Book Haul #46

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly event hosted on Tynga's Reviews and Letterbox Love is a UK edition hosted by Narratively Speaking. Here we can share what new books we've picked up this past week. There are also lots of other 'book haul' memes out there for you to choose from!

This has been a very strange week for me, I've been to two author signings - Linwood Barclay and Julia Donaldson (yes, her of The Gruffalo book!) and had a fab time at my sister's but hanging over both our heads is the fact that on Monday it will be one year since our wonderful mummy passed away, seven weeks after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer :( I'm not quite sure what to do with myself and that includes feeling totally ambivalent about reading & blogging. Coming on top of my RA flaring has made for a quiet blog I know but I promise things will improve soon!

It's been a quiet week book-wise too, I'm off to BristolCon in a couple of weeks so I know I'll be buying books to get signed! I'm trying to be good... but that did mean I went a bit nuts on Edelweiss!

Bought

The Farm - Emily McKay

A Tap On The Window - Linwood Barclay

Westward Weird - ed. Martin Greenberg

Some Quiet Place - Kelsey Sutton

Edelweiss

Cruel Beauty - Rosamund Hodge

All That Glows - Ryan Graudin

Death Sworn - Leah Cypess

Sea of Shadows - Kelley Armstrong

What did you get this week?

Waiting On Wednesday #46 - The Glass Casket

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's choice is -

The Glass Casket - McCormick Templeman @Twitter
ISBN - 9780385743457
Publisher - Delacorte Press
Expected release date - February 11th 2014
Find - Goodreads/Book Depository

'Death hasn’t visited Rowan Rose since it took her mother when Rowan was only a little girl. But that changes one bleak morning, when five horses and their riders thunder into her village and through the forest, disappearing into the hills. Days later, the riders’ bodies are found, and though no one can say for certain what happened in their final hours, their remains prove that whatever it was must have been brutal.

Rowan’s village was once a tranquil place, but now things have changed. Something has followed the path those riders made and has come down from the hills, through the forest, and into the village. Beast or man, it has brought death to Rowan’s door once again.

Only this time, its appetite is insatiable.' - Goodreads

Fairy tale retelling. No need to say anything else except I would like this now please. Yet another long wait until 2014...

Top Ten Tuesday #26 - Best/Worst Series Enders

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely people at The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic is -

Top Ten Best/Worst Series Enders

This week's Top Ten post nearly didn't happen! I decided to liven up everybody's Monday and ended up being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance after passing out! I never do things by halves... I ended up getting a clean bill of health - sort of - but I've got to see my doctor next week and schedule some tests. Fingers crossed it's nothing worth talking about! Anyway, that's why my post is so late today and why nothing went up yesterday - apologies folks!

This topic was weird for me as I must have started over a hundred different series and only finished a handful, mostly ones listed here. I've split them into three different categories - worst, indifferent and best.

Worst - I demand a re-write!

Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer

The Summer Garden - Paullina Simons

Indifferent - Didn't love the ending, didn't hate it either...

Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins

Gone - Lisa McMann

The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman

Best - Nearly perfect endings!

Last Sacrifice - Richelle Mead

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows - J K Rowling

If I Should Die - Amy Plum

Monsters of Men - Patrick Ness

The Iron Knight - Julie Kagawa

What's on your list? I'm sure I've forgotten a series or two, I can't believe those are among the only ones I've finished!

Book Haul #45

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly event hosted on Tynga's Reviews and Letterbox Love is a UK edition hosted by Narratively Speaking. Here we can share what new books we've picked up this past week. There are also lots of other 'book haul' memes out there for you to choose from!

A much better week this week health-wise along with a short visit to my sister for babysitting duties have got me feeling much better. I was even well enough to go see a gig I had tickets for with Seth Lakeman, Lisbee Stainton & Winter Mountain which was completely amazing! And the fun doesn't stop there, tomorrow I'm off to Bath to see Patrick Ness (again) and Sarah J Maas - more about that next week :) It was a quiet week started off as a quiet week for books, just a couple - very restrained, which descended into an 'I'm sure I didn't order/request these books' week... It was a very exciting week though as Titan have finally re-released the second book in the Blood Wine Sequence, A Dance In Blood Velvet by Freda Warrington. I do have a copy already but it's a very dilapidated paperback copy which will probably fall apart if opened again and up until now you were lucky if you found it used for under $100!

