Stacking the Shelves, as per Tynga’s Reviews.
Today’s been a quiet week for me. I got two books in Kindle sale deals, and two because I was recommended them for a challenge I’m doing (get twenty book recommendations from friends and read them).
Can you guess which is which? Heh. What’s everyone else been reading?
I’ll be late to respond to comments and such, as today I am meeting my partner’s parents!
It wasn’t going to be a busy week for books. Then there were libraries, and my sister wanted to go to Waterstones, and… yeah. So, as usual, here’s my Stacking the Shelves post!
Fiction (library)
Fiction (bought)
Non-fiction (bought)
Non-fiction (library)
Comics (bought)
Comics (library)
That may have got a little… out of hand. Anyway, I’ve read a couple of these already, and I’m partway through a couple more. I’m actually looking forward to the non-fiction book about Marvel quite a bit, but also The Girl With All The Gifts, as someone in a book club I’m in praised it to the skies. And Steelheart I’ve been coveting for a couple of weeks now.
What’s anyone else excited about?
It’s Monday as I’m starting to assemble this post, and I already have two reservations to pick up from the library, so I think I can confidently say this is going to be a busy week. Which is just the way I like it. So, as usual for a Saturday morning, here’s my Stacking the Shelves post for the meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews!
Review copies
Bought (fiction)
Bought (non-fiction)
Library (fiction)
Library (non-fiction)
I’m most excited about the Richard Fortey book, I think. I’ve already read the one from last week and the first one in this post. I really like his style. Also glad to have finally found a book on dinosaurs — I’ve read one of Switek’s books before and quite liked it.
For the fiction, I’m most interested in Fortune’s Pawn, by Rachel Bach. Even if my Welsh-orientated brain reads her name as ‘little Rachel’. My sister loved the book, and Kameron Hurley recently mentioned it in a list of recs. Also curious about, if wary of, Magic Bites — I’ve never read Ilona Andrews before and I don’t know if it’ll be my thing. But I enjoyed Charlaine Harris when I didn’t expect to, so!
The fun thing about Saturdays: doing my Stacking the Shelves post (hosted, as usual, by Tynga’s Reviews)! This week has been quite busy, though mostly because of library books. Because I don’t have a mountain of ARCs or a TBR list longer than my entire body…
Freebies
Bought
Gifted (from the lovely Lynn O’Connacht!)
Netgalley
Library (ebooks)
Library books
Comics (issues)
So I don’t even know where to start with what I’m excited about here. It’s my typical really really random selection. I’ll probably read the graphic novels soon — I’m partway through the Oz one, though it’s making my eyes roll out of my head, and the Sif one is pretty short and Sif is pretty awesome, so. Other than that, I’m in a science type of mood, so Spillover or The Eerie Silence are probably up next. Or I might go for Knight’s Fee because it’s a Rosemary Sutcliff book I haven’t read and those’re getting pretty rare. Oh, and I already read Frances Hardinge’s Cuckoo Song. It’s amazing.
What’s everyone else been up to? Anything you’re excited about this week?
Oh, and a few I keep forgetting to add that I was sent a month or so ago!
So, it’s Saturday and time for Stacking the Shelves, which I tooootally don’t look forward to all week… It’s a meme where you show off your haul for the week, hosted by Tynga’s Reviews. (Hi to everyone dropping by from there.)
So anyway. It was going to be a very sad and empty week, haul-wise. Then I was browsing the Kindle store while feeling cranky, which I probably shouldn’t do. And this resulted…
Kindle books
Comics (collection)
Comics (issues)
I’d say spot the theme, but the covers pretty much give it away. (Welsh books and superheroes, if you didn’t get it. I love some of the superhero covers — they’re all novels apart from Dark Reign: Young Avengers, but each I think has a bit of a reference to comics in the cover art.)
So, uh, the Dark Reign cover actively infuriates me, because that’s Billy Kaplan there with Enchantress, and — he’s gay, actually. I don’t know what the hell they were thinking with that cover. He has a boyfriend in the comics, he’s with him the whole time except for a brief break during the most recent issues. It looks very much like a ridiculous attempt to de-gay him, and I hate it. But hey, at least I also got the first issue of the new Ms. Marvel and the 2014 Captain Marvel, which I’m excited about and haven’t been able to get in physical form locally, so finally got on ComiXology. I also set up subscriptions to both, because hey.
Of the other books, I can’t decide what I’m most interested in or want to start with. Hm. Maybe Make Room for the Jester, just because I’m curious that Philip Pullman has written the introduction. Or The Heyday in the Blood, because one of my lecturers from my BA wrote the introduction!
What’s everyone else been getting? What’re you getting excited about?
ETA: Belatedly dropping in to add a link to this giveaway I’m running. Gain entries by promoting my charity run or sponsoring me!
