I think my Bookmooch slump has passed. It took a little searching around in their database, but I found some really good books to mooch. I've received most of them, but I still have a few in the mail to look forward to receiving. My finds:
Peter Lovesey's Waxwork - I've read and enjoyed him before. This is an earlier book (also a Silver Dagger Award winner), which is a Victorian pastiche. Ruth Rendell is quoted as saying "Quite the best novel of detection I have read for a long time."
The Assistant by Bernard Malamud - I've heard of Malamud, but I had never considered reading his work until reading Dorothy's post.
August Folly by Angela Thirkell - While this is not one of the nice Moyer Bell editions, it seems some of the Bersetshire novels are hard to come by, so I won't complain. I'm hoping to read a few Thirkell novels this year.
Fruitful Bodies by Morag Joss - This is a Sara Selkirk mystery, which is set inBath, England. I've been accumulating her books (both the Sara Selkirk novels as well as some of her stand-alones) for a while, so I really do need to get around to reading her...
The Salt Letters by Christine Balint - I've had this one on my radar for a long time. It is a slim little novel about a young woman's journey from "refined England to the wilds of Australia in 1854". I love books about sea voyages.
C.J. Sansom's Winter in Madrid is a book I received as a review copy. I know one reader who really loved this book and another who didn't, so I will be curious to see how it pans out for me. I love thrillers in general, but I don't read many stories involving espionage. This is set in 1940 in Franco's Spain. I've read that some readers call this one a slow starter, but so far I've found it an absorbing read and I'm nearly 60 pages in. It's a long one, though, over 500 pages, so I'll let you know how it goes.
I've mentioned how much I like Richmal Crompton and that I was hoping to borrow some of her out-of-print works. So far I've managed to get one of the titles I requested from ILL. I've got The Inheritor, which is "a simple tale of village life concerning in particular various branches of the Radlett family." I believe this was her last published book, which was released in 1960.
I am not doing very well with my library's adult Winter reading program. One more day left of January and I've only finished one book so far. Can I read four in Februrary? I seem to be determined to check out as many library books as I can to assure I have good choices in any case. I forgot to add Sarah Rayne's The Death Chamber to my photo, but it is my current library read. It's a nice psychological thriller (with a sub title that reads "There can be a fate worse than death") that looks to be a nice page-turner type read.
I have a disgustingly large pile of library books already, and to them I've also added Bill Bryson's Shakespeare: The World as Stage and Agnes Humbert's Résistance: A Woman's Journal of Struggle and Defiance in Occupied France. I've heard excellent things about both books.
Lots to keep me busy this weekend.