New To Me

The Kitchen House: A Novel
I heard great things about this one and no one around had it in stock. Thank goodness for amazon.

Stalin's Children: Three Generations of Love, War, and Survival
A spontaneous purchase while I was reading Child 44. I want to know more.

George Gissing's The Odd Women (Oxford World's Classics)
Read about this one here (check out this blog, I'm in love). Also loving these Oxford editions in general.

The Joy of Eating: The Virago Book of Food
Not sure where I read about this one, but had to have it immediately. I thought it would be a book of essays. Instead, it's more a book of 'blurbs' arranged by topic. Good for dipping in and out of.




These arrived for review.

Beatrice and Virgil: A Novelwas a surprise.

Wild Romance: A Victorian Story of a Marriage, a Trial, and a Self-Made Woman
Received this thanks to the Librarything Early Reviewer program. Sounds like just my sort of book.

Feel like a chat? Plus book porn.

I'm feeling rather chatty today. It's been a busy morning. Before eleven AM I dropped the girl off at school, got gas and groceries, made 6 jars of butterscotch (see last post), wrapped my Christmas gifts, and am on my fourth load of laundry. Whew! I am rushing, rushing, rushing, because I have a movie date with my coworker/friend this afternoon. It is a rare day that we can get together and see a movie in our favorite genre - The British Period Film - we are seeing An Education. My husband thinks I'm nuts to go see this since there are all sorts of 'nominated' films out there. Whatever. If he was being really nice today, he'd let me see a double feature and go to Young Victoria, as well, but it is not to be. In addition to all this rushing, our Christmas plans are now up in the air due to this new storm coming through the Midwest. I'd just as soon stay home than go to Iowa (so not festive), so perhaps I will get my dream to stay home this year. Doubt it.

I really, really, want to get a few reviews, well, not reviews, my reactions to books up in this space before the end of 2009. I am going to try, but not kill myself over it - I am operating on Blog Simplicity here you know. Next week will be devoted to my 2009 statistics and favorite books of the year, as well as sharing a book project I've been working on all year and my husband wishes would disappear (it's messy). I am a general pessimist in life, but must be an optimist about books, as I've been reluctant to post favorites until now. What if the best book of the year came along? But alas it has not.

In lieu of reviews/reactions and the like, here are the books that have come into my home over the past few months.

These are from Bookcloseouts -they were having a crazy 50% off fiction sale. I'm really curious about the Sarah Rayne (it sounds creepy and suspenseful) and excited about the Linda Holeman, an author under published in the US.




Well this is a lousy photograph, it's very grey here. I'm super excited about The Madness of a Seduced Woman, I loved this author's book, Anya. Has anyone read this?



Here are some new books I couldn't resist.



And here are some more. I'm reading Daphne: A Novelright now and it's quite good.



If I had more time, I'd give you more links here, but I've got to go! Cheers!

Books from Britain Part 1 of ??

I always seem to read a disproportionally high number of books by British authors, but I think this year there has been a record number. Now that it is so easy to order from a particular depository of books I seem to order one book here, one book there (there is no minimum order for shipping).

While I am on the topic of this depository I thought I'd share a few tips I've gleaned from shopping there. First, there are two websites you can order from: the dot com and the dot UK. The prices are slightly different so check both places. Second, the preorder prices are AMAZING especially at the dot com site for some reason. I bought Nigel Slater's new book on preorder for a song, and have bought paperbacks, retail price $13-14 for $5-7. So, if there is something coming out you know you've got to have; preorder it!

Now for a few things I've read:

The Mesmerist by Barbara Ewing


Well, we know I love a good Victorian romp, and that is just how this engaging and entertaining book begins, with two somewhat-aged actresses looking for a new profession. Cordelia becomes a Mesmerist, Rillie her assistant. This is all fun and successful, but these two 'ladies' have secrets. Oh, do they have secrets! Suddenly, almost unexpectedly, things become much more Dark and Sordid, but also much more interesting. Scandal and murder and a Victorian style court case round out this book. This is just the sort of comfort reading I love to fall into. A delight!

