Showing posts with label David Mitchell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Mitchell. Show all posts

Saturday, December 5, 2015

Stacking the Shelves - 12.5.15

Stacking the Shelves
hosted by Tynga's Reviews (details)

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

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Bought:

Furiously Happy:
A Funny Book About Horrible Things
by Jenny Lawson
-Humor, Memoir
Amazon | Goodreads


=====> Books Passage, Corte Madera presented JENNY LAWSON and her latest book!

Here are a few things that she shared:
- read one chapter and a bit from another chapter from her book
- does not write about current disputes with hubby, Victor
- permission is obtained from everyone included in her writings

Me and the Happy Raccoon

=====> Loved going to see another of my all-time favorite authors. Jenny is one of those authors who is amazing and personable in public which comes across the same in her writing. I especially love listening to the audio versions of her book which she reads.

Fortune Smiles
by Adam Johnson
-Short stories
Amazon | Goodreads

======> Loved his first novel, The Orphan Master's Son. And currently loving this collection of short stories.

For Review:

Curio
by Evangeline Denmark
-Steampunk, YA
courtesy of BookSparks -Thanks!
Amazon | Goodreads

=====> Can't resist steampunk themed stories.

Gifts:

Come December
by Holly Schindler
-Holiday, Short Story
courtesy of author -Thanks!
Amazon -kindle version is currently free, GET yours! | Goodreads

=====> Looking forward to reading this during the holiday season.

Slade House
by David Mitchell
-Horror, Mystery
courtesy of family -Thanks!
Amazon | Goodreads

=====> This has an interesting haunted house premise. The cover of this book has a cool cut-out window. I may wait to read this when I am in a dark mood.

UNBOXING:

From Powell's Indiespensable club package (details & signup):
Powell's subscription club delivers the best new books, with special attention to independent publishers. Signed first editions. Inventive, original sets. Exclusive printings.... Every six weeks, another installment to read and admire. Plus, every package is stocked with exciting surprises! @indiespensable


This is box #56. (sorry - this is sold out, but you can signup for the next one)

Box includes:
- A signed first-edition of City on Fire by Garth Risk Halberg in a custom slipcase exclusive to Indiespensable
- A collectible booklet featuring the Powells.com interview and Indiespensable Q&A with author
- Tumbes 73% chocolate bar from Ranger Chocolate Company

City On Fire
by Garth Risk Hallberg
-Historical, New York
Amazon | Goodreads

New York City, 1976. Meet Regan and William Hamilton-Sweeney, estranged heirs to one of the city’s great fortunes; Keith and Mercer, the men who, for better or worse, love them; Charlie and Samantha, two suburban teenagers seduced by downtown’s punk scene; an obsessive magazine reporter and his idealistic neighbor—and the detective trying to figure out what any of them have to do with a shooting in Central Park on New Year’s Eve.

The mystery, as it reverberates through families, friendships, and the corridors of power, will open up even the loneliest-seeming corners of the crowded city. And when the blackout of July 13, 1977, plunges this world into darkness, each of these lives will be changed forever.

City on Fire is an unforgettable novel about love and betrayal and forgiveness, about art and truth and rock ’n’ roll: about what people need from each other in order to live . . . and about what makes the living worth doing in the first place.


=====> Actually purchased this book recently, but excited to see it highlighted as a Powell's special. And, thrilled to get this special edition. IF you are interested in receiving my second copy, comment on this post along with your email address. Offer ends: Dec 13, 2015

Library:

Nowhere But Here
by Katie McGarry
Amazon | Goodreads

Seventeen-year-old Emily likes her life the way it is: doting parents, good friends, good school in a safe neighborhood. Sure, she's curious about her biological father—the one who chose life in a motorcycle club, the Reign of Terror, over being a parent—but that doesn't mean she wants to be a part of his world. But when a reluctant visit turns to an extended summer vacation among relatives she never knew she had, one thing becomes clear: nothing is what it seems. Not the club, not her secret-keeping father and not Oz, a guy with suck-me-in blue eyes who can help her understand them both.

Oz wants one thing: to join the Reign of Terror. They're the good guys. They protect people. They're…family. And while Emily—the gorgeous and sheltered daughter of the club's most respected member—is in town, he's gonna prove it to her. So when her father asks him to keep her safe from a rival club with a score to settle, Oz knows it's his shot at his dream. What he doesn't count on is that Emily just might turn that dream upside down.

No one wants them to be together. But sometimes the right person is the one you least expect, and the road you fear the most is the one that leads you home.


=====> After seeing this on a lot of other blogger bookshelves, I wanted to give this a try. So far, loving it!

The Paying Guests
by Sarah Waters
-LGBTQ, Historical
Amazon | Goodreads

It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned; the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa—a large, silent house now bereft of brothers, husband, and even servants—life is about to be transformed as impoverished widow Mrs. Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers.

