A small independent chain here is shutting down one location, but it's in a pain in the butt area of town (probably why it's shutting) and I couldn't con MT into going with me (so he could sweat the parking).  Until today, when I got an email from them saying starting at 10am you could buy all the books that would fit into a box for $30.  He sighed heavily but grabbed his car keys.

We got there when they opened and they pointed to the boxes - they were big boxes.  If we didn't want to go the box route, everything was $2.  Snort - of course we wanted the box; we I was sooo gonna fill the box.

I tried.  It was my first "everything you can fit for $x" sale and it turns out with those parameters I was open to all sorts of titles I'd normally pass up.  MT picked out three books for himself in about 15 seconds (how???) and then ferried my stacks back to the register for me and generally hovered in that way only bored husbands and teenagers can do.

Once I'd been through every shelf, (hovering be damned) I ended up with 17 books.  I'd have gone for a second pass, but a combination of the vein in MT's forehead and the metered parking running out brought me to the register.  They packed the books into the box and there was an embarrassing amount of space left; I'm such a rookie.

Next time...

(I included the covers of the more interesting titles above, except the first three - those came in the post this week.)

I usually do a running tally, but I think I'm just going to leave it at the TBR pile got bigger.  ;)

Have a great weekend everyone.

Employee appreciation days=cheap books. 

Me having money+employee appreciation days=me indulging in hardcovers.  I've already read the Ant-Man, Iron Man, and Avengers novelizations I got.  I'm considering picking up a hardcover version of Age of Ultron because I think they're prettier in paper, but I also hate spending money twice on the same book.  (I have to stop by B&N anyway later today, so I'll probably pick it up.)

I think there are a couple others, but I forget what they are.  I'm in the middle of mowing the lawn, and I'm taking a break because I was overheating.   I don't feel like getting up and double checking.  

I also kinda am eying a couple about animals: Heart of the Lion and American Snake.

To safeguard these things will show respect for the beliefs and customs of all men and will bear witness that these things belong not only to a particular people but also to the heritage of mankind.

I am always interested in learning more about WWII, specifically about the people that risked their lives during the war to save others' lives or to save important cultural objects. Basically I just love reading about the courageous people that served during WWII and seeing what their lives were like and what they accomplished during the war. When I saw the movie adaptation of this book (while the movie was based on true events you could tell it was loosely based), I knew that I really wanted to read the book.

Readers will be really interested in reading this book if they want to know more about the men and women (well Rose Valland is really the only woman that is really talked about in detail) that were a part of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFAA) section that helped save and return artwork looted by the Germans during WWII. This book really talks about the background of each of the Monuments Men and discusses what each man (and Rose Valland, who without none of this probably would have happened) did during the war.

This book does at time briefly discuss the artwork that MFAA is trying to find and save but it is definitely not the best in going into detail about the artwork. I have heard that there are other books that focus more on the artwork and I would recommend this book to someone if they are looking more to learn about the individual Monuments Men and their activities during the war. I would have liked to have learned a bit more about the stolen artwork but I do appreciate what the author did cover in this book.

This was my latest pick from my magical tbr jar. Last year I saw the movie adaptation and loved it so I have wanted to read this book ever since. So far this has been an introduction to the main players and an overview of how this came about. I find this all really fascinating and look forward to reading more.