Shadows of the Workhouse by Jennifer Worth


Shifting to the 20th century, this is the second of Worth's trilogy of her life as a nurse in the East End. I adored the first in the series, The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times, and knew I had to have this. Worth is a master storyteller and one immediately becomes engaged in the tales she tells. Shadows of the Workhouse is made up of three stories, two real heart breakers that sandwich a lighter tale about a Nun Worth lived with.

Overall, Worth gives a fascinating peek into a world we rarely read about, that of the poor of the East End. This is a great book for lovers of social history, as well as medical history. I didn't find this book quite as engaging as the author's first, but still a worthwhile read.

Eye Candy

I don't think I've done one of these posts for awhile! I think my book buying slowed down a bit this year which is good for my wallet anyway. I should warn you, these aren't the best photos ever taken.

I've been having a bit of a British book binge lately.



I keep ordering things from The Book Depository! I love to boost the British economy, you know. I think the free shipping on all orders makes it so easy to order one thing here, one thing there...I have 2 books on their way here right now.

Danielle actually talked me into the top book, The Forsyte Saga: The Man of Property,the first book in The Forsyte Saga. These new single book editions are so much more reader friendly than the huge tome. I actually found this UK edition at a US store. I also found the second title, The Book of Love at Border's and had to snatch it up after the good press from the UK book bloggers. The other titles are ones I've had my eye on for some time, except for the Emily Barr which is a new release that I'm already reading.

Here are some books that were given to me.




A friend in Chicago handed me Tales of Burning Love by Louise Erdrich book when I told her how much I enjoyed The Master Butcher's Singing Club. She said she really liked this one.

The other two books are ARCs. I requested Alice I Have Been - this sounds amazing and I feel really lucky to have scored this one. The John Irving book came unsolicited - and it is huge. I've read one book by Irving and since it's here, I'll give this one a try.

This final stack contains other books I've bought.




Pass the Polenta: And Other Writings from the Kitchen fits into that food memoir category I'm so fond of. I'll be reading The Gargoyle soon for bookclub. The bottom two books I found at a used book store in Chicago. The Bretts was apparently a Masterpiece Theatre presentation in the 80s. The Second Sister by Leslie O'Grady is a book I'm quite curious about. It sounds like a blend of romance and suspense - has anyone read this author?

Finally, you'll see Boston 2010 there. My last copy of Frommer's Boston is from 1997 and I'm thrilled to be returning there next month. Any suggestions?

It's a good day for chocolate cake....

Because today is My Birthday!

I woke up to a homemade card that reads: I love you so,so,so,so,so,so,so,so,so,so MUCH! Fabulous.

I received some new earring to replace the ones that were stolen in November (house was broken into). Nothing fancy, just costume jewelery.

I am going out to dinner and then I am going to eat Chocolate Mousse Cake from Buttercream Bakery. They make wedding cakes and use all natural ingredients. Yum!

I am going to treat myself to some new Persephone books thanks to their 3 for 2 anniversary offer; it seems we share a birthday.

Finally, it seems like a good time to share some books that have creeped into my house lately.



Here we have some books I ordered from The Book Depository when they were having a sale.

Persephone's Miss Buncle's Book. The Cranks Bible which is a vegetarian cookbook with a Middle Eastern twist. Singled Out which I've had my eye on for ages. The Blackest Streets - subtitle is The Life and Death of a Victorian Slum - just my thing, and another Barbara Ewing novel - loved The Trespass a few years back.



Here are new advance copies that have arrived.

This Lovely Life: a memoir of premature motherhood - I've skimmed this one a bit - it looks heartbreaking, devastating, and wonderfully written.

Sarah Dunant's new book Sacred Hearts about a 16 year old sent to a convent against her will in the 16th century.

Gifts of War - a love story set against the backdrop of WW2.

Au Revoir to All That: Food, Wine and the End of France - food, wine, France? Sounds good to me.



Here are the books I've purchased, new and used.

The Moonflower Vine - 'A timeless American classic rediscovered, An unforgettable saga of a heartland family' This was a bestseller in the 1960s.

Ruth Rendell. Of course.

Laurie Colwins's cooking memoirs - I got tired of seeing these all over the place and not having read them. I'm on a bit of a food memoir binge, anyway.

The Silent Raga - the story of two sisters in India - the cover is gorgeous - I couldn't resist.

