Last month I was doing four weeks of work experience at DK (Dorling Kindersley) in the Marketing and PR department; I am now temping as a Digital Licensing Assistant. As you were receptive to my last posts regarding my shorter internship at CCV in Random House (now referred to just as Vintage), I intend to dedicate another post or two in more detail to my enriching time at DK. In the meantime, I am sharing some acquisitions I made there last month.

DK is part of The Penguin Group, which, of course, includes Penguin Books. The publishing houses work separately from one another, having little to do with the other, but it does mean that I have been working in the same illustrious building on Strand as the most iconic of literary brands as well as the other literary, non-fiction and children’s imprints (Puffin) that the Penguin Group offer. For enquiring minds, the month’s internship did not come with staff discount but the temping does: a very tempting 60% (which applies to both companies).

A couple of weeks ago I had lunch with another book blogger who is now a publicity assistant for Penguin General (Penguin paperbacks, Viking, Hamish Hamilton, Fig Tree imprints). As she has not yet announced her wonderful new job on her blog I will keep her anonymous (um, I outed her on Twitter); suffice to say, I hope she will love her role as much as I imagine she will. Over lunch we discussed the trials and tribulations of finding that elusive job in publishing, with her recent appointment being a shining beacon of hope and encouragement for me. Following shop talk I was very kindly taken up to the floor above the one I work on, past the “pulp” shelf from which we are allowed to take two books from per day if we see something that interests us, to the literary hub of the building. I met Joe Pickering, publicist extraordinaire, and then my friend and I perused the new release shelves and cupboard to fill my “goody bag”, the contents of which you see above.

From the left:I could not resist snagging The Rotters’ Club by Jonathan Coe. I have read a couple of Coe’s novels and greatly enjoyed them but this seems to be his most widely-acclaimed.

Next comes The Postmistress by Sarah Blake, whose World War II setting sounds exactly my cup of tea.

Following that we have -for some bizarre reason, an upside-down copy of- The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore. Naughty Paperback Reader didn’t read this when it was longlisted for the Man Booker (even though she fully intended to); she even borrowed its prequel, The Siege, from Verity in preparation (do you really have to ask whether she’s read it yet or why she is insisting on referring to herself in the third-person? Really?)

Further along is a book that is entirely due to Thomas of My Porch. Thomas gave Polly of Novel Insights The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris when we met up with him last November and a book that had previously only on the periphery of my consciousness, entered it.

Does Caribou Island by David Vann require reasoning? I had the proof and wanted to own the paperback (it is the white cover as opposed to black). A review of this will be following shortly.

At the end of the standing books we have The Gaze by Elif Shafak, which I’m hoping will be more The Bastard of Istanbul than The Flea Palace.

Top of the stack is the trio of Penguin Mini Modern Classics that I have previously mentioned. You can read more about the fifty mini modern classics commemorating the 50th anniversary of Penguin Modern Classics here. Each volume is a collection of short stories by great writers from the last century. In the stash above I have The Widow Ching-Pirate by Jorges Luis Borges, The Tooth by Shirley Jackson and In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka; I am awaiting a couple more of these pocket-size editions in the post and -at only £3- I foresee myself purchasing several more.

Below those is a proof copy of There but for the by Ali Smith. I am a huge fan of Ali Smith and fascinated by the irregular title and synopsis.

The News Where You Are by Catherine O’Flynn lies beneath that. I think I am the last person to read What Was Lost, which has been languishing on my bookshelves since 2008…

Next up is My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira was recommended by anonymous publicity assistant/blogger friend. About a determined woman who dreams of becoming a surgeon during the American Civil War, this book has my name written all over it (well, not where Ms. Oliveira’s name is. nor that of Mary Sutter, but figuratively).

Penultimately is the second novel by Carol Topolski, Do No Harm. No, I have not yet read her debut, Monster Love, but long-standing intentions to do so (and am established place on my wish-list) count. Anyway, I’m really looking forward to this one when I’m in the mood for something grim.

Lastly, there is the well talked about and much-anticipated Great House by Nicole Krauss. I could not fill a goody bag with Penguin treats and not come away with this one. The History of Love is a favourite of mine as are her husband’s novels (not that it should have any bearing) and I have high expectations for this novel.

Which of these have you read, plan to read or covet? (That sounds a bit like that game “kiss, “sh*g, marry”, without being gratuitous).

