My Book Haul / Showcase Sundays

This is Books, Biscuits and Tea's Showcase Sunday where I share my lovely book hauls each week. Have a look back at Vicki's link up to see what everyone is up too!

So Sarah and I were away all week in Portugal and spent most of it reading. It was a lazy week and very nice - unfortunately I returned yesterday to more bad news so all the good has pretty much been wiped out already. Still I did managed to read some good books while we were away including another fantastic installment in the Dresden Files - Ghost Story by Jim Butcher, a fun anthology - Those Who Fight Monsters edited by Justin Gustainis, a quick visit to The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. I also finally started the City of Bones by Cassandra Clare and caught the penultimate visit to Bon Temps with Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris. So that's five books read this week...

You'd think being on holiday all week I wouldn't have any new books to share - and you'd be wrong! When I got back yesterday there was a pile of parcels waiting for me with some books I had ordered on line and a giveaway win!

Review

Poison - Sarah Pinborough

Publisher: Gollancz

POISON is a beautifully illustrated retelling of the Snow White story which takes all the elements of the classic fairytale that we love (the handsome prince, the jealous queen, the beautiful girl and, of course, the poisoning) and puts a modern spin on the characters, their motives and their desires.

I was chosen bu Gollancz Geeks to review Poison for them so I will be picking it up this week!

Won

Time Warped - Claudia Hammond

Publisher: Canongate

Have you ever tried to spend a day without looking at a clock or checking your watch? It's almost impossible. Time rules our lives, but how much do we understand about it? And is it possible to retrain our brains and improve our relationship with it? Drawing on the latest research from the fields of psychology, neuroscience and biology, and using original research on the way memory shapes our understanding of time, the acclaimed writer and broadcaster Claudia Hammond delves into the mysteries of time perception.
Along the way, Claudia introduces us to an extraordinary array of characters willing to go to great lengths in the interests of research, such as the French speleologist Michel, who spends two months in an ice cave in complete darkness. We meet one group of volunteers who steer themselves towards the edge of a stairwell, blindfolded, and another who are strapped into a harness and dropped off the edge of tower block. 
Time Warped shows us how to manage our time more efficiently, speed time up and slow it down at will, plan for the future with more accuracy and, ultimately, use the warping of time to our own advantage.

I won this over at Curosity Killed The Bookworm. Non-fiction is not my usual read but this sounds like it could be quite different and interesting! Thanks Ellie!

Bought

Deadlocked (Sookie Stackhouse #12) - Charlaine Harris

Publisher: Gollancz

Sookie has a murder investigation on her hands. 
A young girl has died at a vampire party - and it looks as though her lover, Eric, might be responsible. Eric swears he didn't do it, the police don't believe him, and even Sookie isn't so sure. Nor is she inclined to take his word for it, not having caught him enjoying the victim's blood minutes before she was killed.
But something strange is going on. Why had Sookie been asked to come to the fateful party a few minutes early - just to catch Eric in the act? And why had the victim spiked her own blood before approaching Eric? Was it simply because she wanted to be irresistable, or was it something more sinister?
Sookie will have to find out ... but it's the worst moment to investigate, as her Fae family are having troubles of their own and Sookie is, inevitably, drawn in. And there is one last complication. The cluviel dor her grandmother left her. It will grant her one wish, which could fulfil Sookie's heart's desire. The only problem is, she still doesn't know what - or who - her heart truly desires ...

With the final book out in hardback I'm just catching up on the latest paperback adventures with the end in sight now!

I've Got Your Number - Sophie Kinsella

Publisher: Bantam

A couple of glasses of bubbly with the girls at a charity do and Poppy's life has gone into meltdown. Not only has she lost her engagement ring, but in the panic that followed, she's lost her phone too. As she paces shakily round the hotel foyer she spots an abandoned phone in a bin. Finders keepers! Now she can leave a number with the hotel staff. It was meant to be!
Except the phone's owner, businessman Sam Roxton, doesn't agree. He wants his phone back, and doesn't appreciate Poppy reading all his messages and wading into his personal life. As Poppy juggles wedding preparations, phone messages and hiding her left hand from Magnus and his parents, can things get any more tangled?

I love a little chick-lit on occasion and Sophie Kinsella usually has a couple of good giggles!

Charlotte Street - Danny Wallace

Publisher: Ebury

Jason Priestley (not that one) has just seen her. They shared an incredible, brief, fleeting moment of deep possibility, somewhere halfway down Charlotte Street. 
And then, just like that, she was gone - accidentally leaving him holding her old-fashioned, disposable camera, chock full of undeveloped photos...
And now Jason - ex-teacher, ex-boyfriend, part-time writer and reluctant hero - faces a dilemma. Should he try and track The Girl down? What if she's The One? But that would mean using the only clues he has, which lie untouched in this tatty disposable...It's funny how things can develop...

Danny Wallace's non-fiction usually has me in stitches so I couldn't resist buying his first novel!

Loki's Wolves - K.L. Armstrong & M.A. Marr
Publisher: Atom

In Viking times, Norse myths predicted the end of the world, an event called Ragnarok, that only the gods can stop. When this apocalypse happens, the gods must battle the monsters--wolves the size of the sun, serpents that span the seabeds, all bent on destroying the world.The gods died a long time ago.
Matt Thorsen knows every Norse myth, saga, and god as if it was family history--because it is family history. Most people in the modern-day town of Blackwell, South Dakota, in fact, are direct descendants of either Thor or Loki, including Matt's classmates Fen and Laurie Brekke.
However, knowing the legends and completely believing them are two different things. When the rune readers reveal that Ragnarok is coming and kids--led by Matt--will stand in for the gods in the final battle, he can hardly believe it. Matt, Laurie, and Fen's lives will never be the same as they race to put together an unstoppable team to prevent the end of the world.

Kelley Armstromg is writing a new series with Melissa Marr so I had to have it!

So what have you been up to this week? 

Please don't forget to enter Sarah's Birthday Giveaway - win a book for yourself!