Nu-ILB: What books have you purchased lately?

Wowwww---did you make that image of so many covers? Amazing to magnify of course, but even not (would make a great book/album cover in itself). Being near-sided as hell, haven't quite made out all the author names yet; who else is here besides Simenon? And which one uses the Marker collage? Thanks!

Or are they all Simenons? Can't quite see about ones w Death and etc. in titles.

second imgage stolen from here & the marker cover

image^ that is. also a little maigret/penguin history available here: https://www.trussel.com/maig/mackay.htm

Thanks so much for all of that! Especially glad to see this from trussel:
Penguin embarked in 2013 on 75 new translations. It is issuing all the Maigrets, after an opening flurry, at about one a month, in as good a match as can be made to the order in which they were first published. By late 2018, either in paperback B format or as e-books, Simenon’s sometimes obsessional English readers will at last be able to run through the whole of Maigret in one edition.

Meanwhile, we hope that this brief guide to the more complicated past of one of Penguin’s best bestsellers will help readers as well as collectors and conservators to find that elusive missing Maigret.

There was a 'flash sale' at NYRB Publishing not long after Thanksgiving and I ordered four titles (getting 40% off, too). They arrived today:

Chess Story, Stefan Zweig, paperback, $8.97
A Journey Round My Skull, Frigyes Karinthy, paperback, $10.77
Hindoo Holiday, J.R. Ackerley paperback, $11.37
The True Deceiver, Tove Jansson, paperback, $9.57

Everything I bought in 2020. Mostly ebooks and audiobooks on sale, but also a lot of remaindered books. Audiobooks labeled with (a). ! = I read it in 2020.

non-fic

math/science
Nassim Nicholas Taleb - Fooled by Randomness
N*** S***** - The signal and the noise
Loren Eiseley - The Unexpected Universe
LE Fisher - The Night Country

politics/history
Randy Shilts - And the band played on
Jane Mayer - Dark Money
Kurt Andersen - Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire
Leonard Zeskind - Blood and Politics
Steven Levitsky - How Democracies Die
Douglas A. Blackmon - Slavery by Another Name
Nancy MacLean - Democracy in Chains
Adam Higginbotham - Midnight in Chernobyl
Seumas Milne - The Enemy Within
George Packer - The Unwinding
Jill Lepore - These Truths (a)
!Hongoltz-Hetling - A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear (a)
Richard J. Evans - Lying about Hitler
Richard J. Evans - The Pursuit of Power
Rick Perlstein - Before the Storm
Tim Weiner - Legacy of Ashes

writing/author bio
Caroline Fraser - Prairie Fires
Gotham Writers' Workshop - Writing Fiction
Robert Mckee - Dialogue
Terry Eagleton - Literary Theory: An Introduction
Frank Conroy - Stop-Time
William Goldman - Adventures in the Screen Trade

other media
Tat Wood - About Time 8
Nicholas Pegg - The Complete David Bowie
!Richard Ayoade - Ayoade on Top (a)
Joe Hagan - Sticky Fingers (a)
Betty Edwards - Drawing on the Right side of the brain

misc
Jon Ronson - So you've been publicly shamed (a)
John Rawles - A Theory of Justice
Errol Morris - The Ashtray
Maria Tumarkin - Axiomatic

fic

mystery and crime
Masako Togawa - The Master Key
Boileau - She who was no more
Martin Holmen - Clinch
Emma Viskic - Resurrection Bay
Masako Togawa - The Lady Killer
Sjowall & Wahloo - The Abominable Man
Sjowall & Wahloo - The Locked Room
Tana French - In the Woods
!Helen Eustis - The Horizontal Man (a)
Antal Szerb - The Pendragon Legend

sf
Vonnegut - Mother Night
Vonnegut - Player Piano
Yoko Ogawa - Memory Police
JD Vinge - The Snow Queen
Melissa Scott - 5/12ths of Heaven
Nina Allan - The Rift
Joe Haldeman - Collected Stories
Charlie Jane Anders - The city in the middle of the night
Charles Stross - Accelerando
Various - Big Book of Classic Fantasy
Various - Big Book of Modern Fantasy

