Well, haven’t I been a lucky lady! I had a birthday on Tuesday, not an exciting or big one, just a Douglas Adams-style one (some of you will get that). And my friends gathered together and made sure that I had plenty of books, as good friends do.
Icelandic Folk and Fairy Tales – this is registered on BookCrossing and I’m going to make sure to read it before and release it during our honeymoon in Iceland. Hooray!
Judy Budnitz – “If I Told you Once” – I know nothing about this: this and the three below it were bought by a friend to help me fill in my Century of Books project. This one is billed as an Angela Carter-like magical journey through a family’s history – looks very interesting.
Nella Larsen – “Passing” – I have heard of this book but never read it – the tale of childhood friends, one who ‘passes’ as white and marries a white racist, one who remains in Harlem and works for racial equality.
Ruth Park – “The Harp in the South” – an Australian novel about a poor family living in Sydney – again, looks very interesting.
Mary Lavin – “The House in Clewe Street” – I’ve previously read her “Mary O’Grady” and this looks to have a similar theme, set in working-class Ireland.
Angela Thirkell – “High Rising” / “Wild Strawberries” / “Pomfret Towers” – quite a few of my friends have been reading these light and interlinked novels from the 1930s, and I’ve been wishing I could, too, so I was pleased to receive this set of modern Viragoes.
Jeffrey Eugenides – “The Marriage Plot” – I adored this “Middlesex” and have had this one on my wishlist for a while. An appropriate title in this Year of Our Wedding, too!
Bob Harris – “The International Bank of Bob” – the story of Kiva and how it’s developed, Kiva being the microfinance loan organisation through which I regularly support entrepreneurs, business people and farmers around the world.
What a lovely haul and how well my friends know me (these came among notebooks, mugs, scarves, tea and appropriate gift vouchers, of course). Have you read any of these? What did you think of them?
Oh, and I know someone who I know through book blogging is a big Beverley Nichols fan – is it Kaggsy or Fleur Fisher or someone else? Do get in touch, as I’ve been having a weed of my biography section and found a lovely elderly hardback of “The Sweet and Twenties” which I’d love to pass on to you. Hopefully you’ll see this. Oh, the weed? Well, it made room for the books that were sitting in piles in front of the other books, so I suppose that’s some form of progress …
Hope you’re all having a lovely January of reading – any re-reading going on? I’m currently enjoying “Mansfield Park” …
Adventures in reading, running and working from home 
Jan 24, 2014 @ 13:15:01
Lovely books Liz – it’s always wonderful to receive books, particularly if people know you well and certainly yours look great – jealous of the Thirkells!
And it would be me that’s been going on about Beverley Nichols – I haven’t got or read “The Sweet and Twenties” so would *love* this very much – thank you so much!!!!
LikeLike
Jan 24, 2014 @ 13:17:39
Excellent – I’ve emailed you and I will send it to you soon along with another book I owe you. Hooray! And yes, all lovely books, hooray again!
LikeLike
Jan 24, 2014 @ 13:21:30
Thanks *so* much Liz – much appreciated!
LikeLike
Jan 24, 2014 @ 17:33:51
A very belated Happy Birthday and thanks for reminding me that I have a Thirkell on my shelf upstairs waiting to see if I enjoy her as much as so many of my blogging friends do.
LikeLike
Jan 24, 2014 @ 18:06:40
Thank you! Which one have you got?
LikeLike
Jan 24, 2014 @ 20:50:09
Well, that is certainly an interesting collection – lucky you. I haven’t read any of those titles but did read and enjoy “Middlesex”. You commented that your friends know you well; I think this is a list that falls into two totally different halves. The majority of the books you review are not ones that appeal to me and I suggest that the Judy Budnitz, Mary Lavin, and Angela Thirkell books would fall into your usual style of chosen books. How can I say that when I’ve not read any of the category I’m commenting on here?
