Mmmmm...Books

I've had two bookstore gift cards on my desk since Christmas, so I figured it was time I used them. Since I get asked a lot what books I like to read, I thought it might be fun to show ya'll what I bought.

Since I had two cards at two different stores, I used one to get books on my wish list that I haven't gotten to yet, so some of these have been out a while. The other I used the "also liked" feature to find books I didn't know about. The online version of browsing, I guess.

Going Bovine, by Libba Bray
I've been hearing amazing things about this book. The first line sold me. The voice is just fantastic and makes you want to read on. I haven't read anything by Libba Bray yet, but people rave about her, so it's time I find out what she's all about.







Deep Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn
I found this one when I was doing some research on suspense/thriller novels, looking at spooky books. I love creepy mysteries where you just don't know what the secret is, so this should be a lot of fun.








The Adoration of Jenna Fox, by Mary E. Pearson
This is another book that everyone was talking about. Creepy, a slight sci fi bent (I think) to it. Another with a cool mystery with lots of twists and turns. I really love books like this and Deep Dark, and I wish I could write one like it. I'll probably try one soon (hence part of my "research") since I have an idea brewing. Of course, that's after Shifter 3 is done.

By the way, doesn't this cover rock? I like this much better than the hardcover.



The Compound, by S Bodeen
I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic/end-of-the-world futures, so this looked really cool, and the opening pages were good. A totally random choice, found because it came up in a "might like" under the Jenna Fox book, so I started my next search with it.






How I Live Now, By Meg Rosoff
And I might as well continue the trend and find some more end-of-the-world stories. This one isn't quite that, but a future war with teens trying to survive is close enough to make me happy.








Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden
Another war one, teens come back from a camping trip to find the country's been invaded. There are seven of these in the series, so I really hope the first is good. I'm always looking to find a great series I can really get into.







So that's it for my shopping trip today. I'm not sure when I'll get to these since I already have about 15 books on my To-Read list. Writing Shifter 2 really took a lot of time last year, so my reading suffered and I didn't get to read nearly as many books as I wanted to.

You know what? I saw a bunch of "100 Books in a Year" posts by a lot of bloggers out there, so I think I'm going to try for something similar this year. I think 100 books is a bit ambitious, but 50 is probably doable.

So, my overly ambitious goal: Two books a week.

My more realistic goal: One book a week.

I'm currently almost done with The Curse of the Bane by Joseph Delaney, so I'm going to cheat all call that book one! Next up after that...








A Certain Strain of Peculiar by Gigi Amateau

Let's see if I can read both by Sunday night. I'll talk about them on Monday, and let you know what is on the list for that week.

And feel free to tell me what you're reading and recommend stuff.