I was surprised to see that it is already the 2nd of November and no one had started on the books received this month yet!

Anyhow, I got in In Like Flynn by Rhys Bowen from Owl Books today. I now only need 1 more in the Molly Murphy series to complete it.

My order from Hamilton Books arrived today. It included -
For me:
On Language by Noam Chomsky
Melymbrosia by Virginia Woolf
Finland: The Land of Lakes by Franco Figari
Where Girls Come First: The Rise, Fall, and Surprising Revival of Girls' Schools by Ilana DeBare
Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson

For holiday gifts:
Home Field: 9 Writers at Bat edited by John Douglas Mashall
Pride of October: What It Was to Be Young and a Yankee by Bill Madden
3 copies of Punch Out the President (and Pals)! A Paper Doll Book Starring W. and Friends
And another copy of Finland: The Land of Lakes

I received "The Mephisto Club" by Tess Gerritsen in paperback today.

Came home tonight to an amazon package with Immanuel Kant's Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone. And in the same package, the first season of 21 Jump Street. My tastes are varied to say the least :)

Picked up Killer Dolphin by Ngaio Marsh over at Dollar General tonight for, you guessed it, $1.00. What a deal!

Went to the library and got...

Peeps by Scott Westerfeld
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Looking for Alaska by John Green

Already read Uglies but my sister wanted it for an English assignment.

I had to go to a meeting at Barnes & Noble at 7:30 AM this morning (BOO!) but we got a bunch of free books (yay!)
Look Me In The Eye: My Life With Asperger's (advance reader's copy)
Bridge Of Sighs
People Of the Book (advance readers copy)
Super Crunchers (advance readers copy)

*touchstones are wonky

I'm going back to sleep now, until work.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. I heard it's good.

I started off the month taking advantage of a 3 for 2 deal. I bought Mustn't Grumble by Joe Bennett for Mum for Xmas and for myself Atonement by Ian McEwan and The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.

Well, kinda late last night I posted a rambling message in October's thread about Laurel Ulrich's Good Wives. Though I technically got it last month (Tuesday), I got it in Austin and only just got home this evening, so I suppose I could also say it came into my home this month as well.

My Early Reviewer book, Nearly Human came while I was gone. No clear idea of which side of Wednesday, though.

Found a copy of All the King's Men for $1.50 at the Friends of the Library this morning. It's a book I've been looking at lovingly since the 60s but never read. (Did I just date myself a little?)

An order from Behavioral Science Book Service arrived:
Why Mothers Kill by Geoffrey R. McKee
The Great Ideas of Clinical Science: 17 Principles That Every Mental Health Professional Should Understand by Scott O. Lilienfeld
Extraordinary Knowing: Science, Skepticism, and the Inexplicable Powers of the Human Mind by Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer

Couple days ago from amazon:
Madness, Malingering & Malfeasance: The Transformation of Psychiatry and the Law in the Civil War by Gregory Lande.

You're probably thinking, "this woman sure buys boring/weird stuff." But, hey, it's my job, and in addition I actually LOVE this type of reading.

The game night I went to last night was at the home of one of the members of the poetry group I go to on Sunday mornings, and he gave me a couple of books of their poetry that they've published in years past. This should be interesting.

I got the following books on sale:

Middle Age: A Romance, by Joyce Carol Oates
Dracula In London, edited by P. N. Elrod

The Child in Time by Ian McEwan
The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswani
Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I read it years ago and loved it, but remember almost nothing of the story.

From the library:
Amphigorey too by Edward Gorey
When the Rivers Run Dry by Fred Pearce

And from a yard sale for 5 bucks total:

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
Sabine's Notebook by Nick Bantock
The Golden Mean by Nick Bantock

Really wonky touchstones.

From PBS:

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

From BookMooch:

Life Types by Sandra Krebs Hirsh & Jean Kummerow

Gotta love the swapping...

Bought:

The Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great, by Andrew Chugg
Children of the Gilded Era, by Barbara Dayer Gallati

From the library:

The Uncommon Reader, by Alan Bennett
The Case of the Missing Books, by Ian Sansom

OK, this is ridiculous

The Complete Sherlock Holmes
Harry Potter 6
Harry Potter and the deathly hallows

I know how they end, because I'm weird, but I still need to read them. Viva employee discount!

Birthday gifts!

