In today's mail from a bookseller in the UK, a signed copy of Steven Hall's new book The Raw Shark Texts.

In today's mail from a bookseller in NYC, an ARC of Wesley Stace's new novel by George, which won't be published till late Aug, but I just didn't feel like waiting. (Stace's novel Misfortune was one of my favorite books of 2005 and hope this one is just half as good.)

Oh, Louis, you'll have to let us know what you think--I really enjoyed Misfortune.

From the library:
Elantris
Lords and Ladies

From the used paperback store:
Seven Gothic Tales
The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell
Heavenly Date and Other Flirtations
Portuguese Irregular Verbs
Life of Pi

I downloaded a bunch of audio books to keep me going in those moments where I can't have a book in my hands:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Vanity Fair by William Thackeray

I figure that should keep me busy for a while at least!

My mother just gave me Jonanthan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke in one of those lovely three-volume boxed sets. Oddly enough, I was planning on buying just such a set yesterday afternoon, but I decided to hold off until Monday! I really love this issue; it's very much in keeping with the spirit of the book.

I visited my favourite bookshop today, OCTAGON, after ten months, but came away with ten lovely and reduced-priced books!

The Wicked Wit of William Shakespeare
The Wicked Wit of Charles Dickens
Valley of the Casbahs by Jeffrey Tayler
The Sky's the Limit - Passion and Property in Manhattan by Steven Gaines
The Illustrated Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
William Shakespeare - An Illustrated Biography by Anthony Holden
Virginia Woolf - A Writer's Life edited by Lyndall Gordon
The Treehouse - Eccentric Wisdom from my Father on How to Live, Love and See by Naomi Wolf
Lytton Strachey By Himself edited by Michael Holroyd - which I got for 50p!!!
Venice - Tales of the City - An Anthology by Michelle Lovric.

I also bought three little books from Past Times (in honour of my mother):

Mothers and Daughters by Sandra Deeble
My Mother Said - Words of Wit and Wisdom from Mothers to Their Daughters
Mother's Journal - A Book of Memoirs

Message edited by its author, Mar 31, 2007, 1:53pm.

I spent my Valentine's Barnes & Noble gift card today:

London: The Biography, Peter Ackroyd
Maps for Lost Lovers, Nadeem Aslam
The Painted Veil, W. Somerset Maugham
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, Anne Fadiman
Housekeeping Vs. the Dirt, Nick Hornby

cabegley, Maugham's The Painted Veil is just about my favorite novel of this year so far, hope you like it too.

Judas Unchained by Peter F. Hamilton
Homeward Bound by Harry Turtledove
Colonization Second Contact by Harry Turtledove
Newton's Wake by Ken Macleod

Received from SqueakyChu through BookCrossing today, Peppers. Thanks!

*edited to ask: Did you like it?

Message edited by its author, Mar 31, 2007, 8:11pm.

yes!!!!! I'm glad you got the book! When you're done you can journal what you thought of it on BookCrossing if you'd like.

I did like it. I learned so many things about this favorite vegetable of mine. One thing I had to do after finishing the book was go to find a picture of a Tabasco sauce bottle to see McIlhenny's name on it. I've never eaten Tabsco sauce. Our favorite is Crystal Hot sauce. Anyway, the chapter about Tabasco was especially interesting.

One thing that tickled me was that the book mentions malagueta peppers which are very hot peppers from Brazil that my son's friend bring to us when he travels there. I haven't met anyone else here in the U.S. (other than Brazilian-Americans) who have heard of them...but they were mentioned in the book.

I hope you enjoy the book. I'm happy to be able to have the chance to share this book with someone here on LibraryThing. What fun! ...and people ask why I give books away!!!

cabegley, I love The Painted Veil. Hope you enjoy it. I recently read Ex Libris too!

For me

Euripides I
Plato Laws

Digging to America by Anne Tyler. I used to read all the Anne Tyler novels but perhaps I overdosed because I stopped with Breathing Lessons. I have determined to read a few novels off the Orange Prize long list so here I am with my first Anne Tyler in quite a number of years...

Just returned from a conference in Cambridge, MA with 3 books signed by the author, Lynn Mikel Brown: Packaging Girlhood, Raising Their Voices: The Politics of Girls' Anger and Girlfighting: Betrayal and Rejection Among Girls.

Oh..another book just walked in the door! ;-)

Just kidding. I actually took a side trip to my used book store today and found Man Walks into a Room. I just finished The History of Love by the same author and did enjoy it. It looks as if the book I found was Nicole Krauss' debut novel.

Message edited by its author, Apr 1, 2007, 10:38pm.

I came home with two new books today as they were only £1 each in Fopp (always good for a bargain - I wasn't looking to buy anything, honestly!):

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by jane Austen

I've never been much of a one for classics, but I'm trying to branch out and embrace them (I'm currently reading Black Beauty by Anna Sewell) and although I really didn't enjoy Emma, I rather liked the audio book I listened to of Northanger Abbey so I've ended up falling into the decision to go on a bit of an Austen jag.

Books from amazon today (yay!):

Elantris - Brandon Sanderson
The Game of Kings - Dorothy Dunnett
London - Edward Rutherfurd

I'm especially looking forward to the first two based on reviews, and the last one because I really enjoyed Rutherfurd's Russka and Sarum.

Found some great deals at Half Priced Books, which always happens and so yesterday I got...

