Sorry I skipped a whole month again! I swear I won't this time. I still won't do the book hauls, unhauls, and wrap-ups until the end of the month. I think that's just plain silly to do it early. Even if I have 50+ books (July), I will just update the post until the last day of the month, then put it up.
Anyway, so far for the month of January I have purchased or acquired 6 new books. They are as follows:
Book #1: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Biographer Margaret Lea returns one night to her apartment above her father’s antiquarian bookshop. On her steps she finds a letter. It is a hand-written request from one of Britain’s most prolific and well-loved novelists. Vida Winter, gravely ill, wants to recount her life story before it is too late, and she wants Margaret to be the one to capture her history. The request takes Margaret by surprise — she doesn’t know the author, nor has she read any of Miss Winter’s dozens of novels. Late one night while pondering whether to accept the task of recording Miss Winter’s personal story, Margaret begins to read her father’s rare copy of Miss Winter’s Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation. She is spellbound by the stories and confused when she realizes the book only contains twelve stories. Where is the thirteenth tale? Intrigued, Margaret agrees to meet Miss Winter and act as her biographer. As Vida Winter unfolds her story, she shares with Margaret the dark family secrets that she has long kept hidden as she remembers her days at Angelfield, the now burnt-out estate that was her childhood home. Margaret carefully records Miss Winter’s account and finds herself more and more deeply immersed in the strange and troubling story. Both women will have to confront their pasts and the weight of family secrets... and the ghosts that haunt them still.
This is just the kind of book that I know I'm going to enjoy. It's about reading and the protagonist has a love of reading that my own nearly rivals. I've been wanting to pick this up for ages, but I either didn't want to pay the full cover price or I didn't have the money on me for the other discount store prices. I finally found it in the Salvation Army for $2, and got my dad to buy it. I've started it already (at the writing of this, I am on page 57) and I absolutely love it. I can't wait to finish it.
Book #2: Android Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and Ben H. Winters
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters co-author Ben H. Winters is back with an all-new collaborator, legendary Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, and the result is Android Karenina an enhanced edition of the classic love story set in a dystopian world of robots, cyborgs, and interstellar space travel. As in the original novel, our story follows two relationships: the tragic adulterous romance of Anna Karenina and Count Alexei Vronsky, and the much more hopeful marriage of Konstantin Levin and Kitty Shcherbatskaya. These four, yearning for true love, live in a steampunk-inspired 19th century of mechanical butlers, extraterrestrial-worshiping cults, and airborne debutante balls. Their passions alone would be enough to consume them-but when a secret cabal of radical scientific revolutionaries launches an attack on Russian high society's high-tech lifestyle, our heroes must fight back with all their courage, all their gadgets, and all the power of a sleek new cyborg model like nothing the world has ever seen." Filled with the same blend of romance, drama, and fantasy that made the first two Quirk Classics New York Times best sellers, Android Karenina brings this celebrated series into the exciting world of science fiction.
I do plan to read this, then pass it on to my mother. She absolutely loves Russian literature (I don't know why), and I think this would be one of those weird books right up her alley. It looks hilarious. I never did finish Pride and Prejudice and Zombies published by Quirk Books, but I hope to actually finish this one and maybe give that one another try.
Book #3: Night Film by Marisha Pessl
Everybody has a Cordova story. Cult horror director Stanislas Cordova hasn't been seen in public since 1977. To his fans he is an enigma. To journalist Scott McGrath he is the enemy. To Ashley he was a father. On a damp October night the body of young, beautiful Ashley Cordova is found in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. Her suicide appears to be the latest tragedy to hit a severely cursed dynasty. For McGrath, another death connected to the legendary director seems more than a coincidence. Driven by revenge, curiosity and a need for the truth, he finds himself pulled into a hypnotic, disorientating world, where almost everyone seems afraid. The last time McGrath got close to exposing Cordova, he lost his marriage and his career. This time he could lose his grip on reality. ONCE WE FACE OUR DEEPEST FEARS, WHAT LIES ON THE OTHER SIDE?
I have been hearing nothing but good things about this book. I'd been wanting it for a while, but not able to find it anywhere. Then I found it in, of all places, a Dollar Tree. I've been trying to get my hands on it, and I don't care that they told me to stop buying books. I want to read this. I've been getting more into crime thrillers and mystery novels. This just looks so cool to me that I can't pass it up. Especially not for $1.
