Sunday, October 18, 2009

Shiny New Books

I've decided to join in with the book blogosphere trend of posting books bought and received on a weekly basis (unless I did not happen to buy or receive books that week). So every Sunday I'm going to put up new additions to the TBR pile just for the fun of it and since I know many of you, like me, probably enjoy seeing books that they may not have noticed before. I've always avoided these posts since I was afraid I'd just bore everyone, but personally I like reading the "what I received this week" posts. And you can always ignore them if you find them dull. Or just look at the shiny covers.

Since this is the first time, I'm going to go back two weeks.


Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

John is a huge Discworld fan, and I enjoy the series as well so when we found it on Amazon for $14, we just had to order it. He's already read it and really liked it, but due to grad school mayhem, I'm not sure when/if he'll get a chance to review it. And I'm not sure when I'll get around to reading it, but there is a review over at Graeme's Fantasy Book Review.





Principles of Angels by Jaine Fenn


You can't order from Amazon without getting free shipping (really, it's a rule - at least I abide by it like my life depends on it) so I ordered this one along with the new Discworld. I can't remember exactly where I heard about it, but I've heard some good things about it and am considering reading this one when I do my Sci Fi reading month at some point (because I have not read nearly enough science fiction lately, especially compared to last year).





Whisper of Death by Christopher Pike


This one was sent to me by Thea of The Book Smugglers since we were discussing Halloween-related books and she suggested I try one of her old favorites. Even though I'd never read a Christopher Pike book in my life, it was a trip down memory lane. The cover said it was $3.50! Ah, how sweet it is to remember the day when you could purchase brand new books for that little. And it has those order forms at the back of books that I hadn't seen since I was a kid. This is the only one on this list I've actually read - it was short and I read it all yesterday afternoon.





Bitter Night by Diana Pharoah Francis

I received this in the mail from the publisher yesterday. This new urban fantasy will be out on October 27. I read another book by this author (The Cipher) and didn't really like it but this had blurbs from both Patricia Briggs and Ann Aguirre, so I'll give it a try. Plus I read this review of it over at Book Love Affair a while ago and was wondering if it might be worth trying anyway. And the word Armageddon caught my eye.

10 comments:

Thea said...

....dare I ask what you thought of WHISPER OF DEATH??? *bites nails*

Ahh, the old days when books were cheap, and you could send those order forms in.

Also, yay for the Discworld, and Jaine Fenn! I've only read her second book in this series (the not-too-shabby CONSORTS OF HEAVEN), but I've heard good things about PRINCIPLES OF ANGELS too.

And I like the new feature :) It's always nice to see what books are piling on the good ol' TBR...

Donna said...

Bitter Night looks interesting though I haven't read anything by Diana Pharoah Francis.

Enjoy your new reads!

Kristen said...

Thea - I didn't find Whisper of Death that scary at all, although it probably helped that I read it in the middle of the afternoon while it was still bright and sunny out. If it was late at night and I was all alone and it was eerily quiet, I probably would have been freaking out. ;)

Once it got past all the teenage angst toward the beginning, it was a page turner. And wow, that was some twisted ending. I'm glad it didn't have a cop out ending; I was worried it would be for a moment.

Every once in a while I remember getting books for $2.75. Those were all YA/kid's books, but even now you can't find new children's books for anywhere near that cheap.

I didn't know you were a Discworld fan too! John's been reading them for a while and eventually he got me into reading them too. I ended up reading through all of them.

Just looked up your review of Consorts of Heaven and I do remember reading it now. I also remember being curious about the series after reading it so that must be where I heard about it.

And I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who likes the TBR pile features. :) I've been considering doing it for a few weeks now and finally decided to just go ahead and do it.

Kristen said...

Donna - Thanks, I'm looking forward to reading them all! Bitter Night does look interesting and I'm hoping it will be more to my taste than The Cipher was.

Benjamin said...

Hi Kristen. I too am a Discworld fan. I've only read three so far: Mort, Sourcery, and Wyrd Sisters. I have what, thirty odd more to go? It'll take forever! :P

Nephtis said...

I heard mixed things about Jaine Fenn. I'm always on the lookout for new female scifi writers, but the negative feedback has held me away so far.

Christopher Pike! I read and totally adored a series of books about a blonde vampire Sita. And voia - the first 3 books together in one:
http://www.amazon.com/Thirst-No-Vampire-Black-Blood/dp/1416983082

Young adult, but really good, the feel and atmosphere that they get across - love, loss, loneliness, Sita's strength. Now I really want to buy it myself.

orannia said...

I'm adding another vote to liking the 'What I received this week' posts *grin* You never know what you may find lurking in them :)

Kristen said...

Benjamin - Somewhere around 30 sounds about right. At least they're short books! And you still have a lot of the really good ones left to read like Small Gods.

Nephtis - I like to find new female scifi/fantasy writers too so I figured Jaine Fenn was worth a try. Now I hope it's good.

Thanks for the link to the Christopher Pike books you liked! As usual, I couldn't resist a book that you've recommended and I've added the first volume to the wishlist.

Orannia - Thanks, glad to see someone else likes the new feature!

Tia Nevitt said...

Hah! I got BITTER NIGHT too. Not sure if it's for me, but I'm trying to branch out a bit.

Kristen said...

Tia - I've been trying to branch out as well. At the moment, I think I'm starting to get a bit urban fantasied out, though, so Bitter Night will probably wait a bit (especially since it just randomly showed up in my mailbox).