library haul

It was my birthday on the 8th, and as well as doing lots of other lovely things, one thing I was also keen to do was visit the big library in town. Usually I just go to my local, which is round the corner from house, but the selection has been poor recently, and because of the occasion I thought I should do it probably.

Some people might be a bit dismissive about looking forward to a birthday visit to the library, but for me its the little things that make the day enjoyable.

Anyway, here's what I picked up:-

1. The Spider King's Daughter, Chibundu Onuzo. A story of star-crossed lovers in Lagos. Abike Johnson lives a privileged life, but an encounter with a street hawker changes her life when they strike up a tentative romance.

2. Silver, Scott Cairns. When a young woman has to identify her dead father's body, she uncovers a shocking secret that makes her question her own identity. The blurb on the back makes me thing think this novel will cover trans issues- but I could be wrong. I'm not sure how I'll get on with reading this one- in this edition the pages are incredibly white- which can cause me difficulties because of my dyslexia, it would be a shame to miss out on a potentially good story for this reason though.

3. Written on the Body, Jeanette Winterson. I want to give Winterson more of a chance after really enjoying Weight. This is a love story, and a meditation on the body.

4. Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, Therese Anne Fowler. A fictional account of the worlds first flapper and her author husband  

5. Grimm Tales, Philip Pullman. Love fairy-tales, love Philip Pullman.

library haul

I usually go to my local library, and although it is fanatically convenient it is also rather small, so I've found the shelves rather inspiring recently. So whilst I was in the town centre I was in town I popped into the main library and got a little bit carried away.......

1. Stephen Gallagher, The Kingdom of Bones 
2. Chris Abani, Song for the Night 
3. Irvine Welsh, The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins 
4. Matt Haig, Reasons to Stay Alive 
5. Lucinda Riley, The Seven Sisters 
6. Charlaine Harris, Dead Ever After  
7. Khaled Khalifa, In Praise of Hatred 

Bank Holiday plans sorted! I'm going to eat those Easter egg and read, read, read.

library haul

Quite a small haul compared to my usual standards, but I only really popped in quickly to pick up some books that I'd reserved:-

1. Save Me the Waltz, Zelda Fitzgerald - I've been waiting for this book for so long! I think I ordered it in the summer of last year, or maybe even before that. F.Scott gets all the glory in the Fitzgerald family, but apparently he not only used Zelda as a muse but also stole ideas from her. After reading Flappers by Judith Mackrell I became really intrigued about Zelda, she was the 'it girl' of her generation, and I want to see if she had any substance. Save Me the Waltz is about a glamorous aspiring ballerina. 
2. Stiff, Mary Roach - I read Gulp at the end of last year and found it to be equal parts disgusting and fascinating, this time Roach is taking a humorous and curious look at cadavers. From those who donate their bodies to medical science, to cannibalism to dead bodies used as crash test dummies, this promises to be just a grossly fascinating. 
3. Sinners, Jackie Collins - I might be a little bit too ashamed to read this one on the tube. It is described on the back as a 'jungle of lust and perversity, greed and ambition'. I'm hoping its going to be just as fabulously trashy as Valley of the Dolls. 

book haul

I've blogged about Hylands House before, this weekend we took a rather soggy walk around the grounds. Aside for a blast of fresh air, the main reason I wanted to visit is for the fabulous second-hand bookshop they have in the old stables. 

Paperbacks are £1.50 and 3 for 2, and they are have a good amount of stock neatly arranged. I was talking to the chaps at the till and they said there are plans to double the size of the shop, so it's going to get even better. In my opinion its the best second-hand book shop in Chelmsford. 

I was moderately restrained and only bought 4 books:

• Xiaolu Guo, A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers
• Jaqueline Sunsa, Valley of the Dolls
• Lloyd Jones, Mister Pip
• Armistead Maupin, Tales of the City 

Admittedly I still have those Man Booker books to get through  (so far I've read 2 and 2 halves) but these where so cheap I couldn't resist. Plus in my defence - the Man Booker's are all hardbacks and they're a bit heavy to lug around in my work bag. 

What do think of my haul? Have you read any of them?

library haul

Although I've currently got heaps of unread books on my shelves, I really didn't fancy reading any of them. Instead, I picked up an old faithful Song of Achilles, which is one of my favourite books of all time. 

To get me out of a reading slump I took a trip to my local library and gathered the following:-

currently reading

I've got a ton of books that I've bought or I've borrowed (stolen) from my sister, so I've made a mini pledge to myself not to go to the library as often so I can crack on with these. 