So, as you can tell if you just scroll down a bit, or maybe the speed your browser has crawled to, I acquired a lot this week. That would be because my mother gave me a £40 Amazon voucher. She would claim I made her give me it, but I simply reminded her that she had promised it to me. Her guilty conscience did the rest…
Anyway, so this is my weekly haul, for the meme as hosted by Tynga’s Reviews! A couple of these have already appeared before, but now I’ve bought my own copies rather than borrowing them!
ARCs/review copies
Non-fiction
Fiction
Comics
I’ve already read Saga, and I’m going to polish off Spider-girl today hopefully, so other than those, hmm. Of the ARCs, I’m more excited about The Wizard’s Promise; I’ve enjoyed Cassandra Rose Clarke’s work, and I haven’t yet read Freya Robertson’s first book. (Oops.) Many thanks to Angry Robot/Strange Chemistry for those, though.
Of the non-fiction, most of it ethics/morality related, I’m most interested in Paul Bloom’s books. He taught a class I was in on Coursera, Moralities of Everyday Life, which I really enjoyed. Of the fiction, it’s gonna have to be Night of Cake and Puppets, because Laini Taylor! Can’t wait for Dreams of Gods and Monsters. I kept an eye out for an ARC but I didn’t see it anywhere, woe is me.
All these new books, and yet I have to work this weekend. *dramatic sigh* What about you guys? Frivolous weekends of reading ahead? Anything spectacular new on your shelves this week?
I thought I wasn’t gonna have anything this week, but then I won some ARCs from LibraryThing and ended up going shopping as well, so, uh. Whoops?
So, as usual, the Stacking the Shelves meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews!
ARCs/review copies
Comics
Other
Of the ARCs, I’m more enthusiastic about Long Hidden, but a book on the Normans hits me right in my interests too. Of the comics, Spider-woman! Because I’ve loved her appearances in Captain Marvel. And of the other books, well, Barthes and Derrida come from a feeling of, crap, I have an MA in literature and I don’t know much about literary theory, so they’re kind of a guilt thing. Though a bit of an interest thing too, since I’m TAing a class on Coursera where I’ve ended up talking ‘The Death of the Author’ and so on with the students.
I finished The Book of Imaginary Beings yesterday morning, which leaves only Dying in the Wool — which caught my eye because I’ve been looking for a cosy mystery type series since I ran out of Mary Stewart books, and Dying in the Wool is set in an area I know pretty well: Yorkshire. Also features a just-post-war widow, running about being a detective. Uh, so very sold. Incidentally, my copy happens to be signed, presumably because she’s a local author.
What’s everyone else been getting their grubby little hands on?
For the usual meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews! I did get a few books this week, but funnily enough I’ve finished 3/4 already! So it’s almost cancelled out…
What’s anyone else been sneaking home from the bookshop/library?
Aaand it’s Saturday, and time for Stacking the Shelves, as usual hosted by Tynga’s Reviews!
And wow, I have a lot to show off this week — a couple of ARCs, more books than I expected to buy (I deserve it, I gave blood!), and a whole stack of books from Bookmooch. (If you have a Bookmooch account and you ship to the UK, link me! I have a ridiculous backlog of points and an eclectic taste in books.)
ARCs/review copies
Bought
Borrowed
Bookmooch
I’ve been most excited about The Gospel of Loki, by Joanne Harris, because I’ve had it preordered for a while. I’m halfway through it already, though goodness knows I’m halfway through a lot of books. I’m excited about the ARCs from Angry Robot: I’ve meant to try Marianne de Pierres before, and I read Jay Posey’s first book, Three, a while ago. And the third review copy, well, hopefully I’ll be interviewing Eva Stachniak here on my blog around March ish.
Needless to say, I am also very excited about Avengers: The Enemy Within, as it continues Captain Marvel’s current storyline. I’ve flicked through it already and it contains such gems as this:
Carol: You like hitting stuff with that hammer of yours?
Thor: It is an act of which I am singularly fond.
So what’re you all reading, guys?
Yay, it’s Sunday Saturday (I can do the days of the week!) and I have some books to show off! Tynga’s Reviews, as usual, is hosting Stacking the Shelves.
So first things first, a new library opened in Caerphilly. It is lovely, and only getting four books out was a heroic feat.
And then yesterday after my shift as an RNIB volunteer, I ended up in the hospital’s WHSmith, which was dangerous. They always have buy one, get one half price, but I couldn’t find a fourth I was interested in. Which is probably all to the good.
I’m most excited about Fanny & Stella, which I’ve already started reading. It’s a bit sensationalised, but I think the subjects would’ve loved that. Not the trial for “conspiracy to commit buggery”, but the very exuberant, flamboyant biography.
And finally, here are two pictures of my makeshift bookshelf, containing almost all the books I dragged with me for a five-week trip to my parents’ (minus the comics, which’re on a different shelf).
