Recent Acquisitions

I've been quite busy on the book acquiring front lately, here's what I've picked up:

Books I Get To Keep:

Most of these were impulse buys from this morning.  I had a pretty tough week at work last week and could not resist the buy one, get one half price deals in Waterstones:

                                   

                                  

• Burial Rites by Hannah Kent - This is one of the books on the Baileys long-list that I am the most keen to read.  I already had it reserved at the library, but couldn't resist this gorgeous paperback edition with black edged pages.  It's the story of the last woman to be executed in Iceland, and I can't wait to start it.
• We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo - I've wanted to read this one ever since it first came out.  Darling lives in a shanty-town in Zimbabwe and dreams of moving to America.  When she finally does, it isn't what she expected.
• On the Map by Simon Garfield - I love a quirky non-fiction book, and this seems to fit the bill nicely.  It's a history of maps and how we have attempted to make sense of the world.
• The Golem and the Djinni by Helene Wecker - Another book that has been on my wishlist for the longest time.  It's about two supernatural creatures in nineteenth century New York, and the back cover compares with Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.  This can only be a good thing!

Mixed in are some review copies:

                                              

• The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel - A non-fiction title about the women married to the famous American astronauts of the 1950s and 60s.  I've seen some great reviews of this one.
• The Crimson Ribbon by Katherine Clements - Historical fiction set in the English Civil War.  This book promises to include Oliver Cromwell and witchcraft, so I am intrigued.

And finally, some random acquisitions:

                                             

• The Fire Gospel by Michel Faber - Picked up in a charity shop.  The Crimson Petal and the White is one of my favourite books, ever, so the author alone was enough to make me buy this one. The story is about the uncovering of a new gospel, and is from the Canongate Myth series.
• The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang - Lovely hard-cover version found in Homesense, of all places.

Books I Have to Give Back (Library Books):

                             

• The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood - Borrowed so I can read Madaddam, which I own, and which is on the Baileys long-list.  I loved Oryx and Crake, so I have high hopes.
• The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert - Another Baileys book, and one I am currently half-way through.  It's a historical epic about a female botanist, and so far I am very much enjoying it.
• Shark's Fin & Sichuan Pepper - I love a foodie memoir, and this one about eating and living in China promises to be very interesting.

                                              

• All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld and The Shadow of the Crescent Moon by Fatima Bhutto - Two more from the Baileys long-list.  I hope I get a chance to get to these titles, but they aren't the highest priority on my list.

Have you read any of these titles?  What did you make of them?

Book Shopping & Library Visiting

Today we spent the morning in one of my favourite towns, which has an excellent second hand bookshop and the main branch of my library system.  This always results in book acquisitions!

From the Second Hand Bookshop:

  

• Among Others by Jo Walton - I've been interested in this book for ages, so was thrilled to see it.  It's a fictional diary of a young girl as she encounters science fiction and fantasy classics and battles an ancient enchantment.
• The Book of Fires by Jane Borodale - I don't read much historical fiction at the moment but I love the sound of this one as it contains details of how fireworks are made!
• The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov - Both my husband and I have been wanting to own this classic for the longest time.  The devil visits Russia.

From the Library:

  

 

• The Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford - A memoir of an adult rereading all of his childhood favourites.  I do love a good book about books.
• Kraken by China Mieville - Another one I've been meaning to try for a while.  A kraken in London's Natural History Museum comes to life and is worshipped by a sinister cult.
• The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin - I really enjoyed one of Jemisin's other books, The Killing Moon, so I've been meaning to start this series.
• A Rough Guide to Classic Novels - As if I don't have enough to read already!  I'm sure I will be keen to read lots of classics after flicking through this little volume.

Won in a giveaway:

• The Secrets of Life and Death by Rebecca Alexander - It has magic and contains the Countess Elizabeth Bathory, so I'm officially excited.

Have you read any of these titles?

If so, I'd love to know what you thought of them.

Library Visit

What are summer holidays without a trip to the library or two?  I've been trying to buy less books recently as my bookshelves are officially full and I need to operate a one-in one-out policy, which is hard for me as I'm a total book hoarder.  So when the urge to acquire books strikes, I visit the library instead.  

My library actually has a very good classics section.  On the whole I like to own the classics I read as I like to highlight as I go, but I couldn't resist these two from the Penguin Victorian Bestsellers series.  To be honest, I will probably end up buying all ten of the books in this series as I just love Victorian sensation novels.  For now, I have the following two to read (links go to goodreads):

1. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole - Man sends his wife to a convent in order to marry the intended bride of his recently deceased sons.  The story promises to include bleeding statues and skeletal ghouls.  It sounds perfect!

2. The String of Pearls by Thomas Preskett Prest - The original Sweeney Todd, including a woman who dresses as a man in order to gain access to Sweeney Todd's premises.