Barrel Fever and Other Stories David Sedaris
Lost in My Own Backyard: A Walk in Yellowstone National Park by Tim Cahill
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim: Essays byDavid Sedaris
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Fire by Sebastian Junger
Old Friends by Tracy Kidder
Fodor's Citypack San Francisco, 3rd Edition (Citypacks) by Fodor's

#17 Kell_Smurthwaite - It's a slippery slope and now we are all watching. But none of us are judging. We have all either been down it and given up or are headed that way ourselves. Books cry out to be owned and loved, and you don't have to feed them or take them for walks. :D

These days it seems like I don't buy a book unless it's from the Oxfam (got to be better for the wallet, and it's *almost* guilt free).

The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall (promptly stolen by other half)
Going Under by Ray French
Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh
The Successor by Ismail Kadare
Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner

Got a box in the mail today from my sister, containing three books she had borrowed from me (Dime Store Magic, Industrial Magic, and Welcome to Temptation) and two books she loved and wants me to read (The Poet and A Perfect Evil). And yesterday my neighbor lent me his copy of A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again.

Huh. The touchstones engine is not a big fan of my reading list. Sad now.

Killeymoon, my copy of The Raw Shark Texts came the other day and am really looking forward to it. I think I've read about 15 or so books by Anita Brookner and Hotel du Lac has to be her best, and a Booker winner too.

# 21 MrsLee - Very true - my hubby is desperate for a dog, but I'm highly allergic, so books are my darlings - LOL! He'll be getting me another book for Easter too, as I said I would rather have new reading material than a chocolate egg. So, there'll be another book coming at the end of the week - and not of my own doing! ;)

Ooooh! I just got Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi which I hope to read rather quickly and send out on a bookray. Bookcrossers (or potential BookCrossers), PM (personal message) me if you'd like to be included on this bookray.

I have read Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, and liked it very much. It always fascinates me to read about people of other cultures address their own culture to others...talking about both the good and the bad. Marjane's books are a direct look into the culture of Iran. I'm also looking forward to reading Persepolis 2 which is en route to me now.

Just returned from the Library with three books for myself:

1. From my TBR pile - Cloud Atlas
2. For my New York Times Notable Book Challenge - Beasts of No Nation
3. For an online book group - Fall on Your Knees

And I also picked up, for my other half, Pigeons, which had caught his eye on a previous visit and was then reviewed in the paper.

Message edited by its author, Apr 5, 2007, 11:05am.

In today's mail from Amazon, a copy of Arthur Phillips' new novel Angelica.

#27 lindsacl
I re-read Cloud Atlas a couple of months ago.
Nothing else I've read this year has had the same impact.
It's a truly astonishing piece of literature.
I do hope the two of you engage.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell arrived in the post today - hurrah! It's looking like it might possibly be the reading circle choice for next month at the Book Club Forum. :)

I walked in to the bookstore to buy No way to treat a first lady by Christopher Buckley (on the recommendation of a co-worker). The store didn't have a copy. So . . . I left with Elantris, The Book Thief, books 1 and 2 of the Sisters Grimm, and all three volumes of Nora Roberts' Circle Trilogy. Hey, I had a 30% off coupon and the Nora Roberts books were buy 2, get one free. Can't beat a deal like that!

Library Thing is going to be the death of me. 72 books on the TBR shelf (shelves) and counting . . .

Cloud Atlas is also on my list TBR as soon as I finish For Whom The Bell Tolls which has become quite plodding for me.

>32: writestuff, I am about 50 pages into Cloud Atlas and utterly enchanted. Amazing stuff. And one of the characters, set in 1931, has just met a Mrs. van Outryve de Crommelynck ... hmmm ... same character as in Mitchell's Black Swan Green? Needless to say, I'm hooked.

hi- i just started shopaholic and baby.... and i ordered the 9 volumes of the dresden files today

The first of five from ABEbooks...The Cambridge Companion to Margaret Atwood AND a package from CafePress with my LT t-shirt, pins and bumper sticker.

With everyone discussing clouds, I veered off a little and purchased Cloudsplitter today. I happened to be at a small dinner gathering with Russell Banks a month or so ago and realized I had never read any of his books. Thought I should in case I ever have the good fortune of a next invitation.

Also picked up a copy of A Field Guide to the Wild Flowers of North America in the bargain bin

Message edited by its author, Apr 7, 2007, 6:44am.

I've read nearly all of Banks's books and Cloudsplitter's one of his best, as is The Darling which really shouldn't be missed either.

Just got back from visiting my brother and his family and got a belated birthday present of Nature Girl by Carl Hiaasen and The Shape Shifter by Tony Hillerman

>24 LouisBranning - I'm about halfway through Hotel du Lac, and I'm amazed at how easy it is to read (I'm always vaguely apprehesive about prize winners after a few shockers in varsity).

Borders 3 for 2!
1. Arthur & George
2. The Piano Tuner
3. The Space Between Us

... and absolutely NO IDEA when I will get around to reading these, but they look so nice stacked up on my TBR pile.

My Father had a Daughter - Grace Tiffany - $1 at the dollar store! It looks good too, I'm pleased.