With the arrival of Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the “clerk class,” the routines of the house will be shaken up in unexpected ways. Little do the Wrays know just how profoundly their new tenants will alter the course of Frances’s life—or, as passions mount and frustration gathers, how far-reaching, and how devastating, the disturbances will be.

Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize three times, Sarah Waters has earned a reputation as one of our greatest writers of historical fiction, and here she has delivered again. A love story, a tension-filled crime story, and a beautifully atmospheric portrait of a fascinating time and place, The Paying Guests is Sarah Waters’s finest achievement yet.


=====> Listening to the audio version. So far, so good. Loving the details, details, details of the characters presented.


OTHER things on my shelf: kinda book-related

SEE who I picked for my NOVEMBER Literary Hunk of the Month (here)

AND watched: on DVD

Laggies (2014)
Director: Lynn Shelton
Written by: Andrea Seigel
Starring: Keira Knightley, Chloƫ Grace Moretz, Sam Rockwell
-Comedy, Romance | imdb | my rating: 5

In the throes of a quarter-life crisis, Megan panics when her boyfriend proposes, then, taking an opportunity to escape for a week, hides out in the home of her new friend, 16-year-old Annika, who lives with her world-weary single dad.

=====> So cute - coming of age story.

Pitch Perfect (2012)
Director: Jason Moore
Screenplay by: Kay Cannon
Based on book by: Mickey Rapkin
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Skylar Astin, Brittany Snow, Rebel Wilson
-Comedy, Music, Romance | imdb | my rating: 5

Beca, a freshman at Barden University, is cajoled into joining The Bellas, her school's all-girls singing group. Injecting some much needed energy into their repertoire, The Bellas take on their male rivals in a campus competition.

=====> Another cute one. The music and choreography performances just warms the heart. Makes me want to check out shows by local acapella groups.

Must watch Pitch Perfect 2. And Pitch Perfect 3 is due to release in 2017.

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* some of these may be offered as giveaways within the next two months

* comment and TELL me what you have acquired for your shelves recently

* per usual, check out the sidebar for my current giveaways offers


Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Top Ten Tuesday: 2014 Releases I Meant To Read But Didn't Get To

Top Ten Tuesday
meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish -details

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created here at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Note: I will do a variation of this meme with my Top 5 picks.

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January 13: Top Ten 2014 Releases I Meant To Read But Didn't Get To

These are ones that I definitely plan on reading this year!

All the Light We Cannot See
by Anthony Doerr
-France, Germany, historical, WWII
Amazon | Goodreads

With Zombies:
Assured Destruction Book #3
by Michael F. Stewart
-fantasy, YA, zombies
Amazon | Goodreads

The Bone Clocks
by David Mitchell
-fantasy, scifi
Amazon | Goodreads

The Goldfinch
by Donna Tartt
-mystery
Amazon | Goodreads

Station Eleven
by Emily St. John Mandel
-dystopia
Amazon | Goodreads

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Stacking the Shelves - 9.27.14

Stacking the Shelves
hosted by Tynga's Reviews (details)

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

~*~

Bought:

The Bone Clocks
by David Mitchell
-fantasy, scifi
Amazon | Goodreads

For Review:

Deadly Odds
by Allen Wyler
-mystery, thriller
courtesy of publisher
Thanks !
Amazon | Goodreads

Library:

Early Decision
Based on a True Frenzy
by Lacy Crawford
Amazon | Goodreads

A delightful and salacious debut novel about the frightful world of high school, SATs, the college essay, and the Common Application—and how getting in is getting in the way of growing up.

Tiger mothers, eat your hearts out. Anne the "application whisperer" is the golden ticket to success. Working one-on-one with burned-out, helicopter-parented kids, she can make Harvard a reality. Her phone number is a national secret. Her students end up at the best of the best.

But sometimes acceptance comes at an enormous cost. In a world of cheating scandals, huge alumni donations, and lots of inside pull, some parents know no bounds when it comes to ensuring that their children get in. It's Anne's job to guide students to their own destinies, beginning with their essays. Early Decision follows five students—four privileged, one without a penny to her name—as they make their applications and wrestle with fate.

To write the perfect personal statement, they must tell the truth. And the stories they tell are of greed, excess, jealousy, deceit, money, ego, and pressure, as well as of endurance, tenacity, victory, and the hope of surviving their parents' wildest dreams so they can begin to live their own lives.

Early Decision captures the most ferocious season in a modern family's life. Parents only want the best for their children, and students are fighting for college seats that will give them a head start into work and adulthood. Is it possible to face the fall semester of senior year without losing your mind?

Told in part through the students' essays, unsparingly revealing the secrets of college advisors at the highest levels, Early Decision is an explosive insider's guide to college admissions in our day. It's also a sharp commentary on modern parenting. The truth is, the kids are all right. Their essays are fabulous. But the system is broken. With humor and hard-earned wisdom, Early Decision illuminates the madness of the college race.


