FACT: I love books. I love reading them, buying them, selling them, recommending them, writing about them, and collecting them. I love how many books surround me at all times. But sometimes my house begins to look like this: THEY"RE COMING TO GET ME. So to keep from being Collyered, I occasionally cull my library. Which I did this past weekend. And while I was having an epic nerdpurr shuffling books around, I came up with an idea for a reading goal: The Backlist Alphabet Project! In the past years, I usually pick a reading goal that involves re-reading a … [Read more...]
My First Love: The Books of Agatha Christie
ALL HAIL THE QUEEN. Recently, one of my Book Riot coworkers started reading Agatha Christie novels and was telling me about it. Which is like talking about flames to a pyromaniac. So today I drove to my brother's house, where my collection has been residing in his barn for several years, and brought my Agatha Christie books home. (I lived in a verrrrrrrry tiny apartment before the house I live in now, so I had packed them up for the sake of space.) A few of the books didn't survive the barn, like Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, but the rest are … [Read more...]
Yay, Books! – February 4, 2016
Today was a particularly good book mail day, so I thought I'd share a few highlights: The High Places: Stories by Fiona McFarlane (May 10) I squealed really loud when I heard this was coming! I am a HUGE fan of her last book, The Night Guest (which has one of the most amazing covers). This will be like several little McFarlane books in one place. The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith (April 5) This one sounded soooooo intriguing. Art! History! Forgery! YES PLEASE. Black Apple by Joan Crate (March 1) This one sounds like it's going to be … [Read more...]
Baby Got Backlist: Lives of the Monster Dogs by Kirsten Bakis
Baby Got Backlist is a column in support of older titles that I feel should still be getting love and attention. Before we go any farther, there is something you need to know: This book is no longer in print. WHICH SHOULD BE A CRIME. Because this book is soooooooo wonderful. I can't believe it came out nineteen years ago. I stumbled upon it in the now-closed Stroudwater Books, and it caught my eye because it has a Malamute on the cover, and we had a Malamute when I was a kid (R.I.P. Kajo) so I was intrigued. (If you don't know what a Malamute is, it's like a … [Read more...]
Yay, Books! – January 28, 2016
In case you hadn't heard, I love books. LOVE THEM. Here are a few book-related things I'm happy about today: It's less than one week until Alexander Chee's Queen of the Night is unleashed on the world! I spent the day in Boston yesterday helping judge books for the New England Book Show. It was so much fun! And really hard to choose - there were so many beautiful books! I'm looking forward to attending the show on May 3rd. I recently learned that Marcy Dermansky has a new book coming out in the fall! I LOVE HER. Her novels Twins and Bad Marie are two of … [Read more...]