Martin Amis - Money
Scott Hawkins - The Library at Mount Char
Miriam Toewes - Women Talking
John Updike - The Early Stories
Andrew Sean Greer - Less
!Raphael Bob-Waksberg - Someone who will love you in all your damaged glory (a)
Olga Tokarczuk - Drive your plow etc.
Ishmael Reed - Mumbo Jumbo
Andrei Bely - Petersburg
Moshfegh - My year of rest and relaxation
Patrick Suskind - Perfume
Malinda Lo - Adaptation
Malinda Lo - Inheritance
Mark Dunn - Ella Minnow Pea
Rebecca Makkai - The Great Believers
Raymond Carver - What we talk about when we talk about love
Katherine Anne Porter - Collected Stories and other writings
Cormac Mccarthy - Blood Meridian
Herbert Zbigniew - Collected Poems 1956-1998
WG Sebald - Austerlitz
!Saunders - The brief and frightening reign of phil
Angie Thomas - The hate u give
Hesse - Steppenwolf
Chia-Chia Lin - The Unpassing
Roddy Doyle - Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
Kim Thuy - Vi

comics
GG - I'm Not Here
!Junji Ito - Uzumaki
Satoshi Kon - Opus
various - Choke Gasp! Best of EC Comics
Guy Delisle - Hostage
!Gene Luen Yang - American Born Chinese
Clowes - David Boring
various - Graphic Witness
Richard McGuire - Here

Aimless, those four are all brilliant books

Chess Story would a good candidate for “best thing I’ve ever read” if saying such a thing were meaningful or true in any way

i have the true deceiver and intend to read it again because i know i read it and liked it but as usual forgot everything about it. i will put the chess story on my list.

Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, the Untold Story of an American Legend by Scott Reynolds Nelson

not started it yet but looked like something I needed to grab.

wish I'd realised the same thing with a book on Tommy Johnson I saw. Not sure why I didn't get it anyway.
If it's still around it may be quite a while before the shop reopens

Not sure what else I have grabbed recent;y a[art from a new edition of Ugly THings which will hopefully appear tomorrow. May have some more book stuff coming in the mail but delivery seemed to be a bit delayed over week after xmas.

if Xmas gifts count, which would be more acquired than purchased.
I finally got a copy of Italianprog the encyclopaedia of Italian prog bands of the early 70s etc by Augusto Croce.
Have wanted a copy for a while.
So just came through the mail as a Xmas or birthday present yesterday.
Looks interesting, haven't had a chance to give it a thorough look.
One thing that I would think was an improvement would be a translation of the bandnames, don't think everybody interested in the music is going to be fluent in Italian. I know I'm not. did a year of it at University but that wasa while back.

Did just get a new Ugly Things too which seems to be as good as ever.

Purchased a few older/used ones recently:

- Jean Day, Linear C
- Danielle Collobert, Murder and It Then. If I like these enough, I'll do some more digging.

Got a copy of Lucian's a True History with Beardsley illustrations or at least ordered one. Hoping mail will start clearing a bit better seems to be a bit delayed so far.

Noise is For Heroes vol 1 Steven H Gardner
1st volume of compiled fanzines by Steven Gardner a Californian writer who is also doing a 4 volume series on punk rock.
JUst read about this in Ugly tHings and it sounds pretty necessary.
Want to get the first couple of volumes of the Punk history too

Mixture of tokens for online pucrchses with the last item as the first visit to the local Oxfam in 4 months.

Joao Cabral de Melo Neto - Education by Stone (Selected Poetry)
Giuseppe Ungaretti - Allegria
Euripides - Grief Lessons: Four Plays (tr. Anne Carson)
Juan Carlos Onetti - Complete Short Stories
Various - The Tragic History of the Sea
Daša Drndić - E.E.G.
George Eliot - Middlemarch

the drndic is incredible

More info please!

bought like loads recently.
Toni Morrison Mouthful of Blood (Known elsewhere as The Source of Self Regard) a collection of various writings by black writer on a number of topics.

An Indigenous People's History Of United States Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz one of several histories of the US in the Penguin Revisioning history of US series. I want to get a few of the others, her husband's one on Black/LatinX probably the first.

