When's the Last Time You Bought a Book Because...

... of its title?

That's what I did with the book you see to the left. One look at the title, and I just had to have it. 

I was sitting here at my desk inputting pins on The Poisoned Pen Bookstore's Pinterest page when I saw that it was one of Barbara Peters' book picks for May. (That's one of the many things you'll find on my favorite bookstore's Pinterest boards-- along with upcoming events, links to author events on their Livestream channel, party photos... all sorts of stuff.)

Anyway, to get back on track, when I saw The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts, I just sat here and smiled. Combine one of the best occupations in the world with something that sounds like it might be straight out of an Indiana Jones film? I'm in! 

Then I thought it might be wise to take a look at the synopsis:

To save precious centuries-old Arabic texts from Al Qaeda, a band of librarians in Timbuktu pulls off a brazen heist worthy of Ocean’s Eleven.

In the 1980s, a young adventurer and collector for a government library, Abdel Kader Haidara, journeyed across the Sahara Desert and along the Niger River, tracking down and salvaging tens of thousands of ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts that had fallen into obscurity. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu tells the incredible story of how Haidara, a mild-mannered archivist and historian from the legendary city of Timbuktu, later became one of the world’s greatest and most brazen smugglers.

In 2012, thousands of Al Qaeda militants from northwest Africa seized control of most of Mali, including Timbuktu. They imposed Sharia law, chopped off the hands of accused thieves, stoned to death unmarried couples, and threatened to destroy the great manuscripts. As the militants tightened their control over Timbuktu, Haidara organized a dangerous operation to sneak all 350,000 volumes out of the city to the safety of southern Mali.

Over the past twenty years, journalist Joshua Hammer visited Timbuktu numerous times and is uniquely qualified to tell the story of Haidara’s heroic and ultimately successful effort to outwit Al Qaeda and preserve Mali’s—and the world’s—literary patrimony. Hammer explores the city’s manuscript heritage and offers never-before-reported details about the militants’ march into northwest Africa. But above all, The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu is an inspiring account of the victory of art and literature over extremism.

Wow... I've got a couple of books that I need to read and review, so I'm going to get those done and dusted, but once that's accomplished, you can bet the farm on which book I'll be picking up next!

To get back to my original question--- have you ever bought a book simply because  of its title? What was the title of the book? (You had to know I was going to ask!) Inquiring minds would love to know! 

 

bookfinds @ Kittling: Books

I think I'm a little overdue in sharing with you some of the new books I've learned about and added to my wish list.

How do the rest of you find out about new books? Besides keeping an eye on all my favorite book blogs, two of my email subscriptions are oftentimes worth their weight in gold. Which two email subscriptions am I talking about?

For a mystery lover like me, a subscription to the Poisoned Pen Enews is a must. Many independent booksellers online have newsletters you can subscribe to, so it certainly wouldn't hurt to take a look at the websites of your favorite bookstores.

Another way I learn about new book releases is by subscribing to Paperback Swap's Daily Wish List email. (If you're not a member, that link may not work.) When you first subscribe, you choose your favorite genres, and then every day you're notified of the books other members have put on their wish lists.

What are some of your favorite ways to keep informed of new book releases?

Anyway... clicking on the book covers will take you to more detailed descriptions at Amazon. Here are some of the latest books that have caught my eye:


McCaffrey, Vincent. Hound (Small Beer Press $25). The owner of Boston’s legendary Avenue Victor Hugo Bookshop for 30 years till it closed conveys his love of books and literary Boston. Bibliophile Henry Sullivan, who leads a lonely life immersed in and pursuing rare books, gets a visit from the cops when Morgan Johnson, the widow of a renowned literary agent—and Sullivan’s former lover—is found strangled after Sullivan visits. Morgan had retained him to appraise the book collection that she was planning to donate to Boston University. Her dead husband’s relatives, each with a financial motive to have done her in, form a small circle of logical suspects. Meanwhile, the reappearance of an old girlfriend forces Sullivan to consider another missed opportunity at happiness.


