I was going to stop sharing my library finds so often, but here I go once again--with yet another new pile, but I was so excited about them I couldn't resist. That thumping sound that was heard not so very long ago has been replaced by a swish, swish as I pull books off my library's bookshelves. Now I know that I am not the only serious library user out there, but I do sometimes wonder if I am the most obsessed one? Best not to think about these things.
I was chatting with someone recently about E.M. Delafield and she recommended When Women Love, published in Britain as Three Marriages. My library has only two of her many novels, and as I have read one and am reading the other I turned to the ever-handy ILL department to see if I could track this one down. I must say Mondays are always easier at work when I get notification that one of my ILL requests has arrived. When Women Love was published in 1938 and contains three novellas (well am guessing they are novellas/short stories), which are variations on a theme. The stories included are "The Wedding of Rose Barlow (1857)", "Girl-of-the-Period (1897)", and "We Meant to be Happy (1937)". I wonder if any of the marriages in the novel are happy ones?
I was doubly lucky as I also received Andrea Maria Schenkel's Ice Cold via ILL today, too. I really liked The Murder Farm and as her novels are fairly short thought I could easily squeeze in another this year still. There's an inverse process going on here...I think the more I try and not buy books the more I end up borrowing them. Some day I am going to not buy them or borrow them and read what I own. Imagine. Ice Cold is set in Munich in the 1930s where young women are being murdered. The story has a similar set up to The Murder Farm and will likely accompany me to the gym. The story sounds a little bleak but in a well-lit and slightly noisy gym I think it will hold my attention nicely.
Vera Brittain's Honourable Estate has been on my wishlist for years. I've never gotten around to buying it, but then why bother when my library has this lovely copy? I actually grabbed Brittain's Letters from a Lost Generation first and then took a walk over to the fiction area to see which novels we owned by her. The letters are from WWI and were written by Vera, her brother, her fiancé and two other close friends. All four men died in the war. Honourable Estate is Brittain's second novel about three generations of married couples--more variation on a theme it would seem.
And Rodin's Debutante by Ward Just is an impulse choice. I wanted to read it earlier and was thinking that a story with an academic setting sounded appealing. I also love the cover illustration, but that's neither here nor there since we remove our dust jackets at my library. I've never read Ward Just, but I think I'll like him.
Now a request. I rarely read lough out loud funny novels. I'm not even sure I own any. It isn't that I don't want to, but I never seem to come across them. I was thinking how heavy and dark some of the books I've been reading lately are and with the shorter days (I go to work in the dark and return home in the dark) and cold weather I think I need something bright and cheery to lift my mood. I was thinking maybe it's time to dig out one of my P.G. Wodehouse novels. Suggestions welcome. Prefer novels but I am happy with nonfiction as well. Thanks in advance.