New to my TBR

Alert! I should have a new post at Heroes and Heartbreakers about one of my all-time favorite romantic couples.

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I’ve been more careful about buying fiction lately. My To Be Read piles are so frightening that I probably couldn’t complete them all within the next decade unless I don’t do anything but read.

However, that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped buying books.

Here are a few of my recent choices, that I think deserve more attention:

The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells. This is Wells’ first novel in a while, and I pre-ordered it without even knowing what it’s about! Though it looks like it might be Young Adult. Wells is one of my favorite fantasy writers, whom I buy (or bought) without blinking in hardcover, an honor she shares with fewer than a dozen other authors.

The Ninth Daughter by Barbara Hamilton, which is a pen name for Barbara Hambly. I didn’t realize this book existed until a couple of weeks ago, and I bought it promptly because I love Hambly’s historical Benjamin January mysteries as well as her fantasy novels. This book and its sequel feature Abigail Adams as a detective; I’ve never been a big fan of the “real historical person as detective” thing, but for Hambly, I’ll give it a try.

By the way, I’m looking for recommendations of other historical mystery series.

Redwood and Wildfire by Andrea Hairston sounds really awesome and really different. The publisher is offering a $5 discount if you order before March 15th. Review in The Village Voice. From the description, I’m betting fans of Edwardian/1920s romance might like this, and steampunk fans as well.

“At the turn of the 20th century, minstrel shows transform into vaudeville, which slides into moving pictures. Hunkering together in dark theatres, diverse audiences marvel at flickering images. This “dreaming in public” becomes common culture and part of what transforms immigrants and “native” born into Americans. Redwood, an African American woman, and Aidan, a Seminole Irish man, journey from Georgia to Chicago, from haunted swampland to a “city of the future.” They are gifted performers and hoodoo conjurors, struggling to call up the wondrous world they imagine, not just on stage and screen, but on city streets, in front parlors, in wounded hearts. The power of hoodoo is the power of the community that believes in its capacities to heal and determine the course of today and tomorrow. Living in a system stacked against them, Redwood and Aidan’s power and talent are torment and joy. Their search for a place to be who they want to be is an exhilarating, painful, magical adventure. Blues singers, filmmakers, haints, healers, and actors work their mojo for adventure, romance, and magic from Georgia to Chicago!”