Well that was a rather full ten days or so. “Busy” is an understatement. No matter, it’s all been positive stuff, but I am more than ready for a bit of down time today.
I came back from my trip to the lower mainland with an embarrassingly large load of books. Premium hunting grounds were Chilliwack’s The Book Man and Hope’s Pages . Gloriously eclectic selections; wonderfully friendly and helpful staff. A true pleasure to visit both of these! And the nurseries we stopped at were pretty marvelous, too. I restrained myself there, I’m proud to announce! Only three plants were acquired, among the dozens I coveted.
Without further ado, here’s a list of some of my literary finds, in no particular order:
- Morley, Christopher – Where the Blue Begins (Because I’m curious about Morley’s work aside from The Haunted Bookshop and Parnassus on Wheels.)
- Bloom, Ursula – The Quiet Village
- Taylor, Elizabeth – At Mrs. Lippincote’s (Just finished it this morning. Very good.)
- Dickens, Monica – Enchantment (Read this in the hotel room one night. One of Dickens’ last novels. Awkward here and there, but definitely readable; reminded me strongly of The Listeners.)
- Dickens, Monica – The Landlord’s Daughter (And I do believe this almost completes my Monica Dickens adult fiction collection.)
- Dickens, Monica – The Room Upstairs (A 2nd copy for me, but this one an early hardcover in a nice dj, to replace the tattered paperback I already own.)
- Dickens, Monica – Flowers on the Grass (Another 2nd copy, but I couldn’t resist the handsome though worn dj. My 1st copy is jacket-less, bent, and more than well-read.)
- Burnett, Frances Hodgson – T. Tembarom
- Innes, Dorothy Hammond – What Lands are These? (Because I read and loved her husband’s Harvest of Journeys many years ago; this is something of a companion memoir.)
- Innes, Hammond – The Land God Gave to Cain
- Stegner, Wallace – Wolf Willow (Because I was deeply moved by a recent reading of All the Little Live Things, and want to explore this most intriguing author.)
- Stevenson, D.E. – The House of the Deer
- Stevenson, D.E. – The Young Clementina (Let’s just say the prices of these last two averaged each other out. 🙂 Darling spouse, if you’re reading this, please don’t inquire!)
- de la Roche, Mazo – Ringing the Changes (Just because. One for the Canadiana crowd, and because the open-it-up-and-read-a-page test was highly successful.)
- Powning, Beth – The Hatbox Letters (I vaguely recall this one getting some discussion, though I can’t remember if it was pro or con. I thought perhaps I should add some contemporary fiction to the stack of vintage novels.)
- Holborn, Hannah – Fierce (Contemporary Canadian.)
- Hodge, Jane Aiken. The Private World of Georgette Heyer
- Cran, Marion – The Bedside Marion Cran (It was in the gardening section, looked interesting, and read well when sampled. I have no idea who Marion Cran is/was; one to explore, perhaps.)
- Young, Andrew – A Prospect of Flowers (A much annotated book about wildflowers, first published in 1945. One for the working bookshelf, and of course for the pleasure of reading it.)
- Bowen, Elizabeth – The Little Girls
- Graves, Robert – Antigua, Penny, Puce (Opened it up, read a few pages, and had a hard time tearing myself away. A novel written in 1936, which I’ve never heard of before, though I’m familiar with Graves through his iconic Claudius novels.)
- Mansfield, Katherine – In a German Pension
- Macaulay, Rose – Crewe Train
- Patterson, R.M. – Trail to the Interior (In a pristine first edition, a peace-offering to my long-suffering, book-inundated spouse, who enjoys Patterson and does not yet have this one.)
- Treneer, Anne – Schoolhouse in the Wind (Found this in the back room of Pages bookstore in Hope, among the “collectibles.” Memoir of Cornwall, published in 1944.)
- Powell, Anthony – Casanova’s Chinese Restaurant (Who could resist that title? A two-dollar paperback, so hardly an expensive gamble!)
- Corbett, Elizabeth – A Nice Long Evening
- Hoban, Russell – Turtle Diary
- Eden, Dorothy – Waiting for Willa
- Oppenheim, E. Phillips – Ask Miss Mott (To add to my prized though seldom-read collection of vintage Oppenheim thrillers. I think “dated” describes these well, but I have my weaknesses…)
- Bromfield, Louis – Mrs. Parkington
- Leith-Ross, Sylvia – Beyond the Niger
- Sharp, Margery – Brittania Mews (Something like a 4th copy – I’m not really sensible when it comes to my beloved Margery Sharp – but this one has a handsome dust jacket. “I’m not really a collector, because I read everything I buy,” I said to the owner at Pages. “You’re buying a book for the dust jacket,” he replied. “Face it, you’re a collector!”)
