Monday 13 May 2019

New books!


So what with a recent birthday and using that as an excuse to buy myself a few books as well *cough* I've ended up with a neat little (?) pile of new books.


Not the best photo ever but never mind. From the bottom:

Fireside Gothic by Andrew Taylor. Three weird tales in this one and all of them sound excellent. Bit M.R. James-ish I fancy.

Lost in a Pyramid and & Other Classic Mummy Stories, selected by Andrew Smith. Pretty much what it says on the cover I assume - mad tales about pyramids.

A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit. Essays about being lost with subjects such as mapmaking, Hitchcock movies and Renaissance painting.

Journey into Cyprus by Colin Thubron. Spotted this in Waterstones Swansea, when we were there to see the author, John Connolly, a week or two ago. Grabbed because it's an unusual country for my Europe challenge.

Beyond the Footpath, Mindful Adventures for Modern Pilgrims by Clare Gogerty. Cogitating on walking, tips, ideas etc. Lovely cover.

Murder in the Bookshop by Carolyn Wells. 'Not sure I like the sound of this one' said assistant chappy in Waterstones...

Forget the Sleepless Shores by Sonya Taaffe. Strange stories to do with water. Blurb: Readers should expect to be captivated by many ghosts and spirits who inhabit brine, some from tears of heartache and loss, some from strange bodies of water, not necessarily found on the map but definitely discovered through charting a course through the perilous straits of author Taaffe's imaginations, which is eerie and queer (by every difinition of the word). Sounds pretty darn good to me. Birthday gift from my best friend. :-)

The Churchills by Mary S. Lovell. This author has become my favourite biographer and with my interest in Winston Churchill this was a must. Birthday gift from one of my daughters.

So... just a small *cough* pile. They'll sit on the shelf behind me for a while, doing their thing and making me happy. Small pleasures.

~~~oOo~~~

10 comments:

Simon T (StuckinaBook) said...

I've had Lovell's book on the Mitfords for SO long - must read it. And Murder in the Bookshop sounds like a delight!

DesLily said...

I think The Churchills may take more than a day to read! lol

Sam said...

Happy Birthday! That's a nice haul.

Mystica said...

Last three books especially appealing to me.

Kay said...

How fun, Cath! You've definitely got some interesting titles. I'll come back and check them out more closely later. Yoga class is calling....

Cath said...

Simon, The Mitford Sisters is one of the best books I've read this year, really enthralling. Suspect it will be in my top 5 for 2019.

Pat, er... yep. 600 pages. LOL

Sam: thank you!

Mystica: Excellent. :-)

Kay: Yes, they're a good mixed bag. Hope yoga went well. :-)

Yvonne @ Fiction Books Reviews said...

Hi Cath,

First of all, a belated Happy Birthday! :)

The years seem to come and go so quickly, that I try and avoid thinking about birthdays, although my own will be coming up shortly!

Please don't think that you are on your own - I can sit and just look at the books on my shelves - it's a very comforting feeling just to know they are there somehow.


It is just the same in a bookshop, even though I may eventually leave without having made a purchase.

I like the sound of your very eclectic mix of titles, although if truth be told, I would probably only go for 'Murder In The Bookshop' to add to my own titles.

How come I have never come across this author before, especially as she wrote so prolifically. I am assuming that you have read her books previously as you are now up to book #45 in this particular series, you might well have posted about some of your earlier reads, but it isn't ringing any bells (there's that age thing again!)

It's a shame that this style of writing and the more demure action of the storylines is not to many people's taste, as the Goodreads ratings and reviews are not great, which is sad to see.

Enjoy all your books when you can bear to move the pile and disturb one of those pristine covers :)

Yvonne
xx

Margaret @ BooksPlease said...

Lovely books and like you I am very happy to bring a pile of books home and after looking through each one I am content to just leave them sitting for a while before reading any of them. These books all sound good - particularly The Churchills and Journey into Cyprus. Hours of happy reading to look forward to!

Cath said...

Yvonne: Thanks for your birthday wishes, not sure when yours is but I hope it's a good one.

I'm very pleased to hear that I'm not the only one who finds comfort in a new pile of books.

No,I haven't read any other books by Carolyn Wells. It was an impulse buy in Waterstones and I had no idea and didn't check that this was part of a series. I suspect it will read fine as a standalone as these older crime mysteries tend to. I suspect these are not for everyone and when I read some reviews on GR I do wonder why the reviewer has bothered to pick up a book that's so obviously not to their taste.

Margaret: Seems admiring new books is quite the popular pastime! Yes, I too think those two books will be particularly interesting.

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