Stacking the Shelves: Week Eight is Great

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly Saturday book meme from Tynga's Reviews, all about sharing the books you've added to your shelves over the course of the week.

Thank goodness I've actually been getting some reading done lately... mainly because I've realized that my attendance record in my Psych lectures has been improving, as long as I remember to bring my Kindle to class with me! Aren't you proud, Dad? 

And yet, most of my purchases this past week haven't been on my Kindle, thanks to a very forgiving Mom and an hour spent wandering around inside my favorite secondhand bookstore in Tacoma, King's Books! Nine new novels, all for under $50 (I'm a very thrifty person; Lord knows my bookish habits are expensive). And I already know that this haul is going to be a light one, as opposed to next week's, when I take a trip down to Portland, OR... Powell's, HERE I COME. 

FROM KING'S BOOKS

Gregory Macguire's Wicked

Steve Martin's An Object of Beauty

Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Angel's Game

Suzanne Young's The Program

Nurakami's Norwegian Wood

Joseph J. Ellis' Founding Fathers: The Revolutionary Generation

The Second Common Reader: Virginia Woolf

The Viking Portable Library: D. H. Lawrence

Agatha Chritie's The Hollow

FOR KINDLE

Ania Ahlborn's The Neighbors

Adelle Waldman's New Year's: Nathaniel P. As Seen Through the Eyes of His Friend Aurit

What did you stack your shelves with this week?

Stacking the Shelves: Cram Sesh

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly Saturday book meme from Tynga's Reviews, all about sharing the books you've added to your shelves over the course of the week.

I'm now beginning to reach the impass this week where even I'm starting to get annoyed with myself about how much I complain about how busy I am. I think it's mainly because now, I feel like it's just wasted air that I could rather be using to uncompact my schedule. Don't know if that's happening anytime soon, though. Which is why, of course, I decided to go on a bit of a book impulse binge this week...

Stress gives me acid reflux, and acid reflux makes me stressed. Books are really the only means of fighting it; it's a kind of basic decision to make at this point, really. So, in the scant amounts of free time this week, I purchased the following pain releivers:

Smart Girls Get What They Want by Sarah Strohmeyer

Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross

The One (The Selection) by Kiera Cass - FINISHED

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge - CURRENTLY READING

Clearly the path to heaven is paved with fairy tale adaptations. Also, I figured I'd put in those last two addendums for a little more clarity about how I'm really only a danger to myself, in terms of stress. And yes, the fact that the cover layout couldn't all fit neatly on one line DID give me more of it. 

What are you stacking your shelves with this week?

Stacking the Shelves: I'm Halfway Gone

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly Saturday book meme from Tynga's Reviews, all about sharing the books you've added to your shelves over the course of the week.

Quelle surprise, it's Week 5, I'm a little bit over a month out from summer, sunshine, and relative freedom, and I'm stressed out of my mind. Not only is it the ever-increasing workload and my ever-diminishing motivation to do any of it, but also the sunshine, the promise of better work that I can work out for myself, the buzz around our sorority of the approaching Recruitment season, and the excitement of The Cheerleader's senior year of high school and all it's accompanying excitement. 

So, naturally, instead of doing absolutely anything I was supposed to do on Thursday - I may or may not have taken the unnatural 85 degree Seattle weather to skip my classes and lay out on the lawn all day, oops! -  I decided to purchase a couple of books instead. (Don't worry, Dad, they were all about $1.99 each, so no major wallet burn here!) 

Xenophobia, Peter Cawdron

 The Shoemaker's Wife, Adriana Trigiani

           

The Perfume Collector: A Novel, Kathleen                                               Tessaro

                 The Orchardist, Amanda Caplin

                           Serena, Ron Rash

       All the Summer Girls: A Novel, Meg Donohue

                 Vintage: A Novel, Susan Gloss 

Stacking the Shelves: It's Only Week Four

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly Saturday book meme from Tynga's Reviews, all about sharing the books you've added to your shelves over the course of the week.

It should come as no such surprise that I have, yet again, fallen into the gaping pit of indecisions, fear, and anxiety that comes customary to the college experience... and it's only Week Four. Due to the impending tidal wave of projects waiting to ambush me at any moment in virtually all of my classes, and time dedicated to things like my sorority, Daffodil, and the fact that my sister, The Cheerleader, is not only in the Spring of her senior year, but that I'm attempting to desperately woo her to Sigma Kappa as much as possible, I'm swamped with various projects that all demand my attention. 

