Wednesday 26 September 2018

My library pile


Well part of my library pile anyway, there are four others but these are the ones I picked up on a visit to the library yesterday. It was one of those visits where they must've had a new batch of books in, or swapped loads with other branches, because everywhere you looked were books I wanted. I brought home five but it could easily have been double that amount, other times you go and struggle to find one or two.


From the bottom (links to Goodreads):

The Riviera Express - T.P. Fielden. I loved the sound of this crime book set in 1950s South Devon, it sounds rather 'Agatha Christie' and I love the railway poster type cover. Reserved this one.

Picnic in Provence - Elizabeth Bard. My fascination with all things French continues unabated (though I'm exploring the mountainous Balkans region at the moment). This was a random grab and is described in the blurb as, 'Part memoir, part chocolate-smudged family cookbook'. Sounds good to me.

A Small Death in Lisbon - Robert Wilson. This seems to be murder mystery involving WW2 Lisbon. Sounds intriguing and will do nicely for the European challenge I'm doing, Portugal being a slightly more tricky country to cover.

Hickory Dickory Dock - Agatha Christie. The library had a nice little display of Agatha Christie's books, not sure why, but naturally I had to grab one, would've been rude not to. This one appealed as it's not one I'm very familiar with.

Great Britain's Great War - Jeremy Paxman. I try to read something connected to the two world wars during the autumn period. Been meaning to read this one by Paxo for ages so when I saw it in the library I thought now was an ideal time. He's an excellent writer, very good at explaining difficult subjects, clear-sighted, and often laugh out loud witty.

So that's a few of my current library books. It'll be a while before I get to them though as I'm currently reading this, also from the library:




A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness which is nearly 600 pages long. Good so far though and brilliant for a spooky autumn read.

Happy reading!

~~~oOo~~~

9 comments:

DesLily said...

You are a reading machine!! I hope they all are the best reads ever!!!
<3 <3

Kay said...

Very nice! Murder all over Europe, right? And they may have had the Christie display because her birthday was a week or so ago. Just possibly. Enjoy your new books, Cath!

Judith said...

Cath,
There is nothing more fun, to my mind, than to go to the library and come home with an armful of books I'm rearing to cozy up to!
I love the sound of the one set in South Devon in the 1950s--but will wait for your thoughts on each one. Have fun!!

BooksPlease said...

I enjoy my visits to the library - I'm lucky, I suppose that the mobile library still comes round once a fortnight and I can go to the one in town. So it's good to know I'm not the only one with piles of books out on loan. You've got a good haul there. I'm really interested in Paxman's book and A Discovery of Witches (which I have on Kindle).

Cath said...

Pat: LOL... I'm the slowest reader in my family believe it or not. Peter reads twice as many books as me. Mind you, he doesn't do jigsaw puzzles or book reviews online, or even Twitter or Facebook. All big consumers of time.

Kay: Yes, murder all over Europe! LOL! Although I am reading other kinds of books for the challenge I do like the crime ones... I have Portugal and Switzerland all lined up now, both crime reads.

Judith: I completely agree with you, if I was a quicker reader I'd go several times a week. And I just love looking at them piled up on the shelf. It's my 'comfort' thing.

Margaret: Sadly (or maybe not) we don't get the mobile library here, I suppose because we're very close to a main library and the mobile needs to be out swanning round Exmoor or something. And what a job that would be! Wonderful.

Will let you know in due course about Paxman's book. A Discovery of Witches is good so far, possibly a little slower than it needs to be. We shall see.

TracyK said...

I read A Small Death in Lisbon for Portugal for the European Reading Challenge also. I liked what I learned about World War I and Portugal, and it was a good read although I had some issues with it.

I have got to catch up on some reviews for that challenge.

Cath said...

Tracy: Apologies for not anwering this sooner, I didn't get notification of it. Oh, that's interesting that you also read A Small Death in Lisbon for the European challenge. The historical angle appeals to me too.

Judith said...

Hi Cath,
I have a British Library Crime Classic on my Christmas Books list, and I'm wondering if you've read it, and if, of course, you liked it.
It's Portrait of a Murderer: A Christmas Crime Classic by Anne Meredith.
Does this ring any bells for you?
Thanks!!
Judith

Cath said...

Hi Judith. Yes, this is the book I mentioned in my second comment to your recent post. I have it on my Kindle but haven't read it yet. A friend who has says it's very good. I also rather fancy A Christams Card Crime, another volume of short stories edited by Martin Edwards and Spirits of the Season edited by Tanya Kirk. These are all published by the British Library.