Book #4: Keys of Life: Sword of Fire by Carolyn Shield and Tom Vorbeck
The second installment of the Keys of Life trilogy. The violent war between the Pure of Heart and the Children of the Nephilim continues and Cordy and Ash run from Europe to New Orleans. The pair, along with a new ally, search for hidden family treasures to help them defeat the Nephilim. Meanwhile, the Guardian, a spirit of Earth, warns them that their next battle could be the most catastrophic the planet has ever seen rivaling the Great Flood. Jon Lafitte, are reformed pirate and consummate Frenchman, vies for Cordy's affections while steering the trio along the Louisiana bayou to their biggest showdown yet. But Cordy finds it difficult to choose between the unpredictable Lafitte, and the one who's always been there for her, Ash. Set sail with the Pure of Heart as they try to save not only their legacy, but also the earth as we know it.
I have no idea. I got the first one for free and then I saw the second one free and thought, why not? I'll grab that one too and just continue the collection. It's free anyway. Um. Haven't read either one yet. They are on the to-be-read list though!
Book #5: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
Mare Barrow’s world is divided by blood—those with red and those with silver. Mare and her family are lowly Reds, destined to serve the Silver elite whose supernatural abilities make them nearly gods. Mare steals what she can to help her family survive, but a twist of fate leads her to the royal palace itself where, in front of the king and all his nobles, she discovers an ability she didn’t know she had. Except . . . her blood is Red. To hide this impossibility, the king forces her into the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. As Mare is drawn further into the Silver world, her actions put into motion a deadly and violent dance, pitting prince against prince and Mare against her own heart.
Yes. I finally found my way to the Red Queen bandwagon. Not exactly on it yet, as I haven't started reading the book, but it was on sale for less than $10 at Walmart, so I grabbed it. I meant to pick it up during December of last year, but I got a different book instead. It looks interesting and my mother said "So Twilight meets Divergent then?" I can't wait to find out if she's right.
Book #6: The Elementary Cases of Sherlock Holmes by Ian Charnock
In this compelling collection of seven stories, the young Stamford joins Sherlock Holmes, the world’s first consulting detective to untangle a series of mysterious crimes.
The Record of the Tarleton Murders
The body of a woman in her late thirties is found in Seven Dials with a serene smile on her face. The Honourable Clive Moreton-Ashbee is found dead in his family home in Oxfordshire also wearing a chillingly peaceful smile. In light of these murders, Sherlock and Stamford travel to Sibberton Hall to find the connection between the fatalities but with Pennington, Sherlock’s biggest rival from the past, lost on an expedition to the Yucatan, this case will be no ordinary one. Tension arises when another is found dead by the hearth. Will Holmes be able to solve these mysterious murders?
The Case of Vamberry, the Wine Merchant
Young Stamford invites Holmes to a dinner at his parents’ house where the Kentish Brewers’ Association, of which his father is President, is honouring a guest from France who happens to be a chemist. Holmes suspects that one of the guests, Josiah Vamberry, a man with the largest store of top-class claret in the whole of England, is in a bad financial situation. Following an awful argument between Mr Stamford and Mr Vamberry, the latter is found with his throat cut and Mr Stamford arrested. Holmes is desperate to save his friend’s father. Mr Stamford is among the several investors whose finances took a severe knock with the failing of the chateaux but would financial ruin prompt him to kill? Holmes sets out to prove the innocence of his friend’s father and a gripping case unfolds.
The Adventure of the Old Russian Woman
After an absence from the Reading Room of the British Museum, Holmes returns to find his usual place occupied by a strange Germanic man with grizzled hair. Holmes’ curiosity is aroused when the man lets out a deep-throated grunt, says that no one can frighten him and fiercely crumples a piece of paper in his hands. When an old Russian woman empties the wastepaper baskets, the German leaves behind a piece of paper containing a strange symbol and beneath this symbol the letters ARX are written. Can Holmes solve this seemingly impossible and perplexing case?
