New Year Goals

It's January 2013 and as the gyms fill up with everyone who's made a resolution to lose weight this year, it's time for me to take stock of my goals for the year.

1. Read 40 books
2. Read 3 non-fiction books
3. Enjoy goals 1 & 2 :)

I decided that I am not going to try for anything too ambitious, mostly because I really want to do goal 3 rather than pick up books based on some arbitrary criteria.

Here are 3 of the books that I would like to read in 2013:

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth E. Wein - this is a YA novel that appeared on so many 2012 best lists that I am really curious to try it

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: A Novel by Mary Ann Shaffer - this also got a whole lot of rave reviews and sounds like a fun read.

Still Life: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel by Louise Penny - I first read a review of this book on Carl's blog and it caught my interest. I am definitely expanding into mystery novels these days.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else is reading. Best of 2012 lists definitely bolstered my to-read list and I am looking forward to some awesome books in the months to come.

May Book Shopping

It's May, it's nice weather, the mood is good and got even better as I visited a few book stores today. I came away with 5 books and pretty happy with my purchases. Here's what I picked up:

1. The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks. This is the second book in the set of Culture novels. I believe it's a standalone set in the same world as Consider Phlebas. It's commonly mentioned as one of the best Culture novels and given my enjoyment of the prior novel, this was not a difficult choice.

2. The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi. This is the continuation of the Old Man's War. Another easy pick since I really liked the previous book.

3. A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. I've never read anything by Vinge before, but the book came highly recommended. It's an alien-contact type sci-fi and not my typical fare, but I think I may find it interesting.

4. The House on Durrow Street by Galen Beckett. Another instance of second-in-series buy. This is a fantasy novel that continues The Magician's and Mrs. Quent.

5. Gun, with Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem. This is another pick of an author I've never read before. However, I got a strong recommendation from a co-worker and flipping through the book in the store made me even more curious to try it. Looking forward to reading it.

Now that I have replenished my TBR pile, time to get reading :)

New Book Orders

Just as my reading stack was reducing to a manageable size I ordered some more books from Amazon. Quite a few of them won't be coming till May when they release, but a few more will be coming in shortly. Here are some of the books I ordered:

1. Dragon Haven: Volume Two of the Rain Wilds by Robin Hobb

I may have already mentioned in the review for Dragon Keeper that the book has been simply cut into two with a knife. This is the second half that will be coming out on May 11th which I wish could be read more closely with the first half. Hopefully I will still remember who's who in May.

2. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

Continuing with the theme of long book titles, I am very much looking forward to the last book in the Millenium Trilogy. I am sure this doesn't come as a surprise to anyone following my last review. This book is coming out at the end of May.

3. The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The amazement at how good The Shadow of the Wind was is still somewhat fresh in my mind, and I am hoping that this new novel by Zafon will live up to my expectations. It will release in the beginning of May. In fact, I think May might be an amazing month for reading.

4. Black Magic Sanction by Kim Harrison

The latest Rachel Morgan adventure is being released on February 23rd. I am hoping for another enjoyable romp with Harrison's characters.

5. The Magicians by Lev Grossman

This new fantasy novel seems to have graced a whole lot of Best Of 2009 lists. I am going to find out what the hype is all about for myself.

Book Purchases

It's certainly nice to be able to afford new books. And I think I may be getting addicted. For all that I've been thinking of keeping my reading queue down to a few books at a time, I just always jump at a chance to get new books. And only 6 days into December, I already replenished my reading list with 6 new books:

1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

This book seems to be all over bookstores and book blogs. I recently read a very good review for the book at Fyrefly's blog and I find we usually like similar types of books. So I am taking the dive to see what the hype has been all about.

2. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

by E. Lockhart

This book was recommended to me as part of the 4R's challenge. This is much too late for the original challenge's time frame, but I expect I may still enjoy the book. I was a little disappointed with the amount of suggestions generated during the challenge's recommendation phase, but this certainly sounds like an interesting book, so I am giving it a chance.

3 & 4. Kitty and the Silver Bullet / Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand by Carrie Vaughn.

I give in. I am hooked on Kitty, Cormac, and Ben. I am going to continue reading until Carrie Vaughn inevitably will become Laurell Hamilton and then I will give up in disgust. But until then, I am sure I'll get to enjoy a couple more Kitty stories.

5. Soulless by Gail Carriger

I saw some pretty good reviews of this new author, and the tagline sounds pretty catchy too: "A novel of vampires, werewolves, and parasols". It's either going to be seriously stupid or ironically hilarious. I guess I am going to find out which one it is.