The library also had The Mysteries of Udolpho from the same series, I'm starting to wish I had bought that one home too!

The rest of my picks are from the historical fiction section.   It used to be my favourite section (as you can tell from my review archives) but recently I've not been in the mood for it.  However, my urge for historical fiction is returning and I had no trouble choosing three to take home:

3. Island Beneath the Sea by Isabelle Allende - I've been meaning to read an Allende for ages and this one about a slave on Saint-Domingue caught my eye. I'm interested in the Haitian Revolution, so I have high hopes for this book.

4. Champollion the Egyptian by Christian Jacq - I used to devour Christian Jacq books as a teenager.  I know he isn't the best writer but I love Champollion (the man who first deciphered hieroglyphs) and so couldn't resist this book.

5. The Death of King Arthur by Peter Ackroyd - This is a modern retelling of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur.  I know bits and pieces of Arthurian legend, but not as much as I would like.  Ackroyd is also an author I've been meaning to get to for ages now, and I'm looking forward to starting this one.

Good job I am on holiday, and will have plenty of time to read!

The blog should be busy this week as I've got a bit of a back-log of reviews to catch up on, Emma for the Austen in August Event and then the first three Percy Jackson books.  I'm also part of the way through Northanger Abbey, so I have plenty of reviews to write.

Library Haul 5

I've got quite a few books out from the library at the moment, so I thought it would be a good time to make a library haul post.  I always love hearing the opinions people have about my selections and whether they think I am going to enjoy them.  Links go to goodreads.

  

1. King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild - This is a non-fiction book about the time when King Leopold of Belgium owned the Congo and basically ran it as his own personal fiefdom.  I've already read this one and it was absolutely amazing, one of the best history books I've read in a long time.  There'll be a glowing review up shortly.

2. A Thousand Sisters by Lisa Shannon - Another book about the Congo.  The subtitle of this one is 'The Worst Place on Earth to be a Woman' and it's about a Western woman who journeyed to the Congo and became involved in charity work there.

3. Winter Rose by Patricia McKillip - I've heard great things about McKillip and this was the only title of hers I could get hold of through my library system.  It's a fairy-tale retelling and I'm looking forward to it.

  

4. Witness the Night by Kishwar Desai - A young girl is found tied up in a townhouse in India where thirteen are dead.  It's up to a social worker to solve the case.

5. The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman - I felt like a change this week, so I wandered into the graphic novel section of the library, somewhere I've never been before!  I know this is a classic of the genre, so it seemed like a good place to start.

6. Watchmen by Alan Moore - Whilst I was in the graphic novel section, my husband practically forced this one on me.  I've heard of it but haven't seen the film.  I'll give it a go.

 

7. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness - I also explored the YA section today!  I've seen so many positive reviews of this, I can't wait to start it.

8. Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck - I've actually checked this title out before, but didn't get the chance to read it.  It's a fantasy adventure about breaking a three hundred year old curse, which fits my reading mood quite well at the moment.  Hopefully I will read it this time around!

Have you read any of these titles?

I'd love to know what you think of them.

Sam Sunday #16 / Library Haul #4

This weekly update is bought to you by my adorable nephew, who is now six and a half months old.  He's recently started trying food that isn't milk and he's become utterly obsessed with the act of eating - last night he was watching me eat a curry for almost twenty minutes looking like he would like nothing more than to try some for himself!  In the last few months, his curiosity about the world has dramatically increased, as he's learned to sit up and use his hands to grab things.  As all the other women in the family have short, dark hair, he loves my longer, lighter hair and misses no opportunity to grab it and give it a good hard yank!

This weekend marks the start of the half term break here in the UK, which means a week off of work (school).  Although I still have things I need to do, I can at least do them from the comfort of my own home. The most recent half-term was exhausting (inspections and exams), so the opportunity to recharge my batteries has come just at the right time.

I'm also hoping to get a lot of decorating done.  We've booked a plasterer to completely re-do the main bedroom, but he isn't available for a month, so we're going to start by redecorating the living room, which already has a nice laminate floor and smooth, even walls.  It's the only room in the house that doesn't require plastering on the walls, although the artex on the ceiling will need plaster-boarding when we have enough money.  Tomorrow, we plan on painting the walls camomile, a nice buttery pale yellow shade and then painting the woodwork and window frames white, to brighten it up.  It's a quick fix and it'll be lovely to have one room done to our taste.

Reading wise, I've been in a bit of a slump ever since the end of the Bout of Books readathon.  I've picked up and put down lots of books, including Kim by Rudyard Kipling, which I know I would have loved if I had been in a normal frame of mind.  In the end I decided to revisit an old favourite, The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova and that seems to be doing the trick.  I also visited the library and tried to pick out books different from those I would normally read:

  

1. Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire - Although I didn't love Wicked, I do enjoy fairy-tale retellings so this retelling of Snow White seemed worth a read.

