Tag: books I want

books I want

Buy me a book for Christmas 2025

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For the second year in a row, I’m posting my personal Christmas book wishlist the second last weekend of November. A saturnalia miracle indeed. So hi mum! (!) here’s what I’m hoping might appear under the tree this year!

Cover of Making Mary Poppins

I’m going to start with two books from my autumn preview post which I have managed to resist so far. I’ve picked up and put down Tim Curry’s Vagabond at least three times now – on one occasion reading the introduction and then forcing myself to walk away – telling myself that I don’t need more books, and that I didn’t have space in my bag for a hardback. But I really want to read it. I also really want to read Making Mary Poppins but I haven’t seen that one in the stores so it’s been easier to resist on that front. But Christmas is the season to watch Mary Poppins, and I think knowing more about the behind the scenes will only enhance the experience!

Right, now the new release non-fiction is done, I’ve been to check out the wishlist I keep of books I can’t justify buying for myself to come up with the rest of this year’s list. Options at all price points people, never fear – some of them have been on the list so long that they’re now in paperback.

One in that category is the Willig-White-Williams murder mystery The Author’s Guide to Murders which was on last autumn’s new fiction preview and consequently is in paperback now. I haven’t seen this in any of the many bookstores I’ve been in this last year – or I think I would have bought it. So either I’ve been looking in the wrong sections of the shop or it’s harder to find than it should be. I read Patrick Gleason’s Hattie Steals the Show a couple of months back, and I really want to read the first one Hattie Brings Down the House before the third one comes out next year (which I know about thanks to the author popping up in the comments on that last post, which was really exciting). Still in murder mysteries, I would like to read Murder at Gull’s Nest – the algorithm keeps suggesting me the sequel even though I haven’t read the first one yet, and you know what I’m like about reading in order!

On to non mysteries – I really want to read Alexa Martin’s new book How to Sell a Romance, which is set in and around an MLM and sounds like it might involve taking it down and so I think my sister would probably like to read it too, which makes it an ideal candidate for this list. Also in things I think my sister would like to read as well as me is The Influencers by Anne-Marie McLemore, which is about a fire and a murder at the house of a social media influencer who has been writing about her five daughters and their lives for 25 years. I would also like Last Summer at the Golden Hotel, which is about a hotel in the Catskills that has been run by the same two families for more than 60 years, but has reached a crossroads.

I think that’s probably enough for people to go on – for now at least! Have a great Saturday everyone.

books I want

Buy Me a Book for Christmas 2024

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At the behest of my sister – and because I really do want to make sure I get some of these in my stocking this year, I’m back with this year’s suggestions for books I would like to receive this Christmas before we’re even out of November. You’re welcome.

As you know, the general theme of these posts is that I pick books that I want to read but can’t justify the price of right now given the side of the pile – which often means hardback non-fiction and this year is no different. So lets start with Women in the Valley of the Kings by Kathleen Shepherd. My love of the Amelia Peabody series is well known and this is the story of the real women Egyptologists in the so-called Golden Age of Exploration. Next up is Ask Not by Maureen Callahan, which has the subtitle “the Kennedys and the Women they Destroyed”, or The White House by the Sea by Kate Story about the Kennedy’s Hyannisport compound which both slot right into my reading interests because the Kennedy circle is both insane and strangely fascinating in a sort of horrified way. I also wouldn’t mind a copy of Not Your China Doll by Katie Gee Salisbury which is about Anna May Wong, the first Asian American film star and thus is in my Old Hollywood wheelhouse, as is A Murder in Hollywood by Casey Sherman about the murder of Johnny Stompanato.

Moving on to the fiction side of things, there’s The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living by Louise Miller, which has got a comparison to Diane Mott Davison in the blurb, but isn’t a murder mystery (or at least not as far as I can work out), Steven Rowley’s Guncle sequel, The Guncle Abroad, or Beatriz Williams’ The Beach at Summerly which is now in paperback. There’s also Avery Carpenter Forrey’s The Social Engagement which looks like proper Rich People problem fiction, and Love at First Spite by Anna E Collins which is a romcom about a woman trying to get her own back on her cheating ex-fiancé by building a vacation rental on the land next to the house they were meant to live in together.

