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Imminent Arrivals and TBR #2
The first time I did an Imminent Arrivals and TBR post it turned out to be surprisingly popular with you guys. Yay! So I decided to continue doing them periodically.
Imminent Arrivals (books with the shortest estimated arrival from PaperBackSwap)
Top of the queue is Blindspot
by Jane Kamensky and Jill Lepore. I honestly have no idea what this book is about, but Jane Kamensky was my advisor for my History major in university. She mysteriously took a year’s sabbatical and only told us later it was to write this book. She specializes in US History, particularly women’s roles and colonial New England. I kind of heart her. A lot. She’s a brilliant woman and taught me so much. How could I not read her book?
Next is Poison Study
by Maria V. Snyder. You guys know that I don’t normally do fantasy, but the concept of a woman convicted of murder being offered the choice between immediate death or being the food taster for the Commander of Ixia really struck me. There’s a lot of room for interesting plot there from the methods and types of poisoning to free will to the original murder. I’m curious and hopeful this will be a door into fantasy for me. Or at least a window.
Third in line is Deadtown
by Nancy Holzner. It sounds largely like your typical paranormal plot-line (woman must keep people safe from monsters) but it’s set in Boston! I mean I have to read anything set in Boston that isn’t about the Irish mob. I get so sick of Boston equating Irish mob in people’s heads. Anyway, it also appears to feature every type of paranormal creature you can imagine, so it should at least be entertaining.
TBR
I’m trying to dig down to the books that have been in my TBR pile the longest. First is S
by John Updike. After reading The Witches of Eastwick
and enjoying it, I poked around to see what else Updike has written. I have a weakness for epistolary novels, and this one is a bit unique in that it is set in the 1960s as opposed to the 1800s or some such. The letters are also from a woman living on a religious commune. It all sounds rather fascinating, but I’m not sure if I’m in the mood for what could be a slow-paced novel right now.
Also sitting on the TBR shelf for a while is Parable of the Sower
by Octavia E. Butler. It was recommended to me by a friend due to my love of Margaret Atwood. I honestly didn’t even read the summary at the time, just bought it. Allow me to go look at the blurb. Ok. It’s set in the future and is about a woman who is an empath–a person who is crippled by the pain of others. Ohhh, this sounds really good!
Finally there’s Neuromancer
by William Gibson, which was recommended to me by an IT geek friend of mine. It’s about a computer cowboy who gets banished from cyberspace (I think it’s fairly obvious that this is set in the future). Rumors of a movie keep circulating, so I do want to get on this relatively soon. I just hope it won’t disappoint me the way Feed did (review).
There we have it! Please tell me what you think, my lovely readers!
Imminent Arrivals and TBR
Since I didn’t quite manage to finish my current read on the bus this morning (I literally had to stop in the middle of the climax. I HATE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS), I thought I’d do something a little bit different today. As you all know, I use PaperBackSwap for acquiring a lot of my books. It lets you sort your wishlist by estimated time to fulfillment, so I thought I’d share with you guys the books that are estimated to be mine shortly.
First up, I’ve been waiting for this book forever: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
by Carrie Ryan. All I really know about it is it’s a post-apocalyptic zombie story with a girl/woman/female-okay! at the center of the plot. I love all things zombie. Love. They’re grotesque and fabulous and really fit my dark sense of humor to a T. This is one of those books that will jump to the top of the TBR pile when it arrives.
Next is The Group
by Mary McCarthy. This got added to my wishlist after reading Nymeth‘s review of it. It’s about eight female Vassar graduates in the 1930s and the struggles they faced as women at that time. I’m a sucker for stories about the struggles women face due simply to the fact that we’re women, and the early 1900s are a favorite time period of historical fiction for me.
Third is yet another post-apocalyptic book: Life As We Knew It
by Susan Beth Pfeffer. I can only explain my post-apocalypse obsession by pointing at my fundamentalist Christian upbringing. Or maybe I just enjoyed the apocalypse sermons because I secretly love tales of suffering. Take your pick. Anywho, this one is in journal form, a format I came to love through those Dear America books back when I was in middle school. This particular apocalypse takes the form of an asteroid hitting the moon, moving it closer to the Earth and giving us some fun Arctic weather. I’ve heard good titterings from my fellow librarians on this one.
Ok, so I also have books in my TBR pile, so I’m going to show you guys 3 random books from there. If there’s one you sorely want reviewed soon, tell me now!
I stumbled upon The Integral Trees
by Larry Niven on PaperBackSwap’s customized homepage (it shows me recently added scifi, horror, and memoirs). The cover caught my attention, so I checked out the description. It’s supposed to be about a planet where humans evolved to live without gravity and live among the trees. All other life forms also live among the trees, including the fish. Honestly, it reminded me a lot of Wii Mario Galaxy, so there you have it.
A pretty recent arrival, I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells features an untrustworthy narrator with sociopathic tendencies who spends the book trying to convince us and himself that he’s not a serial killer. Kind of reminds me of Dexter
-lite. I was really stoked for this the whole time it was on my wishlist, but I haven’t touched it since it arrived. I’m not sure why. Maybe I’d enjoy it more if it was called, Yeah, I’m a Serial Killer, Deal With It, Bitch. As is, it just seems like the author was afraid to take it to the edge that Dexter
is at. Prove me wrong, people!
Finally, there’s Undead and Unwed
by MaryJanice Davidson. Yes, it’s yet another paranormal romance series, and I have yet to finish the two that I’m on (Demon Slayer and Sookie), but well this one seems a lot more like Shopaholic, plus it’s not in the south, which is a huge plus. I mean, really, why must all tongue-in-cheek paranormal romance take place in the south, whereas the dull I’m-a-huge-bitch-because-I-was-wounded-as-a-child-LOOK-AT-MY-TATTOOS paranormal romance take place in the north? Sooo dull. So, yeah, I have high hopes for this series.
That’s it! Please tell me what you think, my lovely readers!