Saturday, March 26, 2016

The “I Have No Self-Control” Book Haul (Part 2)


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

Here are the rest of the books that I got at the Presidents’ Day sales last month.




Make Something Up: Stories You Can’t Unread – Chuck Palahniuk


Representing work that spans several years, Make Something Up is a compilation of 21 stories and one novella (some previously published, some not) that will disturb and delight. The absurdity of both life and death are on full display: in "Zombies," the best and brightest of a high school prep school become tragically addicted to the latest drug craze: electric shocks from cardiac defibrillators. In "Knock, Knock," a son hopes to tell one last off-color joke to a father in his final moments, while in "Tunnel of Love," a massage therapist runs the curious practice of providing 'relief' to dying clients. And in "Expedition," fans will be thrilled to see a side of Tyler Durden never seen before in a precursor story to Fight Club.




There Once Lived A Girl Who Seduced Her Sister’s Husband, And He Hanged Himself: Love Stories – Ludmilla Petrushevskaya


By turns sly and sweet, burlesque and heartbreaking, these realist fables of women looking for love are the stories that Ludmilla Petrushevskaya—who has been compared to Chekhov, Tolstoy, Beckett, Poe, Angela Carter, and even Stephen King—is best known for in Russia. Here are attempts at human connection, both depraved and sublime, by people in all stages of life: one-night stands in communal apartments, poignantly awkward couplings, office trysts, schoolgirl crushes, elopements, tentative courtships, and rampant infidelity, shot through with lurid violence, romantic illusion, and surprising tenderness.




Pygmy – Chuck Palahniuk


“Begins here first account of operative me, agent number 67 on arrival Midwestern American airport greater _____ area. Flight _____. Date _____. Priority mission top success to complete. Code name: Operation Havoc.” 
Thus speaks Pygmy, one of a handful of young adults from a totalitarian state sent to the United States, disguised as exchange students, to live with typical American families and blend in, all the while planning an unspecified act of massive terrorism. Palahniuk depicts Midwestern life through the eyes of this thoroughly indoctrinated little killer, who hates us with a passion, in this cunning double-edged satire of an American xenophobia that might, in fact, be completely justified. For Pygmy and his fellow operatives are cooking up something big, something truly awful, that will bring this big dumb country and its fat dumb inhabitants to their knees. 
It’s a comedy. And a romance.




Charm & Strange – Stephanie Kuehn


He’s part Win, the lonely teenager exiled to a remote Vermont boarding school in the wake of a family tragedy. The guy who shuts all his classmates out, no matter the cost. 
He’s part Drew, the angry young boy with violent impulses that control him. The boy who spent a fateful, long-ago summer with his brother and teenage cousins, only to endure a secret so monstrous it led three children to do the unthinkable. 
Over the course of one night, while stuck at a party deep in the New England woods, Andrew battles both the pain of his past and the isolation of his present. 
Before the sun rises, he’ll either surrender his sanity to the wild darkness inside his mind or make peace with the most elemental of truths—that choosing to live can mean so much more than not dying.





11 comments:

  1. I actually haven't heard of any of these!! THERE ONCE LIVED A GIRL WHO SEDUCED HER SISTER’S HUSBAND, AND HE HANGED HIMSELF: LOVE STORIES may be the most interesting title ever. Enjoy them!!

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  2. I am not familiar with these books but I have heard of Chuck Palahniuk. I have been meaning to read his work. Enjoy all of your new books!

    Carole @ Carole's Random Life

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  3. Self-Control is something that I have none of. I hope you love all of your new books. Some of them are new to me.

    Grace @ Books of Love

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  4. i haven't heard of these ones either! i'm going to check them out on gr right now. also self control? what's that? it's a concept i've never heard of! baahahah

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  5. I love Chuck Palahniuk's writing a lot. I haven't heard of these titles before. Great finds! I never have self control when it comes to buying books. I always seem to find a way to justify it lol.

    Danica @ A Redheaded Bookworm

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  6. I've been meaning to read Chuck Palahniuk foreverrrr. I need to just finally do it. Hope you love your new books!

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  7. I keep seeing Charm & Strange around the book-blogging world, and I have yet to actually read the description for it. I always thought it was a paranormal book, but it doesn't sound like it is. Huh. Well, I hope you enjoy it! XD

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  8. I have absolutely no control at all when it comes to purchasing books. lol

    All of these books are new to me. I hope you enjoy your haul!

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  9. I haven't heard of any of these but I hope you love them!!
    Danielle @ Life With Two Boys

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  10. I don't have any self control either! It's a real problem but I'm so addicted to the thrill of buying new books! :D

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  11. I haven't heard of any of these! But I have been on a book buying haul lately so I haven't been buying any books. I'm alarmed at how much money I am saving. I think I need to do these bans more often. These sound so unique and new to me. Can't wait to read your reviews and learn more about them :D

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