I have vowed not to buy any books whatsoever in 2017, choosing instead to read everything on my to-read shelves, and all of those tomes which I optimistically downloaded onto my Kindle a couple of years ago and have yet to get to. Of course, if I do manage to finish everything, I will begin to replenish my shelves, but it looks highly unlikely at this juncture.
With that said, there are many books which I bought or received at the end of 2017 which I have yet to include in a haul post such as this. Without further ado, I shall therefore detail every book which has come into my possession since my last haul post.
I shall begin with my new Kindle books. I saw a very favourable review of Lionel Shriver‘s The Standing Chandelier: A Novella on Goodreads, and ended up buying myself a copy for around £1; I’m very glad I did, as the idea is both original and inventive, and I certainly enjoyed the reading experience. I took advantage of one of the daily deals, and got myself a copy of A Manual for Cleaning Women, a short story collection by Lucia Berlin which I have had my eye on for ages.
On Instagram, a fellow reader whom I follow had hauled a copy of Otto Prenzler‘s The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries, which they found in The Works for just £4. Whilst I was unable to find a copy in store, I ordered it and picked it up the next day, along with a copy of Ghost: 100 Stories to Read with the Lights On, which is edited by Louise Welsh. I also couldn’t resist ordering a copy of The Morlo by L.A. Knight, a travelogue about seals, which I randomly came across on a vintage bookshop on Etsy.
I took a trip to a local charity shop which sells four books for 99p, and chose a few to add 
to my to-read shelf at University. I ended up getting 12 Days by Shelly Silas, which was a collection of rather mediocre Christmas stories; Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernieres in a lovely hardback edition, which I will be reading during my Around the World in 80 Books challenge this year; A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, which I enjoyed, but not as much as most others seem to have; the very enjoyable, and very quick to read, The Girls by Emma Cline; and The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios by Yann Martel.
Another travel guide also made its way onto my to-read list. My boyfriend and I have booked a holiday to Canada at the end of January, and so it was exciting to order a copy of Lonely Planet Canada. They are definitely my favourite range of travel guides, and I’m very excited to dip in and see what Toronto has to offer.
Of course, I received some wonderful Christmas books this year, three of which were signed, which was very exciting. My parents got me copies of Pablo Picasso’s Noel, Carol Ann Duffy‘s festive poem for 2017; Turtles All the Way Down by John Green; Winter by Ali Smith; Here Is New York by E.B. White; and I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O’Farrell. I have 
already read and loved all of these. Those which I have outstanding are Mythos by the wonderful Stephen Fry, and a random choice from one of my dearest friends, The Seven Noses of Soho by Jamie Manners, as she knows how much I am currently missing London.
I made the decision to order the 34 books which I needed for my Around the World in 80 Books challenge from AbeBooks. I have scoured my Kindle and bookshelves for tomes which I could include, but there were many which I did not personally own, and which I was unable to find in either of my local library systems. I ordered so many books, in fact, that the poor postman had to deliver them using a crate. Whilst this enormous order sounds very greedy, I thought that ordering all of the books which I needed during 2017 would help me stick to my book-buying ban (fingers crossed!). I shall detail them, along with the countries which they will be included for, in a bullet pointed list below, as this seemed the easiest way to organise such a big list of books!
- Mrs Hemingway by Naomi Wood (Cuba)
- The Informers by Juan Gabriel Vasquez (Colombia)
- Broken April by Ismail Kadare (Albania)
- The Sojourn by Andre Krivak (Slovakia)
- Kaddish for an Unborn Child by Imre Kertesz (Hungary)
- The Quiet American by Graham Greene (Vietnam)
- The Bondmaid by Catherine Lim (China)
- Resistance by Anita Shreve (Belgium)
- Bitter Lemons by Lawrence Durrell (Cyprus)
- First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung (Cambodia)
- The Night Buffalo by Guillermo Arriago (Mexico)
- Train to Trieste by Domnica Radulescu
(Romania) - Solo by Rana Dasgupta (Bulgaria)
- Mosquito by Roma Tearne (Sri Lanka)
- Blood-Drenched Beard by Daniel Galera (Brazil)
- The Silence and the Roar by Nihad Sirees (Syria)
- The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas (Norway)
- The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann (Switzerland)
- Ways of Going Home by Alejandro Zambra (Chile)
- Kamchatka by Marcelo Figueras (Argentina)
- Death of a Prima Donna by Brina Svit (Slovenia)
- The Colour by Rose Tremain (New Zealand)
- The Diviners by Margaret Laurence (Canada)
- A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov (Georgia)
- The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric (Bosnia-Herzegovina)
- Lies by Enrique de Heriz (Guatemala)
- The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna (Croatia)
- Ours are the Streets by Sunjeev Sahota (Pakistan)
- Burmese Days by George Orwell (Myanmar)
- The Beach by Alex Garland (Thailand)
- The Hacienda by Lisa St. Aubin de Teran (Venezuela)
- Landfalls by Naomi J. Williams (Pacific Islands)
- Ali and Nino by Kurban Said (Azerbaijan)
- Eight Months on Ghazzah Street by Hilary Mantel (Saudi Arabia)
Have you read any of these? Which were the last books that you bought?
