Spring Book Haul

One of my Spring goals was to make sure that I am reading more often than I acquire new books. Despite this I seem to have gained an awful lot of books lately, but happily haven't paid for most of them!

The Wonk Decelorator by John Joseph Doody

I received this book after having won it in a Goodreads giveaway earlier this year. I had been wanting to read more SF and this novella seemed like the perfect way to do it. The story has elements that in my mind are similar to the TV show Serenity which I really like and so I was very intrigued by this. The book is pictured with a bookmark that author John Joseph Doody was kind enough send.

S.O.A.K and W.E.T by TNL MNO

This is a collection of poetry that I was again lucky enough to win on Goodreads and as it was pitched as erotic poetry I was very excited to receive it. I have since read a few of the poems and they strike me as very urban and blunt. It is the second part of the collection that contains the erotic poetry and I haven't yet got that far. I may do a fuller review once I have completed the collection. 

From A Distance by Rafaella Baker

This is the third and final book that I won in a Goodreads giveaway and instantly struck me with the image on the front. The charity I work for name it's school teams and I happen to be in Lighthouse Team so this was the perfect win for me. This seems to be a book that contains a couple of narratives that intertwine and I am very excited to see what impact that has on the story and how the plot works itself out. This one isn't yet in my book jar so I'll need to get on that soon!

 

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

Being in charge of the school library has it's perks as people often donate books for us to put on our shelves. However, these donations are not always right for our children like this book for instance which is not age nor ability appropriate. We always recycle the books that we choose not to put on our shelves, but this one I fancied for myself. I saw the film adaptation about three years ago and I loved the story and the message, plus one of the characters is called Christine! This copy is an abridged version which is not ideal, but is a good place to start and as I'm hoping to see the London musical based on the book this Autumn and the abridged version might just be a bit more manageable before then.

100 Greatest Women 

This is yet another gem courtesy of the school library. At present we are revamping the non-fiction section and that has meant a big clear-out of books either out-dated or just not appealing enough to our children. Sadly, this was one of the latter and with it being decided that it was to be taken off the system I soon snapped it up! Many of the women in this book I had not heard of and was thrilled to have discovered. It ranged from reformers to rulers, scientist to business women, women in the arts and great role models. I have also managed to pick out a few more books that I would be interested in from this book. These include:

- Mary by Mary Wollestonecraft 

- Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

- Clara Morrison by Catherine Spence

- The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner

- Women and Labour by Olive Schreiner

- We Are Going by Kath Walker

- Diaries of Shikibu Murasaki by Shikibu Murasaki

- The Forced Marriage by Aphra Behn

- She Came to Stay by Simone de Beauvoir

- The Lying Days by Nadine Gordimer

- Owls Do Cry by Janet Frame

Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

This is the latest book that I've swapped on readitswapit.co.uk. I exchanged my copy of a collection of Haikus for this as it has always been something that I have wanted to read. For my dissertation I did some work on mental illness as a theme and this is one of the books that is always cited in modern critical theory. I have never seen the film and probably won't before I read the book although I haven't put the title into my book jar yet so I'm not too sure when that will be.

Food In England by Dorothy Hartley 

This is an absolute jewel of a find in a local charity shop. Food history is something that I am very interested in and cooking is a passion of mine so this book is perfect for me. It contains a mixture of recipes and uses for different food stuffs and definitely has a traditional outlook being published in the 1950s. I don't think that it is the kind of book that you read from cover to cover and so in the next few months I will be flicking through and seeing what I can find to improve my knowledge of the kitchen and my skills in it!

Saplings by Noel Streatfeild 

This title is published by Persephone Books which I talked about in a previous post and was my first from this publisher. I found this in a charity shop in Sheffield which is well known for having lots of stock handed in  by students from the local universities and so has a great literature section. There were in fact three Persephone titles on the shelves, but this is one that I recognised having heard the authors name in one of my favourite films (You've Got Mail). From what I gather from the blurb this book is about the impact of war on a middle-class family. I have read that Streafeild is a master of writing from a child's point of view and so I am looking forward to this one.



The Lifted Veil

This is a folio edition of a collection of short stories written by women in the 19th century. I grabbed this for just £2 in another charity and was reluctant to buy as it is quite big. Thankfully my partner persuaded me that it would look great on our bookshelves and so I went for it. It is full of great names such as Jane Austen, Charlotte Gilman Perkins and Olive Schreiner. The introduction was very important in helping me understand that the short story is something that was mastered by women back in the day as they were the perfect length of fiction for busy mothers and wives who didn't always have the time to commit to a full novel and also to the authors that didn't always have the time or inspiration to pen another novel. This edition is a beautiful hardback book, though not aged it carries a similar charm to the time that it's stories evoke. I have already read Perkins' The Yellow Wallpaper and thoroughly enjoyed it and so am looking forward to working my way through the collection many times. 

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson

This is yet again a Persephone title and one that I was instantly drawn to when I came across it in the catalogue. It is describes as a 'romp' and so I know that it is going to be good. The story all happens in one day and centres around an out-of-work nanny who falls into a situation with hilarious consequences. I became aware of the film after looking more into this title and it was just as good as I imagined the book would be which of course means that the book will be better! 

I have gathered all of these books over the past two months and am very proud to say that I didn't buy a single one of them new and got the whole lot for less than a tenner! This just goes to show that frugality and socially responsible shopping aren't as dreary and fruitless as many people imagine.