Latest Acquisitions (October – December 2013)
Posted 9th December 2013
Category: Acquisitions Genres: N/A
6 Comments
I’ve many books still to be reviewed, so that and the fact I haven’t bought anything or used a gift card for a couple of months now means very few new books these last few weeks. That said, I did finally use a gift card last week, so that accounts for a couple of the books here.
Heather Walsh: The Drake Equation – I was offered this by the author and was particularly impressed by the cover. That’s not to say that the plot isn’t good of course, because it is.
Jung Chang: Empress Dowager Cixi – I think I jumped for joy when I saw that there was a huge picture of Cixi on a book cover. Over the last few years she’s become one of my favourite people to study as there is so much to learn and there’s the eternal question: was she evil, or was she a woman desperate to make a mark in a man’s world who made bad choices? Whichever it is, she was remarkable in many ways. If I can keep myself from reading it I may make this book one of my five for the What’s In A Name challenge, but I really don’t know if I can.
Neil Randall: The Holy Drinker – The author wrote me a rather good pitch and there is a lot of promise here.
Shannon Stacey: Love A Little Sideways – This is the last of the major books of my favourite contemporary romance series (okay, my only series). Despite the fact that Stacey has written them with not too much time in between, it’s the end of an era.
Srikumar Sen: The Skinning Tree – I love Indian culture and need to read more books about the country, so when I was offered this one I jumped at the chance. It sounds quite dark – the title is rather literal – but very good.
Terry Pratchett: Raising Steam – This was given to me a short while ago. It looks lovely, there’s just one problem – I’ve only read up to book 7 in the series so far and feel this might be a bit ahead of me. Ana assured me I should be fine, but I still might leave it for a while.
What have you received/bought/borrowed in the last month?
December 9, 2013, 10:17 am
I’m hoping to read the Cixi bio – although I note that I still have Marina Warner’s Cixi bio on my kindle, as yet unread. Too much choice! She is a fascinating figure (Cixi, I mean; though Warner is too, obviously!). I visited her Summer Palace at Xmas last year in China – extraordinary what one can accomplish using a nation’s resources!
December 9, 2013, 10:23 am
Charlie, I actually take that back now that I’ve read it. Raising Steam features a lot of classic Discworld characters and addresses themes that Terry Pratchett has been developing throughout the series in a way that surprised me. The overall plot about the introduction of the steam engine will still make sense if you’re a new reader, but as a whole the book will be much more rewarding if you’re up to date with Discworld.
December 9, 2013, 10:24 am
Also, reading it would spoil certain books in the series, especially the latter City Watch ones, and that would be a great shame!
December 9, 2013, 7:20 pm
I’ve read Wild Swans by Jung Chang, which I loved, but I didn’t know she’d written a book about Cixi. I’m sure it will be fascinating!
December 10, 2013, 11:09 am
Charlie another interesting haul of books again. I wouldn’t worry too much about reading the Discworld novels out of sync I’ve read books from all over the series!
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December 9, 2013, 2:21 am
I’ve only been buying books for presents over the past month. And this month I can’t buy books for myself, because we have an Official Buying Embargo that starts after Christmas — nobody can buy anything for herself until Christmas has happened, to minimize the risk of buying something that somebody has bought for you already. :p