A Little New Year's Book Haul

Oh those Boxing Day sales.  So tempting.  It's hard not to just have an eensy weensy peek to see if there's anything on offer that I cannot live without.  A little look won't hurt anything, right?  When that website is BookOutlet, it can hurt my wallet a bit.  However, not enough for me not to check it out.  Having found a few goodies, I couldn't resist placing a little order - getting some books for myself that I didn't receive during the holidays.  Here's the glorious haul (cue the angelic choir) -

•  A Manual for Cleaning Women, by Lucia Berlin
• Ratio, by Michael Ruhlman
• The Blazing World, by Siri Hustvedt
• The Summer Without Men, by Siri Hustvedt
• Living Thinking Looking, by Siri Hustvedt
• The Shaking Woman or a History of My Nerves, by Siri Hustvedt
• Dance to the Piper, by Agnes De Mille

Also exciting were the January Book of the Month selections, which were available bright and early on the first of the month.  Of the five available choices, I picked the short story collection Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh.  I have yet to read her novel Eileen, but I am interested to see what she does in the short story medium.  I had an extra book credit to use, as part of their Black Friday promotion that got me to join in the first place, so used it on one of last month's picks - Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller.  This will be my first time reading any Fuller, and I'm intrigued!  There was an extra-special surprise in there as well, an exclusive BOTM edition of Gillian Flynn's novella The Grownup.  I suspect that this was included because the company has only just made available a special reprint edition of Flynn's 2009 book Dark Places.  I had no idea this little book was being added to my order, and I'm interested to see what kind of story it has to tell!

Gillian Flynn's book is hidden behind that little jacket-wrapper.

• Swimming Lessons, by Claire Fuller
• Homesick for Another World, by Ottessa Moshfegh
• The Grownup, by Gillian Flynn

Lastly, I couldn't help making a small order from The Strand in NYC.  I only get up to the city once or twice a year, so I do most of my book buying online.  I'm especially excited by their signed new editions and huge selection of used books.  When I'm feeling the urge for more beautiful Persephone Books, but not flush enough to make a purchase directly from them, I turn to The Strand.  They don't always have Persephones in stock, but they do from time to time, and I stalk their site and usually make a purchase when they have some in stock that I want to add to my burgeoning library.  Here's what I found this time around -

• Paris I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down, by Rosencrantz Baldwin
• They Can't Ration These, by Vicomte de Mauduit
•  Plats du Jour, by Patience Gray and Primrose Boyd

I'm excited to get to reading these - maybe even this weekend!




Librorum annis