Library Loot

There are no book reviews between this library loot and the last one, which shows that I tend to bite off a little more than I can chew, heh.  EDIT: Apparently I cannot read my own blog.  Erin has pointed out that I did review Wonder Spot.

Still, this slowish patch in book-reading is partially due to my impromptu marathon of MI-5 episodes on Netflix Instant Watch last weekend.  Mmm, British television.

Anyway, I returned some books to the library (a few unread or abandoned among them) and picked up a fresh batch.

Here they are!

Abbeville by Jack Fuller – This one is for the Spotlight Series, which is spotlighting various independent small presses throughout the year.  The publisher for this round is Unbridled Books.  I don’t think I’ve read anything by them before. I wanted to read Taroko Gorge, because the cover and premise reminded me of Peter Weir’s great, creepy film, Picnic at Hanging Rock, but my library system doesn’t have it yet.  I don’t remember why I picked Abbeville when I put it on hold over a week ago.  Its premise is not usually my cup of tea: a man returns to his hometown after career failure and there are flashbacks to his grandfather’s life – a man who also suffered failure, but during the Depression.  I must have tripped across a review online that convinced me to give it a shot.

Generation Kill by Evan Wright – I’ve seen the miniseries based on the  book, and I’ve also read and loved Nathaniel Fick’s book One Bullet Away which overlaps Wright’s book in events and people.  (Fick was a lieutenant in the platoon where Wright was embedded during the Iraq war in 2003).  I like the idea of seeing the things Fick wrote about from another perspective.   My review of Fick’s book is here.

The Best American Travel Writing 2006 – I really enjoyed reading the 2009 compilation.  2008 and 2007 were not on the shelves, so I picked this one up.

Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs – This is the second book of the Alpha & Omega series.  I’m a huge fan of Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series, and Alpha & Omega is the (lesser but still interesting) spin-off series.  Hunting Ground will give me a Briggs fix until Silver Borne, the 5th Mercy Thompson book, comes out at the end of March.

Sunshine by Robin McKinley – recommendations for this book have come from several different corners, principally that of Erin, from Something Wicked This Way Blogs.