Friday, September 12, 2008

Books, Glorious Books!

Let's see what we have here, shall we?



I purchased these two books the same evening at a small independent bookstore. Jonis Agee, the author of The River Wife, is considered somewhat of a local author, having lived in Saint Paul for many years. Wave of Terror by Theodore Odrach has recently been translated into English; it is a novel of Belarus under Stalin. What really strikes me about these two books, and what I did not notice until I brought them home, is how very similar they look. Both have green as the dominant color, both have writing in white, both show water and branches across the cover.



The Bloomsbury World Fiction book was an impulse buy on the same evening I bought the books shown above. There's nothing I like more than a book full of lists of books. Naturally, I had to see if Bloomsbury had any other books in this vein, and promptly ordered the Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide from The Book Depository. Both are wonderful, though I prefer the World Fiction Guide. The entries are arranged by country, with short descriptions of each book, longer ones for others, and the books and authors are oftentimes not familiar to me - a plus.



The top three books in this stack were part of my Book Depository order. I've been eyeing Michel Faber's The Apple for some time now - it is a book of short stories based on the characters that appeared in The Crimson Petal and The White, a book I found absolutely delicious. The Sophie Hannah book came from a swap, and the other two books are about the neighborhood in Chicago where I used to live, Old Town.



Here we have some books I am meant to review. The 19th Wife was actually a prize from Allison's Attic.

Quite a lot of lovely new books here, now I need only the time to read them.

11 comments:

Carrie K said...

When you do have time, how will you choose? So many good books. So little time.

Bree said...

Wow what a stack. I just finished 19th Wife - good read but if you have questions afterwards, come read my questions on my review and we'll compare. I just received Something like Beautiful as well and have read first chapter. So far so good. I might check out her first one - The Prisoners Wife. I'm terribly judgement of books based on their cover art. As if the author had anything to do with it...but it does seem as if some covers are very similiar to others. Its got to be a marketing ploy. I have never bought a book of book lists. I figure it would be the absolute downfall of my TBR pile - like toppling it completely. The blogging world does enough of that.

Good luck figuring out which you are going to read first.

Nan said...

You are such an eclectic reader, Tara! The Morton book is the only one I've heard of. :<)

I did just read a review at Susie Vereker's blog of a Hannah book:
http://susievereker.blogspot.com/2008/09/creepers-and-recent-reading.html

Is the Capote title fiction??

Anonymous said...

I am ashamed to say that I never knew there was a Good Reading Guide! I am heading over to the depository right away!

Danielle said...

I need more reading time too!! I think Jonis Agee is originally from Nebraska? I read one of her earlier books, which I really enjoyed. I love seeing your stacks and I had never heard of those Bloomsbury guides, but now I am going to have to have them, too!!! I read The Apple a couple of years ago (really liked it though of course not as good as the Crimson Petal...) and I also have the Morton book on my TBR pile. Now I have to check out the other new to me titles! :)

Tara said...

Carrie K, I don't know! It's really rather ridiculous how many books I have.

Bree, I purposefully did NOT read your review because I was afraid of spoilers. I will come back and do so after I read it. The cover art issue is very interesting and I agree with you about it being a marketing ploy. I have lots of books of book lists. I can't help myself from buying more!

Nan, my husband would disagree! He says I read the same book over and over, which I think is completely wrong. I'm going to check out that review you mentioned. Yes, the Capote title is fiction. I'll be hosting the author, Kim Powers, on October 27 for a book tour. Other bloggers will feature him during the month of Oct. so you'll be seeing more of this book around.

Kristina, I was a bit shocked myself! I hope you enjoy it.

Danielle, Yes, Jonis Agee is from Nebraska, but she taught at a small local college here for a while. It was funny, the person at the bookstore asked me 'do you know Jonis?' and I gave her quite a blank look since I hadn't really looked that carefully at the author's name. I thought you would be interested in those Bloomsbury guides!

Iliana said...

What a great stack of books. I'm so intrigued by those Bloomsbury guides as you are right, books with book lists are so fun :)

I have the Capote in Kansas book just waiting for me too! I'm off to check out some of your other titles as they intrigue me.

Lisa said...

This is an impressive stack of books. I also love books with lists of books. I'm not sure why because I'll never be able to read everything I have now. These are new to me, and I'll definitely be checking them out. Thanks for the tip.

Tara said...

Iliana, I was surprised (and thrilled!) that I hadn't seen the Bloomsbury Guides before. I look forward to your thoughts on Capote in Kansas.

Lisa, thank you! And I'm exactly like you - there is NO reason I should be looking for more books to read but there it is. An obsession!

Carrie K said...

Your stacks look delicious! now i want to take pictures of my stacks...

happy reading :)

Tara said...

Carrie K, I hope you do, I'd love to see your stacks. Of books.