And one final one before I go – Helen Ellis has a new book of essays out – it’s called Kiss Me in the Coral Lounge and the sample is as funny as her other books, American Housewife and Bring Your Baggage, and Don’t Pack Light.

As always part of the fun of this for me is the fact that I know my mum and my sister often pick from this list based on which books they would most like to borrow from me after I’ve read them, so I look forward to seeing what turns up this year!

Have a great weekend everyone.

books I want

Buy Me a Book for Christmas: 2022 edition

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Hi mum! I know you’re reading this. And that’s the very reason I’ve posted this in November – so you have *plenty* of time to chose what you’d like to get me. You’re welcome and also thank you. Anyway, this is the gift guide for what I’d like to find under the tree – so if you know a reader who likes my sort of books, hopfeully this will help you with them too. It’s a little bit longer on the nonfiction options – but that’s because the fiction side of things tends to go on offer more than the other – or at least in the bits of history and similar that I read!

Non fiction

I’ve written about novels set around Truman Capote a few times and there are a couple of non fiction books about his set that I have my eye on – Capote’s Women by Laurence Leamer about Capote and his Swans or Deliberate Cruelty by Roseanne Montillo about the Capote’s inclusion of Anne Woodward’s marriage to Billy Woodward – and his death when she accidentally shot him – in his fiction.

I also have a regular thing for Hollywood History and Shawn Levy (who wrote Castle on Sunset that I read last year) has a new book out – In On The Joke, about the early female pioneers in standup comedy. In non Hollywood history, there is Noble Ambitions by Adrian Tinniswood, about British country houses after the Second World War. And I keep thinking about buying Nazi Billionaires by David de Jong – which I think might fit into my historical interests, but also could be way too dark.

I do love a non fiction book about something you’ve never really considered before and The Address book by Deirdre Mask – about what you can learn from street addresses and how street names came about really interested me when I saw it recommended a few weeks back. Also in this niche would be Butts – A Backstory by Heather Radke.

I have a lot of cookery books already, but one of my favourite of the lesser spotted TV chefs has his first cookbook out this year: I’ve loved Jeremy Lee since I first saw him on the Great British Menu in one of the very early – if not the first – series. I’ve had a peek at the book in several bookshops and it looks like a delight to read.

I’ve already treated myself to one of the celebrity books I was looking forward to this autumn when I bought the Richard E Grant, but the other one is the Alan Rickman Diaries – even if I’m very conflicted about whether he would have wanted them published.

Fiction

I rarely buy myself hardback fiction, but for the Christmas list, here are a few I wouldn’t mind not having to wait for the paperback of: Vacationland by Meg Mitchell More – about a summer at a family’s summer home in Maine which I’m hoping will scratch my Rich People Problems itch. Or maybe Let’s Not Do That Again by Grant Ginder about a woman running for senate but struggling with her grown up children.

I’ve read a lot of Lauren Willig and Beatriz Williams solo novels – but not as many of their collaborations along with Karen White. But the Lost Summers of Newport – a time slip novel about a historic house on Rhode Island – sounds right up my street. There is also a Williams novels I wouldn’t mind finding in my stocking like The Golden Hour – about a woman who gets sucked into the Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s circle in Nassau – as well as Willig’s Band of Sisters.

I wrote a whole post about Adventure Capers recently, so a historical heist novel is right up my street – so how about The Monsters We Defy by Leslye Penelope, which is set in a magical version of 1925 Washington DC where the heroine needs to steal a magical ring from a powerful woman to escape a curse. I’ve also been eyeing up Kosoko Jackson’s I’m So (Not) Over You – a second chance fake relationship romance that I keep seeing every time I go into Charing Cross Road Foyles. And of course I still haven’t read TJ Klune’s Under The Whispering Door or

Lastly, a couple of wildcards. As this mentions grief in some of the blurbs, it may turn it to be too much for me, but On The Rooftop by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton also jumped out at me when i saw it reviewed the other weeks. It’s about three women who form a girl group and their careers. Also in the night turn out to be too miserable but I’m very tempted list is The Circus Train by Amita Parikh, which is set in 1938 and follows a circus that travels around Europe by train.

