Stacking The Shelves #8 / In My Mailbox #18

In My Mailbox is a weekly event hosted by Kristi over at The Story Siren.  Stacking the Shelves is a weekly event hosted on Tynga's Reviews.  Here we can share what new books we've picked up this past week!

I was trying so hard to be good this week, all I was expecting were some pre-orders but I am an idiot for shiny new covers even if I own the book and so any & all resolve flew out of the window when I discovered the beautiful new clothbound books from Voyager Classics! As if that wasn't bad enough I discovered that there was a Kindle sale for Easter... And I made the mistake of looking! I was very restrained here but the sale's not over yet!

Bought

172 Hours On The Moon - Johan Haarstad

Clockwork Princess - Cassandra Clare

The Madness Underneath - Maureen Johnson

Queen Victoria's Book Of Spells - ed. Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling

In The Shadow Of Blackbirds - Cat Winters

Kindle Sale

Scent Of Magic - Maria V Snyder

From the author

Mortality - Kellie Sheridan

Cover love purchases

A Game Of Thrones - George R R Martin

Magician - Raymond E Feist

The Once And Future King - T H White

What did you all get this week?

Hoppy Easter Eggstravaganza Giveaway Hop

Welcome to the Hoppy Easter Eggstravaganza Giveaway Hop hosted by I Am a Reader Not A Writer and Read Now Sleep Later! It was always a tradition in my family that instead of a chocolate egg my mum would buy us a book which I thank her for, it's how I got my own copies of Anne Of Green Gables, Ballet Shoes, The Secret Garden and numerous other childrens classics. She continued this right up to last year and I've decided to carry this tradition on for her, my niece & nephew will be getting books and I decided to take part in this hop so other people can join in our family tradition. One lucky winner will win a book of their choice from the Book Depository so if you live in a country that BD ships to then you can enter, check here to see if your country is on the list.

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Check out all of the other blogs taking part below for more chances to win! Thanks for entering, good luck and Happy Easter!

Brief Thoughts #2 - Obsidian Mirror by Catherine Fisher

The Obsidian Mirror (Chronoptika #1) - Catherine Fisher

ISBN (UK) 9780340970089, Hodder Childrens Books, pub. - October 4 2012
ISBN (US) 9780803739697, Dial Books, exp. pub. - April 23 2013

'Jake's father disappears while working on mysterious experiments with the obsessive, reclusive Oberon Venn. Jake is convinced Venn has murdered him. But the truth he finds at the snow-bound Wintercombe Abbey is far stranger ... The experiments concerned a black mirror, which is a portal to both the past and the future. Venn is not alone in wanting to use its powers. Strangers begin gathering in and around Venn's estate: Sarah - a runaway, who appears out of nowhere and is clearly not what she says, Maskelyne - who claims the mirror was stolen from him in some past century. There are others, a product of the mirror's power to twist time. And a tribe of elemental beings surround this isolated estate, fey, cold, untrustworthy, and filled with hate for humans. But of them all, Jake is hell-bent on using the mirror to get to the truth. Whatever the cost, he must learn what really happened to his father.' - Goodreads

I'm a huge fan of Catherine Fisher which, considering I've only read two of her books, is saying something! I loved Incarceron (I cried when they cast Taylor Lautner, hopefully if the movie ever gets off the ground he won't be in it), liked Crown Of Acorns and I have both Sapphique & Darkhenge on my mountainous TBR pile. There is something about her writing that draws me in but having said that I think I spent three quarters of Obsidian Mirror confused. There were multiple time periods, multiple POV's with snippets taken from documents & diaries interspersed amongst the chapters but this was all quite easy to keep track of. I've no idea why I felt so confused except maybe I wasn't quite sure where the story was going and it very much felt like a standalone novel but then, it seemed to click and things made sense, by the time I got to the end I was desperate to read book #2 in the Chronoptika series only to discover there's no title or expected publication date so it looks like a long wait!