Needless to say, a particular brand of retail therapy was much in order. While I would rather spend my time and money purchasing paperback, there were a couple of deals on Kindle this week that were just too good to pass up, especially due to the fact that leaving the house would entail putting on what my roommates and I have nicknamed "real-people pants," and that just doesn't sound like a good deal for me right now. 

The Spectacular Now, Tim Tharp

A novel recently adapted for the major cinema crowd with Shailene Woodley and Miles Teller at the helm, The Spectacular Now is a contemporary with a warm and comedic teen romance that carries all the weight that naive youth and its first brushes with reality entails. 

If I Stay, Gayle Forman 

Yet another teen-romance-with-heft with ties to the silver screen - the movie adaptation is set to premiere August 22nd, starring Chloe Grace Moretz and Jamie Blackley - this book follows a young girl's decisions, fluttering between life and death, basically posing the question in the title of the novel itself. (Recommended by one of my best dude friends, so I feel like that bears witness.) 

Jellicoe Road, Melina Marchetta

Damn, I'm killing it on the teen dramas today, and I'm only just now starting to recognize it. I'm not even going to bother glossing over the plot, because not only is it emotionally complex and unable to be summarized in just a sentence, but its popularity as a novel ensures that others would be much better at explaining it than I. 

So, there's my haul. What're you stacking your shelves with this week?

Stacking the Shelves: My Why-I-Probably-Worry-Most-Librarians Haul

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly Saturday book meme from Tynga's Reviews, all about sharing the books you've added to your shelves over the course of the week.

Well, after the rather stunning amount of sanity preserved over yet another single-yet-no-less-awesome Valentine's Day, you'd think I'd be a little bit tuckered out, but no. I am charging into the coming three day weekend guns drawn, and ready to do some serious butt-kicking. I've got work to do, and seeing as though it's now Week Six of the quarter, a limited amount of time to do it! Still, that's not going to stop me from getting my reading done, too, and I think that my book haul for this week definitely proves that. 

FOR REVIEW

The Ballad of a Small Player: A Novel by Lawrence Osborne
Short, but definitely not simple, novel provided by Hogarth, about a mentally-debilitating poker addict, set to debut in April.

FROM THE LIBRARY 

(My younger sister, The Ballerina, was with me at the time, and actually felt the need to apologize to the young, cute librarian working the front desk that I was "stealing all his books." He felt the need to respond, "I'm sure she's only borrowing them." 

Also, I should probably add, I've already finished four of these... and two of them were yesterday. I had a very successful Valentine's Day, in the least likely sense of association with the holiday.) 

Bewitching by Alex Flinn
Alex Flinn is the queen of modern-day fairy tale adaptations, and I loved Beastly, so this companion, involving the return of Kendra, the witch who cursed Kyle Kingsbury in the first place, to meddle in the life of another teenager, looks like a fun one.

Wentworth Hall by Abby Grahame
Supposedly the Anna-Godberson-esque answer for young adult fiction to the success of Downton Abbey. Alright, you've piqued my interest.

Joyland by Stephen King
My man, Stephen King. I so look forward to scaring the daylights out of myself with this. (And yes, I'm a jealous brat, because while I had been staring at this book on the shelf for some time, the reason I actually picked it up was because my Dad started staring, too!)

Fire with Fire (Burn for Burn #2) by Jenny Han
An eagerly anticipated sequel to a novel I read over the summer. 

Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard
There's definitely something to be said by judging people by those they associate with, and this lady is bestest besties with S. J. Maas, who I basically think in the most brilliant mind in the YA game today, so, there's that.

Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen
Heard a LOT of good things, and you know, who could ever say no to that cover? #ClosetCoverSlutProblems

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Once again, heard a lot of good things, but this one's got Nazis, and apparently, from what I've been told about it, I'm going to be doing a lot of crying.

The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker
Magic. Alternate universes. Dashing gentlemen. Fights for survival. Comparisons to Lev Grossman's The Magicians and Deborah Harkness' Discovery of Witches. And, you know... pretty cover. (Damn it.)

Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci 

I saw the named Holly Black peering at me from the shelves, so I followed it. That hasn't ever really steered me wrong before.

SO, what's your haul for this week? 

Stacking the Shelves: The Mid-Quarter Slump Haul

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly Saturday book meme from Tynga's Reviews, all about sharing the books you've added to your shelves over the course of the week.