Schell, Adam. Tomato Rhapsody (Delacorte $24). It’s late August, 16th Century Tuscany, where lust, love, and the tomato combine in an “almost true tale,” an unlikely romance between the young Ebreo Davido, a tomato farmer and only grandson of Nonno, once a high money man to Ferdinand and Isabella and a voyager with Columbus (Colombo, a man from Tuscany), and the lovely Catholic Mari, daughter of an invalid mother and a villainous stepfather. Crucial to the story is the role of the Meducci, here Cosimo III, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and of the Good Padre, a gigantic newcomer with skin like a ripe eggplant who is newly arrived to replace the bigoted and elderly former priest. Nonno has brought a colony of Ebrei out of the ghetto in Florence to farm, incurring envy and evil deeds. All this—plus tomato sauce, and pizza, have yet to be discovered! Great fun, good history, nice word play, a kind of Shakespearean approach to story.


Barron, Stephanie. White Garden a Novel of Virginia Woolf (Bantam $15). Three weeks elapsed between the March day of 1941 when Virginia Woolf went into the river and the day her body emerged. Now, six decades later, landscape designer Jo Bellamy has come to Sissinghurst Castle to study the celebrated White Garden created by Woolf’s lover Vita Sackville-West and to come to grips with her grandfather’s unexplained
suicide. In the castle’s shadow, Jo makes a shocking find: Woolf’s last diary, its first entry dated the day after she allegedly killed herself.




Boyd, William. Ordinary Thunderstorms (Bloomsbury $42). Adam Kindred, a young climatologist in London for a job interview one sparkling afternoon, ambles along the Embankment and comes across a little Italian bistro down a leafy side street. During his meal speaks to a solitary diner at the next table, who soon departs. With horrifying speed, this chance encounter leads to a series of malign accidents. Adam will lose everything: home, family, friends, job, reputation, passport, credit cards, mobile phone, never to get them back. The police mount a search. A reward is posted. A hired killer is stalking him. So he goes underground to discover what happened. It will take him all along the River Thames, from affluent Chelsea to the sink estates of the East End in this “heart-in-mouth conspiracy story” from one terrific writer.

Doctorow, E L. Homer and Langley (Random $28). The eccentric brothers Homer and Langley Collyer made headlines all over the world when their four story Harlem brownstone was excavated after their deaths. What the authorities found was a astonishing: the place was packed floor to ceiling with stuff, shifting piles of newspaper, several pianos, and assorted junk collected over several decades. The hoarding brothers became culturally synonymous with obsessive compulsive disorder. Doctorow does a tremendous job of bringing these misunderstood oddballs to life. The arc of the Collyer brothers lives ran from the late Victorian period to after World War II, and we see a drastically changing world from the vantage point of these vigorously intellectual hermits.

My Book Pick for Labor Day

Kittling: Books Discovery

Long-time readers here will know that I have a decided fondness for Nevada Barr and her Anna Pigeon mystery series. It's been fun riding along with Anna over the years, visiting national parks and catching bad guys. Now that Anna is married and is grudgingly admitting that various joints are beginning to creak, I've been wondering if Barr was going to do something different. She is.

On September 29, a new Barr novel called 13½ will hit the stands. Not many places get to read Barr's books before they're on sale, but according to her blog and Twitter feed, Library Journal and Publishers Weekly like it.

Here's a description from Amazon:

In 1971, the state of Minnesota was rocked by the “Butcher Boy” incident, as coverage of a family brutally murdered by one of their own swept across newspapers and television screens nationwide.

Now, in present-day New Orleans, Polly Deschamps finds herself at yet another lonely crossroads in her life. No stranger to tragedy, Polly was a runaway at the age of fifteen, escaping a nightmarish Mississippi childhood.

