My Giveaway + Announcements

*My first foray into an Author Interview with Andrew Xia Fukuda is up! (Should I do more?)
*My first manga review for Natsume Yuujinchou V.1 - please let me know what you think

Sunday, November 15, 2009

In My Mailbox (13)

(Idea from The Story Siren)

So ninefly convinced me to do In My Mailbox, with a conversation that went something like this (albeit embellished, because I have a tendency to do so):
ME: But if I do In My Mailbox people are gonna discover my horrendous book shopping sprees and sometimes I don't have much to say about the books I read and what if people expect reviews -
NINEFLY: STOP WHINING AND JUST DO IT. YOU HAVE TOO LITTLE POSTS ON YOUR BLOG ANYWAYS.
ME: ... Fiiine. But I don't have to like it

Anyhow, the novels I bought this week (arranged with ninefly's help, because clearly I can't do anything on my own) er, I don't know how that random sticker got there? *is very messy person*:



Received: 0
Borrowed: 0
Bought: 13

Will be discussing novels in the order of the photo, from top to bottom, left to right. (Top Row: Hardcovers, Middle Row: Mass Market Paperbacks, Bottom Row: Trade Paperbacks)



THE HARDCOVERS

Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin by Tobias S. Buckell -
Carribean SFF/steampunk series!! I've read a bit of Crystal Rain before and while I liked what I saw, I never got around to finishing it, nor did I ever felt the urge to read beyond what I saw. Here's a thing you outta know about me though: I adore hardcovers. I adore cheap hardcovers even more. So when I saw these two books for $3.99 CDN* each, I just HAD to get it.

Eternal by Cynthia Leitich Smith - I first heard about this by Reading in Color. I'm pretty jaded on the whole supernatural vampire romance stuff, but I found out that our heroine was an Asian vampire (I'm about halfway through and she's actually half-Chinese half-Scottish, but w/e) and my curiosity was piqued. Also, the whole doomed romance feel of the story. I love my star-crossed lovers. ♥ Found the hardcover for $9.99, STEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAALLLLLL~

Cracker!: The Best Dog in Vietnam by Cynthia Kadohata - Okay, I don't really do animal stories, but I grabbed for this novel and forked over the $6.99 because I love love LOVE Cynthia Kadohata. For she wrote the brilliant novel called Weedflower and it was basically eternal devotion from thereafter. From the summary and the first chapter I read over, I get this feeling that there can be no happy ending for our darling dog Cracker, so I'll probably be a sobbing mess by the time I get to the end of the novel, but at least the journey and the writing will be magnificent. With Kadohata, we can never go wrong. =D

THE MASS MARKET PAPERBACKS

Kit's Wilderness by David Almond - This was totally one of my many childhood novel loves. I just had to own it, and it was only 2 bucks, so whatever~ Hopefully I'll be able to do this for Throwback Thursday.

The Midnight Road by Tom Piccirilli - HOMG A MYSTERY NOVEL THE WORLD'S GONNA END. Shocking, eh? (Let's just say I rarely touch the mystery/horror genre.) Honestly, I love Tom Piccirilli after Headstone City was handed to me last year (THANKS NINEFLY ♥). I just had to own a copy of his novels of my own. And it was like, $4.50, so yeah~ Long life secondhand books shopping. *_*

Warchild and Burndive by Karin Lowachee - Confession: When I saw this at the secondhand bookstore, I screamed. In fact, I screamed so loud that my two friends (ninefly and starstruck272) rushed over, probably thinking something died or I caused a mini disaster in the store, lol. Y'all have NO IDEA how long I've been looking for Karin Lowachee's stuff, and now I finally find it... for $4.95 EACH HOMG A;LSJDF;KLAJDF. *coughs* Erm, anyhow, I first heard of Lowachee from Sarah Rees Brennan, with Warchild highly recommended it in her Sci-Fi novel post, and I really wanted to use a Lowachee novel for the 50 books by POC challenge. But I couldn't find it ANYWHERE. The big chain bookstores don't order them anymore, I had no credit card to shop online, independent stores turned up with no results and even secondhand stores failed me... Until now. But in any case, I'm seriously happy about this find and FYI, when my friends flipped through the novel and checked the summary, they all thought it sounded fabulous and insisted I must lend it when I'm done. =D See? They agreed with my find aka I'm totally not crazy!!

