dahl or something simple while I wait so I can get back into this world easily when book 2 arrives!

My copy of L'Assassin Royal arrived today. The touchstone's irrevocably linked to the original book (Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice), but what arrived was the omnibus edition of the three-part French graphic novel version by Gaudin and Sieurac. This is the first volume. It's very pretty.

Yesterday I received Australian Sign Language: An introduction to sign language linguistics, which I'm also happy about.

Both of them took a month to arrive.

I'm not sure if this counts as acquisitions, because I don't think I get to keep any of them, but I just got a package from my sister with three books that I'm dying to read:

Shay's Story by Scott Westerfeld
Starters by Lissa Price
Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

I think I have to return them to her after I finish them. Which shouldn't take long...

Picked up C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters last night. Was very tempted to pick up the Game of Thrones graphic novel. Just couldn't justify paying that much money right now, looked really cool just glancing through it.

Finally received my ER book Syrian Folktales by Muna Imady. I'm looking forward to dipping into it.

#21 Janny - it is the print version with art by Don Maitz - arrived on Thursday and has pushed all other TBR away for this weekend!
#24 AHS-Wolfy - I've read all the Fred Vargas books and really like them but it's hard to describe why - I think I just love the quirkiness of the characters and the often bizarre plots.

Received a couple of orders from BookCloseOuts and the Book Depository. 2 Hornblower books, to replace my old, falling-apart editions, Flying Colours and Beat to Quarters, the last of the Ariana Franklin series A Murderous Procession, Tongues of Serpents (there's a new Temeraire book out now too, gotta get that soon) and last, but not least, The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet, another old favourite from my childhood.

@infjsarah, I've only read 2 of her books so far but looking forward to the rest. It's definitely the characters that have drawn me back to her work.

Added a few more today for a little under £8:

Blind Faith by Ben Elton
Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure by Dave Gorman
Kraken by China Mieville
Shinju by Laura Joh Rowland

I can't remember who to blame for these two:

Fortress in the Eye of Time by Cherryh
The First Rule of Ten Hendricks

I've only myself to blame for:

Emperor: the Gates of Rome by Iggulden

Library book sale:
Dreaming Down Under edited by Jack Dann and Janeen Webb
Beggers in Spain by Nancy Kress (been looking for this for a while)
The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted by Harry Harrison (been wanting to read a Stainless Steel Rat book...I hope it doesn't matter if you read them out of order)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (hilariously, this was shelved in fiction)

And at the used bookstore:
Fifty Degrees Below and Antarctica by Kim Stanley Robinson (for my sister)
Spindle's End by Robin McKinley (I don't think I have a paperback copy of this yet)
Specter of the Past and Vision of the Future by Timothy Zahn (which I had but gave to my dad and never got back)

All for about $22. I probably would have gotten more at the library book sale, but the useless volunteer told me that science fiction and fantasy was mixed in with all the rest of the fiction. No, it was not! But by the time I ran across the f/sf section, it had been picked over pretty well already. Bah.

# 35 - do post when you finish Stranger at the Wedding and let me know if you liked the book - I enjoyed it tremendously, and Don had a blast hiding all the little critters in that cover - can you find them all?

# 38 heh! - I'd be at least part guilty for egging you towards Fortress in the Eye of Time. Great book, too.

Oh dear.

My youngest was begging for books from the latest Scholastic book order form. He loves to get books, but then reads them reluctantly, preferring to play video games (which I do limit). And he's got lots of books that he's picked himself. After many repetitions of 'Not this time' I finally said "You've got lots of books you haven't read yet. No more new books until you read those first!"

I immediately realized what I'd just said and waited for the bolt of lightning to strike. Or for my husband to start laughing uproariously. Suprisingly, neither he nor my boys seem to have recognized the implications of that statement. Whew.

Full disclosure: I have 418 unread books in Mt. TBR, and this month have purchased:

By John Scalzi:
The Last Colony
Zoe's Tale
(One was on half-off at my favourite book store, which doesn't normally have sales, and I figured I may as well get the other one they had in this series. I've been wanting to read these for a while.)

By Kenneth Oppel:
Half Brother
The Devil's Cure
(Whilst whiling away the time waiting for my oldest to finish up his gymnastics class)

And borrowed from the library, because Mt. TBR is apparently not intimidating enough:
The Apothecary
Dreamweaver's Dilemma
The Chronicles of Harris Burdick

32 - Great list of books!

I've pre-ordered Bitterblue but I thought it wasn't to be released until May 1? Looking forward to getting it.

Is Shay's Story a new book? I haven't heard of it and my library doesn't have it either. I enjoyed the Uglies series but thought it was completed with Extras.

And Starters caught my eye at the bookstore, but I've resisted for now. I'll probably borrow it from the library.

Sandragon, I bow to your williness to have counted your TBR piles. And we all want our children to be "our better selves", don't we? The operative cliche: "do what I say, not what I do". Hahahahah

And yet, we know, we know. Our kids watch us like hawks, and they do reflect what they see, don't they. You've got some book lovers there in that house with you. Congratulations.

