We used to have a thread like this - a place where people posted what they've purchased, ordered, received or been gifted (from PBS, Amazon, Alibris, at a garage sale or UBS or wherever). I think Valli started it years ago before she disappeared.  (Sniff.  Still missing Valli.) 

Anyway, if you want to brag about what you have acquired or publicly shame yourself by announcing the ungodly amount of books you just acquired when you swore you were going to read down your TBR before taking possession of any more books, this is your place!

Well, I'm using the space to grouse about NOT getting what I ordered.  I pre-ordered Cornwell's 1356 and received notice that shipping has been delayed. Grrrr ...

I will go first, and in my case, I am publicly shaming myself.  I recently cleaned and organized my bookshelves, which felt really good.  I didn't count, but I believe I have something like 175-200 unread books on my shelves.  PLENTY to read for years, especially considering the pace at which I've been reading the past couple of years.

Well, I vowed to move reading back up to the priority list this year, and one way I thought would encourage that would be to come back here, to the HF Forum, and be more active.  I knew just hanging out with other HF lovers would get me excited and motivated to read again.  I guess I should've known it would've made me acquire more books as well. Sigh.

Just in the past week or two, I have ordered ELEVEN books - most of which I hadn't even heard of before coming back here.    This after about 2 years of only acquiring a handful of books.  Like I said, I should've known. 

So, here's what I recently received or is enroute to me -

FROM PBS (and I don't feel bad about these because they are trades) -

Sarah's Key - I had heard of this one awhile back, but it didn't really interest me.  It popped up on some page I was on here at PBS and all of a sudden, it was appealing.  Go figure.  I will probably use it for the "Duece" category of the HF Challenge.

Carribbean, by James Michener -  I have yet to read a Michener but I have Alaska and Hawaii on my shelf. Like Sarah's Key, this one just caught my attention here one day, so I said, "What the hell?" 

Queen of Swords, by Sarah Donati - I have all of the books in the series except this one (and I believe there is one more yet, which is on my WL), and although I haven't read them, I'm so certain that I will love them that I went ahead and ordered this one. 

FROM KINDLE -

The Kitchen House - Since I'm leading the February RAL for this one, I figured I'd better have the book.  LOL!  Actually it was a good excuse to get an e-book for my new iPad and see if I like reading books electronically.

FROM AMAZON -

The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart - This one got mixed reviews, but this kind of weird, gross, slightly comical stuff kind of amuses me.  Plus it was a bargain book, so I'm not out too much if I hate it.

Instruments of Darkness by Imogen Robertson - I'm usually not into historical mystery, but another series (see below) caught my eye, and when I asked the resident HF Mystery Queen Jeanne about it, she also recommended the Robertson books.  This was another bargain book.

1356: A Novel by Bernard Cornwell - Aack!  My favorite author and I had no idea he had a new book out!  I don't blame you if you whip out the wet noodle.   Yes, that's how out of touch I've been.  Fortunately ("or not," says my wallet), Cheryl mentioned it on another thread and somehow it immediately found it's way into my Amazon cart. 

FROM BARNES & NOBLE - I had a wee gift certificate (quite a bit less than what the books actually cost) so I got -

The Hangman's Daughter, The Dark Monk, and The Beggar King, all by Oliver Potzsch.  These are the first three in a series of 4.  I think the 4th book either just came out or is coming out sometime in 2013.

FROM AUDIBLE - Audible is offering a fre 30-day trial membership, and I"ve been wanting to try an audible book. It would be very useful in that I could "read" while I knit, but I really think I'm going to dislike audio books. I'm just not an audio person, and I have a feeling my attention will wander.  Still, I need to at least try, right?  So . . .

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, which is the book Kelly was just talking up.  Lord, I am so easily influenced!

So, after all that, even though I started this thread, I may not actually read it!  I'm sure it'll just cause me to acquire yet more books that I certainly don't need!

But go ahead and post anyway.  I just might take a look-see!

Sharla - Where did you order from?  It looks like Amazon started shipping on January 8? 

