August Books Bought

A few of these books were "bought" with a gift certificate that I'd been hoarding for several months, but I'm including those books anyway. (Anything to inflate the numbers, right?)

BOOKS BOUGHT



The American Fantasy Tradition (2002)- Brian M. Thomsen, ed.

My Amazon review may have been overly enthusiastic in 2002, but I enjoyed the book so much I knew I'd buy it if I could find it on the cheap. I actually bought the same copy I'd checked out from the library five years earlier. What goes around...



Ghosts and Grisly Things (2000) - Ramsey Campbell

I know it's unthinkable to admit that I've read next to nothing by Ramsey Campbell, but this collection seems a good place to start.




Take Joy: The Writers Guide To Loving The Craft (2003/2005) - Jane Yolen

I enjoy both Yolen's children's/YA fiction as well as her writer's journal. There are some real jewels in this book for all writers.



The Imago Sequence and Other Stories (2007) - Laird Barron

I'd read a couple of Barron's oddly disturbing horror stories in magazines, so buying this debut collection was a no-brainer.




9Tail Fox (2005/2007) - Jon Courtenay Grimwood

Charles Brown mentioned this book in Locus a couple of years ago. Most of the time we have different tastes, but this one intrigued me: a sf/noir thriller about a murdered San Francisco cop who wakes up in another man's body to investigate his own murder.



The Truth Is Out There: Christian Faith and the Classics of TV Science Fiction (NF 2006) - Thomas Bertonneau and Kim Paffenroth

I picked this one up thinking it would be a light, fun read. Light, no. Fun, yes. More about this one later.



Haunted (2005) - Chuck Palahniuk

I'm not a huge Palahniuk fan, but I thought most of Diary was very good. But after reading the back of the dust jacket -

Writers' Retreat: Abandon your life for three months. Just disappear. Leave behind everything that keeps you from creating your masterpiece. Your job and family and home, all those obligations and distractions - Put them on hold for three months...

Sounds like something I've done before...




Ysabel (2007) - Guy Gavriel Kay

Somewhere in the convoluted area of my mind, I could've sworn this novel was nominated for a World Fantasy Award (but of course it's not: it's a 2007 release), so I picked it up at a library sale. I loved Kay's Tigana, but have never been able to get into any of his other works. We'll see what happens with this one.




Flora Segunda: Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog (YA 2007) - Ysabeau S. Wilce

One look at the title and you know this is a fun-filled book that doesn't take itself too seriously. I think I first read about it in Locus.




Bound to Please (NF 2005) - Michael Dirda

Reviews and essays of a broad scope of books from Dirda's 20+ year career as writer at the Washington Post.




Counting Heads (2005) - David Marusek

I missed the boat on this one when it came out, so I was glad to find it at a thrift store. The trade paperback edition is coming out on October 16.




Ill Met in Lankhmar (1970/1995) - Fritz Leiber

This volume consists of the first two entries in the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series, the beginnings of which can be traced all the way back to a story Leiber published in 1939 in Unknown. (The original collection, Swords and Deviltry, came out in 1970.) This is a classic series that I haven't read, but should.

That's it for August purchases. Next time, August Books Read