As I mentioned two Sundays ago, two friends recommended Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese, his first novel and how that morning Beastmomma in her Sunday Salon post mentioned how she was reading it also. Since then, I ordered the book from From My Shelf Books in our hometown and yesterday, while out and about, I stopped by the store and found it had arrived. However, I couldn’t just pick up one book, so I searched for about five minutes (okay, half an hour) until I found the other three pictured above:
- Joe College by Tom Perrotta
- Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
- What Was Lost by Catherine O’Flynn
I had come across the latter two in the course of my shelf-reading in my job at our local library, but I decided that I might as well purchase these two since they were so cheap. I already have a list of almost 80 books I’ve “found” while shelf-reading, so it’s not like I won’t have plenty of other books from which to choose — not to mention a couple of other books I’ve already taken out of the library and too many books to count on my shelves here at home.
Unfortunately I just got the Verghese book yesterday and so didn’t have time to read it for tonight’s Twitter discussion sponsored by Fountain Books Inc. of Richmond, Va. about which I learned from Rebecca at The Book Lady’s Blog. However, if you have read the book and would like to join the discussion, Kelly (@RVABookChik), owner of Fountain (@FountainBkstore), will be the facilitator with the hashtag, #fountainreads. The Book Lady meanwhile can be found @bookladysblog. I purposely will not be following the discussion, and probably won’t be on Twitter between 7 and 8:30 p.m., so I don’t get any spoilers. Sorry, ladies.
Instead, last night and this morning, I was finishing up Smoke by Donald E. Westlake for which I will have a review later today here. I can’t promise that the Verghese book will be next as I have another Westlake, Memory (his last book), out from the library, to which I’d really like to get and a book written by an online friend that has been sitting on my shelf too long. Rest assured, though, I will be getting to the Verghese here soon, and when I do, y’all will be the first ones to know.
I’ve heard really great things about Special Topics… Even checked out of the library myself once, but had to return it before I got the chance to read it.
Well, the good (and maybe) bad thing about owning the book is that I can read it whenever…I’ve been there. I can think of a few movies I’ve checked out several times before finally getting to see them too: The Queen, being a prime example. However, I’m glad I stuck with it and that we finally watched it. It was well worth it, especially for Helen Mirren’s performance. I also like the actor who portrayed Tony Blair…(?) Sheen. I remember seeing him in Frost/Nixon too and liking him there.
My girlfriend just gave me a copy of What Was Lost though I haven’t read it yet. It’s on the stack. I just read The Brick Layer by a new author, Noah Boyd. Very first book and it was quite good. He is worth putting on your radar.
I’ll put him on my radar…but I’m not promising anything. I have about 80 books like I said that I have on a list from books I’ve “found” while shelf-reading. So maybe in the next few years…:)
Love the cover of What Was Lost. I haven’t read any of those yet, but have heard so many good things about Cutting for Stone.
I think it was the cover that caught me while I was shelf-reading…well, after I pulled it out to get a closer look at it.
I can never come home from a bookstore with just one book. It seems…wrong, somehow. Hope you enjoy your new finds. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts about Cutting for Stone. That’s going to be my next book purchase, I think.
What makes it worse for me is that I know the owners personally, so the guilt is double, but they know that.