Codex by Lev Grossman, The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin, and The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War by David Halberstam. There are 82 copies of the Halberstam book in LT but the touchstone isn't working.

Message edited by its author, Nov 7, 2007, 2:38am.

From BookMooch:

Kalimantaan by C. S. Godshalk

The mailman brought a windfall of PBS reasures today:

The Underpainter by Jane Urguhart
The Constant Nymph by Margaret Kennedy
East Lynne by Mrs. Henry Wood

Plus one from Amazon:

The Gathering by Anne Enright. (Wow, the Booker winner doesn't have a touchstone?)

Went to the bookstore and made it out with only one book and two magazines. Oh, the self-control!

Picked up A World on Fire: A Heretic, An Aristocrat, and the Race to Discover Oxygen and the latest issues of Cloth, Paper, Scissors and Somerset Studio.

Message edited by its author, Nov 5, 2007, 7:45pm.

I got The Tavern in the Morning by Alys Clare.

Mooched:

The Patron Saint of Red Chevys by Kay Sloan

Booked to Die by John Dunning

Time Release by Martin J. Smith

Bookmooch and PBS were supposed to reduce the number of books in my house! Not so much.

Edited to Add: Holy moly all of the touchstones loaded for the first time in a long time.

Message edited by its author, Nov 5, 2007, 9:25pm.

Recently bought:-

Mister B Gone by Clive Barker
20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch
Steve & Me by Terri Irwin
Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire
The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas

I had a bit of a book-buying spree while I was away, leading to:
The Royal Ghosts by Samrat Upadhyay because I really enjoyed his The Guru of Love
The Tutor of History by Manjushree Thapa for some variety in my Nepali writers
In a Free State by V.S. Naipaul
Siddharta by Hermann Hesse
Forget Kathmandu by Manjushree Thapa, a history of Nepal
Gone with the Wind, a really cheap and nasty Indian edition...

I was given How to talk to a widower on the plane, which kept me going, then the same person provided me with Carry me down when she'd finished it.

Got home to discover Sarraounia by Mamani Abdoulaye, which is exciting because it's Nigerien! Unfortunately it's in French, but I'll attempt to muddle through anyway...
And from bookmooch: Mrs Dalloway and The Hours, which I'm looking forward to as a combination and A Bend in the River because I'm apparently on a V.S. Naipaul thing. And the TBR pile expands once again...

I picked up Volumes 5 and 6 of the Sensual Phrase manga series which I had ordered from my local indie bookstore yesterday.

I downloaded the Folk Ballad Collection 001 form LibriVox the other night (here's the link to its page there).

I'm not sure what, if anything, I should put in as the author, though.

From the library tonight:

Crow Lake by Mary Lawson

Then She Found Me by Elinor Lipman which has been on my TBR list forever

The Kite Runner by Khalad Hosseini - no idea why the touchstones are not working for this

The Secret Books of Paradys 1 & 2 by Tanith Lee

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson which I have heard very good things about here on Library Thing

Sorry the touchstones are so wonky!

I just bought Saints Behaving Badly but haven't started it yet. I also just bought and started The Lost Daughters of China

Courtesy of fellow BookMoochers: three by Lawrence Block

The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart
The Burglar in the Library
The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian

I got three in the mail last night:
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Skystone by Jack Whyte
Wicked:the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

Received in my package from Amazon the following:-

Freak the Mightyby Rodman Philbrick
The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright
The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
Sepulchre by Kate Mosse

It's a J.D. Robb kind of day at my house. Received from Amazon Creation in Death and Dead of Night, an anthology containing one of the 'In Death' stories.

From a cheap book sale at the thrift store (I couldn't believe that the copies were so nice):

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (I was actually on my way to the library to pick up a copy of this)

also, Crossing the Threshold of Hope by Pope John Paul II and Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson.

All in all...less than $10.

A PBS bonanza was waiting in my mailbox:

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
A Simple Story by Elizabeth Inchbald
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris

Linaldawen, I'm afraid I wasn't the audience Lewis was aiming for with The Screwtape Letters. I loved the humor, but the message passed me by. ;)

Picked up 4 more off hold at the local library: Day of Atonement and False Prophet by Faye Kellerman, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks and Power to the People by Laura Ingraham. What can I say? I have eclectic tastes!

