Thread by @Ceilidhann

Spontaneous book purchases have been one of the few true pleasures during lockdown so tell me, what are your most recently bought books? Here's mine.

(All of these were under £2 on Kindle, baby!)

I don't tend to read a lot of hard space opera style sci-fi but I was really won over by A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine, a fascinating & cerebral dissection of colonialism with a lot of political intrigue.

Now reading.

Now reading this sexy moonshine cowboy romance recommended to me by @carlylane.

Now moving onto my 51st book of the year, aww yeah. I'm a sucker, no pun intended, for a Dracula reimagining.

Yay!

I am STORMING ahead on my 2020 reading thanks to the latest Humble Bundle providing me with all 6 TPBs of Locke & Key, and I'm now onto the second book in this collection.

Next!

Back on my Anne Rice bullshit, non-vampires edition.

So pretty.

Servant of the Bones comes with all the expected Anne Rice highs and lows, but it was still enjoyable and way better paced than some of her more languid efforts.

And yes, I'm now reading yet another Phantom retelling.

For @pajiba, I wrote about some of the books that are helping me get through lockdown, with special appearances from @stampepk, cannibals, surveillance Furbies, and, of course, the incel basement singer trash boy.

pajiba.com/miscellaneous/…

I'm just browsing Amazon. I'm not going to buy any more books.

...

Dammit.

Yes, I'm reading yet another Phantom retelling.

This one is super odd. On top of the writing style just being weird, this one is trying to be meta, the heroine has Rogue from X-Men singing/kissing powers, and the romantic hero has a tragic backstory involving child sex slavery?

RoseBlood is bloody bananas!
This Phanton retelling has EVERYTHING: Cryogenically preserved fetuses, experimental surgery, souls trapped in violins, secret raves, energy vampires, vaping, a literal underground child sex trafficking ring...

This all makes the book sound way more fun or entertaining than it actually is. It's so oddly written and convoluted in its storytelling that I was mostly aggravated by its nonsense. Still, it'll look pretty on the shelf with my other Phantom books.

Looking for a short but sweet F/F historical romance? I really enjoyed this one.

My TBR pile collapsed. I feel like this is a sign.

This was very good.

This one will linger for a while.
Part memoir, part philosophical dissection of mental illness, all beautifully written with such clarity and empathy.

I'm sad that it took half the book's length to get to the mer-man oral.

Next.

I've been thoroughly enjoying P. Djèlí Clark's novellas and short stories lately. Such world-building!

ALSO I will do a proper review of this one closer to its release date but it's great & you should pre-order it: A really fun & fascinating sci-fi take on communication, paranoia & trauma. Think Arrival if Amy Adams had to work with an Invader Zim who had his shit together.

Show me the cover of the last book you bought or read!

My most recent purchases.

Hey, the world was right - Gideon the Ninth is really good!

Oh hey, I have a new Phantom of the Opera retelling for my shelf!

Me reading the final 10% of Gideon the Ninth.

You know, I don't think I've ever owned a literal Harlequin paperback before so this is way too exciting for me.

Decisions decisions...

Some early birthday presents from me to me.

Well, The Jumbee, making your Christine white & your Erik the mixed race descendant of a slave-owning rapist in a story set in the Caribbean was certainly a choice

Onto the Phantom shelf you go.

Yes, I did just light the candles for this picture, shut up.

Next, a book that's been on my Kindle for years.

Well, I did not know that this book features a man being fucked by a dolphin.

Huh.

Some of my purchases as part of #BlackoutBestsellerList.

Another birthday present for myself.

Woo hoo!

I do appreciate that Lestat's solution to understanding humans is, "Okay but have you seen Leo DiCaprio as Romeo?"

Currently reading one of my birthday presents to myself.

I think this is one of two books I've read that was written in the second person.

What is everyone reading right now?

Just got this on sale.

You know what's a good book? This one.

Chat to me about the books you're reading/buying/waiting for right now!

A big downside of my inability to sleep is that I end up browsing on Amazon in the early hours and buying way more books than I have time to read. I suppose it's a good longterm investment?

I'm very excited to read this.

So hyped to start reading this one tonight.

All the books I treated myself to got my birthday. And uh, also... 18 ebooks.