6. Ringworld by Larry Niven

This one is to fill out gaps in my classic science fiction. I've heard so much praise for Larry Niven and so many references to Ringworld in particular that I want to read it for myself. I am hoping it's a good read. For all the enjoyment I get out of kick-ass heroines, classics often end up being a great treat.

So now I am looking forward to all this great reading. I don't think I am going to hit my yearly goal by the end of the month, so I will just relax into reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell slowly.

Birthday Books

It was my birthday last month and I've got a whole lot of books as a present off of my Amazon wish list. Now they are all sitting on my shelf tempting me to read them all at once.

1. Acacia by David Anthony Durham
This is a fantasy novel someone recommended to me. I have not been reading a whole lot of fantasy lately, but I have a feeling I'll enjoy this one. The premise looks interesting and the story sounds rather dark.

2. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
This book made a big splash when it first came out 5 years ago. There were a lot of people who loved it for its language, and new subject matter. This is going to be my chance to see whether all the fame is well-deserved.

3. Clockwork Heart by Dru Pagliassotti
This is a steampunk book that has been reviewed quite a bit in the blogosphere. With all the positive reviews, I decided it will be worth reading even though I am not a huge fan of the genre as a rule.

4. The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
Tia Nevitt from Fantasy Debut wrote a post discussing The Name Of The Wind as a Character Development (CD) book. In the same post she spoke of this book as being one of her favorite CD books. Since I am a huge fan of Rothfuss's work and think that characters are the most important attribute of any book for me, I decided this might be a very worthwhile read.

5. Sunshine by Robin McKinley
Sunshine was recommended to me at a forum where I requested recommendations. The main character sounded interesting and all the positive reviews got me convinced I'll enjoy the book.

6. Night Soldiers by Alan Furst
I was in the midst of evangelizing The Shadow of the Wind to everyone who would listen, when a friend suggested I might enjoy Alan Furst's historic fiction. It is not a genre I have read much of, but if his name is spoken in the same sentence as Zafon's, then I am certainly willing to give it a try.

7. Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey
Considering I love all the Kushiel books by Carey, I couldn't possibly skip her new book. The reviews I have seen so far are positive and I hope her new world and characters are as exciting as those of her previous books.

8. Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi
There were a whole lot of reviews of Scalzi's latest book Zoe's Tale. And it seems he got quite a few fans for every single book out there. Aliens invading Hollywood sounded like a pretty fun theme to me and it's nice to have some science fiction in the mix.

9. The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden by Catherynne M. Valente
For the life of me, I cannot remember adding this book to my Amazon wish list. It looks like a collection of fairy tales and I don't know why I picked it out, but I hope I had good reason's back then. We'll see.

So nine new shiny books sitting on my shelves waiting to be read. I'd better get going.

New Acquisitions

I went on a tiny shopping spree at amazon.com the other day and now there are four new books making their way towards me.

1. Eclipse 2 edited by Jonathan Strahan
I've been saying I'll get to reading this one and I finally ordered it. I am mostly looking forward to reading Exhalation by Ted Chiang, but I am sure there will be other excellent stories there as well.

2. Grimspace by Ann Aguirre
Sounds like a fun space adventure book. I've read a number of positive reviews, so I finally decided to pick it up.

3. The Briar King by Greg Keyes
It's a classic fantasy novel that is excellent by all accounts and I just have never gotten to. Time to fill up the education gaps and hopefully it will be as good as everyone thinks it is.

4. I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris
This is a completely random pick. I just followed a link and the description sounded fun. A book of tips about how to throw a house party written very tongue in cheek by all accounts. I have been having a lot of guests over lately...

So the books are in the mail and I should get going on clearing some bookshelf space for these.

Incoming Books

I am still reading Caine Black Knife at the moment. It's an interesting book, but I am finding that I don't have a lot of time for reading lately. Nevertheless, I ordered some new books from Amazon that I've seen discussed on other blogs or recommended at The Dragon Federation.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
This is a children's book, but it received a number of fantastic reviews from sci-fi and fantasy reviewers around the blogosphere. It also recently won John Newberry Award. Plus, I've enjoyed every single Gaiman's book that I've read and I expect this will be top notch.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
This book was rated best read of last year on Dark Wolf's Fantasy Reviews. And the Amazon reviews intrigued me. It sounds unusual and interesting. I like trying out new authors, so this one made my list.

The Outback Stars by Sandra McDonald
This is a SF military novel that many other bloggers seemed to enjoy last year. I am a sucker for strong/smart heroines and this definitely sounded like it had one. Also I have been reading quite a bit of fantasy lately and it's nice to add some SF into the mix.

Now I am just waiting for Amazon to ship the books to me. Hopefully my life will be getting less hectic and I'll be reading all of these soon.