Showcase Sunday: Book Haul

Showcase Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by omnivorous book blogger Vicky at Books, Biscuits and Tea. The aim of this event is to showcase the latest precious hoard of books we received for review, borrowed from libraries, bought in bookshops and downloaded onto eReaders this week. It’s fun to see what others are reading (or adding to their TBR pile) as well. For more information about how this feature works and how to join in, click here.  

 

A relatively quiet week, without too many extravagant purchases (perhaps because my Internet was down for 30 hours and I had only one trip to the library).

 

Paperbacks:

1) Bought for my children, but since we now have a cat of our own, I too adore the manga series about the cute kitten Chi by Konami Kanata.

2) Sam Alexander is the pseudonym for a highly-regarded crime novelist. I wish I didn’t know that, as now I’ll be searching for clues for his/her identity instead of just enjoying the book. Described as ‘crime noir at its darkest and most terrifying’, Arcadia Books sent me a review copy of this. Set in the Northern English borderlands and replete with Albanian mafia and sex crimes, I think I will need a strong stomach and plenty of sunlight to embark on this one.

3) Finally, a book by Romanian writer Marius Daniel Popescu, who emigrated to Switzerland in 1990. After working for many years as a bus driver, he finally gained recognition for his poetry and novels (written in French). This novel about the immigrant experience and life under Communist dictatorship in Romania won the Robert Walser Prize in 2008. I bought this book after hearing about the author at the Salon du Livre in Geneva.

Ebook:

4) After reading an interview with the author, I was eager to get my hands on Miriam Toews’ book ‘All My Puny Sorrows’, a novel with some autobiographical details, about two sisters, one of whom suffers from depression. According to Faber & Faber, this book ‘offers a profound reflection on the limits of love, and the sometimes unimaginable challenges we experience when childhood becomes a new country of adult commitments and responsibilities.’

Library Haul:

Of course I shouldn’t have, what with a billion books waiting for me back home… but, as the librarian said, ‘Who can resist?’

5) Jiro Taniguchi: A Distant Neighbourhood

This too is a Japanese manga, but this time for adults. Middle-aged salaryman Hiroshi Nakahara accidentally takes a train ride back to his old hometown to visit his mother’s grave. For reasons he can’t explain, he is then transported back in time, and discovers that he’s an 8th grader again, but with all of his adult memories intact. A clear-eyed, only half nostalgic look at Japan in the days before the bubble and the bust. Also asking if we can ever influence or change the past.

 

6) Katherine Pancol: Les Yeux jaunes des crocodiles

I’ve heard so much about this book, the first in a best-selling trilogy about two sisters who are polar opposites. I like the premise of one sister writing a novel and the other getting all the credit for it. It has been translated into English as ‘The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles’ and a film starring Emanuelle Beart (as Iris) and Julie Depardieu (as Josephine) has just come out in France in April.

 

So that’s my news for this week! Thank you to Vicky for introducing me to this fun meme, and I look forward to seeing what other people have bought/borrowed/read.