Thanksgiving Book Porn

Here are the past three days' arrivals, some of them purchases (most of the first and third pictures), with the others being review copies.  In this first picture, I have read 3/4 of Bakker's book and I am finding it to be much better written than his last attempt at a thriller, Neuropath.  Not that I'm biased because a character shares a same surname with myself, mind you...  Read a bit of Patti Smith's autobiography of her time in the late 1960s-1970s with Robert Mapplethorpe and "poignant" and "moving" are two words I've already thought in conjunction to the first couple of chapters.  Haven't read enough of the Amelia Gray or Robert Lopez collections to have firm thoughts on them.  Sarah Blakewell's "biography" of Montaigne is certainly going to garner a glowing review whenever I finish it over the next couple of weeks.

Here are four books that I've received from Pyr Books over the past few days.  More likely to read the Akers book before the three Barclay, as I'm not in much of a mood to read English-language epic fantasy at this time.  But soon, I might sample those as well.

The John Joseph Adams anthology, Brave New Worlds, is the only review copy (or English-language work) pictured above.  I am excited that the Italian original of Umberto Eco's latest novel arrived a week earlier than I had expected.  Shall be alternating between that and (re)reading the entire Saga of Geralt/the Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski.  While English-language readers have to wait and wonder if Gollancz (and Orbit for the US, I guess) have canceled the publication of the English translation of Sapkowski's lauded and bestselling series, the Spanish-language readers recently saw the eighth (and final) volume of this series released (the final volume in Polish and most other languages was split in two in Spain).  I hope to have the time in the next couple of weeks to review volumes #4-8 here.

And yes, you monolinguals may be jealous now.