You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Book buys’ category.
A bit of a stack this month with one or two familiar names as well as one or two speculative buys. To start with the familiar, two of my favourite Canadian authors – Margaret Atwood’s Moral Disorder and Alice Munro’s The View from Castle Rock. I’m particularly interested in the latter because of the Scottish link and the family history thing, which is a particular hobby of mine I won’t bore anyone with now! I also picked up a crime favourite, Tess Gerritsen’s The Mephisto Club; I’ve been waiting for this to come out in paperback for a while and am looking forward to reading it soon. I also decided to take the opportunity of being bored one evening to order the three Merrily Watkins novels by Phil Rickman that I didn’t yet have in my collection (it’s the completist thing, you see) – The Smile of a Ghost (not in the picture as the Book God appears to have secreted it somewhere), The Remains of an Altar and The Fabric of Sin – lovely gothic stuff.
Three of the books pictured were mentioned in my earlier post about visiting the London Review Bookshop, which just leaves the two books I bought in the British Museum shop – Unfortunate English by Bill Brohaugh and A Brief History of Secret Societies by David V Barrett – just couldn’t resist that one!
Or I should say were missing, as three books which I have bought over the past couple of months but couldn’t quite find (and therefore haven’t blogged about) turned up in among the pile of books next to the Book God’s sofa. So, being a completist (as ownership of nine box sets of X-Files DVDs will confirm), herewith additional purchases, probably August but possibly before:
The Complete Father Brown Stories by GK Chesterton, as a result of my Holmesian marathon;
When the Astors Owned New York by Justin Kaplan, following a review by dovegreyreader; and
The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas, following a favourable review on Simon Mayo’s Book Panel ages ago.
I really do think that’s everything now, unless he’s secreted some more away somewhere………
One day towards the end of last week I got really fed up with sitting in front of the computer, and decided to take a walk in my lunch break. I am notorious for bottling out of exercise and so thought having a purpose to the walk would make me stick to the plan, so I aimed for the London Review Bookshop near the British Museum, where I thought I’d just pick up the most recent copy of the magazine. Well it didn’t quite work out like that, and I had to confess to the Book God the following purchases:
Victorian Sensation by Michael Diamond
The Sea Lady by Margaret Drabble
Angelica by Arthur Phillips
None of these were on my wish list so I had no excuses except that they seemed really, really interesting. And at least I did remember to get the LRB as well.
Another August purchase which I completely forgot about, again because it’s an audiobook, but also because I listened to it almost immediately. Portuguese Irregular Verbs is by Alexander McCall Smith, best known for the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. I’ll confess up front that I bought this as much because it’s read by Hugh Laurie (and I was suffering withdrawal symptoms after the end of Season 3 of House) as my enjoyment of the author’s other works. This book revolves around Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, author of the the eponymous work on language, and his misadventures with colleagues, his trips to Ireland and India, and his concern about his place in the world. I found it very amusing; it didn’t make me laugh out loud on the train (probably a good thing) but wry smiles and quiet giggles. And Hugh Laurie is, as always, fantastic.
I forgot to include in my list of books purchased last month that I had got a hold of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, largely 
because I bought it on CD and I don’t always think of audio-books as proper books. I stopped reading Harry Potter on paper after HP and the Order of the Phoenix, but have really enjoyed listening to them as narrated by Stephen Fry, a good thing to keep the mind occupied while doing the ironing. I still haven’t listened to the Half-Blood Prince yet, but I’ll get there. Eventually. Needless to say the Book God has now read all seven, but that’s just showing off if you ask me.
A bit crime dominated this month, with some old stalwarts and a couple of authors I haven’t read before. First with the general stuff. I love books about reading, and having seen a couple of recommendations, I decide to get Nick Hornby’s Complete Polysyllabic Spree; having had a quick dip into it I know I’m going to find it really enjoyable.
The Book God and I visited the South Bank branch of Foyles at the beginning of August (having been to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenixat IMAX) and I picked up a couple of interesting things: an Edward Gorey illustrated book of ghost stories (The Haunted Looking Glass) and a novel by Lauren Sanders called With or Without You, which looked like it could be an interesting read.
I also added to my library of books on the sixteenth century with Susan Ronald’s The Pirate Queen, which I suspect does exactly what it says on the tin!
As for the crime, well, the old stalwarts were Mark Billingham and Kathy Reichs whose novels I buy as soon as they come out, so no surprise that Death Message and Bones to Ashes were obtained pretty quickly on publication, and are likely to accompany me on my October holiday. I’ve read a number of Georgette Heyer’s detective novels over the years (but not her historical stuff, though a recent discovery that Stephen Fry is a fan might make me think again) and I came across one that I hadn’t read before, Detection Unlimited, with a wonderful cover which caught my eye immediately. Lastly, I decided to try Denise Mina’s The Field of Blood, having heard her interviewed on Radio 5; I was kind of aware of her but hadn’t got around to buying anything. It’s the first of her Paddy Meehan series and I’m interested in seeing whether its as good as the reviews.
