2018 Times Colonist Book Sale Haul – Part One

Our favourite book sale has come and gone. A couple of weeks ago I donated a large number of books and have basically bought the same amount back, so the circle of life continues.

This is a big list of books, so I thought I’d split this into a couple posts. This first one will go over the pile on the left.

A Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
I was looking for this last year and never found it, which is typical for this book sale. If I go in with a specific book in mind, it becomes a hopeless cause. I’ll never come across it. I thought this novel would suffer the same fate, but luckily my girlfriend has a keener eye than I do. About an hour in, she asked if I had found it yet, and when I answered in the negative she immediately looked down and found two copies in front of her.

In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan
I’ve been meaning to read something by Michael Pollan for a while now. I enjoyed his Netflix documentary based on his book Cooked, and believe I have read a few articles by him, so I thought I’d give this a try. I’m aware of his quote ‘Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.’, which does seems like solid advice, but I hope this leans more towards interesting journalism than just being a glorified diet book.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley
As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley
I’ve always been drawn to the titles of these books, and the covers, but I always thought they were children’s novels. After seeing a couple of reviews recently, I believe they would be considered young adult? I love a good mystery and have always had a soft spot for stories around precocious kids, so I’m going to at least try the first one. In my quick glance during the sale, I thought I was fortunate enough to stumble upon the first three books in good condition hardcovers, but as it turns out, I’ve bought the first, third, and seventh in the series, which isn’t ideal.

The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston
I love adventure novels and have recently started exploring the world of true story adventures, with great success. I loved both Pirate Hunters and The Lost City of Z, so I have high hopes for this as well.

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
I’m slowly making my way through the Sherlock Holmes stories, in a bit of a weird order, but this is the second short story collection. I really enjoyed The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, so I’m looking forward to this. I’ll likely be picking up the Stephen Fry narrated audio collection as well, because how could I not, but I’ll switch between the two formats as I go along.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
I’ve been curious about this since it won the Pulitzer Prize and was then nominated for the Man Booker Prize. All I know is that it’s historical fiction set before the Civil War that depicts the underground railroad as a literal railroad that travels under the ground.

I remember seeing a review on BookTube where someone, very awkwardly, went on about how he was so embarrassed to not know that the underground railroad was a real railroad, and as a Canadian with, admittedly, limited knowledge about this particular time in American history, I’m a bit worried I’m going to also take something in this too literally. I don’t want to be caught in the near future explaining to somehow how Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizards can shoot magic missiles from their fingers.

Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton
I’ve wanted to read this since seeing Gabrielle Hamilton’s episodes of Mind of a Chef. I love food and chef memoirs, and she seems like an interesting person who can tell a great story. In the show, her descriptions of food and cooking were fantastic. I kept almost buying the audiobook version, but she narrates it herself, and I’m very wary of non-performers narrating their own books. It’s almost never a good idea, and the preview was a bit monotone, so I decided to hold off and pick up the paper copy. I was very happy to find this in good condition. We’re also hoping to visit her restaurant, Prune, when we’re in New York this summer.

Have you read any of these books? I’d love to hear any thoughts on these.