From the Acquisitions Department

It's summer library book sale again, everyone.  I expect to take less joy from it this year because I am limiting myself.  Horrors!  There are at least three big local library book sales every summer.  Considering that I just did a major bookshelf purge of somewhere between one and two hundred books and the books still don't all fit on the double-stacked shelves, I should probably be swearing off all booksales, nay, I mean all books.  Alas, I've never been good at going cold turkey off of, well, anything, I decided that limiting myself to 1 of 3 book sales would have to do.  There's one that's just a can't miss, and so, I didn't miss it. 

I'm glad I didn't miss it considering I got an unusually large haul of my first love, historical fiction, that's been much missing from my reading lately.  Plus, I got a nice dose of YA which I usually have a tough time finding on the book sale circuit.  Here's the haul, with haphazard commentary, of course.

Historical Fiction

The Given Day - Dennis Lehane - Boston, History.  Yes.
One Thousand White Women - Jim Fergus
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane - Katherine Howe - For some reason I was irrationally disinterested in this book when it came out and all the bloggers were glowing about it.  Considering that the first historical fiction book that ever truly captivated me was about the Salem Witch Trials, you would think this would be a gimme..
Skeletons at the Feast - Chris Bohjalian - Because WWII era historical fiction is my absolute favorite. 
Clara and Mr. Tiffany - Susan Vreeland
A Mercy - Toni Morrison - Okay, true confession.  Toni Morrison's books both attract and terrify me.  Once upon a time in high school, I chose Paradise from a reading list we were given.  The writing was great, but the rest of it pretty much went right over my head.  I'm still not sure what the book was about.  I'm trying her again, anyway.  Wish me luck!
The Doctor and the Diva - Adrienne McDonnell - The bloggers made me do it!
Song Yet Sung - James McBride

The YA

Hush, Hush - Becca Fitzpatrick - Is it just me or does this sound Twilight-esque?
Cupcake - Rachel Cohn - Ugh, there's another book in between Gingerbread and this one that I haven't read.  Fail.
Beastly - Alex Flinn - This has sounded good to me for a while.  I'm sad to report, however, it's got the movie cover art.  I hate that, but I'm trying to tell myself it's what's on the inside that counts.
Eighth Grade Bites (Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, Book 1) - Heather Brewer - Is it weird to get a book because you have a tote bag with the logo and you really love it?  Because, I kind of picked this one up because I got the vampire smiley face bag at BEA a couple of years ago and adore it irrationally, and a book with such a tote bag representation must be examined...right?  There is truly no end to my excuses as to why I must have this or that book. 

Everything Else

Mercy - Jodi Picoult - I'm trying to complete my Jodi Picoult collection.  I'm not sure why, I rarely get around to actually reading them.
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley - This is a book that I never would have picked up if all the bloggers weren't going on and on (and on!) about it and all the rest of the Flavia de Luce books.  I'm not a huge mystery fan in general, but I couldn't pass up the chance to give it a try what with all the raving and all.
The Madonnas of Echo Park - Brando Skyhorse
Left Neglected - Lisa Genova - Bloggers made me buy this!
Emotionally Weird - Kate Atkinson
Home - Marilynne Robinson - Winning an Orange Prize or having anything to do with the Orange Prize, really, is a no-brainer of a purchase.
Lost and Found - Carolyn Parkhurst
The Woman in Black - Susan Hill - I think one of the the Book Smugglers sold me on this one.
Digging to America - Anne Tyler
The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson - I remember this book being huge in the blogosphere when away back when I started blogging.  Another book that I probably would have passed over if not for bloggers!
Bitter in the Mouth - Monique Truong - Bloggers made me buy this one, too!


All right, now.  What should I read first?

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