Books Brought Home July/August 2015

What books have found their way into your hands, homes, & TBR piles?

The Stranger: A Novel by Camilla Lackberg

Conan The Barbarian : 20 Tales (The Hour Of the Dragon, Queen Of the Black Coast, The Shadow of the Vulture, A Witch Shall Be Born, The Tower of the Elephant, And More!): Fantasy Adventure Stories by Robert E. Howard

Cold Black Earth by Sam Reaves

I had books in my mailbox this morning! Barefoot and The Gilly Salt Sisters arrived from B&N. Dollface was in the same order, but it's not here yet. I also picked up two cheap ebooks from Amazon: Wuthering Heights and The Moonstone.

Edited to repair a touchstone.

The past several weeks, I have been working my way through the works of P.D. James. Fascinating characters, delightful writing. I would enjoy some analytical reviews. I am amused by repetitions (like the use of "exophthalmic eyes" that crop up through out the novels.

Jackie: Hope you enjoy Moonstone. There are other works by Wilkie Collins at manybook.net. You might want to try that free source (if you haven't already).

Half a King by Joe Abercrombie

Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner

Last evening I stopped in at East/West Bookshop in Mountain View, knowing I wouldn't walk out empty-handed. Never have, in more than 20 years. Sometimes it's just a pair of earrings or a scarf (what are they doing in a bookstore, right? this used to be such a scholarly place), but it's always something.

This time it was What More Do You Want?: Zen Questions, Zen Answers, by Albert Low, and Zen Questions: Zazen, Dogen, and the Spirit of Creative Inquiry, by Taigen Dan Leighton.

Questions are good. My father taught me that they're more important than the answers. I hope I never run out of questions. My last one will probably be "Now what?"

Chicks and Balances edited by Esther Friesner and John Helfers.

Being from SW Mo, I was visiting the Lawrence KS area and made a trip to The Dusty Bookshelf and came away with:

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
The Court Martial of Robert E. Lee by Douglas Savage
Final Victory: FDR's ectraordinary Worlf War II Presidential Campaign by Stanlet Weintraub ARC

I've received a copy of the just-published memoir The Girl with Seven Names by Hyeonseo Lee, a defector from North Korea.

For my Kindle (dang you one-click buying!):
We Should All Be Feminists
Fat Girl Walking

Found two Gary Paulsen's I've not yet read: The Monument and Woodsong.

From Open Letter Series:

The One Before by Juan Jose Saer

From Amazon :
A Full Life by Jimmy Carter

Picked up today:
Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha by Dorothy Gilman
The Free by Brian Ruckley
A Matter of Magic by Patricia C. Wrede

Picked up yesterday:
Half the World by Joe Abercrombie
Working for Bigfoot by Jim Butcher

I also bought Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha by Dorothy Gilman and The Origin of Dracula by Irving Belatache

I found these books on the sale table at B&N. All were in the $3-$4 range, so I got some real bargains:
The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson
Summerland by Elin Hilderbrand
You Knew Me When By Emily Liebert

I'm considering an ebook--The Glass Kitchen by Linda Francis Lee--because it's on sale at Amazon today and it looks like it's right up my alley. I don't know the author so I'm heading over to read some reviews before I make up my mind.

The Two Mrs. Abbotts arrived yesterday, yea!

JackieCarroll - loved The Gilly Salt Sisters :)

>18 sebago: Thanks! I was trying to decide between The Gilly Salt Sisters and Dollface for my next read. I'll moved The Gilly Salt Sisters to the top of the stack.

Going to pick up my copy of Go Set a Watchman in just a few minutes!

Go Set a Watchman was waiting on my Kindle when I woke up this morning!

Go Set A Watchman at my door today!!!

I wish amazon would stop offering books I want for so cheap. *not*

Mila 18 by Leon Uris
Arcanum by Simon Morden
In the Best Families by Rex Stout

The following pretty much tells you all you need to know about my how my campaign to reduce the number of books in my library is progressing:
Yesterday I placed one book in the "discard" box. Today I received nine new books in the mail.

About Grace by Anthony Doerr
The Shell Collector: Stories by Anthony Doerr
The Green Road by Anne Enright
The Pawnbroker's Daughter: A Memoir by Maxine Kumin
Her: A Novel by Harriet Lane
After You've Gone by Jeffrey Lent
A Slant of Light by Jeffrey Lent
Dancer by Colum McCann
England and Other Stories by Graham Swift

I just bought the audiobook Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. It's on sale for $5.95 at Downpour.com so I couldn't resist. My original intent was to buy the two books that I am missing from the Amelia Peabody series, but I saw this one right away and had to have it.

>23 seitherin: have you read Mila 18 yet? My copy is sitting, waiting...

Molly grace I feel your pain...same thing happens to me!

