New Books - It's Been A While

[bookgazing]

I’ve been really good with my book buying lately. I’ve been sticking to my 1 - 2 books a month rule, in an effort not to spend all the money for my house deposit on books. Let me show you what now counts as a Bookgazing book buying blow out now:


‘The Drowned Cities’ – Pauolo Bacigallupi


‘Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress’ – Sarwat Chadda


‘The Killing Moon’ – N K Jemisin


‘Happy Families’ – Tanita S Davis

I know, I’m so restrained now! As I’m spending so little money on books this year (compared to what I’d usually spend) I’m trying to mostly buy books that I want and feel especially need reader support. I would love to see all three of these writers’ new projects succeed.

And then I went to the library and got:


‘Alone in Berlin’ – Hans Fallada


‘The Heart of the Matter’ – Graham Greene

Why yes, I use the library now. Victoria from Eve’s Alexandria told me I probably could use the library near work, despite having previously being refused a card because I lived in a different county and it turns out she was right. Now it’s super convenient to take a trip to the library and as it was recently refurbished, it’s lovely to visit. The library is where I get all my books by dead authors now, because they don’t need money to fund their writing careers.

What has everyone else picked up recently?

Comments

[nymeth]

yay for new books in general and for the new Bacigallupi and N.K. Jemisin in particular :D Happy Families also sounds really great (and this reminds me that I must get around to reading Mare's War).

That's awesome that you were able to find a convenient way to go to the library regularly - hooray for easily acessible free classics. Speaking of libraries, guess who was able to ask a friend to get her the rest of the Regeneration trilogy from the uni library? Currently well into book 2 and feeling very grateful for your gift/enthusiastic recommendation :D

As for new acquisitions, lately I've been getting a bit more carried away with NetGalley requests than usual, probably because I could use some book retail therapy but can't actually do much book buying at the moment. But it's all good, because my latest downloads were all super interesting sounding non-fiction titles that I'd probably have trouble getting a hold of anyway: a book about the 18th century origins of the denigration of activities/hobbies/forms of culture associated with femininity; one called "The Woman Reader", which is a history of women's access to written material and of attitudes towards women as readers; and an academic analysis of Twilight and its fandom (which I'm hoping will go beyond "those silly womens who like Twilight sure are silly!", but without silencing critiques of the books). I'm very excited about all of them.

[bookgazing]

'an academic analysis of Twilight and its fandom' :O I NEED THIS!

*Ahem* I said on Twitter that you + the Regeneration trilogy is good news, but I can't stress how excited it makes me to think of you reading books that make up part of my 'heart literature'. I want to reread them! I can send you my favourite (yet kind of anti-woman) Sassoon poem now without fear of judgement, because man was he kind of an ass, but also *weeps* And 'Dreamers' still gives me goosebumps whenever I read it - so simple, so devestating. And did you know there's a film?

I totally rec Pat barker's more recent WWI novel 'Life Class' as well. It's not revolutionary like 'Regeneration', but it has a good go at showing some of the edges of WWI experience that we perhaps don't really like to think about. And it's all about visual artists, which I thought made it a nice accompaniment to 'Regeneration' which is largely about poets.

[nymeth]

I'd so send you the Twilight book when I was done with it if only it wasn't an e-book :\ But fyi, it's called Fanpire and the author is Tanya Erzen.

And yes, send away! Some years ago I took a class about early 20th century poetry that focused quite a bit on WW1 poets, so I was already inclined to read it without judgement. I remember the anti-women (and anti-civilian generally) sentiment of some of the poems, especially the idea that the horrors of war went on because of all those clueless women back home pressuring men to be heroes. And this is a terrible thing to believe, but at the same time it's been really interesting to see Pat Barker explore the cultural climate and general mindset that led to this kind of attitude. So yes, he was a bit of an ass, but the heartbreak factor is definitely huge all the same.

Anyway, I didn't know there was a film, and I will definitely add Life Class to my wishlist. Also, it makes me happy to be reading books that are part of your "heart literature" too. You should totally give me a list of 5 or so books you'd really like me to read, btw. I've had lists from Iris, Chris, Kelly, and a few other blogging friends, and made I one of titles Renay has recommended to me over the years. So it would be really nice to have one from you as well. I don't give myself any sort of deadline and keep it all very pressure-free. The lists are really just a nice thing for me to have and basically a way to (non-threateningly) stalk you all through literature :P

[myfriendamy]

Looks like you got some great books!

Is The Drowned Cities an actual sequel to Ship Breaker?

[bookgazing]

No, it's the same world but different characters, although I remember seeing in an interview that Tool is in both books.

[aartichapati.blogspot.com]

WHOA, Indian fantasy YA fiction?! I am on board with this Sarwat Chadda.

[bookgazing]

I know right? It looks so cool.

[(Anonymous)]

My formerly imaginary friend ReadersGuide went to a bookstore with me a few weekends ago and we stood there and said "I want to read that but I'll put it on my library list" about every book except for one book each: I bought the new Anne Tyler, and she bought a new book of essays by Franzen.
nonnecromancer

[bookgazing]

You two display huge amounts of discipline, far more than I could summon in a book shop :D

[(Anonymous)]

I love your philosophy Jodie of only supporting live authors by buying their books. Immensely sensible. Verity

[bookgazing]

Well I don't have a lot of money available for books right now, so it seems best to aim it in the direction of authors and publishers that I think need it. Although seeing the big publisher bankrupcy announcement yesterday, it seems its difficult to know who needs the money right now.

[janesgravity]

Ohhhh I saw The Drowned Cities in the bookshop here yesterday but lol I'm trying not to buy books /o\.

Also Graham Greene! I read him at Uni - including The Heart of the Matter. LOVE that book :-)

[bookgazing]

Oh I love GG, which others have you read?