My Kindle books come first, as they were the first which I purchased. I chose the Collected Works of Willa Cather as there are a couple of her full-length books which I haven’t read to date. I also bought one of the daily deals, Naoki Higashida‘s autism memoir, The Reason I Jump. I have read this already, and whilst I found it fascinating in places, it was a little underwhelming in its simplicity and repetitiveness. The two books which I received for review – Keeping Henry by Nina Bawden, which has just been reissued by Virago, and Stella Duffy‘s chilling The Hidden Room – were both great, and I would highly recommend them. Full-length reviews for both novels are forthcoming on the blog, so do stay tuned! My book club has altered of late, and is now running around the idea of geographic locations. Thus, my choice was a free one, provided it was set in Bosnia. I chose The Delivery Room by 
Sylvia Brownrigg, which looks fascinating. I also ended up ordering a secondhand copy of Catherynne M. Valente‘s Deathless, as I have been seeing so many positive reviews of it of late.
The Lycian Shore, which I hadn’t been able to find very cheaply beforehand, as well as a second printing hardback of Pamela Frankau‘s The Willow Cabin. The other novels which I hauled are The Secret Life and Curious Death of Miss Jean Milne by Andrew Nicoll, which is set in the gorgeous Scottish town of Broughty Ferry; The Nanny Diaries by Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin, which was purchased solely for my love of Mary Poppins, and was actually better than I was expecting; Have the Men Had Enough? by Margaret Forster; Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper by Harriet Scott Chessman, which I am about to begin reading; Iris and Ruby by Rosie Thomas, an author I’ve heard good things about; and The Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota, which looks right up my street.
and amusing choice for summertime reading; Daughter Buffalo by Janet Frame, whose novel Faces in the Water I very much enjoyed; and my final Sarah Waters novel, Affinity, which I’ve heard mixed things about, but appeals to me regardless.
I succumbed and purchased six tomes for myself online after writing 10,000 words of my current thesis chapter. I realise that this is something I could repeat ten times over by the time I’ve finished my PhD, but will certainly try not to! Regardless, I am incredibly excited to be united with all of the following: Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty by Ramona Ausubel, which is coming all the way from the USA; Reading the World by Ann Morgan; May We Shed These Human Bodies by Amber Sparks; Malinche by Laura Esquivel, which I am going to read whilst in the Caribbean in September; The Little Girls by Elizabeth Bowen; and The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan.
whilst historically it was rather interesting, I did find a few issues with it, and only gave it three stars overall. Merlin Bay by Richmal Crompton, however, was absolutely darling, and the perfect choice to read in bright sunshine. The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking was a lovely book to curl up with on a raining evening, with candles lit; it certainly did add something to the slew of hygge books which I have read over the last year or so. Finally, I have yet to pick up Why the Dutch Are Different by Ben Coates, which sounds like rather an inspired travelogue.
Let us kick off with my birthday haul! This year was the first in which I didn’t give book lists out to my family, and thus I received the following lovely books from my friends. Katie treated me to three of the gorgeous little Vintage Minis, choosing Love by Jeanette Winterson, Home by Salman Rushdie, and Summer by Laurie Lee for me. I have read and very much enjoyed them all. Another dear friend named Katie bought me an absolutely wonderful tome, entitled The Graphic Canon, Volume 1, edited by Russ Kick, which brings together an awful lot of graphic novel extracts and specially commissioned works, all of which relate to early literature. I very much enjoyed reading it, and did so almost from cover
to cover as I struggled so to put it down! Finally, Abbie bought me Elizabeth Kostova‘s new novel, The Shadow Land, which I have wanted to read since its publication, and am even more excited to do so after my recent trip to Bulgaria!
Lonely Planet Florida so far, but can’t wait to peruse it in more detail for our trip. The sole book which I chose for my Kindle this month is Peter Mayle‘s A Year in Provence. France is a country which I adore and visit often, and I remember my parents reading the tome some years ago. When perusing their collection of books, however, I could only locate the book’s sequel, so when it was offered at 99p as part of a daily deal, I couldn’t resist!
