Hello! I have two reviews that I’ve recently had published on Shiny New Books to tell you about, and just a few new books in (oops, not oops)
Robyn Lea – “A Room of Her Own: inside the Homes and Lives of Creative Women” looks at a set of women from various places in the US, Europe and Australia who have created interesting and stunning interiors as part of their life’s work, whether they’re artists, interior designers or other creatives.
Not all the women started out as wealthy as they appear to be now. Some are descendants of big designing or European aristocratic families but others started out more middle or lower class. All seem uncompromising in their attitude to creating their surroundings, whether that’s making interesting collections, showcasing their own art works or introducing highly modern pieces into ancient interiors. We do start out with a woman in a castle; but a woman who was very reluctant to up sticks and move into her husband’s ancestral castle. Many of the women’s stories are unexpected and interesting. The pandemic plays a part and the texts do not shy away from the panic attacks, bereavements, family conflicts and complex paths some of these women have experienced.
Read more here
“Your Voice Speaks Volumes” by Jane Setter is a fascinating look at voice and accent, of course looking at regional accents and the sociology around them (and around people who are perceived to change their accent) but also about artificial voices, the way trans people might wish to change their voices (with a very interesting case of a trans woman who complained she came out sounding like a straight woman, not the lesbian woman she was) and other aspects:
Changing voices are covered in a chapter about professionals who use and think about their voices – chiefly singers and radio announcers, and also the voice coaches who work with actors and the like. The chapter on criminology and phonetics is fascinating, too, looking in detail at the work of speaker profiling, and using auditory and acoustic analysis to work out and back up whether two voices on two tapes might be the same voice (or not).
Read more here
Incomings

So, last week, I had to go and pick up some medication from one local pharmacy and then pop to another in search of some elusive new and different rapid-flow Covid tests (which I did not find). And between these pharmacies, its door passed as I went, was Oxfam Books. Oops. I don’t know how I’m going to fit these on my TBR shelf, but you can’t leave good books in charity shops, can you; they’ll be snapped up the second you leave the place ..
We’ve been enjoying watching Stacey Dooley’s documentaries where she stays in someone’s house, as well as her “This is My House” gameshow but have missed her earlier investigative journalism work with women in difficult circumstances, so I was pleased to spot “Stacey Dooley on the Frontline with the Women who Fight Back”.
The next one down the pile will please Brona of This Reading Life. She hosts the wonderful AusReading Month every November, and I was bemoaning the fact that I had no Australian books to read and talk about in my TBR, as I was trying to do all my challenges this year from the TBR. Well, this is NOW on the TBR … Sven Lindqvist’s “Terra Nullius” is a searing indictment of the way Native Australian people have been mistreated and abused, so I will be learning as well as taking part in the challenge (more about the challenge here). More travel: Sara Wheeler’s “The Magnetic North” is the Arctic companion to the Antarctic book of hers I’ve had for years.
Then in diaries and memoirs, David Lodge’s “Writer’s Luck: A Memoir 1976-1991” covers the period when he was working at the University of Birmingham and overlaps with the time I was there in his department but he was just an esteemed visiting professor as his literary career had really taken off by then. “The View from the Corner Shop” by Kathleen Hey is a Mass Observation Diary from 1941-1946 covering, well, oddly enough, life in a British corner shop and should be fascinating.
In novels, Cathy Kelly is a favourite Irish writer who has taken on the mantle of Maeve Binchy and writes good, woman-centred stories; I think “The Family Gift” is her latest (I might save this for Irish Reading Month next year if I remember to). I have seen Tsitsi Dangarembga’s “Nervous Conditions” reviewed by Imogenglad recently so I was very pleased to find it as it had been in my mind ever since (it was the first book by a Black Zimbabwean writer to be published in English). And “Miguel Street” by V.S. Naipaul is a classic novel based on his own childhood and had to be picked up, too.
So there we go, eight books to jam onto the TBR shelf – but could I have left any of them behind?
Sep 12, 2021 @ 08:29:48
We have some wonderful charity shops nearby, one books-only one next to the local dentist and one near the main shops and it is such a struggle not to go in and I always end up with several wonderful books to add to my teetering piles! Your haul sounds particularly excellent!
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Sep 12, 2021 @ 09:26:57
Glad you’ve got some good ones, too. We have another six or seven charity shops with books down the high street so I’ve been relatively sensible …
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Sep 12, 2021 @ 09:17:08
Some really good charity shop finds there. I reviewed The Magnetic North by Sara Wheeler for the Bookbag years ago and I really loved it.
