Wishes for my TBR Pile: 5 Books I Want to Buy

I’m super excited because I came home to find two 20%-off coupons from Barnes & Noble waiting for me in the mail. I can’t wait for the weekend so I can get to shopping. The following are books I’m eager to add to my TBR list. I’ll be honest here and state that most likely these books will be bought and placed on my bookshelf, where it will sit and collect dust for a few months before I actually read them. But I am a book-lover, a bibliophile at heart, so I can’t pass up an opportunity to collect more books. Though I am on a book-buying ban, I shall lift it for the weekend because—coupons!! Possible purchases might include:

The World of Ice & Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin (Bantam, Oct. 28, 2014)

“This lavishly illustrated volume is a comprehensive history of the Seven Kingdoms, providing vividly constructed accounts of the epic battles, bitter rivalries, and daring rebellions that lead to the events of A Song of Ice and Fire and HBO’s Game of Thrones. In a collaboration that’s been years in the making, Martin has teamed with Elio M. García, Jr., and Linda Antonsson, the founders of the renowned fan site Westeros.org—perhaps the only people who know this world almost as well as its visionary creator.”

I’m a fan of The Song of Ice and Fire series so OBVIOUSLY I want to add this book to my collection. I plan to collect them all—comic books, short stories, and whatever else GRRM publishes on the series. I’m going all out for this. I might even get the shows once I get around to start watching them.

Related article on io9:

George R.R. Martin Reveals the Worst Fate that Could Befall Westeros

A Brief History of Seven Killings: A Novel by Marlon James (Riverhead, Oct. 2, 2014)

“From the acclaimed author of The Book of Night Women comes one of the year’s most anticipated novels, a lyrical, masterfully written epic that explores the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in the late 1970s.”

I’ve only read one book thus far by Marlon James—The Book of Night Women—but I am a major fan. I read The Book of Night Women a few years ago while in college and was so moved by it that I forced my mom to read it as well. It is an emotional read, highly descriptive. I strongly recommend it to all. Because I know James is a great writer and know his stories are ones that will stick with me (and to which I can relate), I look forward to reading A Brief History of Seven Killings. It has gotten pretty good reviews thus far.

Related article from The New York Times and an interview on NPR:

Once on this Island: Marlon James’s New Novel, ‘A Brief History of Seven Killings’

A ‘Post-Post-Colonial’ Take on the Violent Birth of Modern Jamaica

Brian Froud’s Faeries’ Tales by Wendy Froud and Brian Froud (Harry N. Abrams, Sept. 16, 2014)

“In Brian Froud’s Faeries’ Tales, readers encounter individual faeries, each with a story to uncover, as told by the faeries themselves. Many of the stories are familiar to humans, but the “true” story is told by the faeries. Similar to the Trolls fragments, the faeries’ tales are coupled with portraits and interspersed with drawings and studies of the mysterious and enchanting folk who travel back and forth between the human world and theirs.”

It was while reading the ImagineFX Sketchbooks: Volume Two magazine that I first saw Brian Froud’s art. I immediately fell in love with them. His sketches portrayed pixies and faeries that seemed to be up to mischief or thinking of some. I was surprised when I saw those same sketches on the cover of a book in Barnes & Noble. I had forgotten that he stated that the sketches were for a book project. Since I didn’t have the funds to purchase it then, I would love to get the book now. I like the art and I’d love to read the text that accompanies them.

Related YouTube video (person flipping through ImagineFX’s magazine):

ImagineFX Sketchbook

The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21^st Century by Steven Pinker (Viking Adult, Sept. 30, 2014)

“In this short, cheerful, and eminently practical book, Pinker shows how writing depends on imagination, empathy, coherence, grammatical knowhow, and an ability to savor and reverse engineer the good prose of others. He replaces dogma about usage with reason and evidence, allowing writers and editors to apply the guidelines judiciously, rather than robotically, being mindful of what they are designed to accomplish.”

I enjoy reading books on writing so when I saw a review of The Sense of Style in one of my Shelf Awareness newsletters, I wanted to immediately download a copy on my Nook. I haven’t read any of Pinker’s prior books but he’s often quoted and held in high esteem so I’m assuming this book will be good to read. The reviewer on Shelf Awareness described it as a “lively book” so I’m looking forward to the fun.

Related article on Shelf Awareness:

Review: The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century

Behind the Gates of Gomorrah: A Year with the Criminally Insane by Stephen B. Seager (Gallery Books, Sept. 16, 2014)

“Psychiatrist Stephen Seager was no stranger to locked psych wards when he accepted a job at California’s Gorman State hospital, known locally as “Gomorrah,” but nothing could have prepared him for what he encountered when he stepped through its gates, a triple sally port behind the twenty-foot walls topped with shining coils of razor wire. Gorman State is one of the nation’s largest forensic mental hospitals, dedicated to treating the criminally insane. Unit C, where Seager was assigned, was reserved for the “bad actors,” the mass murderers, serial killers, and the real-life Hannibal Lecters of the world…Behind the Gates of Gomorrah affords an eye-opening look inside a facility to which few people have ever had access. Honest, rueful, and at times darkly funny, Seager’s gripping account of his rookie year blends memoir with a narrative science, explaining both the aberrant mind and his own, at times incomprehensible, determination to remain in a job with a perilously steep learning curve.”

I’ve recently taken to watching old episodes of Criminal Minds on Netflix so when I read Seager’s interview on Biographile, I was immediately interested in his book. The interview makes the book sound quite sensational and dramatic. You can’t help wondering what horrors Seager will reveal and just how a place like Gomorrah is managed. Basically, I want to get this one to satiate my curiosity.

Related interview on Biographile:

Welcome to the Madhouse: Q&A with Psychiatrist Stephen Seager

Related articles

• 15 Books to Read (Not Textbooks!) (forwardthinking.ashford.edu)

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