Tag: Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves

Posted August 30, 2014 by in General / 44 Comments

I’m trying not to buy too many books, still, despite my book ban being over. That did not stop me from going to the library and picking up a new book/one with a voucher… Time for Stacking the Shelves a la Tynga’s Reviews!

Fiction (bought)

I didn’t intend to pounce on Lock In when it came out, but I spotted it in the shop today, so I thought I might as well pick it up. As for Dreamwalker, it involves dragons, so, hey! Plus, free voucher because I filled my stamp card, so.

Fiction (library)

Various things for various challenges, here, plus some I’ve been meaning to read for a while — I like Michael Marshall’s SF, and I love Gene Wolfe in general. Simon Armitage’s work is generally awesome, too. All in all, pleased with this library haul.

Library (non-fiction)

While Dawkins has more business commenting about biology and genetics than he does about babies with Down’s syndrome or religion, it’s interesting to see someone challenge some of his ideas. I already reviewed that one here. And of course, I just really enjoy the way Fortey writes.

Review copies

I’ve been hoping for Unspeakable for a while, so thanks to Little, Brown for that! Poisoned Pearls came via LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program, which is always awesome. Thank you to them and to Book View Cafe! I think I’ve read something else by Leah Cutter and quite enjoyed it…

What’s anyone else been getting their hands on?

Tags: books, Gene Wolfe, Michael Moorcock, Richard Fortey, Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves

Posted August 23, 2014 by in General / 26 Comments

I’m gonna have to prepare this week’s Stacking the Shelves post (a la Tynga’s Reviews) pretty quickly, as my partner is visiting and she needs looots more sleep than me, and it’s already getting late. But hey, it’s been a good week: my 25th birthday was on Wednesday, and a shopping trip was had with my partner, my sister, and one of my closest friends. Books ensued, as you might’ve guessed if you’re around here often; some bought by me, some by them for me. Plus, the week started with a day at Worldcon, although admittedly I only bought two books — one of which was just so I could get it signed. (That one isn’t included here, but for bragging rights, I now have Jo Walton’s Lifelode and Among Others signed, and Tanya Huff’s The Enchantment Emporium.)

Oh, and re: that month of not-buying-books I had: it was successful, and in more ways than one, really. As well as just stopping me buying books and spending too much money, it seems to have changed my attitude a bit. I’m not (currently) buying books for the sake of it; only books I definitely want and intend to read.

Bought for myself

Lady Lazarus is the only really impulsive purchase on this list; it grabbed my attention because of the setting (Budapest). Stephen Baxter is a new author for me, but his books are part of a list of “best SF” I’m trying to read.

Bought for me by my partner

I’ve enjoyed the Guardians film, so between that and the opening pages where Tony singularly fails to impress Gamora, I decided to continue on with the comic. And the Avengers Assemble ones are by Kelly Sue DeConnick, therefore an inevitable buy for me. One thing about Worldcon that amazed me was that on a panel where the promo picture was Ms. Marvel, and it was supposed to be talking about new and exciting things in comics, it took forty minutes to mention a female character, forty-five to mention something with characters of diverse sexual orientations and ethnic backgrounds, and no female creators were mentioned at all.

Fuck that, I’mma talk about Kelly Sue and Gail Simone ’til I’m blue in the face.

Bought for me by my sister

I felt like reading some more Michael Moorcock, since I read Gloriana… My sis obliged.

Received to review

For the first one, Lies We Tell Ourselves, I’m super-grateful to a friend who works at the publisher who managed to get me an ARC. Re: Amy Lane, I think I’ve read something of hers before, but it still weirds me out slightly since I went to school with someone of that name…

Comics (issue)

I really need to catch up with actually reading this run of Ms. Marvel.

So, what’s everyone else been up to? Any great hauls? Anyone been resisting most amazingly? Comment, link, share!

Tags: books, comics, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Marvel, Michael Moorcock, Stacking the Shelves, Steven Brust

Stacking the Shelves

Posted August 16, 2014 by Nicky in General / 8 Comments

By the time this goes live, I’ll be in Loncon at Worldcon! Probably buying books, since the ban lifts tomorrow… Probably to be instated again right away, heh.