Well, we've won a Super Bowl, and braved below-freezing weather, and now, we've managed to survive half of Winter Quarter, up here in Seattle, and the effect of all of this on my psychological stability is manifesting itself in late nights, little free time, and at least one additional cup of tea every day. Despite the fact that all of the cogs turning in my life right now are leaving me with little opportunity for my own favored brand of escapism, I'm still on the lookout for new material, and thankfully, I'm still able to find it. Here's what I managed to find this week! 

FOR MY KINDLE

Pivot Point by Kasie West
I love following book bloggers on Twitter for many, many reasons, one of which is their ability to alert me to super cool deals on Amazon, including this hot YA title for only $1.99.

City of Mirrors (A Diana Poole Thriller) by Melodie Johnson Howe
A sophisticated and stylized Hollywood-set drama, involving aging starlet Diana Poole and the recently-discovered-deceased female lead of her new movie. Sounds like a cute, clipped thriller, and it's written by someone who worked in Hollywood, herself.

Real Happy Family: A Novel by Caeli Wolfson Widger
One of the Kindle First novels for February, this novel promises some really interesting concepts: flawed characters, a tumultuous family dynamic, and the precarious glitter of modern-day fame.

FROM VARIOUS FAMILY MEMBERS

Blasphemy by Sherman Alexie (from Dad)
Growing up in Washington, especially next door to Puyallup, you gain a pretty good appreciation for Native American culture, and after a junior year reading assignment for The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, that included becoming a huge fan of Sherman Alexie as well.

Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton (from Mom)
Yeah, it's more of a coffee table book than an actual book, but I'm a huge fan of this photojournalism project, and I'm happy to support it, so when my mom told me she got it from a friend from work, I snapped up the chance to have a go at it first.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (from my sister)
My younger sister, The Ballerina, decided to start reading Rainbow Rowell before I was able to make that decision for myself, and now we're both fans. So now that she and her other middle school friends have all passed this copy around, her older sister finally gets a crack at it.

What's in your haul this week?

Stacking the Shelves: The Why-I-Can't-Be-Trusted-In-A-Bookstore Haul

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly Saturday book meme from Tynga's Reviews, all about sharing the books you've added to your shelves over the course of the week.

Well, we had a three day weekend for MLK Day, so I decided to return home for the weekend, seeking some R and R... and in spectacular Savannah fashion, I saw the opportunity to go back to King's Books, and took it. What resulted was almost an hour spent holding my mother and sister hostage within the bookstore while I aimlessly browsed for whatever titles suited my fancy in every nook and cranny (including a science fiction and fantasy section I had never before encountered, oooohh). Me at my worst: after having noticed the kid sister wasn't looking for her own books anymore, I assigned her to scout out specific authors in other sections, and report back to me on what works were there available, while I was still looking on my own. It's not something I'm proud of, but just look at the goodies that came out of it! 

FROM KING'S BOOKS

Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Just in case any of you guys like watching a high speed bandwagon with me attempting to throw myself at it as hard as I possibly can, you've got that to look forward to.

Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford
The incomparable Jamie Ford - whose first novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, broke my heart and opened my eyes to more of Seattle's history - has got another book out, and it's also about Seattle. And opera. And it's Depression-era. So, go, Jamie, go!

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
You've just got to give props for a kick-ass cover... this futuristic novel comes highly recommended and has a Kiera-Knightley-and-Carey-Mulligan-helmed motion picture to its name, and apparently packs one hell of a plot twist.

The Keep by Jennifer Egan
Jennifer Egan is my fiction-writing-lady-crush. I said last year that her award-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad was one of my absolute favorite novels and I'm disappointed to say that I haven't read more of her work yet. I originally sought out Look at Me for my sophomore reading effort, but they had this one instead, so I went for it.

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Every good bookstore trip needs a classic (or two). One of my mom's favorites.

The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
(Aforementioned second classic of the shopping trip). One of my English 333 professor's favorites.

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
I've been looking for some solid fantasy to get into recently, and I recognized the name of the author, due to the fact that I've gotten several recommendations for their work via my Goodreads account, so I just figured, why the hell not?

FOR MY KINDLE

London Falling by T.A. Foster
My first attempt at reading New Adult, and I'm so excited! A shmoopy romance about a college senior whose Communications partnership turns out to be more than expected. What's wrong with shmoopy novels, every once in a while?

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
Just in case you were wondering, yes, I do oftentimes automatically make up my mind for purchase of a novel when it happens to have Seattle in the plot blurb. I love Seattle.

Perfect Ruin by Lauren deStefano
Young adult dystopian post-apocalyptic science fiction ... with an interesting and original plot premise? Shut the front door.

What books did you get this past week?

