Monday 16 November 2009

Monday Mailbox and Library Loot

I have given up even attempting to stop buying books. I will no longer make excuses for it either. Here are the books that I purchased this week. They were nearly all from the charity shops and I always delight in finding ones I have been after for a while.



1) The Red Tent by Anita Diamant - I have been after this biblical story for quite some time. It retells the story of Dinah, which is found in the Biblical book of Genesis. I have heard such great things about it.
2) Pompeii by Robert Harris - Robert Harris takes the actual event of the destruction of Pompeii and weaves historical facts with a fictional story.
3) The Vanishing Act Of Esme Lennox by Maggie O' Farrell. This is the story of a daughter put into an asylum purely because she didn't see eye to eye with her mother.


4) Dress Circle by Laurie Graham. My friend Fiona lent me this one. She said it was hilarious and I could do with a light hearted book at the moment.
5) The Haunting by Margaret Mahy - after reading Ana's review on Things That Mean A Lot, I was desperate to get my hands on this one and managed to book mooch it.
6) Footsteps by Rose McMahon. Last year I read The Rose Of Sebastapol and absolutely loved it, so I was glad to get my hands on this book by the same author.
7) Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier - I have yet to read any of Chevalier's books but my friend Fiona adores them, so I intend to find out why she likes her so much.


8) Haunted House Stories - a book full of ghost stories with authors such as James Herbert, Joan Aiken and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
9) The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse. More on this book later in the week.
10) Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh. This is a book that played a big part of my childhood and I was desperate to get hold of a copy. I managed to get this through Book Mooch.


I wanted to share this lovely bookmark I received from Ana over at Things That Mean A Lot, which I won recently. Ana also sent me some postcards of Portugal, after noticing my Portuguese surname, which nobody ever really notices. Thanks Ana, a lovely gift.


Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.


Now I had no reason to get more books out of the library as I have so many of my own to read. However, I went in to pick up some books for the Christmas reading challenge and then noticed it was pouring with rain outside. I would seriously have drowned, if I had taken one step out there. I had no intention of going out in it, so I spent a little time perusing the shelves and before I knew it, I had checked out eight books!

1) After Dark by Haruki Murakami - a Japanese author who seems to be very popular within the book blogging world. Now you know I hate to be left out of things, so I had to read one.
2) How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff - another author whose name keeps cropping up. Rosoff is a YA author and I can't wait to read this.
3) The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson. How could I resist reading an adult book by the legendary Tove Jansson, who created my all time favourites The Moomins.



Here are the two books I went in to pick up for the Christmas Reading Challenge.
4) The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans - this is meant to be one of those feel good books that make you appreciate life more afterwards.
5) Santaland Diaries - David Sedaris - six sarcastic short Christmas stories!


6) They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple - another Persephone book! You know a couple of months ago, I had never heard of Persephone books, I now own two and picked this one up from the library.
7) Unvited by Amanda Marrone - a creepy YA novel.
8) White is For Witching by Helen Oyeyemi. I reviewed Oyeyemi's book 'The Icarus Girl', on Friday and loved it, so I was really pleased to find her latest book in the library.


So there you have it. I am now inundated with books this week and I have left hubby on the other computer, desperately trying to contact Ikea for two more Billy bookcases, as he is scared he may be suffocated by books in the night!


Have you read any of these wonderful books? What books did you get this week? Is my book buying getting out of hand?!!! Does your husband curse quietly under his breath at your obsessive habit?

Have a fabulous day. Love and hugs.







22 comments:

  1. Good for you, Viv! My ban's still on and I feel pretty good about it, actually. LOL! Does that mean the habit will stick for life, I'm not so sure...

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  2. Love your Mailbox post and hey why would you stop buying books, you pick up some wonderful finds in charity shops and everyone should just applaud your bargain hunting skills. LOL. I know I do, I want to come and take lessons :-)

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  3. See now if Craig even tried to moan about my book or craft stash he knows he would lose his chauffeur to all his bird shows and fishing days out so he has learned to keep shtoom... even contributes a £1 a day to my Ally Pally fund. Gotta love him :D

    Fantabulous book finds today Viv. I have been ordered to stop adding books to my wishlist till after Christmas though - you would think people would appreciate me giving them a choice wouldn't you? :D

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  4. Fabulous selection of books both bought and borrowed!

    I loved The Red Tent, After Dark, How I Live Now and They Were Sisters (Dorothy Whipple writes compelling, evocative and devastating books).

    I would love to read The Santaland Diaries for Christmas but my library doesn't have a copy :(.

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  5. Awesome week for you :D
    I must go and post my week now, was a nice one too

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  6. Harriet the Spy is one of my all-time favorite books!

    It's such a secure feeling to have a nice hefty TBR pile, eh?

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  7. I have the Maggie O'Farrell book, which was really good!

    My pitiful mailbox is here:

    http://laurelrainsnowcreations.blogspot.com/2009/11/mailbox-monday.html

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  8. Good for you! Great books! I have The Vanishing Act Of Esme Lennox in my TBR.
    http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/

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  9. I'm with you - we don't need to make excuses for buying books! I've read both of those Christmas books and enjoyed them, but they're on opposite ends of the spectrum!

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  10. lol-Do you ever have a load of books there! I've read The Red Tent and The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox and liked them both. Hope you manage to get through all of these.

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  11. This is just... Wow. Good luck reading all those! :)

    Great choices!

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  12. Wow! That's a lot of loot! Your beautiful new bookmark will get a lot of use.

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  13. I'm glad the bookmarks made it safely, Vivienne!

    I enjoyed The Red Tent, and really loved How I Live Now. I hope you do too!

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  14. You certainly had a lot of books arrive at your house (I know that some are library books, but still, that's a lot of books).

    The one about the daughter being put in the asylum looks haunting.

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  15. Wow, so many wonderful book that I recognize and many I don't that look wonderful! The Red Tent is terrific, I hope you like it, I can't wait to hear your thoughts! I don't think you can go wrong with David Sedaris lol and the Christmas Box is a very sweet story.
    After Dark is supposed to be quite good and I haven't read Tracy Chevalier's Burning Bright but some of her other book are very good.

    Have a wonderful time reading Vivienne :o)

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  16. If you want the cliff notes for Uglies you can get them here http://cliffnotebooks.com/uglies-scott-westerfeld/

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  17. Wow - that is one serious book bounty! :)

    I'm going to be looking for some Ikea bookcases too in the new year. Lucky for me, my husband is also a bookworm so he can't say anything about my "bad" habit :)

    Enjoy all your books!

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  18. I read Harriet the Spy last year but that's the only one I've read here. Bet that ghost story collection is good! Enjoy!!!

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  19. What a great batch of books!!!

    I just found a copy of The Red Tent at a library book sale. It's one of those books that's been on my TBR list for YEARS ever since it came out. And Pompeii looks so good!

    I've read Tracy Chevalier's Girl w/ a Pearl Earring and like it. I have Burning Bright and The Lady and the Unicorn at home to read.

    I haven't read any Kate Mosse books yet but I have Labyrinth at home to read. For some reason I just love the covers of her books.

    And Harriet the Spy was a total favorite of mine growing up too. I still have boxes of books from my childhood stored at my mom's house. As soon as we own something larger than a one bedroom apartment I am taking them back.

    I read Murakami's After Dark. It was interesting. I'll be interested to see what you think of it. I read his other book, Norwegian Wood, and really liked it. If you don't like After Dark, try that one.

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  20. Looks like an interesting selection of books!

    I really enjoyed both After Dark and How I Live now, but I also have The Red Tent waiting for me..

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