Bout of Books 11

I am excited to announce that I am participating in Bout of Books this August!

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 18th and runs through Sunday, August 24th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 11 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

Luckily for me, my two week vacation starts on Monday the 18th, so I'll be spending my first week off from work reading. I hope the weather will be really nice, so I can read in the sunshine. I'm not sure yet what books I'm gonna read this Read-a-Thon, but I'll post a Bout of Books TBR later this month.

Book Haul: Free Thrillers!

A couple of weeks ago there was a giveaway on the blog of The American Book Center. You had to let them know your favorite thriller series and why, so I did and I've won! These are the books I've got:

Thanks so much ABC!

July TBR

This months 'To Be Read' or TBR pile is maybe a bit to big for me, since almost all these books are humongous, lol. But I'm really looking forward to reading these, so I'll do my best to finish them this month.

The books I want to read in July:

• Michael Grant - Messenger of Fear (Messenger of Fear #1) This is an ARC and I'm reviewing this book for the American Book Center blog. The American Book Center is my favorite bookstore in Amsterdam. And I feel honored to review books for them. You'll read more of this when my review is up on their blog.
• Sally Green - Half Bad (Half Life Trilogy #1) Half Bad by Sally Green is a breathtaking debut novel about one boy's struggle for survival in a hidden society of witches. "You can't read, can't write, but you heal fast, even for a witch. You get sick if you stay indoors after dark. You hate White Witches but love Annalise, who is one. You've been kept in a cage since you were fourteen. All you've got to do is escape and find Mercury, the Black Witch who eats boys. And do that before your seventeenth birthday. Easy."
• Karin Slaughter - Genesis/Undone (Will Trent, #3) When a tortured young woman enters the trauma center of an Atlanta hospital, Dr. Sara Linton is thrust into a desperate police investigation with Special Agent Will Trent and his partner, Faith Mitchell. Though guarding their own wounds and their own secrets, Sara, Will, and Faith find that they are all that stand between a madman and his next victim.
• Cassandra Clare - City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments #3) To save her mother's life, Clary must travel to the City of Glass, the ancestral home of the Shadowhunters - never mind that entering the city without permission is against the Law, and breaking the Law could mean death. To make things worse, she learns that Jace does not want her there, and Simon has been thrown in prison by the Shadowhunters, who are deeply suspicious of a vampire who can withstand sunlight.
• George R. R. Martin - A Game of Thrones  (A Song of Ice and Fire #1) Summers span decades. Winter can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun. As Warden of the north, Lord Eddard Stark counts it a curse when King Robert bestows on him the office of the Hand. His honour weighs him down at court where a true man does what he will, not what he must … and a dead enemy is a thing of beauty. The old gods have no power in the south, Stark’s family is split and there is treachery at court. Worse, the vengeance-mad heir of the deposed Dragon King has grown to maturity in exile in the Free Cities. He claims the Iron Throne.

I'll be re-reading A Game of Thrones when I'm home. Since it's a huge book, I can't put it in my purse to work! I'll be bringing the other books with me, so I'm going to read two books at the time. I can't wait to read all of these!