Muse, Odalisque, Handmaiden Rose Simpson
ISB member's memoir

The Lies That Bind Kwame Anthony Appiah
Book on identity

Have Black Lives Ever Mattered? MUmia Abu-Jamal
Not sure what I've read by him before and I used to get asked to play him.
A selection of short pieces covering a couple of decades and showing how very similar situations keep repeating in killings etc of black people. or at least his reports seem to have bee repeated since, hitting the news a lot right now but I think a constant.

Chinese Rhyme-Prose, translated by Burton Watson, used trade paperback (remaindered, like new condition), $7.50.

The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry: Early Times to the Thirteenth Century, editor and translator Burton Watson, used trade paperback (very good condition), $7.00.

Three Summers, Margarita Liberaki, trans. Van Dyck, used trade paperback (like new condition), NYRB Classics, $2.00.

Some that I'm still waiting on for postal arrival:
- Will Alexander, The Combustion Cycle
- Carlos Lara, The Green Record
- Jackie Ess, Darryl

Boy On Fire Mark Mordue
found it cheaper tah I was expecting , in a shop which has just reopened the shelves to browse over the last week.
Wanted to get to read it, so glad I have bought it. Though possibly should have waited til I wasa bit less broke.
oh well, looks good. THis and Stranded which i read last month which features some of the same characters.
NIck Cave as a boy, like i think the boys Next Door cease to be right at the end. Though does look like it does have some bits of a later Cave looking back.

I missed an Australian interview with teh author last week cos i was really distracted by something else going on. have been hoping I'd get to see a video of it but don't seem to have been sent a link so far.

Alexandra Wilson In Black and White: A Young Barrister's Story of Race and Class in a Broken Justice System
Title refers to the author's mixed ethnic roots. I heard her talk on Guilkty Feminist last year tehn on a webinar from Scotland last week.
Sounds like a very interesting read. So looking forward to actually getting it. Now has an apparently lengthy addition since the hardback last year.
Bought from a local bookshop but getting sent to me through teh mail since I was thinking it was faster tahn waiting. Apparently click and collect would have been possibly tomorrow. Though not sure how long it takes to sort. So hope it arrives faster than Friday when I would have been a few minutes away from there.

Richard Thompson Beeswing
His memoir of the 60s and early 70s.
Again bought from the local place so hope it does arive in a few days.
Looking forward to reading this, have been since I heard it was forthcoming.

MIchelle Alexander New Jim Crow
Have been meaning to read this for a while. It was mentioned by Alexandra Wilson in her talk.
I bought the non 10th anniversary edition so not sure what I'm missing from doing so.
3rd thing bought from teh same source.
JUst had a few people mention not buying things fro Amazon and its related outlets. had bought from Book Depositary for a while but really need to rethink .If I'm buying books about ethical concerns I shouldn't be adding to funding Amazon who really seem to define bad ethics on a number of fronts.

Not purchases, but some good finds from a big box of books someone was giving away on their stoop:

Willa Cather - Death Comes for the Archbishop
Satires of Juvenal - trans. by Rolfe Humphries
Patrick Leigh Fermor - A Time of Gifts
Patrick Leigh Fermor - Between the Woods and the Water

excellent!

andré breton - what is surrealism?

also william carlos williams's collected stories. i've quite liked what fiction of his i've read in the past so have high hopes!

Filling in some Muriel Spark gaps by getting the little hardback editions that came out a couple of years ago. Tempted to collect them - never really done a matching set for a novelist before (I probably won't follow through. i just can't see myself buying and rereading The Mandelbaum Gate).

Finally, Hazlitt's Life of Napoleon. Pulled together a set for a good price - only one odd volume.

Beowulf (tr.Heaney)
Fleur Jaeggy - Sweet days of Discipline
Osamu Dazai - No Longer Human
Elizabeth Hardwick - The Collected Essays Of
Joseph Conrad - The Secret Agent

Should really cut out buying books but can't.

Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow
Heard a lot about this a couple of years ago I think.

Les Miserables Victor Hugo
I think I had volume 2 for years, saw this in one volume for 1Euro so grabbed it

Life Below Stairs Alison Maloney
I think my brother was talking abouyt this a couple of years ago. & said it was a good overview of lives of those in service.
Hope i didn't already have it.