The Wars of the Roses - Alison Weir - Borders 30% off coupon. =)

Arrived today in the mail from the Science Fiction Book Club:

The First Chronicles of Amber, Roger Zelazny
Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman
Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories, Frederik Pohl

I was not going to collect these books, but I found them all in a trade-in used book store, so gave in. Of course. :)

The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Tears of the Giraffe
Morality for Beautiful Girls
The Kalahari Typing School for Men
The Full Cupboard of Life
In the Company of Cheerful Ladies all by Alexander McCall Smith

Also, bought because of LT testimony:

chocolat by Joanne Harris

Bought as a gift for a friend:

The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas

Sadly, returned to the library, Lords and Ladies, possibly my favorite Pratchett book now. At least in the top five that I've read.

Today I purchased Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas.

#44 Oklahomabooklady, maybe you can tell me, is Sandra Dallas a good storyteller, and does she talk a lot of quilts or quilting? The book I bought for my friend looked like it, but I've never read her.

I just got back from Hargreaves which is a fabulous bookstore that sells discounted books but looks like a neighborhood bookstore, I bought Portrait of a Lady and Diana Mosley: Mitford Beauty, British Fascist, Hitler's Angel by Anne De Courcy.

Just received from booksbuythebox, an Amazon used book seller, Expiration Date, by Tim Powers. Urban fantasy. I recently finished Powers' Last Call, liked it a lot, and bought two more by him. This is one.

lindsad - I am SOOOOOO looking forward to diving into Cloud Atlas after reading Black Swan Green. I decided to read a short, quick read first (I was so exhausted after plodding through For Whom The Bell Tolls!!

I just bought (one day after resolving not to add onto my "unread" list, which has ballooned to encompass exactly HALF of the books I own) The Supremes' Greatest Hits: The 34 Supreme Court Cases That Most Directly Affect Your Life from the Discovery Channel store over at Union Station in St. Louis. Since I also own The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court (which I love more than words can express) and Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court (which I haven't yet read), I'm beginning to suspect I have an official capital-letter Interest.

hi all- today i got, based on lt recommendations-the god of animals byaryn kyle and the raw shark tales by steven hall- at this point they will go on the to be read pile

cdyank, I just finished The Raw Shark Texts and it was terrific.

I got a couple of books for free today:

A Short history of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Airframe by Michael Crichton

I was not good today. My mom gave me The Heart is a Lonely Hunter since she's never going to read it, and then I wound up buying The Fool's Tale: a novel by Nicole Galland and The Wild Irish by Robin Maxwell. I also then saw a collector's set of the Pride and Prejudice BBC/A&E adaptation, packaged with The Making of Pride and Prejudice, so I found myself buying that too.

At least these purchases will make me happy!

littlebookworm, I guarantee The Heart is a Lonely Hunter will make you happy, a whale of a great book.

In today's mail from Amazon UK, a copy of A.L. Kennedy's new novel Day. (Even though Kennedy's books are often downers, she's an extremely talented writer, has published 4 novels, 2 books of non-fiction, and 4 collections of short stories. She's twice been selected as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists and has won a number of literary prizes already. She lives in Glasgow, lectures part-time at St. Andrews, and for the last 6 months has been appearing regularly as a stand-up comedian in Glasgow clubs.)

Not sure if this counts because I borrowed it from my local library, but am currently reading The hidden face of God which promises to be an intriguing take on the hot God vs. science debate.

I read David Sedaris's Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim a while back but have to admit I was less than impressed.

I enjoyed The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Mme. Ramotswe is such a likeable character even if the mysteries themselves are a bit thin.

# 51- thanks louis- it gives me something to look forward to

My latest Amazon acquisitions arrived today:

The Bone People by Keri Hulme
The Shadow Master by David Chacko
Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir

They all look so good!!!!!

Message edited by its author, Apr 9, 2007, 5:26pm.

I've ordered a few used books from Amazon and B & N's 3rd party vendors recently. This one arrived today: A Walk Along the Tracks: a personal guide to the fascinating world of Britain's forgotten railways by Hunter Davies. His A Walk Along the Wall was pretty good; my library owns a copy of A Walk Around the West Indies, so I don't plan on buying that one.

Re: Somerset Maugham ... I'm on the library waitlist for an audio download of "The Painted Veil" and have a used copy of his travel narrative "The Gentleman in the Parlour" coming as well. Also due any day now are:

The Weather Prophet by Lucretia Stewart, and The Wrong Way Home by Peter Moore. Just finished the latter's Vroom with a View (touring northern Italy by Vespa), which was great.

I went to Costco today and bought books-
Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill -this book was the 2007 Canada Reads winner on CBC Radio.
A Year in the World Journeys of a Passionate Traveller by Frances Mayes- I like to read about travel to places that I have been to and to those that I still want to see.
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters- I heard her read at a Literary Festival in the fall

On loan from my father-in-law: What Is the What, by Dave Eggers.

I absolutely loved What is the What, one of my favorites from last year.

xxxHOLiC, Vol. 2 (Xxxholic (Graphic Novels)), by CLAMP. Manga, psychology, Japanese folk tales
The Tiger's Way: A U.S. Private's Best Chance for Survival by H. John Poole. Tactical military theory on the level of the individual soldier.
Trial of Flowers, by Jay Lake. Autographed! Novel of urban fantasy in the far future (I think). This book I won by contributing money to Strange Horizons, the well-known speculative fiction webzine. Writers published in SH are urged to contribute one of their works as a fund drive prize. This was Jay's. Thanks, dude!

hi all- today is a banner day from amazon.com- i received a history of love by nicole krauss; snow flower and the secret fan by lisa see;away laughing in a fas camel and a three volume set by louise rennison;then we came to the end by joshua ferris;the emperors children by claire messud;whitethorn woods by maeve binchy; the thirteenth tale by diane setgterfield and last but not least the post birthday world by lionel shriver- so many books, so little time!!!!

i have two books. one by scottoline and one by dessen. my favs. they'll be done tommorrow.

