While I haven’t yet finished reading all the titles from my last book binge, I did manage to float my way through Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Nightlife (read review), Faeries, The Fantasy Illustrator’s Technique Book, and Hell Beasts. Yeah, I’m not sure why I even bothered to separate them into lists because I’m reading them out of order.

But, moving right along, I’ve been splurging on more books again. (Hmm, it really looks like I need to do more reviewing and less splurging. Not to worry, I have a few reviews that I need to polish and I’ll get them online.) So, without further ado, here is a list of the new titles added to my personal library:

• 
  On the Prowl by Patricia Briggs, Eileen Wilks, Karen Chance, and Sunny

  Back Cover: Alpha and Omega by Patricia Briggs, The werewolf Anna finds a new sense of self when the son of the werewolf king comes to town to quell unrest in the Chicago pack–and inspires a power in Anna that she’s never felt before. Inhuman by Eileen Wilks, Kai has a secret gift of sensing thoughts and desires. What she senses in her neighbor Nathan could be dangerous. Because he has a secret gift, too, and it’s about to be let loose. Buying Trouble by Karen Chance, In a New York auction house, a Lord of the Fey crosses paths with a fiery redheaded mage named Claire. But in this strange underground society, the rarity up for sale is Claire herself. Mona Lisa Betwining by Sunny, Among the children of the moon, Mona Lisa is of Mixed Blood–part Monère, part human, and destined to be alone. Then she meets a man who could be her salvation–or her downfall.

•   
  Dead Until Dark (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 1) by Charlaine Harris — I had to snatch this book because there’s a Showtime HBO series that’s starting soon based on it. I want to get a feel for the story and characters before that happens.

  Back Cover: Sookie Stackhouse is a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. She’s quiet, keeps to herself, and doesn’t get out much. Not because she’s not pretty. She is. It’s just that, well, Sookie has this sort of "disability." She can read minds. And that doesn’t make her too dateable. And then along comes Bill. He’s tall, dark, handsome–and Sookie can’t hear a word he’s thinking. He’s exactly the type of guy she’s been waiting for all her life….But Bill had a disability of his own: He’s a vampire with a bad reputation. He hangs with a seriously creepy crowd, all suspected of–big surprise–murder. And when one of Sookie’s coworkers is killed, she fears she’s next….

•   
  Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews

  Back Cover: Atlanta would be a nice place to live, if it weren’t for the magic…When the magic is up, rogue mages cast their spells and monsters appear, while guns refuse to fire and cars fail to start. But then technology returns, and the magic recedes as unpredictably as it arose, leaving all kinds of paranormal problems in its wake. Kate Daniels is a down-on-her-luck mercenary who makes her living cleaning up these magical problems. But when Kate’s guardian is murdered, her quest for justice draws her into a power struggle between two strong factions within Atlanta’s magic circles. The Master of the Dead, necromancers who can control vampires, and the Pack, a paramilitary clan of shapechangers, blame each other for a series of bizarre killings–and the death of Kate’s guardian may be part of the same mystery. Pressed by both sides to find the killer, Kate realizes she’s way out of her league–but she wouldn’t have it any other way…

• 
  Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, Book 2) by J.K. Rowlings

  Back Cover: Ever since Harry Potter had come home for the summer, the Dursleys had been so mean and hideous that all Harry wanted was to get back to the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. But just as he’s packing his bags, Harry receives a warning from a strange, impish creature who says that if Harry returns to Hogwarts, disaster will strike. And strike it does. For in Harry’s second year at Hogwarts, fresh torments and horrors arise, including an outrageously stuck-up new professor and a spirit who haunts the girls’ bathroom. But then the real trouble begins–someone is turning Hogwarts students to stone. Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever? could it possibly be Hagrid, who mysterious past is finally told? Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects…Harry Potter himself!

• 
  Lucinda, Darkly (Demon Princess Chronicles, Book 1) by Sunny

  This was one of the books from my new binge that I’ve already read. I snagged it because it was in the bargain bin and the cover looked interesting. Imagine my surprise when the book yielded a lot more lurid scenes than I was expecting, but I’ll save that for the review.

