{Sunday Post} — The Birthday Girl, Getaway World, and Vampire's Love

Weekly Tidbits 

• I've been sick for the past few weeks with a summer cold. 
• The KC Royals have went back to their old ways. No Bats + Horrible Pitching = Losses 

Song of the Week 

What Am I Reading? 

I just finished reading The Housemaid's Secret. I'm taking a little break from Freida McFadden; instead of moving on to the third Housemaid book, I will finally read Mark Geaney's The Chaos Agent.

What's New in the Mailbox?

The only thing review-wise as of late are three graphic novels: The Nasty, Unnatural Order, and Denizen. 

What's New on the Bookshelf?

As for new releases go, I picked up Middle of the Night by Riley Sager, The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley, and The Birthday Girl by Sarah Ward this past week.

Other new pick ups include are Michael Crichton's Eruption by James Patterson, The Housemaid is Watching by Freida McFadden, and How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix.

I hadn't planned on shopping this past Friday but got talked into going "antiquing" my mother. Of course, when I go to antique flea markets, I never buy actual antiques—only books. We went to two stores—nearly side-by-side—and I bought several books, some of which I probably spent too much on.   

First—as you can already tell by the above photo—are the Star Trek books: TNG: INVASION!: The Soldiers of Fear by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Ruch, TOS: Shadows on the Sun by Michael Jan Friedman, TOS: Probe by Margaret Wander Bonanno, and TOS: Best Destiny by Diane Carey. The paperback was $2, and the hardbacks were $5 each.

I found a hardback of V.C. Andrews' My Sweet Audrina for $4. The jacket is a little rough, but it's a first-print edition. 

I got Blowback by Brad Thor, SSN by Tom Clancy, and Tom Clancy's Power Plays: Zero Hour by Jerome Preisler for $1 each. For $2 each, I got The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly, Vampire's Love: Blood Curse by Janice Harrell, and Vampire Twins: Bloodlines by Janice Harrell.

I probably overspend on these four David Baldacci hardbacks: The Forgotten, The Escape, Zero Day, and No Man's Land. The bundle was $15 and is in good condition. I did hesitate about getting them because I already had The Forgotten and Zero Day in paperbacks, but my mother—yes, my mother—talked me into buying them. So, those two paperbacks went into my donation box. 

Here are my recent Dollar Tree finds: The Secrets We Share by Edwin Hill,  Flowers of Darkness by Tatiana De Rosna, Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts, and We Are the Ashes, We Are the Fire by Joy McCullough.

The thrift store has been mostly a dud for books for the past month. Still, I did pick the following within the last two weeks: Fatal Tide by Iris Johansen, Gateway World by E.E. "Doc" Smith, Thinner by Stephen King, and another Dean Koontz Omnibus (Cold Fire, The Key to Midnight, and Hideaway).

What's New on Billy's Kindle?

New titles on my Kindle are: Video Nasties by Dustin Ralston, The Chase by Clive Cussler, Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantreo, Goosebumps: My Best Friend is Invisible by R.L. Stine, The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction by Phillip Athans and R. A. Salvatore, Teacher's Pet by Andrew Neiderman, Sight Unseen by Andrew Neiderman, Gods of Green Mountain by V.C. Andrews, Teeth of the Sea by Tim Waggoner, Star Trek: Prometheus: The Root of All Rage by Christian Humberg and Bernd Perplies, The Dark Chronicles: The Gallery by Barbara Steiner, The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, Leonard: My Fifty-Years Friendship with a Remarkable Man by William Shatner with David Fisher, Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses (Roger Corman: King of the B Movie) by Chris Nashawaty.