The Singular Affair of the Aluminium Crutch
Determined to make his own way in the world, Sherlock places a discreet advertisement in several newspapers offering his services as the world’s first consulting detective. A young woman soon shows up at Montague Street asking for his help to find her crippled fiancée who, all of a sudden, disappeared from her life. As Holmes investigates he finds a mysterious laboratory, a crutch left behind, a large amount of strangely shaped ash and a distinct burning smell. Can Holmes work out if this is a murder, suicide or death by misadventure?
Other stories include:
Mrs Farintosh and an Opal Tiara
Matilda Briggs and the Giant Rat of Sumatra
A Full Account of Ricoletti of the Club Foot
What can I say? I'm a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes. Any way I get it is a good way to me. Of course I have no recollection of buying this eBook, nor does it show up in my order history...but I will take it as a sign that I just forgot. The very last one, A Full Account of Ricoletti of the Club Foot, made me think immediately of the BBC special The Abominable Bride, in which the name of the bride was Ricoletti. Now I'm even more excited for it.
Book #7: The Temporary Gentleman by Sebastian Barry
Jack McNulty is a 'temporary gentleman', an Irishman whose commission in the British army in the Second World War was never permanent. In 1957, sitting in his lodgings in Accra, he urgently sets out to write his story. He feels he cannot take one step further, or even hardly a breath, without looking back at all that has befallen him. He is an ordinary man, both petty and heroic, but he has seen extraordinary things. He has worked and wandered around the world - as a soldier, an engineer, a UN observer - trying to follow his childhood ambition to better himself. And he has had a strange and tumultuous marriage. Mai Kirwan was a great beauty of Sligo in the 1920s, a vivid mind, but an elusive and mysterious figure too. Jack married her, and shared his life with her, but in time she slipped from his grasp.
I'm sure it's obvious, but Second World War. That was why I wanted this because it ties in there. I have no idea what else this is about, but I figure for $2, I'd grab it and find out. Worst that will happen is I donate it to the library or another bookstore.
Book #8: The Rise and Fall of Great Powers by Tom Rachman
Tooly Zylberberg, owner of a bookshop in the Welsh countryside, spends most of her life reading. Yet there’s one tale that never made sense: her own life. In childhood, she was spirited away from home, then raised around Asia, Europe and the United States. But who were the people who brought her up? And what ever happened to them? There was Humphrey, a curmudgeon from Russia; there was the charming but tempestuous Sarah, who hailed from Kenya; and there was Venn, the charismatic leader who transformed Tooly forever. Until, quite suddenly, he vanished. Years later, she has lost hope of ever knowing what took place. Then, the old mysteries stir again, sending her – and the reader – on a hunt through place and time, from Wales to Bangkok to New York to Italy, from the 1980’s to the Year 2000 to the present, from the end of the Cold War, to the rise and wobbles of U.S. power, to the digital revolution of today. Gradually, all secrets are revealed…
It's about books, a war, Wales (I love Wales and I have no idea why), and a lot of things that just sound like my cup of tea. I saw the books on the cover and just had to get it. When I got it, I didn't understand why the dust jacket was folded into it. I realized why shortly after. The copy I bought is signed. I have no idea if it is Tom Rachman's signature or not...but I hope to find out. It looks really good. I already owned the only other book he wrote, and I can't wait to read them.
Book #9: The Wake by Anna Hope
Wake: 1) Emerge or cause to emerge from sleep 2) Ritual for the dead 3) Consequence or aftermath.
Hettie, a dance instructress at the Palais, lives at home with her mother and her brother, mute and lost after his return from the war. One night, at work, she meets a wealthy, educated man and has reason to think he is as smitten with her as she is with him. Still there is something distracted about him, something she cannot reach...Evelyn works at the Pensions Exchange through which thousands of men have claimed benefits from wounds or debilitating distress. Embittered by her own loss, more and more estranged from her posh parents, she looks for solace in her adored brother who has not been the same since he returned from the front...Ada is beset by visions of her son on every street, convinced he is still alive. Helpless, her loving husband of 25 years has withdrawn from her. Then one day a young man appears at her door with notions to peddle, like hundreds of out of work veterans. But when he shows signs of being seriously disturbed—she recognizes the symptoms of "shell shock"—and utters the name of her son she is jolted to the core...The lives of these three women are braided together, their stories gathering tremendous power as the ties that bind them become clear, and the body of the unknown soldier moves closer and closer to its final resting place.
