The inbox is growing out of control… this was a big week for book acquiring, and a slow week for book finishing…
Inbox (books acquired)
- Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller (signed, hardcover special edition) — My Indiespensible shipment arrived this week! This was the main book in this month’s shipment, and it’s a beautiful hardcover without a dust jacket (which is awesome because I hate dust jackets). I read the blurb for this when it was announced as this month’s pick, and got excited because this one (unlike the last few months) is squarely in my wheelhouse — it’s about a girl, drilled from a young age in the ways of survival by her father, a survivalist, and then taken into the woods and told that they are the only survivors of an apocalypse-type event. But, of course, there’s more to it than that… Also, it’s published by Tin House in Portland who also did Glaciers, which I really enjoyed. I’m pretty excited to read this one.
- The New and Improved Romie Futch by Julia Elliott (paperback, ARC) — This pre-release copy was also included in my Indiespensible shipment. It comes out in October. My husband needed something to read so I gave him this and he devoured it in two days. He liked it and is encouraging me to read it soon so we can pass it on to one of our friends who he thinks will also enjoy it. I don’t know much about what it’s about except that it takes place in the south and involves some human enhancement / modification experiment that goes awry.
- Lumberjanes Vol. 1 by by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Brooke Allen, Shannon Watters — (paperback) — This is the comic I meant to buy last week when I accidentally bought X-Men Vol 2, instead. This volume includes the first several comics in this new series and is being raved about by the Book Riot people, who haven’t steered me wrong yet.
- Boomerang by Noelle August (Kindle) — You may remember that I added this one to my watch list a few weeks ago. It dropped to $0.99. So, I grabbed it. But, I’m saving this one for when I really need an awesome ooey gooey romance.
- The Duchess War by Courtney Milan (Kindle) — This one is also currently being raved about over at Book Riot and when I clicked on it to add it to my watch list, I noticed it was $0 on Kindle. Yep, FREE. So, I immediately downloaded it. It needs to get put into the queue, and I may not get to it for a while, but I couldn’t pass up free, especially after reading the glowing reviews from the Book Riot editors.
Outbox (books finished)
- Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Kindle, library) — This is horribly overdue at this point, and I will probably end up with a decent library fine for keeping this book too long. Still, I’m glad I stuck with it and finished it. This is the first truly diverse book I read this year in that it is both set in Africa (Nigeria), and is written by a Nigerian novelist. I felt like I should have been reading this book with a map next to me, and I felt a little lost because this wasn’t something I remember learning about in world history. I am left with a sharper awareness of my privilege and my ignorance of so much of what happens and has happened in the world.
Queue (what I’m reading next)
- After watching The Internet’s Own Boy, a documentary about Aaron Schwartz, this weekend, I remembered that I had a copy of Cory Doctorow’s Information Doesn’t Want to be Free about the state of copyright and digital rights. I bought it after watching his author talk when he came to Google, but now I’m even more interested in reading this…
- I’ll probably also return to (and hopefully finish) The Raven Boys… and maybe dig into some of those comics that I’ve been buying but haven’t got around to reading yet…
- I also found out this week that the third book in Poseidon’s children series by Alastair Reynolds is coming out in the UK this month. Amazon in the US has finally listed the paperback for pre-order, but still no sign of the Kindle version… but, the second book, On the Steel Breeze, has been buried in my TBR pile for a while now. I’m moving it up to the top so that I’m ready to read book three — plus, I’m overdue for some good space opera sci-fi.
There are so many good books that I want to read and there is never enough time for reading! Maybe now that I’m not going to swim meets every other weekend (because short course yards season is over), I can go back to reading without guilt during the week because I’ll have more time for writing on the weekends…
(Reminder: the format for my weekly inbox/outbox posts was adopted from Book Riot’s weekly column of the same name… for more like this, go check out those…)
EMM Blogs 