Sadly the best photo of the lot I took was the last one that I didn't expect to turn out (the last picture is usually blank as my camera is dying a slow and painful death), as I was messing about with the camera angle. So, please turn your head slightly for a better look at the titles.
Although my reading card is pretty much full up for the month of November I'd love to squeeze in one or two of these (or will hopefully be able to renew a few of them for next month--a month in which I think I am going to remain plan-less so I can follow my own reading whimsy).
Stephen Hunt's The Court of the Air is a steampunk novel, a genre I have wanted to try for ages now. One reviewer (per blurb on the back of the book) calls this a "collision between English letters and the hard-edged vision of grunge fantasy." I'm in the mood for something unusual--genre-bending, a story that defies all the regular rules and something outside my normal comfort zone.
Someone recently recommended Graham Greene's Stamboul Train, which is one of Greene's "entertainments". I think he considered his entertainments lesser works, but personally I think a spy thriller written in the 30s (in the thick of things so to speak) and set on a train would make for engrossing reading. And just what is wrong with entertaining anyway?
My library has a smattering of Persephone titles, including their first published book, Cicely Hamilton's William: An Englishman. It was written just at the end of WWI and is said to be a masterpiece capturing the feel of the war when it was still so fresh in mind. I also found a book (though I didn't bring it home) about the author, which looked just as interesting since she was herself an actress and suffragette, and she worked in a hospital during the war. You probably can't get much more immediate than that.
I love books about art, though I guess lately I only read fictionalized books about art. In this case, The Woman Who Heard Color (isn't that a great title) is about an "art detective" who tries to track down works stolen by the Nazis during WWII.
I want to read some books by Elizabeth Jane Howard soon. She is on my winter break list of authors to pursue. I was browsing the shelves to see what I could find by her (because the unread books I have at home are apparently just not enough), and found a collection of short stories called Mr. Wrong. As the titular story is said to be very Hitchcockian, I would like to at least read that one.
Leonardo Sciascia's The Day of the Owl was plucked from the book cart at work (it's so convenient working in the Acquisitions department and seeing all the new books come in--understandable maybe that I come home with so many library books?). Sciascia is famous in Italy, a Sicilian, who wrote literary detective stories. I am sure they are far more than run of the mill mysteries, and despite the novella-esque size of the book I expect it to be more challenging than it appears.
I really don't want to wish the month of November away as I have far too much to do, but I am really looking forward to a short break and I plan on spending every extra moment I can reading!