At the last count, thirteen books have arrived here since January began, and there were lots more already on the pending shelf, so that's a good reason to give some of them a brief introduction pro tem while they wait for me to get to them.
Chosen from the pile today almost at random but also for their beautiful, toning jackets (well, a great deal of effort does go into cover design and, as we've said before, it's not always successful), are two novels, Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies
Sea of Poppies is already well known having been on the Booker shortlist last year. A historical adventure set against the backdrop of the Opium Wars, and the first of a trilogy, this is a story with a vast sweep. As I recall, it was one of the better-loved of the Booker contenders, so I hope I'm in for a treat with it.
Burnt Shadows, coming out soon, is another book with a huge scope reaching from the terrible events which took place in Nagasaki in August 1945, to Delhi, Pakistan, New York and Afghanistan in 2001. "Absorbing", "powerful", "audacious in its ambition", say the reviewers, who are full of praise for this "beautiful book".
Just a thought on place and subject matter prompted by these books: do you tend to be a 'stay-at-home' in reading terms, preferring books with a familiar setting and more of a domestic bias, or is that on the whole far too mundane for you so that you crave the exotic, the foreign, the big adventure rather than the drawingroom drama? Which type - covers apart for the moment - exerts the greater pull?
