I did Book Con last week, but here’s the other stuff that’s arrive in the last month, not including those ones. So we have two books from Persephone Books – on which more next week. The there is Film Stars at Riverlea which came from a friend, two books from the charity shops – The Fixer Upper and Lilian Boxfish Takes a Walk. I said in my post when the new Lady Sherlock came out we would see how long it took for my preorder to turn up – and here is the answer: it arrived on August 8! Then we have Laurence Leamer’s book Hitchcock’s Blondes, which came down in price in hardback and a cozy crime that I got cheap second hand. All very nice.
This time last week I was at Book Conference, so it’s only right that this Saturday’s post is the new arrivals that came home with me! To be honest, I think I was pretty restrained. I mean judge for yourself from the photo, but I could have gone completely wild. Instead I resisted and stuck to what I could buy with the cash I took with me. I went with a list of what I wanted and fresh photos of the relevant bookshelves to try and make sure I didn’t buy anything I already have. Most of this came from the dealer sale, but there are a few from the participant sale and a few freebies from the very end.
So lets go from top left, which is a copy of Return to the Wells with a dust jacket to replace the one I have which didn’t have a jacket. I love the Sadlers Wells series, and I bought seven of them in hardback at my very first Book conference in 2018. I’ve now got a whole set, but there are a couple that don’t have dustwrappers, so one of my goals for this conference was to see if I could upgrade for a reasonable price. And so now I just have Jane Leaves the Wells and some of the very late ones without covers – and those last ones are *expensive* so it may stay that way for a while.
I’m still missing a couple of Shirley Flight books – sadly none in the sale – but there were two other Air Hostess themed books which I just couldn’t resist. Going clockwise, there’s the first of two Dimsie books that I picked up. Dimsie is a series that I’ve read very out of order so I got a couple more to fill in some gaps. Then there’s some crime – a cozy that’s the first in a series and then four of Josephine Tey’s Alan Grant series – three of which I’ve read and the fourth is the only one I haven’t.
Then there’s the other Dimsie, an Armada Chalet School because it was free and I just can’t resist upgrading and adding to the Armada collection, even though I have the full set in Girls Gone By paperback now, and this one was on the free table as we were leaving as was Roller Skates. And the Alison Uttley is a classic of the kids timeslip genre that I some how haven’t read.
I’m pretty pleased with what I got – there were a couple of hardback Drina books that I was tempted by, but the prices weren’t quite right and collecting Drina in hardback isn’t one of my priorities (and also you can’t get a matching set of them because Drina, Ballerina was written so many years later) so I bought the priority stuff first – and when I can back they were already sold so it clearly wasn’t meant to be. I also resisted another Sadlers Wells – which I already have in hardback and with a dustcover – it’s just not a *matching* dustcover and it was expensive. So I was good. And not too many of these (relatively) are going on the pile. Return to the Wells will go onto the shelf with the others, the Chalet Book will go with that set and the Alan Grants that I’ve already read will go with the Golden Age Paperbacks. Lovely stuff.
So it’s a short list this week because I’ve been at Book Conference and I’ve been hosting guests. Oh and the Olympics is on… But I have spent even more time than usual thinking about books, I just didn’t have time to read many!
The Hazelbourne Ladies’ Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson*
The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmire*
Quite a few books bought because there was a dealer book sale and a participant book sale, and the new month has started so there are fresh kindle offers.
Bonus picture: cacti in the botanic gardens in Bristol on Saturday!
*next to a book book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.
A steady week in reading – one night at the theatre, a busy week at work and the start of the Olympics all adding up to not as much read as I would have liked – and I’ve still got those two on the still reading list as well. It’s Book Con at the end of this week, so the reading could go either way with that, and traditionally the reading there tends to be books that I have bought in the various book sales…
A really busy week again – busy at work and busy out of work. And it seems like the sun has appeared – how long it stays for and whether this is the entirety of summer remains to be seen! And this week is another busy one. I’ve got at least one night at the theatre – and have you seen the news agenda?!
The Hazelbourne Ladies’ Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson*
The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmire*
One pre-order dropped onto my Kindle – the new K J Charles, which I have been very good and haven’t started yet!
Bonus picture: Saturday back at the Olympic stadium for the Diamond League. My first time back since watching Mo Farah win at the Worlds in 2017, and I can’t believe it’s 12 years since we were here for the Olympics!
*next to a book book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.
Another massively busy week – but actually a reasonable list of reading, and I’ve got nothing on the ongoing list, which is always a nice (and unusual) position to be in. There are quite a few books out this week that I have from NetGalley, so I’ve started a lot of those to try and be timely for once in my life – we’ll see how that goes…
Bonus picture: A rare picture of me because I did Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life on Sunday. This year has been particularly terrible one in my extended family and friendship groups for cancer, and I lost a very dear friend to cancer on Election Day so despite my incredible lack of ability at anything athletic, I rage-ran my way around Abington Park on Sunday. I was hoping to raise £200, but I’ve more than tripled that – so that really helped propel me around the course, which was much hillier than my regular route around the Racecourse. I’m just going to leave my donation link here, just in case anyone else wants to take pity on me and my tremendously red post-run face.
*next to a book book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.
I think this might be a first. Hold on to your hats, something amazing has happened. No not quite that amazing, but it’s pretty good:
Only two books bought – and I read both of them on holiday so they have not added to the pile! I think this is a complete first. You can read my book of the week review of The Formulahere. And the other of course is the third in Reverend Richard Coles’s Canon Clement series, which I included in my murder mysteries with vicars post.
Well that was quite a week. I’m still not sure if I’m coming g or going. And my brain has been pretty fried so I think that explains the descent into binge-reading of Patti Benning mini-mysteries. I wish I could say what I’m going to do tomorrow, but I don’t know yet and I’m hoping inspiration will come to me at some point.
Not the longest list this week – but some of the stuff I didn’t finish is quite long. Also the Euros are on and there was Formula One and MotoGP at the weekend. And the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders documentary on Netflix… and that’s all before you get to the wonderful weather!
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 