Amusingly, this post took me a lot longer to write than I intended as several of the books that I was going to mention were on offer on Kindle while I was putting this together, so I just bought them! And mum – if you’re still reading pick something you would like to borrow after I’ve read it, and let me know if you want any of these for your Christmas book!

Gift suggestions

Buy Me A Book for Christmas 2019 edition

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This has actually been quite hard to write this year – some of the books that I wanted, I’ve just bought myself (stress brings on book-buying, you all know that) and others I was lucky enough to get advance copies of, or borrow from the library.  Until a few weeks ago, The Starless Sea would have been on this list, and we all know what happened there… But truthfully, there’s always books that I want, so here are this year’s top picks that I’m hoping to find in my stocking…

Home Work by Julie Andrews

Cover of Home Work

I should be getting this.  I mean I sent a group message to my family saying that if they wanted to buy me a Christmas book, this was what i wanted and could they please fight it out between them but make sure I got it.  I read the first volume of her memoirs (Home) back in my pre-blog Essex days and liked it, but was annoyed that it finished before her Hollywood pinnacle.  This is that part of her story – and she’s been on the chat shows to promote it and I’m very excited.  Mary Poppins and the Sound of Music were big parts of my childhood – and I still watch them now.  I’ve always been really interested in behind the scenes Hollywood stuff and she’s had a fascinating life.  How much more could it be up my street?

Glittering Hour by Iona Andrews

Cover of The Glittering Hour

I loved Iona Andrew’s debut Letters to the Lost four years ago and this is her new novel.  It’s another spit time narrative – with one story in the 1920s and the other a decade later.  According to the blurb it has a Bright Young Thing, an artist, forbidden love and tragedy. Letters to the Lost made me cry, so I’m fairly sure this will too.  But sometimes you need a weepy novel to read, preferably curled up by the fire. It’s out in paperback too, which we know I prefer for fiction.

The Chelsea Girls by Fiona Davis

Cover of The Chelsea Girls

This is set in the 1950s, as the Blacklist is starting and follows two women living in a famous New York hotel and trying to get a Broadway play off the ground.  I’ve read a lot about the Red Scare this year, and I love stories about buildings and the people who live in them.  You may recall seeing The Dollhouse on the WiB list a few weeks back.  Well this is the Fiona Davis that I really wanted to read, but that the library didn’t have!  It’s only in hardback (or expensive ebook edition) at the moment, so if it doesn’t turn up in my stocking, then I’ll have to wait for the paperback in summer 2020…

Beyond that, it’s a bit tricky.  I mean you could buy me some of the nice hardback Terry Pratchetts that I seem to have started acquiring – I’d like Going Postal, Mort and Making Money next please. Or maybe one of the Virago hardbacks I’m missing – like The Birds or Strangers on the Train. Or just a book token. I can always find a way to spend it…

Happy Christmas!

 

fiction, Gift suggestions, non-fiction

Give Me a Book for Christmas 2016

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Yes, it’s that time of year again, where I tell you what’s been sitting in my Amazon Shopping basket for months as I try to justify buying more books in the guise of offering recommendations for people who like what I like but actually offer last minute hints to my loved ones who read the blog and anyone else who wants to buy me something.  In writing this I went back over last year’s version of this post and was cheered over how many of my 2015 wishes I’ve got and have read – and there are a couple more on my Kindle too that I bought myself!

Non Fiction

The non fiction section of this list always seems to be bigger than the fiction one – I think because non-fiction books are often more expensive or come out in hardback first so I’m less likely to buy them myself and it takes longer for them to drop down in price secondhand.

A new addition to the list is Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Mock, Hate and Fear by Sady Doyle, which Sarah MacLean recommended in her Christmas mailing list.  It’s a look at troubled women in the public eye through history – from Mary Wollstonecraft through Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse – examining what makes a “trainwreck” and why we’re so fascinated by them.  I’ve had my eye on The End of the Perfect 10 by Dvora Meyers since the Olympics in the summer, but haven’t been able to justify shelling out for it when I have so much waiting on the to-read shelf.  And then there’s Roxanne Gay’s Bad Feminist and Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me which I’ve just heard so much about but haven’t got around to reading yet.