If you are really good I will also share with you those books rescued from the pulp shelf… My boyfriend gave me free reign to pick up a particular type of book, which may warrant a post in itself.

Better late than never, this is my sign-up post for Carl’s Readers Imbibing Peril V Challenge, which officially commenced on September 1st.  I was caught up in the infection of the first posts that did the rounds, reading everyone’s selections with fascination and a covetous heart, but I’ve been busy on a course for the last two weeks and put my post on the back-burner.  However, I have been there in spirit (hee) by reading the latest Tiffany Aching novel by Terry Pratchett and rereading Great Expectations, both of which fit the supernatural and gothic (respective) roots of the challenge.

I’ve been making a conscious effort not to over-commit myself to any scheduled reading, preferring to choose my reads on a whim, but I can never resist Carl’s challenges and they have begun to mark seasons for me as unequivocally as the first detection of bitterness -or lack thereof- in the air.  As a compromise I have decided to limit my commitment this year to Peril the Second: Read two books of any length that you believe fit within the challenge.  This loose level of participation allows me the freedom to pursue the challenge without confining me to the perimeters of genre; if the mood takes me then of course I shall increase my quota before Hallowe’en.

The first certainty when it came to creating my potential pool of reading material for the challenge was The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson.  I read both We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House by Jackson during last year’s R.I.P. and I have been saving her collection of short stories especially for its return.  My other choices have been done on a whim from my t0-be-read and are a mixture of mystery, thriller and dark fantasy, for the most part; I have no idea whether the ghostliness of Ghost Light exists in the title alone but I plan on finding out!

The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson

Out by Natsuo Kirino

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier

Tithe by Holly Black

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King

Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow by Peter Høeg

Ghost Light by Joseph O’Connor

The Complete Fairy Tales by Charles Perrault

Have you read any of these choices or do any strike you as particularly fitting for the challenge?

Also, if you are at all reluctant to commit to any reading challenges but are quite attracted to creepy experiences over the coming weeks then Carl has introduced a Peril on the Screen component to the challenge; experience the scary without tying yourself to reading the scary!

Does anyone else treat themselves to a little birthday something? It’s not a tradition of mine but this year I could not resist the Penguin Decades edition of The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman by Angela Carter, especially as it was released the day after my birthday and on the first day of the Angela Carter month I am hosting.  This is one of only two Carter novels that I haven’t yet read hence the treat; you can expect my thoughts at some point this month.

I was the delighted recipient of an Amazon giftcard from my lovely in-laws and deliberated over the remaining books that you see above.  I ordered books from my wish-list, ones that had been tempting me for some time.

Caramelo by Susan Cisneros has been on my radar for a few years but it was this review by Eva that more than convinced me that I had to read it.  I’m a huge family of epic family sagas and this sounds like my type of book.

I was a big fan of Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri last year and I’ve been wanting to follow that experience up by reading her novel, The Namesake and then her newest collection of short stories, Unaccustomed Earth, which I already have on my bookshelves.

I’ve already picked up a copy of Don’t Tell Alfred by Nancy Mitford in the new Penguin designs and added a copy of Wigs on the Green to my collection.  I will, however, be discovering Nancy by reading her more famous and popular works first.

I am currently reading Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola for The Classics Circuit and have been desiring The Ladies’ Paradise (Au Bonheur des Dames) for some time.  A novel about a department store?  Of course that would be one I’d need to read (I worship at the alter of shopping).

I have documented my discovery of Shirley Jackson via blogging, the best author discovery to date.  Since reading “The Lottery” and Penguin’s reissue of Jackson’s work, I have been coveting her collection of short stories and I am delighted that I now have a copy in my possession.

Speaking of Shirley Jackson, I read somewhere that The Well by Elizabeth Jolley was similar to Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle.  I read a Jolley short story in a collection last year and sought out her novel-length work; The Well won the Miles Franklin Award in 1986 and sounds intriguing.

Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred has been on my wishlist for a few years and when Kimbofo opted for Fledgling as one of her choices for the Not the TV Book Group, I decided to start with that instead.  I have since read some very compelling reviews by Eva and both Teresa and Jenny from Shelf Love, and I am very excited to read it (vampires? there just aren’t enough of them in literature and popular culture, if you ask me /tongue in cheek).