Received through the post today:-

Living in Little Rock with Miss Little Rock by Jack Butler

>40...I got a lot out of it when I read it. ;-) I guess it just depends on your approach.

from the library...

Watchmen by Alan Moore
Specials by Scott Westerfeld

Now to go put more books on hold so that I may one day reach the top of the hill that is my TBR list

Lawrence Block's The Burglar in the closet, via a Bookmoocher in Germany.

Only one left to get -- The Burglar in the rye!

From Bookmooch/PBS:

I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie by Roger Ebert
Please Understand Me

My cousin must be cleaning out the bedroom of her off-to-college child. An unexpected package from her in the mail... Honest Pretzels by Mollie Katzen.

Went shopping today and came back with:-
The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart
Small Island by Andrea Levy
And Another Thing by Jeremy Clarkson
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Stardust by Neil Gaiman

May tbr pile grows forever higher.

My copy of Philosophy and Democracy, ed. by Thomas Christiano just came from Amazon. :D

Cindie by Jean DeVanney.

Went to a Building Peace women's conference today and came home with:

All Her Paths are Peace: Women Pioneers in Peacemaking by Michael Henderson
Courageous Resistance : The Power of Ordinary People by Kristina A.Thalhammer, Sharon Toffey Shepela et al.
Cinderella or Cyberella? : Empowering Women in the Knowledge Society by Nancy J. Hafkin and Sophia Huyer
Women and the Politics of Place by Wendy Harcourt and Arturo Escobar
There are Realistic Alternatives by Gene Sharp
Policy, Politics & Gender : Women Gaining Ground by Kathleen Staudt
Elise Boulding : A Life in the Cause of Peace by Mary Lee Morrison.

Message edited by its author, Nov 10, 2007, 5:12pm.

I was seduced. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! B&N emailed me a 25% off sticker and used it to pick up The Street of a Thousand Blossoms this morning. Also picked up two Japanese Woodblock calendars. Obviously, my theme this morning was Japanese literature and art.

I went absolutely crazy in the last two days. All from second hand shops or thrift stores:
Swiss Family Robinson Dr. Jekyll & Mr Hyde Travels with my Aunt The New York Trilogy A Bend in the River The Talented Mr. Ripley Nightwood The Sea The Shadow of the Wind English Music by Peter Ackroyd Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer Gods and Monsters by Christopher Bram Name of the Rose Fringe of Leaves by Patrick White Blindness by Saramago A Passage to India The Royal Physician's Visit by Per Olav Enquist Generation X by Doug Coupland Mason & Dixon Robertson Davies' Cunning Man Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing Kim and Like Water for Chocolate.

I think I'd better go read!

Oops, messed that up. Hard return after each link I assume?

Never Mind!!!

It's not really a book per se, but I bought it at a bookstore and it comes up in Amazon books: Alphonse Mucha 2008 Calendar. The touchstone isn't loading but that doesn't prevent me from giving you a link.

k, it was actually yesterday, but i came home with: Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Here Comes the Sun and Odds and Gods by Tom Holt

I've just read Eric Clapton's autobiography Clapton and, (I started this afternoon, and give me another hour to finish it; it's of near-water density), Patti Boyd/Harrison/Clapton's Wonderful Tonight.

Clapton is on the top 10 of the Publisher's Weekly chart. I don't know how Patti's is doing. The near- simultaneous release dates is surely no coincidence and invites comparison.

For me, such a celebrity autobiography is most valuable when it preserves the known voice tones of a public figure, the style you might be familiar with in candid interviews.

I want to hear their voice in my head when I read their words. BB King's autobiography from back in the 90s did a good job of that. Both books do the trick, Eric's being perhaps more articulate, but Patti's being most forthright emotionally.

Eric's is perhaps most like Real writing. Patti's is the more non-linear and emotionally impressionistic. I want to say her editor/co-writer could have checked out certain background facts as far as chronology, and easily nailed a few anachronisms.

But the fact that she lived through such interesting times and has not so much to say on, or is not consciously concerned with, such data specifics of obvious interest to Beatle historians is part of her charm. Her account of the purchase and restoration of Harrison's Friar Park estate is alone worth the reading.

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer. On sale at Target.

My purchases from ebay arrived today:-
Tokyo Year Zero by David Pearce
The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald
The Stories of Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
The Journal of Dora Damage by Belinda Starling

#44 I love Watchmen! Such a brilliant book! I really hope you like it.

