Recent Acquisitions

It's already February and I never posted about my holiday acquisitions!  Not only did I receive some nice books for Christmas, I also did a little shopping, both online and in a post-holiday trip to New York.

Here's what was under the Christmas tree:

Two audiobooks:  Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen AND A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin;

Two books I really really wanted:  Life Below Stairs by Sian Evans (to feed my Downton Abbey addiction); and The Earth by Emile Zola. . . . and (drumroll, please. . . )

The Great Penguin Bookchase game!!  I've been coveting this ever since I read about it on Thomas' blog My Porch.  Thanks for telling me about it, Thomas!   I haven't played it yet but I've had a lot of fun putting all the tiny little stickers on the books.

The week after Christmas I took my parents up to my favorite bookstore in the Lone Star State:  Bookpeople in Austin!  We had a lovely day and I bought two more books (for which I paid full price, supporting my local independent bookstore!):

Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin and Summer Will Show by Sylvia Townsend Warner

And a few days after Christmas I took my youngest on a her first-ever girl trip to New York City!!  One of the highlights was visiting Tom, one of my dear friends from college whom I hadn't seen in ages!  We were invited to a book exchange party -- everyone brought their favorite book from 2011 and we all talked about our books and swapped.  My contribution was The Annotated Persuasion by Jane Austen.  Here's what I brought home:

Operation Mincemeat by Ben MacIntyre.   I haven't read much nonfiction lately but I am interested in WWII.  Also, this book is actually related to one of the Persephones I read in 2011, Operation Heartbreak by Duff Cooper.  I don't want to give anything else away but if you plan on reading all the Persephones, don't read this book until you do, because it would give away a major plot point.  That's all I'll say.

But back to the New York trip!  Aside from visiting friends, museums, and the fashion district, we did a little book shopping -- honestly, I can't think of a single trip I've taken in the past few years when I didn't come home with at least one new book!  Naturally, we had to visit The Strand Bookstore in the Village.  I managed to keep my purchases down to only two books from the sale table in the basement:

Two more NYRB Classics to add to my collection (mostly unread!):  Hons and Rebels by Jessica Mitford and My Dog Tulip by J. R. Ackerley.  And to my delight, my daughter bought a new book for the airplane ride home -- one of my all-time favorites, Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones!

On the way back to our hotel, we also stopped by Books of Wonder, the amazing children's bookstore, where I bought two more books:  

The Story of The Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit and a Welsh-language copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone!  This brings my total of foreign language Harry Potters to twelve in all.  

And by the end of the month I had broken down and made two more online purchases:

I had to buy The Last Chronicle of Barset because I finished the third book in the Barsetshire Chronicles, based on my reading of the wonderful Doctor Thorne (most of which I read while flying home from New York, because my flight was delayed).   My library doesn't even own a copy!  The fact that it's almost 900 pages long and there are two more books in between shall be ignored.

Finally, one of my online groups is reading one of the latest Persephones: 

It's Greenbanks by Dorothy Whipple.  I've read two other books by her so far and loved them both.  We shall disregard the fact that there are three more on the TBR shelf unread, right?

Good thing I didn't sign up for the challenge where you don't buy any more books for the first three months of the year.  I would have utterly failed again!

Persephone Secret Santa Reveal!

I was very lucky -- my Persephone Secret Santa gift arrived more than two weeks ago!  This is what's been waiting patiently to be opened:

There's a note enclosed which says to be on the lookout for something else, but I couldn't help myself, I had to open it today!  I don't know who it's from, but here's what I found:

It's Good Things in England by Florence White!!!  Very exciting!!  I've wanted this book since I saw it on the Persephone list -- I love cookbooks and British food.  I remember this being mentioned in one of my favorite food books, Laurie Colwin's delightful Home Cooking.  I love food history and historical cooking.  I really enjoyed the first Persephone cookbook I purchased, Kitchen Essays, and I bought Plats du Jour this summer (though I confess I still haven't cooked any recipes from either).

This book includes twelve recipes for gingerbread, plus all kinds of other fun stuff -- Madras chicken curry, kedgeree, and manchet, plus pease pudding and even haggis.  Okay, maybe I won't be making haggis, but it's pretty fun that it's included.

Many thanks to my secret Santa!! I still don't know who you are, but I love my gift!  If you read this, please reveal yourself in the comments.  I love my gift and I hope you get a wonderful gift from your Santa.  

And here's a link to the post from my secret Santee, Care of Care's Online Book Club!  Merry Christmas, Care, and to all the other Persephone Secret Santa participants.  And thanks again to Verity and Claire for hosting!

Who else had a visit from Secret Santa recently, Persephone or otherwise?  What did you get?  Let me know in the comments.

Christmas Loot

This is so late, but we had a whirlwind holiday week.  We left Christmas afternoon for a week in the Baltimore/DC area so I had no time for blogging (though my DH got an iPhone so I was able to read some postings, just no commenting until we returned).  I had to wait to post this until today because I was anxiously awaiting the mail, which had been held in our absence.  Due to the nasty weather some holiday packages were held up in the mail.  But they finally arrived!  Anyway, here's my first photo EVER posted of my own books, taken and uploaded by me.  Behold, my Christmas swag:

I got NINE new books:

• The French Chef Cookbook by Julia Child, chosen by my oldest daughter -- all by herself!  I am so touched, since she knows how much I worship Julia.  Maybe I'll even cook some of the recipes. 
• Dusty Answer by Rosamond Lehmann, so excited about this one.  A Virago! Can I wait until Virago Reading Week?
• Nella Last's War by Nella Last.  I keep hearing about this in the blogosphere, and I'm so into The War at Home right now.
• Don't Tell Alfred by Nancy Mitford.  Been meaning to read this since I read Love in a Cold Climate, which I adored.  (Also a great miniseries.) 
• Mrs. Tim of the Regiment by D. E. Stevenson.  I loved Miss Buncle's Book so I'm looking forward to this one.
• The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook -- British recipes from Harry Potter, including recipes for haggis and blood sausage.  Seriously.  I'll probably skip those in favor of chocolate gateau and treacle tart.
• My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok.  From my dear friend Amanda at The Zen Leaf. 
• They Knew Mr. Knight by Dorothy Whipple.  My Persephone Secret Santa, which has probably been waiting for me at the post office all week while I was far far away.  From Care at Care's Online Book Club.  Thank you again, Care, I can't wait to read it.  And thank you again for all the fun clues.  
• Finally, another Persephone:  The Winds of Heaven by Monica Dickens.  From my dear husband.  Sadly, it was also held up in the post but now I have TWO new Persephones.  Woo hoo!

And now that I've found the proper cord to the digital camera I'll be uploading lots more photos.  Technology is my friend.