TBR Pile is Big!

I haven't posted my TBR pile for quite some time. I've been busy and haven't had much time to read. Shame, that, as I love me a good book.

So, in brief:

• Thirteen Nights by Sabrina Gale - Actually, I just finished reading this one.  Loved it. Sexy paranormal romance.  I loved this because the sex scenes were Necessary to the Plot.  
• Dark Surrender by Erica Ridley
• Caroline by Cynthia Wright
• Jewels of Historical Romance (anthology)
• Silver Storm by Cynthia Wright
• The Governess Affair by Courtney Milan
• The Rebelliousness of Trassi Udang; Icefire (standalone short story); Raven's Call; Whispering Willows; The Shattered World Within; Watcher's Web; Fire & Ice -  All by Patty Jansen.  I've known Patty from the Online Writing Workshop and got to hang out with her at WorldCon in 2010.  Had an opportunity to snag a handful of her books.  Glad I did.
• The Winter of Magic; The Summer of Shambles; The Autumn Palace, by our Ebony McKenna.  Won them in a contest. Tickled pink, not for the win, but because I get to read more Ondine.  Spring should be coming out soon.
• The Chimera Vector by Nathan M Farrugia
• Standoff by David Rollins
• Lethal Metal by Harry Ledowsky
• Defender: Intrepid 1 by Chris Allen
• Arcadian Genesis by Greig Beck
• Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks
• Dark City Blue -and- Out of Exile by Luke Preston
• 8 Hours to Die by J R Carroll

And that's about it.  I don't know when I'll get around to updating Goodreads with all these.  I certainly won't get all this read in the next month or so.

Have you read any of these?  Anything you would recommend I read before the others?

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Her Grace misses the heady days of her youth when she could devour a book a night, sometimes two.

Read Someone New

We always have our favourite authors--comfortable go-to stories we enjoy over and over again.  I love drinking through a Marion Chesney or Julia Quinn.

We might have discovered these authors based on someone's recommendation, or we might have been hooked by the cover and/or back cover blurb.

As I spend an occasional hour or two working at a library, I have access to all the new fiction that comes through the doors.

Because of this, I'll often read someone new.

How often do you seek out new authors, especially ones you've never heard of?

Kind of scary, isn't it?  What if I don't like their book? What if their style doesn't gel with me?  What if I don't get along with their characters?

And I say, how will you know unless you give them a try?

Every author, EVERY. AUTHOR, was once a debut author with no backlist, no reputation, nothing.  Yet they made it because plenty of readers thought, "Ooh, I ought to read that book."

Today, with the advantages of the Internet, we can scout out a potential author's online presence.  Maybe they've got a few short stories you can read.  Amazon and GoodReads might have reviews.  Also speaking of Amazon, there might be a preview of the first chapter of their debut book.  You can have a taste. If it hooks you, give that author a chance.  (If you give them a chance, do them a favour and leave an honest review of their work somewhere.)

Jennifer Jackson gave me a copy of an Ace/Roc Sampler, featuring several debut authors.  Being in Australia, I don't get as much exposure to debut authors from the US.

This is who they are:

M.L. Brennan  Generation V (American Vampire #1)--urban fantasy.  First page caught my interest not because the main character Fortitude Scott (what an American name!) was a vampire, but because he had a degree in film theory.  (My degree is in film studies, essentially the same thing, only my degree featured a whole lotta hands-on film experience.  Extras don't end up on the IMDB, but film crew does. Not much street cred, but street cred nonetheless.)  Also, the voice was fresh, flowed well and was hooky.  Would I read this book based on the first page?  Absolutely.   M.L. Brennan is a win.

Stella Gemmell  The City--epic fantasy.  Turns out this is the wife of the late David Gemmell.  The style is very rich, and didn't quite hook me at first.  would I read this book based on the first page?  Probably not.  But that doesn't mean I wouldn't persist for a few pages to see if it grabbed me.

Django Wrexler The Thousand Names--epic fantasy.  Now, why do I know this name? Wracking my brain to figure out where I've seen him before.  (Possibly the Online Writing Workshop? Or maybe Podcastle? Can't recall.)  Anyhow, his epic fantasy style is not as heavy as Gemmell's, so it hooked me better.  Also immediately, we meet three weary soldiers with very different personalities.  Yeah, I'd read on.  (Man, I wish I could recall where I've heard this name before!  Driving me nuts.)

Luke Scull The Grim Company--quest fantasy.  Ooh, wizards challenging gods. I likes me some of that.  Also a sucker for quest fantasy, as long as there's interesting twists in there.  I was spoiled by the quest fantasies of the 1980's.  This, however, didn't grab me as much as I wanted it to.  Still, I'd persist in hopes that it would grab me. The character Brodar Kayne might appeal to me on further reading. He's a man with baggage.

Alan Averill The Beautiful Land--urban time travel sci-fi.  The plotline sounds wonderfully complex.  Takahiro O'Leary's Day Job is to investigate other timelines for his company.  Then his company wants to exploit some of the info he brings back, thus threatening the existence of the woman he loves--who has PTSD from the Iraq War.  Then a third party comes along and wants to destroy everything so they can get to one of the alternative realities called The Beautiful Land.  Man vs everything that wants to mess up his life. First page caught my interest, but the genre isn't my cup of tea.  Would I keep reading?  Probably not, purely because of my personal taste.