I had been watching Bletchley Circle on Netflix (yeah, I'm really into WWII, I don't get it either) and well, this is women in the same general time frame and I just had to have it. The fact that it was on sale in a store, for I think $2, was definitely an added bonus.
Anyway, so far for the month of January I have purchased or acquired 6 new books. They are as follows:
Book #1: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Biographer Margaret Lea returns one night to her apartment above her father’s antiquarian bookshop. On her steps she finds a letter. It is a hand-written request from one of Britain’s most prolific and well-loved novelists. Vida Winter, gravely ill, wants to recount her life story before it is too late, and she wants Margaret to be the one to capture her history. The request takes Margaret by surprise — she doesn’t know the author, nor has she read any of Miss Winter’s dozens of novels. Late one night while pondering whether to accept the task of recording Miss Winter’s personal story, Margaret begins to read her father’s rare copy of Miss Winter’s Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation. She is spellbound by the stories and confused when she realizes the book only contains twelve stories. Where is the thirteenth tale? Intrigued, Margaret agrees to meet Miss Winter and act as her biographer. As Vida Winter unfolds her story, she shares with Margaret the dark family secrets that she has long kept hidden as she remembers her days at Angelfield, the now burnt-out estate that was her childhood home. Margaret carefully records Miss Winter’s account and finds herself more and more deeply immersed in the strange and troubling story. Both women will have to confront their pasts and the weight of family secrets... and the ghosts that haunt them still.This is just the kind of book that I know I'm going to enjoy. It's about reading and the protagonist has a love of reading that my own nearly rivals. I've been wanting to pick this up for ages, but I either didn't want to pay the full cover price or I didn't have the money on me for the other discount store prices. I finally found it in the Salvation Army for $2, and got my dad to buy it. I've started it already (at the writing of this, I am on page 57) and I absolutely love it. I can't wait to finish it.
Book #2: Android Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and Ben H. Winters
I do plan to read this, then pass it on to my mother. She absolutely loves Russian literature (I don't know why), and I think this would be one of those weird books right up her alley. It looks hilarious. I never did finish Pride and Prejudice and Zombies published by Quirk Books, but I hope to actually finish this one and maybe give that one another try.
Book #3: Night Film by Marisha Pessl
I have been hearing nothing but good things about this book. I'd been wanting it for a while, but not able to find it anywhere. Then I found it in, of all places, a Dollar Tree. I've been trying to get my hands on it, and I don't care that they told me to stop buying books. I want to read this. I've been getting more into crime thrillers and mystery novels. This just looks so cool to me that I can't pass it up. Especially not for $1.
Book #4: Keys of Life: Sword of Fire by Carolyn Shield and Tom Vorbeck
I have no idea. I got the first one for free and then I saw the second one free and thought, why not? I'll grab that one too and just continue the collection. It's free anyway. Um. Haven't read either one yet. They are on the to-be-read list though!
Book #5: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
Yes. I finally found my way to the Red Queen bandwagon. Not exactly on it yet, as I haven't started reading the book, but it was on sale for less than $10 at Walmart, so I grabbed it. I meant to pick it up during December of last year, but I got a different book instead. It looks interesting and my mother said "So Twilight meets Divergent then?" I can't wait to find out if she's right.
Book #6: The Elementary Cases of Sherlock Holmes by Ian Charnock
The Record of the Tarleton Murders
The body of a woman in her late thirties is found in Seven Dials with a serene smile on her face. The Honourable Clive Moreton-Ashbee is found dead in his family home in Oxfordshire also wearing a chillingly peaceful smile. In light of these murders, Sherlock and Stamford travel to Sibberton Hall to find the connection between the fatalities but with Pennington, Sherlock’s biggest rival from the past, lost on an expedition to the Yucatan, this case will be no ordinary one. Tension arises when another is found dead by the hearth. Will Holmes be able to solve these mysterious murders?
