This week I had a little less time for reading (work, dancing & the Australian Open Tennis Championships ;)) and I'm still reading Girl Reading by Katie Ward. I'm hoping to finish it tonight.
This week I borrowed three books written in English from the library. I also purchased one e-book & some nonfiction books (sales in the bookstores :)).
Let's start with the library books:
Brotton, Jerry: A History of the World in Twelve Maps
I think maps, and especially old maps, are wonderful! Old maps tell us so much more than just the way from one place to another. Brotton's book "examines the significance of twelve world maps drawn from global history - beginning with the mystical representations of ancient history and ending with the satellite-derived imaginery of today". The book promises that after reading this book you will never look at a map in the same way again! There is also lots of gorgeous pictures of maps in the book. I'm not sure whether I will have enough time to really read this book, but I want to at least browse it -and then maybe borrow it again later.
Kay, Guy Gavriel: Lord of Emperors
My plan to read more fantasy this year got a very good start! I finished reading Sailing to Sarantium, the first part of Guy Gavriel Kay's The Sarantime Mosaic duology a week ago and simply loved the book! Read my review here. As I did have a fair amount of library books at home I tried to be practical and not to reserve the second part of The Sarantine Mosaic immediately from the library, eventhough I was really impatient to know how the story continues and, of course, how it ends. I resisted for one whole day! :) Usually I always read the backcover text, but this time I feel I don't want to know anything beforehand. I want to go to the book without any knowledge of what will happen and would just like to enjoy the story.
Jemisin, N. K.: The Killing Moon
I did not like the one book by Jemisin I read last year, but I am willing to give her books another chance. Eva mentioned this book to me telling that Jemisin's world in The Killing Moon is strongly inspired by Ancient Egypt. I love anything to do with Ancient Egypt and am now very much looking forward to reading this book! I hope it will be second time lucky for me and Jemisin's fiction! :)
E-book:
Kelman, Stephen: Pigeon English
This is my English Reading Circle's February read. It is a story about an eleven-year-old Harry from Ghana who moves to England with his mother and older sister. Harry settles well into his new city life, but then one of his friends is murdered. Unwittingly Harry puts his family into danger as he decides to investigate what really happened to his friend.
Book sale finds:
Abulafia, David: The Great Sea. A Human History of the Mediterranean
I did almost buy this history of the Mediterranean Sea many times last year.:) Now it was on sale and I dinally did buy it! It's a complete history and starts with the Gibraltar Neanderthals some 22000 BC and goes all the way to 2010. Abulafia is Professor of Mediterranean HIsroty at the University of Cambridge. The Great Sea won the Mountbatten Literary Award for the best book about the sea in 2011.
Kiros, Tessa: Apples for Jam
Tessa Kiros is a cookbook author of Finnish-Greek Cypriot descent. I simply love her books and, as they are rather expensive when new, have tried to accumulate my collection during sales. I think her books are among the most beautiful cookbooks ever published! And the recipes are nice, too. :)
Virga, Vincent: Cartographia. Mapping Civilizations
This is a lovely coffee table book about -well old maps and mapmaking again. :) I had just been thinking that I will probably not have time to read Brotton's book I mentioned above from cover to cover and then I saw this book in the bookstore! I just had to buy it, and I got it very cheap -less than half price! :)
Well, those are the books that either came to visit me or moved in with me this week. :) How about you? Did you visit the library this week?
5 comments:
I hope you get along better with The Killing Moon! I loved her first series too, so I'm probably not the best judge. But if you don't like it, you can always abandon it! :)
Eva, that's true :), but I really hope this is a better fit with me. It was Ancient Egypt that sold this one to me. :)
Greetings,
Tiina
I have loved the GGK books I have read so far but still have The Sarantime Mosaic to look forward to. And I love Tessa Kiros' cookbooks, which are both beautifully written and beautifully presented. Enjoy!
Pigeon English was interesting but there was one particular aspect of it that didn't really work for me!
Claire, Sailing to Sarantium was the first book by Kay I have ever read, but I will most certainly read more by him.
Marg, hmm, I'm going to ask you after I've read Pigeon English what it was that did not work for you. It seems an interesting book, though I did not know a murder is part of the plot when we chose the book for the reading circle.
Greetings,
Tiina
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