Earlier in the month I shared the first outcomes of my decision to get my book tokens spent (Book Token Splurge part 1 here) and later I shared my lovely Birthday Book Pile (here). I think I’m now onto my most recent Christmas and birthday book tokens though it has got a bit confusing (I didn’t do a summer book token splurge in 2022 so am a bit behind on spending as well as everything else!). I included a picture of the whole terrible tottering pile of incomings in my State of the TBR post on Wednesday but hadn’t talked about these ones …

Well, Lenny Henry’s “Who Am I, Again?” I mentioned but didn’t picture; The Heath Bookshop had a fun sale where you picked a book up from their table and took it to the till, where you drew a ticket to see what your discount was. I was happy with my 10% off this first volume of the autobiography of a relatively local boy. I ordered a copy of Richard Llewellyn’s “How Green Was My Valley” rather naughtily, as it’s to read for Dewithon in March and we all know I said I was going to only do challenges off my TBR again this year. However, last year I agreed with MallikaBooks that we would read this together for Dewithon 2023, so I had to get this (pretty Penguin Modern Classics) copy. Imogen Binnie’s “Nevada” is actually the Bookshop’s book group read this month; I can’t go to the book group but I couldn’t resist a novel about a transperson on a road trip who encounters characters in a small town in America, also apparently a lost classic though only about a decade old, and I picked it up at the same time as collecting the Llewellyn.

I’d also had my eye on Ian Francis’ “This Way to the Revolution” which is about Birmingham in 1968, tantalised by the plans for the Midlands Arts Centre I saw in it; this is the kind of book people will buy for me so I held off till after my birthday. A signed copy, too! As is Dean Karnazes’ “A Runner’s High”, the ultrarunner’s latest running book detailing his achievements as he’s got older – the Bookshop had run his book stall at the Running Show and had brought back a few signed copies, so I nipped up to nab one.

I had had a couple of rogue book tokens which hadn’t worked with the Shop’s till, so I popped on bookshop.org and ordered two books, sending the bookshop’s portion to the Shop: I got Ross Barnett’s “The Missing Lynx” which is about the loss and rewilding of mammals into Europe, and Drew Hayden Taylor’s (ed.) “Me Tomorrow: Indigenous Views on the Future” which blends social activism and ancient beliefs and practices to envision Indigenous futures in Canada and around the world. Finally where did I see mention of “My Father’s Daughter” by Hannah-Azieb Pool? It’s one of the Penguin Black Britain Writing Back series curated by Bernardine Evaristo and is the true story of an Eritrean woman’s family and roots. I bought that second-hand online.

Have you read any of these and which one should I pick off first (apart from the Llewellyn, which I am starting in the first week of March whatever)? And yes, at least two more books have already come in this month …