In My Mailbox

So I just found this great "meme" started by The Story Siren, which is that every Sunday, bloggers post the books that they got that week, whether they bought them, borrowed them from the library or got them for free. I mostly get my books from the library, so their condition is not always pristine, as you can see from the pictures. Since this is my first time doing In My Mailbox, I'm posting some books I've had on my shelf for a few weeks.

Insatiable by Meg Cabot. This was the girlsinthestacks.com book for the July book club. Unfortunately, since I rely on  my local library, I had to wait a while till I got the book, so I missed the book club discussion. But I'm looking forward to reading the book now!

We Think, Therefore We Are, edited by Peter Crowther. This is a book I've seen a million times in the library and have meant to read for a while. The idea of artificial intelligence is intriguing. Let's see if this time I actually get to reading it!

Anahita's Woven Riddle, by Meghan Nuttall Sayres. This looks interesting. It's set in Iran, and has the sort of anti-fairy-tale I loved in Never After, since Anahita devises a test to escape a suitor she doesn't want to marry. I love me a strong, willful heroine!

Ash, by Melinda Lo. This is apparently a retelling of the Cinderella story, with lots of new twists. Can't wait to read it!

Beautiful Creatures, by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. I actually have no idea what this book is about, I just heard it was good and took it out when I saw it. I have it for over a week now, and it keeps getting pushed to the bottom of the pile. Reading the jacket copy now, though, it sounds really good. Maybe this will be my next read!

Buckingham Palace Gardens, by Anne Perry. This is another book which I don't know what it's about. But of course I recognized the name Anne Perry, and this was just near the checkout station, so I just grabbed it.

Ship Breaker, by Paolo Bacigalupi. I started reading this book a few days ago, although I got distracted and ended up reading a different book. From the first few pages, I'm intrigued enough to want to finish the rest of it.

The Chess Machine, by Robert Lohr. A friend recommended this one, so although I started it weeks ago and couldn't get past the first few pages, I'm holding onto it to give it a second chance. The writing was a bit too "tell-y" rather than "show-y," as in the opposite of the rule "show, don't tell." I think it may have something to do with the fact that the book is translated from German. I already have seen that books translated from Hebrew have a different overall style than books written in English, so maybe the same holds true for German books. It could be a cultural thing.

Eyes Like Stars, by Lisa Mantchev. I started this book this afternoon, and so far I'm really liking it! The setting is a theater where the Players are the actual characters from the scripts and where saying a simple "cue change" causes lights and curtains and sets and props to just move about... Not to mention a feisty heroine! Wait for the review of this one...

So that's what's on my shelf right now. Don't expect to see all these blogged about any time soon - if I've been putting off reading them, they're likely to be relegated to the bottom of the pile for a while! Maybe this will motivate me to be more on top of it... Yeah, right.