The Bookshelf, Virtually

This last week or so I haven't acquired any paper books, although I am thinking longingly of a certain big antique mall where I can lay my hands on some lovely ones. Perhaps later today. In the meantime... 

I buy books for various reasons. Reading seems obvious, but I also buy books to support fellow authors (and that I intend to read!), for research, and for my family. This week is a bit of all of the above. 

For research, I picked up several more public domain books of fairy tales and folklore. These are mostly Project Gutenberg books, but I usually grab them through Amazon for ease of click-and-read. It's worth going to PG as well, for the illustrations since those rarely make it over to the books on the 'Zon. 

Hawaiian Folk Tales A Collection of Native Legends

Another book was a pleasure-read, just the sort of mind-candy I enjoy. Short stories lend themselves well to stolen moments of reading time. These are also stories in the public domain, but I spent a little bit of money (not even a dollar!) for the convenience of having them coallated into an ebook edition without egregious OCR errors. Besides which, I can call this research, as well, learning from the Dame Christie how to write excellent shorts. 

For my son, who'd heard about it through a Youtube video, and then Old NFO's resounding approbation of 'Good book!' I got the KU version, and the paperback, of The Long Way Home, by Ed Dover. An epic tale of making their way home after Pearl Harbor, flying nearly 'round the world the long way, aboard a huge flying boat, this one promises to be a great story of real men doing real heroics with no fanfare. 

And of course, Alma Boykin's latest release, Overly Familiar, was a buy-on-release-day. We really enjoy her ongoing series and have been looking forward to another chapter in it! 

On a whim, since friends highly recommended it, we picked up Marque and Reprisal by Peter Nealen. The First Reader has already finished it, and I have threatened him with bad coffee if he spoils it, since I've only had time to read the prequel. Looks like it's going to be a thriller on the high seas a la Clive Cussler, whose early stuff I enjoyed as a teen. So that's promising!