Look at all the cool books that I’ve picked up in the last four to five weeks or so! (Who knows…can’t adequately estimate dates any more since I began NaNo).

For me: 1-2.The Son of Neptune and The Invention of Hugo Cabret (see recent/forthcoming reviews).

3-5. No Plot, No Problem book and No Plot, No Problem novel-writing kit (to help me survive NaNoWriMo), and Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick (which I HAD to have after devouring the fabulous Hugo Cabret.) If possible, this one looks even better, with two characters speaking across decades in words and pictures. And, best of all, The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson, which I’ve been dying to get my hands on. It tells the story of a girl who arrives in London in the midst of a modern-day Jack the Ripper (copycat? or ghostly-time travel?) serial killing rampage. What complicates matters is that she’s the only one who can/has seen the culprit. Gross as it is, I took the Jack the Ripper tour when I was in London and this topic fascinates me. Can’t wait for Nano to be done so I can read again!

And for my oldest son, who like me goes through phases when he wants to read ALL of an author’s works after finding one that speaks to him:

6-14. On the Devil’s Court, Painting the Black, Runner, High Heat, Night Hoops, Heart of a Champion, Payback Time all by Carl Deuker, Knights of the Hill Country by Tim Tharp, and Boot Camp by Todd Strasser. (As he’s been going through a bit of a reading slump of late, I was excited to see HIM excited about books again; thus, I indulged his request for “more books like Gym Candy” by purchasing all of the author’s published works available on Amazon as well as two others that were rated highly by teen fans of Gym Candy‘s author. I guess you can see I’ve never been a fan of book-buying in moderation.)

15. Oh, and we can’t forget Sam’s new autographed Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever.

No Kindle purchases this month…too busy with printed novels, dressing up as Obi-Wan Kenobi for work, and gearing up to write my own book (oh, Nano…)  But that’s a total of 15 new books in my house this month. What’s new in yours?