Just a few library finds today. It's nice having access to libraries (and I'm lucky as I have access to a public and academic library--so many wonderful books at my fingertips). I've got a mix here to share.
Peter Taylor's A Summons to Memphis was recently on my bookcart ready to be sent to the new books area, but I'm afraid I had to snag it before it ever left the acquisitions area. This was won the Ritz-Paris Hemingway Award (to be honest I'd never heard of that one before seeing it listed on the book), but it also won the Pulitzer Prize. The summons comes to Phillip Carver from his sisters when the discover their widowed father is about to remarry. I've not read much Southern literature, but this seems a good place to start.
Drowned by Therese Bohman is a psychological thriller published by Other Press, whose frontlist releases I usually take note of. "Set in the idyllic countryside during a fleeting Swedish summer and autumn, nothing is as it seems in this spellbinding novel of psychological suspense. Combining hothouse sensuality with ice-cold fear on every page, Drowned heralds the emergence of a major new talent on the international scene."
Another new Other Press title is Finnish author Rikka Pulkkinen's True. "True is a psychological drama that explores the nature of truth, lies, memory, and how stories have the ability to bend and change with time. Rikka Pulkinnen, a young Finnish talent, depicts the bonds and traumatic schisms of three generations with virtuosic prose and storytelling skill."
I've heard many good things about Alice LaPlante's Turn of Mind. I even had it checked out from the public library, but the line was long and I didn't get to it in time. It's another I grabbed from my book cart at work. I 've been a little apprehensive about reading it as it deals with dementia, but I think once I start reading I won't mind. This is in part a crime novel and has been named to many 'best of' lists.
I'm not sure I'll get to Carson Morton's Stealing Mona Lisa, but it's not only gotten very good reviews but it is hugely appealing to me. "What happens when you mix a Parisian street orphan, a hot-tempered Spanish forger, a beautiful American pickpocket, an unloved wife, and one priceless painting?" It's based on the actual theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911.
And a beach book, which I really do want to read, but the due date is quickly approaching. The Cottage at Glass Beach by Heather Barbieri is set on an island off the coast of Maine where Nora Cunningham flees after she discovers her husband's infidelity. She gives in to her grief, spilling tears into the ocean. The next day a fisherman is shipwrecked on the rocks nearby. Is he possibly a selkie, known from local legend, or just an ordinary man. This sounds like a great vacation read.
The great thing about having a personal library is being able to browse anytime I like. And even if I don't read a book as soon as I buy it, I will inevitably come back to it at a later time when I am in the mood. That's the case with the two books on the bottom of my pile. The top two I pulled out when I was looking for the first two (I'm very bad that way--it's a constant shift of books from my bedroom upstairs to my bookroom downstairs and back again).
Katherine Anne Porter's Pale Horse, Pale Rider is actually three novellas in one. The title story is about a girl "who falls in love with a young soldier in World War I only to realize their love will have no fulfillment, that they are to be cheated of what little time is left to them." It also contains Old Mortality and Noon Wine--all three stories have themes of love and death. I can't tell you how many times I have shifted this book back and forth.
Earth (Ox Tales) is an anthology of short stories by contemporary writers. I have the whole set (Earth, Air, Fire and Water).
I've been steadily reading Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin and am intrigued by Edna St. Vincent Millay, and want to read more about her. How handy that I have Nancy Milford's biography, Savage Beauty.
And I mentioned I wanted to find my copy of Bulfinch's Mythology, and for once it was right where I thought it would be. It contains not only the Greek myths but also The Age of Chivalry (King Arthur legends) and Legends of Charlemagne. Not sure I'll get to it anytime soon but it might be nice to compare the myths when I get to the actual stories.
I feel like such a book glutton. I can never stop at one.