A BIG box of books arrived today - yummy reader's copies and several copies of the same reader's copy to be given to those attending a literary luncheon on Saturday. What a wonderful surprise!

Today's mail brought me a copy of Joust by Mercedes Lackey, courtesy of BookMooch.

hi all- i just got the complete dresden files series and the complete lemony snickets set- i think i need to take a little amazon break- this is getting dangerous!!!

Yesterday I ordered A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah.

>68: mdochoda, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier is finally ready for me at the library (I was 1,000,000th in queue apparently).

In today's mail from Amazon, a copy of Fieldwork: A Novel by Mischa Berlinski.

Made a little pit-stop at Borders, and wouldn't you know it? A couple stray books followed me home!

The Third Reich Day by Day by Christopher Ailsby
Death Dealer by Rudoph Hoess (sorry about the name, I don't have German keyboard installed on this computer yet...I just got it)
and
Ausgewahlte Marchen by The Brothers Grimm. I purchased the book because it is in German, but it does have an English translation in it. (aplogoize with the omission of the umlauts...I need to install that software!)

Yesterday got me The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert M. Fenner at my local saltwater fish store. Hoping to have my first marine tank set up by the end of the month. Yea, the little fishies would be hobby number 2! I presently have a 80 gallon cichlid tank, an 80 gallon brackish tank and a 40 gallon planted tank. It is as addicting as reading! Now, to find more room for bookshelves!

Message edited by its author, Apr 11, 2007, 2:55pm.

>>45 MrsLee sorry it took so long to reply to you. Hopefully you will look back here on this thread. I think most of her books have quilting as a main part of the plot. This one did but it was not real heavy with it. Mainly just the mother belonging to a quilting group.

I purchased 2 more books this week:
Helpless by Barbara Gowdy and Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee by Charles Shields.

Arrived from Amazon -
The Boy who Followed Ripley
Ripley Under Water
and
Strangers On a Train all by Patricia Highsmith

I had the first 3 Ripleys, but not the final two for some reason and now I have a whole matched set. yay.

Also got a used copy fo The Madness of a Seduced Woman which has been on my want list for literally years (copied faithfully from one index card to another and installed in my wallet - so funny). The copy I got ended up being a 1st ed. hardback in fairly nice shape, so I'm pretty happy.

I'm 3/4 of the way through James Jones' "Whistle", and loving it as much as I did "From Here to Eternity" and "The Thin Red Line". What a fantastic trilogy!!!!! Yesterday I bought Scottish novelist Jane Harris's "The Observations".

Bookmarque: I've had "The Madness of a Seduced Woman" for ages, and always meant to read it. I'll be interested to hear your review of it.

Bluenosegirl, I love Jones' WWII trilogy as well, and Whistle's a very fitting, though somewhat melancholy ending to it, with Willie Morris having to finish it for him after his death. I just re-read Whistle a year or so ago, enjoying it mightily.

Just got back from the bookstore...let's see:

3 arcs - When the Devil Holds the Candle by Karin Fossum
Nine by Andrzej Stasiuk, and The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer.

3 paperbacks to go to my former father-in-law in the nursing home; 1 paperback going in a box to Iraq

Others novels: Bright of the Sky by Key Kenyon, Rollback by Robert Sawyer, Carnival by Elizabeth Bear, TWOC by Graham Joyce (YA, but I've read all his adult books so why not?).

Books that I had to pick up from the main post office, as I was not at home when they came to deliver:

Memoirs of a Babylonian Princess, Vol II autobiography by Maria Theresa Asmar
Benazir Bhutto - Pakistani Prime Minister & Activist by Mary Englar,
Danziger's Travels by Nick Danziger (that I happily bought for 1p on amazon.co.uk!!!),
Shattering the Stereotypes - Muslim Women Speak Out edited by Fawzia Afzal-Khan;

and these I bought from The Works (all prices discounted):

India - Life, Myth & Art by Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad,
Discovering Art - Mucha by O. B. Duane,
Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser,
Tony & Cherie by Paul Scott,
The Taste of Dreams - An Obsession with Russia and Caviar by Vanora Bennett,
Eastern Philosophy - The Greatest Thinkers and Sages from Ancient to Modern Times by Kevin Burns,
One Hundred Kisses compiled by Celia Haddon;

also these from OCTAGON (all prices discounted):

Mango & Mimosa by Suzanne St Albans,
Touch the Earth - A Self-Portrait of Indian Existence compiled by T. C. McLuhan,
The Mitford Girls - The Biography of an Extraordinary Family by Mary S. Lovell,
Vermilion Gate an autobiography by Aiping Mu,
Married to a Beduoin by Marguerite van Geldermaben,
Maternal Desire by Daphne De Maneffe.

Message edited by its author, Apr 12, 2007, 3:22pm.

