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.