American Cookery - A family saga complete with recipes. I kept picking this up and putting it back until finally I found a used copy and brought it home. Has anyone read this or anything by author Laura Kalpakian?



Finally, here are some books that I've won or mooched, or scored from paperbackswap.

Highlights here include What the Butler Saw:Two Hundred and Fifty Years of the Servant Problem and Barbara Vine's latest, The Birthday Present which is of course worth mentioning today.

Cheers!

The Dam Has Broken

I wrote a few weeks ago that I hadn't bought many books in January. Well, I made up for that in February. Let's check out my latest arrivals!



From the top:

East of the Sun is a UK publication I've had my eye out for. Harriet Devine wrote a great review of it here. I was lucky enough to mooch this one!

Grange House is another mooch/swap book - a turn of the century ghost story I understand.

I read about Minette Walters in my Good Reading Guide and ordered The Ice House and Laurie King's second book in the Mary Russell series with my Amazon giftcard. I won Among the Mad from Danielle's giveaway - yeah for Maisie Dobbs!




Here are the latest ARCs that have arrived here. A Lucky Child is a memoir written by a holocaust survivor, The Crimes of Paris, also nonfiction, details the period in 1911 when the Mona Lisa was stolen. The bottom three are novels.




Ahhhh. Here is my latest order from Bookcloseouts (how do I love thee, let me count the ways) minus a Clarice Bean book for the girl. I purchased all 8 books, with shipping, for 42 dollars. What a steal!!

Gallowglass - a Barbara Vine that I didn't have, love her.

The Shape of Snakes by Minette Walters -curious about her.

The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates - my bookclub is reading this later this year. Goodness, is it ever long!

A Letter of Mary is the third in the Mary Russell series.

Scapegallows by Carol Birch is a book that Danielle wrote about not long ago. This is the story of a British woman, the cover states "Sentenced to hang not once, but twice, she escaped, and became and Australian pioneer." Sounds good, no?

Sophie Hannah's The Point of Rescue - Hannah's suspenseful books have grabbed me in the past and won't let go. Check out the synopsis.

And finally, A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam is the story of woman and her family set against the backdrop of the Bangladesh War of Independence. I've wanted to read this since it first came out and was happy to find this copy - I love the cover.

I'd love to hear your comments if you've read any of these.

I guess I'd better get reading! But first I have to clean the bathroom. Have a nice weekend!

I bought some books!

I never thought that would be news, but I realized the other day when my husband asked me if I was ordering anything soon from Amazon that I hadn't book shopped in a while, almost not at all in 2009. I needed to rectify that quickly (not really, but you know what I mean)..so I stopped into Half Price Books for an hour the other day. Check out my great finds!



I found Salem Chapel, a Virago that I didn't have, and a couple of P.D. James books. I'm not sure when or where I heard about P.D. James - definitely from the book blog world. I found exactly what I was looking for - An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, and think Innocent Blood looks really good as well. My big score of the day was 1939: The Last Season by Anne De Courcy. I've had my eye out for this for years and have considered ordering it from the UK. That's the best thing about shopping at Half Price - those surprising finds that make me catch my breath.

Once I got home I realized I hadn't been as pure in the book buying department as I thought.



I've also picked up The Red Leather Diary by Lily Koppel, one I'd been waiting for in paperback; Climbing the Mango Trees by Madhur Jeffrey, and The Beekeeper's Apprentice. The two books on the bottom are advance copies.

It looks like I am going to be a delinquent book club member this month. Our February book is The Plague of Doves, Louise Erdrich's latest novel. I'm not sure why, but 30 pages in I feel completely flummoxed by it and I dread picking it up again. In fact, I think I won't. I know another member who said this is the first novel she's ever put down 80 pages in and said enough, and my mother-in-law couldn't finish it either which is saying something. I had high hopes for it, since I enjoyed her novel The Master Butcher's Singing Club so very much.

I don't think Bloglines is updating me properly, so if you missed my last post(s) do look below as I am having a giveaway.

Cheers!

Merry Christmas to me!

As promised, here are the books 'my husband' got me for Christmas. (I chose and ordered all of them. Which makes me perfectly happy.)