Review copies (fiction)

I know I listed Gutenberg’s Apprentice last week, but that was the ebook, and now I’ve been given a paperback copy from Bookbridgr. <3

Review copies (non-fiction)

The Language Myth is going to be an interesting counterpoint to The Language Instinct, since it directly argues against Pinker’s ideas.

Library (fiction)

I’m really interested in John James’ book, especially since 1) he was Welsh, 2) Neil Gaiman wrote an interesting intro, 3) Norse mythology! And I just felt like some Georgette Heyer.

Library (comics)

Cover of Gambit: Once A Thief Cover of X-men: Storm by Warren Ellis

Both Marvel characters I don’t know much about, since they’re connected with the X-men.

Comic issue

You know, I might explode if we don’t get Captain Marvel in the MCU soon.

What’s everyone else been up to?

Tags: books, comics, Marvel, Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves

Posted August 9, 2014 by Nicky in General / 41 Comments

Aaaand it’s time for Stacking the Shelves, a la Tynga’s Reviews, as usual. I’m still on a book ban until WorldCon (I think this is the third week now I haven’t bought anything), but I am still receiving ARCs and freebies, woo.

Via Bookbridgr

Both of these sounded intriguing when I looked them up. I’ve already finished A Love Like Blood — review here.

Won

Won from Reading Is My Treasure‘s giveaway — can’t believe I forgot to include this last week. Thank you to her and the author for sending me this.

NetGalley

I’ve been reading other stuff around the War of the Roses recently, so I guess it’s not surprising I jumped at that one. I’ve been looking at Gutenberg’s Apprentice for a while, especially since I read The Gutenberg Revolution earlier in the year. And The Hidden Blade just looked kinda fun. Swordswomen! Even if swordsmanship in that dress seems… unlikely.

What’s everyone else been getting their grubby hands on?

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves

Posted August 2, 2014 by Nicky in General / 24 Comments

Yay! It’s time for Stacking the Shelves, hosted by Tynga’s Reviews. Like last week, I have actually not bought any books this week, which I know will come as a surprise. I’ve now been dared not to do so until Loncon, and not to get any books out of the library on any of my tickets until I’ve read all the ones I’ve got for at least one ticket.

Torture.

But I do still get ARCs, and here’s what I got this week!

Fiction ARCs/review copies

Venomoid and The Before Now and the After Then are both LGBT, though probably of rather different stripes. Zeus is Dead, I won from Librarything Early Reviewers. The first two are via Netgalley, and I couldn’t find any more inspiring covers for them. Thanks, all!

Non-fiction ARCs/review copies

Random stuff about words and language is very cool, and given Wales’ historical socialist/communist tendencies, I have an interest in something that is a bit more nuanced than “communism=bad” in my non-fiction. (In fiction, I recommend the Library of Wales books, especially Cwmardy and We Live.)

Freebies

Was given this one in the library I volunteer at because it’s been in the sales basket for as long as I’ve been volunteering there, and before that, hadn’t been taken out since 2007. They pretty much figured I’d be the only person in the world who’d give it a home.

Out of curiosity, the couple of times I put Goodreads URLs in so you could click through the book’s page by clicking on the cover, stats showed no clickthroughs using those links. Is that a thing people want/find useful, or not? It’s a faff for me, but if it’s useful, I’ll do it.

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves

Posted July 26, 2014 by Nicky in General / 42 Comments

Time for Stacking the Shelves! I have not bought books this week! I have been to the library three times, though… Still, this is a much smaller haul than it could be, knowing me. (If you don’t believe me, go back and check last week’s.)

ARCs/review copies

Cover of Tales from the Palace of the Fairy King by Daniel Lieberman

I’ve already read Unthink; I’m being pretty good at keeping on top of my books from bookbridgr. The next two are from Netgalley, and the last one direct from the author. Thank you to everyone involved in giving out ARCs and review copies!

Library (fiction)

The first two I actually own; Guardian of the Dead I own in Kindle format, though, and I only really use my Kobo lately, and Windhaven is… I think I’ve owned it in ebook for about five years, probably longer, and the site I bought it from has shut down leaving me with no access. So. Libraries! Then This is the Way the World Ends (I’ve checked the title and it should have the is in it; why the SF Masterworks cover omits it is anyone’s guess, though the physical copy I actually got has it right) doubles up for two of my challenges, one to read ten new-to-me SF Masterworks, and one to read all the books recced in Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels 1985-2010, which you’ll see below.

