This post is linked up to the Showcase Sunday meme hosted by Vicky at Book, Biscuits and Tea. A great chance for us to discuss our latest pride and joys in acquired books, whether begged, borrowed, bought or stolen (?!).
Yes, I know that every week I promise there will be no further books added to the leaning towers of Pisa piles of books I have placed in various strategic points around the house (and hidden well on my tablet). But who can resist a good bargain (in the case of Netgalley, even free books)? However, one of my resolutions for 2015 is to stop being so dependent on Amazon and falling for all of its promotions. It’s hard to resist its lure when it’s often the only reliable source of English-language books in our part of France. And even buying French books is tricky, if you want to avoid going over the border to Switzerland. In the town created by Voltaire, our local bookshop has closed down, although thankfully we still have a shop specialising in bandes dessinées (graphic novels and comic books), which has expanded to include board games and has introduced a café-style gaming afternoon every week to ensure it remains open.
Review copies from Netgalley (I’m trying to extend beyond my usual crime fiction fare on this medium):
1) Gregory Sherl: The Future for Curious People
If you could see your love life in ten or twenty years’ time, would you still pick the same person to marry? Intriguing premise for a novel which promises to be funny as well as thought-provoking.
2) Katri Lipson: The Ice Cream Man
In the years just following WW2, a Finnish film director makes a film a little too close to reality, about a young couple on the run during the Nazi occupation. The Secret Police starts to believe he may know some uncomfortable truths. I’ve always been intrigued by Finnish literature and worldview (blame that to early exposure to the Moomins).
3) Matthew Thomas: We Are Not Ourselves
A family breaking down under the weight of mental health problems, set in the 1960s-1970s in Queens.
Purchased on a whim:
4) Stuart Kaminsky: Dancing in the Dark
Who can resist a mystery set in the Golden Age of Hollywood movies in the 1930s-1940s, featuring Fred Astaire? Kaminsky’s long-running Toby Peters series is a delightfully frothy, escapist creation.
5) Roger Smith: Sacrifices
I have Margot Kinberg to thank for this one. She mentioned Cape Town, one of my favourite cities in the world, as a setting for crime fiction and I remembered this very dark, very disquieting novel and its author, so I had to make it mine.
From the library:
6) Susan Hill: The Pure in Heart
The second in the Simon Serrailler series, which I have read in such disorder that I cannot remember which ones I’ve read and which I’ve missed out. Once again, it was fellow reviewers’ mention of Susan Hill which reminded me that I haven’t read her in ages and whetted my appetite for her complex psychological constructs.
And now for my dilemma: in the above-mentioned BD bookshop, I saw today a bee-yoo-tiful gleaming new graphic representation of Jean-Patrick Manchette’s novel ‘Fatale’, illustrated by famous BD artist Max Cabanes. It costs, however, 22 euros, which is steep even by BD standards. Should I get it or not?
Or am I better off getting the collected ‘romans noirs’ of Manchette for 31 euros?
findingtimetowrite 
I like the look of the Manchette.
Do you think I might be justified to break into my son’s piggy bank to acquire both of them – the Fatale and the collected novels?
Marina Sofia – Thank you very much for the kind mention. I really do like the variety of books you’ve added to your TBR and I’ll be interested in what you think of them. That Lipson sounds especially intriguing. Oh and as far as what you should do? I really like that Manchette…
Yes, but which one of the two Manchettes – the graphic novel or the collected works? Or – shock, horror, both?
Both, naturally!
Anything connected with Manchette gets my vote…treat yourself!
Done! Ordered the novels proper online from Fnac and will pop into the BD shop this week to get the graphic version. Ah, bliss! (Hello, bankruptcy!)
Well done! I assume the collection of romans noirs is in French, otherwise I’d be straight in there myself? Sadly, my French is not up to scratch!
I was going to vote for the graphic version – but I see your iron self-control has snapped already… 😆
‘Iron’ is clearly NOT my middle name… Oh, and while I was on the FNAC site, I also ordered two graphic novels which my local shop does not stock ‘Celule Poison’ by Laurent Astier, about an undercover female cop. I saw it featured at the Quais du Polar in Lyon and it looks fantastic!