I’ve been meaning to read the first volume of David Lodge’s memoirs from the library for ages – when I had some unfilled spaces on my library card after lockdown I borrowed the first volume – again – as I’ve had it out before but had to make space for oops my library reservations have all shown up at once again – back in 2019! I also tried to borrow Writer’s Luck but sadly it’s gone AWOL.
I’ve been making up for more than 16 months of not getting to go to charity shops just recently – I came home with about 10 books in addition to library loans the other day, though one turned out to be a duplicate and one was to pass to my dad – he’s struggling to come to terms with the reality of becoming housebound.
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Sep 12, 2021 @ 09:29:14
It’s the one place I’ve been when things have opened up – last summer and then this spring and now! The one thing I missed more than anything (apart from people of course …). I might be able to pass Writer’s Luck on to you, depends if I end up keeping it or not of course, but it will be a while so you might happen upon a copy in the meantime. Glad your dad can enjoy books still, a saving grace – we have been buying Mathew’s dad Kindle Unlimited every year and he’s really getting through stuff with that and enjoying it (I know it’s Terrible Amazon but there are times one has to do things …).
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Sep 12, 2021 @ 09:49:50
So glad an Australian book found its way onto your TBR pile in time 🙂
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Sep 12, 2021 @ 16:10:30
I was hoping to spot one! It will work for Non Fiction November too – hooray!
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Sep 13, 2021 @ 08:18:40
Double whammy – well done!!
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Sep 12, 2021 @ 10:00:46
Congratulations on so many wonderful finds! I do envy you in the U.K. your charity shops; I’m not sure there’s anything comparable here, at least not in my part of the U.S. There is absolutely nothing more satisfying than finding an interesting book during a little browse.
I just popped over to look at your review of A Room of Her Own (I had previously read your thoughts on Voice). It’s an interesting (and appealing) idea for a book and the visuals look stunning.
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Sep 12, 2021 @ 16:11:49
Glad you popped over, that’s what these little snippets are all about. It was certainly a sumptuous volume with some very interesting subjects! And I always thought thrift stores had books but maybe I’m wrong there, but yes, I am particularly lucky with two Oxfam Books within walking distance and another six or seven charity shops that have books on my high street, too!
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Sep 12, 2021 @ 14:29:17
You certainly couldn’t have left those there, Liz – what a lovely variety of finds. Hope you can find space to squeeze them all in! 😀
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Sep 12, 2021 @ 16:12:52
Thank you for the justification! And they’re all on – but there is a Pile again, which I’d avoided for a while. Two set up to review now, at least, so I am getting through books (tho neither was from the physical TBR, I note, and I’m reading a Shiny review book at the moment …).
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Sep 12, 2021 @ 16:56:57
I often say the only regrets are for books I left behind so I like this assortment. The Corner Shop would especially appeal. I have read some Cathy Kelly but did not find the same warmth as Binchy.
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Sep 12, 2021 @ 17:36:30
Yes, you are of course right. And no one gets the warmth of Binchy (maybe some Marian Keyes but she’s very funny instead and also her last book was tooooo long!).
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Sep 12, 2021 @ 17:43:34
A Room of Her Own sounds really interesting, the sort of book that would be lovely to give (or receive!) as a gift.
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Sep 12, 2021 @ 20:52:45
To be honest, I thought there were going to be more writers in it, but it is interesting, shiny and sumptuous.
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Sep 13, 2021 @ 13:59:48
Great treasure! ““The View from the Corner Shop” by Kathleen Hey is a Mass Observation Diary from 1941-1946 covering, well, oddly enough, life in a British corner shop and should be fascinating. “–just my kind of book. I’ve loved what I’ve read of Mass Observation diaries.
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Sep 13, 2021 @ 14:21:29
Yes, they’re always interesting, aren’t they. I was a modern Mass Observer for a few years but I found it hard to keep up with all the essays you had to send in and let it lapse.
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Sep 13, 2021 @ 17:58:29
That would be very interesting work for a set period of time. I don’t think I’d want to go on and on with it.
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Sep 14, 2021 @ 14:58:14
A Room of her Own sounds great. Some nice incomings there, always love hearing about book acquisitions. I really like Stacey Dooley and have seen some of her documentaries.
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Sep 14, 2021 @ 16:15:16
I’m so lucky I get to read such interesting books for Shiny! And yes, she’s great, isn’t she, I think I’ll enjoy the book. In “the fullness of time” although I might resurrect my one old one one new one policy at some stage.
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Sep 15, 2021 @ 18:35:53
I would love to see inside A Room of Her Own. I do hope I can find that one here.
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Sep 16, 2021 @ 06:39:12
Did you pop over to the linked review, which has some interior images? It’s very pretty, I just maybe wish there had been some writers in there (but they probably don’t have such fancy houses!).
