Today's Book Haul

This past month I joined a couple of monthly book boxes. Today I received a shipment from Blue Spiders Attic which describes themselves as a unique experience much like entering a used bookstore. They send a themed book box which includes three or so gently used books, a sample of coffee and/or tea, and a couple of book-related gifts.

Here's a picture of the unboxing. All nicely wrapped making the contents a surprise.

Here's what it looked like when I opened up the nicely wrapped packages.

I received three books - Vector Analysis by Jack C. Haldemann II, After All These Years by Susan Isaacs, and Afterparty by Ann Redisch Stampler.

Vector Analysis looks like science fiction.  

First comes the fever then the dreams, then the terrifying hunger to kill.  The strangest and deadliest creatures in the universe are quarantined togethr on the alien biology station Delta III - and exobiologist Rob McGreggor is the deadliest of them all.  For to find the antitoxin that can save them from disaster, he must infect the women he loves with the dream plague from beyond the stars!  

Goodreads gives it 3.5 stars and says it's "like the Andromeda strain in space".  Sounds interesting - some good pulp sci-fi.  This one could be a cheesy winner and at only 183 pages won't be too much of an investment.

After All These Years appears to be romantic suspense.  

The day after her lavish wedding anniversary bash, Rosie Meyers gets a big surprise: her nouveau riche husband, Richie, is leaving her for a sultry, sophisticated, size-six MBA. So, when he's found murdered in their exquisitely appointed kitchen, no one is surprised to find Rosie's prints all over the weapon.
The suburban English teacher is the prime suspect -- the police's only suspect. And she knows she'll spend the rest of her life in the prison library unless she can unmask the real killer. Going into Manhattan on the lam, Rosie learns more about Richie than she ever wanted to know. And more about herself than she ever dreamed possible. 

Another one with  3.5 stars on Goodreads.  I'm not big on the romantic suspense (unless it's paranormal) but I'll give it a go.

Afterparty is the one I'm least interested in.  It's young adult and a sequel.  I'm not interested enough to find the first book at this point.  So likely I'll give it a few pages and see if its going in the Half Price box.

Emma is tired of being good. Always the dutiful daughter to an overprotective father, she is the antithesis of her mother -- whose name her dad won't even say out loud. That's why meeting Siobhan is the best thing that ever happened to her...and the most dangerous. Because Siobhan is fun and alluring and experienced and lives on the edge. In other words, she's everything Emma is not.

And it may be more than Emma can handle.

Because as intoxicating as her secret life may be, when Emma begins to make her own decisions, Siobhan starts to unravel. It's more than just Dylan, the boy who comes between them. Their high-stakes pacts are spinning out of control. Elaborate lies become second nature. Loyalties and boundaries are blurred. And it all comes to a head at the infamous Afterparty, where debauchery rages and an intense, inescapable confrontation ends in a plummet from the rooftop.

This follow-up to Ann Redisch Stampler's Where It Began, reveals how those who know us best can hurt us most.

Only 3.2 stars on Goodreads.  We will see.  I like the idea of this book box - no idea what you're going to get.  They did let me choose genres that I'm not interested in - so hopefully, no religious fiction or poetry will be coming my way.  It's a chance to be exposed to books that I wouldn't choose on my own.  And at $22 a month, it's not too expensive.

I also received a pretty bookmark, a sample of S'mores coffee, a fridge magnet, a sample of English Breakfast black tea and a teapot shaped spoon rest.

The other book I got today came from Amazon.  Rabid by Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy.

An engrossing, lively history of a fearsome and misunderstood virus that binds man and dog. The most fatal virus known to science, rabies — a disease that spreads avidly from animals to humans — kills nearly one hundred percent of its victims once the infection takes root in the brain. In this critically acclaimed exploration, journalist Bill Wasik and veterinarian Monica Murphy chart four thousand years of the history, science, and cultural mythology of rabies. From Greek myths to zombie flicks, from the laboratory heroics of Louis Pasteur to the contemporary search for a lifesaving treatment, Rabid is a fresh and often wildly entertaining look at one of humankind’s oldest and most fearsome foes. 

I saw it mentioned in one of my Vet Tech magazines and had to have it.  Now I've got some heavy duty reading to get to, the stack beside my bed is starting to get to the teetering stage.