In My Mailbox (2): May 27

My loot!

In My Mailbox is a feature hosted by Kristi of The Story Siren, inspired by Alea of Pop Culture Junkie. In line with my recently-ended three-week hiatus, I haven’t updated this feature for almost two months! I have this nasty habit of letting my recently acquired books go unnoticed until they literally make a pile. Tsk. Oh well. I got a lot of interesting mail these past few weeks too, including two postcards and a parcel from Aussie author Shirley Marr! But more on the latter later 😉

(clockwise from top, leftmost)

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta (I already published a review here)

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

Freaks and Revelations by Davida Wills Hurwin

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Me and Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter (review here)

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

My Imaginary Ex by Mina V. Esguerra

That Kind of Guy by Mina V. Esguerra

All of them were bought except for The Art of War, which my father gave to me (after he unearthed it from his own pile of books) so, THANK YOU DAD!

I also received my first two postcards through Postcrossing! Yay!

And finally, I present the package I got from Shirley Marr! Yay! I got it after joining her birthday giveaway over at The Midnight Garden, but I never expected to win since I have the worst luck at raffles. Not this time though!

See that tiny signature at the bottom left? 😀

Dear Alexa,
Love Shirley Marr

I also got a locket with a secret message inside! 😀

Thank you, Ms. Shirley Marr! And to Wendy Darling for hosting the giveaway at The Midnight Garden as well! Thank you so so much! ❤

Aaaaand that’s it. That’s all for this week’s In My Mailbox feature! Sharing the books I want to read to you all has been fun! I now wish I have a bona fide mailbox here (mailboxes aren’t used quite often in the Philippines) but it’s been really awesome receiving all kinds of mail while shopping for books as well!

How about you? Do you have any books you’ve acquired recently that you want to talk about? Feel free to share anything you’ve bought or gotten as well! 🙂

In My Mailbox (1): March 18

In My Mailbox is a feature hosted by Kristi of The Story Siren, inspired by Alea of Pop Culture Junkie. Now, I am aware that this feature mainly shows books acquired by the blogger recently, but since it’s my first, I’m going to show all the books I got since my birthday (which was in February), and probably a few from Christmas (I got gift certificates for books on both occasions and I tried to hold out as long as I could so they’re still fairly recent). Anyway, here they are!

The pile on the left side pertains to brand-new books I bought with the gift certificates and some gifts from friends. The pile on the right shows books from the secondhand book shop in my school which shows up about every two weeks.

Left-side pile (clockwise from top left):

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré

Angel Time by Anne Rice

Looking for Alaska by John Green

The Godfather by Mario Puzo

Right-side pile (clockwise from top left):

The Evolution of Useful Things – Henry Petroski

The SFWA Grand Masters 2 – edited by Frederik Pohl

Flash Fiction Forward: 80 Very Short Stories – edited by James Thomas and Robert Shapard

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Boy Next Door/Boy Meets Girl (2 books in 1)  by Meg Cabot

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Twenties Girl – Sophie Kinsella

To be honest, I haven’t started reading any of them yet. I just managed to add into my already tottering TBR pile, but I don’t mind – I’m just happy I have them.

There’s this book I got a couple of days ago in school. It was the last academic day before finals next week, and I had my last ever English/Literature class (my college course is the kind where the sciences are more emphasized than the humanities, since it’s premed after all), so I had a lot of mixed feelings about it. Anyway, my professor, Mr. DM Reyes, was my teacher for that class, and he wrote a collection of poetry which of course I had to have. I managed to get the last copy available and I got him to sign it too!

There it is!! But it looks much better without my name stuck on it.

Mr. Reyes told me that he would sign it after class and I would have to get it back from the English department secretary later on, so I didn’t see him. I wish I did though, after I read his dedication:

And for Alexa Sienes, whose heart for music brings her deep into the heartland of poetry. In admiration, DM 16. III. 2012

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this, but in school I play the keyboard for musicals and stuff and this dedication sort of made me feel like what I’m doing makes people happy. I mean, I don’t randomly burst out in song in the hallways (not that I remember anyway) and not many people know I love music, so it’s very touching to see my passion in print. It’s like most of my interests colliding – music and literature! And it’s my first signed book!

Aaaaand that’s it. That’s all for this week’s In My Mailbox feature! Sharing the books I want to read to you all has been fun! I think In My Mailbox will be a regular feature from now on, so watch out for that too! How about you? Do you have any books you’ve acquired recently that you want to talk about? Feel free to share anything you’ve bought or gotten as well! 🙂