War Games - The Story of War In Modern Times Linda Polman
a look into the aid industry among other things.

How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X kendi
awesome find since I was thinking about buyingthis closer to full price. But this was 1Eur on a hidden shelf . So I was overjoyed.
So going to keep my eyes open for other things I've been looking for. Jus had a feeling taht if i went into this charity shop I'd find something good along these lines. Not that I don't normally find something in that one.
Anyway a book I've heard recommended in a few places so glad i can get to read it now.

Black cats and Evil Eyes Chloe rhodes
book on superstitions . Looked interesting I'm interested in teh subject.

Selling Your Fathers Bones Brian Schofield
History of oppression of the Nez Perce Indian tribe.
I walked over to a local bookshop that is slightly out of the way since I was in the vague area because of an art exhibition I went to.
So spent time walking around this bookshop that I've mainly been looking at the website for for teh last few weeks.
Found thsi which was something in an area I was looking for more stuff on. Histories of Indian tribes and preferably in a non Eurocentric style. I think it is a bit more enlightened than earlier histories would have been. Not really had a chance to look at it yet. Do think the whites in it don't come off looking great

Everything You know Is Wrong: The Disinformation Guide to Secrets and Lies
Oversize book on disinformation etc. Picked it up for 1.50 Eur yesterday in a charity shop.
Looks like it may help debunk some conspiracy theory while hopefully not fostering others. It's from 2002 so may have some old information in that has more recently been updated and changed.
Not really read through it yet. Hope i do get a chance to.

Mein kampf Adolf Hitler
Indian version of unreliable narrator's memoir. Or taht is to say it seems like this copy was printed for an Asian, English speaking market.
I can't see a translator listed which I was loooking for.
I tried reading this about 35 years ago and not sure how far I got with it. THought it might help to know how his mind worked if that was obvious from his writings. & if that was something yo could extrapolate any further from.
Or if it is just better to read all the material criticising him.

didn't wind up buying Beloved by Toni Morrison cos i didn't have change in my pocket. Need to get it though.
Purchase would also have included Gore Vidal's the Golden Age and one other. may try to get back over to the charity shop.

The Earth Shall Weep James Wilson
Another book on white oppression of Indigenous people in the US. This one is about what was termed the indian Wars which is more like a system of government sponsored genocide of several tribes of Indigenous people. Again not started it so not had a chance to asses what I think about it yet. I think it is pretty scathing about the white input far more so than history has previously been taught, but I could be wrong about the degree to which that is true.

I went into a local charity shop that has been closed since Xmas looking foir a few more books on race and decolonisation and things. Didn't really get taht but did get these

How To Rig An Election Nic Cheeseman & Brian Klaas
How despots retain power and fun things like that

This Is Your Brain On Music Daniel Levitin
I think the title is the description like. An ex record producer who became a neuroscientist looks at how the brain reacts and interacts with music. Have been hearing about this for years I think and not had a chance to read it yet.

Cruel britannia A Secret History of Torture Ian Cobain
investigative journalist looks into activity that UK tried to keep secret etc. Seeing it reviewed quite well so hope i get a chance to read this soon.

Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind
I think this was a recent bestseller reasonably recently. It's a title i think I have seen recommended too.

charity shop doing this size of non fiction for 2Euro a pop . Great.

Censors at Work HOw States Shaped Literature by Robert Darnton
book on how state censorshiop in 3 different times and geographical areas shaped what was able to be published . free from library.

From the Gracchae to Nero H.H.Scullard
History of Rome from 133BC to 48AD that used to be a standard history text book. Heard it's quite good. Another freebie from the library

A History of The Franks Gregory of Tours
Medieval history of European people taht gave its name to France etc but had wider catchment earlier. Should be interesting. I like to think I find this stuff really interesting but I think its automatically on my to read pile since i have things I'm already in the middle of . Wish I could read more than one thing ata time, like literally.

Cyberselfish Paulina Borsook
Wired writer looks into hightech. Bought it cheap in a multibuy for 2Eur with teh Gregory of Toursd and a thing on Sugar. Have now seen it is getting middling reviews so maybe should have got the alterntive book I put back Humans by Colin Phillips. oh well.
May have some insight in.

