Just a hodge podge of books today--all ready for the weekend, which I hope will be filled with many hours of reading and perhaps of organizing and maybe even of starting one or two of these 'new to me' new books. These are all library books from both the library where I work and the public library. Aren't I lucky to have access to so many books? From top to bottom:
I've been looking for some good books about leading a solitary life, books on introspection--that sort ot thing. My friend Cath recommended May Sarton's Journal of Solitude to start out. Journal format is especially appealing to me at the moment (I was just thinking that I need to get back to my diary project--I miss reading them). If you have any other good suggestions for books about quiet/peacefulness/solitude--well, you know me. I am always up for more reading ideas.
Quiet Dell by Jane Anne Phillips sounds intriguing. Set in Chicago in 1931 it's about a series of murders and has been compared to Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. Buried in Print has been writing about a number of really interesting-sounding books and this is one of them she recently wrote about. I've already dipped into it in anticipation. Just waiting for the weekend.
I've read just one 007 novel (with the intention of reading more of course). When I saw William Boyd has written "a James Bond Novel", Solo, I had to at least request it. In this story Bond has just turned forty-five. It's 1969 and the setting is West Africa, London and Washington. The description promises a book that is "gripping", "tensely plotted" and one filled with "breathtaking twists". I'm all up for it.
These last two are books that just this week crossed my desk at work. (The beauty of working in Acquisitions--first dibs on the new books . . .). O My America: Six Women and Their Second Acts in the New World by Sara Wheeler. Intrepid women travelers? Check. Women of a certain age? Check. Adventure? Check. Second chances? Check. Right up my alley I think.
I'd heard about Denmark during WWII and the fact that the Danes did everything they could to save the Jews in their country. Amazing and a hopeful piece of history. One I would love to read about. Countrymen: The Untold Story of How Denmark's Jews Escaped the Nazis, of the Courage of their Fellow Danes--and the Extraordinary Role of the SS by Bo Lidegaard. I am a very slow nonfiction reader and an evern slower reader of history, but I think this is a book I absolutely should make an effort to read in its entirety.
The bookish community that we are part of is so very talented, I always feel a little in awe to be a part of it. I think I can easily count on two hands the number of bloggers who write seriously and are either working on being published or are published. Elizabeth Wix, who blogs at The World Examining Works and About New York (she takes the most amazing photographs--do click on over to take a look!) kindly sent me two of her books: Jane in Winter: A Traditional Tale of Magic and Enchantments and Ruth & Gisela. The first is set in England in the 1950s and is a mixture of "mystery, fantasy, realism and a superbly evil queen". The latter is set in England and Germany and spans the years from before WWII to nearly present day. Thanks to Elizabeth for sending them my way--I can't wait to delve into them and now it is just a matter of which one to start with.
A couple of years ago I read and thoroughly enjoyed Audur Ava Olafsdottir's The Greenhouse. She's an Icelandic author and at the time I was lamenting the fact that there was nothing else by her for me to read in English. Happily Pushkin Press is going to be releasing Butterflies in November next month, and they very kindly sent me a copy to read now. Itchy fingers means I'll be cracking this one open very soon as well. This won the City of Reykjavik Literary Award (her previous novel was award winning, too) and the film rights have been sold. It is going to be shot in English and will be made up of an international cast of actors. Butterflies in November is "at once light, comical and uniquely moving. It is a legacy of life's mistakes; a deliciously unaffected commentary on the nature of relationships and motherhood; a feast of dramatic, rough-hewn landscapes, succulent local delicacies and peculiar customs."
With so many wonderful books all lined up you can see why I want to spend my weekend reading. Let the dust motes fall where they may and the laundry pile up (well, maybe I will do my laundry), I'm going to have my nose in a book this weekend. What about you?