Another week, another fine haul of books brought in by the Bookslingers.
This week, I (Miss Corene) discovered White Dwarf Books in Vancouver and things quickly got out of hand. Do not let the circa 1992 website fool you. White Dwarf is a magical place where the magical books live. The decorating scheme is wall to wall to wall to wall to bookshelves full of shiny sci-fi and fantasy books patiently waiting to be purchased.
And it was well organized! The books were separated alphabetically by author and grouped by series. I almost fell to my knees and wept.
The shop is guarded by a chubby Basset Hound who quickly identified me as "Professional Belly Rubber/Person Who Has Meat Treats in Her Jacket Pockets." After I finished my belly scratching duties, I moved on to the serious business of spending money.
The started off by fulfill the quest the had led me to this magical shop: Seanan McGuire's October Daye series.
Ironically enough, I don't actually own any rosemary
This is the first book in the series, Rosemary and Rue, in which our heroine is transformed into a fish for fourteen years.
Yeah. You read that right. And here's the weird part: Our heroine is transformed into a fish for fourteen years and this fact did not make me slam shut the book and pronounce in the manner of the Monty Python Colonel: "Right! That's enough of that. It's simply too silly."
A Local Habitation - The second book in the series by Miss Maiar's Saddest Charlie Brown Christmas Tree
Seanan McGuire has a fantastic blog where she writes about writing, the writing life, and posts some adorable cartoons. If you aren't subscribing, I heartily recommend a daily dose of Seanan. And I do mean daily. The lady eats the dictionary definition of "prolific" for breakfast every morning and drinks it down with a cool class of discipline.
A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer is the perfect cup of tea book. In fact, this book is the reason why I drink tea. Before this book, it was only something to be passed up for a glass of water. In the book, one of my favourite characters, the terribly English Jane Brailsford, in the start of a wonderful friendship says:
"I'd hate to miss the spectacle but I'm perishing for my tea. Just sit with me for a moment while I drink a cup and then let me come along to watch you murder Menary."
And there was just something about that sentence that made me put down the book, trot off to Cally's Teas (if you are even in Edmonton, stop by and bought a Brown Betty teapot and some of her Tsar Nicholas Russian Caravan. It will change your mind about Russian Blends). And my life was changed forever.
At least in the way that my life is significantly more caffeinated than before.
How pretty is this cover? I can just imagine her internal dialogue: "Oh hey there. I'm just going to finish pinning my hair up and then I'll come over and start kicking your ass."
That's all for this week. Next week I will pick up my holds at the library and either resign myself to a life of saltines and Tetley tea or stop buying books.
And let us allow the dear Colonel to end this post in a proper and responsible manner.