The first book which I just couldn’t resist was, contrary to what I normally buy, a new release in hardback format. I so enjoyed Paula Hawkins‘ The Girl on the Train, and headed to Waterstone’s on the release day of her second novel, Into the Water. In my defence, it was half price, and I did read it immediately; I also wasn’t at all disappointed with it, which is always a bonus on tomes which have been so hyped up! Later on in the month, I also took another trip to Waterstone’s in order to buy a travel guide for a wonderful holiday which my boyfriend took me on for an early birthday treat at the end of May. They had very little available in store, so I plumped for a DK Eyewitness Travel Guide to Bulgaria. It was largely useful, but not quite up to the standards of my beloved Lonely Planet Guides. I also ended up buying three of the latter for future holidays, after receiving an email saying that they were all three for two from the Lonely Planet website.
author I’m going to include in my thesis. My sister managed to find three of her tomes in old orange-spined Penguin editions in a secondhand bookshop for me: Providence, Falling Slowly, and A Closed Eye. Talking of my thesis, I had to buy a physical copy of Virginia Woolf’s Between the Acts and The Years. I plumped for a Wordsworth Edition, as I really like their designs, and find their introductions quite informative. Plus, you can’t scoff at the price!
that several Mary Stewart tomes which I did not already have were priced at just 99p, and couldn’t resist. I chose Touch Not the Cat, Nine Coaches Waiting, and Madam, Will You Talk?. I also decided to purchase a copy of Gabrielle Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve‘s The Beauty and the Beast, as I had never read it before. My final choice was one of Richmal Crompton‘s non-Just William books, The Holiday, which I absolutely adored.
Let us begin with my Kindle purchases, two of which I actually ended up buying on the last day of March (oops!). I chose an Agatha Christie which I hadn’t got or heard much about, The Seven Dials Mystery, as well as a powerful-looking piece of non-fiction by Ingrid Vorselhafen entitled Hitler’s Forgotten Children. In April proper, I chose to buy two digital copies of the wonderful Dean Street Press and Furrowed Middlebrow collaboration. I plumped for Begin Again by Ursula Orange, which I have already read and loved, and Ianthe Jerrold‘s There May Be Danger. I also thought I’d try David Sedaris‘ work when I spotted one of his collections as part of the Kindle Daily Deal; I have thus also read, and very much enjoyed, Me Talk Pretty One Day.
Brits speak about hygge at the Literary Festival, but as I have said, when two bookish people meet up for the day in such a wondrous place for secondhand book shopping, they are hardly going to come home empty handed. The Books for Amnesty shop was lovely; quite crowded with students and young families at first, but as we spent near enough an hour browsing, I was able to pick up quite a stack. In no particular order, I chose the following: Harmless Like You by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, a relatively new publication which a lot of my friends have enjoyed on Goodreads; The Immoralist by Andre Gide as I so enjoyed Strait is the Gate when I read it early in April; The Map That Changed the World by Simon Winchester, which sounds fascinating; The Stories of Colette, which Katie found for me; a slim novella by Arthur Miller which I knew nothing about, entitled Plain Girl; The Lessons by Naomi Alderman, which is a book club pick for December; The Suitcase by Sergei Dovlatov, which I am planning to include within my Reading the World Project; Games at Twilight by Anita Desai after discovering her work earlier this year; and a copy of Slightly Foxed magazine from Spring 2015.
I also chose several books from both Books for Amnesty and the Salvation Army which I may be able to work into, or at least rule out of, my thesis: Oystercatchers by Susan Fletcher, and three books by Anita Brookner – Latecomers, Family and Friends, and A Misalliance.
sum of £6.40, which is less than I spent on a picnic lunch! I chose The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, which I have been meaning to get to for ages; Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott; The Blue Afternoon by William Boyd; A Summer Bird-Cage by Margaret Drabble; Monsieur, or the Prince of Darkness and Balthazar by Lawrence Durrell, whom I have been meaning to read since watching ITV’s The Durrells last year; Still Life by A.S. Byatt, which is the second book in a quartet (and I, of course, have not read the first…); The Still Storm by Francoise Sagan, one of my favourite French authors; an interesting-looking illness narrative which I hadn’t heard of before, Seconds to Snap by Tina McGuff; The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid; and two of the aforementioned Brookner tomes.
Another travel guide also winged its way to me from Wordery this month, for the trip which my boyfriend and I are planning for later in the year. I chose Lonely Planet: Thailand as they are by far the best travel guides I’ve come across, and we’re almost clueless on where and what we want to visit!
Amsterdam with my boyfriend, deciding what to buy. I thought I’d allow myself one tome as a souvenir of sorts, and plumped for Melissa Muller‘s Anne Frank: The Biography. Before I went to pay for the beautiful blue covered book, I told my boyfriend that this would be the only book I’d buy all month, as I want to save up for forthcoming holidays, as well as use local libraries more. Predictably when a bookworm utters the above words, it didn’t turn out like that at all. In fact, I think this has been my heaviest book purchasing month in over a year…
the library to reinforce that I would very much enjoy her work; it was a fully successful exercise, and I am now even more excited to dive into my stack of Stewart novels.
I also went to The Works, and whilst they didn’t have the best book selection (it consisted mainly of old school thrillers, celebrity biographies by many celebrities I’d never heard of, and chick lit), I did manage to unearth two interesting looking novels – Fellside by M.R. Carey, and The Perfect Girl by Gilly Macmillan – and a real non-fiction gem which I have wanted for ages, Helen Russell‘s The Year of Living Danishly.
theliterarysisters 