I have had 3 books from Aqueduct Press over the past few days, all part of the same series by L. Timmel Duchamp:

Alanya to Alanya
Renegade
Tsunami

I can't wait to get started on them The next volume's out in January, so I guess I'll need to read these quickly to catch up!

I'm also expecting to receive Cousin Rosamund by Rebecca West from Amazon and 5 books from bookmooch.

November is going to be a great book month!

The Seventh Sexton Blake Omnibus , published by Howard Baker Books in the `60s - a birthday present from my wife. This volume contains two titles, The Case of The Bismarck Papers by Pierre Quiroule and The sniper by Richard Williams.

I wanted this volume particularly for the Quiroule (real name W W Sayer) story - I like this so much I`ve already worn out two paperback editions.

Richard Williams was a pen-name shared by a number of writers, one being Hank Jansen. I can`t recall which of them wrote The Sniper - but can find out easily if anyone wants to know.

Also, a book I bought myself - Murder in the Air by John Hunter. I like this so much I`ve put the cover on my profile page.

So far in November I have received Mooches
Fatherland, by Robert Harris- I want to read this as I went to Berlin in October :)
And Endless Night by Agatha Christie

Yet another book delivered today:-
Out of Africa by Karen Blixen

Just in from the treasure house (aka the public library):

A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham

Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman

The Book Thief and I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

Three Soldiers by John Dos Passos

How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

When Titans Clashed by David M. Glantz and Jonathan House

Deep Water, Ancient Ships by Willard Bascom

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Fatal Justice by Jerry Allen Potter and Fred Bost

First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde

Snagged by Carol Higgins Clark

The 900 Days by Harrison Salisbury

These ought to keep me busy for a day or two!!

I picked up Midnight Whispers by V C Andrews, The Once and Future King by T H White, Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, and Crooked House by Agatha Christie today at the paperback swap at the library.

The library provided me with Chinese for Dummies , The Red Shoe by Ursula Dubosarsky and The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde.

Sounds like library day. Today, from said sanctified halls, I brought home Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson.

Apparently, LT touchstones don't like most authors anymore.

From a contest at Harcourt I had forgotten about entering:

The Spanish Bow by Andromeda Romano-Lax

I think more of my days should begin with surprise free books.

Message edited by its author, Nov 14, 2007, 2:25am.

Yesterday I received Mooch Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kastner- another Berlin-based Mooch.

It really felt like I was Mooching a piece of the donor's childhood!

#68 Judylou - I'm a huge fan of Jasper Fforde and The Eyre Affair is brilliant, hope you enjoy it.
Only 1 book came into my home today, purchase from ebay:-

Where Angels Fear to Tread - E.M. Forster

From BookMooch and PBS:

Dear Catastrophe Waitress by Brendan Halpin

Maisie Dobbs & Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear

Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright

The bottom two are LT recommendations.

touchstones still nutty

Mr. Pip by Lloyd Jones arrived from Ontario for an LT book share.

From Abebooks I received Women In Pants, by Catherine Smith and Cynthia Greig. The photos are just wonderful!

We got some fun ones today:

The Daring Book for Girls
The Encyclopedia of Immaturity from Klutz press
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
Murder on the Orient Express and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

Sorry, touchstones weren't all working at the time of posting.

From the library, The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, Hooked by G. Bruce Knecht, Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr, and Small Town by Lawrence Block.

From bookmooch: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress for the Reading Globally group read.

Why is EVERYBODY on otherwise wonderful LibraryThing so negative and unsubtle?

Because it's winter?

#79: What else is your comment but negative and unsubtle? LOL.

From an online order: Sorrows of Stephen by Peter Parnell

>79 Have no idea what you're referring to.

Today I brought home:
The Complete Writings of Emily Carr;
Volumes 4 and 5 of the six volume Griffin and Sabine series - The Gryphon and Alexandria by Nick Bantock - this completes my set!
Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose.

From the library: Evan Can Wait by Rhys Bowen and from WalMart: Jane's Warlord by Angela Knight

#78 LizT - Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a beautifully written story, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

3 books came into my home today:-
Cancer Ward by Aleksandri Solzhenitsyn
The Complete Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm
Tithe by Holly Black

I just bought How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead by Ariel Gore, which I'm pretty sure is more humour than how-to, but there are probably helpful hints in there as well.