I know I said that I wasn't going to buy any more books but I LIED!

Nightmare Alley is FASCINATING so far. It's very Sam Fuller, with a hefty dash of Tod Browning's Freaks for good measure. I can't wait to see how Del Toro adapts this.

I'm back home and digging through all my old stuff. Here are all the plays I own. I may need to start selling this collection off.

My copy of Angels in America, my all-time favourite play, is covered in my notes from a module I took on political theatre.

Devoured this delightful novella in an hour.

So I've never actually read this book before...

Yay!

I plan to do nothing but read all day, real life be damned. Here's my current pick.

I'm powering my way through this and hoo boy I do not feel qualified in ANY WAY to talk about it.

Next.

This one has been sitting on my Kindle for like 3 years. I found myself in just the right mood to finally open it up.

I'm really enjoying The Upstairs Room so far - very Susan Hill-inspired haunted house story with some horribly familiar themes relating to millennial unease, the property market, and the crushing expectations put upon us to conform to archaic ideals of the "perfect life."

Choices...

Next.

I don't tend to read a lot of memoirs but I was really sucked in by this one and its examination of trauma's impact on memory.

Got a new one for the collection.

Me: It's good that I've been buying less books lately.
Also me: You bought seven in three days.
Me: Like I said, I'm being thrifty.

This was a lovely surprise in the post today.

My review of it will be up this week!

When all your Ebay purchases arrive at once.

*loud whisper*
It's nowhere near as good as the other Phantom musical.

Never read Barbara Vine or Ruth Rendell before but I'm suitably gripped by this.

What is everyone reading right now?

Hey, it was only 83p on Kindle!

What's been your favourite book of the year so far, both in terms of new releases and old?

Tender is the Flesh is still the 2020 book I think about the most, and fortunately for you Americans, it comes out on Tuesday on your home turf!

I have to get up early tomorrow so I should try to sleep but I mostly want to finish the final 80 pages if The Light Brigade.

Another addition to my "I only read crime novels from Canada" brand. This one is really striking.

For @pajiba, I did quick-bite reviews (quibis, if you will) of some books I've read lately, including one I REALLY hated.

pajiba.com/miscellaneous/…

This was an absolute delight and a perfect pick for my 100th book of 2020!

Next.

Read Nailbiter since it came with a Humble Bundle. I'm a sucker for weird murder tales but this one was a bit slapdash and didn't know where to take its great concept.

I couldn't wait any longer. I caved in and am now devouring it with relish.

Up next.

The beach read cover edition for this book is certainly interesting.

Also please share your current reading choices with me because I am mega-nosey!

So far this year, I have read 13 Anne Rice books and ten Phantom of the Opera retellings, just in case you wanted verifiable data on what a predictable cliche I am.

I remember when this book was released during the peak of my YA blogger years and passing it by because it seemed too cliched for me. Maybe I'm less jaded now but as an oldie, I'm really enjoying this?

Well, this is certainly a unique spin on the Phantom lore...

This book was a lot.

Onto the Phantom shelf it goes.
Please also appreciate my new tiny strawberry skull candle.

To cherr myself up over the foot stuff, I... well, obviously I bought more books. They're medicinal!

This is very sweet.

Continuing my proud and inexplicable tradition of almost exclusively reading crime novels from Canada.

This one is a slow-burn, elegiac read, set on the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec. I like it a lot.

Feels like I've waited ages to finally read this.

I didn't know what I was in the mood to read so I decided to finally check out this one that's been languishing in my Kindle for like six years.

Romance readers, what books are you checking out right now?

Of course I had to follow up Babitz with Didion.

You guys.

It's so good.

Since someone asked, here's the token shelfie.

Another new addition to my Phantom shelf.

One truly enterprising author has written a book that is basically "The Man From UNCLE but make it a romance novel" and I could not be happier.

amazon.co.uk/dp/B08GM69RLH/…

Currently reading.

Crime book Twitter, I need your help!

My gran is in desperate need of some new reads. She's a big fan of Chris Carter and I want to find her something in that wheelhouse. What would you recommend?

Very excited to receive this one directly from Canada thanks to the lovely @LJmysticowl. I really enjoyed the first 2 episodes of the TV adaptation that screened at #TIFF20.

Well, I love the film so I had to get the book...