It's a New Year With New Books!

And like a magical switch had been flipped, I actually woke up this morning, and when I sat down at the computer, I wanted to write a blog post instead of thinking I should write a blog post. I'm hoping this is a sign of good things to come.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and a bookish holiday. From what I've seen, many of you have, and so did I! I was actually very conservative about the amount of books I put on my Christmas list, and I received three of the four that I asked for. I asked for and received Complications by Atul Gawande, an essay collection about the trials faced by the medical profession as written by a surgeon. In an unprecedented turn of events I had finished a book on Christmas Eve, and so was able to start one right away on Christmas, and I've been devouring Complications, a book I've meant to read forever and even more so since Eva has been known to gush about (and rightly so from what I've read so far!). I also got The Knife of Never Letting Go, the dystopian YA that any number of my bloggy friends have been going on about, but which I probably most associate with Nymeth's raving. Lastly, I received a copy of Listening Is an Act of Love which is a collection of personal stories from ordinary people as told to their loved ones in StoryCorps interview booths. I can't remember where I originally heard about it, but I do know that I'm quite excited to have it.



Now, just because I was so well-behaved with asking for books on my Christmas list doesn't mean there's been any shortage of books coming into the house lately. In fact, you may remember this post where I came to you enablers for your help not indulging in the Book Closeouts Black Friday fiction sale. As I was counting on, you all did not dissuade me but convinced me that purchasing myself some books was, in fact, the right course of action. With that in mind, I whittled my total down to a mere 7 (for a house in which the shelf space probably stands at perhaps -150 books right now). Yes, I'm ashamed, but I'm also pretty elated with the haul, too.

It consists of...

- After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell (from which the text of my header comes, and which I decided I definitely needed a copy for my own collection)
- Stand the Storm by Breena Clark (historical fiction about freed slaves in DC during the Civil War)
- The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney (more historical fiction that I've had on my wishlist for a long time!)
- Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson (another that feels like I've wanted it forever!)
- 26a by Diana Evans (an Orange Prize for New Writers winner for my lapsed Orange Project reading)
- The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke (which many of my blogging friends were talking up during the Once Upon a Time Challenge last year)
- Birds in Fall by Brad Kessler (which I have no comment for, but sounds really good)

And all of this doesn't count several review copies that have shuffled in in recent weeks, which I don't think I'm going to mention because I'm getting tired (and slightly ashamed), but which I haven't forgotten and will be getting to in the extremely near future once I finish the book I gave myself permission to enjoy with no strings attached for Christmas.

In other news, in one fell swoop I told myself that I would read more books this year, waaaay more books, and also joined Twitter. That's right. I've crossed over to the Twitter dark side after months and months and months of wisely holding out. Nonetheless, I went and got a phone with internet capabilities, and I felt like I needed something to make it feel like I was getting my money's worth out of it. So, Twitter it is. My name there is toadacious1, which is actually a weird screenname I've been using since I was in high school, so if you've got a sketchy follower with "toad" in their name, that's me. If you want to follow me, please do, and if you'd like me to follow you (if I'm not already), please do leave me your name, and I'll look you up! Also, if you can think of a few people or entitities that I'd really be missing out by not following leave their names, too, if you please.



All right, that's all from me for today, but I'll be trying to catch up with the blogosphere as soon as today's pork and sauerkraut eating is through. Also - keep your eyes peeled for the 3rd Annual Leafy Awards for Excellent Books Read in 2009!

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