Picked up a couple from the library yesterday:

Rational Choice and Democratic Deliberation: A Theory of Discourse Failure by Guido Pincione and Fernando Teson

and

The Rule of the Many by Thomas Christiano

In today from ABEBooks.com: Tatiana and Alexander by Paulina Simons. I am really looking forward to reading this followup to The Bronze Horseman!

Besides two Dexter books I have to finish soon, I just got from the library The Bad Girl, Little Children, and Bait and Switch. I hope to have them done the weekend of Thanksgiving.

I was very excited to receive the following books yesterday, from an online seller:

Flights: Extreme Visions of Fantasy, edited by Al Sarrantonio
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Ninth Annual Collection, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

I picked The Chatter of the Maidens by Alys Clare.

My purchases today were:-
Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett
Paula Spencer by Roddy Doyle
Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Pope Joan by Donna Woolford Cross.

Just received in the mail Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland

Almost done downloading Jane Austen's Mansfield Park from LibriVox. Forty-two chapters done already and six more to go. It's available here.

(Man, do I have to start listening to some of my LibriVox downloads!)

Message edited by its author, Nov 17, 2007, 10:33pm.

I've never seen that LibriVox site, thank you so much for that link, AC!

You're welcome!

Since the start of November I've picked up Moby-Dick by Herman Mellville, Star Wars: Republic Commando: True Colors and Matriarch both by Karen Traviss, Apocalypse 2012: A Scientific Investigation Into Civilization's End by Lawrence E. Joseph, Wizard's First Rule, Stone of Tears, and Blood of the Fold all by Terry Goodkind.

Message edited by its author, Nov 21, 2007, 11:44pm.

Mody-Dick? ;)

That's the little-known sequel. Unlike its more famous predecessor, it takes place on land and is only 215 pages long.

My library haul from the weekend:

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Growing Pains : the Autobiography of Emily Carr
The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland (historical fiction based on Emily Carr).

Can you tell I'm on an Emily Carr binge??

On Friday I received an Amazon order in the mail I had made a couple months ago. In that were:

After School Nightmare Volume 5 by Setona Mizushiro (manga)

Winds of Change by Lee Rowan

The Leopard Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt

I was actually surprised it came in early since the manga was a pre-order not due out until December.

It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff by Peter Walsh

Yes, I do watch Oprah. No, I am not a hoarder. And I don't want to become one either!

Arriving early this morning from Amazon:

Glory in Death by J.D. Robb

Word Painting by Rebecca McClanahan

Deviations: Submission by Chris Owen & Jodi Payne

Deviations: Domination by Chris Owen & Jodi Payne

Deviations: Discipline by Chris Owen & Jodi Payne

One from Bookmooch: The Burglar in the Rye by Lawrence Block, the one missing Bernie Rhodenbarr book from my collection.

One from the blog world: Declan Burke offered a few free copies of The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo from his publisher, and Random House sent me one.

None of the touchstones are working, blast it.

One from PBS: Midnight at the Dragon Cafe by Judy Fong Bates.

Library day at my house, so I came home with a bunch of treasures:

Skull Session by Daniel Hecht

Sin in the Second City by Karen Abbott

A Ship of the Line by C.S. Forester

Kiln People by David Brin

The Bielski Brothers by Peter Duffy

Loud and Clear by Anna Quindlen

Red Leaves by Paullina Simons

At Some Disputed Barricade by Anne Perry

Beyond Reach by Karin Slaughter

Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell

The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland

Ought to keep me busy for a minute or two!

Two more from PBS, both by Elizabeth Taylor: The Soul of Kindness and In a Summer Season.

A bounty from a friend at work:

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Three Junes by Julia Glass
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
The Shadow of the Wind byCarlos Ruiz Zafon

Robert Hass, Time and Materials

Heard him read last night in Berzercley

I got the following from the library book sale:

The Shining by Stephen King
2001: A Space Odessey by Arthur C. Clarke
In the Dark of the Night by John Saul (wrong touchstone)
and a collection of Edgar Allen Poe stories

Message edited by its author, Nov 25, 2007, 1:04pm.

Oooh The Shining! Brill that one.
I got The Scientific Life by John Baker and a bunch of biographies today.

My order from BookCloseouts.com arrived today!

