New Books - Hurray! Hurray!

I guess the other day my son was feeling rich - or feeling guilty that I ended up watching his son for a long time (evil laugh here) because he gave me $20. Recently a co-worker that I shuffle to work (we both work at the same places) gave me $8.00 for gas on the last day of school. Today, out of the blue, my husband handed me $30.00. I thought it was for groceries, and he said Nope - for books. Wow (figures, right when I'm starting to feel ultra irritated with him, he does something thoughtful.) I ended up with $58 cash and so when I drove my granddaughter home, I made a detour to Borders. There I found FIVE books that I was interested in and I also found three nice floor puzzles that were on clearance at $5.99 each. Good deal. My granddaughter loves to put together puzzles and lately I've been buying the big floor puzzle for my grandson instead of her. Well today I found two fairy floor puzzles that my granddaughter will love. She doesn't know that I bought then yet. All total $57.72 - three floor puzzles and five books.

Here is a book I bought on a whim, after skimming a few pages. Spin State by Chris Moriarty. Suddenly I feel like reading Science Fiction - space ship stuff, all that jazz. This book seems like it will be interesting. Except.....For an excerpt click on the cover-pic; It should take you to the Barnes & Noble page with Spin State, and directly to the review section, but if it doesn't, click on the features tab - but note that to actually read the excerpt you have to scroll down, waaaaayyyy down past a very long essay on how this man birthed his book. I started to read that part, and it almost made me regret buying the book. I don't like to be snotty or snarky (usually, I don't like to be) but .....well......um.......Okay, my eyes started to glaze over. I just want to read a good book. That's all. Sure, sometimes I like to know a bit about the author. But most of the authors that I read don't write an essay, or thesis on how they wrote a book.

Kind of reminded me of LKH in a strange way. They're most likely totally different in personality, but her latest post is full of how much her books have helped lots and lots of people function in their daily lives, or live through hardships. I don't know......Having good books is very important to me. Being able to read and live in another world temporarily is very important. But I've never felt that one particular character is THAT important to me, important enough to help me make decisions, or color my way of thinking, or make me feel like "What would Anita do?" Nope. Never. Be your own people, people!

BTW - almost bought her latest paperback. LKH. It's a nice thick paperback. Then I thought, well I hate the cover. I know there's a British version with way prettier covers, and Do I Really Want To Read A Thick Book Possibly Full Of Lots Of Discussions, And Angst, And Anger (over the same ol' same ol'), And Spillage, And Bad Sex Scenes, (as in boring), Posturing For No Reasons, ETC. or would I rather wait and maybe when I feel flush with money buy it online with at least a nice cover? So I waited. There was a time, before the odd turn of the mind that I used just buy her books because she wrote it. No More.

Okay, back to books -good books - or rather back to books I bought today. Elfland by Freda Warrington is a fantasy, a good old fashiond fantasy book. The cover reminds me of covers of Patricia McKillip's books. Beautiful artwork. Unfortunately, the cover on my copy of this book has a huge imprint on it, in bright orangy red stating "Winner of the RT Book Reviews Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Fantasy Novel of 2009". This is nice to know, and the author can be proud of this, but it ruined the cover. It's placed right over the little sparkles you see to the left of the woman. Just covers them right up. Non-removable. Oh Well. I'm happy because I heard about this book from another blog, and I remember thinking I LOVE this cover. The blogger noted that this was from England, and in fact this is the first time this author has been published in the United States. This thing, with thinking outside the box as far as reading other writers (from Australia, England, New Zealand) is so fun for me. I wish I knew of more books to get from over seas. So far it's been Marianne De Pierres (purely by accident) from Australia, Suzanne McLeod (Purely on Purpose after stumbling onto her blog, and reading an excellent excerpt) from England and Susan Healy from New Zealand - I think. I know there's more. :)

Necking by Chris Salvatore is a book about vampires and a book publicist (ironic, no?) I almost bought it the last few times I've been to the store, and since this was gift money - oh yeah! Click on book cover for excerpt. Don't you love the long sharp red nails? There are also weres, witches and aliens in this novel. Clicking on the author name will take you to a page at her website that features (spoilerish) scene told by the point of view of another character. It's Johnny's side of the story - apparently.

And finally - the last two are books that many of us have been waiting for -

Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews and Unholy Ghosts by Stacia Kane. These two books are books I know I'll love. I've been reading Ilona Andrews since their first book came out. I've read only one of Stacia Kane's books (loved it) and an excerpt of Unholy Ghosts - it's gon' be good!

And now, back to reading Song of Scarabaeus.

Edited to add - the link for the excerpt of Unholy Ghost really led to the excerpt of the next in the series, Unholy Magic. It's now been corrected - and I left the excerpt for Unholy Magic on the the title.