42 sandragon - Yes, Shay's Story is new. My sister got it as an ER recently. It's a graphic novel, though, not a regular book. Bitterblue is also an ER, actually.

I thoroughly enjoyed Stranger at the Wedding - easy to read with a mystery and a bit of romance. I can spot 5 critters but I bet there are more - eyes not as good as they used to be.
The Windrose Chronicles and Time of the Dark trilogy are some of my favourite books.

43 - Maggie - Keeping track of the TBR books is easy with LT. I just tagged them all when I entered them into my library (at first because I was curious but now to keep me honest, LOL) and LT counts them up for me.

#46 - I use the To Read collection for that but essentially it's the same system. Not only is it keeping me honest - it make sit easy to chose a new read, too. Just pick a TBR... ;-)
Don't always work, lol, as my frequent rereading habit shows!

ah, yes, there are "tasks" I could do to tidy up my LT inventory of books.... hmmm

organize by L of C #
mark those sold
mark those tbr
mark those which were wishlist, but now I own
mark library

hmmm

Yard Work is calling...

*grins*

I picked up a new Nook book: The Glass Castle.

Fortress of eagles just arrived from amazon today. Majkia, I just read and enjoyed Fortress in the eye of time, so you might have been encouraged by me too!

Sandragon, I am always reassured when I come to LT and read that other people have huge tbr piles as well! I haven't been tracking them here yet, I am too afraid.

Apparently I'm trying to make up for 6 months of barely buying any books all in one week. I went to another used bookstore yesterday and got:

Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede (to replace the copy I've read to bits)
The cat who had 60 whiskers by Lilian Jackson Braun
The private life of the cat who...: tales of Koko and Yum Yum from the jounal of James Mackintonsh Qwilleran by Lilian Jackson Braun
Will the supervillains be on the final? by Naomi Novik

and three Alias tie-in novels for my sister, because she's a doof (not that I can talk, I plan to read them before sending them to her :).

And last but not least, I went to yet another used bookstore yesterday (to be fair, Sunday's and Monday's were having sales, bring your own bag and get 40% off) and got 9 more books - 2 for my sister, another replacement for a falling-apart book, one Tamora Pierce book I didn't have, 4 by or including Diane Duane, and one that I thought was by Diane Duane but appears not to be after all. Oh, and White Tiger, also by Tamora Pierce, not from the used bookstore but from the comic shop next door.

I don't think I'm allowed to go to a used bookstore again any time soon...

So. I just bought some DVDs which come as a book, "Tora! Tora! Tora!" "The Hustler" and "All About Eve." They are books. They are DVDs. How is LT going to handle that one? I can't decide whether to catalog them or not.

That is a puzzlement MrsLee. I think I'd catalogue them and tag them as necessary.

While I do love my dead tree books, having a Kindle is a delight too. I just got The Complete Works of Rudyard Kipling, which includes illustrations, commentaries, and a couple of biographies. Without taking up any valuable bookshelf space. Love it!

I will be made poor, and destitute, because of my Nook, and my Kindle, and my book buying impulses.

I don't remember if I disclosed that I bought The Glass Castle for my Nook. And the kids! they love the Nook. It is competition in the car now... who wants the Nook, who wants the iPhone. Does any one look out the window any more? Where is the day dreaming going.

Yes, sometimes I say no.

55- I think I will.

56- Our kids never had electronic stuff in the car (most wasn't invented then), but one could read a book. All the rest of us get carsick if we don't keep our eyes on the road!

My boys occassionally get car sick (and I always do) when we try to read in the car, and most of the time their method of talking to each other sounds like bickering to me, so for extended drives I've start putting on an audiobook for us to listen to. Makes for a much more peaceful trip.

58> I always say that Stephen Fry and JK Rowling saved my kids' lives - Fry's reading of the Harry Potter books kept them quiet and therefore us from killing them when we drove across Canada in 2000. My husband and I loved those tapes too. We wore them out.

Stopped by for a 3 for £5 deal today:

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
The Man on the Balcony by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld

I've pretty much run out of shelf space myself, and have been wedging newly-acquired volumes wherever they fit or in a box on the floor next to the bookcases. All but two of these were purchased at Half Price Books, most of them off the clearance rack for $1 or $2:

Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan
Transformers: Dark of the Moon by Peter David
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II by Sean Williams
Canopus in Argos: Archives omnibus by Doris Lessing
Caine's Law by Matthew Stover (purchased new from The Book Depository)
Cyteen by C. J. Cherryh
Fortress in the Eye of Time by C. J. Cherryh
The Iliad by Homer
Corvus by Paul Kearney
The Sagan Diary by John Scalzi
Amberlight by Syvlia Kelso
Elric: Song of the Black Sword omnibus by Michael Moorcock
Von Bek omnibus by Michael Moorcock
The Third Magic by Molly Cochran
Chaosbound by David Farland
Tales from Super-Science Fiction ed. by Robert Silverberg (LT Early Reviewers Oct 2011)
John Dies at the End by David Won
Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks

I just received three Fables trades: Fables: Witches, Fables: Rose Red and Fables: Super Team. I know what I'm reading once I've finished my marking!

