Thanks to Fopp’s two books for £5 offer, this month I spent a total of £25.75 on paperbacks (that 75p was from a charity shop purchase). For those that don’t know, Fopp is part of the HMV family here in the UK, selling music, films, books, posters, clothing etc. – specialising in more of the indie and obscure media than other outlets.
Sorry about the photo quality, I’m currently packing for a little trip away and my room is a tip – backlighting is not my friend.
As a list, then:
- Lavinia – Ursula Le Guin. For those that don’t know, a Roman poet named Virgil was commissioned to create a noble backstory for the Roman people by his emperor. Lavinia is quite a key figure in the poem in that the hero (Aeneas) must fight a local king (Turnus) for her hand in marriage but that’s about it – she doesn’t have a single word of speech in the text. This novel seems to be a retelling from the princesses’ point of view and will hopefully be a lot better than Atwood’s Penelopiad which I really did not enjoy.
- Earthsea: The First Four Books – Ursula K. Le Guin
- Tales from Earthsea – Ursula Le Guin
- The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August – Claire North
- A Monster Calls – Patrick Ness
- A Man Called Ove – Fredrik Backman
- Metamorphosis and Other Stories – Franz Kafka
- Something Wicked This Way Comes – Ray Bradbury
- Mythago Wood – Robert Holdstock
- The Forgotten Beasts of Eld – Patricia A. McKillip
- The Golem and the Djinni – Helene Wecker. I have been enjoying historical fiction lately and this seems to be a popular choice from recent years.
It should come as no surprise that most (if not all) of these books come under the fantasy/ speculative fiction headings. Although I have had a slow couple of months in terms of reading I hope that picking up some books I’ve been looking at for a while (especially those by Wecker and Le Guin) will reinvigorate my desire to read. The books from North, Ness, and Backman have also been on my radar for a whilst as they have all received a lot of publicity when they were released and I reckon they will be a good break from more pure-fantasy stories.
What has been your favourite pickup this month?
ApertureReads 