I donated five books from my shelves to the cause. It is getting more and more difficult to cull my collection though because the majority of the books I buy, I buy because I want to keep them. I am down to the keepers, books that were gifts, souvenirs from one of the Grand Southern Literary Tours, or books from my family shelves.
At the sale I showed restraint and did well with a net gain of three books. Here they are:
I was happy to find two books I had not read by Peter Mayle, Chasing Cezanne, an art caper, and A Good Year, the story of a British fellow who inherits his uncle's vineyard in Provence. Apparently this last one was made into a movie starring Albert Finney.
The Good Husband of Zebra Drive is by Alexander McCall Smith and is the eighth in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. I have read all the books but only own the first one. I like the look of these hardcover editions by Pantheon so I snatched up this one. Looks like I am starting a collection!
Machiavelli's Lawn is an anthology of garden writings in the style of twelve writers from Raymond Carver on planting a hanging basket to Pablo Neruda on pruning roses. It is written and illustrated by Mark Crick. I picked it up not realizing that it was a parody on the listed writers' works, but it looks to be fun.
I am always on the lookout for vintage volumes. I did not know of Ernest Dimnet but discovered he was a French writer and his book The Art of Thinking was popular in the 1930s. Maybe reading it will help me think!
I like vintage Modern Library editions and this nice clean copy contains both of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (which I have never read) and A Journal of the Plague Year which I once started but never finished although I remember it to be quite fascinating. It is an account of London in 1665 during its battle with The Great Plague.
So You're Going to Paris! is a vintage guide to the City of Light. It was written by Clara E. Laughlin in 1924. It depicts a Paris just after World War I. But this edition, published in 1948 has been updated to reflect a Paris after WWII and the German Occupation. This is one in a series that the American Ms. Laughlin wrote for women travelers. I love reading travel books no matter what the age.
Frugal Luxuries by the Seasons by Tracy McBride is the only paperback book I purchased. It looks to contain everything needed to celebrate the changes in the year from recipes to wreath making to flower arranging to cleaning out one's pantry. As the seasons seem to all run into one another, maybe this book will help them - and me - slow down.
