February BoTM & Gallifrey One Haul (Book Mail #4)
It is such a cliche to say that it’s been a rough two weeks, but for me it has been a rough two weeks.
Two weeks ago I attended the Doctor Who convention Gallifrey One in Los Angeles and if you are a Doctor Who fan and have never been to this amazing experience I would suggest re-evaluating your priorities and try to attend next year. It truly is the place to be for all American fans of the beloved BBC show.
Following that terrific weekend I was put out with a hard case of Con Crud (the cold that proceeds a non-stop nerd convention). To be honest I am still not completely over it, coughs linger. This is the main reason that the last two weeks have been rough, that and other personal reasons that I won’t go into here.
The point I am trying to make is that during this two week time period I have acquired a stack of books and I now have the energy to post and share them with you.
One of the new things I have found enjoyment in at the Gallifrey One Convention is purchasing beautiful books in the dealer’s room. There are a few book sellers, but one table in particular always catches my attention due in large part because they always manage to have a spectacular selection of Fantasy novels ripe for the picking. This year was no exception.
The first book that grabbed my attention as I was browsing was Dread Nation by Justina Ireland. It is a zombie story set in the midst of the American Civil War and its Heroine is a Woman of color!
Look how gorgeous this cover is and that girl looks like she is ready to kick some undead booty! Coming in at under five-hundred pages it is a YA, fantasy, historical fiction romp that I cannot wait to take part in.
Moving down the table the next book that caught my eye was the hilariously named Kill the Farm Boy: The Tales of Pell by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne.
It is a pun infused laugh at the world of fantasy stories, much like Shrek was to Disney, but hopefully better. I love these kinds of stories, especially when done well. Though I have many books on my TBR, this is probably one I will get to as soon as I can.
The last book that I purchased at the convention was one that I might not have picked up a few years ago. It’s been some time since I have attempted to read a fantasy about Vampires, but I figured enough time has passed and so I picked up Soulless by Gail Carriger.
It is a Vampire story, set in England during some sort of Victorian age (I assume based on the costume on the cover). There are also Werewolves which should make for a supernatural delightful read, though I’ll admit some reviews have not been kind. I think it would be hard to write anything dealing with Vampires and/or Werewolves nowadays. (Thanks Twilight!) Everyone will be overly critical even if the story manages to be halfway decent, which is all I can hope for with this one.
In addition to these additions to my always growing TBR book collection came my second Book of the Month book. For the Month of February I selected Early Riser: A Novel by Jasper Fforde.
I have read Fforde previously and own the book The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel, which is probably one of the most entertaining meta novels I have ever read. It made me want to read Jane Eyre, though I still haven’t managed to do that. It is a delight of a book though, trust that.
Because I feel this way, it wasn’t surprising that I was drawn to another novel written by Fforde. This one is labeled as Science Fiction, which I should probably read more of, in which the human population hibernates every winter and the MC is part of the unhinged group of people trusted with overseeing the hibernating masses. With unsettling dreams that have the power to drive you insane and even murder it sounds like this is going to be another fantastic read.
It will be a hard wait until I can read all of these amazing sounding novels and because of this I think my plan is going to be to cut back on the NetGalley requests for a while, at least until I can give some attention to the books who have been waiting patiently on my shelves.
Until the next book review…
