There were quite a few books that I wanted to buy whilst wandering around Oxford with the bloggers on Saturday (and one which I persuaded Becca to buy for herself, in lieu of me buying it) but I shouldn’t grumble – because there are four which have arrived chez Stuck-in-a-Book in the past week, courtesy of various friends and family – thanks guys!
–First up is Benny & Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti, from Annabel aka Gaskella, who is having a bookcase clear-out. She described it as a ‘bittersweet Swedish romance’, and that sold me – I’ve been wanting to read more Scandinavian novels, and this seems quirky without being disturbing.
–People on a Bridge by Wislawa Szymborska (imagine some sort of slash through the ‘l’, and put on your best Polish accent, pronunciation here) translated by Adam Czeniawski was the book I won in the bloggers’ book swap, from the very nice Peter. He is determined to drag me from my comfort zone, and Polish poetry seems as good a way as any to do that – I am genuinely excited about this one, though!
–The Land of Spices by Kate O’Brien was sent to me by my dear friend Epsie (actual name Esther Phoebe), who knows my partiality for Viragos.
–The Bolter by Frances Osborne was sent by Our Vicar’s Wife herself, who spotted it in the church bookshop coffee thingummy she runs in our garage (under the name ‘Honeypot’) and thought it sounded up my street – I have almost bought it many times in the past, so it just goes to show that, if you blog for long enough, people start to get the hint about your taste (heehee!)
Thank you to everyone who has made Project 24 a little easier – all of these look lovely. When I’ll read them is anyone’s guess… currently slowly, but delightedly, working my way through Wait for Me! by Deborah Devonshire.
What a great selection! I enjoyed Benny & Shrimp when I read it in the spring – quirky is definitely the way to describe it. The Bolter is one that I too have been gazing at longingly in bookstores but I'm down to being #17 on the library hold list now so, soon, my patience will pay off!
I have a signed copy of The Bolter, which I got at the Dartington Literary Festival in 2008. Not read it yet :-/.
I'm always happy to help out with keeping you from failing project 24, although I don't think my shelves like me much anymore!
The Bolter is absolutely brlliant, you will read it and completely get why Nancy Mitford used her as inspiration for the mother in The Pursuit of Love!!
I bought The Bolter recently and loved it, could hardly put it down, stopped only to eat, sleep, run errands.
I LOVED 'The Bolter' and although I almost never do book reviews on my blog (in fear of them being no where near as good as yours &C) but I actually did one for it!
http://hibernianhomme.blogspot.com/2010/06/for-those-who-dream-of-having-farm-in.html
Oh I'm interested in The Bolter, too. I'm intrigued by the 'Happy Valley' set. Look forward to your review of this, Simon.
I ran across The Bolter in a Barnes and Noble the other day and immediately added it to my TBR list. I hadn't even heard about it round blogland before, but I'm thoroughly looking forwards to reading it.