Each week I will post a list of the books I've borrowed, received, or bought. I will keep a weekly tally in each post, as well as a yearly one on the sidebar. All books with PoC themes/authors will be listed for the "New Crayons" meme.
All prices are listed in Canadian dollars.
(hosted weekly by The Story Siren / The Printed Page; New Crayons by Color Online)



Tally for 2010/01/10
Borrowed: 0
Received: 3
Bought: 6
Total Cost: $28.84
I finally received my YA prize pack I won a while ago. It had to be rerouted from a US address because I hadn't realized the contest was US addresses only lol. Thankfully my Dad had a contact willing to pay the expensive fees to take them and send them to me 8D


Killer Unicorns #1:
Rampant
by Diana Peterfreund

Forget everything you ever knew about unicorns...
Real unicorns are venomous, man-eating monsters with huge fangs and razor-sharp horns. Fortunately, they've been extinct for a hundred and fifty years.
Or not.
Astrid had always scoffed at her eccentric mother's stories about killer unicorns. But when one of the monsters attacks her boyfriend—thereby ruining any chance of him taking her to the prom—Astrid finds herself headed to Rome to train as a unicorn hunter at the ancient cloisters the hunters have used for centuries.
However, at the cloisters all is not what it seems. Outside, the unicorns wait to attack. And within, Astrid faces other, unexpected threats: from the crumbling, bone-covered walls that vibrate with a terrible power to the hidden agendas of her fellow hunters to—perhaps most dangerously of all—her growing attraction to a handsome art student...an attraction that could jeopardize everything.

Killer Unicorns! I've always thought it a waste that unicorns don't use their horns more often to kill things since they're, well, sharp. I've seen some great reviews and can't wait to start this =D
Won from The Book Studio *hardcover

Brotherhood of the Conch #3:
Shadowland ⇒ New Crayon!
by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

When Anand's beloved Conch goes missing, he and his friend, Nisha, are forced to travel into a dystopian future to retrieve it--a future where the air and water have been so severely corrupted that the upper classes live in luxury under hermetically sealed domes, while the lower classes struggle to survive. Ecological and class issues come to a head in a world of exotic lore, customs, and the sights and smells of India, in this final Brotherhood of the Conch novel.

I feel kind of bad, but I won't be reading this right away since I really dislike coming into a series in the middle - or in this case, the end. I do like the sound of the dystopian exploration of sustainability issues though, just need to get my hands on the first two books...
Won from The Book Studio *hardcover

Summer #1:
The Summer I Turned Pretty ⇒ New Crayon!
by Jenny Han

Some summers are just destined to be pretty.
Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer -- they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one wonderful and terrible summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.

I'm planning to give this to Ah Yuan because she's a big fan of Jenny Han. The premise doesn't really click with me since I usually don't read much contemporary lit/romance. I may let this book surprise me, but only after I get through my current TBR list.
Won from The Book Studio *hardcover

And next, my holiday binge at BookCloseOuts.com! They had a free shipping offer for orders before December 31 so I grabbed a handful of books on the 30th. The order had to be $35+ so I clumped it together with a few books Ah Yuan wanted since I owe her some money lol (her books aren't listed here)


Knight and Rogue #1:
The Last Knight
by Hilari Bell

Need a Hero? You've got one in Sir Michael Sevenson.
Although there hasn't been a knight errant in over two hundred years, this young noble has decided to revive the trade. He's found himself a reluctant partner in Fisk, a clever rogue who has been given the choice of serving as Michael's squire or going to jail for a very long time. Now Michael and Fisk are on a quest to right wrongs, protect the innocent, and make the world a happier place.
It's not going to be easy. On their first attempt at rescuing a damsel in distress, they break a lady out of a tower, only to discover she was there for good reason: awaiting trial for poisoning her husband. Now the would-be heroes must find Lady Ceciel and return her to justice or be condemned themselves.

As I had said on my Christmas IMM post, I liked this book so much that I bought my own copy (the other was a present to a friend) 8D
Bought at bargain price from BookCloseOuts.com ($3.09)

Knight and Rogue #2:
Rogue's Home
by Hilari Bell

The Boys Are Back!
Sir Michael Sevenson and his squire, Fisk, can't seem to keep out of hot water. After five long years, Fisk has been called home to Ruesport to investigate who framed his sister Anna's husband, Max, as a blackmailer. Anna figures that Fisk, with his criminal past, is uniquely qualified to find out who set Max up. Of course Michael feels he has to come along to help his friend; but now he wears the tattoos of the unredeemed and fears he might be more hindrance than help.

