Actually I am not entirely sure, but I can tell you that they felt like they weighed a ton on my walk home from the library last night. Yes, I dragged all six home from the library--walking! I just tried to think of them as free weights and what an extra good workout I was getting! It's my own fault. This is what happens when you're bored and look through the 'new books' lists in the online library catalog. And of course everyone knows they all show up at once on the holds shelf! Now the next trick--which ones will I be able to read before they are due back? By the way--I used to be able to renew a book that no one else was waiting for right away. A three week check out could turn into a six week check out right from the get go. Well, the library has wised up, I guess. Now you can renew, but the renewal is not tacked on after the initial check out. No. Now you get three more weeks from the time you renew--meaning it is best to wait until you are close to the due date so you can get maximum check out time. So much for working the system. I was quite good at juggling books. Anyway, the books, from top to bottom, left to right:
Sheer Abandon by Penny Vincenzi. I loved her Lytton family books, and am happy to see more is being published by her on this side of the Atlantic finally. This is a story that has been done before--three young women meet, one has abandoned her baby. Said baby grows up and looks for her mother--which woman is it? If I can renew this one a few times it may just have a chance of being read (its on the long side). It looks like the perfect summer beach book.
The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay. A coworker is reading this at the moment. She told me it makes her want to reread Melville's Moby Dick and Shakespeare's The Tempest. I think she is enjoying it, but the verdict is still out. I was tempted to buy it--it looks like a book lovers sort of book (the protagonist works in a bookstore much like NYC's The Strand), but wasn't sure if it was too good to be true. Has anyone read this one yet? Good, bad, indifferent?
City of Laughter: Sex and Satire in Eighteenth-Century London by Vic Gatrell. I'm not entirely sure what possessed me to request this one. I was bored at the time and lots of books looked intriguing. A warning if this one looks good to you--it literally must weigh ten pounds. Well, five at least. No, maybe ten. It feels heavier than my cats!! It is filled with lots of illustrations of 18th-century prints. I will probably just skim this one and look at the pictures. Very highbrow of me, eh (but then considering the subject matter...).
Imposture by Benjamin Markovits. This one looks like fun. A young woman (sheltered, bookish and passionate apparently) meets Lord Byron outside his publisher and arranges to meet him in secret. Or was it him? Could it have been a look--like? Perhaps John Polidori who once toured Europe with Byron as his doctor? One of the blurbs said it was "a delicious novel that lingers in memory."
Agatha Christie: A Reader's Companion by Vanessa Wagstaff. Another book I won't be reading as it is more of a reference book. It is chock full of photos of Christie and her books. I haven't read much of her work, but this should be a good introduction! Another one with interesting and entertaining illustrations.
The Dowry: A Novel of Ireland by Walter Keady. Some years ago I read Keady's Mary McGreevy and recollect enjoying it. I saw someone called this a "charming Celtic comedy of manners", so I had to get it. This looks like quite a promising read!
So now I need to be creative about which ones get read first (or at all). This is the sort of thing that messes up my reading plans.