Sugar The Grass That Changed The World Sandija O'Connell
history of the plant that drove the slave trade among other things. I think from ancient times to present day.

50 Psychology Classics: Who We Are, How We Think, What We Do: Insight and Inspiration from 50 Key Books
by Tom Butler-Bowdon
summary of several psychological tropes that I thought would be useful. Well it wasa Euro so I thought I'd take the plunge.

a few books from the library.
White Fragility Robin diAngelo
Started this last night and it does seem to be giving some perspective into the lack of perspective involved.

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America Ibram X kendi
not started this yet but I think the title is a good description, just reading his How To Be An Anti-Racist which I'm finding very rewarding. Another book helping me understand previous experiences.

Lewis Thomas - The Medusa and the Snail
the only one of his that I couldn't find at my library or on scribd. lives of a cell and the youngest science are both great. wish I had found them when I was a teenager.

Tommy Wonder - The Books of Wonder
magic tricks and some of the philosophy behind his performances. continuing my three-year trend of purchasing magic books, reading them, and not practicing or performing any of the tricks.

Jeff VanderMeer - Ambergris trilogy
one huge hardcover book. I bounced hard off of his latest, hummingbird salamander, but I still want to try out some of his older stuff. (I had only read the Southern Reach books previously.)

James Baldwin - Go Tell it on the Mountain
Diane Cook - The New Wilderness
Harlan Ellison - I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
Soji Shimada - Murder in the Crooked House

kindle deals. The last one is released under Pushkin Vertigo, an imprint that releases translated mysteries. I snatch them up whenever they're on sale.

Verso books have had a 40% off sale this month so I grabbed The Invention Of The White Race volume 1 last night. Not sure when it'll get here. Have been meaning to read it for a while. I think it was mentioned on a thread here a few years back.
The 2 volumes are being released in an omnibus edition in October. Hoping that I am not about to find out that July has 50% off since May had 30%. & that's across the publishing house.

Claudius The God Robert Graves
One of the sequels in the Claudius series. I think this is 2nd book. I watched the 70s BBC series a few years ago and have meant to read the books for years. Possibly longer. Now have it so need to actually do so.

Hillbilly Elegy

Chronicles of the Crusades Joinville and Villehardouin
I think I had been reminded that I had wanted to read this a few weeks ago. Possibly surfing through Goodreads.
It was one thing I'd noted to read in the summer of 2003 but I think found out was in the special collection in the University library which limited access.
Anyway 2 chronicles of different crusades by people involved. The whole enterprise kinda sucked on a colonialist front and people weren't even white yet so obviously had even less excuse, like. But I thought this might give insight into the epistemology yah?

1434 Gavin Menzies
I enjoyed 1421 in the late 00ies so. have meant to read this since. Should have realised that it's reputation has it as nearly speculative fiction now. Like a newer less far fetched Von Daniken or something.
Chinese arrive in Europe with their ancient knowledge and trigger the renaissance. Is that a better idea than people fleeing from Constantinople bring knowledge with them. & is the concept of Renaissance now outdated and questionable like I'm hearing the Enlightenment is.
Anyway looking forward to reading about the big ship energy from the Chinese. Cos at least they is non Eurocentric or something.

Our Word Is Our Weapon Subcomandante Insurgente Marco
Zapatista leaders selected writings

The Education of an Idealist Samantha Power.
Memoir of Irish born US cabinet member.

Claudius The God Robert Graves
One of the sequels in the Claudius series. I think this is 2nd book

yeah, I thought there were more. But this goes up to his death.

Guess Claudius, The Ghost never really got off the ground.

could have explored his time in the afterworld or something. surely.

Elliott Kalan and John Hodgman did a podcast about I, Claudius last year. I didn't listen to it.

^sounds like something I would have posted

stoked to have finally found an affordable copy of denton welch's journals (jocelyn brooke version)

Octavia Butler Lillith Brood
I don't seem to coincide with copies of her books in charity shops for some reason. Maybe people grab them as soon as they see them or something. This was the 3 parts of the book series in one omnibus set . Glad i grabbed it cos i'm finding it pretty readable.
Must get more when i get the chance.

