This is the long overdue (I seem to be saying that a lot lately -will try and better my ways :)) third and final part of my book sales posts. Here goes...
Ox-Tales Earth, Air, Fire and Water
These are four little volumes of original short stories published in Great Britain in support of Oxfam. If some of you are not familiar with Oxfam it is (to quote their website) "a confederation of 14 likeminded organizations working together to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice". I'm very exited about these little books, as there are some really interesting writers that have participated in the project. The writers include Kate Atkinson and Hanif Kureishi in Earth, Alexander McCall Smith and Kamila Shamsie in Air, Jeanette Winterson and Lionel Shriver in Fire, and Hari Kunzru and Michel Faber in Water to name just a few of them.
Yousef Al-Mohaimeed: Wolves of the Crescent Moon
What really sold this novel to me was the earily beautiful front cover! And also the fact that this is a novel set it Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Wolves of the Crescent Moon is a story of three outsiders -a Bedouin, an orphan, and a eunuch- who all try to make their lives in the city. It is said to be a novel of "great moral consequence about a deeply traditional society confronting the modern world". The book, which is Al-Mohaimeed's debut novel, was banned in Saudi Arabia.
Lauren Liebenberg: The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam
Isn't that a delicious name for a book? :) This is a story set in the late 1970s. Nyree and Cia are two little girls living on a farm in what was then Rhodesia. Their whole world consists of the farm until their orphaned cousin Ronin arrives and the idyll of their childhood is gone for ever. The back cover tells us that the girls childhood was "seductive", it was "laced with African paganism, mangled Catholicism and the lore of the Brothers Grimm. Sounds very intriguing to me!
Ann Weisgerber: The Personal History of Rachel DuPree
I was very pleasantly surprised to find this award-winning novel also being on sale. The Personal History of Rachel DuPree is set in 1917 South Dakota. Rachel Dupree with her husband and children is one of the few black families in the West. She wants to give her children a better life, but she also knows that her husband would never leave their farm. This is said to be "an unforgettable novel about love and loyalty, homeland and belonging.
As I said, this concludes my book sales posts. I've bought a few books after the sales, but am actually trying to limit my book buying a bit. I have two holiday trips to look forward to next summer and I've but myself on a budget because of that. :) Luckily there is no shortage of books to read either at home or in the library! I'm still reading The White Garden and after listening to a very interesting BBC World Book Club podcast with Umberto Eco as a special guest talking about his 1980 bestselle The Name of the Rose I had the urge to finally read the Finnish translation that has been sitting on my book shelf since 1996! (I've seen the film made of the novel twice, so I know the general plot, but a book is always a book) I guess it is more than high time I finally read the novel.
By the way those BBC World Book Club podcasts should come with a warning: BE AWARE THESE PROGRAMMES MAY CAUSE SERIOUS INCREASE IN YOUR TBR-LISTS :)
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