What did YOU buy today? April 2011

I thought I'd be helpful and buy a book for the sole purpose of starting this new thread. *ahem*

Touch for Health by John Thie

I used my Groupon, and got a discount (plus it's for work!) so I don't feel too terribly guilty about buying it.

Jonathan Safran Foers Tree of codes, finally. If you like strange books, get this one!
A new edition of the diary of Russian dancer Nijinski (who gradually grew insane).
7 entertainment magazines from the 60's and 70's in a second hand bookshop, as a birthday present for a friend. I'm adding one of the World War I issues of Punch magazine from my own collection.

Begin rationalization ---

One of my tax refunds was deposited today, so I splurged a bit.

--- End rationalization

I came home with one magazine, two DVDs (one exercise, one TV season), and the following books:

* _Ebelskivers_ by Kevin Crafts (aebleskivers are a Danish dessert that I have made over a woodstove at the living history museum where I work summers; the basic recipe is amazingly good, but these variations look SCRUMPTIOUS!)

* _Vienna Waltz_ by Teresa Grant (who also writes as Tracy Grant -- Daughter of the Game, Beneath a Silent Moon, etc.; this is historical fiction set at the Congress of Vienna)

* Henrietta's War by Joyce Dennys (saw this at a competitor bookstore, then started hearing people talking about it here; I loved the charming Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and it seems like the Juliet Ashton character could've been based on author Joyce Dennys -- an idea, not a verified fact; I can't believe the pages for both novels don't already recommend each other)

Sorry, not having much luck with touchstones today.....

Another little binge on the internet and a parcel has just arrived:

Armistead Maupin-Mary Anne in Autumn The latest installment in The Tales of The City - couldn't not have it!
Val McDermid-Booked for Murder Filling some gaps in the collection.
Golden-Gigolo Time to get the male's perspective of sex work.

Brought home an ARC, with reservations. It's _A Courtesan's Guide to Getting Your Man_ by Celeste Bradley and Susan Donovan.

I usually avoid mistress/courtesan stories (with exceptions for certain authors). But the cover looks like an historical romance and Susan Donovan usually writes contemporary romantic comedy. (Take a Chance on Me is among the funniest romances I've ever read.)

This is a multiple time period novel, with a modern woman finding a courtesan's diary and using it for her own advantage.

I came SO CLOSE to getting out of the bookstore for the week without making a purchase. Then I decided to get a science magazine or two (the "Discover" cover suggests that modern human DNA includes neanderthal and other DNA -- haven't read the article yet).

And since I was going to get out my checkbook for the magazines, I decided to pick up a book I was drooling over from the day it arrived: Sisters of Fortune by Jehanne Wake.

Forget the Gilded Age heiresses going in search of European titles. This is a set of sisters who end up in English Regency society, including one who ends up marrying the Duke of Wellington's older brother.

Note that the UK version subtitle is "The First American Heiresses To Take Europe by Storm," while the US version is "America's Caton Sisters at Home and Abroad."

Today I purchsed two books, Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka (it should be a hoot) and The Worry Box by Marion Halligan, this is a collection of short stories.

Oh, heck. Over the weekend I went into a store to pick up oil for my car and a phone card. I bought both, as well as the following book: _The Bride Raffle_ by Lisa Plumley. It's an historical romance set in the 19th century American West.

The heroine is a "famous home-keeping expert," which is what caught my eye. I'm wondering if the author based the character (very broadly) on Catharine Beecher who, with her more famous sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, wrote American Woman's Home.

This morning I passed my "book store". I do know ALL the staff
and always talk to them.
Hey, I just wanted Milk and some "pussy cat food"
Well they have a $6.00 book sale.
What can I do?
tree and leaf by tolkien not even sure if I will
even read it within the next 6 months. But...

Went to an Author talk and book signing last night - David Herlihy talked extensively about Frank Lenz, the "star" of his latest book "The Lost Cyclist", with accompanying slide show of some of the Lenz's photographs.

Of course, it was mandatory to acquire the book especially as I could have it signed by the author.

I bought my first print-on-demand academic book, it arrived today: Robert Schumann, Hector Berlioz, and their publishers. Going straight to the special Berlioz department in my library :-)

I didn't spend any money. I didn't.

