Yesterday while we were doing some chores around the place my husband said that he wanted to go to Half Price Books. Well, I quickly dropped what I was doing and said when are we going? A trip to the bookstore definitely beats chores any time don’t you agree?

I hadn’t been to HPB in a while and I really lucked out. I went to the clearance section and found a bounty. Here’s what I got:

• Whistling in the Dark by Lesley Kagen. It was the summer on Vliet Street when we all started locking our doors… Sounds intriguing doesn’t it?
• Half Broken Things by Morag Joss. I finished her book, Funeral Music recently and would like to read more by this author, although, this one seems to be a stand-alone.
• Jackson’s Dilemma by Iris Murdoch. The NYT called this a psychologically rich tale of romances thwarted and revived. I can’t believe I’ve never read anything by Murdoch.
• The Death of Achilles by Boris Akunin. According to the Wall Street Journal, Akunin’s novels feature a Slavic Sherlock Holmes who speaks Japanese and English, is skilled at martial arts and has ladykiller good looks. Wow, why haven’t I read any of this books before? This isn’t the first one in the series though so I may have to put this one on hold for a while.
• The Gardens of Kyoto by Kate Walbert. “I had a cousin, Randall, killed on Iwo Jima. Have I told you?” A novel about war, loss, and love.
• Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala. A stunning debut novel about a young boy in an unnamed West African nation who is recruited into a unit of guerrilla fighters as civil war engulfs his country.
• Love Always by Ann Beattie. “A very funny book….If Jane Austen has been crossed with Oscar Wilde and Re-Crossed with the early Evelyn Waugh, and the result plunked down among the semi-beautiful people of the late 20th-century media-fringe America…the outcome might have been something like this.” — Margaret Atwood, The Chicago Sun Times.

Want to know how much I spent? Only $7. I think I need to go back and see what else I might have missed.

Anyway, hope you are all reading some very good books. I’m going to finish the chores I didn’t do yesterday because we ran out to Half Price Books, get a bit or reading done and of course continue going through my blog feeds. Happy Sunday everyone!

I’ve had a really good week spending time with my family and such but now I think I have a lot of catching up to do. I’ve barely had time to read even and last time I looked at my Bloglines the number of unread feeds scared me. heh.

Anyway, moving on to The Shape of Mercy giveaway – congrats to Betty & Boo’s Mommy! Thanks to everyone who entered. And, you won’t believe this but I have another book giveaway coming up this week. Woo-hoo, don’t you just love free books.

So plans for this weekend include a trip to the bookstore (I heard that Borders is having a big sale), catching up on blogs and emails, and hopefully finishing The Serpent and the Scorpion. I’m really enjoying this book.

I hope you all have a great weekend!