Dreaming about getting soon:

Illusions of Fate
by Kiersten White
-paranormal, YA
Amazon | Goodreads

Downton Abbey meets Cassandra Clare in this lush, romantic fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White.

“I did my best to keep you from crossing paths with this world. And I shall do my best to protect you now that you have.”

Jessamin has been an outcast since she moved from her island home of Melei to the dreary country of Albion. Everything changes when she meets Finn, a gorgeous, enigmatic young lord who introduces her to the secret world of Albion’s nobility, a world that has everything Jessamin doesn’t—power, money, status…and magic. But Finn has secrets of his own, dangerous secrets that the vicious Lord Downpike will do anything to possess. Unless Jessamin, armed only with her wits and her determination, can stop him.

Kiersten White captured readers’ hearts with her New York Times bestselling Paranormalcy trilogy and its effortless mix of magic and real-world teenage humor. She returns to that winning combination of wit, charm, and enchantment in Illusions of Fate, a sparkling and romantic new novel perfect for fans of Cassandra Clare, The Madman’s Daughter, and Libba Bray.


~*~

* some of these may be offered as giveaways within the next two months

* comment and TELL me what you have acquired for your shelves recently

* per usual, check out the sidebar for my current giveaways offers

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Stacking the Shelves - 9.13.14

Stacking the Shelves
hosted by Tynga's Reviews (details)

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

~*~

Bought:

Jabberwocky: A Novel
by Daniel Coleman
-action, fantasy, alice in wonderland
GET yours: Amazon kindle version is currently $.99 until Sep 23
FYI: win this at Goodreads

For Review:

The Silent Sister
by Diane Chamberlain
-chick-lit, mystery, thriller
courtesy of Reading Group Gold of St. Martins
Thanks !
Amazon | Goodreads

First Impressions:
A Novel of Old Books, Unexpected Love, and Jane Austen

by Charlie Lovett
-historical, Jane Austen, mystery
courtesy of edelweiss
Thanks !
Amazon | Goodreads

Library:

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
by David Mitchell
-historical, Japan
Amazon | Goodreads

The year is 1799, the place Dejima in Nagasaki Harbor, the “high-walled, fan-shaped artificial island” that is the Japanese Empire’s single port and sole window onto the world, designed to keep the West at bay; the farthest outpost of the war-ravaged Dutch East Indies Company; and a de facto prison for the dozen foreigners permitted to live and work there. To this place of devious merchants, deceitful interpreters, costly courtesans, earthquakes, and typhoons comes Jacob de Zoet, a devout and resourceful young clerk who has five years in the East to earn a fortune of sufficient size to win the hand of his wealthy fiancĆ©e back in Holland.

But Jacob’s original intentions are eclipsed after a chance encounter with Orito Aibagawa, the disfigured daughter of a samurai doctor and midwife to the city’s powerful magistrate. The borders between propriety, profit, and pleasure blur until Jacob finds his vision clouded, one rash promise made and then fatefully broken. The consequences will extend beyond Jacob’s worst imaginings. As one cynical colleague asks, “Who ain’t a gambler in the glorious Orient, with his very life?”

A magnificent mix of luminous writing, prodigious research, and heedless imagination, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is the most impressive achievement of its eminent author.


-----> finally going to start reading his works, although I did see Cloud Atlas and liked it

Dreaming about getting soon:

Station Eleven
by Emily St. John Mandel
-dystopia
Amazon | Goodreads

An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse, Station Eleven tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.

One snowy night Arthur Leander, a famous actor, has a heart attack onstage during a production of King Lear. Jeevan Chaudhary, a paparazzo-turned-EMT, is in the audience and leaps to his aid. A child actress named Kirsten Raymonde watches in horror as Jeevan performs CPR, pumping Arthur’s chest as the curtain drops, but Arthur is dead. That same night, as Jeevan walks home from the theater, a terrible flu begins to spread. Hospitals are flooded and Jeevan and his brother barricade themselves inside an apartment, watching out the window as cars clog the highways, gunshots ring out, and life disintegrates around them.

Fifteen years later, Kirsten is an actress with the Traveling Symphony. Together, this small troupe moves between the settlements of an altered world, performing Shakespeare and music for scattered communities of survivors. Written on their caravan, and tattooed on Kirsten’s arm is a line from Star Trek: “Because survival is insufficient.” But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who digs graves for anyone who dares to leave.

Spanning decades, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, this suspenseful, elegiac novel is rife with beauty. As Arthur falls in and out of love, as Jeevan watches the newscasters say their final good-byes, and as Kirsten finds herself caught in the crosshairs of the prophet, we see the strange twists of fate that connect them all. A novel of art, memory, and ambition, Station Eleven tells a story about the relationships that sustain us, the ephemeral nature of fame, and the beauty of the world as we know it.


~*~

* some of these may be offered as giveaways within the next two months

* comment and TELL me what you have acquired for your shelves recently

* per usual, check out the sidebar for my current giveaways offers

 
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