Stacking the Shelves: 23 May 2015

Published on by Margaret

STSmall

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves. This means you can include ‘˜real’ and ‘˜virtual’ books (ie physical and ebooks) you’ve bought, books you’ve borrowed from friends or the library, review books, and gifts.

A bumper week for adding to the TBRs! I took back a pile of books to Barter Books in Alnwick and came home with these:

Bks May 2015

 

When I go to Barter Books I take a list of books to look for. This time I found three  – shown in the basket from left to right:

  • Like This For Ever by S J Bolton, the 3rd in the Lacey Flint series. I’ve read the first one, Now You See Me and have the second one which I haven’t read yet, so it will be a while before I get round to reading this one.
  • In a Dry Season by Peter Robinson, the 10th in the Inspector Banks series. I’m reading this series as I find the books not in the series order and I wrote about the 7th book, Dry Bones That Dream on Monday. Kay commented that she had enjoyed In a Dry Season very much so when I saw it on the shelf at Barter Books I put it in my basket.
  • Letters From Skye by Jessica Brockmole. I saw this book on Irene’s blog – she’s reading it and I thought it looked interesting so when I found it on the shelf as well I thought it was too much of a coincidence not to get it. It’s a novel told in a series of letters written spanning the years from the First World War to the Second between a poet living on Skye and a fan of hers living in Illinois.

Next I just browsed the shelves for anything that caught my eye and found these:

Hamlet, Revenge! by Michael Innes (shown in my photo in the basket cover face down! on top of a stack of books). This is from the Golden Age of crime fiction, first published in 1937, the second of his Inspector Appleby series. I’ve read the first book in the series, Death at the President’s Lodging, which I enjoyed immensely.

Underneath Hamlet, Revenge! is a sealed pack of 6 crime fiction books, containing:

  • Last Seen in Massilia by Stephen Saylor
  • A Sight for Sore Eyes by Ruth Rendell
  • The Soul Catcher by Alex Kava
  • Frost at Christmas by R D Wingfield
  • Good News Bad News by David Wolstencroft
  • Break No Bones by Kathy Reichs

These are books that you can’t take back to Barter Books and cost just £1.20. I bought the pack because it contains books by Ruth Rendell, R D Wingfield and Steven Saylor – I don’t know the other authors.

On the way home from Barter Books we stopped at Cragside for a snack lunch, but it was packed with people and there was a long queue for the cafe, so I just went in the NT shop and couldn’t resist buying Scone With The Wind: Cakes and Bakes with a Literary Twist by Miss Victoria Sponge. It contains 72 novel recipes – like Life of Pecan Pie, Don Biscotti, Much Ado About Muffins and Wuthering Bites and many more.

And finally when we went shopping yesterday there was a secondhand book sale in the Buttermarket and I bought The Riddle and the Knight: In Search of Sir John Mandeville by Giles Milton – an investigation into Mandeville’s claim in 1322 that it was possible to circumnavigate the globe. I’ve read and enjoyed Milton’s Nathaniel’s Nutmeg, so I’m hoping I’ll like this book too.

It’s no wonder I never get to the end of my TBRs – but there are so many tempting books out there, it would be a shame to miss out too many!

24 thoughts on “Stacking the Shelves: 23 May 2015”

    1. Elizabeth, I also borrow library books! It would help reduce my TBR numbers if I didn’t buy books – I have tried to limit myself and actually I took more back to Barter Books than I brought home.

      Like

  2. What a fun week you’ve had! Seems like you got some good ones. I’ve read the Bolton book – love Lacey Flint – odd soul that she is. Hope you like In A Dry Season. I bought On Beulah Height for a reread this week. My mystery group did both of those books one month several years ago. Both concern secrets found when lakes or reservoirs are drained or depleted.

    Like

    1. Kay, it was great fun – I really enjoyed it. I’ve read some of Reginald’s Hill’s book but not that one. Barter Books has several of his – I’ll have a look next time I go.

      Like

  5. What a brilliant haul. I think you’ll enjoy Letters from Skye. I’m just reading a Steven Saylor book, the first in his Roman series, Roman Blood. (Yours is book 8 I think.) A bit early to judge but I think it’s going to be quite good. Have you read any more of his?

    Like

    1. I haven’t read any of Steven Saylor’s books, but I have Roma: the novel of Ancient Rome waiting to be read. I thought that book and Last Seen in Massilia were part of the same series – now I know they are not!!

      Like

      1. Checking Fantastic Fiction the series I’ve just started (a friend is lending them to me) is the Roma Sub Roma a crime series all about Gordianus the Finder. The Ancient World series is a prequel to that, about his younger days. Roma seems to be something different again. How confusing!

        Like

  6. It’s a curse and a blessing to love buying books, but I feel your pain, I just returned a book to the library and bought 5. I hope you enjoy Letters from Skye, I’m not very far in, but I do love to read epistolary novels. Enjoy your finds. I’ll be checking on a few that you listed. Why can’t you return the Rendel books? not that you’d want to.

    Like

  8. I love the idea of the six-pack – great way to get exposed to new-to-you authors. And just to say that On Beulah Height is probably my favourite crime novel of all time, so I second Kay’s recommendation.

    Like

  13. Oh, you found some terrific books, Margaret! I like the Robinson series very, very much, so I hope you’ll like In a Dry Season. And I’ve heard the Bolton is very good, too.

    Like

  15. I think that you will enjoy Kathy Reichs’ books, although you might want to consider reading them in order. The 1st one is Deja Dead.

    Like

  17. You found some books to look forward to reading. I will post soon about ten books I bought at our library book sale, for 50 cents each.

    Like

  19. Scone with the Wind is just too cute–I would love to flip through that one just for the puns, to which I am addicted.

    Can’t let those shelves go unfilled! Good haul.

    Like

  20. I read this post through my fingers because I have been trying to reduce the number of books around the house and so any discussion of buying on the part of others is likely to be too tempting. You do have some really interesting stuff there, however, and I envy you having Barter Books so close.

    Like

Comments are closed.