Thursday, March 17, 2011

Used Book Store Finds

My latest used-book store haul, in no particular order, looks something like this:

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon - A book about books! A mystery set in 1945 Barcelona. And it's got a lovely old leather-bound looking cover too. How could I resist?

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver - I've been meaning to get back to this author for a while. What better time than now?

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway - "A grand and powerful novel about how people retain or reclaim their humanity when they are under extreme duress." I saw some pretty good reviews for this book when it first came out, so may as well give it a try myself.

Island by Alistair MacLeod - Canadian author. Short stories. Ehn, could be good.

The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl - I don't know anything about this book except that it's a murder mystery based around Dante's Inferno. A literary club is called upon to help the police solve the crime. Hmm, sounds kind of Dan Brown-ish so it might be a fun weekend read.

Asylum by Patrick McGrath - Taut, tension-filled . . . a chilling story that works as both a Freudian parable and an old fashioned gothic shocker. I came across this title last fall while searching people's RIP V reading lists from last fall. Dunno, could be good. If I don't get to it now, I'll save it for a chilly, misty, spooky evening in October.

9 comments:

Shannon Young said...

This looks like a great selection. I've read The Cellist of Sarajevo. It's a beautiful little book.

Playing Librarian said...

The Shadow of The Wind is one of my favorite books. And The Cellist of Sarajevo is a very good book too!

Enjoy =)

a quiet life said...

loved sarajevo, very intense book, really disliked prodigal summer, read all her other books and loved them but that left me cold... have had shadow in my kindle for way to long and island on my wish list. not good with murder books, i don't like to be scared dante and asylum sound out of my realm :(

oreneta said...

A Kingsoliver I haven't seen? Hmmmm, going to have to try and find it....and Shadow of the Wind, I am feeling determined to read it in Catalan or Spanish....so I've waited. Catalan I could do now though....food for thought this post

Trish said...

shannon - thanks, yes I'm looking forward to getting started.

librarian - that's good to hear. Some of these books I'm only just discovering now even though they've been out for a while.

blue moon - hmm well that's probably why I don't see many references to Prodigal Summer when look for Barbara Kingsolver books. Oh well. That's what used books are good for.

oreneta - yes! I've never heard of it either. I'm looking forward to seeing if it's any good. As for Shadow, that would be so cool to read it in it's original language. Somehow I'm always a little afraid things get lost in translation. But, oh well. I'll have to stick with English on that one.

Happy Muslim Mama said...

Hi Trish,

The Cellist of Sarajevo is a beautiful and moving book. I simply loved The Shadow of the Wind, I challenge anyone not to love this book.

Looks like a good haul you've got there.

The Book Nook said...

I have the Dante Club, too. Its been sitting on my TBR sheld. Perhaps I should get to reading it.

Let me know how you like it.

Trish said...

umm salihah - yes, I was so tickled to find these!

book nook - funny, I've seen it on the shelf at the book store for weeks, but only just now figured I'd take a chance on it. It looks good, doesn't it?

Kristopher Gawron said...

Mm, it seems like a nice set of novels. Used bookstores can be a great source of fun stuff to read. Thanks to the cheaper prices, one can have a lot of fun picking several books randomly.