Stacking the Shelves: Three-Day Weekend Reading List Haul

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly Saturday book meme from Tynga's Reviews, all about sharing the books you've added to your shelves over the course of the week.

Two weeks into school and beginning to get settled down into the monotony of everyday university life... sounds like the perfect time for a three day weekend, right? There's plenty of time to do all of that and more, thankfully, including taking a glance at some of the new titles my bookshelf earned this past week. It's a brief one - one title per day in the extended weekend, actually - but I'm excited about all of them. 

FOR MY KINDLE

The Maze Runner, by James Dashner
A popular title on sale, and highly recommended by a friend whose excitement for the upcoming movie is beginning to near a mania level, I just had to have it.

The Diviners, by Libba Bray
I was obsessed for years with her A Great and Terrible Beauty series, and this one is set in the 1920s and has witches, so it was really only a matter of time, really...

FOR REVIEW

The Divorce Papers, Susan Rieger (publish date: March 18th, 2014)

This is definitely a case of something-I-didn't-know-I-wanted-until-I-had-it for me.

Anyone can tell a story about a couple getting divorced - especially in this day and age - and only slightly fewer can write that story convincingly from the viewpoint of the lawyer handling one side of that case, but to tell it exclusively in memos, letters, emails, court documents, and other forms of non-narrating paper, is a brave, brave move, and one I'm excited to explore.

So, that's what I got this week. How about you? 

Stacking the Shelves: Back to School Book Haul

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly Saturday book meme from Tynga's Reviews, all about sharing the books you've added to your shelves over the course of the week.

The first week of school is FINALLY OVER, and thank the Lord for that. Now I've got the weekend to relax, recuperate, and read and read and read, until the couch cushions are permanently conformed to the shape of my butt. We're back in school, but not back to the school grind just yet, so I'm taking this rare free time seriously, and you can bet that my bookshelves have been the better for it. 

FROM KING'S BOOKS: 

Remember this post? Well, my all-too-brief scouring of one of my favorite stores resulted in the purchase of a couple good classics: 

Lady Chatterley's Love, D.H. Lawrence
A scandalous story, and one recommended to me by my own mother.

Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
A classic, and said to be one of Vonnegut's most powerful books.

Winter's Tale, Mark Helprin
Let's be real: my motivation to buy this book belongs one hundred percent to the beautiful trailer for the upcoming movie adaptation, starring the fantastic Colin Farrell. I'm really excited about this one!

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling
To be fair, I didn't know whether to include this one in the list or not, because the book wasn't actually for me: after witnessing a stunning confession from my Little that she had never read the books NOR seen the movies, I felt morally obligated to buy her the very first in the series, as an act of sisterhood. I gave it to her yesterday, and I think she really likes it!

FROM MY MOTHER: 

The brave, brave woman, as I've mentioned before, is just starting off on her Fellowship, and since she won't have any time for reading, she didn't want her bedside table's stack of books to go to waste:

State of Wonder, Ann Patchett
The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey
The Dovekeepers, Alice Hoffman
Love Medicine, Louise Eldrich
The House on Fortune Street, Margot Livesey
The Highest Tide, Jim Lynch
Flight Behavior, Barbara Kingsolver

(Simply for the sake of simplicity itself, I've only highlighted three of my favorite covers from the bunch for the visual.)

FOR MY KINDLE: 

Yep, I severely reined in my spending habits on Amazon this week, and purchased this beauty of a novel for only $1.99: The Rosie Project: A Novel, Graeme Simsion. Aren't you proud of me? 

So that's my haul for the week. Thank goodness for some new material and a little bit of reading freedom before studying is really required again. Hope you all get some great reading in this weekend! 

Stacking the Shelves: Post New-Years Bliss Book Haul

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly Saturday book meme from Tynga's Reviews, all about sharing the books you've added to your shelves over the course of the week.

After a restful New Years and a renewing start to 2014, my past week has been absolutely lovely. I never intended to set about pursuing books directly - I'm starting a new school term on Monday, people! - it turns out that, similarly to the rest of my life, the books have found me... for the most part, at least (as you'll soon see, I did succumb to the draw of a couple ebooks, and yes, technically, I am going to one of my favorite bookstores in Tacoma later this afternoon, but the ebooks were on sale and the new books won't be counted this week, so there). 

All in all, I only spent approximately $5 this week, and I've got 8 new books to show for it. I think those are pretty good numbers, don't you think?

FOR MY KINDLE... 

Shadow and Bone (Book one of the Grisha Trilogy), Leigh Bardugo

I almost died yesterday when I saw this much-recommended, never-read book was only $2.99 for Kindle, and naturally I scooped it up as soon as I could. 

