I cannot overstate my excitement about the books I bought this month. Usually I tend to be more restrained with my bookish purchases, or else I find most of my books at used bookstores and Friends of the Library book sales, but this month I went crazy with some Barnes & Noble gift cards I’d gotten for the holidays. It’s going to be hard for me not to read all of these immediately. Here’s what I picked up:

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr – this is cheating, because one of my family members received this as a gift for the holidays and decided he didn’t want it (who turns down a book?!). Being the opportunistic book poacher that I am, I immediately snagged this historical fiction Pulitzer Prize winner so that I could find out what all the hype is about. I feel like I’m always saying that I don’t read historical fiction very often, but I actually do, and I’m looking forward to this.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy – one of my bookish goals for the year was to read more classics, and another was to read more long books, since they tend to become my favorites. I also find it embarrassing that I have yet to read any classic Russian literature. I’m so intrigued by this story and plan to tackle it this spring.

The Rook by Daniel O’Malley – amnesia! Secret agents! Supernatural goings-on in London! I have my fingers crossed that this will be one of those books that sucks you in completely. And I apparently have good timing, since the sequel comes out in June.

Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood – Margaret Atwood is one of my absolute favorite authors and I’ve never read any of her short fiction. I hope it’s just as prescient and disturbing as her longer works.

Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt – this book sounds strange and creative, which is really all I want from a book. The author is compared to Kelly Link on the back blurb (see below!).

Get in Trouble by Kelly Link – I am a huge fan of Kelly Link’s short stories. I was lucky enough to be able to meet her at a reading in Boston where she read part of one of the stories from this book about an actor who played a demon lover in a hit movie–and was tortured when she stopped in the middle of the story! Since then I’ve looked forward to reading this latest collection. Hopefully it will be as surprising, intricate, and wonderfully weird as her other collections.

Grave Visions by Kalayna Price – I started this series a few years ago when I first discovered urban fantasy. I had just gotten fully caught up with Kate Daniels after binge-reading the first five books in about a week (apparently I didn’t study at all that week? Not sure how I did that) and was having a serious book hangover. I started a few other UF series and nothing was working for me (I always do this after I find a new genre or subgenre that I like–try to find something similar to assuage my craving–and it rarely works) when I discovered Alex Craft, a witch with necromancy powers involved in a love triangle between a hot fae guy and a hot grim reaper guy (I’m 100% Team Death, for any other Alex Craft fans reading this!) However, due to some personal struggles the author has been going through, there hasn’t been a new book in several years. Until now! It’s here!