There’s a few memoirs that I’m interested on – I keep hearing good things about Tara Clancy’s The Clancy’s of Queens about her childhood growing up in different parts of New York.  Then there’s Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime about growing up in South Africa when his parents’ marriage (between a white Swiss man and a black Xhosa woman) was illegal.  Noah is almost exactly my age and it’s crazy to me that this was still happening in my lifetime, to my contemporaries.

In history terms, I’d like First Women by Kate Anderson Brower about modern First Ladies of the US,  I want to read Barbara Leaming’s Kick Kennedy because I already have Paula Byrne’s Kick waiting on the shelf and I wouldn’t mind Rosemary by Kate Larson (although I fear it may make me sad and angry) because most of my knowledge about the other Kennedys comes from Laurie Graham’s novel The Importance of Being Kennedy and Robert Dalek’s biography John F Kennedy: An Unfinished Life.

I’m not one for science books in the main – although I’d also like to read several of the Mary Roach books I recommended yesterday – but I’d really like Emily Nagoski’s Come As You Are which is an exploration of female sexuality and sex, but I’m not sure there’s anyone I know well enough that I can ask them to buy it for me!  Perhaps I’ll treat myself to it in the New Year!

Fiction

The fiction section this year breaks down into authors I want to try or books I keep hearing about and series/authors I collect.  I’ll start with the former, because if you’ve been here a while the latter may seem a bit familiar to you…

Last year I was asking for the last of Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation books – this year I’m asking for her first collaboration with Beatriz Williams (who I also really like) and Karen White, The Forgotten Room, which is a timeslip novel covering three generations of a family in New York.  And incidentally I still haven’t managed to read Willig’s other novel from last year That Summer, where a woman inherits a house and discovers a painting and a mystery.

I’m always wanting non-Christmassy books to read in January – particularly because that’s when my birthday is and I’m sick of tinsel and mistletoe by New Year’s Day – which conincidentally is when Sherlock is back on TV, so Brittany Holmes A Study in Charlotte (female Holmes descendant at a US boarding school) or Sherry Thomas’s A Study in Scarlet Women (historical romance with female Sherlock) which I’ve been coveting for ages might well suit my mood early in 2017.

On the collection front, Virago reissued three more Angela Thirkells recently that I have not yet read or added to my collection (I wasn’t allowed to buy myself when Foyles were doing 20% off online, apparently 1 book as a present and 1 book for me was not an acceptable purchase ratio…) Miss Bunting, The Headmistress and Marling Hall.  There’s also a few more of Virago’s Designer Hardbacks that I’d quite like to add to the shelf – notably the two Daphne Du Maurier short story collections – Don’t Look Now and Other Stories and The Birds and Other Stories and Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on the Train.

And in more boring every day reading so to speak, I really want to read the new Aurora Teagarden Mystery by Charlaine Harris, All the Little Liars, partly because I like the series but also because the idea of an author coming back to a series after nearly 15 years fascinates me. I still don’t have the latest Julia Quinn (Because of Miss Bridgerton) or Sarah MacLean (A Scot in the Dark) so I’m falling behind in my historical romance reading as well as the rest of the backlog.

Bookish Stuff

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve already bought myself another year of Fahrenheit Press books and a couple more years of Literary Review, and I have Vanity Fair as well.  I did investigate a membership of the London Library, but I don’t know anyone who would spend nearly £500 on a library membership for me – especially with the massive backlog I have at the moment (and I can get a *lot* of books for £500 – that’s probably more than I’ve spend on books for myself this year anyway!).

I do fancy a new Kindle e-reader though – my first generation Kindle Touch has given me faithful service for more than 4 years, but it’s now struggling a little bit (it keeps stalling, possibly because of the amount of stuff on it) and the paint is scratching off it.  It’d also be nice to have two so that Him Indoors could use one on the beach on holiday (he ended up using mine for a fair bit of our last one).  My pick (I think) is the Voyage – because I want the backlight but I’m also getting lazy in my old age and liked the page turning squeezing thing when I tried it at the airport.

So there you are, more books than you can shake a stick at that I want for Christmas, despite the piles I already have.  It’s like an addiction except that I learn things and it’s not illegal.