Sunday 9 May 2010

Books, books, books!

Happy Mother's Day to all those who're celebrating it today, here in the UK we're not, we have 'Mothering Sunday' in March. Anyway, if it's Mother's Day where you are I hope you have a good day.

A few new book acquisitions from me today. The first lot are birthday presents from yesterday:



Throne of Jade and Black Powder War by Naomi Novik are from my eldest daughter.
Twenties Girl and The Little Stranger are from a friend.
Great Expectations is from my youngest daughter.
It seems they all know exactly what I like!

Next up, several others recently brought by the postman:



Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs is book 5 in her Mercy Thompson series. I saw a review of it on Live Journal, left a comment and the owner, being a Bookcrosser, said I could have it if I wanted! How nice! I said 'YES PLEASE' of course...

The Snow Spider trilogy was recommended to me by a friend and I'm hoping to read that one for the OUaT challenge.

The Enchantment Emporium is from the lovely Pat at Here, There and Everywhere, who read it and passed it on to me. It cost her an arm and a leg and one or two other limbs to post, so thank you, Pat, I really do appreciate the gesture.

And lastly, just to make it a round number of three photos, here's my latest library pile.



New World by Chris Priestley - 1500s YA historical.
Village School by Miss Read - the very first of her books.
A Particular Friendship by Dirk Bogarde - letters to a friend from the famous actor.
Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon - sci fi, had this a while now so must get to it.
A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson - African fiction.
The Affair of the Thirty-nine Cufflinks by James Anderson - crime fiction set between the wars I think. Random grab.
The Comfort of Saturdays by Alexander McCall Smith - book 5 in the Isabel Dalhousie series.
Doreen by Barbara Noble - a Persephone seen recced on The B Files during last week's Persephone week, and about evacuation during the war.

So, plenty to keep me going there. It's a good job I'm on a real reading kick at the moment *and* that I have a couple of relatively free weeks coming up!

9 comments:

Paperback Reader said...

Enjoy Doreen from the library and all your other lovely books, Cath!

verity said...

That looks like a lovely wide selection - looki forward to hearing what you think of them (especially Doreen!)

Nikki - Notes of Life said...

I read the 1st of the Snow Spider books when I was in school (years ago now!) - the author lives locally, but I can't remember if the book is set locally... I'll have to re-read it! :)

Danielle said...

Happy belated Birthday--it's always nice when people know just what you like! I've got the first couple of Naomi Novik novels and I think I'll enjoy them when I finally get around to reading them. Enjoy your books and your upcoming free time!!

Anonymous said...

Very nice haul!! TWENTIES GIRL is really cute and surprisingly thought provoking. I loved it!

BooksPlease said...

Great presents. I love books as presents - well I love books.

Ah, Miss Read - wonderful books, and years ago I had that Dirk Bogarde book, wonder where it went, I'd love to re-read it - maybe my library has a copy.

Happy reading.

DesLily said...

ok now explain something to me !...do you read all of the library books first since they have to go back??? Sometimes I am glad theres no library close by or I'd never read anything I have in my owned tbr pile!!

That's a lot of books to get to sis!
I am still reading the last fablehaven book.. it's good and a simple read (close to 600 pgs though) and because chapters are 20 pgs I only do a chapter at a time so it's slow going for me..(still) but this is the final book for OuaT.

LizF said...

Lovely selection of books. I read the first of the Snow Spider books to my two youngest (18 and 16 now!) and we all enjoyed it but I never could get hold of the other two. Must try again!
Hope you enjoy the Patricia Briggs!
She is one of my 'guilty secret' authors and I usually end up reading her books at a sitting - a lot of people are sniffy about this sort of book but she is a good story-teller (although I have to admit that there is a lot of rubbish in the genre).
I have them all at home, having had to buy them because the library doesn't, so if you like the one you have got, I'll put the others in the post if you want as I really do have to clear some shelfspace and I would rather they went to a good home.

Cath said...

Paperback Reader: Thank you - I'm sure I shall.

Verity: I was really quite surprised to find that the library had Doreen - I almost didn't bother to look.

Nikki-Ann: Luckily this seems to be all three books in one so at least I won't have to track down books 2 and 3.

Danielle: Thank you! Well I can certainly recommend the first Temeraire book and people say the whole series is excellent.

Kay: Sophie Kinsella is thought of as light and fluffy but I always find her books rather thought provoking to be honest. The one I want to read and can't get hold of is Can You Keep a Secret?

Margaret: Me too and when I have a birthday with no books it never feels quite the same somehow. Miss Read recommended the first of Dirk Bogarde's autobiographies in her own autobiographiy. I didn't find that in the library but they did have this book of letters, so that was I got.

Pat: No, I intersperse reading library books with reading my own. I use the 'renew' function online an awful lot but some of the library books never do get read I have to admit. But I try. :-)

LizF: The Snow Spider books are available as a trilogy now, I got mine from AM but I've seen the book in the library too.

I agree, there is a lot of rubbish in the the paranormal genre. Huge amounts. Two I can't get on with at all are Charlaine Harris and Laurel K Hamilton. But I do love Patricia Briggs and my husband, a very picky reader, enjoys Kelly Armstrong. I don't mind hers but prefer Patricia Briggs. Why people are sniffy I don't know... I always think there should be room for all and have even enjoyed the first two Twilight books.

Thank you so much for your kind offer but I too ended up buying the MT books because the library didn't. I've read the first three and have two left to read. I also gather that there's another series by her that's very good, set in the same universe... but I can't remember the series title now. Oh for a brain transplant...