Here are the Persephone Books. I'm sorry the photo is so terrible, there is no light here, we're expecting a storm. I ordered the short stories by Dorothy Whipple and the Vere Hodgson Diaries. I've had my eye on both of these for some time.



Here are the cookbooks. I'm having a wonderful time reading these! The Riverford Farm book is arranged by vegetable alphabetically, the Abel & Cole is arranged by season. Both are lovely, with lots of photos and inspiration. My only question is, what is swede? My guess is turnip.



Here are the rest from The Book Depository. Emily Barr is my guilty pleasure, another by Mary Stanley, I believe this is the only one I didn't have, and Shopped as recommended by Nutmeg. I figure whatever is going on in British supermarkets is probably going on here.



Finally, I placed an order with a used bookstore recently and ordered these for myself. A couple Viragos, and I chose the Barbara Ewing book since I enjoyed her book The Trespass a few years ago.



The reason I was ordering from a used bookstore was to buy this, A Ride on The Red Mare's Back by Ursula Le Guin. Have you heard of it?



My daughter read it at school and they did a unit about it. She loved it and wanted her own copy but it's out of print. This is the gift she was most excited about, which was pretty thrilling. The copy is very nice with dust jacket intact. It is inscribed 'To my little Susie, Love, Grandma' so I had to explain that. I'm not sure how much Susie liked it since it's in such good condition.

I have a few reviews of 2008 books yet to write, but with all these people in the house and getting interrupted every 83 seconds prevents me from doing them. Also, I'm still watching Lost and have finished up to episode 13 of the first season. What did Kate do? Will the Korean man ever discover his wife's secret? Who was Ethan? Yep, I'm obsessed.

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.

From Cornfields to the Big City

We drove to Iowa last Sunday so that my daughter could attend vacation bible school at the church my in-laws belong to. We saw some of the flood damage the next day. We could see how high the water of the Des Moines river was in several different places. This is supposed to be a parking lot.



Things are still a bit of a mess in lots of places.

On Tuesday, my husband and I drove past mile, after mile, after mile of cornfields. What used to seem fairly boring and benign, now looks poisonous to me. Fields of corn, unfit for human consumption, government subsidized and headed for cows, high fructose corn syrup, and ethanol.

Our destination though - far from boring. One of my favorite and arguably one of the best cities in the world. My old hometown.



My kind of town, Chicago is.

Stayed steps off of Michigan Avenue. Enjoyed happy hour with old friends along the Chicago River. Wonderful meals, old favorites and new restaurants discovered. A museum visited. A walking tour of the Gold Coast.



Walks by the lakefront.




Could there be a more beautiful city? The first time I drove along Lake Shore Drive, right here, between the beach and the high rises, I said "I'm going to live here." And I did.

I even bought a few books.



I love the small independent, but there is something to be said for the huge chain. While I feel like I've seen everything in my local Barnes and Noble, the Michigan Avenue Borders had new things to discover, books I'd never seen or heard of. Love that.

Love being home, too.

What we found on the North Shore....food and books

We had a lovely time on our trip to the North Shore. We drove to Duluth, played at the wooden playground, saved a child who had wandered off from his daycare provider and was in a parking lot, walked on the lake walk, and enjoyed the rocky shore.

We then drove north, stopping at Gooseberry falls, and ending up on Lutsen mountain, where we stayed and again rode the alpine slide and gondola up to the top of the mountain. Great scenery, cooler weather, the sound of water, it was pretty relaxing despite a child with a listening problem. Here are some photos from last year.

Somewhat amazing to me, there are some really good restaurants up north. I've mentioned this in the past. We dined again at the Angry Trout - my husband had the fish and chips with the best.tarter.sauce.ever. Seriously. We had a very elegant meal at Chez Jude complete with a hushed dining room and edible flowers. We didn't even get to try all the restaurants I wanted to, which is really saying something for this village of 1400 people. There is even a fantastic natural foods co-op there, which naturally I toured. Yes, I am the sort of person that sees grocery stores as attractions in places I travel. I've toured others in Mexico, Paris, London, and Quebec.

Here are some treats we brought home, blueberry-sour cherry jam from The Pie Place (great breakfast), wild huckleberry jam, and some really nice looking peanut butter.



