So, an unusual month in a way, in that I’ve already read three of the books in this picture. So on the bright side, they’re not on the pile – they’re already off and through. On the downside, there were only two more until I went into Foyles this week and got carried away. Never mind. Four more on the pile is better than it has been. And I have all the Museum mysteries now so I can’t buy any more of those, which is something I guess. Although the Olivia Blackie is a new to me series so that could be dangerous in itself. Wish me luck…
As promised last week, here’s a second Books Incoming post – as I said on Monday, I was in Kuala Lumpur for work last week, and I may have found a bookshop while I was there and gone a little bit crazy, on account of the fact that they had a buy four books and get a fifth free promotion on. I mean how could I not! More on the bookshop itself to follow, but first up, here are the books that I brought back from Malaysia with me.
Lets start with the airport purchases. The autumn releases haven’t really kicked in yet, so the selection in W H Smiths was a little disappointing, but I still managed to find two I wanted. I’d nearly finished Going Infinite by the time I got to Kuala Lumpur – and I’ve already written about it – and the Elena Armas was the other half of the buy one get one half price. Then the five from the bookshop are the three on the back row and the other half of the middle row. I’m hoping at least one of them is a Rich People Problems book, but the shrink wrap means it’s a bit of a lottery, but all the blurbs were good – and Marlowe Banks… is one I’ve had my eye on for a while, but which hadn’t come my way at a price I was willing to pay before. At the front we have a book of short stories that was given to me by the author, who is a friend of a friend and was kind enough to show me around while I was visiting, and she also gave me Ripples. So thank you Daphne – I had a fabulous time with you and I’m looking forward to reading the books. Oh and if you were wondering what the blind date with a book turned out to be, here’s the answer:
Yes, this is early, yes it’s because the pile is out of control and I wasn’t going to be able to get it all in one photo. So there’s another post coming next week … and on that note: what have I bought?
Let’s start at the front and go clockwise – At Mrs Lippincote’s and the French Cazalet are from my Paris trip. Then there’s the next book that I haven’t read in the Library Lovers series, and two more Museum mysteries after I enjoyed the one that I picked up at Book Con so much. Murder on the Eiffel Tower was because I fancied a Paris set mystery after the trip – and this is the first in the series, then there’s Ex-Wife which has just been reissued and is from my inter-war sweet spot. Below Ex-Wife is another Anne de Courcy which I picked up on offer after reading Five Love Affairs and a Friendship last month, and then there’s Adrian Tinniswood’s Noble Ambitions, which was also on offer. And finally there’s the new Rivers of London Novella, which came out this very week and was waiting for me when I got home from my travels on Friday lunchtime.
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.
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.
An eclectic selection this month. There are two Lumberjanes that I somehow didn’t get when they first came out, the two books I bought on the way to Lagos, the first Cesare Aldo which I ordered second hand after reading the first on holiday in April, a non-MaisieJacqueline Winspear and a Lauren Willig that I preordered ages ago and seems to have only just become available in paperback in the UK.
And what I realised after I took this photo is that – despite the fact that there is one Winspear in here so it should have jogged my memory, I forgot to include the final Maisie Dobbs in it. Now is that because I genuinely forgot or because my brain didn’t want to admit that I’d walked down to Waterstones Piccadilly on release day to buy it – and it a hardback at full price too. Thank goodness for a £10 Waterstones loyalty card reward. Even if that means I’ve already spent a lot of money there. And it’s not even the only bookshop I use…
If this had been last weekend, there would only have been two books in this picture. I bought the Roman Beaird and the Rory Carroll at the airport on the way to Pisa. But then I went into Foyles on Monday night, and bought the new Alexandria Bellefleur and the Kayla Olson, and when I got home on Thursday the other two had arrived – after taking so long (in the way that second hand orders often do) that I had forgotten I had ordered them in the first place!
I’m back with another stack of books that I’ve managed to acquire some how. There’s two pre-orders here – the new Vinyl Detective and Steven Rowley’s The Celebrants, which has been out in the US for ages but has only just got here. Then there’s my two purchases on the way to Portugal – which were When Grumpy Met Sunshine and Death at the Chateau. Then there’s the books I brought back from Portugal. Seven Scamps was a belated birthday gift and the two Julia books are loans (I think!) from the same friend. The Patricia Wentworth, Susan Elizabeth Philips and Jenny Colgan were acquisitions from the book exchange in Portugal. And then at the very back is Delayed Rays of a Star which was an impulse purchase second hand. So just a few then…
So I’ve pulled the trigger on an emergency Books Incoming because the pile of books that have arrived was getting very tall and a little wobbly, and that was before the arrivals while I was in Portugal. So here we are. To be fair, the mid-month post was early this month, and the photo was taken before Manila, so it was more a late February arrivals situation, but still. Ahem.
Half of this post is preorders of new releases – the RuPaul (which is signed!), the Armistead Maupin and the two Angela Thirkells – as Virago appear to have decided to release some more, which is going to mean another rearranging of the bookshelves! Then we have the airport purchases on the war to the Philippines – the Nita Prose sequel to The Maid and the new Tessa Bailey because I was intrigued by the idea of a golf romance!
The actual Manila purchases are the Beverly Jenkins, Susan Elizabeth Philips – which I have read but via the library and was such a bargain I couldn’t leave it in the shop and the final part of Angel Catbird which you can just about see at the back. And finally there’s the Diane Mott Davidson, which as I mentioned in the Goldy Schulz post is the last reasonably priced one that I can find.
And that’s it – as if it wasn’t enough! – until the next post at least and the pile is already not that small…
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 