Skip to main content

In which I reveal my TBR pile


Here’s a pile of books in my TBR list (of course the list itself is much longer!). From the top down:

1) Unnatural Death, by Dorothy Sayers. A mystery in the Lord Peter Wimsey series.
2) Maisie Dobbs, by Jacqueline Winspear. A mystery set in 1920s London.
3) Oscar and Lucinda, by Peter Carey. Historical fiction set in 19th century London.
4) The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Bronte. Classic work of Victorian fiction, by the least-well-known Bronte sister.
5) Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, by Winnifred Watson. 1930s novel about a penniless governess who “lives for a day.”
6) The Book of Air and Shadows, by Michael Gruber. Mystery.
7) Evelina, by Fanny Burney. Another classic.
8) East Lynne, by Ellen Wood. Sensationalist Victorian novel.
9) 740 Park, by Michael Gross. Nonfiction about “the world’s richest apartment building.”
10) No Fond Return of Love, by Barbara Pym. Pym’s works are always a treat.
11) Murder Must Advertise, by Dorothy Sayers. Another Lord Peter Wimsey.
12) Please Excuse My Daughter, by Julie Klam. A memoir.
13) Target Underwear and a Vera Wang Gown, by Adena Halpern. A memoir.
14) Bar Flower, by Lea Jacobs. A memoir.

I’m not going to read all these books in the order listed here; usually, I read according to whatever I feel like, simply because I don’t like having my books in a prescribed order. So what order do you read your TBR pile in?

Comments

Julie P. said…
My TBR pile is huge right now. I've started keeping track of when books come in, so I can try to keep some sort of order! I've only read one of your books -- Maisie Dobbs, but I just love the title Target Underwear and a Vera Wang Gown! I can't wait to hear about it.
Hey Katherine - the post you linked for the classics challenge brought me here. If you decide to participate in the meme, let me know and I'll change the link. :) Thanks for all of the GREAT suggestions for future classics!
Terri B. said…
My TBR pile is quite enormous (embarassingly so). I go by feeling -- whatever strikes my mood -- most of the time. Once in awhile I get on a tangent like "all novels based on a fairy tale" or "all novels about life in the Southwest."
Kim said…
There are some really interesting looking books on that list that I think I may add to my list! My list is actually just shelves and shelves of books to be read--my husband thinks I am crazy and doesn't get why I need to own all these books! I read them in whatever strikes my fancy at the time--but I am trying to read one memoir a month, at the least and the rest is mostly different fiction genres. Great post and happy reading to you!
*smiles*
Kim
(page after page)

Popular posts from this blog

Another giveaway

This time, the publicist at WW Norton sent me two copies of The Glass of Time , by Michael Cox--so I'm giving away the second copy. Cox is the author of The Meaning of Night, and this book is the follow-up to that. Leave a comment here to enter to win it! The deadline is next Sunday, 10/5/08.

A giveaway winner, and another giveaway

The winner of the Girl in a Blue Dress contest is... Anna, of Diary of An Eccentric ! My new contest is for a copy of The Shape of Mercy , by Susan Meissner. According to Publisher's Weekly : Meissner's newest novel is potentially life-changing, the kind of inspirational fiction that prompts readers to call up old friends, lost loves or fallen-away family members to tell them that all is forgiven and that life is too short for holding grudges. Achingly romantic, the novel features the legacy of Mercy Hayworth—a young woman convicted during the Salem witch trials—whose words reach out from the past to forever transform the lives of two present-day women. These book lovers—Abigail Boyles, elderly, bitter and frail, and Lauren Lars Durough, wealthy, earnest and young—become unlikely friends, drawn together over the untimely death of Mercy, whose precious diary is all that remains of her too short life. And what a diary! Mercy's words not only beguile but help Abigail and Lars...

Review: The Piano Teacher, by Janice Y.K. Lee

The Piano Teacher is a complicated novel. On the surface, it’s about a love affair between two British ex-patriots in Hong Kong in 1952-3. Claire Pendleton comes to Hong Kong with her husband Martin at a time when the world is still recovering from WWII; Claire takes up work as a piano teacher for the daughter of a wealthy Chinese family, where she meets Will Truesdale, the Chens’ enigmatic chauffeur. The book jumps back in time between the 1950s and the beginning of WWII, when Will is interned in Stanley, a Hong Kong camp for enemies of Japan. On “the outside” is Tudy Liang, Will’s beautiful Eurasian lover. There’s no doubt that Lee’s writing is beautiful. But there’s something lacking in this short, terse novel that I can’t quite put my finger on. First, I think it’s the tenses she uses when taking about each story: that which is set in the 1950s is in the past tense, while the war scenes are talked about in the present tense (confusing, no?) The interpersonal relationships of the m...