Every Christmas, we give each other books. Lots of books. It’s actually become the best part of the gift giving, to see who came up with what, to see if any of us have given each other the same book (it’s happened twice). I got a good haul this year, so here’s the latest additions to my “to be read” pile:
The Rebels, Sandor Marai
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
Home, Marilynne Robinson
The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga (I always get the latest Booker Prize winner)
Dead Souls, Gogol
Taras Bulba, Gogol
Dreaming Iris, John de Falbe (the 2nd novel written by the fearless leader of my favourite bookstore, Sandoe’s)
New and Collected Poems, George Szirtes (I actually got that for myself)
Not a bad way to start the year’s reading. Of course, the only problem is that I’m still working my way through last year’s horde, not to mention the wonderful books published by my writer friends this year. So many words, so little time. Where do I begin?
Well, the intrepid folk at bluechrome publishing have come up with a new way to help people like me make such decisions: The Bluechrome Review. In the words of the site itself:
…a simple place where anybody involved with bluechrome is invited to
plonk reviews they write. No great aims or ideals, just somewhere else to
find out about good books you might like to read for yourself.
It looks good and is already full of interesting and thoughtful articles about all sorts of books from all sorts of places. Take a look, why don’t ya’.
And now for a little boasting….imagine my surprise when Google alerted me that my name was posted on a blog I had never heard of before — and all the way from Sri Lanka. And not only my name, but it turns out the author has been reading my poetry play, Dreams of May, and quoted one of the poems she especially liked, in her January 7, ’09 posting. It’s called “Upon Leaving” and you can read it here. Thanks “Gutter Flower.”
What a lovely set of books. A Thousand Splendid Suns is our book group title for February – I’m looking foward to that.
How exciting to be alerted to Gutter Flower’s reading of your poetry play.
Sue, I’ve just read “Upon Leaving”. The ache …
PS. A Thousand Splendid Suns is also on my pile.
Wow, that was a nice Google Alert surprise:-)
I loved A Thousand Splendid Suns. That’s a great pile you’ve got there:-)
Oooh Sue, that poem, it hurt me to read it so I don’t want to imagine what happened to make you write it. xo
P.S. what is Google alert and do I want one?
Stunning poem, Sue. Yay for Google Alerts, they are wonderful, Gutterflower hsa excellen taste. And a happy new year of reading, where do you pile the new pile? Did you get a small table too?
Lovely list of books you’ve got there. Been meaning to get my hands on ‘A thousand splendid suns’ for ages now.
Thanks for stopping by BTW. Was pleasantly surprised to hear from you. 🙂
Looking forward to reading more.
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
sharon
Term Life Insurance
Dear gutter Flower and Joshua (or is it Sharon?): thanks for dropping by!