The Line (A Witching Savannah novel), J. D. Horn

From this month's selection of Kindle First options, this novel was the Science Fiction and Fantasy pick. And how am I supposed to say "no" to a series with my name in it? (Also, dat cover art. Dayum.) 

FROM MY MOTHER... 

The Kitchen Counter Cooking School, Kathleen Flinn

I'm a sucker for books that have recipes in them. And books about food. And books. And food. Yum. 

The Typewriter Girl, Alison Atlee

The words "Downton" and "Abbey" are included in the books description, being that they are set in the same time period in England. (I've seen a LOT of stuff involving our dear DA and books recently, including both a book list and a full table of novels set up at our local Barnes and Noble... Future blogpost idea?) 

The Chaperone, Laura Moriarty

I've been salivating for this book for a while, and now that my mom's embarking on a Fellowship project, and doesn't have as much time to read, she's decided that she wouldn't put me through the agony of a prolonged waiting period. Hooray! 

FOR REVIEW... 

The Queen's Dwarf, Ella March Chase

A gift from Macmillan through a Goodreads First Reads giveaway, this work of historical fiction has been getting pretty high reviews so far, and is set to debut on the 21st of this month. 

FROM A BELATED SECRET SANTA... 

Assassin's Apprentice (Farseer #1), Robin Hobb

A fantasy I've never heard of but is apparently extremely popular, said to be the favorite novel of the gifter's father. Honestly, I'm always looking for a little fantasy in my life. 

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers

Yet another choice on my list for a while, my SS actually stalked my Goodreads account to find a book I like! What an awesome friend. 

Well, I'm still not too jazzed about heading back up to school in two days, but at least I'll be bringing some new finds along with me! 

Stacking the Shelves: Surprise Finals Procrastination Book Haul!

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly Saturday book meme from Tynga's Reviews, all about sharing the books you've added to your shelves over the course of the week.

For us over here at the University of Washington in Seattle, things have gotten very, very quiet, as Dead Week ends, and Finals kicks into full gear. Friends are finishing up classes, and going home, while I'm stuck waiting for the inevitable, and frankly, getting bored of studying. These last two Finals for me - if Midterms were any indication - are going to be painfully easy, and now, I'm just stalling out my time until I get to go back to Tacoma on Wednesday night. Can you really blame me for buying a couple of books on my Kindle? 

Of course not. They were on sale!

There are nine of them. 

That's right. I just bought nine new books for my Kindle in the past three days, totaling up to under $27, which is approximately $3 per book. One of them's the start of a series I've been meaning to read, two are part of a series I wanted to pick up again, and one's not even being released in hardcover until next month. 

Alright, I've teased you enough! Here's how I stacked my shelves while procrastinating for Finals: 

Timebound, by Rysa Walker

Set to be published on January 1st, this Amazon First Reads YA pick follows a sixteen year old girl struggling to survive as a murder at the 1893 Chicago Worlds Fair destroys her very existence from time. 

A Storm of Swords and A Clash of Kings, both by George R.R. Martin

Yes, I'm starting to read Game of Thrones again. Shut up, they're great. 

Stardust, by Neil Gaiman

An author I truly admire with a book I vaguely remember reading half of the fifth grade. Maybe I just need a little high fantasy and falling stars in my life, that's all. 

Everything is Perfect When You're a Liar, by Kelly Oxford

I love memoirs, and I especially love funny women. This selection promises both, as an uproariously funny Twitter mommy shares her life story. 

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, by Sheryl Sandberg

What can I say? I'm doing big things in life. More like, I want to be able to do big things in life and I just have a real penchant for self-help books, but still. 

Under the Never Sky, by Veronica Rossi

A highly-rated start to an incredibly popular YA fantasy series, so why not give it a read, right? Besides, book 2 in the series is supposed to be even better than the first, so I've got to start somewhere. 

Not Pictured (because I'm a snob for cover art): 

Pastels and Jingle Bells: A Novella, by Christine S. Feldman

Self-published holiday-themed romance novella? Why not. 

Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson 

Motivated primarily by the fact that I had a Disney movie night with my bestie, my Little, and Disney's Treasure Planet last night, and I'm feeling nostalgic. 

Now, primarily to keep my father from going apopleptic now that we've gotten to the end of the list, I'm going to promise that I won't read a single one of these books until I've finished rereading Great Expectations for my English Final on Monday. (Well, I mean, I'll try.) 

What's new on YOUR shelves this week?