I ordered Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas from GreenMetropolis.com this afternoon. Both will be included in my Classics Challenge and the latter will also count towards my Chunk Challenge (being 896 pages long!). I'm looking forward to both immensely and am hoping they'll both arrive by Monday!

Message edited by its author, Apr 12, 2007, 3:15pm.

Recently arrived from Powell's:

* The Best Old Movies for Families
* Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser
* Pope Joan: A Novel by Donna Cross
* The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham

Hey - I just started The Painted Veil yesterday on audio!

Today's aquisitions have been: The Weather Prophet by Lucretia Stewart (in the mail) and the latest Miss Zukas mystery by Jo Dereske hot-off-the-presses - Catalogue of Death (Borders with a coupon).

Message edited by its author, Apr 12, 2007, 5:17pm.

Thanks Oklahomabooklady - I realized after I posted, I should have put that on your profile page. Just got back from a trip, 50 some odd posts behind! You people have been buying lots of books!

The March and April selections for my book-a-month birthday gift:

Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin

I got The Time-Traveler's Wife in the mail from BookMooch.

Message edited by its author, Apr 13, 2007, 1:22am.

# 84 Shortride - I hope you'll enjoy it! I read this one last year in a reading circle and it was very well loved by everyone - not one single member disliked it!

My copy of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte arrived in the post from GreenMettropolis.com this morning - hurrah!

Yesterday's mail brought The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin and Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, both via BookMooch.

Yesterday I bought The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne in Asda for a reduced £3.73.

How Doctors Think, by Groopman and Arabesque, a middle east cookbook. Eclectic, no?

Groopman is a Boston oncologist, writes for the New Yorker among other places, and is what is generally known as a mensch. He suggests that this new book of his, altho purportedly for the layperson, could well be read with benefit by the physician too. He is an interesting writer who keeps things moving and makes his points well.

I have no business buying any more books...but I - CAN'T - STOP! LOL!

Yesterday I picked up One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Last week I used a $40 gift certificate at Barnes and Noble to buy:

Intuition by Allegra Goodman
Halfway House by Katherine Noel
and
A Bend In The River by V. S. Naipaul

AND, I received a free book in a book give-away:
What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn

Message edited by its author, Apr 15, 2007, 1:51pm.

I went on a brief buying spree lately.

I got Garth Nix's Sabriel from the bookstore and Stardust and a new creative writing book off Amazon. Plus three movies.

Not the most damage I've ever done in one weekend, but that's ok.

Today I found Fingersmith by Sarah Waters at the thrift shop. I read it back in January and really enjoyed it, so I was very pleased to find a personal copy.

April 16 - from PBS

Screaming mummies of the pharaoh's tomb II
Bud Barkin, Private Eye

Yes I have a weakness for the Bunnicula children's books.

April 17- more from PBS :)

Cosmic Rays
Cosmic Biology
Frontiers of Astrophysics
From Plasma to Planet

April 18- nothing!

April 19- from PBS

Six easy pieces

Message edited by its author, Apr 19, 2007, 1:12pm.

My friend Louise has loaned me The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde - it arrived in the post today. I'll be getting onto this one next after I'm done with Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adixhie... I can hardly wait!

Went to the library today with my son and picked up two books from the Friends of the Library cart:

The Kingdom of the Hittites and Garlic.

My son checked out two Tom Clancy novels. He's reading! Yipeee!

Me Talk Pretty One day and Dress Your Family In Corduroy And Denim both by David Sedaris, and started reading the first one...pretty funny I don't know ti kinda seems like a combination of Chuck Palahniuk's work and Augusten Burroughs

good morning all- today i got the heart shaped box and several others -whose names escape me from the strand bookstore in nyc- the strand is a definite must see for anyone coming to new york city

I got a delivery card today telling me there's a package to pick up at the depot that wouldn't fit through my letterbox. I can only assume it's The Count of Monte Cristo - at almost 900 pages it was NEVER going to get through my tiny letterbox! I'm hoping my lovely hubby will be able to pick it up tomorrow, otherwise I might have to wait till the weekend! :(

The Riddle of the Wren by Charles De Lint, The Memory Keepers Daughter,The Mermaid Chair, The Kitchen Boy, Chrome Circle, and The Lady of the Sorrows

Picked up 5 books at Waldenbooks (Borders) on Friday and another 4 at B&N Sunday (on a "hot" date with my husband). I just got my Borders "Holiday Cash" (getting ready for the change to the Reward program) and the library Friends sale is this weekend ($10/bag on Sunday!) My TBR shelves are GROANING!!!

**edited because I forgot about the 5 books on order from BookCloseouts and the 2 coming in from QPBC. It must be LT's fault!!**

Message edited by its author, Apr 17, 2007, 6:01pm.

Took a walk today and ended up at the used bookstore, imagine that! These followed me home:

Weight Watchers Stir-Fry to Szechuan: 100 Classic Chinese Recipes
Story of the Other Wise Man

I was very happy to find that last book, I read it last year for the first time and it is one of my favorite Christmas stories now.

#96 Meanviv, I really enjoyed Me Talk Pretty One Day too, really funny! I haven't read the other yet, but I hope to do so some time.

Last night, The Sea Lady, a new novel by Margaret Drabble.

For my birthday, my in-laws sent me a $100 gift card to amazon. :-D

These just arrived yesterday.