Lots of people don't like time travel because it's not something that could ever happen but I liked this idea, of using the obsidian mirror to go into the past or the present and let's face it if you can't believe in something fantastical then you probably shouldn't be reading fantasy! What made Obsidian Mirror for me was the inclusion of the fey or the Shee as Fisher refers to them. I loved Summer and Gideon, the human boy out of time and am looking forward to reading more about Winter. Her descriptions of the Shee as a whole were breathtaking and I really hope in the next instalment more is made of the connection between Summer and Venn, Jake's godfather and of the Shee themselves. It was extremely refreshing to have a boy as the main protagonist, Obsidian Mirror would appeal to anyone because it has 'fairies' they're not your everyday Tinkerbell type! What hooked me the most though was the secret revealed right at the end of the book, what a cliffhanger! Ms Fisher, I urge you to write quickly because I'm not sure I can wait patiently for the next book. I borrowed my copy from the local library but I think I will be buying a copy, I'm almost certain I will need to reread if/when book two is published.

Waiting On Wednesday #20

Waiting On Wednesday, where we put the spotlight on upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating, is hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine.

Last week we had the son, this week we have the father and oh my, you should have heard the scream I let out when I first read about this book!

Doctor Sleep (UK cover)

Doctor Sleep (US cover)

Doctor Sleep - Stephen King
ISBN (UK) - 978-1444761160
ISBN (US) - 978-1476727653
Publisher - Hodder & Stoughton (UK) Scribner (US)
Expected pub. date - UK/US September 24 2013

'Stephen King returns to the characters and territory of one of his most popular novels ever, The Shining, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance (the boy protagonist of The Shining) and the very special twelve-year-old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals.On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless—mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and spunky twelve-year-old Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the “steam” that children with the “shining” produce when they are slowly tortured to death.

Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father’s legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant “shining” power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes “Doctor Sleep.”

Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan’s own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra’s soul and survival. This is an epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of devoted readers of The Shining and satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon.' - Goodreads

As much as I'm looking forward to this I'm also slightly apprehensive. The Shining is one of my favorite King novels and you just can't help but worry that maybe it won't live up to the genius of the first book. I guess we'll find out in September...

What are you waiting for this week?

Top Ten Tuesday #2 - Books I Recommend The Most

 

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely people at The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Top Ten  Books I Recommend The Most although this will probably end up reading more like top ten authors I recommend!

Dreams Underfoot (Newford #1) - Charles de Lint

A Game Of Thrones (Song Of Ice & Fire #1) - George R R Martin

Daughter Of The Forest (Sevenwaters #1) - Juliet Marillier

Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury

The Weirdstone Of Brisingamen (Alderley Tales #1) - Alan Garner

Bitter Greens - Kate Forsyth

The Knife Of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking #1) - Patrick Ness

The Name Of The Wind (Kingkiller Chronicles #1) - Patrick Rothfuss

Stardust - Neil Gaiman

The Dark Is Rising Sequence - Susan Cooper

Honourable mentions go to

Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones

Once - James Herbert

The Shining - Stephen King

So, there's my Top 10... or Top 13 if you include the honourable mentions I included! I could have quite easily turned this into a top twenty list of books I try to make every one read but I missed out all the classics I normally try push on people along with several more fantasy, horror and SF authors that I read when I was little who, along with some mentioned above, are the authors that got me reading! I wanted to recommend Kate Forsyth's The Witches Of Eileanan but sadly they seem to be out of print at the moment. Instead I'm recommending Bitter Greens which I've only just started but is already a firm favorite!

Fairy Tale Giveaway Hop

Welcome to the Fairy Tale Giveaway Hop, hosted by I Am a Reader Not A Writer, The Book Rat and A Backwards Story! i absolutely adore fairy tales, always have done since I was tiny! I love reading the originals, the retellings and even books about fairy tales, lit crit & other academic books about the origins etc. This is the perfect giveaway for me to take part in as it means you get to choose from some of my favorite books! The book will come via the Book Depository so is open to anyone who lives somewhere they deliver to - check this list to see if your country is on it.

