Monday, May 21, 2012

Showcase Sunday (1)


Showcase Sunday is a meme hosted by Books, Biscuits, and Tea that lets bloggers highlight any books or book-related swag they received this week, whether they're from bookstores, libraries, received for review, etc. 

I went to Books-A-Million today. I really, REALLY shouldn't have, but...

Title: Beautiful Creatures
Author(s): Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Series: Caster Chronicles, #1
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Summary (via Goodreads):
There were no surprises in Gatlin County.

We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that's what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.
Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

Title: The City & the City
Author: China Miéville
Publisher: Del Rey
Summary (via Goodreads):
New York Times
bestselling author China Miéville delivers his most accomplished novel yet, an existential thriller set in a city unlike any other–real or imagined.

 

When a murdered woman is found in the city of Beszel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks to be a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he investigates, the evidence points to conspiracies far stranger and more deadly than anything he could have imagined.  

Borlú must travel from the decaying Beszel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own. This is a border crossing like no other, a journey as psychic as it is physical, a shift in perception, a seeing of the unseen. His destination is Beszel’s equal, rival, and intimate neighbor, the rich and vibrant city of Ul Qoma. With Ul Qoman detective Qussim Dhatt, and struggling with his own transition, Borlú is enmeshed in a sordid underworld of rabid nationalists intent on destroying their neighboring city, and unificationists who dream of dissolving the two into one. As the detectives uncover the dead woman’s secrets, they begin to suspect a truth that could cost them and those they care about more than their lives.  

What stands against them are murderous powers in Beszel and in Ul Qoma: and, most terrifying of all, that which lies between these two cities. 

Casting shades of Kafka and Philip K. Dick, Raymond Chandler and 1984, The City & the City is a murder mystery taken to dazzling metaphysical and artistic heights

Title: Railsea 
Author: China Miéville
Publisher: Random House
Summary (from Goodreads):
On board the moletrain Medes, Sham Yes ap Soorap watches in awe as he witnesses his first moldywarpe hunt: the giant mole bursting from the earth, the harpoonists targeting their prey, the battle resulting in one’s death and the other’s glory. But no matter how spectacular it is, Sham can't shake the sense that there is more to life than traveling the endless rails of the railsea–even if his captain can think only of the hunt for the ivory-coloured mole she’s been chasing since it took her arm all those years ago. When they come across a wrecked train, at first it's a welcome distraction. But what Sham finds in the derelict—a series of pictures hinting at something, somewhere, that should be impossible—leads to considerably more than he'd bargained for. Soon he's hunted on all sides, by pirates, trainsfolk, monsters and salvage-scrabblers. And it might not be just Sham's life that's about to change. It could be the whole of the railsea.

From China Miéville comes a novel for readers of all ages, a gripping and brilliantly imagined take on Herman Melville's Moby-Dick that confirms his status as "the most original and talented voice to appear in several years." (Science Fiction Chronicle)

One of my friends raves over Beautiful Creatures, and I'm curious about it because of the mixed reactions among reviewers -- it was only $3.97, so I couldn't pass it up. The City & the City was only $5. Railsea was full price, but I'm SO curious about it that I decided to buy it. :D

And for review, I received:

Title: Envious of the Clouds
Author:
Amy Michelle Mosier
Summary (via Lulu): 

A small collection of sonnets, triolets, rondeaux and haiku, as well as free verse poetry. In the style of Dickinson and Longfellow, it's an attempt to resurrect Victorian era poetry.









The author described it to me as poetry for people who don't normally read poetry. I do like poetry, but I haven't read it for pleasure in a while, so I look forward to getting to this. :)

2 comments:

  1. Wow! I haven't seen these books yet but Railsea looks intense!

    I hope you'll enjoy all your books! :)

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  2. I only know Beautiful Creatures - haven't read it yet but it's on my TBR pile for awhile now. :D Enjoy the reading!

    Aleksandra @ Divine Secrets of a Little Bookworm

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