Book Booty! AKA What The Holiday Season Brought Me…

When it comes to holiday season booty, my haul was decidedly bookilicious. I’ve already mentioned AK Wilder’s much-awaited Curse of Shadows arriving immediately pre-Christmas.

Now, here’s what Santa, along with various other friends and wellwishers, have brought–and bought!—me since:

Something Old:

Dogside Story by Patricia Grace (first published 2001.) Those who visit here regularly probably already know I’m a Patrica Grace fan. Yes, right from here very first book, Mutuwhenua: The Moon Sleeps.

I haven’t read Dogside Story, though, and a friend in reading has been telling me it’s her favourite — so now I have my opportunity to find out for myself.

Something New:

OK, several somethings new, but first and foremost there’s Novelist As A Vocation (2022 in translation; 2015 in Japan) by Haruki Murakami, who is another author whose work and philosophy I heart greatly. So as you can probably imagine, I’ve already dipped into the series of collected essays that make up this work.

And yes, so far it’s just as good as I expected it to be. 😀

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo, published in 2019, is considerably less new than Novelist As A Vocation, but as fan of the Crows duology and Leigh Bradugo’s writing generally, I was pleased to find it in my Christmas stocking. Definitely a new-to-me read!

Something Borrowed:

A friend felt my holiday would be enriched by the company of Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club novels, so kindly loaned me Books 2 and 3, The Man Who Died Twice and The Bullet That Missed respectively.

I can confirm that she was not wrong and that they are highly entertaining light reading.

Something Blue:

That would be Demon Copperhead by the great Barbara Kingsolver, which comes with a gorgeous royal blue cover (here in NuZild, anyways!) It also ticks the Something New box, being a just-out, 2023 publication, I believe.