I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier - Another childhood novel! This book seriously messed with my head when I was a kid, and I'm looking forward to see how I'd react to it after all these years. (Another book for Throwback Thursday!) Got it for $2.99, btw.

THE TRADE PAPERBACKS:

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale - A Hale novel for $3.95!! Yeah, so I really enjoyed Book of a Thousand Days (see review) and I thought I'd check out more Hale stuff. *is excited* =D

Salt Fish Girl by Larissa Lai - HOMG I LOVED THIS NOVEL. READ IT LAST YEAR AND I COULDN'T STOP GIBBERING ABOUT IT FOR WEEKS. Unfortunately, the trade paperback was like, 25 bucks, and I could never afford it, but I found it at a secondhand bookstore for SEVEN BUCKS W00T!! Anyhow it has girls who stink of durian, bank jobs done through video games, past mixing into the future as a disease and retellings of the Chinese creation myth and OH MY HEART, SO MUCH LOVE. I'm sooooooooo happy I finally own a copy so that I can start shoving this novel at people's faces

Lilith's Brood by Octavia E. Butler - Um, what can I say? It's Octavia E. Butler, of course I had to buy it. If you haven't heard of this title before, this may be because this is a compilation of Octavia Butler's three novels Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago. Got it for $6.99.

A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Elliott - The only book here I bought for the full price. ^^; It was totally worth it, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TO ALL. I actually already finished reading it and a review will be up sometime today or tomorrow. For now I'll just say, AMAZING NOVEL AND JUDAH X GENNA FOREVAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR~~~~ I don't care if I'm the only one who feels this way OTP IS OTP And am moping at the lack of sequel in my hands.

So, here's my IMM post. (I think I spent about 60+ bucks on books this week??!?!!?! *is bricked*) Feel free to tell me all the new books y'all got your hands on. =D

* Just assume all the prices I name are in CDN from here onwards. =D

7 comments:

Tom Piccirilli said...

Thanks for the generous comments on HEADSTONE CITY. Hope you dig THE MIDNIGHT ROAD as well. (My latest SHADOW SEASON just hit bookstore shelves). Much appreciated--

the story siren said...

ha! join the club.... Hi, I'm Kristi... I'm addicted to buying books. hope you enjoy these! happy reading!

MissA said...

Your a Judah fan? What?! *is flabbergasted* I like him too actually, Paul's just 100x better :D I'm very eager for your review now.
Warchild sounds interesting, I'll keep my eye out for it. And I'm determined to read ONE book at least by Octavia Butler so I can fully understand the hype.
I'm jealous that all these indie bookstores are near you, there's only one near me and it's books are definitely older!

ninefly said...

yay you posted! it's not so bad see? 8Dv
I'm actually very jealous that you have so many childhood books you remember, most of the ones I've read I'd already forgotten =3=
will be leeching off you during the break ♥
oh, and I'll lend you Cold Spot too...I'm gonna go look for the rest of the series at the bookstores near me, wish me luck =3

(also, I caught the bus like, 5 min after it was supposed to leave XDDDD;)

yuan said...

@ Tom Piccirilli, I'm really looking forward to reading Midnight Road. =D And yay for new release! Will definitely keep Shadowed Summer in mind when I hit the bookstore again. =D

@ Kristi - (Um, I hope I can call you Kristi? ^^; ) lol book shopping is THE BEST. ♥

@ MissAttitude - Judah is THE BEST. *coughs* But actually, Paul and Judah are rather different and have very distinct appeals that are separate from one another... But I just love the Judah/Genna couple. *_* I've actually tried Butler's Fledgling novel before and didn't like it as much as I wish I did. (Ideas are interesting but never got attached to the characters.) However, i really really enjoyed the first bit of Kindred before I had to return it back to the library, so this is my second real stab at Butler lit, lulz.
lol the indie stores are all at downtown core though, so I have to commute some ways to get there... But once I'm there I can shop all day, lol.

@ ninefly - Time will tell if I regret this decision. =P lol I just have a knack at remembering books by cover and memorize author's names so it's easier for me to navigate the shelves. (You're speaking to the girl who aced all those Shakespeare lines test without ever studying)
Eeeeeeeeeee BREAK!! *is excited* Better not forget Cold Spot, lol. (jks jks)
YAY YOU CAUGHT IT!! I was worried.
Will be emailing you soon. ♥

Rebecca said...

Great books you got this week. I really want to read Eternal. Hope you enjoy reading all your books.

the story siren said...

ha! yes you can call me Kristi!