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson and an HB of The Bungalow by Sarah Jio from the thrift store.  Also ordered and received Bitter in the Mouth by Monique Truong from pbs since I qualified for a free book if I paid shipping.  Free from PBS members:  Bangkok 8 by John Burdett, Without Fail by Lee Child and The Well of Lonliness by Radclyffe Hall and two WL books:  I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali with Delphine Minoui and Birds in Fall by Brad Kessler.

Library:  The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon,  Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey, City of Lost Souls by Cassendra Clare,  Country Driving A Journey Through China from farm to Factory by Peter Hessler, and Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt.  I have gotten six ebooks, too.

I have managed to move fourteen books from my house - eleven of which have been mailed to pbs members and three given to my sister-in-law so I guess I'm one ahead counting the ebooks.  At least those don't take any space.  Plus I have six more to mail but my WL keeps filling so more are on the way.  I'm going to do only January.

Love seeing this thread back. I've been rather good so far, but likely because there's been no library sales this month and I pretty much cleaned out my favorite UBSs around Christmas

I recently picked up this one based on positive reviews:

Oh, Linda? What do you have to report? (Mom has a story very similar to Shelley's ... in her case it was post-Christmas, time to spend some money on books, what shall I get?)

Sharla:  What's up with 1356?  Mine came next day after the release date and I didn't even pay for the extra quick shipping from AMZ.  So sorry...worth the wait tho.

Well first Shelley thank you for labeling this thread 2013 aquisitions because if I counted what I got with x-mas $ towards the end of the year it really would be public shaming. 

So far THIS year I have requested and received 3 digital copies of books for review:

A Spear of Summer Grass by Deanna Raybourn

The Sinners and the Sea by Rebecca Kanner

Seduction by M.J. Rose

and I won a signed copy of Hemingway's Girl by Erika Robuck which arrived today.

The Passing Bells by Philip Rock is coming from a PBS member and it should be here any day.  Thats it for me so far.

REK - Yep, library reads count too!  Anything you've recently came into possesion of (no matter by what means or even if it's a temporary possession) counts!

Holly - Well technically what you bought with your Xmas money would count, but if you acquired them in 2012, you don't need to shame yourself by listing them. 

Linda - Where are you? I need to know I'm not alone in my shameless acquiring of books!  Spill your guts, sistah'!

Well, yes, like Kelly said, I decided to treat myself to some new books, books I'd been wanting that looked to be a long wait from swap.  I always can justify the expense since both Kelly and I will be reading them, and frequently, the granddaughter also.  Ordered on 12/31 and they've started arriving this week:

Wild Rose, Jennifer Donnelly (on the wish list for a long, long time)

Gods of Gotham, Lindsay Faye

Anatomist's Wife, Anna Lee Huber

Light Between Oceans, M L Stedman

The Holy Thief, William Ryan

Murder on Sisters' Row, Victoria Thompson

The Mevrouw Who Saved Manhattan, Bill Greer

The Wordsmith's Tale, Stephen Edden

Three of these I've already read and have them stacked up for taking to Kelly next weekend, so they scarcely count as adding to the TBR (my tbr anyway)

Linda

Holly - I want to know what you think of "Seduction" after you read it. It's on my WL and I want to know whether to keep it there or not!

Oh! I should say that so far the only book I've acquired for 2013 is through the library: Summon Up the Blood by R N Morris. I'm reading it now. It started out slow in the first half but now it's picking up. !914 London and they have a Special Crimes unit. Silas Quinn is the protagonist in this one and he is in charge of investigating a case where a homosexual is killed and exsanguinated. After no results in the case three more bodies are found in the same condition! I like this author and am used to his writing HM re Russia so this is a little different for him.....

Linda - Thanks for sharing!  I am NOT, however, going to look up any of the books you listed less I shame myself even more!

Holly, have you read Erika Robuck's Receive Me Falling? We were living in Maryland when that book came out and that is where Erika is from. She came and spoke with our bookclub not long after the book was out. She was really nice.

Shelley, I think you will like the Wilderness series, Jeanne turned me on to the Westerman & Crowther series by Imogen Robertson, and I just re-listened to them this week as we have been cleaning and painting our basement, they are just so well written.  I love Audible because I can do other things like sewing or cooking or cleaning while I listen to a book. 

