Unabridged Chick

Ugh, I'm totally Eeyore this month! 

Struggling with a migraine this morning and the lingering head cold from last week -- am snotty and achy and very, very cranky.  I can't even focus enough to read!

I'm slowly reading The Serpent and the Pearl by Kate Quinn and The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon.  (They're artfully propped up on flowers my wife bought me to cheer me up.  She's a good one!)

What are you reading this weekend?  For those who have Monday off, any exciting plans?

Title:In Defense of the Queen
Author: Michelle Diener

Genre: Fiction (Historical / 16th Century / Tudor / Court Intrigue / Royal Painter / Assassination)
Publisher/Publication Date: Michelle Diener (8/1/2013)
Source: NetGalley

Rating: Loved.
Did I finish?: I did, in a matter of hours.
One-sentence summary: Henry VIII's painter and her fiance once more become embroiled in a dangerous plot that threatens their lives as well as that of the royal heirs.
Reading Challenges:E-book, Historical Fiction

Do I like the cover?: Eh, I don't have any strong feelings one way or the other.

I'm reminded of...: Jeanne Kalogridis

First line: The houses in Lombard Street leant against each other like a crowd of drunks, propping each other up.

Buy, Borrow, or Avoid?: Borrow or buy if you like Tudor-era hist fic, unique heroines, and/or

Why did I get this book?: I loved Daughter of the Sky.

Review: I'm pretty much a die-hard Diener fan now -- she made me inhale (and love), three Tudor-era hist fics! Aft…

Mailbox Monday is hosted in August by Kathy of Bermudaonion. To learn about any book, click the cover -- it'll open to the GoodReads page in a new tab/window.

Just a few arrivals this week -- mostly e-books -- but I'm excited to dig in!  What did you get this week?

For Review

More gorgeous summer outside, and I'm feeling well enough to sun myself -- so well, I gave myself a sunburn yesterday! Oops! (My book was good!)

One giveaway winner this week!

The winner of Mystery Girl is ... Susan T.!

Congrats to the winner! If you didn't win, be sure to check out my open giveaways -- lots of good stuff, and more coming this week! Hope everyone is having a great Saturday!

I have had the worst cold.  I still have it.  It's horrible.  I've become a mouth breather!

This weekend, starting now, I plan to finish up Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow, the second book in Juliet Grey's trilogy about Marie Antoinette, and start on the final book, Confessions of Marie Antoinette.

Pictured with those books is my drink (addiction) of the moment, Fentimans Rose Lemonade.  It's sour, sweet, a tiny bit floral, and carbonated.  While I've been home and feeling pathetic, I've been drinking it out of champagne flutes like I'm a fancy woman of leisure and not an unceasing snot factory.  Plus, sweet floral-y pink carbonated beverages seem especially suited for books about Marie Antoinette, right?

What are you reading this weekend?

Title:Where They Bury You
Author: Steven W. Kohlhagen

Genre: Fiction (Historical / 1860s / New Mexico / Civil War / Native Americans / Kit Carson / Historical Figures Fictionalized / Con Artists / Theft)
Publisher/Publication Date: Sunstone Press (9/2/2013)
Source:JKS Communications

Rating: Liked.
Did I finish?: I did -- raced through it!
One-sentence summary: A handful of gamblers try to make a big score in 1860s New Mexico and Arizona, at a time when the region is torn up with conflict and war.
Reading Challenges:E-book, Historical Fiction

Do I like the cover?: You know what? I do. I thought I didn't, but when I viewed the image full size, the textured background, the 'Western' font, and the silhouettes actually appeal to me.

First line: I'll be damned.

Buy, Borrow, or Avoid?: Borrow or buy if you like Westerns, the Southwest as a setting, or want a look at a wild and tempestuous time in US history.

Why did I get this book?: I've always been a bit curious about Kit Carson …

Title:League of Somebodies
Author: Samuel Sattin

Genre: Fiction (1960s / 1970s / Contemporary / Superheroes / Fathers and Sons / Dysfunctional Families)
Publisher/Publication Date: Dark Coast Press (4/9/2013)
Source:TLC Book Tours

Rating: Okay.
Did I finish?: I did.
One-sentence summary: A family's obsession with raising superheroes results in damaged fathers, frightened sons, and fraught marriages.

Do I like the cover?: I love it -- bright, bombastic, kind of mesmerising -- and lions do feature in the story.

I'm reminded of...: Michael Chabon, Gary Shteyngart

First line: As a dying man, Lenard Sikophsky would often look back upon the night when he was a child, and his father, Fearghas Murdoch Sikophsky -- the first generation of Scottish/Jewish/Polish (with a lower case 'p') emigres pilgrimming into America by briny way of the Massachusetts coast -- stuffed a sponge soaked with chloroform between his lips, wrapped a sash around his eyes, and got ready to introduce him to a …