Monday, October 31, 2011

Mailbox Monday


Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

Serena at Savvy Verse & Wit is hosting in October.  Please go by and visit her wonderful blog.

Because the Friends of the Multnomah County Library had their big fall sale this past weekend, a huge stack of books came into my house.

Not counting the eight Jack Reacher books that Hubby got (he's only just now discovered Lee Child, although I've been raving for years), the stack includes:

Parnassus on Wheels and The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley



Getting to Know the General: The Story of an Involvement by Graham Greene

The Complete Claudine: Claudine at School, Claudine in Paris, Claudine Married, Claudine and Annie by Colette (one of several omnibus editions I picked up; I read a lot of Colette when I was in college, but don't remember any of it; on my French Connections list)

The Complete Essays and Other Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson (a great Modern Library edition with dust jacket)



The Diary of Anais Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934 and The Diary of Anais Nin, Vol. 3: 1939-1944 (I am in a Paris book reading mood, so got these to add to my French Connections list; too bad I couldn't find Vol. 2)

The Vicar of Wakefield and Other Writings by Oliver Goldsmith (another cool Modern Library edition with dust jacket)



Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf (her last novel; I have an aspiration to read more Woolf)



Cities of the Interior by Anais Nin (in for a penny . . . )



Maurice: A Novel by E. M. Forster

The Beet Queen and Love Medicine by Louis Erdrich (Love Medicine won the National Book Critics Circle award)



The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott (in a nifty boxed set of paperbacks)



Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith (I've seen this around a lot -- it looks very good and I want to read it right away)



The Secret Hangman by Peter Lovesey (I've now gathered three of his books but haven't read any of them yet -- must start)



The Complete Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton (I've been meaning to get to these; here they are in an omnibus edition)



The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie (I took a flyer on this one)



Toward the End of Time by John Updike (I'm an Updike completist)



Absolute Truths by Susan Howatch (the sixth and last book in her series about the Church of England; I want to read the series and still need the first two)



Brief Lives by Anita Brookner (I was inspired by International Anita Brookner Day)



House Made of Dawn by Scott N. Momaday (this won the Pulitzer Prize in 1969)



Small World by David Lodge (the sequel to Changing Places, which I loved)



The Woman Who Walked into Doors by Roddy Doyle



The Avignon Quintet by Lawrence Durrell (a doorstop of an omnibus edition; Monsieur: Or, The Prince of Darkness, the first book of The Avignon Quintet, won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize))



Venice: Lion City: The Religion of Empire by Gary Wills (looks great and is going on my Venice List)



The Lion by Nelson DeMille (because I am so loving Cathedral that I am stocking up on his others)



Happy Halloween!


I love Halloween. Halloween done my way, that is, which means nothing scary and nothing ugly. I like pretty, cute, and vintage Halloween -- jack-o-lanterns and little kids in funny costumes. 

Almost every year of my adulthood I've had a dinner party on Halloween for friends who don't live in trick-or-treater neighborhoods.  This tradition has survived through a practice husband, a house with my sister, five years in San Francisco, and two houses with my keeper husband. 

But not this year.  Work demands, including having to leave early the next morning for a work trip, have trimmed my usual shindig to almost nothing.  I have one good friend coming over to use our house for trick-or-treating base camp with her six year old.  But no dinner party.  I'm disappointed.

Good thing the Jazz Cats are excited about their costumes.



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