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Sep 15, 2021 @ 20:35:54
I have read and really enjoyed Nervous Conditions! Although, it has been a while since I picked it up!
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Sep 16, 2021 @ 06:39:54
Excellent, it’s been flitting around at the edges of my book acquiring for a while now so I was glad to find it. Have you read the two sequels?
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Sep 18, 2021 @ 17:54:04
I haven’t read the two sequels yet! I keep meaning to! I’ve heard they’re both good!
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Sep 19, 2021 @ 16:08:10
It’s interesting that they’ve come out over such a long period of time, isn’t it; I think the latest one is quite recent.
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Sep 16, 2021 @ 10:07:22
You obviously have superior charity shops locally, you lucky lady. Fancy finding something as literary as Nervous Conditions in a charity shop! Ours are routinely filled with thrillers and romance, depending on whatever was hyped recently. I expect they’ll have to open a new section for Lucinda Riley’s Seven Sisters books imminently. I am avoiding them precisely because of the hype, ha ha. Visiting British charity shops is a joy, especially city centre ones.
The corner shop book sounds fascinating. My mother’s parents ran one when she was young and she credits her appalling teeth to the ready availability of sweets. My uncle has said I should ask her about it, but I think he must have got all the family storytelling genes; getting an anecdote out of my mother is hard work! And he’s in Australia, so I can’t ask him either. Perhaps I should get her the book and see if it doesn’t trigger some memories.
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Sep 16, 2021 @ 10:22:22
Well, these were from the Oxfam Books (we have two in neighbouring suburbs and the Moseley one is even more highbrow) so they tend to have a good mix. The other seven or eight have a lot of romances and crime novels that come out of The Works, get read and into them, but we’ve got quite a varied neighbourhood and quite an arty, liberal, lefty feel still so we do get a good variety passed on. I can usually bet on the next great thing or the big hype appearing in a year or so!
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Sep 16, 2021 @ 10:37:06
What is (are?) The Works?
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Sep 16, 2021 @ 10:54:53
Oh sorry, it’s a cheap remaindered books shop chain, has art materials and jigsaws and crafts too and has bucked the trend for declining retail. Has a lot of three for £5 paperback novels.
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Sep 16, 2021 @ 10:58:31
I’ll have to look out for it when we finally get the opportunity to visit England, hopefully in October, the gods of Covid willing. It’s incredible the hoops that have to be jumped through (not to mention the cost of testing) before it’s allowed.
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Sep 16, 2021 @ 11:12:07
They seem to be on most high streets now and worth a look at. And yes, this is the reason we’ve not ventured abroad yet, even though Mr Liz suffers with SAD and needs regular sun in the winter!
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Sep 22, 2021 @ 18:27:04
> but you can’t leave good books in charity shops, can you; they’ll be snapped up the second you leave the place ..
That would be illegal! See also, Little Free Libraries. Luckily I often pass themon my way for a run v. home, curbing some of the temptation
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Sep 23, 2021 @ 09:46:21
Yes! Fortunately the LFLs and other book boxes I encounter are also on runs which does indeed cut it down …
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Sep 28, 2021 @ 15:41:12
Thank goodness you gave them all a good home. Phew! 😀
The Dangarembga is a really great story. I expected it to read slowly but I basically inhaled it. (There’s more now, BTW. If not via the charity shop!)
That Corner Shop one sounds really good to me. Though likely hard to find over here…probably just as well.
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Sep 28, 2021 @ 20:15:13
Very decent of me, right?! And yes, two sequels, which I will also look out for. I do like a Mass Observation book – in fact on the strength of that I’ve managed to rekindle my own MO membership (you answer their research questions now rather than doing a diary).
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Sep 30, 2021 @ 19:40:07
Leaving any of them behind would have gone against your bookish instincts, they got your attention because they were meant to go home to your shelves!! 🤗 You can never have too many books, you can lend them to friends/family, read them again, or eventually donate them back to a good cause – always a win-win.💫
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Sep 30, 2021 @ 21:39:45
Ha, yes, good justification, thank you. And indeed, I’m pretty good at keeping only what I really need to and passing others on to friends or via BookCrossing so it’s fairly under control still …
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State of the TBR – October 2021 | Adventures in reading, running and working from home
Oct 01, 2021 @ 06:03:38
Book review – Sven Lindqvist – “Terra Nullius” | Adventures in reading, running and working from home
Nov 28, 2021 @ 17:36:49
Book review – V. S. Naipaul – “Miguel Street” | Adventures in reading, running and working from home
Nov 30, 2021 @ 18:18:09
Book review – Sara Wheeler – “The Magnetic North” | Adventures in reading, running and working from home
Jan 27, 2022 @ 09:00:32