So, a few evenings of reading!
Did I find any prizes? Anything here you’ve read and loved? Or perhaps despised?
Leaves & Pages 
Wow, you were busy! I’ve read a few of these (At Mrs Lippincote’s, Crewe Train and The Private World of Georgette Heyer) and have my eye on others (Sourcebooks is reissuing The Young Clementina this year and I’ve already placed my library hold on it). Enjoy your well-deserved down time!
I’ve just this morning finished ‘Crewe Train’, and yesterday morning ‘At Mrs Lippincote’s’. Both were most enjoyable; I think I shall try to formulate posts on one or both, if I can get back into the swing of writing! May was all action, not much introspection. 🙂 June will still be full, but not quite so frantic. Two more weeks of dance before the summer break, so that commitment will be off my schedule, and plant nursery-wise things are winding down, though I must admit it was busy enough on Friday and Saturday… must finish planting my own garden at some point…
Looking forward to the D.E. Stevensons; I think I’ll be saving them up for a bit. I also am waiting to read ‘The English Air’; your recent review left me with a feeling of happy anticipation and I’m looking forward to it greatly.
If you ever find yourself in Chilliwack, Claire, or Abbotsford, I would highly recommend The Book Man. I know I said this already, but it’s so beautifully organized and they have a fully searchable database of everything they carry. The selection is very good, and the store itself rewards the browser. Most of what I purchased was completely random; I didn’t go in with any plan but to look for D.E. Stevenson and Dickens’ ‘The Landlord’s Daughter’, and my daughter and I walked out with two large shopping bags full!
That is quite a list! I’ve read The Hatbox Letters and enjoyed it: slow pace but I liked it. Wonderful descriptions of the natural world.
Also, haven’t read that particular Christopher Morley, though I enjoyed Haunted Bookshop & Parnassus on Wheels. I found a very amusing epistolary novel on Internet Archive which he wrote, called Ginger Cubes — quite short but funny.
I’ll be investigating the link – thanks so much! I only dipped into the Morley from the past week very briefly, but the bits I read seemed promising. I’ll write about this once once I’ve settled down enough to read it properly.
I have a copy of Turtle Diary I’ll be reading this month.
Casanova’s Chinese Restaurant is part of Powell’s 12 volume Dance to the Music of Time. I mean to read it some time in the future.
I didn’t realize that ‘Casanova’s’ was part of a series until I got it home and looked at it more closely. Apparently it is book number five. I’ll give it a go and see if I need to be looking for the other eleven!
‘Turtle Diary’ sounded most intriguing. I’ll be interested to read your review if you write about it, Guy. I’ve dabbled a bit in Hoban in the past, and my memories tell me that he has a lot going on worthy of reading and mulling over. An “imaginative” writer!
Well, a hundred years ago I read and loved and reread all the Whiteoaks books, by Mazo de la Roche. My dear, all that smouldering passion. And Ringing the Changes of course, because I love reading about writers of books I love.
All these years later, I’ve decided that rather than reread any (I have them all, on a shelf in the baement) it might be preferable for me to remember having loved them. I still recall that Ringing the Changes as an interesting look at the life of a Canadian author who was a huge huge international bestseller in her time.
But really, did you say “some” of the books you acquired?
Aha! You caught the “some”. Actually this was most of them. There are a few I didn’t list, mostly biography and such. And a sequel to ‘Pollyanna’, which I didn’t realize existed. I did enjoy that one as a child, so will need to see if the attraction still holds.
I haven’t read *all* of the Jalna/Whiteoaks books; they did seem to go on and on and I rather wandered away. But I am very curious about the author; the bits of her biography which I read were fascinating.
I have read none of these, but quite a few I wish I could read 🙂 I hope you enjoy reading them all!
Thank you, Iris. So far they’re more hit than miss. I’ve already devoured ‘Crewe Train’, ‘At Mrs. Lippincote’s’, ‘Enchantment’, and some of ‘Waiting for Willa’.
The first two are EXCELLENT, ‘Enchantment’ was decent though not of the author’s first rank, and ‘Waiting for Willa’ was dreadfully bad – I bailed out midway through!
I’m most curious as to what delights (and disappointments) still await me. 🙂 I’ll keep the L&P readers posted; June looks more promising on availability of writing time.
You might enjoy the Corbett. It’s part of the Mrs. Meigs series, set in early 20th century Illinois, and I enjoyed them when I read them years ago. She also wrote many other books, including one set in New York about an older couple, whose title I can’t remember offhand, but was good.
I’d never encountered this author before, but the “quick browse” was promising. I’m looking forward to reading it, and if I like it I get the fun of tracking the others in the series down. Funny how often that happens! 😉