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Kylie's Literary Adventures in 2016


Kylie

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John Lanchester Capital - I've seen this at the library and I've been looking at it very longingly... Bobblybear's review made me add it to my wishlist some time ago. I hope it's good! 

It must have BB's review that also made me add it to my wishlist. I've always liked the look of the book because the cover reminds me of Ben Aaronovitch's covers. :D I'll have to remember not to expect a similar story though.  :giggle2:

 

 

 

It always makes me a bit nervous when someone adds a book to their wishlist, based on my review. :o  Hopefully you will both enjoy it.....and yeah, it's nothing like Ben Aaronovitch's books. :giggle2:

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Oh Kylie wow!! .. I mean .. wow! :thud: What a fantastic book haul! So many treasures there :) 

Hope you enjoy the Jessica Mitford books. Hons and Rebels is the book J.K. Rowling always quotes .. Decca was her heroine (she named her daughter after her .. I think I've probably mentioned this piece of trivia about a hundred times  :smile2: )

Also hope you enjoy Arthur & George. It seems an age since I read it but the story has remained with me .. I thought it was fascinating.

Great set of Christie's too :) Boy! You have done well  :boogie:

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Ooh, I loved Carbonel when I was little ( there are two sequels ). Congrats on your new little one, Scout. What a cutie !  :018:

 

Thanks Little Pixie. Yeah, she's adorable.  :wub:

 

I'd like to read the Carbonel sequels one day. It was a lovely book. :)

 

Oh Kylie wow!! .. I mean .. wow! :thud: What a fantastic book haul! So many treasures there :) 

Hope you enjoy the Jessica Mitford books. Hons and Rebels is the book J.K. Rowling always quotes .. Decca was her heroine (she named her daughter after her .. I think I've probably mentioned this piece of trivia about a hundred times  :smile2: )

Also hope you enjoy Arthur & George. It seems an age since I read it but the story has remained with me .. I thought it was fascinating.

Great set of Christie's too :) Boy! You have done well  :boogie:

 

Thanks Kay! I thought you'd be pleased with those ones. :) I was particularly happy to find Arthur & George, and it's a really nice edition too. :)

 

I must have missed (or forgotten) that piece of trivia about JK Rowling and Decca! How cool!

 

I'm very pleased indeed with the Christies. I have enough to keep me going for quite a while now!

 

 

 

I've been needing to do a big clean up and reshuffle of my books for a while (more so since the bookfair), so I finally got things going last night. I went around the house and gathered up any strays, then emptied a few shelves so I can shuffle everything along. Unfortunately we're having quite hot weather at the moment and it's not pleasant being upstairs (where the books are) for very long, so I'll just be doing a bit here and there. I'm a night owl and was doing all this in the coolest part of the night, but it was still very warm, so I retired to bed as the sun was coming up and read a few chapters of The ABC Murders.

 

It's 41 degrees outside today, and I usually wouldn't even consider walking out the front door in such weather, but I missed a book delivery so of course I had to go out and rescue them from the post office. I received Chris Hadfield's An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth and John Hersey's Hiroshima. Then I came home to an email saying the other part of my order has been dispatched, so tomorrow I should receive Millie Marotta's new colouring book, Wild Savannah.

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I hope it cools down for you soon, Kylie :). Have fun reorganising your shelves, and yay for new books! I hope you enjoy them :).

 

Thanks Athena. We've had a few cooler days (early 30s), but it's going to stay around the mid 30s for at least the next week, by the look of it. I'm pretty well over summer now! Bring on the cooler weather!  :coolsnow:

 

That`s Bookish Dedication - going outside in 41C !  :giggle2:

 

The things I do for books!  :blush2:

 

 

I've just spent several hours rearranging the fiction books in my library. The room isn't quite photo-ready yet, but it's looking the best it has in at least a couple of years, so I'm very happy. :D I need to finish rearranging the W-Z books (which have spilled over into another room), but I'll do that another time. Once I've reorganised the non-fiction shelves, which won't take very long, I'll finally be able to post some up-to-date pics of my library.  :smile:

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Hiroshima changed my life.  I hope you find it as good.

 

As in 'Hirsohima' by John Hersey? if so, same here :)

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Hiroshima changed my life.  I hope you find it as good.