Just picked up a kindle freebie of an older romance. Sounds very promising. 

Well, I've been a bad girl but a wonderful consumer of historical fiction and supporter of of booksellers! 

Last week I purchased through the PBS Market -

Water Ghosts, Shawna Yang Ryan

The Enterprise of Death, Jesse Bullington

Yesterday I ordered through PBS (and I can't believe I didn't already have this because I loved London) -

The Princes of Ireland: The Dublin Saga, Edward Rutherfurd

And today I went on a bit of a spree at B&N and got -

The Buddha in the Attic, Julie Otsuka

The Painted Girls, Cathy Marie Buchanan

The Last Runaway, Tracy Chevalier

The Winter Sea, Susanna Kearsley

The Book Thief, Marcus Zusak

Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker, Jennifer Chiaverini

Someone Knows My Name, Lawrence Hill

It seems as if there was another, but I can't recall . . .

I am also strongly considering pre-ordering Paris: The Novel, by Jack Rutherfurd, which comes out in April.  Hmm, birthday present for me?

I refuse to feel guilty about any of this!

Wow, Shelley, I'd say that you are definitely BACK!!!!

I've been a little busy, too. 

From AbeBooks, I just ordered 2 NF books - Seeds of Extinction:  Jeffersonian Philanthropy and the American Indian and Jefferson and the Indians:  The Tragic Fate of the First Americans.  I just finished reading a Jefferson bio and wanted to know a little more about his Indian policies.

Also from AB, Andrew Greeley's  Irish Gold

From PBS:  Trapeze, Medicus, The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty

E-books:  The Count of Monte Cristo, Halestorm, Spirited Away, A Parachute in the Lime Tree

And from Amazon:  Speaking from Among the Bones - the latest Flavia de Luce mystery - Love!

Ummm...time for public shaming here at Lauri's house.

Don't tell my mom about this!!!

She already thinks I have WAAAAAAAY too many books (which we all know is an impossibility). She would have had a FIT if she had seen me on New Year's Day. My favorite UBS was open for business that day, and I had to drop her off at the airport for a flight to Atlanta that day. The airport is only ten minutes from the UBS...you see where I'm going with this, right?

52 books.

Yep...I started out the new year "plumping up" Mt. TBR. I had to take most of them to my climate controlled storage unit for temporary safekeeping, but I'll work them into the house bit by bit as I read and send out some others here at the house.

They're not all historical fiction...I have some other genres in there too. I can't remember all of them, but here's a sampling of some of the HF or historical NF ones I can remember off the top of my head:

The Winter Palace: A Novel of Catherine the Great : Eva Stachniak

Shadow of Night (All Souls, Bk 2) : Deborah Harkness

The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code : Sam Kean

The Countess: A Novel : Rebecca Johns

Leaving Van Gogh : Carol Wallace

The Shoemaker's Wife : Adriana Trigiani

The Beautiful Ruins : Jess Walter

The Rebel Wife: A Novel : Taylor M Polites

Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948 : Madeleine Albright

The River Wife : Jonis Agee

The Girl in the Blue Beret: A Novel : Bobbie Ann Mason

22 Britannia Road : Amanda Hodgkinson

The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno: Ellen Bryson

The Disagreement : Nick Taylor

The Snow Child : Eowyn Ivey

A Vintage Affair : Isabel Wolff

The Wolves of Andover : Kathleen Kent

I know there's more...but I remember these. I can't wait until I open the box next and say "Ohhh...and I got THAT too!!!!"

There will be another public shaming in the future...I can't stay away from that store...

Welcome to the club!

Wow, Laurie!  I think I love you.  Fifty-books?  Awesome!

Laurie, that's just crazy good!

I got one of the discount coupon's from Barnes and Noble in the mail and couldn't let it go to waste so I ordered

I bought 2 Jeri Westerson novels yesterday at a good price on AZN -- Serpent in the Thorns and The Demon's Parchment. I haven't tried this author yet, but I hear good things about here on PBS. I also bought By Fire, By Water by Mitchell Kaplan, which was recommended in the thread on HF under 300 pages. It looks real good and the reviews are great.