With a combination of ignorance, luck, and self-discipline, but mostly the first two, I only shuffled myself off to one winter book sale this winter, which is a good thing given the imminent collapse of the house under all the unread books. I made it worth my while, though, and ended up with a slew of promising reads. Here they are for your viewing pleasure, with haphazard commentary, of course!
One Day by David Nicholls - Between all the blogosphere buzz and the movie previews, it wasn't hard deciding to pick this one up. Plus, the idea of revisiting a relationship on just one day of each year is kind of fascinating.
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson - I've heard nothing but good things about Chains, and so far I've got a great track record with Halse Anderson's books like Fever 1793 and Speak. This was purchase was a no-brainer!
Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan - I think I won this in a giveaway once upon a time, but it never came, and I was very sad. =( But now I have it anyway, so I am very happy! =)
The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra
The Ballad of West Tenth Street by Marjorie Kernan
The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson - Who that heard Maureen Johnson speak at the first Book Blogger Con and who subsequently took up following her wildly entertaining Twitter stream would pass up the chance to acquire more of her writing when faced with it at a book sale?
Gardens of Water by Alan Drew
Open Secrets by Alice Munro
Under the Dome by Stephen King - I probably would have picked this up just because I'm a Stephen King fan from way back, even though I've been wandering from the fold, but it's Bellezza's two posts that got me really intrigued about it.
Somebody Else's Daughter by Elizabeth Brundage
The March by E.L. Doctorow - I read Ragtime once upon a time, and I really enjoyed the way Doctorow does historical fiction, getting it from all different angles and perspectives and incorporating real historical figures. Hope this is similar!
The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher - Seeing the Booker Prize shortlist emblem on the front of a cover nearly always draws my interest.
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman - It's Kim's review of this one that got me interested, and I almost missed it completely at the sale but for spying my mother slip it off the shelf and back on and catching a glimpse of the cover. The copy's just like new!
What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty - This one's been all around the blogosphere and sounds great. I'm sure I've read a zillion positive reviews of it, but Raych's is the only one with an exploding snow man illustration of the novel's plot, so we'll blame her for my acquisition of this novel. P.S. this is one of those books where U.K. cover is much lovelier than that which was trotted out to the U.S. audience. It's quite nice when people who donate their books donate their books from other places.
The Devil's Company and The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss - Historical fiction, for being one of my favorite "genres" has been sorely lacking in my reading of late, which is perhaps why I've elected to collect yet more of Liss's work based on a now distant satisfied feeling about The Coffee Trader which I read many, many moons ago.
We Thought You Would Be Prettier by Laurie Notaro - I can remember one of my best friends (who I didn't meet for the first time on the internet) having driven to my house had something by Laurie Notaro on audio for the trip that she said was hilarious. This is not audio, but I hope it reads just as hilariously!
The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer
Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - One of Eva's favorite authors, which is more than enough reason for me to pick something up at a book sale, for sure.
Light from a Distant Star by Mary McGarry Morris - Okay, I may have just thieved this one from my mom. I bought it for her for Christmas because I think she's read just about every one of Morris's books, and I'd hate for her to have a gap in her reading and because buying a book for my mom is almost like buying a book for myself since once she reads it, it becomes mine... ;-)
Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire - An impulse buy that I might regret. I felt meh about Wicked the book, felt great about Wicked the musical, and then Wm Morrow sent me a copy of the final book in the series, so I thought, hey, it costs a buck, why not revisit the series and see what I think because surely I can't read the last book in a series without having read the others!
There you have it, the newest used additions to the collection. Are there any that I should push to the front of the to be read line? Any that were total mistakes?