Bought

Fearsome Dreamer - Laure Eve

A Dance In Blood Velvet - Freda Warrington

Premeditated - Josin L McQuein

Discount Armageddon - Seanan McGuire

Midnight Blue-Light Special - Seanan McGuire

The Shadow Society - Marie Rutkoski

From Strange Chemistry

Cracked - Eliza Crewe

 From Edelweiss/Netgalley

Dark Duets - ed. Christopher Golden

The Drowned Forest - Kristopher Reisz

What did you get this week?

Waiting on Wednesday #45 - The Winner's Curse

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's choice is -

The Winner's Curse - Marie Rutkowski
ISBN - 9780374384678
Publisher - Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Expected release date - March 4th 2014
Find - Book Depository/Goodreads

'Winning what you want may cost you everything you love

As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions. One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin. But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined. Set in a richly imagined new world, The Winner’s Curse is a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart.' - Goodreads

I will be honest and admit that it's mostly the cover that drew me to The Winner's Curse first but having read the synopsis I was hooked and now have a very long wait!

What are you waiting for? 

Top Ten Tuesday #25 - Book Turn-Offs

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely people at The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic is -

Top Ten Book Turn-Offs

This is yet another TTT topic that I struggled with. As soon as I read what it was this week I thought of one and then my mind went blank. Anyway, I persevered and here's what I managed to cobble together eventually...

1. Insta-Love

Twilight - Stephenie Meyer

2. Love Triangles

Either pick one person to be in love with or don't bother, not everyone in the universe is in love with two or more people at a time.

3. Stupid Nicknames

Snookums, need I say any more?

4. Absentee Parents

5. Abusive Boyfriends

Just no...

6. Cheating

And no to this too, it may work out in books and the hero/heroine gets their boy/gal but it never ends well in real life so don't think it's alright to cheat.


7. Whiny female characters who don't realize how pretty/smart/amazing/insert word of choice they are...

 *cough* Bella Swan

8. Info Dumping

If I want to learn in-depth information about something I'll read about it - in a non-fiction book...

9. Prolonged Angst

Prolong the grief and all you're doing is increasing the chances of your book being thrown across the room!


10. "If you loved _____ then you'll love _____" or "For fans of _____"

This drives me crazy and sometimes is enough to make me NOT pick up whatever book has that stamped across the front! We all know that Julie Kagawa's books are nothing like Stephenie Meyer's books so why would I love a book about fairies if I want to read more with vampires...

Random Reads #5 - Greywalker

Random Reads is a monthly meme hosted by Sarah at I’m Loving Books.  This feature is to get us reading a random book within the month that is in our TBR stack.

Random Reads is a meme where we pick a random book from our shelf to read within the month. Feel free to do more than one per month, but since a lot of people have a lot of books to read each month, only one is “required” for the meme.

Want to join in on Random Reads?

It’s easy…

1. If you’re on Goodreads enable sorting to your to-read shelf (you should see numbers next to each book now).
2. Go to Random.org and type in the Min as 1 and the Max as how many ever books are on your to-read shelf.
3. Scroll down to the book matching the number Random.org picks.
4. Link up to your Random Reads post (below). If you choose more than one book per month, be sure to put a number by your name in the list so it doesn’t look like a duplicate.
5. Read and be merry!

This month Random chose number 643 which is

Greywalker - Kat Richardson

This has been on my shelf since January 1st 2011 so counts towards my OTS challenge which I'm definitely giving up on as there's no way I'm going to reach anywhere between 130 & 200 books from my shelves by the end of the year! This is one that I'm looking forward to reading and don't forget to look out for my review during September. Remember to pop over to I'm Loving Books if you want to join in!

Reviews for August and September Random Reads will be up soon! I've had to completely rewrite my review of Starling as it got eaten by blog trolls :) Both that and my review of Still Waters will definitely be up this month and who knows, my review of Greywalker could well appear early too!