 

As in 'Hirsohima' by John Hersey? if so, same here :)

 

Yes, that's the one. :)

 

 

I placed an order online for some books earlier this week. On Wednesday I received the first one, Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance (yes Kay, that's your fault :P). The others really should have arrived today but they didn't, so I'll have to wait until Monday now:

 

James De Mille A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder

Joana Eliot Infographic Guide to Literature

David Mitchell The Bone Clocks (also technically your fault, Kay ;))

Emily St John Mandel Station Eleven

Tat Wood World History in Minutes

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Thanks Athena. :) I came across a copy of the book in New Zealand last year. I was really tempted to buy it, and it was only $10, but I didn't get it because I needed to keep my suitcase light. I love infographics, and what could be better than infographics about books?! :D

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I think that's what we'll be doing too (wearing black to move things on and off stage). We've found out that there are two other productions of The 39 Steps taking place in the next few weeks: one about 50 minutes away and the other about an hour and a half to the south of us. We're going to go to both productions and take notes. We might even talk to the people involved about perhaps borrowing/hiring their props and costumes. That would save us so much work!

How did it go? I think you just recently did this.

 

 

It was a shop in Glenbrook, in the lower Blue Mountains, about 20 minutes from my house. I can't remember going there with you, but I'm not sure why we wouldn't have. I'm pretty sure I knew the shop existed back then. Their books can be a little pricey for secondhand books, so maybe we didn't go for that reason. It's quite a small shop set towards the back of an arcade. Does that ring any bells?

No, doesn't sound too familiar.. But then again there were so many places we visited :D:wub:

 

 

I remember that look on your face too when you walked into that building. It was wonderful to see you so happy. 

Happy and totally astonished! Remember how that one staffer asked me if it was my first time? LOL!

 

 

Fiction (61)

Boris Akunin Pelagia #1: Pelagia and the White Bulldog  - Ooh! What is this? Another series? =O  Never heard of it. 

It's part of a trilogy. Apparently it's about a crime-solving nun. Should be good. I found a second book from the trilogy on the same day and snapped that up too. I was so excited. Then I later realised I'd just bought two copies of the same book.  In my defence they had different covers. If only I knew someone who liked Boris Akunin so I could send them the extra copy. 

 

Heheh if only you did :D I think you know quite a few though? I like the sound of the crime-solving nun series  =D  I'll need to check it out! It somehow reminds me that I want to read more by Andrey Kurkov... 

 

Julilan Barnes Arthur & George - This is supposed to be good, but I've never gotten into it... Well I don't remember if I've ever really tried 

I added this to my wishlist because of Kay's recommendation (it's on her list of favourite books). I only added it recently, so I was super excited to find it. It's a really nice edition too! Do you mean you tried it but couldn't get into it?

 

I think I bought it based on the blurb, but I think I might've chucked it from the TBR already had it not been a poppyshake recommendation... :giggle2:

 

Stephen King Misery - Yay! This is a really good one 

There are always loads of SK books at the fair, but I usually resist buying them because I already have several unread SK books on my TBR pile, and I know I can get them any time at the bookfair. But this was a recent edition and looked brand new, and I knew it was a favourite of some members here (including you), so I couldn't pass it up. 

 

I hope you won't be disappointed :smile2:

 

Eimear McBride A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing - I've seen this at the library too, the title always catches my eye. I have no idea what it's about thought. 

Me neither. I think Marieke Hardy highly recommended this on an episode of The Book Club (although I don't think it was a featured book).

 Marieke recommended it? I must check it out :smile2: What's Jason been up to?

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Oh my god I just realized that what with the new mini series of the Gilmore Girls... There will be new books added to the Rory challenge!!!!!!!!
Oh wow, I never thought of that!! How exciting!! I've been seeing some articles floating around recently that include details about the new show but I'm not sure whether anyone else wants to know the details or whether they want to be completely surprised. Lauren posted a photo of her and Yanic (Michel) on the set. They looked so happy! 
____________

 

 I personally want to go in head-first and not know anything about what's going to come  :smile2: I do hope there will be book references!! And I hope that some of the books that are god awful and have been on the lists based on movie titles or because they are bad books are mentioned in the new series and they'll say that they'd never ever read them  :D

 

Non-Fiction (28)

Noel Riley Fitch Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation - I'm sure you must've been absolutely giddy to see this one! =D Yay!!! 
I was! I had a hard time actually believing my good luck. I thought I must have already had the book for sure, so I checked all of my lists but it really wasn't there! It was one of the books that had been on my wishlist the longest, so I guess I was confusing my wishlist and TBR pile.
Jack Kerouac Selected Letters 1940–1956 - Oh wow holy sh*t!! 
This was another one I thought I must have already had. I knew I had some letters by him and another Ginsberg, but I thought I also had some just by him. Turns out I didn't! 

