Yes, the never-open shop was open for once, and I went in! I don't wish to be mean, but I'm not surprised they are closing down: it's very dimly lit, the stock is all higgledy-piggledy, the place looks uncared for, and there was nothing there to tempt me - though to be fair to them, Mr. C. found three books he wanted (history x 2 and art) and got them at a good price, but all told, it's not somewhere you'd be making a beeline for if you were looking for a goodish range of secondhand books, particularly as there are other better shops (and charity bookshops, too) nearby.
Happily, the postman has brought me so many parcels recently that I'm utterly spoilt for choice and don't have to rely on never-open shops. I must quickly mention a few of the highlights of the arrivals piles in case you've missed them over there in the sidebar list on the right:
Lots of us are fans of Rosy Thornton's novels, e.g. The Tapestry of Love
(post here) and Hearts and Minds
(post here), so it's great news that Rosy's next book is due out in a few days' time. Ninepins
is set in the Cambridgeshire fens where Laura is living alone with her daughter Beth. When she takes in a teenager with a dubious past, and Beth starts to get into trouble at school and out of it, Laura's carefully ordered world seems to be getting out of control. "With the tension of a thriller, Ninepins explores the idea of family, and the volatile and changing relationships between mothers and daughters, in a landscape that is beautiful but perilous." Rosy is always well worth reading, so that's one to look out for.
Deborah Harkness's A Discovery of Witches
was a big hit with me just over a year ago, and I said then how much I was looking forward to the second volume in Deborah's All Souls trilogy, so I'm delighted to now have a proof copy of that book, Shadow of Night
. It won't be published here until July, but I'm sure it will be worth the wait as the first book was such fun, and the plot moves seamlessly on, taking Diana Bishop and Matthew Clairmont to 1590 London where Matthew falls in with a group of radicals and spies for Queen Elizabeth, and the two scour the city's bookstalls and alchemical laboratories, following the elusive trail of the mysterious manuscript, Ashmole 782.
If crime is more your thing, do you know the Greek detective novels of Anne Zouroudi? I am midway through the first of the series - The Messenger of Athens
- and I'm loving it so I'm pleased to know that there are a further five books available now, a sixth title
due in June, and then presumably a seventh after that (their themes are the seven deadly sins). More on the first book soon, and more from the arrivals piles, too.
