The last book haul for May. I think.......

Seeing as it is my birthday on Monday, I decided to treat myself to some shiny new books, each of which I have bought on recommendation from others on Goodreads or Booktube.  I had to restrain myself to three (which was very hard work!) but these are the ones I settled for:

Evening is the Whole Day was a recommendation on Goodreads. It is set in Malaysia and follows the wealthy Rajasekharan family "as its closely guarded secrets are slowly peeled away" (so says the blurb on Goodreads). It has got a heap of five star ratings, with many readers saying it is their favourite novel of all time, so I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in to this one. Love reading about India - M.M. Kaye's The Far Pavilions got me into my fascination with it, and having recently finished Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children I feel in the mood for another trip to the east whilst sitting on my sofa. 

I have never read anything by Wilbur Smith before, but - and I know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover - I just love Egypt and myth, etc. It's his brand new historical fiction/adventure novel, two of my favourite genres, but has had mixed reviews so I am excited to find out for myself what this is like. 

The Enchanted April was a Booktube recommendation - it's a feelgood novel set in 1920s England/Italy, an era I absolutely love. From the blurb I can tell you that it's about four women who wish to escape the measly English weather by renting a villa in Italy for a month's sojourn, during which time each character undergoes "a heartening realisation about herself". Sounds right up my street!

I'm about 3/4 of the way through Kate Atkinson's Life After Life right now - am aiming to get it finished by Monday. Then it is the decision as to which one to read next.......

I didn't mean this to happen......honest.

So, I'm at my Uni tutorial last Saturday, when my tutor tips me off about a book sale that is occurring in a church along the road from the Uni, the proceeds from which are going to the charity Christian Aid. As my tutor proudly shows me the nine books he picked up for under £10, I am willing the following two hours to fly in so that I can go along. Just for a look, mind. I have enough books at home that need reading and besides, I don't have room on my bookshelves for any more tomes (seeing as a large number of my books are beginning a conquest of the floors).

Tutorial finishes, I grab a Starbucks and head along to the aforementioned church. I felt like a child in a sweetie shop.

There are literally stacks upon stacks of lovely literature, all yelling out at me to buy them. There weren't quite scuffles, but I dived in and rescued one or two titles that I had been wanting to get for ages, plus a couple of novels I haven't read since I was a teenager.

To cut a long story short, 1 hour and 2 full boxes later, this is what I left the church with......

My weekend book haul (yes, another one!).

Have had an unintentional absence from my blog, mainly due to a Uni essay being due within the next few weeks and the fact that I needed to do a lot of research for it. I have been busy reading my way through Terry Pratchett's Discworld  series of novels, in the wake of his death (so sad!); reviews for the ones I have completed will be posted very soon. Needless to say, I am a huge fan of Pratchett now - it's just a shame it took his death for me to start reading my hubby's collection of his books!

Anyhow.....

I've been a bit naughty recently, and had a bit of a book-buying-binge. As well as picking up Plato's Republic, De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater, (studied this in one of my English undergrad modules and loved it so bought my own copy), and Joyce's The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man from a small independent local bookshop, I made the mistake (well - it wasn't really a mistake but to the rest of my family it appeared thus) of wandering into Waterstone's on Saturday, where I picked up this little lot. I'm so excited to have the sequel to Ransom Riggs's Mrs Peregrine's School for Peculiar Children; I bought the first novel as an ebook and loved it so much that I bought it again in paper format, as well as the sequel. There are also a couple of Discworld novels that were missing from our collection, the Margaret Kennedy novel The Ladies of Lyndon (haven't read anything by her yet), and The Beautiful and the Damned by F.Scott Fitzgerald. And do you like my bag?

So many new books, so much Uni work - there is a battle royal going on about which to do first! Gah!

Mission Not-Buying-Books: Failure.

Well, things started off okay, until I happened to be passing Waterstone's, and there just happened to be a deal on, and the four books I have recently added to my TBR list were available through this deal.