However, I went on a ordering rampage last month, and books I requested have finally started coming into my local library, and I can't just ignore them. I think I've explained this before, but at my library you can request books from all the other libraries in the county and then pick them up locally. 

 I picked these two up the other day:-

Elizabeth is Missing, Emma Healey 

This got a lot of buzz when it was first published, which is why I had to wait ages to get it. 

I'm expecting big things from this, a detective story with a twist. Maud is investigating the disappearance of  her friend, but she is hampered in her search as she has dementia. 

The Maze Runner, James Dashner 

A film adaptation has just been released, and it is being touted as the next Hunger Games. Although I'm going to reserve my judgement until I've finished reading it, I'm dubious about these claims at the moment. It's interesting to see how literary trends work, after the success of Twilight bookshops where full of vampire boyfriends, now it's all about killing kids as part of weird survival games.  

currently reading

Just a quick post to let you know what's on my reading list at the moment:- 

1) The Miniaturist, Jessie Burton - kindly lent to me by my sister at the weekend, she was rather impressed with this and I trust her judgement. Set in 1686, Amsterdam, eighteen-year old Nella Oortman has come to join the wealthy household of her new husband.

2) The Blade Itself, Joe Abercrombie - even after reading 3 or 4 fantasy novels last month, I still haven't had my fill. I briefly mentioned this book in my review of kindle fantasy samples last month. From the blurb it looks like it's going to be full of knights, barbarians and tortures, which is just my thing at the moment.

3) Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer - I posted about this book way back in July, I've been waiting that long for it to get in my library. Though in lots of ways my local library is brilliant, it really is slow when it comes to ordering other books in. They offer a service in which you can request books from other libraries in the county to be sent to your local for collection, but sometimes it can take months. Anyway this novel is the first in a science fiction series.

library haul

I've just been to library and picked up a huge heap of book:-

1. The Night Rainbow, Claire King: This written from the perspective of a 5 year old child, so it could be hit or miss. It's all about the girl's mother coping with grief after the death of her father. 
2. A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, Eimear McBride: This was shortlisted for tons of awards, so I'm hoping it will live up to the hype. It is a stream of conciousness about a young woman's relationship of with her brother and the consequences of his childhood brain tumour. 
3. The Sisters Brothers, Patrick DeWitt:  The cover design is what drew me to this book. The Sisters Brothers are two mercerises hired to track down and kill a man in the American Wild West.  
4. Whit, Ian Banks: I've read a couple of Bank's novels and enjoyed them, particularity The Wasp Factory, so though I'd give this a go. It's about a teenage cult leader who ventures out amongst to Unsaved to bring her cousin back. 
5. Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman: Recently I've been trying to find some fantasy to read, Gaiman is a bestseller of the genre so I thought this was worth ago. The blurb is intriguing- an alternative London set beneath the city full of magic and peril.   
6. Sky Burial, Xinran: I have an interest in China and Tibet (I spent my gap year there) and an interest in funeral rites so I'm really looking forward to reading this one.    

book haul

I've broken my self imposed book buying ban in a big way, but in my defence 3 of the 5 are second-hand.

Nnedi Okorafor, Who Fears Death
After reading the kindle sample of this I was immediately hooked. *Trigger warning rape and violence.
Recently I've been interested in reading afro-futurism (inspired by my new found love for Octavia Butler) so this novel fit the bill.    

Octavia E. Butler, Seed to Harvest
Speaking of Octavia E. Butler, this collection of the Patternist series also got put in my shopping trolley. Seed to Harvest contains four novels and fits into the afro-futurism/ science-fiction genre. For my review of another of Octavia Butler's books, Kindred see here.

Margaret Atwood, The Robber Bride and Bluebeard's Egg
I've mentioned several times on this blog that I'm a massive Atwood fan, and as both these books were going cheap second-hand on Amazon I couldn't resist. The Robber Bride is a strong contender for my favourite Atwood, so I felt I had to remedy the fact that I didn't actually own it. Bluebeard's Egg is a collection of retold fairy-stories (similar to Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber) so I had to have it. It's like a triple thumbs up, Margaret Atwood, yep! Fairytales, yep yep!, feminist re-telling, yep yep yep!

Jeanette Winterson, Sexing the Cherry
I was very impressed with Winterson's retelling of the myth of Hercules in Weight, so thought I should work my way through some more of her back catalogue. Sexing the Cherry is similar to Bluebeard's Egg, more fairytales.

What do you think of my book haul? Have you got any suggestions of what I should add to my reading list?