The LT-inspired:
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
In Gravity National Park: Poems by C. L. Rawlins

Others Including some Florida and Texas classics. Grew up in the former, live in the latter. Now I'm trying to read up on both
The Lives of Rocks : Stories by Rick Bass
The Knock at the Door: A Journey Through the Darkness of the Armenian Genocide by Margaret Ahnert
On Florida
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
The Everglades: River of Grass by by Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Cross Creek by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
On Texas
The Longhorns by J. Frank Dobie

Message edited by its author, Apr 18, 2007, 2:48pm.

I work in a bookstore, and while I already had PLENTY to read, the trade paperback fiction works were just CALLING my name!

and then.... the ARC's (Advanced Readers Copy's) were also so inviting

and then... I had to go to the library to check out hardbacks that I cant afford to buy.... so... here is what I have:

Trade Paperbacks:
Pearl by Mary Gordon
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Solace of Leaving Early by Haven Kimmel
Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts
Three Junes by Julia Glass

Library:
The Whole World Over by Julia Glass
A Brothers Journey by Richard Pelzer
Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky
Love in the Present Tense by Catherine Ryan Hyde
The Ruins of California by Martha Sherrill

ARC's:
Bride Island by Alexandra Enders
The Perfect Man by Naeem Murr
Rant by Chuck Palahniuk

so... I have only finished one of those so far.

I just bought The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood

Message edited by its author, Apr 19, 2007, 10:51am.

Ok, touchstones are taking forever when I edited the last message so I guess I have to do a new one.

April 20- from Bookmooch

Rich dad's guide to becoming rich without cutting up your credit cards
Rich dad's who took my money
Buying real estate foreclosures

April 21- from Bookmooch

After contact: the human response to extraterrestrial life

As well as everything with my box 1 tag (about 78 books). I bought 1000 books on ebay and one of the boxes came today.

April 23- from bookmooch

A day in the life of the soviet union

And 14 more boxes of books.

Message edited by its author, Apr 24, 2007, 1:05pm.

The nice mailman just handed me Red River by Lalita Tademy via Zooba.com. My grandparents lived along the Cane River in Natchitoces parish all my life. I really enjoyed Cane River a couple of years ago so I expect I will like this one as well.

Just bought the following:

Three Novels of Ancient Egypt: Khufu's Wisdom, Rhadopis of Nubia, Thebes at War by Naguib Mahfouz
Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks
Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard by Kiran Desai

Message edited by its author, Apr 22, 2007, 11:04am.

My hubby-imposed book embargo doesn't seem to be working - I came home with four books today:

1) Ben Hur by Lew Wallce (for my Classics Challenge)
2) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (also fo my Classics Challenge and because I have The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde waiting on my shelf and I'd like to "get" the literary references when I read it)
3) The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (this one was waiting at the post office depot for me to pick up and counts toward my Olympic challenge, Classics challenge AND my Chunk challenge, so I'm killing three birds with one stone!)
4) Fluffy by Simone Lia (a graphic novel which my friend, Suzie, has loaned to me as she enjoyed it so much).

JE and BH were both dirt cheap - the former was only £1 and the latter was £2, so they were bargains and I just couldn't bring myself to pass them up! TCoMC was only £3.75 from www.GreenMetropolis.com, so that was a bargain too! What self-respecting bibliophile could have resisted those, eh?

Message edited by its author, Apr 21, 2007, 11:28am.

It was a great day at the Friends of the Library Book Sale ($2/bag)! Hubby, #1 Daughter, and I filled two bags. My take included:

- East of Eden
- Invisible Man
- The Comfort of Strangers, and
- The Way the Crow Flies

I can't seem to get the Touchstones to load ... oh well.

went to borders earlier and bought necklace of kisses and candy by luke davies

Message edited by its author, Apr 21, 2007, 3:08pm.

I was feeling the child today so I picked up Inkheart and Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke.

I have two orders arriving from Amazon next week so why did I stop at Borders? Today:

The Witch Book by Raymond Buckland
No Nature by Gary Snyder
The Book of Chocolate by Carol Tennant and
The New Encyclopedia of American Trees by Tony Russell

Message edited by its author, Apr 21, 2007, 6:10pm.

Friends of the Library book sale--my favorite reason to get up early on a Saturday! This time, it brought me these:

Everyday Life in Ancient Rome
Why New Orleans Matters
Selected Poetry of Ogden Nash
Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon, Selected Poems of Pablo Neruda
A History of the Southern Confederacy
Classic Slave Narratives
In Depth, Essayists for our time

Message edited by its author, Apr 21, 2007, 8:48pm.

#104 I forgot to mention that on the basis of LT recommendations I've also bought Ex Libris:Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman. It had better be good... ;)

Message edited by its author, Apr 21, 2007, 9:12pm.

I'm so jealous -- I really, really want By George.

Everyone seems to be reading (or acquiring) The Raw Sharks Texts. I liked it, but I'm not sure I understood it all. Understood the end, though, so the middle doesn't matter.

I just got Riding Lessons and Flying Changes by Sara Gruen. I have Water for Elephants, but haven't read it yet.

Message edited by its author, Apr 21, 2007, 10:55pm.

Wesley Stace's novel By George is the worst new book I've read this year, so consider yourself lucky, picardyrose, it's a major disappointment. Loved The Raw Shark Texts though..