>26 fuzzi: Read it a couple of times years ago and I'm reading it again now. I'm about 1/4th of the way thru.

Dunno how they got here. Must have 'snuck' in under the door.

Decoded by Mai Jia
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
A Personal Matter by Kenzaburo Oe
and the audio CD of a book I read years ago but now want it read to me, The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

Where to begin?

Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan

I bought books every day this weekend! Yippee!!

Friday night, at the preface party for our local book festival when the attending authors are announced, I bought:
Serafina and the Black Cloak
Every Last Word
Killing Monica

Saturday morning I drove to a nearby city to visit their indy bookstore with a friend and got:
A God in Ruins
How to Walk
and a mandala coloring book!

Yesterday my husband and I had time to browse at BN before picking up our son from camp, so I grabbed:
I'll Give You the Sun

All in all, an excellent weekend!

A wonderful weekend!!

From the library Loving day by Mat Johnson followed me home

I had two 20% ff coupons from Barnes and Noble so I picked up TheDivers Clothes Lie a empty by Vendela Vida,The Enchanted Life of Adam Ross by Rhonda Riley and The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

I've forgotten whose bull's-eye this was, but I took a book bullet for Life from Scratch: A Memoir of Food, Family, and Forgiveness, by Sasha Martin, just a few days ago. It's here already, thanks to Amazon Prime.

Charming by Elliott James.

Just bought Starvation Mode for my Kindle.

Shadowline by Glen Cook

Half a War by Joe Abercrombie
Shades in Shadow by N. K. Jemisin

>38 seitherin: "bad! Bad! Bad!" ;)

>39 fuzzi: I know. I know. I am so weak. ;)

Noticed an Amazon price drop from $10.00 to $0.99 for The Luminous Heart of Jonah S. by Gina B Nahai for the Kindle. So, I bought it.

The City Stained Red by Sam Sykes

>41 Limelite: You little enabler, you. That one looks good, so I sprang for the 99 cents plus tax. Thanks for letting me know about it.

As I age, I'm replacing my large hardcovers with paperbacks, for greater ease of holding while I read.

Today I received the softcover versions of The Collected Short Stories of Louis L'Amour, Volume 1: Frontier Stories and The Collected Short Stories of Louis L'Amour, Volume 3: Frontier Stories. I received volume two as a gift last year.

Now I need to re home the hardcover volumes I own...

Blackbirds and Mockingbird by Chuck Wendig

City of Echoes by Robert Ellis

Having just finished The Sparrow and being wowed by it, I snagged Children of God by Mary Doria Russell.

Two Early Reviewer books:
Marvel and A Wonder byJoe Meno
Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie

Audiobook:
Neverhome by Laird Hunt

Other:
Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
Dead Wake by Erik Larson
Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee

Books arriving today:

An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine
The Light of the World: A Memoir by Elizabeth Alexander
The UnAmericans: Stories by Molly Antopol
Love, Loss, and What I Wore - written and illustrated by Ilene Beckerman
The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt
Fair Play by Tove Jansson
Seacrow Island by Astrid Lindgren
The Pumpkin Eater by Penelope Mortimer
All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld

The fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin

Picked up Eudora Welty's Delta Wedding from the library today.

An ER book arrived, Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice by Adam Makos.

"O" is for Outlaw by Sue Grafton

Did a little in honor of Jon Stewart's farewell to Daily Show, selecting these volumes by some of his former guest authors:

Prague Winter by Madeleine Albright
Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff

And just for escapism and fun, these:

Traitor's Gate by Charlie Newton
Bubba and the Dead Woman by C L Bevill

And perhaps to learn something about which I know nothing:

The Girl from Krakow by Alex Rosenberg (female espionage agents in WWII)
The Bitter Trade by Piers Alexander Huguenot weavers in 17th C London)

Half Way Home by Hugh Howey

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Picked up Lonely Planet Finland today in preparation for my upcoming trip!

For Love of Mother-Not by Alan Dean Foster

Impulse purchase: The Atheist's Guide to Reality: Enjoying Life Without Illusions.

The End of All Things by John Scalzi

The Liar by Stephen Fry

Found and bought a first edition of Spotted Horse by Glenn Balch on ebay. It's one of his books I've not seen before, woo!

After the Downfall by Harry Turtledove

The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich
The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman
Whiskey Man by Howell Raines
Meanwhile There Are Letters: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and Ross Macdonald
The Small Backs of Children by Lidia Yuknavitch

Angel Station by Walter Jon Williams

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Talk about Star Trek books in a group here made me go look for some old favorites:

Warchild and To Storm Heaven by Esther Friesner

Ghost-Walker, Crossroad, and Ishmael by Barbara Hambly

It was my birthday yesterday, and my folks and my brother gave me money (my brother and dad hate shopping, and my mother can't get around well without her walker, which she loathes). I've ordered a stack of books and have received some and am awaiting others.

