Sunday, February 5, 2012

Recent Acquisitions

It's already February and I never posted about my holiday acquisitions!  Not only did I receive some nice books for Christmas, I also did a little shopping, both online and in a post-holiday trip to New York.

Here's what was under the Christmas tree:



Two audiobooks:  Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen AND A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin;

Two books I really really wanted:  Life Below Stairs by Sian Evans (to feed my Downton Abbey addiction); and The Earth by Emile Zola. . . . and (drumroll, please. . . )

The Great Penguin Bookchase game!!  I've been coveting this ever since I read about it on Thomas' blog My Porch.  Thanks for telling me about it, Thomas!   I haven't played it yet but I've had a lot of fun putting all the tiny little stickers on the books.

The week after Christmas I took my parents up to my favorite bookstore in the Lone Star State:  Bookpeople in Austin!  We had a lovely day and I bought two more books (for which I paid full price, supporting my local independent bookstore!):


Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin and Summer Will Show by Sylvia Townsend Warner

And a few days after Christmas I took my youngest on a her first-ever girl trip to New York City!!  One of the highlights was visiting Tom, one of my dear friends from college whom I hadn't seen in ages!  We were invited to a book exchange party -- everyone brought their favorite book from 2011 and we all talked about our books and swapped.  My contribution was The Annotated Persuasion by Jane Austen.  Here's what I brought home:


Operation Mincemeat by Ben MacIntyre.   I haven't read much nonfiction lately but I am interested in WWII.  Also, this book is actually related to one of the Persephones I read in 2011, Operation Heartbreak by Duff Cooper.  I don't want to give anything else away but if you plan on reading all the Persephones, don't read this book until you do, because it would give away a major plot point.  That's all I'll say.

But back to the New York trip!  Aside from visiting friends, museums, and the fashion district, we did a little book shopping -- honestly, I can't think of a single trip I've taken in the past few years when I didn't come home with at least one new book!  Naturally, we had to visit The Strand Bookstore in the Village.  I managed to keep my purchases down to only two books from the sale table in the basement:


Two more NYRB Classics to add to my collection (mostly unread!):  Hons and Rebels by Jessica Mitford and My Dog Tulip by J. R. Ackerley.  And to my delight, my daughter bought a new book for the airplane ride home -- one of my all-time favorites, Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones!

On the way back to our hotel, we also stopped by Books of Wonder, the amazing children's bookstore, where I bought two more books:  


The Story of The Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit and a Welsh-language copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone!  This brings my total of foreign language Harry Potters to twelve in all.  

And by the end of the month I had broken down and made two more online purchases:



I had to buy The Last Chronicle of Barset because I finished the third book in the Barsetshire Chronicles, based on my reading of the wonderful Doctor Thorne (most of which I read while flying home from New York, because my flight was delayed).   My library doesn't even own a copy!  The fact that it's almost 900 pages long and there are two more books in between shall be ignored.

Finally, one of my online groups is reading one of the latest Persephones: 


It's Greenbanks by Dorothy Whipple.  I've read two other books by her so far and loved them both.  We shall disregard the fact that there are three more on the TBR shelf unread, right?

Good thing I didn't sign up for the challenge where you don't buy any more books for the first three months of the year.  I would have utterly failed again!

18 comments:

  1. What a wonderful array! I'm always glad to see Trollope on a book list. I've had Operation Mincemeat on my TBR list for a while - I think I even had it out of the library at one point.

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    1. I have so much Trollope on the TBR shelf now, I think he is the author responsible for the most unread books. I lost count at twelve! I hope to read all of his 47 novels eventually so I need to step up the pace! Do you have a favorite Trollope?

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    2. I think you & I are about even in the number of unread Trollopes on the shelves! I'm not sure I could pick just one, but The Last Chronicle is in my top three (with He Knew He Was Right, and Is He Popenjoy?).

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    3. I also have He Knew He Was Right on the TBR shelf -- and I love the title Is He Popenjoy? Trollope has some great titles!

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  2. What a lovely lot of books! The one I noticed especially was Summer Will Show, since I bought it nearly two years ago, and still haven't read it...

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    1. I first saw it at BookPeople about a year ago and regretted not buying it. I also bought a lot of other NYRB Classics at the Borders liquidation. Maybe I should devote a whole month to them . . . or start a readalong month?

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  3. Wonderful acquisitions! I just bought the Tomalin the other day-can't wait to get to it!

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    1. I'm dying to read it but worry about spoilers. There are so many great books about Dickens available now because of his bicentenary. I'm still working on Chuzzlewit so I should finish it first.

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  4. I love seeing others' book purchases - thanks for sharing! I got the Greenbanks from my Persephone secret Santa and am looking forward to reading it soon.

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    1. I look forward to reading your thoughts on Greenbanks. I loved The Priory and Someone at a Distance, can't believe I still have three others unread on the TBR shelf. Maybe I'm just rationing them out?

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  5. What a wonderful haul. I really want to get Greenbanks too. I've only read Doctor Thorne, Hons and Rebels and The Treasure Seekers and I hadn't even heard of the Penguin Bookchase, we have so many games already but it's so tempting!

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    1. I just loved Doctor Thorne! I really want to read Framely Parsonage now but now I'm reading Martin Chuzzlewit and I don't know if I can handle two whopping great Victorians at the same time. I could probably handle another Mitford though.

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  6. Good booking! I've meaning to thank you for your recommendation awhile ago of Zola...I''m really enjoying The Belly of Paris(The Fat and the Thin). Its like traveling back in time, with all the detailed description of the markets, shops, people, etc. Thank you for the *push* to try his work. Susan E

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    1. Susan, I'm glad you like Zola -- I think he's just great. I also belong to an online French lit group in Yahoo groups, we're going to be reading The Kill (Rougon Macquart #2) in April, and I'm really looking forward to it.

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  7. Egads, I have just contracted a severe case of book envy! And the Great Penguin Bookchase game--sounds amazing, must get a copy asap.

    Where to start? Claire Tomalin's Dickens is at the top of my wish list, and Below Stairs is not far below it (that Downton Abbey!). I'm on a WWII kick so Operation Mincemeat is intriguing. I enjoy E. Nesbit's books--although I haven't read any in awhile since my kids are "too old" for them these days.

    And the Trollope...so looking forward to Barchester Towers myself later this year.

    Enjoy your riches!

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    1. Jane -- The Great Penguin Bookchase is now available from the Book Depository.com with FREE SHIPPING!!!

      And Barchester Towers was an absolute delight, can't wait to read more Trollope.

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  8. I too have some serious book envy -- especially the Persephone! Gorgeous!

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  9. I think the Persephones are some of the most beautiful books around. Even though most of mine are still unread, they make the bookcase look beautiful all lined up.

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