Here are some books we brought home. Yeah!



I bought these at Northern Lights Books in Duluth. I just love these tiny little shops, with each book there for a reason, each one handpicked by someone who loved it, and not just there because they sell well.

Keeping the House has a beautifully retro-looking cover which seems to fit well with the book description. Here is the description from Ellen Baker's website. Sounds charming, no? I can think of a few of my blogging friends who might like this one.

The other title I picked up will probably appeal to most of us booklovers, Novel Destinations, a travel guide to all places literary. I was a little disappointed that only one of Laura Ingalls Wilder's home made it into this guide, but I suppose they only had so much room.

How cute is this bookshop?



That's Lake Superior just past the shop. I think I wanted to go up to Grand Marais just to return to this bookshop. Don't tell my husband. But this place is perfectly adorable and charming. My daughter found a couple of books to read and a pretty window seat to read them in.



This is where I purchased Give Me the World by Leila Hadley. I feel as though I've seen this book before, but the description didn't seem familiar: a young woman bored with her life,leaves New York with her 6 year old son on a cargo ship headed for Hong Kong. She winds up traveling around the world. Oh, and this takes place in 1951. Wow! I'm really looking forward to this.

I picked up Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey at another bookshop in town. This speaks to my love of the pioneer story.

All in all, a nice time. I'd love to see what it's like up there in the winter...but that would really require some bravery. Perhaps someday. I'm not really the sort of person that goes on the same vacation every year, however this was our third time to travel to the North Shore. It won't be the last. There's something about it.

Feeling Slumpy

I've been in a reading slump here. I've begun four different books - one started well and though I lost interest I'm continuing with it, another from the library will go back after about 10 pages, two more that I tried and couldn't get on with. I don't know what it was, but finally I decided that perhaps I had too much on my mind to read fiction - which has happened to me in the past - does it ever happen to you? And I needed some nonfiction. Well, was I ever right, because I chose something I should have read years ago and is absolutely blowing my mind. More to come on that, but here are a few books I read before my slump:



Mothernight by Sarah Stovell - I knew I had to read this after Elaine and Karen's reviews a while back. The Book Depository finally had a copy and it became mine. Leila is seventeen years old and is returning to her father and stepmother's home for the first time since childhood. Leila was effectively banished after a terrible tragedy involving her infant brother. Leila returns home with Olivia, a boarding school friend with whom she has an intense relationship, and comes back in contact with Rosie, a childhood friend with whom she had a disturbing and uneven friendship with. Despite the setting of this novel, under the hot summer sun, I found this book to be wonderfully creepy, cold and disturbing. I loved reading the different character's points of view and how they manipulated one another. The tension in the story builds and secrets are uncovered slowly and carefully by the author. A terribly entertaining book and terrific cover as well.

The Dark Lantern by Gerri Brightwell - I had been interested in this book since I'd been browsing at Barnes and Noble, but when Danielle reviewed it I knew it was a must-read. This book is full of all the ingredients that make a great read for me: the upstairs/downstairs servant issues, filthy, foggy Victorian London, a host of people who are not what they seem, and a little bit of history, in this case, the study of anthropometry, the science of identifying criminals by body measurements. I enjoyed learning about anthropometry and its comparison with fingerprinting. The supporters argued that it was too difficult to catalog all the fingerprints and much easier to look up things by precise measurement.

Jane Wilbred takes a position as a maid in the Bentley's home and is soon swept up in the unusual goings-on of the household. Her mistress, who would rather her own secrets not be found out, uses Jane as a spy and sends her on mysterious errands. Jane cannot tell who can trust and who she cannot - it seems at times there is no one. This was another entertaining book with a satisfying conclusion.

Something I've been thinking about for a while is putting together a cookbook for myself. Besides my cookbooks, I have lots of pages of recipes that I use regularly and that float around my kitchen trying to get lost. I had thought about using Tastebook, but I'd have to type out all my recipes and what if I made a mistake? Now I'm thinking about buying a pretty binder and plastic page protectors and setting a book up this way. Any better ideas? Just cataloging them on the computer is not going to work because the computer is not in the kitchen and I need a hard copy.