I had planned to only pick up two books at the library yesterday, but I managed to find a few other titles as well...My selections: Metropolis by Elizabeth Gaffney (I read an interview with the author and this sounded interesting), Eight of Swords by David Skibbins (A few bloggers have mentioned this one, and it sounds intriguing--not the usual sort of mystery I read, but I am willing to try something different), Madeleine is Sleeping by Sarah Shun Lien Bynam (the cover caught my eye--looks like a really unusual story, too), The Marriage Bed by Regina McBride (I have read an earlier novel by her that was very good, so I thought I would pick up her newer one--her novels are set in Ireland), and finally Tuscany for Beginners by Imogen Edwards-Jones (looks like beach reading, but it is set in Italy, so that was the selling point for me!).
My library pile is getting rather large, so I think I need to stay away for a couple of weeks until I make my way through a few of these! At least I am being good and not spending money. Libraries are such a great thing!! At the moment I am reading another library find, Baker Towers by Jennifer Haigh. It is very good--I recommend this one. It is a family saga set in post -WWII Pennsylvania. The author won the Pen/Hemingway Award for an earlier novel. She is a good writer and it is a very absorbing story about a family with five children living in a mining town. I am also nearly finished with Case Histories by Kate Atkinson, which I have mentioned before. I would love to finish these two over the rest of my long weekend. I have decided that I must finish two books before I can start a new one (to try and pare down my 'current reads' stack)!! So the next in the queue to be read is Sudden Rain by Maritta Wolfe. The author, who died in 2002, kept this novel in her refrigerator for the last 30 years of her life! Apparently she started publishing at the age of 22. Her first six books were bestsellers (I believe the first won and award in 1941). Quirky, eh? According to Booklist, "the novel tracks five disaffected couples, ranging in age from their early twenties to their late sixties, over the course of one weekend. The novel works as a meticulously detailed portrait of a certain time and place, anticipating a whole host of social trends, including the skyrocketing divorce rate, the ecology movement, and women's liberation." Another interesting one...