Upcoming Books!

A lot of blogs have those "Mailbox Monday" things, and this is going to be kind of similar to that... I usually don't get have that many books routinely delivered to my house, and since I'm away at school in another state, I really don't get that many books delivered. However, I always have several titles waiting in the wings to be read next, and so I think I will showcase those titles with my Shimmy Down the Shelf section.

Shimmying Down the Shelf for the rest of this month 7 eager titles, most of them Christmas or early birthday presents and a few of them the result of random "judge a book by its cover" shopping!

- The Warrior Heir (The Heir Trilogy, 1), Cinda Williams Chima
- The Spook's Apprentice (Wardstone Chronicles, 1), Joseph Delaney
- The Hunger Games (Hunger Games, 1), Suzanne Collins
- Wildwood Dancing, Juliet Marillier
- Heart's Blood, Juliet Marillier
- Daughter of the Forest, Juliet Marillier
- Aurelia, Anne Osterlund

I most definitely will not get to all 7 (these titles don't include required reading for school), and the ones that are left over will be shimmied for February. I will try and showcase the two most likely books to be read in the current timespan, and will include the basic information (title, author, pub year, type of edition, number of pages) along with a brief summary and a preview (I'll flip open to a random section and type 3-5 lines...ideally without stumbling across a spoiler...

FIRST UP:

I have been dancing around this series for a few months now, trying to get enough basic information about it to know if I would want to read it. Then I went home for break a few months ago and my youngest brother (17) raved and raved about. I snatched the first few books out of his room, and they've been hanging out on my shelves ever since!

The Wardstone Chronicles: Joseph Delaney
The Spook's Apprentice is the first in a 7-series by English author Joseph Delaney, and was originally published in 2004. In the United States, The Wardstone Chronicles have been renamed The Last Apprentice, so if you are in a bookstore, the book will look like the

<---THIS (for some reason, we own the original British editions, which is featured next to the American one) Of The Last Apprentice, Goodreads says: "A wonderful and terrifying series by a new writer (Joseph Delaney) about a young boy training to be an exorcist. Thomas Ward is the seventh son of a seventh son and has been apprenticed to the local Spook. The job is hard, and the Spook is distant and many apprentices have failed before Thomas. Somehow Thomas must learn how to exorcise ghosts, contain witches, and bind boggarts. But when he is tricked into freeing Mother Malkin, the most evil witch in the County, the horror begins..."


Seventh son of a seventh son? Hey Angie Sage, isnt that YOUR concept? Oh well. This series sounds awesome, and according to my brother (who is pickier than I am), this book sets the stage nicely for a series that delivers on originality, quality writing, lovable characters, and ultimate excitement.

Preview!

"I snatched up the candle and shrank into the furthest corner. Thump, thump, nearer and nearer, came the sound of heavy boots. Who could have been digging down there in the darkness? Who could be climbing the stairs now?
But maybe it wasn't a question of who was climbing the stairs. Maybe it was a question of what..."
- The Spook's Apprentice, pg 42

The Spook's Apprentice (The Wardstone Chronicles, Book 1)
- Joseph Delaney
- (my edition) published June 30, 2005 by Red Fox (first published in 2004)
- paperback, 336 pages
* Goodreads reviews: 532 (5 stars), 598 (4 stars), 326 (3 stars), 63 (2 stars), 15 (1 star)