Here are the books you can choose from, some are the first book in a series but I'm quite happy to send other books in the same series if you already have the first one. If you have or don't want any of these then you may choose another title up to the value of $10 but it must be a fairy tale/retelling!



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Check out all of the other blogs taking part below for more chances to win, thanks for entering and good luck!

Alternatives to Google Reader

I have added a link to bloglovin over on the right hand side if you're looking for alternative ways to follow the Bookish Outsider, thanks to the demise of Google Reader!


If you can see gobbledygook below rather than a link just ignore it :)

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Stacking The Shelves #7 / In My Mailbox #17

In My Mailbox is a weekly event hosted by Kristi over at The Story Siren.  Stacking the Shelves is a weekly event hosted on Tynga's Reviews.  Here we can share what new books we've picked up this past week!

I only bought four books this week but it was my monthly library trip this week so it turned into a big week for new books :)

Library

The Blackhope Enigma - Teresa Flavin

Falling To Ash - Karen Mahoney

Broken Illusions - Ellie James

Mirror Mirror - Nancy Butcher

The Lost Girl - Sangu Mandana

This Dark Endeavour - Kenneth Oppel

Witch Hunt - Syd Moore

Surrender - Lee Nichols

Revenge - Yoko Ogawa

The Taker - Alma Katsu

The Reckoning - Alma Katsu

Bought

On The Edge - Ilona Andrews

Oz Reimagined - ed. John Joseph Adams

Strands Of Bronze & Gold - Jane Nickerson

Lover At Last - J R Ward (already read & impatiently waiting for the next one...)

What did you get this week?

Waiting On Wednesday #19

Waiting On Wednesday, where we put the spotlight on upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating, is hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine.

This week I have chosen NOS-4R2 by the amazing Joe Hill (also known as Joe King!) I've been a fan of his since I read Heart-Shaped Box many years ago and he once left a comment on my LibraryThing profile which I obviously have never deleted...

NOS-4R2 - Joe Hill
ISBN (UK) - 9780575130678 
Publisher - Gollancz
Exp. pub. date (UK) - May 30 2013
 
'Young Victoria McQueen has a gift for finding things: a lost bracelet, a treasured photograph, answers to unanswerable questions. All she has to do is ride her bike through the Shorter Way Bridge and she'll come out the other end wherever she needs to be . . . even if that's hundreds of miles away. Vic doesn't tell anyone about her unusual ability because she knows that no one would understand it. She doesn't understand it herself. And then she discovers she's not the only one with a special gift.

There are others . . . like Charlie Manx, who takes children for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the NOS4R2 vanity plate. Charlie drives his precious passengers away from all they've ever known: their families, their homes, even their own humanity. By the time they get where they're going - an astonishing secret place called Christmasland - they've changed, utterly. By the time they get out of the Wraith, they're truly Charlie's children; as unstoppable and insane as Manx himself.

Only one kid ever escaped Charlie Manx: a very lucky girl named Vic McQueen. But the end of that nightmare was just the beginning of another. Vic's first brush with Manx lit the fuse on a life-and-death battle of wills, her magic pitted against his . . . a battle that explodes a quarter century later. Because now Manx has taken Vic's own son. And Vic McQueen is going to get him back. Or die trying.' - Goodreads

I can't wait to read this one, it sounds deliciously creepy and only another 2 months to wait!

What are you waiting for this week?

2nd Annual Spring Cleaning Giveaway Hop

March 20th is the first day of spring, the perfect time to remedy our overflowing bookshelves! Up for grabs are the 7 books in the picture below, all of which have been read but are still in perfect condition. There will be 4 winners, each winning 1, 2 or 3 books. As I'm paying the postage on this one I will only send to countries that are found in the list of countries covered by the Book Depository! The giveaway runs from March 20th through to March 25th.



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Check out all of the other blogs taking part below for more chances to win, thanks for entering and good luck!