Stacking the Shelves: Lovely, dark, and signed dancers under the bell jar

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews to showcase all the books we got in the past week. Those can be bought, won, gifted, for review, borrowed, print or ebooks... no matter, just share what you got :)


This is my first StS post since the end of January, so obviously I bought A LOT of books during that time. Listing them up here would be tedious for all of us, so I'm only showing you a small selection. I'm also planning on writing mini-reviews or a quick spotlight on some of the books I've read during my time away from blogging. So today I'm showing you...

The Classics

 The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath

Les Fleurs du Mal, by Charles Baudelaire

Richard II, by William Shakespeare

The Tempest, by William Shakespeare

Arcadia, by Tom Stoppard

I picked up the Shakespeares and Arcadia from used books stores in New Orleans and San Francisco. I'm especially happy that I found Arcadia - my only copy was in my Norton Anthology of Literature, which weighs a ton and makes for a bothersome re-read. It's my favorite play (yes, I like it more than Shakespeare) and it's not that easy to get a hold of, unless you want to pay upwards of 40 bucks for a whole collection of Stoppard's plays.

I've also wanted to read Les Fleurs du Mal for a very long time, but I'm always a bit wary of translations, especially when it comes to poetry. This edition has the French original and the English translation side by side, which is awesome because I know French, but not well enough to read Baudelaire without a crutch. I bought this edition and The Bell Jar at City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco (they have a whole room just for poetry!) which was a special thing for me to do. I've wanted to go there ever since I first heard about it in class when we discussed the Beat poets. It's a wonderful place, and it made me wish I'd grown up in that city. Or maybe I'm just a bit morose because I finished The Bell Jar a few hours ago and it really left an impression on me. I wish I had already read when I was 18 or 19.

The Long-Awaited

 The Lovely and the Lost, by Page Morgan

Dancers at the End of Time, by Michael Morcock

Technically, only The Lovely and the Lost was long-awaited. I was writing my thesis when it came out so the release kind of went past me. I really loved The Beautiful and the Cursed though, so I hope I can read it soon.
I read a lot about Moorcock while I was writing my thesis (about Steampunk and it's 19th-century precursors) but I didn't feature any of his work in my thesis, so I was really happy to find this one at a bookstore in Amsterdam last Saturday! It contains three of his novels and it's all inspired by the fin-de-siècle and Wilde and the decadent movement ^^

The ARCs

The Darkest Part of the Forest, by Holly Black

Mortal Heart, by Robin LaFevers

I got both of these at ALA in Vegas and you can imagine my amount of inner (okay, and some outer) squeeee :D I've already read Darkest Part of the Forest and loved it! It's also signed ^^

I also got two ARCs from Edelweiss:

The Fall, by Bethany Griffin
The Cemetery Boys, by Heather Brewer
I've featured The Fall as this week's WoW post, and I'm very excited to finally have the opportunity to read something by Heather Brewer! This one is a standalone, so it's perfect. She also has two series, but somehow the number of books always daunted me a bit.

The Graphic Novels

The Good Neighbors series, by Holly Black

Coffin Hill: Forest of the Night, by Caitlin Kitteredge

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, by Alan Moore

The picture only shows book 2 and 3 of the Good Neighbors, but I have them all, and they're all signed :D I got them at Book of Wonders in New York. They had so many signed books! And that was before I actually met Holly Black, and I already thought things couldn't get better.

Coffin Hill was a spontaneous purchase at a comic store in the Castro district in San Francisco. I've heard about Kitteredge's other books, and the artwork looked cool. Also, I wanted something to remember the store by. As for the Extraordinary Gentlemen, I've wanted to read that one for a long time, so I had to have it.

The Signed

The Book of Life, by Deborah Harkness

Game, by Barry Lyga

The Shadow Society, by Marie Rutkoski

At this point, I need to thank Kelly from Effortlessly Reading again! She gifted me Game and The Shadow Society. Gifted! Signed books! Just like that o.O I was flabbergasted. And very, very happy! I'll tell you all about my Amsterdam trip to Deborah Harkness tomorrow, so I didn't take a picture of her signature, but here are the others:

The "Disturb the Universe" note makes me happy, because it's an important part of the book and also one of my favorite sections from my favorite poem ^^


Alright, that's it! Any comments on my haul? Does anyone even bother to read my accounts of how I got into possession of the books? Anyhow, I'm curious to see your own new shelf-pretties, so link me up :)

Stacking the Shelves: Delirium and Fever visit the Carnival of Assassins to hunt Serial Killers

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews to showcase all the books we got in the past week. Those can be bought, won, gifted, for review, borrowed, print or ebooks... no matter, just share what you got :)


This week was great for me in terms of books, which I'm really glad about because otherwise it wasn't so awesome. I couldn't find a new apartment in time (Zurich is terrible like that) so I have to temporarily move back in with my parents (definitely not in Zurich. Think village with 700 people). That means we had to move allll my furniture, books, and other stuff, which was rather stressful and, for me, painful. So when I wasn't hauling around stuff or boxing stuff, I was reading a lot to forget about everything.

Netgalley:

Delirium (Debt Collector episode 1), by Susan Kaye Quinn
Carniepunk, by Rachel Caine, Jennifer Estep, et al

After participating in the book blitz for Delirium, I was really curious so I snagged it on Netgalley when it showed up. You can read my review here or click the banner in the left sidebar to win it :)
Carniepunk I've been hoping would show up on Netgalley for a really long time, so I'm beyond happy that I got accepted ^^ I love anthologies!


Bought in print:

Faefever, by Karen Marie Moning
Fever, by Lauren DeStefano
I Hunt Killers, by Barry Lyga
Grave Mercy, by Robin LaFevers

After reading Darkfever and Bloodfever I had to have Faefever right away! I even went to buy it at the bookstore even though I cost almost twice as much as ordering online. I've already read it. Same goes for Fever, which unfortunately I didn't love as much as Wither :(
I've been drooling after I Hunt Killers and Grave Mercy for months and can't wait to get around to them!


Ebook:

Don't Hate the Player... Hate the Game, by Katie Ashley

After reading a review and then the kindle sample, I was so hooked by Noah's voice and the narration that I spontaneously bought it :) It was only about a dollar, but I don't know if that's still the case.


So that's it form me... I had a great bookish week if nothing else and can't wait to get started on those I haven't read yet! I also have a couple giveaways going on, just click the covers on the left sidebar, and I was part of a tour yesterday for Darkness of Light. You can check out my review plus an international giveaway here.
What do you think of my haul? Have you read any of these books? And what new pretties did you get this week?