Monday 3 August 2009

Monday Mailbox

Monday Mail is hosted by by Marcia at the Printed Page and you will find her blog here.

Well I didn't actually get any books in the post, but I did buy some from the boot sale on the weekend. Just out of interest do you have boot sales in America and Canada? A boot sale is where everyone takes all the things they don't want anymore to a big field and sell the stuff out of the back of their car boot. They are fabulous places to go to find books and they normally sell at about 50p each, so my bag is usually full.
This first picture shows the six books I got off one stall and paid 60p for the whole lot. That is 10p a book! The Marina Lewycka one is a hard back and I think it only came out at the end of last year. The two Tony Hawks books and McCarthy's bar are all travel journal style books which I really enjoy. Tony Hawks is a comedian on television and his books are supposed to be really funny, so I look forward to reading those.
Why Don't Penguins Feet Freeze? came out just before Christmas and is full of scientific questions that people genuinely ask on a daily basis.
Here are the other books I picked up. I spent a total of £3.60 at the boot sale and came back with 12 books. An absolute bargain.
1) The Testament of Gideon Mack by James Robertson - Set in contemporary Scotland, the novel uses the literary device of a discovered manuscript the testament of Gideon Mack which has fallen into the hands of a journalist
2) We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver - a fictional school massacre, written from the perspective of the killers mother. It won the 2005 Orange Prize for fiction.

3) Down River by John Hart - Going back is never easy . . . Adam Chase has spent the last five years in New York trying to forget. When he left North Carolina, Adam left for good. Now he has no choice but to return – and being remembered as a murderer doesn’t help.Within hours of arriving, Adam is beaten up, accosted and has to face the hostility of those closest to him, including Grace, the young woman he cannot forget. Nothing has changed. And then people start turning up dead. For a man only just acquitted of murder, Adam’s homecoming does not go well.
4) Standing in the Rainbow by Fannie Flagg - I just loved Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe and I will always pick up Fannie Flagg books. The is set in the 1940's and the South. It takes a look at a town, where a family of white gospel singers descend.
5) The Foretelling by Alice Hoffman - a young adult book. The book is about Rain, a girl with a certain destiny, living in the ancient time of blood and war, raised on mares’ milk, nurtured by the strength of her Amazon sisters. A girl of power, she rides her white horse as fiercely as any demon.
6) The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall - Lydia Ivanova believed her father was killed by the Bolsheviks. But when she learns he is a captive in Stalin’s Russia, the fiery girl leaves everything behind – even her Chinese lover, Chang An Lo – to find him. With her half brother Alexei, she begins a dangerous search.
I am really pleased with the books I bought at the boot sale this week, especially as I got them so cheaply. They were all in perfect condition and looked like they had not even been read.
What books came to your house this week?

18 comments:

  1. Blimey you did well there! Not been to a bootsale in ages our local ones have turned very markety the last couple of years so we haven't bothered. We noticed one that looked like a proper boot fair on the way to Hastings last time though so when we go again next week we are going to leave really early so we can stop off in there first. So hopefully I'll have some bargains to report next week.

    We Need To Talk About Kevin sounds really good. I look forward to your review of that one.

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  2. You are just the best bargain hunter! We have car boot sales in Australia, haven't been to one in a while though. I've got The Russian Concubine on my bookshelf to read :-)

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  3. Speechless, how do you find these books?! I mean in an old books store here books are really expensive and flea markets don't have any good ones.

    Enjoy :D

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  4. I don't remember any car boot sales in America when I was there, but that was nearly a decade ago now. (hang on, only just realised by anniversary is coming up!) I always found garage sales to be interesting though.

    Interesting selection of books!I'm not really into travel journally books, but I've heard the ones you've picked up are quite funny.

    I enjoyed Short History of Tractors, but I'm not sure I want to read more by Marina Lewycka. Not sure why.

    I haven't bought any books recently and nothing has been sent to me, sniff. Though I did get a book voucher the other day, I'll enjoy picking up some books with that.

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  5. We don't have boot sales, or at least not that I"m aware of. We do have tons of garage sales, either individual or community wide. Still I like the idea of opening the back of your car. LOL. It reminds me of Sex and the City and buying fake Rolexes or Guccis.

    Plus, and maybe it's only because it's new to me, 'boot sale' just sounds so cute!

    :)

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  6. OOh, you got The Russian Concubine, good deal. That has been on my list for ages but just haven't gotten around to it. You got some great bargains, especially if the books are in such good condition.
    Have a great week and enjoy.

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  7. I've never heard of a boot (or trunk as we would say here) sale, but it sounds like great fun. It looks like you found some real bargains! Happy reading!

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  8. Great finds. I'm with Kaye...Russian Concubine...have fun reading that one. Enjoy your books Vivienne. I hope this week is less hectic. :)

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  9. I've never seen a boot sale here in the States but I went to one when I was in Wales. Very cool. We normally just have garage sales here that you have to drive around to each one. I've noticed here in my neighborhood in NYC, people will randomly just set up a table or blanket on the sidewalk and sell their used stuff. Great finds on the books!!

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  10. Some good books you picked up there, bootsales are great for picking up books and also for selling them. When I was due to move for the fifth time in 4 years (blame university!) I decided to stop lugging around books I would never read again, I made £150 odd pounds in one day which was excellent and went towards new furniture.

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  11. You have some great stuff. I loved We Need to Talk About Kevin as much as you can love any book where the woman's son is a mass murderer. I didn't realize Marina Lewycka had another book out, I enjoyed her first one.

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  12. I've never heard of a boot sale, but it sounds like fun. You had a great haul!

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  13. You always find the best bargains! I have book envy :P

    The Testament of Gideon Mack has been on my wishlist ever since Rhinoa at Rhinoa's Ramblings reviewed it last year. It sounds really unusual, and I like unusual :P

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  14. I'd never heard of a boot sale...but man, I wish we had them around here!!! What an awesome haul you got there! I've been wanting to read We Need to Talk about Kevin for ages! Oh goodness, do I foresee a bunch of books being added to my wish list in the near future...

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  15. I didn't recognize many of the titles in this weeks stack, but I did want to let you know that I enjoyed Down River; Hart.

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  16. those boot sales sound like fun! I hadnt heard of that before.
    looks like you got some great reads, enjoy :)

    http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/

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  17. Fabulous bargains! I'm green with envy, Viv! You've got some really good books there.

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