Hotel World by Ali Smith
The Whole Story and Other Stories by Ali Smith
What Are You Like? by Anne Enright
Darcy's Story by Janet Aylmer
The Exiled by Posie Graeme-Evans
The Beloved by Posie Graeme-Evans
Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran
A Cook's Tour by Anthony Bourdain
A Star Called Henry by Roddy Doyle

I'm excited about this one - The Seven Daughters of Eve by Bryan Sykes came via BookMooch yesterday.

the Mystery of the Mad Millionaires by Walter Tyrer.

I am a bit of a Walter fan, but it would be worth having for the title in any case.

As and when I get time to read it, I`ll post a review, but on current showing, have no idea when that will be !

#113 - Brill?! (Dictionary.com says it is a flatfish. What's a flatfish, and what does it have to do with any book?)

I recently got 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die and today I bought a few recommended by Boxall et al. The Bell by Iris Murdoch, If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino, and Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson all came from the used bookstore. All looked interesting enough in the book that they caught my eye while browsing.

Message edited by its author, Nov 21, 2007, 2:50pm.

>117: Brilliant maybe? Don't take my word for it though, my English slang knowledge isn't that great (apart from the dirty words...)

Ghost Brigades. I've read Old Man's War and I read Scalzi's blog, so...

Payday so I stopped at HPB and picked up:

The Soul of Christianity by Huston Smith, The Idiot Girls Action-Adventure Club by Laurie Notaro, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler and Break No Bones by Kathy Reichs

Only one of five author touchstoned successfully

More from the library:

How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead: Your Words in Print and Your Name in Lights by Ariel Gore

Amphigorey Also by Edward Gorey.

Hmm, bit of a gore theme going here....

teelgee, great minds! (see #86)

How did you like it, studio1? She lives in my town (Portland, OR).

#99; AnnaClaire
Hey, it touchstoned. D or B, they look the same to me.

In from the library: Traveling with the Dead by Barbara Hambly

In from Overstock.com: Storm Front by Jim Butcher

On sale at B&N

Mere Christianity and the reluctant fundamentalist

Journey to the West Vol. 1 arrived this morning, a classic Chinese literature recommendation from a friend. We shall see how it goes!

#123 - teelgee, I like what I've read so far. I'm not reading it straight through, just dipping into it every so often. I like the tone very much though, other books on writing that I've read tend to be a) dry, or b) so, so earnest.

For a grand total of 75 cents, I came home with the following books today:

The Nurnberg Stove and Other Stories published in 1924
Merry Animal Tales: A book of Old Fables in New Dresses published in 1918
The Yale Shakespeare: The Tragedy of Othello and The Moor of Venice published in 1947

Merry Animal Tales is an early reader with "teacher suggestions" in the back!

**touchstones not working properly**

I am reading the complete edition of Hemingway short stories from cover to cover. As we read each story we are commenting on them. The last one I read was Alpine Idyll.

I didn't buy these my DBF did but they are still in our house! (And I will probably re-read them) David Eddings's Belgariad series:

Pawn of Prophesy
Queen of Sorcery
Magicians Gambit
Castle of Wizardry
Enchanters End Game

I had a library orgy today and came home with more books than I could hold:
Scandals, Vandals & Da Vincis: A Gallery of Remarkable Art Tales, by Harvey Rachlin
'Tis by Frank McCourt
Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon
Napoleon's Pyramids, by William Dietrich
Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter
The Thin Man by Dasheill Hammett
Sin in the Second City by Karen Abbott

Another orgy of books mooched and waiting for me when I came home today:

Storm Front: Book One of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
Knit One, Kill Two by Maggie Sefton
The God Project by John Saul
The Morgaine Saga by CJ Cherryh
and
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Just got back from the post office where I had waiting for me The Faithful Dead, A Dark Night Hidden, and Whiter Than the Lily, all by Alys Clare.

I picked up Bryan Sykes' Saxons, Vikings, and Celts. I found it in the history section, though the back of the book says "SCIENCE/GENETICS."

I picked up Volume 12 of From Far Away yesterday which I had ordered from the indie store near where I work.