Oops.

Another weekend feeding my reading habit. Maybe next week will be more successful.

February 2015 Book Haul.

Sometimes I don't realise how bad my reading addiction is until I take stock of the sheer number of tomes I have bought within a couple of weeks. Thank goodness for student discounts!

Having visited three bookshops so far this month (and it's only 11th February - not even halfway through yet!), here is my book haul for the month (I really can't justify buying many more until March now!).

1. The Bees by Laline Paull. This is one of the Waterstone's Book Club (WBC) books that I thought sounded quite fun. Very different from what I usually read, but I'm feeling open-minded about it. Looks like it is a thriller, so that's exciting!

2. Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey. Another WBC book which, according to the reviews, looks like a genre-crossing detective tale. Hmmm.

3. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton. The last of the WBC books I have bought this month. The cover artwork enticed me to buy it - yes I know books shouldn't be judged by their covers - but it is intriguing. Containing suspense and a gripping plot-line, I think I'm going to enjoy this one too. Ooh which one to read first?!

4. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I bought this on recommendation by Jen Campbell on Booktube; again a different type of novel to that which I usually read, but hey - it's nice to escape from the usual sometimes. It's all about 80s pop culture, a decade that I grew up in, so that's a great start.

5. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. For being a classics nut, I can't believe that I haven't read this yet. It's been on my TBR list for ages.

6. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Now, I have read this but it was years and years ago, and I fancied a new copy ahead of the release of her new book in July.

7. The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Really looking forward to getting stuck into this one. I absolutely loved Crime and Punishment and adore dark Russian fiction. Want to get even more Dostoyevsky novels, as they are gripping and real page-turners. Hoping this one is the same.

8. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Another classic which I have not read. Felt embarrassed admitting it, so I bought it.

9. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. another novel that I have read but only on my Kindle, and I really REALLY wanted a physical copy. It's one of my favourites.

10. Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. Yet another neglected classic. Love Hardy and his lyrical, aesthetic prose and so I'm looking forward to reading this novel - the only one of his that, until now, I didn't own.

11. The Divine Comedy by Dante. Absolutely loved Inferno so it was essential that I bought this. Essential,  I say.

12. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo. One of the two Hugo novels I bought this month. I've seen the film many times but yet have not read the book - purchasing this will allow me to remedy that!

13. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. This has been on my TBR list for longer than I can remember. It's had raving reviews, so I'm looking forward to enjoying it for myself.

14. Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence. I bought this because I hadn't heard of this author before, and was intrigued by it being "of high literary aspiration" and which resembles the writing styles of Dostoyevsky, Melville, Eliot, and Joyce. It "tells of the campaign against the Turks in the Middle East" - a war novel which sounds to me like it is along a similar vein to Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep North which I loved.

15. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. The second Hugo novel I have bought this month. Have seen the musical, have the soundtrack on CD, but needed the book. It is MASSIVE though!

16. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. Quite enjoyed his novel Never Let Me Go so thought I would try another of his books.

17. Parade's End by Ford Maddox Ford. I have this on Kindle but I wanted it in physical form - that way I might get past the first few pages! (I find it easier reading from paper pages than a screen). It's a novel about the Great War and the destruction and reconstruction that arose from it, focusing on the life of the protagonist Christopher Tietjens. It is another large tome, but I have enjoyed what I have read so far.

18. Dr Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. I loved the film, read the book in Senior School, but wanted my own copy. This book was banned in the Soviet Union until 1988, and tells of the life and loves of a poet-physician during the turmoil of the Russian Revolution. Yuri Zhivago finds himself caught between the Whites and the Reds, and in love with the beautiful Lara. I just know I'm going to need tissues handy when I re-read this.

And that's it! See what I mean? I've had a binge this month, but I'm looking forward to many pleasurable hours working my way through that little lot.

Will post reviews on the books whenever I finish them. Even if that is months away!