{Stacking The Shelves} At The Library, Listographies, & TableTop Gaming

So, I finally went to the library today. It's sad that I haven't been there so long, but I've had so much craziness in my life lately (enough to one day warrant a Lifetime original movie, I assure you), that I just never got around to going. I even had to fill out another library card application, because my previous one had expired. At least the new card had only cost me $2. Anywho, there were a lot of good books available to choose from - and a much bigger YA section than they had a couple years ago, which I was happy to see. Here's what I ended up getting this first trip back:

The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clark

Dead Reckoning by Mercedes Lackey & Rosemary Edghill

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

Will & Whit by Laura Lee Gulledge

Paige by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge

The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone

Also, since my last Stacking the Shelves post, I made a trip to Mervyns and discovered all of the fun stuff they have in their books & stationary section. I ended up picking up my first listography book there for only a few bucks, and then got hooked and purchased a music one on Amazon. Have you heard of the listography series? They're basically books that feature a different topic on each page, and you have to fill in the lines with lists pertaining to whatever they ask you. I think they make a fun keepsake, and as I am addicted to making lists for absolutely everything, I've been having a blast filling them out! I plan on getting the film listography book next, but for now, here are the one's I have:

Finally, I know these aren't books, but these do tell stories (in addition to stacking my shelves), so I thought I'd share my recent tabletop-gaming purchases. I have a huge love for playing games, whether they're video games, board games, card games, party games, etc. The games below have been on my wishlist for quite a while, and I'm glad I'll finally get the chance to play them:

Cards Against Humanity

Munchkin

Pandemic

What's New On My Kindle

   

{Stacking the Shelves} Book Riot Quarterly Box #2

The second Book Riot Quarterly subscription box arrived at my house earlier this week, and I must say, while I wasn't too happy with the first box, I found that I was much happier with this one! First off, it included a really cool poster as an extra, which I will be putting up on my wall ASAP:

Next up, of course, were the books. Book Riot had teased on their website that some lucky subscribers would be receiving one of five possible ARCs, and I was one of them! The ARC I received was Gemini by Carol Cassella, which actually came out March 4th (the Goodreads ratings are high on this one, so I'm looking forward to starting it!) The main feature of the box was a copy of Judging A Book By Its Lover by Lauren Leto, which features some separate bonus pages from the author (exclusive to subscribers of Book Riot Quarterly!) Finally, there was also a novella, Parnassus On Wheels by Christopher Morley, which I thought looked fantastic - I've never had a stand-alone novella in print format before (usually they're either dispersed as eBooks, or in anthologies), so this was a nice surprise.

While I admit, the books are the main part of this box, I still think that it's the bookish extras that are what make or break the purchase - anyone can go out and buy copies of the included books at their local bookstore, but it's the hand-picked goodies that really make things special. I know that I complained about the calendar in the first box (which I stopped using after January 7th, by the way), but opening this second box actually put me in a much better mood. This box included a coffee mug featuring the titles of some banned books, a tin container filled with place-markers for your books, a "Yay! Books!" magnet, and a USB flash drive that introduces the idea of Short Story Thursdays.

I've been using the mug everyday at work - I think it looks great! I haven't used the book-markers yet, but the book I'm reading right now is on the Kindle, so they aren't necessary just yet. Overall, I was pretty satisfied with this box, but I've decided to call it quits for now - $50 is just too much for me right now, and since I really need a car, this expense just isn't worth it to me right now. Let me know if you've subscribed, that way I know where to find out what's in box #3 when it's out!

What's New On My Kindle

   

   

{Stacking The Shelves} Vegan Cooking, Chinese Translations, And Life Habits

This week was a good week for me, in that I found out that my seasonal work position is now a permanent one! Now I'm even closer to my New Year's resolution of owning a car, since a steady income is what I needed to make the plunge of buying one (though I think I'll go for a used car, since my student loans make the idea of buying a new car quite laughable...) Anywho, I know you're here to see what books I got this past week, so here they are:

Isa Does It

by Isa Chandra Moskowitz

I love Isa's vegan cookbooks, and this one looks absolutely gorgeous! Many of the recipes feature full-page color photos, and there are beautiful fonts throughout the book.

Twilight

by Stephenie Meyer 

(Mandarin Chinese Edition)

 I've been wanting to buy a book in Mandarin for a while now, to help with my language studies. I thought about getting a Harry Potter novel, but I figured that 'Twilight' would be easier, since all of the made-up magical words in HP would probably make it harder for me to translate. I've noticed that the Chinese version of 'Twilight' features a lot of footnotes, such as information about the 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic, which is interesting.

The Power of Habit

by Charles Duhigg

I've heard so many things about this book on the podcasts that I listen to, so I figured I'd give it a go and see if it could help me break some of my bad habits and start some good ones.

   

I purchased 12 Years A Slave and The Rosie Project from the Kindle store when they went on sale - I've been wanting to read them both for a while now. The Tyrant's Daughter was a 'read instantly' book on NetGalley, and sounded interesting enough that I decided to get it (this was free in exchange for an honest review). The Line was my January pick for the Kindle First program, in which Amazon Prime members can choose one of four books to read free one month before they are released. All in all, this was a good haul.