I am leaving for my vacation tomorrow, and I'm not going to come back to this same pile of books waiting to be put away! In the past couple weeks, I have acquired:

Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya - This one just came today, via Bookmooch. I read about it last week on a Common Sense Media.

The Haunting of Gabriel Ashe by Dan Poblocki - This is one of those books that has a storyline about blurring the line between fantasy and reality. I read about it in School Library Journal. Paperbackswap was a total tease about it. First it told me it was available. Then it wasn't. Then it was. Then I didn't believe it. But now I have proof!

Longbourn by Jo Baker - I found this book at Savers. And it's a fairly new book! And it's a Pride and Prejudice spinoff. I almost left it because I know the library has it. But then I dashed back for it at the last minute. MUST GET THIS BOOK THING UNDER CONTROL. (Who am I kidding?)

Elegy Beach by Steven Boyett - I got this in the mail from a friend (that I will be seeing on my vacation!). I introduced her to the book Ariel, and this book, written afterwards, takes place in the same world. But there are no unicorns in it. :( We might buddy read it this winter.

Beautiful Outlaw: Experiencing the Playful, Disruptive, Extravagant Personality of Jesus by John Eldredge - Received via Paperbackswap earlier this week. Because one can never have too many books about Jesus.

Atlantia by Allie Condie - This is another book I got through work. Too old for our demographic, but I'm going to keep it and read it myself.

The X-Files, Season Ten, #2 - I thought volume 1 was only average, but I still wanna see what happens. And my hubby will read it, too.

Return to Avalon: 20 Original Stories edited by Jennifer Roberson - This is a collection of King Arthur stories, also discovered at Savers, which should be a no-brainer. But I hesitated because it is also a tribute to Marion Zimmer Bradley, who I have ishy feelings about after learning that she was complicit in her husband's sexual abuse of neighborhood boys and that she also allegedly sexually abused her daughter. I didn't really want to "honor" her with a "tribute." But I wanted the King Arthur stories. And since it's secondhand, it's not like her estate is even getting any of the proceeds. In the end, King Arthur and my book-hoarderness won out.

Return to Avalon edited by Jennifer Roberson is an anthology of Arthurian short stories. With the exception of Lady of Avalon(not to be confused with the novel by the same name), none of these stories have anything to do with Marion Zimmer Bradley's Avalon. Lady of Avalon is set some time after the events of The Mists of Avalon and tells the story of the current high priestess being captured and turned into a slave by a Saxon king. It was a pretty good story and I enjoyed reading it. Most of the other stories I'd rate as three stars with some four star ones scattered throughout the book. Of the other stories there weren't any that stood out as particularly good or particularly bad. One thing that was curious is that a lot of the stories in the book I would hesitate to classify as Arthurian fiction. There were many that had more the feel of fairy tales to them and didn't seem to have anything to do with Arthurian legends as far as I could tell. There was also one Shakespearian short story that seemed really out of place. I thought it was a good story and I did enjoy it, but it just really didn't seem like it belonged in this collection. Overall I'd say this book was an ok read and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes Arthurian and medieval fiction, though I think I liked the Out of Avalon anthology better. To anyone wanting to read this book just for the Lady of Avalon story, it's probably only worth it if you can borrow the book or get it for a low price unless you are a really big fan of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Avalon series.