The old favourites:
Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks by Christopher Brookmyre – the latest Jack Parlabane story. Apparently this time he is investigating a particular psychic, and at some point he finds himself on the other side, with “an exclusive still to file” – his books are always a treat, and so I’m saving this for holiday reading in October.
First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde – I know that his books divide people, but I have always enjoyed the stories for their inventive silliness, perhaps because I don’t mind fantasy for it’s own sake. The return of Tuesday Next.
White Corrider by Christopher Fowler – the latest Bryant & May adventure. A cold winter, a body in a locked autopsy room, and two elderly detectives trapped in the snow and trying to solve the crime from a distance. Again, a likely holiday read.
The Gravedigger’s Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates. I spoke in my last post about my great love for her work, and this looks fascinating. It focusses on Rebecca, whose family has come from germany tos ettle in America and how her life develops. I can never speak too highly of her, and if you have never read any of her novels I urge you to try.
The Devil in Amber by Mark Gatiss. I really like Mark Gatiss as an actor and writer for TV (especially his involvement with Dr. Who), and I liked the previous Lucifer Box novel, so expect to enjoy this too; I’m a sucker for fascist messiahs with peculiarly satanic designs.
Recommended by others:
Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky by Patrick Hamilton. Originally published in the 1930s, this comes highly recommended by a number of people, including David Hepworth who has mentioned it in The Word more than once.
Hard-boiled female PIs:
Vanishing Point and The Ever Running Man by Marcia Muller. I have all of the Sharon McCone stories, and think she is one of the best of the female Private Eyes; I have stuck with her when I have given up on V I Warshawski and others, but am slightly behind on my reading, with another one published before these still on the pile.
A number of other blogs have mentioned the beauty and quality of Hesperus Books, and having already bought a couple in previous months I decided to have a look at their catalogue and succumbed.
A Tale Told by Moonlight is an addition to my reading around Leonard Woolf’s time in Ceylon, of which more to come in a future post.
The History of the Reign of King Henry VII is a slight drift from my sixteenth century obsession, but does deal with the foundation of the Tudor dynasty, and will run nicely into David Loades’ Henry VIII which joins the ever expanding pile – I really do need to think how I’m going to tackle all of these!
Something very different next; pointed out to me by the Book God as something he thought I would enjoy, Sylvia, Queen of the Headhunters, set in Sarawak in the 1930s and describing the exotic and powerful dynasty which ruled this part of the world.
The Book God had some book tokens to spend this month, and I accompanied him on a shopping trip with the intention of watching, not buying; I failed of course, drawn irresistibly to Queuing for Beginners by Joe Moran which (according to the cover) tells the story of daily life from breakfast to bedtime. I’ve dipped in and it looks like one to savour.
Last but not least, I gave in to temptation and now have the Folio Society edition of A Dance to the Music of Time, in four volumes. The fact that I already have the whole of Anthony Powell’s masterpiece in various formats didn’t stop me, and of course it’s a wonderful excuse to read the whole thing again.
A better month for book purchases, with some interesting additions to my shelves. I really like Edward Gorey’s style and was thrilled to come across a second-hand copy of the War of the Worlds with his illustrations. I confess that I’ve never read the Wells’ story, and my impressions have been formed by the various film versions, trips to Woking (and the Jeff Wayne album as befits an old prog rock fan) and I’m looking forward to trying out the original.
Additions to the crime stacks this month are Winter’s End by John Rickards, a new author to me that I came across on Stuart MacBride’s blog; and the new novel by Craig Russell, Eternal, the third to feature his Hamburg-based detective Jan Fabel. The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy by James Anderson just sounded like good fun.
Dove Grey Reader waxes lyrical about Hesperus paperbacks, and I indulged in two – Edith Wharton’s The Touchstone and Saki’s A Shot in the Dark; I bought the latter as the Book God and I really enjoyed the recent drama-doc about Saki on BBC Four.
I also succumbed to the graphic novel version of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere; I have the original novel and remember the BBC TV version with some fondness although I wish they would make it again now that special effects technology has moved on and could really do it justice.
And finally, the last of this season’s Folio Society purchases, Legends of the Grail, another beautiful addition to my Folio shelves (which are beginning to groan, unfortunately).
A thin month for book purchases with only a couple of additions to the shelves.
In a previous post I talked about how much I like Stuart MacBride, and so I made sure I got a copy of his new novel Broken Skin as soon as it came out. I haven’t started reading it yet; I’m going to wait until I can get some unbroken (if you’ll pardon the pun) time to really get into the story, and I happen to have some long train journeys coming up in May which should be ideal!
My other purchase is Bloomsbury in Sussex from Snake River Press; this is a guide to Bloomsbury Group through the buildings they were connected with in the county. It’s a beautifully produced slim volume with lovely illustrations, and an interesting approach to one of my big areas of interest.
Bride of the Book God 