Happy Sunday everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, or relaxing time off if you did not celebrate the holiday. I thought I would share some new additions to my TBR pile that I received for Christmas. Every time I look at this pile of books, I feel giddy!
The Dart League King, by Keith Lee Morris. The intertwining story of five dart-league team members, on the day they fight for the league championship. I found this last year on Emerging Writers Network.
Penguin Classics: Lucky Jim, by Kingsley Amis. A classic academic novel. Amis dedicated this to Philip Larkin.
The Ladies’ Paradise (Oxford World’s Classics), Émile Zola. This novel is set around the rise of the modern department store, and all it entailed for society. I wonder if anyone has done a thesis or dissertation on the department store and the novel? Probably.
Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them (P.S.), by Francine Prose. My very own copy to highlight and write in as I please!
The Slaves of Solitude (New York Review Books Classics), by Patrick Hamilton. Lots of bloggers were reading this last year, but I am pretty sure it was the reviews at A Work in Progress (For the record, I think Dani is responsible for more books on my TBR list than almost any other blogger!) and Bookgirl’s Nightstand that made me add it to my list. Set in England during WWII, this is the story of middle-aged Miss Roach and her encounters with the inhabitants of the boarding house where she lives.
The Story Behind the Story: 26 Stories by Contemporary Writers and How They Work, Eds. Peter Turchi and Andrea Barrett. This book contains short stories by writers such as Antonya Nelson, Charles Baxter, Jim Shepard, Robert Boswell, and others, along with explanations from the writers about how they came to write the story.
Bury Me Deep, by Megan Abbott. Based on the true story of Winnie Ruth Judd, the “Trunk Murderess” of Phoenix Arizona and set in the early 1930s, this novel tells the story of Marion Seely, a wife abandoned by her doctor husband, who befriends two other women and becomes wrapped up in a life of wild parties and scandal, until something goes terribly wrong.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson. Everybody was reading this back around Halloween, and all of the reviews were fun to read.
The Seamstress of Hollywood Boulevard, by Erin McGraw. This novel tells the story of Nell Platt, a girl in turn-of-the-century (Twentieth century, that is) Kansas who abandons her husband and two baby daughters for a life as a seamstress in Hollywood just as its star begins to rise. In mid-life, the daughters she abandoned return, and Nell has to face the consequences of the choice she made long before.
Mudbound, by Hilary Jordan. Set just after WWII, this novel tells the story of the McAllan family and their struggle to survive and thrive in the Jim Crow South.
Await Your Reply, by Dan Chaon. Through three intertwining stories, this novel deals with questions of identity, of how we decide who we are, how we define ourselves, and how the world defines us. I admit, I already read this one. Look for a post on my thoughts early in the new year.
The Heretic’s Daughter, by Kathleen Kent. A novel about the Salem witch trials, based on one of the author’s distant relatives.
Stone’s Fall, by Iain Pears. In 1909, John Stone, a wealthy financier, falls out of the window of his London home–or was he pushed? This story moves back and forth in time and place, reconstructing the events that lead to John Stone’s success and ultimately to his death.
Not pictured: The Best American Mystery Stories of 2009, and the full collection of the The Paris Review Interviews (Boxed Set) I-IV interviews, which I haven’t received yet but am dying to get my hands on! What a list…I am not even sure where to begin with all of these terrific choices.
What was your favorite bookish gift from the holidays, or what are you most looking forward to reading in the new year?
Happy Sunday!
The Evening Reader 
I love your stack of new reads. I just checked out Reading Like a Writer for the millionth time from the library. I really should just buy my own copy! The book that I’m most looking forward to reading in the new year has to be Anything but Typical by Nora Raleigh. Or The Collected Stories of John Cheever. But it’s a huge book and I’m a little scared of it. 🙂
Happy reading!
Oh, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is deliciously creepy. I read it in high school. You’ll enjoy it!
Enjoy your new books! I think the only one I’ve read was We Have Always Lived in the Castle, which I loved.
Vasilly, I am not familiar with that Nora Raleigh book, but I can confirm that while the Cheever stories are very well done, they are best in small doses. I read the entire collection straight through, and it was a bit depressing…sort of like watching a whole season of Mad Men in a weekend!
Literary Omnivore, I am not sure how I missed this book for so long!
Nymeth, I am excited to read all of it. I wish I had more than one brain and several sets of eyes so I could read more than one book at a time. Also, I was thinking as I wrote this, that you are the other blogger who has most influenced my TBR in the past year, so thanks! 🙂
The Ladies’ Paradise looks great! I just ‘discovered’ Zola this year with Therese Raquin.
I have Lucky Jim in my TBR. We should read it at the same time.
Loved Await Your Reply. Chaon is an author who does not write fast enough for me.
Oh lucky you! You got some books that are definitely on my wish list. I’m so glad you also got Slaves of Solitude. I really hope you’ll enjoy that one. I haven’t gotten any books – yet!
Amazing bookstack 🙂 I am envious…
I didn’t get any books for Christmas, but I did get a wondeful datebook called The Reading Woman, which has paintings of women reading on every page.
Right now am reading Loving Frank, a novelization based on the relationship between Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney. It’s very well written ~ I’m enjoying it.
JoAnn, I have not read any Zola since college, when I read Nana. This one looks particularly good, doesn’t it?
Thomas, let me know when you plan to read it…that would be fun!
Debnance, I completely agree. I have been working on my list of favorites for the decade, and all I’ll say for now is, there’s a Chaon book on there!
Iliana, I have long been looking forward to Slaves of Solitude. One of these days I will read along with Slaves of Golconda. You all always read such interesting books!
Becca, I am feeling quite lucky to have such a terrific stack of books. If only I weren’t adding it to another pile of terrific *unread* books already in my possession! What a problem to have…I cannot wait to hear your thoughts on Loving Frank.
Those look fantastic! This year I got the book “Page Fright”. I’m looking forward to reading it. It’s always fun to take a peek at the process that other writers go through when they’re hard at work.
Sagan, that looks like a fun read! I love to read about writers’ crazy processes and quirks.