October/November Book Haul

I definitely have a bit of a problem when it comes to buying books. I can hardly even walk past a bookshop without having a little nosey inside, and at the moment working right beside a Waterstones isn't doing any favours for my bank balance either! Consequently, I've accumulated quite a few books over the past few weeks from here and there:

The Beautiful and Damned | F. Scott Fitzgerald

"The heir to his grandfather’s considerable fortune, Anthony Patch is led astray from the path to gainful employment by the temptations of the 1920s Jazz Age. His descent into dissolution and profligacy is accelerated by his marriage to the attractive but turbulent Gloria, and the couple soon discover the dangerous flip side of a life of glamour and debauchery."

I picked this up in Waterstones on my last visit to Lancaster. I love these Alma editions of Fitzgerald and have one of Tender is the Night so I just thought I may as well add another and maybe start a little collection?

The Wanderer: Elegies, Epics, Riddles | Michael Alexander

"Legends from the Ancient North brings together from Penguin Classics five of the key works behind Tolkien's fiction. They are startling, brutal, strange pieces of writing, with an elemental power brilliantly preserved in these translations...They are the most ancient narratives that exist from northern Europe and bring us as near as we will ever get to the origins of the magical landscape of Middle-earth (Midgard) which Tolkien remade in the 20th century."

I loved the cover of this book when I found it in a bookshop in Grasmere, and upon closer inspection it sounded incredibly cool! It's a collection of classic ancient and historic legends and tales, such as Beowolf and The Saga of the Volsungs, all of which are claimed to have inspired J.R.R. Tolkien when writing the Lord of the Rings. I've never really read anything like this before so I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in.

W.B. Yeats: Selected Poems

It's no secret that I'm completely obsessed with W.B. Yeats so I couldn't really say no to another collection of his poetry! This is a Penguin Modern Classics edition.

William Wordsworth | Poems selected by Seamus Heaney

Carlo and I spotted this little anthology, again while we were in Grasmere, and just thought that there would probably never be a more appropriate place to pick it up than in the Lake District. It's actually from the same series as my other Yeats anthology which also contains poems selected by Seamus Heaney so it's really nice to have them both!

Cider with Rosie | Laurie Lee

"'Cider with Rosie' is a wonderfully vivid memoir of childhood in a remote Cotswold village, a village before electricity or cars, a timeless place on the verge of change. Growing up amongst the fields and woods and characters of the place, Laurie Lee depicts a world that is both immediate and real and belongs to a now-distant past."

I've very nearly finished this book having bought it in Ambleside and already I can safely say it is, or at least will be, one of my favourite books of all time. It's so full of beautiful sensory imagery it's like an experience in itself!

The Unbearable Lightness of Being | Milan Kundera

"Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing and one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover." 

I read most of this after having had it recommended to me when I was sixteen. At the time I made a pretty good go of it and I remember enjoying it too, however, it's quite a heavy, philosophical read and I feel like a lot of what's contained in there was completely lost on me back then, so I'm keen to give it another go now that I'm a bit older and hopefully get a bit more out of it! 

Tess of the D'Urbevilles | Thomas Hardy

"When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D'Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her 'cousin' Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future."

I'm on to another of Hardy's classic works after having enjoyed 'Far From the Madding Crowd' so much. I'm about a quarter of the way through now and I'm loving every minute!

The Small Hand | Susan Hill

"Returning home from a client visit late one evening, Adam Snow takes a wrong turn and stumbles across the derelict old White House. Compelled by curiosity he decides to enter, only to be repelled when he feels the unmistakeable sensation of a small hand creeping onto his own. This is just the beginning of a series of odd experiences."

I got this in the run-up to Halloween and still haven't got around to reading it! 'The Small Hand' is by the same author who penned the Woman in Black, one of my favourite scary films and I really enjoyed another of her stories, Printer's Devil Court when I read it last year so I'm looking forward to getting into this spooky read soon!

The Shock of the Fall | Nathan Filer

"The Shock of the Fall is an extraordinary portrait of one man’s descent into mental illness. It is a brave and groundbreaking novel from one of the most exciting new voices in fiction."

I'd heard an awful lot about this book- a friend's housemate actually wrote her dissertation on it- before I decided I'd give it a read, I've now finished it and I did really enjoy it. It was both fascinating and heartbreaking and I'd recommend to anyone who enjoys character study-type books, particularly if you have an interest in psychology. It's also currently included in Waterstone's Books for Syria campaign in which all the proceeds from the books sold go to Oxfam's Syria crisis appeal, so all the more reason to give it a go!

What books have you been reading recently?