@41 - sandragon, I don't know if you've read it, but technically Old Man's War, by Scalzi, is the first of the set with The Last Colony and Zoe's Tale.

(sorry!)

My husband bought me The Other Side of the Island, which looks to be a strange little YA post-apocalyptic dystopia. Sweet man, he knows I like checking those out.

As for me, I picked up the archival-quality re-creation of the original set of Raggedy Ann stories, that I didn't know existed until a few weeks ago - printed in 1993 - Raggedy Ann Stories

I also got (from a thrift store) The Complete Adventures of Curious George which is lovely.

In adult land, I got my husband Agatha H. and the Airship City and Agatha H. and the Clockwork Princess which he's been really enjoying. For myself, I found The Blood of the Land by Noel-Anne Brennan, which was an impulse buy of a quarter in the same thrift store where I found George. It was surprisingly good, so I added it to my shelves instead of donating it to the library.

I also finally broke down and picked up The Night Circus because it was beautiful in every way, and the Library of America hardbacks of The Princess of Mars and of Tarzan, because I love those stories dearly, and my really read-to-pieces paperbacks are all from the 60s. I also failed my will-save, and picked up the Alan Lee illustrated hardback Hobbit because I have lusted after it for forever, and with the movie coming out in December, prices are likely to get quite silly in the roll-up to that release and for a while afterwards.

That's about my budget for the next while.

Oh, I did also find a pile of about 20 old little Golden Books at a rummage sale - all the old nostalgic non-politically-correct ones I remember from childhood - Nurse Nancy, Boy with a Drum... yeah. Those I snatched right up. They even had The Monster At The End of This Book !!

Wow, Rowan! What a haul!!

My father-in-law sent me The Bell-Ringer of Angel's and Other Stories by Bret Harte, published in 1894. It is inscribed to somebody from their "Momma" in 1917. He knows me very well.

Succumbed to The Last Coyote - if only the need to work didn't interfere with reading time!

I went to my favorite Half Price Books store yesterday and sold them some of my old, not to be re-read books, and found a book about my iPhone. Yea!

I walked out with $1.11

It is like they paid me to spend a few minutes in their store.

Went to a library sale today and came back with a bag of books for $5.00

Patriot Acts by Greg Rucka
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
Eleventh Hour and The Beginning (containing The Cove and The Maze) by Catherine Coulter
Leviathan by David L. Golemon
Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Beyond Reach by Karin Slaughter
Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child
Resurrection Men and Blood Hunt by Ian Rankin
Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich
Sunset Express by Robert Crais.

Also grabbed The Charlemagne Pursuit by Steve Berry and The Ruins by Scott Smith to give as gifts.

63 - RowanTribe: No problem :o) I already have Old Man's War, even though I haven't read it yet. That's why I was so easily swayed to buy the other two books. It's book 2, The Ghost Brigades, that I don't have yet. I haven't seen it at the book store in a while and will probably have to ask them to order it for me.

The Monster at the End of This Book - I LOVED this book when I was a kid. I never actually owned it though. I was always borrowing it from someone (I can't remember who). It's one of the childhood books that I would pick up in a second if I found it.

Oh. And my Sister-in-Law went to a book sale her Credit Union was having to raise money for the Children's Hospital. She got me Music and Silence by Rose Tremain, which neither of us have heard of but she thought it sounded interesting and that I might like it.

I found Robert Borski's two books of essays about Gene Wolfe on ebay; first time I've used the "best offer" feature and it worked well. Then I, too, picked up a bagful at my library's book sale, including a Chabon, two Bookre prize winners, and a bunch of other goodies. Let's see if I can make this link work: Jim's spring 2012 bagful.

Found a few on the discard table at the Broken Bow public library today. (25 cents each):

Edith and Woodrow - Tom Shachtman. Four chapters in, and loving it.

Hot Flashes - Lynne Taetzch (ed.). Just dipped into this so far. A collection of poetry and prose on the subject of menopause. What I've read, I've loved. Sort of a "Yeah, right! That's how it is!" feeling.

The Curse of the Bambino - Dan Shaughnessy. Haven't started this one, but I LOVE baseball, so I know it'll be fun.

Many thanks to the great author for writing the magnificent book; Syrian Folktales , if I tell you how grateful I am each day for the rest of my life, I'm sure it won't be enough. This book made me cry, laugh, and nostalgia accompanied every single song and tale. while reading it I had the chance to meet my great grandmother, to go back to the days when I was an infant enjoying the magical yet real life of the charming Syria. The great thing about the book is its ability to take you in a quick journey and experience the various charms of Syria in a very short time. I'm so happy to have this magical ticket to Syria, because all I have to do is open the book and I'll simply be there :) thank you so much!!!!

0.o
o.0

Syrian Folktales was an ER giveaway. I received one as well, and posted a review on it. I'm sure it means more to someone of Syrian heritage, because for me, some of the stories left me with clamairy's reaction to the above post. Folk tales have different meanings to everyone. :)

Ahhh, it's likely just a misplaced post. I was wondering what the review was doing in this thread. I had a similar reaction to Fairy Tales of the Orient when I was young. Some of them were rather bloody.