Lastly, I opted for Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery, which is the first in a trilogy.  Even though I devoured the Anne of Green Gables/Avonlea/The Island etc. series as a child, I have never read any more of Montgomery’s work and it is about time that I rectify that.

Have you read any of these or looking forward to finding out more once I do?

I also have some other recent acquisitions of the review copy variety but I will share those separately at a later date.

]]> http://www.paperback-reader.co.uk/2010/04/12/recent-acquisitions-10/feed/ 30 http://www.paperback-reader.co.uk/2010/02/18/claires-corner-3/ http://www.paperback-reader.co.uk/2010/02/18/claires-corner-3/#comments Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:19:36 +0000 Paperback Reader http://paperback-reader.co.uk/?p=1511 In this week’s Claire Corner I want to discuss my current cull of books, which you will see from above is very much a work-in-progress.  Like Carrie Bradshaw and her walk-in closet of Manolo Blahniks, I like to hoard books and keep a hold of favourites and store unread ones for a rainy day … just like a pair of shoes saved for that special outfit, some books are meant for the right time. However, like Carrie in NYC, London shoe-boxes are not meant for vast quantities of books and whilst I retain the dream of a huge house with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in the future, it is not so practical to have all of those books right now.  So, I am having a little pre-spring cleaning.  I won’t be weeding out too many but a few duplicates have piled up recently and there are a few books here and there that I simply won’t have time to reread and probably won’t want to in thirty-odd years.  For the most part I will be simply trying to create some extra space and creatively shelf the books that I already have e.g. shelving all of my hardbacks together.  I do plan on being a little ruthless where I can as my boyfriend has intimated that if I can prove that I can successfully cull some books then a new Ikea Billy bookcase may be in our future.  Hee, you know you’re a true bibliophile when the prospect of a new bookcase has you jumping for joy.

What is your criteria for keeping books in your collection? For me, it is the desire to have my own personal library and my love of having books in a living-space; I’m a collector and it’s as much about the aesthetic as it is the content.  Conversely, what is you criteria for culling books from your shelves?  Do you enjoy periodically going through your accumulated to-be-read books and weeding out those that no longer appeal? I am quite fickle when it comes to being attracted to a book at a certain time, acquiring it and then later questioning why I wanted to read it in the first place.  On the other side of that, I am looking forward to spending some time with my books in bulk and unearth a book or two that I had forgotten about and now have the opportunity to read on a whim.

Yesterday I read this Guardian post on unreliable narrators.  Personally I love a good unreliable narrator, someone whose story you never quite trust, and have read 7/10 books cited as an examples with another -The End of Alice- glaring at me from my wish-list (I also love a novel shrouded in controversy).  The most memorable unreliable narrator I have read recently is Merricat in We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson and I am surprised that she doesn’t appear on the list; saying that, Jackson does seem to be unknown this side of the pond and it was only via other bloggers (and a timely and serendipitous reissuing of her books by Penguin) that I discovered and loved her work.  Do you like a narrator who perhaps leads you a merry dance? I enjoy never being certain of what I have read, whether it played out that way or was a figment of the narrator’s overactive imagination or means of protecting themselves; its the fiction within the fiction that captivates me, the fully-constructed characterisation and nuanced narrative. Do you have any unreliable narrators to recommend?

Time for a crazy bibliophile confession: I HATE when an author or book title’s name is misspelled and it is one of my pet peeves in the blogosphere. I think that if you are going to the trouble of reading a book and writing about it then you should extend the courtesy to ensuring you spell it correctly.  I appreciate that not everyone has the time to meticulously write their blog-posts and certainly not to proof-read their comments but there are particular mistakes that I think are unforgivable … the one that has driven me batty recently is the erroneous spelling of Jane Austen as Jane Austin.  I have seen this countless times and it has made me see red.  You may think that I am nit-picking but this is Jane freakin’ AUSTEN we are talking about and not some new writer with an oddly spelled surname.  It is not an erroneous typo in my eyes but an egregious one that is tantamount to blasphemy.  I hasten to add that it is not just on blogs that I have seen this but across other media and in a BOOK! Okay, it was “Austinesque” as opposed to “Austin” but it’s a new conspiracy that even editorial staff are in on. Get it together, people, you are referring to one of the literary canon’s greats and the least you can do is know how to spell her name.  Did I miss the memo where the reading public conferred and changed the author’s name by deed-poll? On that note I will cease my ranting and off to re-watch the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice for the millionth time.