First up, Amazon is confusing me. And scaring me a bit. I recently got an email from them about The Elegance of the Hedgehog and if you liked that, then here are some other recommendations. Which is fine, and I have some other Amazon recommendations based on things DVDs I recently bought from them. But here's the thing: I didn't buy The Elegance of the Hedgehog from Amazon. I won it. The email from Amazon came right after I posted my review, but my blog isn't linked to Amazon. My Shelfari account is connected to Amazon, since Amazon acquired them at some point. Except I have been super slacking on writing reviews so I added Hedgehog to my Shelfari list awhile ago and moved it over to "Read" a few weeks ago as well. And yet this Amazon email comes the day after I post my review.
I guess I shouldn't be too surprised by this. Everything is watched online, especially by big companies. But still, creepy. So has anyone else had this happen to them?
The Mine by John Heldt - I agreed to review this book because it sounds interesting and Deb over at The Book Stop read and enjoyed it. Plus it's not a YA book which I seem to get loads of requests to review. I guess it's my fault for not having a review policy page. Maybe I should make one that says "I probably won't read your book but maybe I will. Unless you're YA or romance or romantic-YA. In which case, it's best for all of us if you just move along."
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - I won this one from Laura over at The Scarlet Letter. I know pretty much everyone has already read and reviewed this and I'm sure I won't be adding anything new to the mix but don't care. There will be one more review to add to the pile.
Measure What Matters: Online Tools for Understanding Customers, Social Media, Engagement, and Key Relationships by Katie Paine - OK so I also won this one, but at a work event. Well sorta work event. I was at a conference/class and I answered all the questions on the quiz right because I'm a super nerd so I got a signed copy of this.
Native Son by Richard Wright - Brenna at Literary Musings mentioned this as one of her favorite books so far this year, so when I saw it on the remainder table at my local indie I had to pick up.
A Drink Before The War and Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane - Another remainder find. But this one is even better cos it's 2 books in one. So instead of one book being $5, it's 2 books for $2.50 each! (That is the most complicated math I am capable of.) How could I leave this behind? Besides I've been meaning to read more Lehane, especially Darkness since both Ben at Dead End Follies and Ellen from Fat Books & Thin Women told me I need to check this out.
My Life as an Experiment by A.J. Jacobs - Another remainder book. And I've already finished this one so I'll be getting to that review eventually. Right after I write ones for A Dirty Job and Kindred. But I liked The Know-It-All so when I saw this one on sale I decided why not, I'll give it a try. Plus Boyfriend said it looked like something he might like as well. So see, good investment!
Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid - Another Brenna recommendation and the last literary remainder find. PLUS I want to read more non-white people so this is just helping me towards that goal. I also recently finished this one so you'll get that review right after the My Life one.
Update!
I was apparently a bit premature with this post. See I also won some mystery books from HarperCollins during Armchair BEA and they just showed up today. I don't know these titles although some of the covers look familiar.
With My Body by Nikki Gemmell
The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey
When We Argued All Night by Alice Mattison
Also I updated the picture to be of the books instead of generic book pile. The only book not in there is The Mine because it's an ebook. And I suppose I could have added my Kindle to the pile, but would have really have improved anything?
