Jenny's Books Added - February 2014

Books and Tea February 2014 (eBooks and digital audio not pictured)

In January, I started the monthly tradition of posting about the books I'd added to my collection, whether or not I read them.  The list that follows will be quite a bit longer because I added quite a few digital books this month!

In the physical pile:
The Savannah Walking Tour & Guidebook by Paul Bland
Annihilation (Southern Reach Trilogy #1) by Jeff VanderMeer
The Letters of Abelard and Heloise
As They Were by M.F.K. Fisher
Under Magnolia: A Southern Memoir by Frances Mayes
Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times edited by Neal Astby
George Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger (audiobook)
Eminent Hipsters by Donald Fagen (audiobook)

In the virtual pile - eBooks:
Positron #1-3 by Margaret Atwood (I'm Starved for You, Choke Collar, Erase Me)
A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg
The Here and Now by Ann Brashares
Days of Blood and Starlight (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #2) by Laini Taylor
Deep Winter by Samuel W. Gailey
The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards by Kristopher Jansma
Euphoria by Lily King
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart

In the virtual pile - audiobooks:
Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the People's Temple by Deborah Layton
Let's Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir) by Jenny Lawson
Archetype (Archetype #1) by M.D. Waters
The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness
I Shall Be Near to You by Erin Lindsay McCabe
Shift Omnibus Edition by Hugh Howey
Dust by Hugh Howey
One More Thing by B.J. Novak
The Martian by Andy Weir

Oh goodness.  The list alone is long enough for a blog post, so I will try to keep this short.  No, I have not read all of these.  The large mass of books this month is largely to do with downloading books I had queued up in NetGalley for fear of losing them, spending credits in Audible for fear of losing them, and being on this strange audiobook kick.  Not print. Audio. That's really weird for me.  I have worked my way through seven audiobooks this month (only one purchased before February 1), a number that is incredibly high for my usual consumption!

One book on this list has an interesting story to it.  I am a member of the book club for the International Center of the Upstate, and once a year we bring in a local author.  Susan Tekulve came to talk about her novel In the Garden of Stone, but I also left with a few authors written down to try.  She said she often reads everything an author has written before moving on to the next author, and that she was currently in the middle of M.F.K. Fischer.  I hunted down one of her books through Paperbackswap.com, but have not tried it yet.  I have a few unread foodie books at home; I should probably quit bringing them home but they stare at me with those EYES.

I got a few other books from Paperbackswap.com - The Letters of Abelard and Heloise (for my reading goals 2014) and Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times. This is an incredible book of poetry that I first found through interlibrary loan and I've had on my wish list for years now. It was perfect timing for it to become available this week - I need some uplifting poetry! I'm debating whether I should send this to my mother or not. It is out of print, so I'd have to get her a used copy regardless.

Most of you probably know that I coordinate reviews for SFFAudio.com.  I get a lot of audiobooks at my house, although less come in boxes than had previously.  Most of the time I'm just seeing long lists of all the shiny new books coming out, and that leads me towards reviews or purchases.  I got the Kilmeade, Fagen, Layton, McCabe, Ness, and Waters this way.  Another reviewer wrote about The Martian, but I spent my own Audible credits on that one, as well as the Novak, the two Howeys, and the Lawson.  Most of these I have either finished or have them downloaded onto my iPhonish for the next week.  I have a short commute but if I listen through lunch and during walks, I can get through a lot of audiobook at 2x speed.

Another source for review books, NetGalley, is to blame for almost all the eBooks on this list, everything except the Atwood, Wizenburg, and Stewart (these three I blame on Kindle Daily Deals!).  I took a break from Sue Monk Kidd after seeing her speak (long story) but I am glad to be in the middle of The Invention of Wings.  It is based on the true story of Sarah Grimke, an abolitionist who was shunned from the pre-Civil War Charleston of the early 1800s.  I'm heading to Savannah and Charleston in a week, so it is nice to immerse back into a bit of its history before taking my sister around. 

I didn't explain every book that I've added, in fact I feel a wee bit sheepish at the volume of this list and post.  You can follow my reviews of every little thing more closely at GoodReads, listen to me talk about books on the Reading Envy podcast, purchase my delicious blend of Reading Envy tea (coconut earl grey) or stalk me elsewhere on the internet.  There is a magical place where I post pictures of books and beagles....