It was bag sale day at my local library's Friends sale (all the books you can stuff in a grocery sack for $10). Some of the women in my office have adopted a platoon serving in Afganistan, and I went specifically to pick up a bunch of paperbacks to send to the boys. I wasn't going to get anything else; I don't NEED anything else - my TBR pile is pushing 80 books!! Well, I got a bag of books for the boys (Louis L'Amour, Tom Clancy, Ian Fleming, Elmer Kelton, and lots of other westerns, spy novels, and a little hard Sci-Fi). Was I smart enough to leave it at that? NO - of course not. I took that bag to the car and then went back to the sale. I walked out with a number of ARC's (including a copy of Half of a Yellow Sun on the strength of recommendations from LTers), a few sci-fi titles (including some Harry Turtledove titles that I didn't own yet), and some other titles that just sounded fun. (If anyone is interested in the complete list, feel free to check my catalog and sort by date added).

Anyway, I'm hoping this quenches my desire to buy books for QUITE a while. I really do need to whittle down that TBR pile.

**edited to FINALLY fix touchstones**

Message edited by its author, Apr 23, 2007, 5:27pm.

#119 dulcibelle - My local library has similar frequent sales. The books are 25 cents each or a bag for $2.00 (a plastic bag). I can't leave without at least one bag! I purchased 11 books last week and 11 more yesterday. Ten of my books were by Issac Asimov! I already had copies of some of them so I'll pass those on to my son. I buy for everyone! It's impossible to resist.

My wife and I went tothe Houston Public Library book sale on Friday. We came home with:

LT inspired these
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Others
Julie and Julia: by Julie Powers
Stories by Katherine Mansfield
The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel by Amy Hempel
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Colors of the Mountain by Da Chen
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
Blue Shoe by Anne Lamott
The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst
Fortune's Rocks by Anita Shreve
Hotspur by Rita Mae Brown
Old Men at Midnight by Chaim Potok
The Seduction of Place: The History and Future of the City by Joseph Rykwert
Dictionary of the Arts by Chris Murray
The Rothschilds: a Family Portrait by Frederic Morton
Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life by Richard Ben Cramer

The touchstones were going so well...and then they just kind of stopped.

Over the weekend I bought Nineteen Minutes and Plain Truth both by Jodi Picoult and Mockingbird a biography of Harper Lee by Charles J. Shields.

Just got back from a vacation. The Wrong Way Home by Peter Moore was in my mailbox. I ordered it after enjoying his Vroom with a View.

Would someone please take my American Express card away? In today's mail, the first of two orders I placed with Amazon last week:

Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life by Michael Dirda and
Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris

This is an addiction.

Message edited by its author, Apr 23, 2007, 7:13pm.

The Children of Hurin by J. R. R. Tolkien arrived from the UK today. I decided I wanted the UK edition instead of the US one.

Today I took a friend to two bookstores that she had not been to before- I bought
Feed My Dear Dogs by Emma Richler
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen and a new copy of The Diary of Anne Frank

I had one of those "you have a package to pick up" cards when I came home from work yesterday, so I'm hoping hubby will pick it up on his way home today, as I just KNOW it's a book. Don't know which one though - I'm expecting two at the moment:

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy and Daughters of the Doge by Edward Charles (the linky seems to have gone all funny for this one!)

I was in the city over the weekend (I'm from a very small town with no bookstore) and bought the following:

The Freedom Writers Diary by Erin Gruwell (for book club)
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
and Worlds to Explore: Classic Tales of Travel and Adventure from National Geographic

I also just got a package from BookCloseouts.com:
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
The Manticore by Robertson Davies
Disobedience by Jane Hamilton
and The Chocolate Connoisseur

Slow touchstones...

Message edited by its author, Apr 24, 2007, 4:42pm.

April 24- first batch from PBS, second batch from bookmooch

Life, mind and galaxies
The fabric of the heavens
Supernovae and their remnants
Red giants and white dwarfs

Motley Fool's Rule breakers, rule makers
Training your beagle
Jack Russell Terriers
Personal Finance for busy people
Arithmetwists

And the latest bag from the bookstore contains: Endless Things by John Crowley; Brasyl by Ian McDonald, Selected Poems by Carol Ann Duffy, Black Swan Green by David Mitchell and Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot: his Wonderful Love and his Terrible Hatred by Carl-Johan Vallgren.

Not all for me, of course. A few to share with hubby and one that is exclusively his. (touchstones a bit ornery tonight)

To message #126, Water for Elephants was one of the best books I read last year! Great choice!

From the local library book sale ($5 a bag sale), I bought three bags of books (plastic grocery store bags). I believe I managed to cram about 12 to 15 books in each bag for a total of about 40 books. There are too many titles to list here but it runs the gamut from Norman Mailer to Trollope to Stephen King (the complete and uncut version of The Stand), a Jane Austen, The Color Purple and a bunch more. That is just what I can remember off the top of my head. I usually grab a few classics that I have always wanted to read, along with a few authors that I like, books that I have heard of recently and sometimes, I grab a book if there are a lot of copies at the sale - I guess I figure if quite a few people have read it it must be good. Of course, it good be that it is so horrible that no one wants to keep it but I'll have to read it and find out. Of course, I do pick up a few that just catch my eye - either the title or sometimes just the cover. Once I read the description and determine it is something I might like, in the bag it goes.

Of course, I will probably never read all of the books that are now in our house but since our children love to read also, I doubt they will go to waste - someone at sometime should be able to read all of these books. I do donate many of them back to the library once I am finished reading them if I don't think that I will want to read them again or don't want to save them for someone.

