So many books.  I’m not entirely sure how I ended up with so many, but hurrah!

From the library:

1. The Girl with all the Gifts – M.R. Carey.  I think I read about this on someone’s book blog a few weeks ago, and man am I glad I did because I loved this book.  Loved it, loved it, loved it.  The cover is excellent, the writing is excellent, the story is a wonderful twist on the zombie tropes and, unlike so many books, it has an excellent blurb – a small thing, but an important one.
2. Deadpool: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly – Brian Posehn, Gerry Duggan, Scott Koblish & Declan Shalvey.  Haven’t read this yet but yay for Deadpool
3. Revival: You’re Among Friends – Tim Seeley & Mike Norton.
4. Revival: Live Like You Mean It – Tim Seeley & Mike Norton.  These had a lot of potential, but in the end, the similarities to The Returned and The Crow overshadowed anything original going on.  Also, I have had absolutely enough of reading about the power of American fundamentalist Christianity in the breakdown of the society.  Blergh.
5. X-Men: Primer – Brian Wood, Olivier Coipel & David Lopez.  An interesting start, though I’m not a fan of Marvel Girl and so didn’t really get the conflict that’s been set up between her and Storm.  Quite like the portrayal of Jubilee, although I’m yet to be fully sold on the idea of her having a baby.

Cast-Offs

1. Maelstrom – Peter Watts.  I think I like the cover of this more than the description, but nevermind, eh?
2. The Social Contract – Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
3. Two Girls in the Wild – May Wynne.  Since my boyfriend ended up paying for this in Oxfam, I think it might technically count as a Valentine’s Present.
4. Poison Study – Maria V Snyder.
5. Magic Study – Maria V Snyder.
6. Already Dead – Charlie Huston.
7. Sad Song – Vincent Banville.
8. Coroner’s Pidgin – Margery Allingham.
9. The Earth Hums in B Flat – Mari Strachan.  Such a beautiful cover.  The book itself also sounds rather lovely, so I’m looking forward to reading it.
10. Janes in Love – Cecil Castellucci & Jim Rugg.  I read this a few years ago and adored it.  The DC ‘Minx’ line had its flaws, but the Janes duo of titles were not one of them.  Both books were smart, funny and utterly appealing, and I recommend them unreservedly.
11. Garden Spells – Sarah Addison Allen.  Despite having seen her name bandied around quite a lot, I’ve never gotten around to reading any Sarah Addison Allen.  Quite hopeful about this one.
12. The Historical Atlas of the Celtic World – John Harwood.  Archaeology, woo!
13. Darina Allen’s Ballymaloe Cookery Course – Darina Allen.

This week seemed far too long.  I’m so relieved that not only is the week over, but January is too.  Keep your fingers crossed that February brings me more luck!  Except for in books though, because I’ve been chugging along quite nicely in that arena, as you can see for the list of what I picked up this week.

From the library:

1. The Little Women Letters – Gabrielle Donnelly.  This caught my eye at random as Little Women has always been one of my favourite books.  It has the potential to be awful, but given that it centres around letters from ‘Grandma Jo’ I’m hoping it will be warm and fuzzy and glorious
2. The Thing About December – Donal Ryan.  I don’t actually know much about this, but I ordered on the strenth of Ryan’s previous book, The Spinning Heart, which was easily one of my favourite books last year.
3. The Vampire Diaries – L.J. Smith.  The Bengali edition of, I think, the first book of The Vampire Diaries.  I borrowed this so that I can scan the cover for The L.J. Smith Cover Resource, but I’m not really sure what it is, to be honest!

Cast-Offs*

1. Devil’s Brood – Sharon Penman.  I loved Sharon Penman when I was a teenager.  I got caught up in her excellently rendered historical worlds and cried absolute buckets.  Time for a nostalgia trip!
2. Skios – Michael Frayn.  I read this when it first came out and really enjoyed it.  It’s a light, modern farce that kept me amused and entertained to the end.  Plus, I couldn’t help but imagine a McShep version of it
3. Stabat Mater – Tiziano Scarpa.  This has such a lovely cover, I couldn’t resist.  It also looks like it might be a wonderful piece of feminist historical fiction, so I’m hopeful.
4. The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet – Reif Larsen.  I’ve actually had this on loan from the library for a few months now, but not gotten around to reading it, so I was pleased to be able to pick up a copy of my own.  This is an absolutely beautiful looking book, filled with illustrations from the notebooks of T.S. Spivet – the book’s child narrator.
5. Around the World in Eight Days – Jules Verne.  How have I not read this already?!
6. The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck. See above.
7. The Shooting Party – Isabel Colegate.  This book served as the inspiration for Downton Abbey, which I don’t actually watch.  Still looking forward to the book though
8. Blood Moon – Alyxandra Harvey.  Ah, YA supernatural.  There is just so damned much of you.
9. Chill Factor – Rachel Caine.  I stopped reading Caine’s Morganville Vampire series about four books in because I just wasn’t interested in seeing a thin, but enjoyable, concept stretched out into an endless series.  I miss the good old days of trilogies, man.  As I said, though, I did enjoy her writing so the Weather Warden books have been on my radar for a while.

(*My workplace regularly gets rid of books and I reap the benefits from time to time. Yay!)

My working week is over at last, so let’s take a look at the books I’ve picked up over the course of it

From the library:

1. Lily Vanilli’s Sweet Tooth – Lily Jones.  There weren’t many recipes in this that jumped out at me, which was a bit disappointing as it looked like such a gorgeous book.  I did photocopy a few recipes though, including ‘Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts’ and ‘Whiskey Salt Caramel Popcorn’.  Yum!
2. Dispatches – Michael Herr.  I’ve had this on my to-be-read list for quite some time now and am already a chapter in.
3. Black Orchid – Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean.  Saw this randomly sitting on the shelf and grabbed it immediately.  It’s absolutely beautiful and lyrical and all the things that Gaiman and McKean combine to be.  Almost finished, and I don’t really want it to end.
4. The Filth – Grant Morrison & Frank Quietly.  I have an up and down relationship with both Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly but this looked promising so fingers crossed.

Cast-Offs*

1. Wool – Hugh Howey.  I first picked this up in the library when it was released here in hardback.  And I fucking loved it.  I’m a big sci-fi fan but I’ve become quite picky in what I read over the years, so I was delighted to have this move straight into my top ten sci-fi novels of all time.
2. Wings – Terry Pratchett.  I own a hardback collected edition of The Bromelaid so I’m not sure yet if I’ll keep this edition.  I must confess to being a cover whore though, so it’s more than likely that it will!
3. Men at Arms – Terry Pratchett.  See above, although it’s a paperback edition that I already own.
4. The Evolutionary Void – Peter F. Hamilton.  It was free and Hamilton has been recommended to me several times.  Here’s hoping he’s worth the hype cause fuck is this a brick of a book.

(*My workplace regularly gets rid of books and I reap the benefits from time to time.  Yay!)