Here we are with the pre-Christmas book haul. The Judi Dench was a whole saga, because the first copy went missing in the post and I didn’t think Simon at Big Green Books would have another one, but I got really lucky and he had a return. Which I got delivered to my parents’ house just to be safe! Then there’s a little batch of career novels which I treated myself to, another of the Edward Marston ship mysteries and two books from Foyles last week because I can’t help myself! Now depending on the amount of books I get for Christmas you may get a Christmas special books incoming, but I’m not sure yet, so I’m reserving the right to change my mind and bundle it all into January!
Well, the like was tiny this month for ages – just the Fangirl manga and then… well. The Worrals and the James Bond came from the vintage warehouse (same as the last Worrals did), the Vanderbeekers was a preorder that I had forgotten I had made (the best sort of preorder!), the Pamela Brown was a secondhand purchase after I saw a recommendation and the Dallergut Department Store and the Edward Marsden were the result of a trip to Foyles on Tuesday before the theatre after I’d seen Dallergut mentioned in Waterstones’ new book email and wanted to check it out. And of course I can’t just buy one book, it’s always two! I am going to try and control myself now in the run in to Christmas but I know I’ll have at least one in the photo this time next month – because I already have the dispatch email for it!
Quite a restrained month to be honest, I’m fairly impressed with myself. One charity shop buy, one second hand purchase, one vintage store pick and then the two airport purchases which are on a separate photo because I lent them out to my dad as soon as I got home! Will the restraint last? Hard to tell given that there’s a lot of good stuff coming out at the moment, but I will try!
Here we are, with another haul of books that I’ve somehow managed to acquire since the last post! So here we have the results of my trip to The Works – which are the Julie Cohen which looks like classic Rich People Problems stuff, To Swoon and to Spar which is the most recent Martha Waters’ Regency Vows series and A Terrible Village Poisoning, which is the third in a series that I think it trying to capitalise on the success of The Thursday Murder Club and that I want to try. I got the Tina Carter biography of Raine Spencer in Waterstones on the same day. Then there’s the Anne Granger, which I picked up after writing the post about Mitchell and Markby and being reminded that I hadn’t finished reading all the Campbell and Carter books and New Adult came from my trip to that humongous romance section in Waterstone’s Piccadilly. And the three remaining books were a bit on an impulse purchase online – I went looking for Barking, so that I could finish off the series and ended up with the other two as well. Oopsie daisy. But it happens. Now I just need to read some of them and get the pile down a bit!
Well, another fun month. I know this looks a lot, but six of these are that order from Words and Kisses closing down sale, two were preorders (The Cuban Heiress and Tastes Like Shakkar) and the final one was an impulse purchase when I saw it second hand. Now I just need to work my way down the backlog…
Ummmmm. Well. What can I say. Three are from the National Trust secondhand bookshop at Upton – including Maiden Voyages which is by Sian Evans who also wrote Queen Bees. Then there are a couple of paperback preorders – The Bodyguard and Lost Summers of Newport and another in the Goldy Schulz series. Then I popped into Foyles at the start of the week to see if they had the Dahlia Lively sequel (they did and as you can see I’ve already started it!) and ended up buying two more too! Where oh where is my will power? But do I even want to find it (hint: no!) I think the big run of preorders arriving is over now though as the summer releases are pretty much all out now, so perhaps I may keep a lid on things until the autumn rush starts in September?
Well, I’ve already read nearly fifty percent of this month’s acquisitions – which is quite a lot for me as you all know. Anyway, what’s on the pile? The first to arrive was the Tom Hanks, which only just missed last month’s post. I haven’t read it yet and it’s had mixed reviews, but I don’t care because my copy is signed! Then having really enjoyed the Fixer-Upper mysteries, Gower Street Waterstones enabled me to try one of Kate Carlisle’s other series, from that same trip I got Buried in the Country and the Laetitia Rodd mystery.
Then there are the latest arrivals in the summer romance releases – Once More With Feeling by Elissa Sussman and The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren and this week’s purchase, Mrs Nash’s Ashes. Then there’s the new Rivers of London (already read it!) and the new Andrew Cartmel. And finally there’s two more cozy crimes – both from series that I’ve read before – the Silver Six crafting series and the Library Lovers. And that’s your lot – four were preordered, the rest were… not, which means it’s actually not as impulsive as it looks. Or that’s what I’m telling myself!
Well, the pile was smaller for most of the month and then, well, suddenly it got a bit bigger. We’re missing one too – as I got my copy of Romantic Comedy delivered to the parents and I haven’t collected it yet. So that may yet appear in next month’s picture. Anyway, we have two more Diane Mott Davidsons as I continue to fill in the gaps around the ones that are available on Kindle. My sister and I both read about Reach for the Stars and said we had to have it but, couldn’t justify paying hardback prices, except this week there was an event for it at Foyles and so… I went. And I told you I had order This Bird Has Flown for click and collect in this weeks Week In Books – I picked it up Monday and started it immediately, which would have been fine as I had Waterstones stamps to spend on it, except I also bought the cozy crime. Ooops. Never mind.
Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. I usually lead with the photo but honestly this year I’m not doing very well with the self restraint and I’m almost scaring myself. It is a little more than a calendar month’s worth but February is quite a short month so it probably evens out, so no excuse there!
It’s bad isn’t it? Really bad. I mean the books are good. But the amount of them is bad. I mean the good news is that some of them are already off the pile because I read them even before this post! Death in the Stars is a Kate Shackleton and I read that the other week and The Cereal Murders is one of the Diane Mott Davidson’s that is not available on kindle so I read that too. White Mischief is one of the books about the Happy Valley set that I haven’t read yet and I picked it up in Bookends, which is also where The Ladies Auxiliary, the Edmund Crispin and the Jennifer Crusie came from.
The Crichel Boys and Young Bloomsbury are from two different wanders through Foyles – one before Noises Off and the other the same one I bought Death in the Stars as well. Bookman Dead Style is from that delightful cozy crime selection in Waterstones Gower Street. To The One I Love Best is from my walk over to see John Finnemore (I’ll explain next week!) and the Vanderbeekers, How to Fake it in Hollywood and the Tracey Thorn were impulse purchases off the internet after several different bad days. Because books make me better, right up until I’m confronted with the evidence of how many I’ve bought!
Well I suppose it’s a smaller selection than the last one, so I should try and be pleased with that. But if you think that these AND everything in the birthday post are all January acquisitions, then you’ll see why I find that not a lot to cheer about. Anyway, to the actual books. The Elizabeth Taylor is Kate Andersen Brower’s new book and given my interest in classic Hollywood and how much I enjoyed her books about the White House and it’s occupants, it probably shouldn’t be a surprise that I bought it for myself for my birthday. I also bought myself (or rather preordered myself) the signed Really Good, Actually which I just kept hearing about all over the place. As I mentioned in the post about the Christy Kennedy series, there are a few I haven’t read – and I’ve bought a couple of them after writing the post!
Then there’s the last two Emilie Richards Ministry is Murder books which I’ve been eying for a long time and bought in a week moment and The Foyles Three (as alluded to last weekend) – two romances because they had an offer on and how could I resist and the very, very discounted cosy crime which is from a series that I read several of via NetGalley years ago and haven’t seen around for ages. All in all not a bad haul and if only it wasn’t for the state of the to read bookshelf I would be quite happy. As it is the overspill pile is getting out of control so now I will have to redouble my efforts now I have finished the Meg Langslow reread!
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 