THe Mammoth Book Of native Americans.
Looked like this was pretty comprehensive which would be good but it does still have Indians crossing the Bering Strait landbridge which I thought was a while outof date. So hope it is worth it.

Flea Acid For the Children
Thought it might be interesting and i did get it as a part of a 3 books for 2Euro deal in a charity shop

The Written Word Martin Puchner
How Literature shaped history. Well looked interesting and was part of the same deal

An African American and LatinX History of the United States Paul Ortiz
I read his wife's Indigenous book in this Revisioning series a few weeks back so was looking forward to this. may have too many books on the go to get to this too fast now though.

LOvecraft Country Matt Ruff
not seen this around. Bought from same charity shop I got the Octyavia Butler on the previous visit.
Enjoyed teh tv series and heard thaht varies a bit from this.

THe Black Diaspora Ronald Segal
White South African telkls a black history . looked interesting so hoping it is actually good, slightly worried by the white SA bit on picking up the book. But seems he was a Jewish anti apartheid campaigner. Will see what this reads like.

How He Gets Into Her head Don henessy

Nega Mezlekia The God Who Begat A jackal
novel by Ethiopian now living in Canada. Seems to be based ina lot of local folklore and things.

Thomas L Friedman The Lexus and The Olive Tree Understanding Globalization

Ben Okri The Famished Road
Booker prize winning novel by writer I've meant to read for a while.

Green Suede Shoes: An Irish-American Odyssey Larry Kirwan
memoir of Irish American musician who I became familiar with from him backing Copernicus and met when he was leading Black 47

Girls Against God Jenny Hval
feminist book verging on manifesto apparently. got 2 loads of 3 books for 1 Euro => 2 euro = 6 books so found some interesting stuff in a charity shop that I had seen some interesting stuff before. I know this writer's name from somewhere and this look sinteresting

Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy JUdd Apatow
book of interviews which was part of taht deal too

The Great Dune Trilogy Frank Herbert
I know I've read Dune itself not sure about the other 2 here./ I got some Herbert when my uncle died a couple of decades ago I know there was some Dune in there but not sure what.

Toni Morrison Beloved
This was the book i'd seen on a previous visit. Odd layout in the shop with books stood up in rows behind the visible front row might explain why it was still there.
Really need to read some Morrison. Now got 2 to get to.

Richard Wright Black Boy
May have read this before, some years ago. Another book on the black experience from the middle of the 20th century

The Victorian Underworld Kellow Chesney
Looked interesting in a different charity shop.
Overview of the milieu of the criminal underworld during the Victorian era innit.

The Rise of Respectable Society: A Social History of Victorian Britain, 1830-1900 F.M.L. Thompson
bought this in the same purchase as the other Victorian book. Seems like it could be good and this kind of sociologcal view seems really interesting right now . Not really looked at it much yet I mean stocking up yet again .

Daedalian Depths by Rami Hansenne
Based on Christopher Manson's MAZE but I hear that it is actually solvable. I'm going to put off looking at clues for as long as possible.

> Jenny Hval
> I know this writer's name from somewhere

she's all over 6 music, but i didn't know she wrote books

Went into town so bound to have bought even more
this time

The Irish (& Other Foreigners) Shane Hegarty
Irish book looking at immigration to the country over 10, 000 years. Vikings, Italians and everybody .
Sounded like it might be interestig. Hoping it is more on the decolonisation side of things.

Joan Of Arc The Image of Female Heroism Marina Warner
I saw this i the shop a couple of weeks ago but I thought this was gone last week.
Have read a couple of the writer's books and seen talks tied in with the latest book she put out.
So hope i do have a chance to read this.

MIddle England Jonathan Coe
one of the books in this trotter family saga. I read the ones named after Hatfield and the north lps about 20 years ago I think. Maybe not quite that long ago. I think this i s2018 and the main characte ris much older.

Companero The Life and Death of Che Guevara Jorge Castaneda
biography of the revolutionary hero

Girls Will Be Girls Emer O'Toole
Feminist book on gender identity etc