My McKay’s Haul

As I said yesterday, while I was in Chattanooga I made two trips to McKay’s, the giant used bookstore on the hill. It was actually only two blocks from my hotel, so it is a very good thing that the podcasters kept us on campus as much as they did or I would not have been able to fit my suitcase into my car at the end of the trip.
As things stand, I was very restrained. Sort of. I actually came out of the trip with two big boxes of books, one for each time I went into the store. The totals were both around $120.
BUT! Most of those books were for the library at Creative Montessori. I actually only bought ten books for myself. Ten books! That’s practically nothing! (Yes, I work at a bookstore so it’s silly for me to buy books when I’m out. Shut up.)

So, here is what I got:

The Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross
This is the third book in the Laundry Files.  Bob Howard is an employee of the Laundry, a secret organization that tries, and usually succeeds, in keeping England and the rest of the world safe from supernatural peril. Most employees of the laundry get drafted after they play a little too much with things better left unwoken. Cross that line and the Laundry comes for you. Recruitment really is the better option. We promise.
Bob is taking a bit of a break from fieldwork when his boss goes missing along with a top secret file called, you guessed it, the Fuller Memorandum. Bob, being the uncontrollably curious person that he is, decides it is vital for him to know what the memorandum contains. This is a bad idea.

War for the Oaks by Emma Bull
I have never read this and it is, possibly, the very first piece of urban fantasy. It was published in 1987 and has helped to define a genre. And for some reason, I’ve just never picked it up.
Eddia McCandry, a down on her luck rock singer, is drafted into a war between factions of the faerie folk. This is not how she was planning to spend her evening.

Trenches by Scott Mills
Trenches takes place during WWI, which is what caught my eye. I don’t actually know Scott Mills, but the art looked beautiful and I’m a sucker for anything WWI-related.
Trenches follows two brothers, Lloyd and David Allenby as they fight on the Western Front. The two brothers struggle through the war, but also with their own relationship as the war grinds on.

Stitches in Time by Barbara Michaels
This is actually a book I have multiple copies of already, but Barbara Michaels (also wrote under Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Mertz) is one of those authors I pick up every time I see her books.
Stitches in Time takes place at a Georgetown shop specializing in vintage clothing and linens. Rachel Grant is working one day when a bag containing an antique bridal quilt is dropped off. Rachel is immediately drawn to the quilt. She has always been fascinated by the idea that women worked magic into their handicrafts, but this quilt seems to be much darker than anything she has ever before encountered. The quilt begins to influence her as the spirit of its creator wakes up and seeks a revenge more than a hundred years in the making.

Alien Research by Gini Koch
This is the eighth book in the Katherine “Kitty” Katt series. I’ve talked before about how much I love these books. They’re a little bit romance novel, a little bit sci-fi, and a hell of a lot of fun. This was a no-brainer when I saw it on the shelf.
Kitty and her alien husband Jeff (minor spoilers for the first book) are on the trail of a new super-drug that has ties back to their enemies. The mad scientist behind the new drug seems to be using all of the aliens as guinea pigs toward some unknown, but probably terrible end. Kitty, Jeff, and the rest of the crew have to try to stop him before everything goes to hell. Again.

The Magicians & Mrs. Quent by Galen Beckett
It’s Regency fantasy. This is a genre for which I have an abiding love. I thought I’d give it a try.
I don’t quite have a handle on what this book is actually about, but Regency! Danger! Ladies! seems good enough for me to give it a look. I’ll report back as I find out more.

A bunch of Georgette Heyer! I’m not going to give a synopsis of each one, but I picked up the following:
                                                                     

I also picked up another copy of Feed by Mira Grant. This was purely so that I could recommend it to someone and then immediately hand them a copy. And, lo and behold, I got to hand it to one of my fellow retreat-ateers before I left on Sunday. From all reports, his daughter snagged it and carried it off to read, so I feel good about my purchase.
I’m very seriously considering having Feed be my All Hallow’s Read book this year. I’m not positive yet though.
Are you participating in All Hallow’s Read? If so, what book are you planning to give away?