But then I read this.   And this completely changed my mind.  It's a star-crossed love story!  I'm totally up for that.

Also been scrolling through his blog.  I like this guy.  Go check him out.

Anthony Ryan Blood Song--epic fantasy.  Battle monks.  Deprived heritage and family abandonment (with reluctance).  The chance to lose oneself in the saving of the world. Oh, the conundrums!  The premise sounds good, and the first page was even better. I love a good blend of setting, character and plot. This was well-balanced and drew me in.  I'd definitely read more of this.


Overall, these look to be fascinating books, regardless of my taste.  I am sorry that there was only one woman among the five men. I would have liked to see more female debut authors in the mix.

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Her Grace wishes she had more time in the world to read.  There are so many good books out there waiting for love.  Because she can't read them all, she encourages you to help shoulder the burden.  Go find a debut author and read them.  Be kind, leave honest reviews.

TBR Pile

... or rather, the Have Been Read pile, as this is the stuff I've devoured over the past fortnight.

• Battle of the Network Zombies by Mark Henry - urban fantasy.  Picked up for something other than what I usually read.  I fear it may date.
• Eglantine by Catherine Jinks - contemporary YA fantasy.  I've liked Catherine Jinks' books before, but this felt a little obvious for me.  The mother was one of those characters, but the father-figure was a bit more cluey, and made up for her.  Really, I don't mind if kids solve the mystery, but you'd think adults wouldn't be so dense.
• Family on the Run by Margaret Watson - contemporary thriller romance.  I confess I'm not much into contemporary romance, but thought I'd give this a shot.  I found myself skipping the sex bits and getting to the thriller bits. I did have issues with one of the characters Paolo being too shallow. He was more of a prop than a character. Shame. He had so much potential for racheting up the tension.
• Ghost Stories Shade Shorts 2.0 by Gillian Phillips - horror short stories.  I picked this up more for Second Ladyship, who hates horror on TV but loves it in fiction.  She quite enjoyed it.
• My Roomate's a Jock? Well Crap! by Wade Kelly - NA romance.  I picked this up expecting it to be a New Adult Buddy Book.  Turns out to be gay romance.  Excellent writing, though I thought the plot could have been a little stronger, with more internal angst and less external grief.
• The Broken Bell by Frank Tuttle - fantasy.  Quite enjoyed this one because of the voice and Otherworldliness.  Not a single scrap of contemporary about it a bit.  Nice plot twists.
• The Fortune-Hunters by Carola Dunn - regency romance.  Interesting twist on fortune-hunting.  In Bath.
• Victoria and the Rogue by Meg Cabot - regency romance.  Love Meg Cabot's lighthearted style.  Enjoyed V&thR, though if I'd ever met Victoria in real life, she'd be one of those bitches I'd like to slap.  Unless she was my best friend. 
• Fiddlehead by Cherie Priest - steampunk.  I confess, I'm still reading this one.  More on this later, because it's worth reviewing well.

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When not reading books, Her Grace has recently discovered Twitter.  Tweet her @heidikneale

Why I Post My TBR Pile

Someone asked me why I regularly post my TBR (To Be Read) pile.

Yeah. Sometimes the TBR Pile
looks like this.

First and foremost, because I want to share what I'm reading. Sometimes it's really good (Like Scott Westerfield's Leviathan series), sometimes it's not so good.  But something about the book hooked me enough to want to read it.

For me, it is not enough to just read a book.  I wanna talk about it. I want to share why I liked it (or not).  I want to talk craft, reader reaction, and more.

Also, I want to help my writerly peeps.  We've worked hard on these books.  They've filled our souls to breaking point and we want to share that with the world.  When I read a book that makes me happy, I'm going to talk about it so other people can read it and be happy as well.

Author Katherine Addison explained why it's so important we buy books, read books and talk about books.

Feel free to share stuff you've read and liked in comments.
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Her Grace adores books.  While she can't buy as many as she wishes (for they are rather expensive in Australia), she does her best.  Her bookshelves are full.  She needs more bookshelves.

This week's TBR pile

In Australia, January is Summer and it's "Readin' Season".  Our schoolies indulge in the Summer Reading Challenge and the rest of us raid the local libraries and bookshops for books to devour.

This is my Christmas Week TBR pile.  Mostly light-hearted stuff and casual reading.  I'll get back into my MFA stuff later.  Right now, I'm focused more on the quality of my novel output, rather than the high-falooting-ness of my reading input.  The following is helping me in that:

• The Great and Dangerous / Chris Westwood  -- YA SF  (random shelf glean)
• So Yesterday: a novel / Scott Westerfeld  -- YA Contemporary SF (was impressed with his steampunk Leviathan series, I thought I'd give something else of his a go.)
• The Desert Spear / Peter V. Brett -- Epic Fantasy (book two, I discovered later. Bah. The plot arc is incomplete.)
• La Novia Perfecta / Stephanie Laurens -- Historical Romance (en Español.  I'm polishing up my foreign language skills because I can.)
• The Ultimate Fairies Handbook / Susannah Marriott -- Non-fiction
• The Ravenscar Dynasty / Barbara Taylor Bradford -- Historical Romance
• On the Way to the Wedding / Julia Quinn -- Historical Romance (Julia's stuff is good. This is a re-read.)
• The Flight of Swallows / Audrey Howard  -- Historical Romance
• Butterfly Swords / Jeannie Lin -- Historical Romance (in China!)

