It's time once again for my public library's Winter Reading Club. I started participating in this program a few years back and have gotten several coffee mugs and bookbags to show for my efforts. I don't really care about the prize at the end (though you really never can have enough bookbags), but it's nice to support the library and get back into the swing of things in the new year. I'm a pretty good library user year round, but at the end of each year I tend to return all my library books in order to catch up on reading my own books.
It doesn't take long before I miss the library and am ready to go back and browse, which is what I did today after a good month and half absence. I mostly came away with books that I had on my reading list last year as you really need to get in line for the popular new books. The goal is to read or listen to five books between today and the end of February. I came away with a stack to choose from or I may see what new offerings are available to listen to. I can't decide which one to start with, so tonight I'll dip into them and see which grabs me the most. I was happy to see that out of the seven books I chose, three of them are books in translation. You likely have seen some of these mentioned here previously.
Astrid & Veronika by Linda Olsson - I've looked at this one so many times, but I can never decide whether I want to read it or not. It's the story of an unlikely friendship between two very different women.
With Violets by Elizabeth Robards - Novels about the Impressionists seem to be popular these days. This is about Berthe Morisot and her relationship with Edouard Manet.
Thornyhold by Mary Stewart - I had mixed feelings about a Stewart novel I read last year, but when I saw this, I couldn't pass it up. It is a mixture of magic, witchcraft, and romance.
The Fourth Man by K.O. Dahl - This is the winner of Norway's Riverton Prize for Best Crime Novel.
A Blessed Child by Linn Ullmann - This is a 'captivating story of sisterhood and of the inescapable chords of childhood memory' (by another Norwegian author).
A Manuscript of Ashes by Antonio Munoz Molina - This is set in Franco-era Spain. If the many accolades written about it are true, the prose should be lush and sensual.
The Outlander by Gil Adamson - This sounds like a good adventure novel of a woman fleeing West after murdering her husband.