Incoming Books: Week of 5/30

OK, so it's not actually the end of the week, but after a book-shopping trip yesterday (to the Montclair Book Center, now and forever one of my favorite stores) and a trip into the city today, the pile is going to fall over if I don't deal with it. So. working down from the top (most recent), the things I have to distract me are:

• a bound galley of Charles Stross's Halting State
  Incidentally, if there's anyone out there who wants to send me galleys in hopes that I'll talk about them here, please get in touch with me at acwheele (at) optonline (dot) net. I can't make any blanket promises that I'll like anything ahead of time, but I do like books, and I definitely like free stuff, so try me! (The preceding offer also applies to purveyors of music, movies, bearer bonds, Krugerrands, large-denomination bills, high-tech gadgets, and quality luncheon meats. Void where prohibited by law.)
  
• Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 by David Petersen
  
• The Legend of Grimjack: Volume Seven, credited to John Ostrander (writer), Tim Truman (co-creator and new cover), and Tom Mandrake (art)
  These are a bit pricey for what they are, and I do have all of the issues stashed away in boxes, but I keep buying 'em...
  
• The Trouble With Girls, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 by Will Jacobs, Gerard Jones, and whoever the artists were (I'm just looking at the the books' spines at the moment)
  Two recent trade paperbacks collecting a very entertaining and not at all politically correct late '80s-early '90s comics series, which was my wife's favorite at the time. (Go figure; she read this, Akira, Sandman, and sometimes Shade the Changing Man.)
  
• Your Movie Sucks by Roger Ebert
  A great title for the second collection of Ebert's collected reviews of bad movies. I hope he gets over his current health scare (and I applaud his willingness to not hide his illness), because we need the Movie Answer Man back, and his reviews are always interesting and readable even when I don't care at all about the movies he's writing about.
  
• What I Tell You Three Times Is False by "Samuel Holt" (Donald E. Westlake)
  Found it in the MBC's outside shelves for less than a buck -- a wonderful thing, when it's a book I was looking for anyway.
  
• Aya by Abouet and Oubrerie
  A graphic novel, translated from the French, about a girl growing up in the '70s in the Ivory Coast. According to the blurbs, it's basically a romantic comedy, and it's gotten good reviews. Drawn & Quarterly hasn't steered me wrong yet, so I'll give it a try.
  
• What's So Funny? by Donald E. Westlake
  The new Dortmunder novel. Nuff said.
  
• After Dark by Haruki Murakami
  The backlash has officially begun -- this book has gotten mixed reviews, and the "reassessment" of Murakami seems to be in full force -- but I've enjoyed all of his other books, and I expect to like this one. So there. Nyaah.
  
• Buddha, Vol. 1 by Osamu Tezuka
  I keep thinking I should read more of this manga stuff, and the books Vertical publishes (in wonderful editions, too) look like they're aimed at adults who both know how to read and like to think. So I hope to get into this or Tezuka's Ode to Kirihito soon.
  
• Fresh Air Fiend by Paul Theroux
  A collection of shorter travel essays by the author of several wonderful travel books.
  
• A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter
  A forty-year-old sexy novel (set in France, of course) that someone talked up in Entertainment Weekly a few weeks back; I suppose I am easily led.
  
• Company by Max Barry
  A comedy novel about working for a dysfunctional corporation -- yes, exactly.
  
• Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words by Jay Rubin
  Something like a biography or guide to the works of Murakami by one of his major translators.
  
• The Contemporary Dictionary of Sexual Euphemisms by Jordan Tate
  From poking through it, I suspect it may be a bit too over-fond of itself, but it looks like an interesting book.
  
• My Man Jeeves, Full Moon, Uncle Dynamite, and The Heart of a Goof, all by P.G. Wodehouse
  
• Seven Touches of Music by Zoran Zivkovic
  This arrived because of someone's confusion; I was a World Fantasy Award judge last year (reading 2005 books in early 2006), but this was supposed to go to this year's judges (link to the press release on this page). It's a nice-looking book, and I've never read Zivkovic before, but I will hand it over the the correct judges (grudgingly) if I have to.

And that's plenty of books for one week...except that I suspect I'll come home from BEA on Friday with a couple of things in my bag.