But the Nella Larsen, Ruth Park, Jeffrey Eugenides, and Bob Harris books you received all sound appealing to me and I’ll likely put them on my Wish List. Actually, as I edit this comment, I’ve decided to order “The Bank of Bob” from the Book Depository – I think you know that I’m also taking part in Kiva. And, as I’ve mentioned to you before, I am very attracted to Iceland and envious of your honeymoon trip. Will you please write screeds when you are in that fascinating country. Well, afterwards will do fine – you might be too busy for writing at the time. I hope you have read “The Tricking of Freya” by Christina Sunley – if not it is worth reading before you travel.
You sure have great friends, and deservedly so.
LikeLike
Jan 24, 2014 @ 21:44:08
Thank you for your comment – and I’m glad that at least half of the books appealed! I think you normally like the non-fiction that I read more than the fiction. I’m so glad you’ve ordered “The Bank of Bob”, it does look fab and we do love our Kiva, don’t we. It’ll be fascinating to find out how it all started.
I will indeed try to write down something about Iceland – if it comes off, as we’ve just had to remove Finland from the list after some unexpected roof repairs. We have till June, as the buses don’t run until then. Still, one’s a bride for the first year of the marriage, apparently, so no rush to have the honeymoon immediately after the wedding! I haven’t read the Sunley, and have now added it to my wishlist – so much Icelandic fiction is entirely grisly crime-based and, while I can take that in my beloved sagas, I’m not so keen on the modern day depictions!
LikeLike
Jan 24, 2014 @ 21:07:30
PS. Your Douglas Adams comment puzzled Jack so he used Mr Goggle and found screeds and screeds of comments under the heading “Brainy Quotes”. Delightful diversion for us both.
LikeLike
Jan 24, 2014 @ 21:44:25
Excellent – glad to be of service!
LikeLike
Jan 24, 2014 @ 23:12:49
So glad you like the Thirkell’s I still have Promfret Towers to read myself I’m saving it.
LikeLike
Jan 25, 2014 @ 07:35:33
But there are about a million in the series, aren’t there? Or are Virago only reissuing them slowly? If you want to wait and read Pomfret Towers together, that would be lovely, however at the rate I’ve been acquiring new books, that is likely to be in the year 2025 …!!
LikeLike
Jan 25, 2014 @ 08:29:47
Hee hee. Virago are issuing slowly I think. Think another two come out soon (I may have just made that up) and I don’t know if they are doing all 20.
LikeLike
Jan 25, 2014 @ 18:49:42
Surely they will see the value in publishing them all???
LikeLike
Jan 25, 2014 @ 05:31:05
Happy Birthday. We had to read The Harp in the South at high school – I find I can’t remember a *thing* about anything I’ve been ‘made’ to read!
LikeLike
Jan 25, 2014 @ 07:36:32
How interesting! I’d never heard of this book before. I think I don’t remember books, but going through adding entries to my spreadsheet index of my reading diary, I find I remember them quite well. And I was made to read “Lord of the Flies” at school and remember that TOO well!
LikeLike
Jan 25, 2014 @ 10:10:53
What clever friends you have to buy you just the kind of books you’re interested in (or did you drop lots of hints?). I bought a Thirkell from a charity shop late last year because I kept seeing all the comments from other bloggers and wondered what I was missing. Have yet to read it though like so many other books similarly sitting on the shelves.
LikeLike
Jan 25, 2014 @ 18:50:44
Ali checked with me on the Thirkells so I knew they were coming, the four for the Century of Books were completely speculative, as was the Icelandic one, the other two were on my wishlists! So a good mix!
LikeLike
And so the TBR explodes … | Adventures in reading, writing and working from home
Jan 26, 2014 @ 10:38:36
Jan 28, 2014 @ 08:38:02
Happy belated birthday. Counting in base ten is just a convention behind our convention of getting over-excited (after18 and 21) about birthdays ending in zero. Whereas yours was the answer to *everything* 😉
LikeLike
Jan 28, 2014 @ 08:59:53
Indeed, indeed!
LikeLike
Book reviews – Ordinary Families and The Third Miss Symons, plus a lovely bookshop! | Adventures in reading, writing and working from home
Feb 09, 2014 @ 11:38:37