Already arrived:
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
Easy Spanish Reader by William Tardy

and am awaiting:
The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Fatal Shore: the Epic of Australia's Founding by Robert Hughes

I've read all three of the novels on this list - they're ones that I've read in e-book form sometime in the past year, and which I wanted for my shelves because they were so good.

We took a long weekend, and hit the thrift stores (no used book stores, bummer):

Arrow Book Of Funny Poems
The World of Roger Tory Peterson
A Tangled Web by L.M. Montgomery
Projects for the Birder's Garden
The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
Daybreak 2250 A.D. by Andre Norton

And I came home to find a first edition I'd ordered last week had arrived:

Spotted Horse by Glenn Balch

Raided local library friends of sale Saturday. HC for $1. Treasures include:

Folio Society edition (!) 1977 Cold Comfort Farm
Heritage Edition Death in Venice
First Edition Collins 1974 The Chian Wine and Other Stories by Patrick O'Brian

and this paperback for $.50:

A Gentle Madness by Nicholas A Basbanes, oddly issued with a gloriously beautiful gold embossed cover.

Got several other good reads in addition but the above are extraordinary.

Also, my LTER trade pb edition of Thousand Pieces of Gold arrived today.

Happy, happy! Joy, joy!

>67 Limelite: Nice score. You must be feeling very satisfied.

>68 Meredy:

Mostly, I feel lucky, and more pleasantly, anticipation. Satisfaction will only settle upon me once I read them.

Do you put off reading some books because you think the anticipation of reading them may be more wonderful than the actual reading of them and knowing what their glittering promise holds? Sometimes I wish I could "unread" the books that disappoint me and reacquire that feeling of undisappointed anticipation again.

I recently finished The Dog Stars, which I loved. That drove me to order The Painter and while researching that book saw another book, which I'm unsure of because it looks like it might be too light weight for me, but I ordered it based on the recommendation of an on-line friend The Canterbury Sisters. Picked up The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot from the library, which I couldn't resist and have already started.

My son came home today with yet another bookstore gift card, so I ordered myself a new colouring book (I'm enjoying the one I own SO much), as well as a Japanese murder mystery: Keigo Higashino's The Devotion of Suspect X.

The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris

The Bright Empires Collection: The Skin Map, The Bone House, The Spirit Well, The Shadow Lamp, The Fatal Tree by Stephen Lawhead

I've added a paper copy of The Romance of Tristan and Iseult, the 1913 translation by Hilaire Belloc. Oh, what beautiful language. I grew up reading stories like that, written like that, alongside the King James Bible. For sheer beauty, I don't know that there's anything better in English.

The Nature of the Beast and Between the World and Me are both making their way home with me.

Best Poems of Stevie Smith
After the Fire, A Still Small Voice by Evie Wyld

The Soldier Son Trilogy by Robin Hobb

The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley

Finished the first in the Capital Crimes series so downloaded Murder on Capital Hill.

Received an AUP of Killers by Howie Carr.

Sunday evening I bought two books for my Kindle:
The Boys in the Boat
An Abundance of Katherines

Still tidying up the library stacks after an acquisitive (but not particularly costly) summer.

On July 8, I shopped at a library book sale; typically, hardcovers $1, paperbacks $.50, but some higher. Came home with 24 books (11 hc, 13 pbk) for a total of $28.09.

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (hc)
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri (hc)
Quicker than the Eye by Ray Bradbury (hc)
Driving Blind by Ray Bradbury (hc)
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (hc)
Bad Monkey by Carl Hiassen (hc)
Fear of the Dark by Walter Mosley (hc)
Cinnamon Kiss by Walter Mosley (hc)
The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley (hc)
The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty (hc)
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas (hc)

The Shipping News by Annie Proulx (pbk)
Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian (pbk)
Tourist Season by Carl Hiassen (pbk)
Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow (pbk)
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon (pbk)
The Gilded Age by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner (pbk)
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (pbk)
Gods and Generals by Jeff Shaara (pbk)
The Last Full Measure by Jeff Shaara (pbk)
A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler (pbk)
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin (pbk)
Herzog by Saul Bellow (pbk)
A Little Yellow Dog by Walter Mosley (pbk)

In August, I joined an LT meet-up in Philadelphia, which wound down in a used bookstore called The Book Trader.



I do believe I spent more for less at The Book Trader. Hooray for library sales. Another one coming up in a couple of weeks.

Nice haul, weird_O!

Ditto! Love seeing the Walter Mosleys.

Great haul!!

Oh no! The FOL semi-annual book sale is on Saturday...