2. Lavinia by Ursula Le Guin - Historical fiction is usually my go-to genre during a reading slump, but I haven't felt like reading it much lately.  Lavinia comes well recommended by lots of bloggers I trust, and will be my first Ursula Le Guin novel.

3. Luka and the Fire of Life by Salman Rushdie - This might seem like a strange choice, as I really couldn't get into Midnight's Children.  But this one was written for his children and promises to be a magical fantasy quest, which I could totally get on board for at the moment!

Any tips for getting out of a reading slump?

Library Haul #3

Over the past couple of weeks, I have slowly and steadily been acquiring library books.  Most of my own books are packed away and I'm attempting to read most of the Women's Prize longlist; the combination of  these factors has led to me checking out lots of books.  At the moment, I have the following at home:

   

1. Sexual Chemistry: A History of the Contraceptive Pill by Lara Marks - I've been taking a course on contraceptives on Coursera and it's gotten me interested in the creation of the contraceptive pill and the way it changed women's lives forever.  This looks fascinating, with chapters on religious opposition and controversies.  Can't wait to read it.

2. The Marlowe Papers by Ros Wilson - What if Shakespeare's plays were actually written by Christopher Marlowe?  This is a novel in verse exploring that concept.  It's a beautiful hardback, I picked it up this morning and hope to have time to start it soon.

3. Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson - I was a bit 'meh' about this one when I saw the Women's Prize longlist but one of my favourite bloggers recently described it as 'Harry Potter meets Arabian Nights' so I am now officially intrigued.

   

4. Beauty by Robin McKinley - (Already read) I kept seeing McKinley mentioned on blogs but hadn't picked up any of her fairytale retellings for myself.  Aside from the horrific cover, this retelling of the beauty and the beast fairytale was simply wonderful.  I wasn't sure in the beginning but as soon as Beauty arrived at the enchanted castle, I was captivated.  The best romance I've read in a long, long time.

5. Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder - I am on a fantasy kick thanks to George R.R. Martin.  This series is supposed to be good, so I will give it a go.

6. The Rape of the Nile by Brian Fagan (Already read).  Loved this non-fiction account of the tomb robbers, treasure seekers and tourists that have looted and wrecked the Nile Valley.  I've been on a run of good books lately.

   

7. The Forrests by Emily Perkins

8. NW by Zadie Smith

9. The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

All for the Women's Prize.  I'm reading the Stedman now and enjoying it.  I was particularly surprised to receive NW so quickly, last week I was number 11 on the list but a few days later it was waiting for me, must be some weird quirk of the library reservation system.

Have you read any of these books?

Library Haul #2

I've been in a strange reading mood lately.  I usually love historical fiction, literary fiction and books set in other countries but at the moment I don't know what I feel like reading.  I blame George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire; I finished Storm of Swords yesterday and it's such an all-encompassing, engrossing book that it's hard to know what to try next.  Hopefully my new stash of library books will help:

    

First my fiction/poetry selections (links go to goodreads):

1. Ragnarok by A.S. Byatt - I'm a fan of the Canongate myth series but boy am I behind with them!  This is apparently book 17 and my reading total is still in the lower end of the single digit numbers.  Based on Norse mythology, Ragnoraok is about a young girl evacuated to the English countryside in World War Two who is given a copy of a book of ancient Norse myths.

2. Ariel by Sylvia Plath - You can tell I need to rejuvenate my reading by trying new things as I never normally pick up poetry.  But I live Sylvia Plath and I've never actually read this in full.  I have high hopes.

3. Property by Valerie Martin - I use the Orange Prize as a recommendation list as I generally enjoy the short-listed books and winners.  Property won in 2003 and is set in the deep South of America in the 1800s.  Manon is unhappily married to the owner of a sugar plantation in Louisiana as whispers of a slave rebellion grow.

  

On to the non-fiction selections.  I was in a non-fiction mood today, so they outnumber the fiction:

4. The Devil Came on Horseback by Brian Steidle - Brian Seidle was one of only three Americans hired by the African Union to document the situation in Darfur during 2004.  This book is him bearing witness to the atrocities and genocide.

5. Titans of History by Simon Sebag Montefiore - I know the type of history that focuses on big personalities alone is out-dated now, but I do enjoy it.  I've read and enjoyed Montefiore's books about Stalin so I'm hoping to enjoy skimming through this guide to influential personalities throughout world history.

   

6. The Lost City of Z by David Grann -  A British explorer attempts to fill in the blank spaces on the map of the Amazon during the 1920s but then vanishes without a trace.  I love a good adventure story, especially if it's true.

7. Enslaved by Jessica Sage and Liora Kasten - Modern day slavery is such an under the radar issue, so I'm looking forward to this book of true stories from slaves.  Hopefully I will learn more about the millions of people that are currently held as slaves around the world.

Have you read any of these titles?