Stacking the Shelves

Posted July 5, 2014 by Nicky in General / 28 Comments

A friend of mine recently said to me that having these book haul posts might make us all more inclined to buy books than we’d normally be. I’m not sure I disagree… but it’s fun anyway, so nyah. So here’s my usual Stacking the Shelves post. This week is brought to you by a spree in The Works — for non-Brits, that’s a store that sells a somewhat random selection of books for way under the recommended retail price. Sometimes they have nothing you want, sometimes a whole bunch. Right now they’re doing a “six books for £10” thing, so I bought a bunch of books this week and I have some ordered from them too…

The rest is courtesy of doing a job for my mother and being paid with a Kobo voucher, and my partner nursing me through the disappointment of being unable to give blood again with a little something on top of that.

Fiction (bought)

Cover of Hyperion by Dan Simmons Cover of Saturn's Children by Charles Stross Cover of Neptune's Brood by Charles Stross Cover of Katharine, the Virgin Queen, by Jean Plaidy Cover of The Shadow of the Pomegranate by Jean Plaidy Cover of Under the Empyrean Sky by Chuck Wendig

Hyperion is in the SF Masterworks series, so it’ll go towards a goal I have of reading more of those. Jean Plaidy is partially interest in historical fiction, partly research for a dream thesis of mine about medieval queens and the way they’re portrayed in fiction. And Wendig’s book I got because I got the sequel for review…

Cover of Blightborn by Chuck Wendig

Non-fiction (bought)

Cover of Planets by Dava Sobel Cover of The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker Cover of Behind the Shock Machine by Gina Perry Cover of The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge

I’ve actually already read that last one, and wasn’t impressed. Steven Pinker, I’m reading one of his books on language and I’m enjoying it, and the book about the Milgram experiments… it’s a subject that’s always fascinated me — both the results of the experiments and the emotional brutality of them.

Non-fiction (for review)

Cover of Black and Brown Planets Cover of Death, Disability and the Superhero

Both of these are on ‘read now’ on Netgalley, if they sound interesting to you. I’m really looking forward to reading these; I think queer theory’s been comfortably extended in superhero fiction, but I hadn’t seen anything from the lens of disability studies, and with Vox Day waxing racist about N.K. Jemisin, and various other things like that going on, science fiction fandom deserves a look through a lens of race discussions.

I also got a bunch of audiobooks — some Iain M. Banks, some Ngaio Marsh, and one Trudi Canavan — also from The Works, in an amazing deal: three audiobooks for £10. It’s mostly crime and stuff, but it’s worth checking out if that might be interesting to you.

Recap of a couple of hopefully interesting posts on the blog this week from me:
Mental Health Awareness Month: GAD and me
Interview with Carrie Patel (plus giveaway)

What’s anyone else been up to? What’s anyone been buying?

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28 responses to “Stacking the Shelves

  1. Cait

    Hehe, Stacking the Shelves probably DOES make rounding up books more fun. I know I make sure I get my library books before the weekend so I can put them on my post. x) Buuut, it also makes me accountable to read what I borrow because I hate saying I’m reading a book and then sending it back. Makes my OCD bookish heart squeamy. Awesome haul! I hope you enjoy them, and thanks for stopping by mine. 😉

  2. Some nice titles there. I read hyperion a few years ago and have read a few Jean plaidy books also. Hope you enjoy reading your haul! Thanks so much for visiting my blog.

    happy reading and have a great week 🙂

  3. Love the cover for Under the Empyrean Sky is gorgeous! I love my dystopians and scifi. Just checking it out on GR now and looks pretty good. Will be looking out for your review.

    Your friend has a good point actually, I’d be disappointed if I thought some bloggers were buying books to keep up with others, probably the quickest way to send yourself broke 🙁 I’d be buying anyway, I just can’t seem to help myself. Thanks for sharing your haul.

  4. I really love the Under the Empyrean Sky cover :D. Great combination of SF and Historical Fiction, I love both genres as well :). Again, nice non-fiction books! Happy reading!

  5. I’m never willing to read non fiction. Definitely a mark against me I know. I recently picked up Neptune’s Brood as well. I’m just going to try to read it without reading the first. I liked Under the Empyrean Sky. Enjoy all of your goodies!

    • Eh, I wasn’t a fan of non-fiction until the last couple of years. Whatever works for you, you know? I’m planning on reading Stross’ work because he’s on the Hugo ballot this year, and I’m voting; Chuck Wendig is generally pretty fun, though it’s going to be weird reading his YA!

  6. I liked the Jean Plaidy Tudor series-I have copies of them on my shelves for future re-reads. Have you tried Emily Purdy? I loved her novel about Jane Boleyn. It ranks up there with Philippa Gregory’s Boleyn books. Enjoy!

    • I haven’t tried Emily Purdy! I’ll have to look her up. I’m afraid I don’t get on with Philippa Gregory though, somehow; I’ve tried a few times and I just don’t get into them properly. Hopefully that’s just an individual thing with her work and won’t bug me with other people writing in the same period!

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