Yesterday my mum came to visit, and brought me Born on a blue day, Birdsong, The Birth of Venus, and also brought down my Harry Potter collection for re-read prior to 21/7.

Hurrah for Mummy!

yesterday i received the children of hurin by j.r.r.tolkien- that is on the to be read list for a little while

Not strictly today, but I spent a very satisfying morning browsing books in Camden market at the weekend, ended up buying Aimez Vous Brahms... by Francois Sagain, Prater Violet by Christopher Isherwood & Les Liasons Dangereuses by Laclos which I was very pleased with!

Got the only Diana Wynne-Jones book I never got around to reading The Crown of Dalemark through the post yesterday too (I know... I may be a little bit obsessive about Diana Wyne-Jones, but I was introduced at an early age :) )

A little splurge in the charity shop gave me (all for £6.50!)

Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Hard Times by Charles Dickens
The Anthony Bourdain Omnibus (contains Kitchen Confidential and A Cook's Tour)
Small Island by Andrea Levy

and from Amazon:
The RHS Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers and
1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

I pick up the following from the library today.

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
Audiobook - The Sound and the Fury by William Faulker

Went to buy groceries and got as well Blink by Malcolm Gladwell I heard him speak and have been curious about his books. Also detoured into the remainder book store and found Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie After all the praise by LTers, I put this book on my list to read. I also picked up A Wall of Light by Edeet Ravel. I have read her first two books and this one is the last of the series.

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy arrived, courtesy of a swap with my friend, Louise, from The Boko Club Forum. I also bought A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle when I was grocery shopping tonight. Well, it's was only £2 - how could i possibly resist?

I also ordered thre more books from Green Metropolis this afternoon:

Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre de Laclos
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Lerous
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence

I can hardly wait!

And I came home with three more books today:

A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
Follow Me Down by Julie Hearn

Dale doesn't know yet - I've sneaked them onto the shelves already...

Kell_Smurthwaite - You need to visit the biblioholics room in the Green Dragon pub. You are in denial, saying you can stop anytime, but I see your pain. Sneaking, hiding, the symptoms are all there sister. :D

*I have in my mind you are 'sister' if you are 'brother', I apologize.*

I went to Hargreve's after work today and bought Travels with Myself and Another by Martha Gellhorn. She was Hemingway's 3rd wife. I also bought Jasper Fforde's Something Rotten. I just started The Eyre Affair but bought the fourth book because it was only $3.99 for the hardback! Have a great Day!

Message edited by its author, Apr 28, 2007, 7:43pm.

#142 MrsLee - I am indeed a "sister" and I shall be nipping along to check out the Green Dragon group. I am not in denial at all, however - i know it's a habit that I cannot break. hiding it is another matter - LOL!

Yesterday's gorgeous finds include Pakistan in a Nutshell by Amanda Roraback, Culture of Pakistan compiled by Dr. Laeeq Babree and In Quest of Jinnah - Diary, Notes and Correspondence of Hector Bolitho edited by Sharif al Mujahid, all from Foyle's bookshop, and A Stylistic and Semantic Study of Two Partition Novels by Shakti Batra.

The Regulators by Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King) and Prey by Michael Crichton...gotta love used book sales at the library! I paid $1.75 for two hardcover books in very good condition!

Saturday I received Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith in the mail. I won it in a contest and the author even sent along a personalized, signed bookplate and bookmark. I am very excited about the whole thing!

Saturday I purchased A Death In Belmont & Julia's Chocolates. Hopefully both were worth the money.

My copy of The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux arrived in the post today. Big smiley face when a book arrives!

Today's mail brought Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb. I read and loved it years and years ago, so I'm really looking forward to revisiting it and diving into the rest of the series. I'm going to be so disappointed if it's not as good as I remember!

The postal worker visited my doorstep twice yesterday. His return trip was to deliver The Chimney Sweeper's Boy by Barbara Vine(aka Ruth Rendell.
It is now resting near the top of ye olde TBR pile(s).

Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos arrived in the post today - I'm really looking forward to this one as I've adored bother film versions I've seen!

May 2- from bookmooch

A craving for swan

From Paperbackswap today, 2 more in Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series: Four to Score and High Five.

I bought "The Seven Days of Peter Crumb" after reading a review of it in the Metro. The interviewer really seemed to latch onto the fact that the book & writer Jonny Glynn are based in Hackney- which is where my sister lives. So I bought it to read & then send to her

I just ordered the following from Amazon:

A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth
In the Country of Last Things, by Paul Auster
A Woman in Jerusalem, by A B Yehoshua
Gate of the Sun, by Elias Khoury

Message edited by its author, May 7, 2007, 1:12pm.

#156, I hope you love A Suitable Boy as much as I did -- it's a wonderful book.

Given my by my 94 year old great aunt, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes. I am thrilled. It gives histories and stories of the rhymes, as well as the rhymes themselves.

Arrrrgh! Wrong thread, that's what I get for trying to hurry! Sorry.

Message edited by its author, May 8, 2007, 12:07am.

I went to a library book sale this weekend and found a bunch of good, cheap books. I'm most excited about Dream catcher a biography of J.D. Salinger written by his daughter. It looks really good.

I brought home Loves Music, Loves to Dance by Mary Higgins Clark today.