Library (non-fiction)

I’ve been meaning to read The Better Angels of Our Nature since I did the Everyday Moralities class on Coursera. The humour of Delete This At Your Peril reminds me of my dad (look it up, Mum — you’ll agree). I’m planning to read all the 101 SF novels recced in the third book here; not because I think it’s particularly better than any other book of recs, but because it spans twenty-five years and contains a lot I haven’t read yet/need to reread.

As for Philippa Langley, well, I’ve heard that she’s a bit… over-enthusiastic about Richard III and that she came across slightly batty on the documentary. So far the book isn’t contradicting that impression. Still, apparently Michael Jones’ chapters are worth it.

Comics (library)

Random choice from the library’s graphic novel section!

So, what’s everyone else been up to? Have y’all been good or bad this week with your buying habits?

Tags: books, comics, non-fiction, SF/F, Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves

Posted July 19, 2014 by Nicky in General / 61 Comments

So, time for Stacking the Shelves a la Tynga’s Reviews! You know how I keep saying my haul post is going to be smaller “next week”? Well, next week it will be. I think? That’s the idea, anyway. Part of this I blame on going to Rainbow Rowell’s signing in Waterstones with Leah @ Uncorked Thoughts. I’d pick something up to look at it and she’d chip in with “that one’s good!”

Or I might just have no restraint. There’s always that explanation. Anyway, to kick off, here’s me with Rainbow Rowell!

If you look closely you can see a little frog in the picture. Which means this is a good time to plug my friend’s art project: basically, she’s made a hundred of the blighters and over the last few months, she’s been ‘releasing’ them into the wild, a few at a time. If you find one, take a picture of yourself with it and then move it to somewhere new! Most are in England, West Yorkshire area, but I know some have gone to London, some have been released in Cardiff and Swansea, and some are travelling round the world. If you’re going to Loncon, I have two to release there, so keep your eye out for Sad Frog Project!

Waterstones haul

Cover of the special UK Collectors Edition of Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

My copy of Fangirl was signed, of course. I still need to finish reading it… But I loved the way Rowell spoke about it, spoke frankly about Cath’s social anxiety, spoke with enthusiasm about fandom. So I’m very glad to have a signed copy. As for the others, some I’ve been planning to get for a while — Two Boys Kissing and Code Name Verity. Leah forced Take Back the Skies on me, and we talked about the others enough to get me interested.

Kobo store

It’s a rather mixed bag, isn’t it? The first three were mentioned in books of essays I’ve been reading recently; I’ve enjoyed some of John Connolly’s other stuff; The Queen of the Tearling is getting interesting reviews; I thought my sister would like Premonitions but I’m gonna try it first; Permanent Present Tense is non-fiction and was mentioned in the neurobiology MOOC I’m doing; Liars and Thieves is a short by Karen Maitland, who I’m a big fan of!

Netgalley/e-ARCs

An interesting bunch — I’ve been interested by The Copper Promise for a while!

Bookbridgr

I think I’m in love with Bookbridgr. I’m certainly super happy about getting The Vanishing Witch! I don’t think I’ve crossposted any of my Karen Maitland reviews here so far, but I’m definitely a fan.

Library

Mostly non-fiction this week, as you can see; all my Steve Jones reservations came in, and I had a browse in the 610s-620s in the non-fiction section of the library. (Well, also the 560s, because dinosaurs.)

And finally…

Comics

I didn’t actually magically get my hands on the second TPB of The Movement, but I thought it’d be silly to put up the cover of every single issue. So there y’go. And I imagine there’s no mystery as to why I picked up Guardians of the Galaxy.

Okay, I can’t believe how long this post has got, and I need to do a ton more things before I go to bed. When this goes live in the morning, I’ll already be out at the Race for Life, volunteering at a 10k event. And then on Sunday, I’m running in the 5k event. So I may not be very active this week, but I will visit back anyone that comments here, of course! Have a good week.

