Saturday, February 6, 2016

An Accidental (But Highly Responsible) Book Haul


Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews. I get to show off all the books I’ve gotten.

If you’ve been keeping up with this blog, you know that I recently purged a lot of books. As a result, I have a ton of credits for the used bookstore. Technically, I’m supposed to be on a book-acquiring ban, but I couldn’t resist spending some of my credits. I justified my book-acquiring by only getting books written by authors who live (or lived) outside the US. It’s my goal to read more international authors this year, so this haul is helping with my New Year’s resolution. That’s a good justification for the haul’s existence, right? I also got a few classics, so I’m killing two resolutions with one haul. You should be proud of me for hauling so responsibly.

Anyway, here’s what I got:



 
 

The Phantom of the Opera – Gaston Leroux


First published in French as a serial in 1909, The Phantom of the Opera is a riveting story that revolves around the young, Swedish Christine DaaƩ. Her father, a famous musician, dies, and she is raised in the Paris Opera House with his dying promise of a protective angel of music to guide her. After a time at the opera house, she begins hearing a voice, who eventually teaches her how to sing beautifully. All goes well until Christine's childhood friend Raoul comes to visit his parents, who are patrons of the opera, and he sees Christine when she begins successfully singing on the stage. The voice, who is the deformed, murderous 'ghost' of the opera house, grows violent in his terrible jealousy. Christine suddenly disappears. The phantom is in love, but it can only spell disaster.




Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt


This is the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank’s mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank’s father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy—exasperating, irresponsible, and beguiling—does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story. Frank lives for his father’s tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and of the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies. 
Perhaps it is story that accounts for Frank’s survival. Wearing rags for diapers, begging a pig’s head for Christmas dinner, and gathering coal from the roadside to light a fire, Frank endures poverty, near-starvation, and the casual cruelty of relatives and neighbors—yet lives to tell his tale with eloquence, exuberance, and remarkable forgiveness.


 

All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque


In 1914 a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the 'glorious war.' With the fire and patriotism of youth they sign up. What follows is the moving story of a young 'unknown soldier' experiencing the horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches.




Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro


As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were. Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life, and for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special—and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together.




Dracula – Bram Stoker


One of the most popular stories ever told, Dracula (1897) has been recreated for the stage and screen hundreds of times in the last century. Yet it is essentially a Victorian saga, an awesome tale of a thrillingly bloodthirsty vampire whose nocturnal atrocities reflect the dark underside of a supremely moralistic age. Above all, Dracula is a quintessential story of suspense and horror, boasting one of the most terrifying characters in literature: centuries-old Count Dracula, whose diabolical passions prey upon the innocent, the helpless, the beautiful.




Poor Things: Episodes from the Early Life of Archibald McCandless M.D. Scottish Public Health Officer – Alasdair Gray


Poor Things is a postmodern revision of Frankenstein that replaces the traditional monster with Bella Baxter—a beautiful young erotomaniac brought back to life with the brain of an infant. Godwin Baxter's scientific ambition to create the perfect companion is realized when he finds the drowned body of Bella, but his dream is thwarted by Dr. Archibald McCandless's jealous love for Baxter's creation.




Illuminae – Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff



This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do. 
This afternoon, her planet was invaded. 
The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit. 
But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she'd never speak to again.





16 comments:

  1. The Phantom of the Opera is one of my favorite books ever! And I'm currently reading Illuminae. Loving it so far! ♥

    Happy Reading!

    My STS!

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  2. That's a pretty solid list of books. Are they all books you haven't read? Your description of Illuminae makes we want to read it right now. Enjoy your books?

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  3. Good job on your haul! Never Let Me Go is one I have been interested in so I can't wait to see what you think. Enjoy!

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  4. Thise Used Bookstore credits are evil! Haha! You got some great books though. I've only read Phantom and I actually really liked it. It is very different from the movie.

    Alexis @ Stay at Home Reader

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  5. Illuminae is sooooo good I hope you enjoy it!

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  6. Wow,terrific books, hope you like and enjoy every one!!

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  7. Awesome haul!! Phantom of the Opera is one of my all time favorites! Illuminae is pretty freaking amazing too! ;)

    Tracy @ Cornerfolds

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  8. Never Let Me Go is such a powerful book. It touches on so many themes of how we use others for our own ends. i read it several years ago and it still touches me. I hope you enjoy it.

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  9. I don’t know these books but I hope you enjoy them! Happy reading :)

    Sofia @ SofiaLovesReading

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  10. I love that you hauled responsibly! You got an interesting mix. Happy reading!

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  11. That is a very responsible haul, lol! I'd love to read The Phantom of the Opera! Enjoy your new books! Thanks for visiting my STS! Happy reading!

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  12. Oooo, The Phantom of the Opera! And I absolutely adored Illuminae - solid choice right there. I hope you enjoy all of your new books!

    Have a fabulous week. :)

    Check out my STS post!

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  13. Great haul! I really need to take the time to read Dracula. I am pretty sure that I would enjoy it. I hope you love all of your new books.

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  14. I've always wanted to read Phantom. I love the movie and visited the Opera House in Paris. Illuminae is...interesting. But different. Hope you enjoy! Thanks for visiting.

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  15. "Accidental but highly responsible book haul." Haha. I love the title for this post. I'm going to have to use that line next time I do a book haul. I hope you enjoy your new books. Its great that you are expanding your collection to include more books from outside your own country.

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  16. Illuminae was my favorite book of 2015! I hope you love it! :D
    Krystianna @ Downright Dystopian

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