Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme started by Marcia years ago, and has since jumped to different hosts. It's a post to showcase books and book-related items gathered through the previous week.
Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.
Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.
This week was an excellent week for books - brand news ones ordered from Amazon, as well as two trips made to two different thrift stores where I ended up finding tons of great finds.
Amazon Order
Thank God Amazon is so fast. I ordered these Monday and received them Friday. I was beyond excited for this box. Next month is already exciting because the new Kim Harrison Hollows book, the next to last, is finally going to be released in later February, The Undead Pool. I already plan to read that one as soon as I go and grab it from the local bookstore. With so many Urban fantasies adding up, it's definitely mainly going to be an Urban Fantasy reading month in February.
Except for one, all of these are firsts of established UF series.
Stray...well, I loved this cover. Something about it drew me in. Amazon sent it with the top slightly
damaged (grrr). Not enough to return or worry about and it's pretty large. I'm not the biggest shapeshifter fan as the focal point in my UF, but the plot sounded so enticing I couldn't pass it up. I hadn't heard of it this series before, though, so I'm completely unsure if the enjoyment will live up to its description for me.
Darkfever is another highly rated UF series that I had on my wishlist for quite awhile. I haven't read the author before but she comes highly suggested. It focuses with the Fae, which is kind of a bane for me in UF, but the ratings for this one (almost five stars) with thousands of reviews for Goodreads is impressive.
Fury of the Demon is the newest release of the Kara Gillian UF series, of which I have reviewed all previous editions. It's a series with demons and summoning and one I highly enjoy and generally recommend, although I was irritated with the last release. Here's hoping this one is more my style.
Finally Ill Wind is the other recommended series from Jeff. He has talked about this for awhile, and it's unique in that it involves something with weather. Original, right? We shall see when I finally get to read it.
Despite the Amazon box being way too small for Malz, he of course makes himself fit to an extent for a cute picture. I tried to get a shot of him sleeping in there, but he caught on before I could take the picture.Thrift Store Finds
It was with sad circumstance I ended up at Goodwill Monday night. There was a terrible accident on South Florida, and the traffic jam from this was horrid. It usually takes me around 10 minutes to reach Goodwill when driving home - Monday night it took 55 minutes. The police were redirecting traffic through the gas station and Goodwill parking lot. By this point I really needed to use the restroom and the car was acting up a bit. I had also been wanting to go to Goodwill for awhile now, so I just parked and got everything done at once instead driving through, taking a break from traffic.
I knew I'd find something at Goodwill, I just had no idea how MUCH. Great finds for great prices.
The second trip, to the Salvation Army, was Tuesday night. It was with aggravation I had to find some spare time to spend before I could go home because of a call from my fiance. I figured, why not look around Salvation Army? I ended up finding some more great books there, a big delight in firsts and missing of series. They usually don't have paranormal stuff, but someone must have dropped some off.
I was delighted to find the next Succubus series by Richelle Mead. I wasn't sure which I owned when buying these, so it was a gamble, but fortunately it turned out I didn't own either. - Succubus Heat and Succubus Dreams. Same for the Christina Dodd series. The biggest highlight for me was finding the anthology of Sookie Stackhouse short stories for so cheap at Salvation Army in such perfect condition, A Touch of Dead. This was on my wishlist for awhile. I can't wait to start Jeanine Frost's series, so One Foot in the Grave was a delight to find. Wilder and Vision of Magic are also paranormal, but I'm not familiar with their series.
These fun mysteries were discovered at Goodwill. The four Lawrence Block's were found together as part of a series - always fun. The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza
(Rhodenbarr, #4) , The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling
(Rhodenbarr, #3) , The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian
(Rhodenbarr, #5) , The Burglar in the Closet
(Rhodenbarr, #2) .Death of a Cozy Writer seems suitably cute and quaint. The Good Girl's Guide to Murder looks fun and has an adorable cover to boot.
Here are the 'younger' finds - I like the RL Stine Fear street books from childhood for nostalgia sake, and my son was briefly into the Goosebumps series, which is much younger. Finding this hard cover with three books for a campfire collection was certainly impossible to pass up. The Harry Potter book, #5, is one I was missing in the series before my planned read this year of the series. Yes, finally. I've been collecting the Series of Unfortunate Events series, and this is the first one.
Here are the drama finds of the group -Sarah's Key has been on my GR wishlist for awhile. I have a big feeling the story shall be a depressing one. The Book Borrower is something I've never heard of, but the cover and the title drew me in to read the blurb, which sounds fascinating, even if the reviews are mixed on Goodreads. The Glass Castle was another wishlist item, which has an interesting story in description and good reviews. Since reading Prince of Tides last year, finding Beach Music was a treat and I'm curious how well it holds up and compares with Southern Charm.
I loved Still Me by Christopher Reeve, his autobiography. He already fascinates me with his life story and of course being a huge Superman fan. This biography grabbed me instantly for that reason. The other one, Miracles by CS Lewis, was an immediate buy. I loved his Mere Christianity and wish to collect his full bibliography.
Of course I can never avoid a decent looking Indian themed romance. I've read a few Cassie Edwards and they are always mixed treats. This one has surprisingly high reviews. One of the biggest finds of the week was Books of Blood, Volume 2 - I've been re-reading these anthologies and own most of them. This was actually one I was missing out of the first five, so the odds of finding it and in such perfect condition, was a treat. The other is one of the biggest finds too - Stephen King's full Green Mile series in the original box. Yay! Sadly they charged me per book but it was still cheap considering. I read one or two of these serials as a teen so I'm delighted to revisit. Finally I have a book set in box form.
Last are three cute looking books to wrap up everything. Ninja Soccer Moms sounds hilarious, is a mystery in the cozy vein. Aphrodite's Kiss is a contemporary romance for a woman who has developed super powers and, as you can see, enjoys trying out the X-ray vision in a creative way. After a Friends of the Librarian representative's suggestion last year at the massive book fair in February, I want to try more Harlan Coben so grabbed this one immediately.
I definitely ended up getting more books than I thought possible this week. Get anything interesting?
Get anything interesting this week?
Until next time, Happy Reading!