I brought home an ARC by an author I've never read: _The Jefferson Key_ by Steve Berry. I'm a bit intrigued by the mixture of history and contemporary mystery his books seem to include. Hope it's not Brown-esque.

Another ARC: _The Soldier_ by Grace Burrowes (English Regency-era romance; I think it's the second in a series, and I have the first).

And I may have more ARCs tomorrow. I work with someone who was an attendee at the RT conference at the beginning of April. She's bringing in all the ARCs she picked up that she doesn't want. She reads paranormal romance/urban fantasy, so our tastes don't overlap. Yay.

Turns out only a few of the books were ARCs. The rest were free promo copies of titles that have been published in the last year or so.

Here's my haul:
* _The Devil in Disguise_ by Stefanie Sloane

* The Guy Next Door by Lori Foster/Susan Donovan/Victoria Dahl

* The Sweetest Thing by Jill Shalvis

* Memoirs of a Scandalous Red Dress by Elizabeth Boyle

* _Nowhere Near Respectable_ by Mary Jo Putney

* How To Woo a Reluctant Lady by Sabrina Jeffries

and

* _A Woman of Choice_ by Kris Tualla (this one's print-on-demand and from a company I've never heard of; would not normally have picked it up, even for free, except she somehow got a blurb from Diana Gabaldon)

Dang. This time I did spend money....

Picked up:

* _Finding Emilie_ by Laurel Corona (historical fiction about a daughter of Emilie du Chatelet, an amazing 18th century woman; note: the daughter actually died young, but this is her life imagined)

* Henrietta Sees It Through by Joyce Dennys (epistolary novel set during WWII; covers second half of war after Henrietta's War ends)

* It Happened One Season by Stephanie Laurens, Mary Balogh, Jacquie d'Alessandro, and Candice Hern (Avon held a competition for a storyline that four authors could take on to each produce a different story based on the winning storyline; this is the result)

* The Bargain by Mary Jo Putney (historical romance; what if you married a dying Waterloo veteran because you needed to be married but not necessarily to have a husband, and then he didn't die; this is a reprint)

* Notorious Pleasures by Elizabeth Hoyt (historical romance of a woman who falls for her perfect fiance's imperfect brother)

... And did I mention I already have two tomes (big fat history books, so tome is right) picked out to purchase next week? They're both eminently droolworthy titles. My other tax refund should be here by then. I hope.

I did well to-day The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, I think that it is being read by a few of our posters.

Dandelion Soup by Babs Horton, it is set in Ireland, this I like.

Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood, says was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

The Beach House by Jane Green, it is about an eccentric old lady, set in Nantucket.

Selected Short Stories of Bret Harte I am always searching for a good selection of short stories, I think I may have a winner here, it is a very old copy.

Of course all of the above are pre-loved.

I went in town to buy my husband a present for our 36th anniversary (coming up next week) and got inexplicably drawn to Waterstones as well (they have big magnets in the windows, of this I am now certain). Came home with The Trout Opera, Folk Devils and Moral Panics, The Whisperer and The Memory of Love. Not a bad haul and nearly all paid for with Mother's Day tokens. Satisfied sigh.

Two privately published volumes on the history of the Dawkins family in Australia, Ireland & England arrived in the post yesterday. Today, it was a case of the airport bookshop - luckily I picked something with a large number of pages because I am stuck in the lounge having been turned back from our destination...

Christos Tsiolkas - The Slap I have been wanting to read this for a while - this was the winner of a number of awards and is currently in production in Australia as a TV feature series.

Got my state refund and spent some of it on my last purchase of the month:

* Europe Between the Oceans: 9000 BC-AD 1000 by Barry Cunliffe (just came out in paperback)

* The Crimean War: A History by Orlando Figes (difficult to touchstone since the same book has multiple titles; I also own Crimea by Trevor Royle and Eyewitness in the Crimea, edited by Michael Hargreave Mawson; and someday I want to get books by or about Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole)

I also picked up the latest _RT Book Reviews_ and _Psychology Today_ magazines.

Library sale madness. I bought about fifty books! Aaaaargh. Among them the two-volume biography of Sir Walter Scott, The Great Unknown, several books about the history of Antwerp, an 1855 Bible, and more stuff that's still at work because I couldn't move all of it in one go.