Book Haul – November / December 2017

I don’t know if you remember, but I was trying not to buy any more books until the end of the year. Obviously, I was unsuccessful! I blame Black Friday and other random discounts. I probably won’t even manage to get to some of the books mentioned below during the following twelve months or so, thanks to a reading plan I have for next year (I’ll reveal it on a future post about my bookish resolutions for 2018). But it’s really hard to resist a bargain.

So, without further ado (and pointless excuses), these are my most recent acquisitions:

 

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood is one of the authors I plan to read a book by every year. So, I needed to buy a new one for 2018. It was quite easy to choose Alias Grace, because I’m rather curious about the TV series adaptation and don’t want to watch it before reading the book. Inspired by the 1843 murders of Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper Nancy Montgomery in Upper Canada, it delves into the story of Grace Marks through a “tale of sexuality, cruelty and mystery”.

 

Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Underground Railroad was one of the books longlisted for this year’s Man Booker Prize, but I had already decided to read it before the announcement. Readers are introduced to Cora, a slave who wants to escape to the North, despite it being a dangerous journey.

 

The Tobacconist by Robert Seethaler

Although I only ended up buying The Tobacconist recently (seeing that this is one of the books which is part of my reading plan for next year), it has been on my wish list for a really long time. It is set in 1937 and is supposed to be a moving story about how the lives of Franz, Otto and Professor Freud were changed by the Third Reich.

 

My Golden Trades by Ivan Klima  

When I ordered My Golden Trades, I thought it was a novel. But after reading the blurb on the back of the book, I believe it to be a collection of short stories, all featuring the same main character, who needed to have various jobs throughout his life under the communist regime in Prague.

 

A Capital by Eça de Queirós

Eça de Queirós is one of my favourite Portuguese authors. The main character of A Capital is Artur Corvelo, who desires to become famous thanks to his penmanship. To pursue his dream, he decides to move to Lisbon, leaving behind the calmness of the life in the countryside. I expect this to be a book full of instances of irony and social commentary.

 

Quaresma, Decifrador: As Novelas Policiárias by Fernando Pessoa    

I’ve been a fan of Fernando Pessoa since I first had to study his poems at school. But it was only recently, via Twitter, that I discovered that he also wrote detective novels. This book is a collection of those novels. I don’t expect to read it any time soon, but I saw it with a discount of 50% and couldn’t resist such a bargain.

 

Have you read any of these books? Tell me in the comments!