Purging my bookshelves

It's painful for me, but I really need to give away some of my books to make room for the many, many, many that I have bought over the last six months. Most of the new-to-me books have been found at Goodwill and the library's discard shelf and they're stacked fifteen deep on top of my desk. I don't have room for more bookshelves, so some of the old ones have to go.

 

So, I'm stealing borrowing an idea from Stacy at Stacy's Books. This stack of books is the first to go, and it's a first-come, first-serve basis. So let me know which one you want and I will get it to you. One per customer, please!

 

 

From the top:

 

1. The Dive from Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer. This is actually a NTM book, but I forgot that I already had a hardback. How much loyalty do we owe the ones we love? Would you stay or walk away if your fiance' was suddenly rendered helpless. What if you were only twenty-three?

2. Coastliners by Joanne Harris, the author of Chocolat, which I also bought. After living in Paris for ten years, a woman returns to the island where her estranged father lives in hopes of reconciling with him.

3. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Sorry, couldn't get into it.

4. The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian. I've read four or five of his books, including The Midwives which was made into a TV movie starring Sissy Spacek. This novel is about a woman who is attacked while riding her bicycle through Vermont's back roads. Her life is forever changed. This story is very twisty-turny and totally captivating.

5. Women of the Silk by Gail Tsukiyama. Young women who work in the silk factories in China in the mid-1920's. Fascinating.

6. "And So It Goes" by Linda Ellerbee. The story of Linda's life and career in the news bidness, up to 1986, that is. Had this one a while.

7. Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire, the author of Wicked. In his ongoing quest to retell every fairytale in a skewed way, he relates the real story of Snow White who hooks up with the Borgias. Fractured Fairytales, for sure.

8. Mostly True: A Memoir of Family, Food and Baseball by Molly O'Neill, former food columnist for the New York Times Magazine. She also happens to be the sister of Paul O'Neill, retired right-fielder for the New York Yankees. She grew up in Columbus, Ohio in the fifties and sixties. I loved it.

9. Clear Springs by Bobbie Ann Mason. Memoir of her life growing up in central Kentucky. She's the author of In Country, about a wacky, messed-up Vietnam vet which was made into a movie starring Bruce Willis. Good movie, great book.

10. The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank by Ellen Feldman. Ever wonder what happened to Peter van Pels after World War II and his incarceration in a Nazi concentration camp? This is his supposed life.

11. Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler. I've read 8 or 9 of her books and never been disappointed. This one, not so much. I only made it to Chapter 3, but maybe it will be your cup of tea.