Went to the library and got...:

Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk
Youth by J.M. Coetzee
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

The Case of the Pin-Up Girl by Walter Tyrer

*does a cartwheel*

After months of patiently waiting, searching, investigating... I *finally* happened upon a copy of Godel, Escher, Bach at the HPB near my house today. Practically jumped right off the shelf at me. Yippee!

through amazon i got home to holly springs by jan karon and the latest oprah selection the pillars of the earth by ken follett

Via PBS:

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon - Lots of people love this, but I'm afraid I won't. Remains to be seen...

Life Lines by Forrest Church

#141, I have read all of Jan Karon books and can't wait to get the new one. If only life was as simple as her books make it to be!

From PBS, two Viragos:

Rhapsody by Dorothy Edwards
The Ante-Room by Kate O'Brien

And:

Rebecca's Tale by Sally Beauman

From Powells City of Books, where I wandered on my lunch break: Anna Karenina, translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky.

I bought a copy of Gone with the Wind today that wasn't published by some dubious company that evidently had OCRed the whole text and not proofread it....!

Strolled through BJs today and came away with World Without End by Ken Follett. Also picked up Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. I also bought several children's books at Barnes and Noble for my grand-daughter: Books 1 to 4 of The Magic Treehouse series. I was going to by the new sequel, Rhett Butler's People but I had to draw the purse closed at some point. It will wait until next week.

I was looking for the annual Christmas appointment calendar gift for Mom at Borders and noticed Blood Brothers by Nora Roberts in the "new" rack at the front of the store, so I picked that up.

I didn't like the calendar selection, so I'm gonna try B&N next.

Touchstones appear to be iffy.

Message edited by its author, Nov 27, 2007, 7:37pm.

I brought home a lovely illustrated hardcover version of A Christmas Carol, a new Christmas picture book called Shall I Knit You a Hat? by Kate Klise, and a non-fiction book: High School Confidential by Jeremy Iversen that I'm almost afraid to begin...

I've requested about half a dozen books for Christmas from family so I'm hoping that I'll soon have a nice new stack of TBRs!

The Third Secret by Steve Berry and The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle.

I just finished reading and reviewing The Cortisol Connectionby Shawn Talbot

I am finding it harder to find reading time with all of the post and pre- holiday runaround, but I do sneak some time in most days.

Today I bought Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl because I want it as a reference for a paper I'm writing and all three university copies and both public library copies are checked out. (Wow, what a popular book!). Good thing it was less than $7.

While at the book store, I also picked up an edition that includes both The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, by Nancy Mitford, which I hear will be uplifting after all the heavy reading I've done.

Received from Amazon today: HeartSick by Chelsea Cain and
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

From the public library:

The Wrong Man by John Katzenbach

Yay for bookmooch, for I have my first ever Thomas Pynchon! The Crying of Lot 49 has just arrived through my door :-)

a shortcut in time by Charles Dickenson arrived.. used from a seller on Amazon.

I just put aside The Third Secret by Steve Berry because once begun I realized that I had read it before..... boo hoo! Has that ever happened to you?

#154 mckait: Ha! That just happened to me last week - I picked up Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore, got about halfway through it, then realized I had read it before. My memory is so terrible, though, that I couldn't remember how it ended, and it's such a great and funny book anyway, so I finished it. Again.

Today I picked up:
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
A house for Mr Biswas by V. S. Naipaul
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
The Loudest Sound and Nothing by Clare Wigfall

Since I last checked the message board, I received Seabiscuit via Bookmooch.

Edited to add: The delay was caused by a yarn sale (I'm a sucker for good cheap yarn) and a knitting circle meeting.

Message edited by its author, Nov 29, 2007, 10:59pm.

Marriage and The Squire.

Both touchstones are wrong.

I bought Oryx and Crake. I am reading The Handmaid's Tale & am so in love with it & broken hearted over it, that I just had to grab something else by Atwood.

I got the following the other weekend, during Neil Gaiman's visit to the Philippines:

Beowulf: The Script Book by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary (signed)
Expeditions: Prose Fiction, foreword by Neil Gaiman (signed)
Expeditions: Comics, foreword by Neil Gaiman

Message edited by its author, Dec 4, 2007, 10:08am.

>160 did Neil Gaiman do the screenplay for Beowulf? I had no idea...

#161: philosojerk

Yes, he did! It was co-written with Roger Avary.

For $15 at the local used book store:

The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton
A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
Faith and Culture by Christopher Dawson

Try this too, you will love it "Lovely Poems for Keeps".

Nice Work!! Merry Xmas...