The Case of Vamberry, the Wine Merchant
Young Stamford invites Holmes to a dinner at his parents’ house where the Kentish Brewers’ Association, of which his father is President, is honouring a guest from France who happens to be a chemist. Holmes suspects that one of the guests, Josiah Vamberry, a man with the largest store of top-class claret in the whole of England, is in a bad financial situation. Following an awful argument between Mr Stamford and Mr Vamberry, the latter is found with his throat cut and Mr Stamford arrested. Holmes is desperate to save his friend’s father. Mr Stamford is among the several investors whose finances took a severe knock with the failing of the chateaux but would financial ruin prompt him to kill? Holmes sets out to prove the innocence of his friend’s father and a gripping case unfolds.
The Adventure of the Old Russian Woman
After an absence from the Reading Room of the British Museum, Holmes returns to find his usual place occupied by a strange Germanic man with grizzled hair. Holmes’ curiosity is aroused when the man lets out a deep-throated grunt, says that no one can frighten him and fiercely crumples a piece of paper in his hands. When an old Russian woman empties the wastepaper baskets, the German leaves behind a piece of paper containing a strange symbol and beneath this symbol the letters ARX are written. Can Holmes solve this seemingly impossible and perplexing case?
The Singular Affair of the Aluminium Crutch
Determined to make his own way in the world, Sherlock places a discreet advertisement in several newspapers offering his services as the world’s first consulting detective. A young woman soon shows up at Montague Street asking for his help to find her crippled fiancée who, all of a sudden, disappeared from her life. As Holmes investigates he finds a mysterious laboratory, a crutch left behind, a large amount of strangely shaped ash and a distinct burning smell. Can Holmes work out if this is a murder, suicide or death by misadventure?
Other stories include:
Mrs Farintosh and an Opal Tiara
Matilda Briggs and the Giant Rat of Sumatra
A Full Account of Ricoletti of the Club Foot
What can I say? I'm a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes. Any way I get it is a good way to me. Of course I have no recollection of buying this eBook, nor does it show up in my order history...but I will take it as a sign that I just forgot. The very last one, A Full Account of Ricoletti of the Club Foot, made me think immediately of the BBC special The Abominable Bride, in which the name of the bride was Ricoletti. Now I'm even more excited for it.
Book #7: The Temporary Gentleman by Sebastian Barry
I'm sure it's obvious, but Second World War. That was why I wanted this because it ties in there. I have no idea what else this is about, but I figure for $2, I'd grab it and find out. Worst that will happen is I donate it to the library or another bookstore.
Book #8: The Rise and Fall of Great Powers by Tom Rachman
It's about books, a war, Wales (I love Wales and I have no idea why), and a lot of things that just sound like my cup of tea. I saw the books on the cover and just had to get it. When I got it, I didn't understand why the dust jacket was folded into it. I realized why shortly after. The copy I bought is signed. I have no idea if it is Tom Rachman's signature or not...but I hope to find out. It looks really good. I already owned the only other book he wrote, and I can't wait to read them.
Book #9: The Wake by Anna Hope
Wake: 1) Emerge or cause to emerge from sleep 2) Ritual for the dead 3) Consequence or aftermath.Hettie, a dance instructress at the Palais, lives at home with her mother and her brother, mute and lost after his return from the war. One night, at work, she meets a wealthy, educated man and has reason to think he is as smitten with her as she is with him. Still there is something distracted about him, something she cannot reach...Evelyn works at the Pensions Exchange through which thousands of men have claimed benefits from wounds or debilitating distress. Embittered by her own loss, more and more estranged from her posh parents, she looks for solace in her adored brother who has not been the same since he returned from the front...Ada is beset by visions of her son on every street, convinced he is still alive. Helpless, her loving husband of 25 years has withdrawn from her. Then one day a young man appears at her door with notions to peddle, like hundreds of out of work veterans. But when he shows signs of being seriously disturbed—she recognizes the symptoms of "shell shock"—and utters the name of her son she is jolted to the core...The lives of these three women are braided together, their stories gathering tremendous power as the ties that bind them become clear, and the body of the unknown soldier moves closer and closer to its final resting place.
I had been watching Bletchley Circle on Netflix (yeah, I'm really into WWII, I don't get it either) and well, this is women in the same general time frame and I just had to have it. The fact that it was on sale in a store, for I think $2, was definitely an added bonus.
* * *
I think I did well for sticking to my book buying limit. I only got 9 this month. Let's see if I can stick with it for the rest of the year!
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