(Oh, and if you have some spare cash, sponsor me, please?!)

ETA: Except I can’t volunteer today due to travel problems, wah. But at least I’ll be around to chat to people!

Tags: books, comics, DC, Gail Simone, Karen Maitland, Marvel, Neil Gaiman, Rainbow Rowell, Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves

Posted July 12, 2014 by Nicky in General / 48 Comments

Wait, how is it time for Stacking the Shelves again already?! Oh well, happy Saturday, all, and don’t forget to check out Tynga’s Reviews to find everyone else’s posts and interact with loads of wonderful other people.

I was actually going to say it’s been a quiet week, but then I remembered a bunch of books I’d ordered arrived, and I got quite a few ARCs too. Plus, me and my sis had a day trip to York with one of my closest friends, and that more or less inevitably meant a bookshop. (Less inevitably, it meant even my friend picked up something — my hunger for books is one of those things we really don’t share, but now she’s prepping for a teaching course, so she has to do more reading. I am trying to get her to try Attachments by Rainbow Rowell for fun…)

Anyway, I’ll just… split these up however comes to mind.

Ordered before this week!

Cover of Grave Peril by Jim Butcher

So yeah, more Ngaio Marsh, no one’s surprised. Cherie Priest, ditto. Jim Butcher might be a bit of a surprise because I didn’t get on that well with the series the first time I tried to read it, and found some aspects of it problematic. Still, I did enjoy them for light reading, and The Works (yes, again) was selling them for around ~£2 each. So. Might as well see if I can get back into the series.

Re: Anna Elliott, Lynn O’Connacht bought me the first two books yeaaars ago. I spotted this one in, oddly enough, The Works’ online shop and went oh yeah, I never read that.

Bought in York

And… more Ngaio Marsh. I’m not even that huge a fan, in that sense, I just find reading her work really relaxing. Susanna Gregory, I’ve been meaning to try. And automatic recommendation sites keep suggesting The Boy with the Porcelain Blade, and the first few pages intrigued me well enough, so with that comparison to Scott Lynch… yeah, worth a try.

One lonely ebook

ARCs

Cover of Conquering the Electron by Derek Cheung and Eric Brach

Yep, that’s a pretty odd mix. Nancy Kress, I’ve liked some of her other work; Gail Simone is just awesome and Kelly Sue DeConnick’s in there too; Ken Dickson’s story about his experience with mental illness sounded interesting enough; electrons are cool; Rocket Girl was on read now; Tomorrow and Tomorrow was the first book I spotted on BookBridgr that intrigued me.

And finally, new Captain Marvel. <3

So what’s everyone else been stacking their shelves with? Say hi, link your posts, let’s talk books!

Tags: books, comics, Gail Simone, Marvel, Ngaio Marsh, Stacking the Shelves

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)

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…

Non-fiction (bought)

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)

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?

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves

Posted June 28, 2014 by Nicky in General / 43 Comments

So you know I said this would be an Unstacking the Shelves? Hehe, no.

As usual, hosted by Tynga’s Reviews, go over there to get to everybody else’s posts!

Received for review

I’m an enormous fan of Arthuriana, so the Marie Phillips book really has my attention. I wrote a lot of my BA and MA work on Arthurian stories, and never miss the chance to expand my horizons. Uh, except I’ll never read a Marion Zimmer Bradley book again, after being forced to read The Mists of Avalon and after all I’ve found out about her in the last week or so.

Fiction bought

Cover of Broken by Susan Bigelow

I read Shades of Milk and Honey a while ago, and I remember being interested enough to finish it but not a huge fan. But someone whose taste I trust ripped through the books recently, and I liked it well enough to have another go. And the covers are pretty.

Non-fiction bought/downloaded

The two language books are going to be interesting, probably a good complement to The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker, which I’m reading at the moment. And Kameron Hurley’s essays, well, I need to read those for Hugo voting.

Comics

The Movement is the TPB and Ms. Marvel is just issue #5, but both are obviously exciting. I am pretty psyched about The Movement, with the heroine in a wheelchair, etc.

What’s anyone else been grabbing?

Tags: books, Gail Simone, Stacking the Shelves