 

So cool! Usually it's the other way around  :giggle2:

 

Ann Rule Green River, Running Red - I almost shrieked when I saw this The Ted Bundy book is by far Rule's best book, and I've read a few of hers that have been let-downs, but GR,RR was really, really good and very, very harrowing!! The prologue in itself was really shocking      I hope you will enjoy! 
Ooh, I didn't know (or hadn't remembered) that you had read this. I saw a few of her books there, but I kept skipping past them in the hopes that I'd see GRRR. I was stoked when I found it! And it looks brand new. She mentioned the Green River killer quite a few times in TSBM, so since then I've quite fancied reading it. I knew you'd be pleased for me.

 

 Ah, she'd mentioned the GR killer in TSBM; that explains why you went after it. I'm still damn pleased!  :D And so happy that you found a copy!  :smile2:

 

Andrew Wilson Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith - Oooh, this ought to be interesting for you, as I know you've become a fan of her novels! Score!!!
It was indeed a score! I have one bio of Highsmith on my TBR pile, but I think this one is supposed to be the best bio of her, and it's been on my wishlist for a while. 

 

Yay for finding the better (best) bio of her!  :D

 

Confession: Sometimes I see my favourite books at the book fair and I always touch them and/or pick them up just to look at them. I always want to buy them, even though I already own them. It's ridiculous! I get a bit sad when I keep walking around the tables and seeing the same awesome books sitting there, unloved and unchosen. I want to yell at people to take them, or I want to give them a loving home with me. 

 

Awwww  :D You are such a good book person!  :D 

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I hope you enjoy your new books. I especially loved Station Eleven; it was one of the best reads of last year. :boogie:

 

I will second that recommendation for Station Eleven. I really enjoyed reading this last year. 

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I hope you enjoy your new books. I especially loved Station Eleven; it was one of the best reads of last year. :boogie:

 

I will second that recommendation for Station Eleven. I really enjoyed reading this last year. 

 

Thank you both. :) I started reading it yesterday and have read about 90 pages, which is pretty good going for me. :) I'm really enjoying it.

 

 

I received some new books in the mail this week:

 

Alan Bradley The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

I've already read this, but I had to buy a new copy to match the other books in the series.  :blush2: I'm so pleased that they're finally all consistent. They look so pretty on the shelf. :)

 

Alan Bradley As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust

This is the most recent of the Flavia books. :)

 

Erik Larson Isaac's Storm and Thunderstruck

These are the last two of Larson's (main) books that were missing from my collection. Isaac's Storm is about a hurricane that destroyed the town of Galveston, Texas, in 1900. Thunderstruck is about (from the blurb) 'Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural means of communication' (Sari, is that the Crippen?!) I can't wait to read these (after I've read In the Garden of Beasts, which is first in the Larson queue).

 

Dalton Trumbo Johnny Got His Gun

Thanks to Chaliepud for this recommendation! :)

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How did it go? I think you just recently did this.

 

The shows were really good. We took along some friends, including the two people we want to be the leads in our show, and they really loved it. We also met some of the cast and crew at both shows and had a good chat. They were really friendly and keen to help us (especially the people at the second show). We've arranged to buy a chair from the first show, which was going to be the trickiest prop to find, and we'll be getting a load of stuff from the second show. We just need to arrange a time to pick it all up. :)

 

It somehow reminds me that I want to read more by Andrey Kurkov...

Ooh, yes, me too! I especially want to read Penguin Lost.

 

Marieke recommended it? I must check it out :smile2: What's Jason been up to?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was her. Oh, and there's big news in the world of The Book Club! They've changed the format this year. Instead of monthly shows, they're going to start later in the year (May) and do 13 shows over 13 weeks. I'm not sure how they'll find time to read the books if it's weekly. *shrugs*

 

I personally want to go in head-first and not know anything about what's going to come  :smile2: I do hope there will be book references!! And I hope that some of the books that are god awful and have been on the lists based on movie titles or because they are bad books are mentioned in the new series and they'll say that they'd never ever read them  :D

OK, I'll be sure not to mention anything I read about it. :)

 

Haha. I wouldn't hold my breath! But I can't wait to see what books they mention.

 

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