What are you reading for the post-Christmas season?

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Her Grace is also considering alphebetising her book shelf.  Right now, it's in random order, pending the building of even more book shelves.

TBR Pile this week

On my TBR pile is:

Yes, I am up to the wee hours.
Why do you ask?

Three Sisters (Blackberry Island #2) - Susan Mallery.  Contemporary Women's fiction 
Leviathan (book 1) - Scott Westerfeld.  YA Fantasy Steampunk
Slave of Sondelle (book 1 of The Eleven Kingdoms) - Bevan McGuiness.  Fantasy
The Outcast Prince - Shona Husk.  Fantasy Romance
Financial Distraction - Dr Steven J Enticott.  finance non-fiction
The Complete Illustrated History of the Inca Empire - Dr David M Jones. historical non-fiction
Is Your Grandmother a Goanna? - Pamela Allen. Children's picturebook fiction

Have you read any of these? If so, what did you think?  Have you read other work by these authors?

MFA dithering:  As I attempt to read widely in fiction (and non-fic) genres, I am consciously noting my reactions to the fiction.  Language use is most interesting.  If I find the writing becoming "invisible" and I'm getting immersed in the story, I see that as a good thing. Then I have to go back and see what the author did right.  (I wanna do more of what they did.)

Sometimes I'd much rather immerse myself in the story and forget about analysis, but these MFAs don't earn themselves.

I'm also affirming my taste in particular genres.  I've always known I prefer X, but now I'm analysing why.


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When not reading fiction, Her Grace can be found reading non-fiction, as this nourishes the writerly reservoirs.  Rumour has it she's got a novella coming out soon.

If You Like a Book, Tell Someone

Read anything good lately?

When was the last time you read a good book, a really good book?  You loved it, didn’t you?  So, who did you tell about it?

If you’re answer was, “Um…. ?” then you’re doing a good book a disservice.   For every great book you read and don’t tell another soul about it, little puppies die.*

Word-of-mouth marketing is one of the most effective forms of marketing there is.  One of the best things about it is that this form of marketing favours the truly good books (and not just the ones with advertising money or agendas behind them).  If someone tells you, “hey, this book is good” (and you trust their opinion), chances are, you’ll enjoy it too.  Take a chance and read the book.

This is how the really good self-pubbed books get about.  Works for trad pubs as well.

Likewise, rate books on the various systems you’re on.  The catalogue of the library I work for features a book-rating system of five stars (no comments).  Any book I enjoy, I’ll rate. (Then again, if I thought it was terrible, I’ll also rate it accordingly.) 

Amazon, GoodReads, your own blog and more. Use ‘em.  Rate books.  Tell us about the books you enjoyed.  If a book in your TBR pile  more than proves its worth, please, please, please, let us know.  

Consider this: is that book in your TBR pile because someone told you about it?  Share the love.

I’ve fallen in love with books I would never have looked at once, if someone hadn’t told me about it.  I’ve made recommendations to Librarians for book purchases because someone recommended a book.  I read it and I loved it.

That’s what word-of-mouth does.  It gets the best books into many hands.

What books have you read recently that you’d recommend?   Comment below.

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*At least all dogs go to heaven, so it’s not a complete tragedy.  But still.  Killing puppies!

What Her Grace is Reading This Week

These are the books whose pages my eyes are grazing.

Soulless by Gail Carriger.  I already own Changeless (which I completely forgot to get signed at WorldCon a few years ago), and thought I'd read the rest of the Parasol Protectorate series.  Gail Carriger  does an excellent job of blending the best of early 21st century genre fiction elements into a delightful story.

Eats, Shoots, Leaves by Lynne Truss. Nabbed this from the shelves as a refresher on grammatical elements of punctuation.  Part of the necessary reading for an MFA.

First Things First by Stephen Covey.  A re-read, actually, to remind me how to order the things that are important.

Doctrine and Covenants.  Having just finished the New Testament, I thought I'd move on to this. This is going to take me a very long time.

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner.  Another recommended MFA read. I confess I don't read much literary stuff, but I thought I'd give this a go. Not reading it for entertainment value (literary does not "entertain") but to see one way the English language could be be used.  Sometimes one can forget there are many way to use the English language.  Some can be starkly beautiful.

Moo Baa La La La by Sandra Boynton.  After mentioning this to Charlie Finlay last week, I thought I'd re-read this.  It never loses its charm and appeal.
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Her Grace is currently upping her reading levels as a necessary part of the craft. You can find a complete list of her TBR pile, including past reads here.  Her Grace is also pursuing an MFA from the prestigious SoHK.