  Back Cover: For time out of mind, Lucinda has dwelt in eternal darkness. As a demon dead princess, she exists in an endless, joyless realm. But she is about to discover a need she never knew existed–not for power, not for blood–but for a more dangerous passion…for centuries, Lucinda has endured the crushing agony that is her reality. As a daughter of the High Lord of Hell, she rules over nothing, retrieving the occasional wayward demon and feeding off the savage Monère–of whom she was a member before she died. Her only true diversion is visiting the living world like the shadow she has become. Then she comes across a lone Monère warrior, Stefan, living alone with a Mixed Blood boy–as outcasts. So when Stefan offers himself to her, she is moved beyond measure by her desire for him–and soon finds herself drawn back into the heady eroticism of the Monère. There, she must carve out a home between the jealously of the dead and the violence of the living if she is to keep her newfound love–and life…

• 
  Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito

  Back Cover: A mischievous artist kicks off a game of graffiti tag on a local overpass by painting the simple phrase "Uh-oh." An anonymous interlocutor writes back: "When?" Someone slyly answers: "Just a couple of days." But what happens in just a couple of days? Professor Blip Korterly is arrested; his friend Dr. Flake Fountain is drafted into a shadow-government research project to develop the ultimate biological weapon, and a bit of a leak turns into a merry-hearted, babble-inducing apocalypse that will either destroy humankind or take it to the next step in evolution.

• 
  Real Vampires Have Curves (Glory St. Clair, Book 1) by Gerry Bartlett

  Back Cover: What–did you think all vamps were pale, thin, and brooding? Don’t I wish. Me, I just happened to be bloating when a sexy Scotsman sank his teeth into me, so here I am, Glory St. Clair, eternally "full figured." On the plus side, I can rock a corset like nobody’s business. Oh, and as for Angus Jeremiah Campbell III, a.k.a. Jeremy Blade? We’ve been on and off again for centuries, currently off. After a couple hundred years we sure know how to press each other’s buttons–in good ways and bad. The whole never-aging thing means that a girl’s gotta keep moving, and I’m headed for Austin and a new business venture: Vintage Vamp’s Emporium. After all, I love cute clothes, and I am an antique. Only problem is, there’s a billionaire technofreak vampire hunter on the loose. Blade’s in total he-vampire mode and wants me to move in with him so he can "protect" me. But I’m sick of the not-so-little-woman thing. It’s time for this vamp to explore her own powers…

• 
  The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride/The Fugitives, Book 1) by James Patterson

  Back Cover: Welcome to my nightmare. do not put this book down. I’m dead serious–your life could depend on it. I’m risking everything by telling you–but you need to know. –Max Her full name is Maximum Ride. She’s 98% human, 2% bird. And the girl can fly. Max’s missions: Protect the rest of her gang–Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel–from a pack of half-wolf, half-human mutants with a taste for flying humans; Rescue Angel from a crew of wack-job scientists; Infiltrate a secret facility to track down their missing parents; Figure out what she really thinks about Fang; Get revenge on the one person she thought she could trust; Discover the best chocolate-chip cookie in New York City; Save the world, for crying out loud. Not necessarily in that order, of course.

• 
  The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin

  Inside Flap: Daniel Pecan Cambridge, 30, 35, 38, or 27, depending on how he feels that day, is a young man whose life is rich and full, provided he never leaves his Santa Monica apartment. After all, outside there are 8-inch-high curbs and there’s always the horrible chance he might see a gas station attendant wearing a blue hat. So, except for the occasional trip to the Rite Aid to admire the California girl Zandy and to buy earplugs because they’re on sale, he stays home a lot. And a good thing, too, or he would have never been falsely implicated in a murder, never almost seduced Philipa, never done the impossible task of jogging around the block with Brian, never ironed his pillows, and might never have won the Most Average American essay contest.

• 
  The Lord of the Rings (50th Anniversary Single Volume Edition) by J.R.R. Tolkien

  Back Cover: One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell by chance into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. From Sauron’s fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor, his power spread far and wide. Sauron gathered all the Great Rings, but always he searched for the One Ring that would complete his dominion. When Bilbo reached his eleventy-first birthday he disappeared, bequeathing to his young cousin Frodo the Ruling Ring and a perilous quest: to journey across Middle-earth, deep into the shadow of the Dark Lord, and destroy the Ring by casting it into the Cracks of Doom. The Lord of the Rings tells of the great quest undertaken by Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring: Gandalf the Wizard; the hobbits Merry, Pippin, and Sam; Gimli the Dwarf; Legolas the Elf; Boromir of Gondor; and a tall, mysterious stranger called Strider.