How’s everyone doing this Sunday? I’ve spent a lot of time reading so far this weekend but I don’t know that I’ve made much progress. You see, I’m juggling six books right now! Yes, I usually have a few books going on but four has usually been my max. I don’t know what got into me this time.

Yesterday, I packed up my book bag and headed off to another coffee house. There are tons of indie coffee houses here in Austin so I’m sure I’ll have a good time discovering many more. It’s funny though because I never realized there were so many. I guess it’s because when I lived here during my University years I didn’t drink coffee.

So anyway with my cold and delicious hazelnut latte in hand, I settled down to read for a good while. Here’s the progress on the books so far:

• Blaming by Elizabeth Taylor. I did sort of stall on my reading of this book but it’s no fault of the story. I find this to be a very intimate look at how a woman deals with the sudden death of her husband, more specifically how she handles her friendships. It’s very good and I should be finishing it soon so I’ll tell you more about it then.
• Apples and Oranges by Marie Brenner. Another book I began reading a couple of weeks ago.
• The Seville Communion by Arturo Perez-Reverte. This one is going much more slowly than I expected and then I made the mistake of starting another mystery set in a foreign land which somehow grabbed my interest a bit more. I do plan to get back to this one though.
• La Perdida by Jessica Abel. A great graphic novel exploring the idea if one can be exiled from a country that isn’t your own. It’s set in Mexico City and the dialogue is peppered with a lot of Spanish. I love this one so far!
• The Amnesiac by Sam Taylor. I really expected this one to be a traditional mystery novel but so far it’s not that. A young man feels he’s lost three years of his life. He must now uncover what he’s forgotten.
• The Hellfire Conspiracy by Will Thomas. I was in the mood for a good historical mystery so I picked up the third in the Baker & Llewelyn series. This is so enjoyable and perfect timing too as the a new book in the series, The Black Hand, is out this month.

I have finished one book but I’ll save that post for another day. As for the rest of the weekend, I hope to catch up a bit on blog reading and hopefully spend some time bookbinding. Then again, I told my husband about the new Half Price Bookstore I found and he wants to go check it out. So we may just have to do that and there go all of our plans for the weekend. Heh.

Hope you enjoy your weekend and Happy Sunday Salon!

I’m almost embarrassed to post about the new books that I’ve added to my bookshelf because didn’t I just post about some new purchases recently? Ah well, you guys are all bookworms and can understand.

Actually not all of these have been purchases. I was lucky to receive two books from bloggy friends. I got American Priestess by Jane Fletcher Geniesse from a drawing Danielle recently had. And, from Literary Feline I got The Servants by Michael Marshall Smith. (Thank you Danielle & Wendy!) Both of these books sound so good… if you are curious go check out their reviews. I bet you, you’ll add the books to your lists.

A few ARCs have also made it to my mailbox and I’m very excited about these:

• Note to Self by Samara O’Shea. You know I love to journal so this book will probably be one I turn to when I need a bit of inspiration.
• The Glimmer Palace by Beatrice Colin. A book set in cabaret-era Berlin. Berlin is one of my favorite cities so the book already has that going for it.
• Occupational Hazards by Jonathan Segura. A book of shady politics and hardboiled crime.
• Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland. Meet Louise de la Valliere, an early mistress of Louis XIV. I do love historical fiction.

And, now for my purchases. I told you I was going back to Half Price Books with my coupons right? I did and I found a wonderful HPB store. This one is not too far from me either and they even have a rare book room! I didn’t go in there because I was afraid to fall in love with something I couldn’t afford but I’ll go back another day. For now I just walked away with these purchases:

• London Noir edited by Cathi Unsworth. I noticed that this book includes a story by Joolz Denby whose books I’ve greatly enjoyed so that’s all I needed to know.
• Love by Angela Carter. I’ve not read anything by her but some of you in blogland have mentioned her books and I’m very intrigued.
• The Millstone by Margaret Drabble.
• Hide & Seek by Clare Sambrook.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I’ll try to come back for a Sunday Salon post and tell you how my reading is going.