...and then I went ahead and got myself the sequel too 8DDDDD Yay Fisk!
Bought at bargain price from BookCloseOuts.com ($7.21) *hardcover

Nothing But the Truth (and a few white lies) ⇒ New Crayon!
by Justina Chen Headley

Getting her fortune told by a Taiwanese 'belly-button grandmother' (who feels up her navel) instead of attending the spring dance is just one of the joys of being Patty Ho, a covertly snarky 'hapa' (half Asian, half white) struggling with her dual heritage. Patty's domineering mother is determined to make her a good Taiwanese girl. Gangly Patty, no 'China doll,' longs to be white like her long-gone father.

I've already flipped to some random pages and OMG MATH-NESS! Well, it's not covering every page, but I am SO going to enjoy this. I really want to read more stories exploring the issues of growing up between cultures. Though I'm not a Hapa (half-half), I did grow up in North America and feel like I can identify with Patty a bit.
Bought at bargain price from BookCloseOuts.com ($3.09)

The Watch #4:
The Last Watch
by Sergei Lukyanenko

While on holiday in Scotland, visiting a macabre tourist attraction, "The Dungeons of Edinburgh," a young Russian tourist is murdered. As the police grapple with the fact that the cause of the young man’s death was a massive loss of blood, the Watches are immediately aware that there is a renegade vampire on the loose. Anton is detailed to this seemingly mundane investigation, but on arriving in Scotland begins to realize that there is much more to the story than a wildcat vampire and a single murder.
Aided by Thomas, the head of Edinburgh’s Night Watch, Anton investigates and ruminates, and becomes aware that a team of unlicensed Others are hunting for a fabled magical treasure, hidden in the sixth level of the Twilight by Merlin himself.

This series is insanely hard to find in bookstores, so I'm just collecting them as best I can from bargain bins lol. I now have the first book (The Night Watch) and the last book (this one) =D
Bought at bargain price from BookCloseOuts.com ($5.15)

Discworld #34:
Thud!
by Terry Pratchett

Koom Valley? That was where the trolls ambushed the dwarfs, or the dwarfs ambushed the trolls. It was very far away. It was a long time ago. But if he doesn't solve the murder of just one dwarf, Command Sam Vimes of Ankh-Morpork City Watch is going to see it fought again, right outside his office. With his beloved Watch crumbling around him and his war-drums sounding, he must unravel every clue, outwit every assassin and brave any darkness to find the solution. And darkness is following him. Oh...and at six o'clock every day, without fail, with no excuses, he must go home to read Where's My Cow?, with all the right farmyard noises, to his little boy. There are some things you have to do!

Doing the Terry Pratchett challenge this year, so I'm collecting parts of the Discworld series. I started with Night Watch, and this is the "next" book in sequence, so clumped into my order to make the $35 minimum heh. And I love how Mr. Pratchett's book summaries all sound like hijacked Wiki pages lol
Bought at bargain price from BookCloseOuts.com ($4.12)

Truancy ⇒ New Crayon!
by Isamu Fukui

In an alternate world, in a nameless totalitarian city, the autocratic Mayor rules the school system with an iron fist, with the help of his Educators. Fighting against the Mayor and his repressive Educators is a group of former students called the Truancy, whose goal is to take down the system by any means possible—at any cost.
Against this backdrop, fifteen-year-old Tack is just trying to survive. His days are filled with sadistic teachers, unrelenting schoolwork, and indifferent parents. Things start to look up when he meets Umasi, a mysterious boy who runs a lemonade stand in an uninhabited district.
Then someone close to Tack gets killed in the crossfire between the Educators and the Truants, and Tack swears vengeance. To achieve his purpose, he abandons his old life and joins the Truancy. There, he confronts Zyid, an enigmatic leader with his own plans for Tack. But Tack soon finds himself torn between his desire for vengeance and his growing sympathy for the Truants...

I actually thought this was a translated book at first and worried a bit about translation issues, but it turned out to be written in English so I'm glad XD; For some reason I get Battle Royale imagery in my head when I read the summary though I still haven't read that yet either...
Bought at bargain price from BookCloseOuts.com ($6.18) *hardcover

Still messing around with the coding and images. I feel like I'm spending more time reading codes than reading books these days lol. I'm getting a bit addicted with making layouts again - I used to make custom LJ layouts for friends XD;
The search bar problem I'm dealing with by adding the Google search at the bottom of the left sidebar, bleh. Also switching a lot of layout-dependent images to the CSS section so I don't have to go edit the posts every time I change layouts =3
I've seen the Bloggiesta things around, but it's pretty late (last day?) so I won't bother signing up =P
Now...what do I use to replace that non-functioning search bar at the top? Hmm...