Lonely, that is, until she encounters architect Marshall Marchand. Polly is immediately smitten. She finds him attractive, charming, and intelligent. Marshall, a lifelong bachelor, spends most of his time with his brother Danny. When Polly’s two young daughters from her previous marriage are likewise taken with Marshall, she marries him. However, as Polly begins to settle into her new life, she becomes uneasy about her husband’s increasing dark moods, fearing that Danny may be influencing Marshall in ways she cannot understand.

But what of the ominous prediction by a New Orleans tarot card reader, who proclaims that Polly will murder her husband? What, if any, is the Marchands’ connection to the infamous “Butcher Boy” multiple homicide? And could Marshall and his eccentric brother be keeping a dark secret from Polly, one that will shatter the happiness she has forever prayed for?

It's good to see Barr do something different, and I would imagine that it was a welcome change of pace for her. This new book definitely sounds like a winner, and I've got it on my wish list.

For any who worry that we've seen the last of Anna, don't fret. According to Barr's blog, it seems that she's going to Acadia National Park in Maine on a research trip!

Kittling: Books-- Book Picks

One of the joys of being a bookaholic is learning about new books that have yet to be published. It helps me chart a battle plan so I can be first in line to pick up titles that I'm positive I'm going to enjoy.

This week I received the Poisoned Pen's August Book News in my inbox, and naturally I had to click that link and peruse each and every title.

I found five books that are going to be published in the near future that sound like perfect cups of tea for me. Just in case they might be yours, too, I thought I'd share them with you today. You can click on the book cover to learn more about that particular title.



The Confederate General Rides North by Amanda C. Gable. It's the summer of 1968 and eleven-year-old Katherine's mother proposes a road trip up the East Coast to collect antiques for her latest business venture. In her own imaginary world, Kat is a Civil War general, and she plots a route for the two of them that will take them past as many Civil War battlefields as is humanly possible. Excited about setting foot in "enemy territory", Kat gradually learns the truth about her family and this road trip.






Treasure of the Golden Cheetah by Suzanne Arruda, the fifth Jade del Cameron mystery. Intrepid photojournalist Jade del Cameron is about to embark on safari for a Hollywood film shoot inspired by the ancient legend of King Solomon’s lost treasure, under the leadership of adventurer Harry Hascombe and with the companionship of the young healer Jelani and her pet cheetah Biscuit. But when the film’s financial backer is stabbed to death by a native man who then commits suicide, the trip is cast by a sinister pall. And as the expedition moves higher onto Kilimanjaro’s rugged slopes, a series of dastardly hoaxes and a fatal native curse convince Jade that a killer is at work.

I've referred to these books as my "Saturday Matinee Reading", and although they are fun reads, they also pack a lot of historical detail.


Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly. Harry Bosch pursues the criminals who have kidnapped his daughter. Harry Bosch is one of my favorite characters, so there's no way I can pass this one up!











A Cornish Maid by Rosemary Aitken. Autumn 1909: Edith Trewin, the general maid in the Killivert household, and Miss Alicia, the young lady of the house, are social worlds apart, though they share a streak of independence and intelligence. The two young women become unlikely allies after a kitchen maid inexplicably disappears shortly after her arrival at the house. The two unite in the search for her as they experience love and loss as the Great War overtakes the world.






A Quiet Belief in Angels by R. J. Ellory. 1939. In the small, rural community of Augusta Falls, Georgia, twelve-year-old Joseph Vaughan learns of the brutal assault and murder of a young girl, the first in a series of killings that will plague the community over the next decade. Joseph and his friends are determined to protect the town from the evil in their midst and they form "The Guardians" to watch over the community. But the murderer evades them and they watch helplessly as one child after another is taken. Even when the killings cease, a shadow of fear follows Joseph for the rest of his life. The past won't stay buried and, fifty years later, Joseph must confront the nightmare that has overshadowed his entire life....