Yes, I seem to have acquired enough books in the last couple of weeks to spread them out into two posts! One is a mooch, four are used books and the other two are new book splurges. I need to find a happy medium between getting nothing in the mail and getting nearly a package a day. It's nice, but... I suppose on the up side (along with me getting books in the mail), it's also job security for the postman and they need all the help they can get these days. My finds:
I should really wait until I read the first Lydmouth book before getting the second, but this will spur me on to start the series, which I have heard so many good things about. Andrew Taylor's The Mortal Sickness won the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger award.
Litlove's recent post brought Deirdre Madden's Molly Fox's Birthday to my attention. I had come across the title when it was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, but sometimes generic descriptions aren't quite enough. A good review or two can be amazingly helpful when deciding whether or not to buy a book.
I'm planning on joining in on Cornflower's book group read of Elizabeth Jenkins's The Tortoise and the Hare. I had no idea when I ordered the book that it is a Virago Modern Classic! (Which is a bonus in my eyes). And for some reason I thought Jenkins was a contemporary author, but she wrote this in 1954 and was close friend to Elizabeth Bowen and knew Rosamond Lehmann. Also cool.
How many of you have told me how good Salley Vickers's Miss Garnet's Angel is? Enough that I went to Bookmooch to try my luck and was happy to find a copy waiting for me. It's set in Venice and one quote compares the work to Penelope Fitzgerald and Barbara Pym. Now that does sound good!
Lastly, I liked Dawn Powell so much (see posts here and here) that I've decided I must read more. I'd like to try more of her "Ohio novels", so I ordered used copies of The Bride's House and Come Back to Sorrento as well as a collection of short stories, Sunday, Monday, and Always. Whenever I find an author I really click with I always feel the need to read more (and more). I expect I will also be looking for more authors from this period (have just finished a novel by William Maxwell, which I loved and am reading F. Scott Fitzgerald, which I must get back to).
I'm so glad there is a long weekend to look forward to. I shouldn't start any new books (though I would be happy to crack open any of these books right now), but it will give me a little extra reading time--whichever books I decide to spend time with.