New Booksies (11)

Hal Junior: The Missing Case by Haynes

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

Aussie books!

Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson

I am back in Australia for a bit and, as promised, I am starting to amass a pile of Aussie books. Whoo!

First up, I bought the second Hal Junior book, The Missing Case by Simon Haynes just before I left because, well, that was when it was released, but shh, it totally counts as being bought here. I mean, it’s an ebook, so, er, something.

Then I bought City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare, because I needed something easy to read to get through the jet-lag (two red-eye flights in a row: not recommended). I’ve actually been reading Existence by David Brin (expect the review up soonish) but it’s not that kind of book that works well when you’re tired or quickly in a few sittings so it’s been slow progress.

Then I bought a small pile of Aussie-authored books in a real life Australian bookshop (Dymocks). From left to right in the photo:

• Diamond Eyes by AA Bell. I’ve also ordered in the sequel, Hindsight, which wasn’t in store.
• Winter Be My Shield by Jo Spurrier of which I received and ARC and have already read and reviewed it. But I wanted to buy a paper copy because I enjoyed it and want to own the whole set in pretty on my shelf.
• Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan.

Hubby bought the boxed set of the Mistborn trilogy which we happened upon in QBD. Partly because he likes the series (originally he read them from the library) and partly due to my encouragement so I could read books 2 and 3 (review of book 1 here). And they’re included here because, as I’ve mentioned previously, all our books revolve around me ;-p

Finally, Beyond Binary, an anthology of genderqueer stories, was waiting for me in Australia when I arrived. I won it from a Galactic Suburbia Twitter competition a month or two ago. Also my cover is slightly different because it is an ARC.

Yay books!

New Booksies (9)

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Dearly, Beloved by Lia Habel

When You Wish Upon a Rat

Another small haul this time.

I bought on, erm, read-three-buy-two credit: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. I have already read and reviewed it. It totally didn’t count as cheating though because hubby allowed it; we were in a shop and needed to make up some spending to get a loyalty stamp. Yes. It’s a perfectly good excuse. As things stand now, I need to read two more books before I can buy another (and right now, it’s a toss up between the next Mortal Instruments book and the next Mistborn book).

From Netgalley I received Dearly, Beloved by Lia Habel. The ARC has a boring place-holder cover so instead of posting that I’ve put what I think is the US cover up there. I haven’t read a zombie romance before or, thinking about it, any books with sympathetic zombies, so this should be interesting.

Also from Netgalley I received When You Wish Upon a Rat by Aussie author Maureen Mccarthy. It’s actually for the US release of the book. The Australian edition was called Careful What You Wish For and because I couldn’t find a non-thumbnail version of the US cover (it’s not out until September), I’ve included the Aussie one in the images above. See thumbnail on the right for a preview of the US cover.

Australian Women Writers Fantasy/Miscellaneous Challenge - Round Up 2

I have read my second ten books for my fantasy/misc genre Aussie Women Writers Challenge (as distinct to the SF specific one) which means, it’s time to post a little about them. Genre-wise, this was another mixed bunch.

First, the list:

1. Secret Ones by Nicole Murphy (review)
2. Power Unbound by Nicole Murphy (review)
3. Ember and Ash by Pamela Freeman (review)
4. Mercy by Rebecca Lim (review)
5. Shift by Em Bailey (review)
6. Destiny of the Light by Louise Cousack (review)
7. The Dark Divide by Jennifer Fallon (review)
8. Winter Be My Shield by Jo Spurrier (review)
9. Slights by Kaaron Warren (review)
10. Suited by Jo Anderton

First there was paranormal romance in the form of Nicole Murphy’s first two Dream of Asarlai trilogy books. Fun reads and I look forward to getting my hands on the third book in a few weeks.

Then there was quite a bit of big fat fantasy (aka BFF; I don’t want to use more loaded terms like “high fantasy” or “traditional fantasy”): Ember and Ash by Pamela Anderson, which went on to win an Aurealis, Destiny of the Light by Louise Cusack, set mostly in a world with no animals, The Dark Divide by Jennier Fallon, which is a little bit different since parts of it are set at the turn of the real world millennium but then none of these fantasy books are generic, and Winter Be My Shield by Jo Spurrier, a debut fantasy from Voyager which will be out in about a week — watch for the review on the weekend but review spoiler: I loved it.

Then two YA books: Shift by Em Bailey (interview link) which is one of my favourite books of the year, and Mercy by Rebecca Lim, about an angel skipping through different people’s bodies. They were quite different to each other and both felt different to the many US-authored YA books I’ve read this year.

Slights by Kaaron Warren is the only horror book I’ve read this year or, now that I come to think about it, in a while. (Since The Intruders by Michael Marshall book, probably.) Anyway, it’s one that’s stuck with me quite strongly.

And finally, there’s Suited by Jo Anderton which isn’t out for about a month so no review yet. I could’ve lumped it in with the BFFs but it’s a little bit steampunky in it’s setting so it gets it’s own subgenre of fantasy. It’s the conclusion to Debris and well worth the wait.

So, what have you guys been reading?

New Booksies (7)

It’s that slightly irregular time again when I post pictures of books

From Netgalley I got ARCs of:

• Blackwood by Gwenda Bond from Strange Chemistry, the new imprint of Angry Robot


• Suited by Jo Anderton, the sequel to Debris (and coincidentally from Angry Robot). One I’ll probably also be purchasing when it’s officially released.

And my achievement unlocked purchase for finishing three books was:

• Red Glove by Holly Black, the sequel to White Cat which I read and reviewed quite recently. My ebook has the slightly less nice but actually quite cool when you look closely US (paperback?) cover, but also includes another (originally hardback?) cover when you turn the page with all the pictures/blurb you’d expect on the hardcover flapjacket. I was surprised. I’m wondering if other US versions of the ebook (mine’s iTunes) are similar? That said, I still like the UK/Aus covers more, especially from a distance.

Actually, I earned two book purchases (for finishing six books), but the other was a paper book from Book Depository, which hasn’t arrived yet, so it’ll be included in a future New Booksies.

New Booksies (6)

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

The Bewitching Tale of Stormy Gale

Existence by David Brin

Solace & Grief by Foz Meadows

So over the past week or so, I have continued to acquire books, despite the buying cap I have in place. And you know what? I totally didn’t cheat.

From Netgalley I got ARCs of:

• The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa (already read, review coming very soon)
• The Bewitching Tale of Stormy Gale by Christine Bell (also read, review coming at the end of the month)
• Existence by David Brin (looks interesting and I enjoyed Kil’n People also by Brin)

And my achievement unlocked purchase for reading three books (Winter Be My Shield, Thumped and The Bewitching Tale of Stormy Gale) is

• Solace & Grief by Foz Meadows (which I am looking forward to)

I actually angsted a bit over which book to buy since the next few books I plan to read are, erm, already planned and in my possession but in the end I decided this was a good choice because I’ve been meaning to read some Foz Meadows for a while, and actually buying a book should theoretically mean that time comes sooner.

Yay, books.