Stacking the Shelves, general update & giveaway news

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly post hosted by Tynga's Reviews to showcase new adds to the reading pile, no matter how they were acquired. This time, I'm also using it for a general update and recap.

First off, I have to apologize for not replying to comments or checking out other people's WoW's etc. The reason is that I was on a 10-day Interrail journey which led me from Zurich to Prague to Hamburg to Amsterdam and eventually back to Zurich. Loads of train-driving, amazing memories and sights I will forever treasure. However, also not so much time on the computer/blogs/twitter/tumblr and all that. Which was nice in a way, but not something I'd want to do all the time. I'm glad to be back!

Of course, I can't go on a trip without buying books... but since my suitcase was small, I limited myself to two. I bought Paranormalcy by Kristen White when I was in Prague and read it on the journey to Hamburg. You can read my review here. When I was in Amsterdam, I discovered that they actually have a Waterstones there!! I know the store from UK trips and love it - no Swiss book store stacks that many English books! I bought:

I love haunted house stories, but I've read waaaay too few of them! This nearly 700 page monster contains stories on diverse aspects of the genre by a variety of writers - among them, to my surprise, also Virginia Woolf. Once I finish it (could take a while) I'll review some of the stories.

The day after I got home from my trip I went to the fleamarket, where I bought a book for a buck (among other things). It's a German edition and I don't usually read thsoe anymore because the (often not so good) translations upset me, but I thought what the heck, I've been looking at this at the store way too often to pass up this opportunity.

 

I own it with the cover on the left, but I thought it was also really interesting to compare it with the English cover. Very different effect.

When I got home today, too more pretties were waiting for me in my mailbox!

goodreads

goodreads

I've been wanting to read Anna Dressed in Blood for forever and was only waiting for the paperback. However, since Something Strange and Deadly only just came out, I will read that one first and probably get started on it tonight or tomorrow.

What I've recently finished:



I enjoyed both books a lot and hope to get some reviews up soon!

More news: I'm participating in the 2nd Annual Summer Giveaway Hop hosted by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and Mary from BookHounds & Forever Young (adult). Almost 200 blogs are participating! This is my first time doing something like this and I hope my post goes on at the right time (yeah... time difference doesn't help trying to coordinate blog posts and rafflecopter forms >.<) and everything works as it should. The hop starts on August 1 and ends on August 7. I hope some of you guys will check out my post and enter! I hope this will be fun :)


What's new on your shelves? Have you read any of the books mentioned above, and what did you think about them? What are you reading at the moment? Tell me in the comments :)

Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews to showcase what books we got, traded or bought to clutter those ever-expanding bookshelves.

Bought but not yet read:

Born at Midnight, by C. C. Hunter
Demonglass, by Rachel Hawkins
The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern
A Beautiful Evil, by Kelly Keaton

I'm really late in buying The Night Circus, but I'm excited to finally read it! I've had A Beautiful Evil on the pile for a couple weeks but somehow haven't picked it up yet... I think I'll have to re-read the second half of Darkness Becomes Her first to get into the that world again. Same goes for Demonglass. I'm also curious for Born at Midnight because I'm a sucker for books set in boarding schools.

Books I won:

The Immortal Rules, by Julie Kagawa

The Poison Eaters and Other Stories, by Holly Black

Witch Eyes, by Scott Tracey

Blood Bound, by Rachel Vincent

Hunger, by Jackie Morse Kessler

Yup, I was lucky enough to win the Participation Post giveaway in Fiktshun 's Soul Screamers Reading Challenge :D I just got them in the mail today and now I'm really in a pinch for what to read first... ironically, the one book that I asked for and that didn't arrive yet is Before I Wake, the new Soul Screamers novel whose book birthday is today of all days...

In case you missed the SSRC, Rachel is also hosting a BIW mini-challenge on her blog! You can sign up for that here.

Finally, my current read:

I'm more than halfway in and probably gonna finish today. It's hilarious XD I love it! It's got some of my favorite comparisons and turns of the phrase ever. Not to mention the many death related puns ^^ I love funny morbid.


Have you read any of these books? What's new on your shelves?