Thursday, June 03, 2010

BEA 2010, inside my giant box of books

After reading other people's stories on Twitter about long their BEA shipments were taking to arrive, was I ever pleased today to see the UPS guy walk up the driveway with an enormous box. Two days from NYC to here is something of a record. I'm planning one more BEA-related post dealing with the blogger convention, but for the moment, here's the rest of the historical fiction I accumulated. Click to enlarge.

In brief, subjects and locales, beginning with the top row going across:

(1) William Ryan, The Holy Thief. Historical thriller of Stalinist Moscow. Minotaur, Sept, and it comes with a CD of the audiobook (may not be complete).
(2) Bo Caldwell, City of Tranquil Light. In the early 20th c, a midwestern farmer becomes a missionary on the North China Plain and marries a strong woman doing the same work; based on her grandparents' story. Henry Holt, Oct.
(3) Stacy Schiff, Cleopatra. New bio (nonfiction) about the famous Egyptian queen. Little Brown, Nov.
(4) Joseph Skibell, A Curable Romantic. An intellectual comedy about a modern Candide traveling from 1890 Vienna to the Warsaw Ghetto of 1940. The author performed a hilarious two-minute promotional song ("I Am the Very Model of A Modern Major Novelist") on a backpacking guitar as part of a library program I attended. Algonquin, Sept.
(5) Penny Vincenzi, Forbidden Places. British family drama set between 1938 and 1995. Overlook, Oct.
(6) Charles Todd, An Impartial Witness. His 2nd Bess Crawford mystery, about a battlefield nurse in 1917 England. This came courtesy of Library Journal's Day of Dialog. Morrow, Sept.
(7) Jane Gardam, Old Filth. Literary fiction about an elderly lawyer in 20th-c Dorset who slips back into his own history. Europa, earlier this year.

Second row down:

(1) Ntozake Shange and Ifa Bayeza, Some Sing, Some Cry. Literary saga following seven generations on a rice plantation just off the Carolina coast, showcasing one's family's music and path from slavery to freedom. St. Martin's, Sept.
(2 - top) Manuel de Lope, The Wrong Blood. Two women share a secret that allows them to survive the Spanish Civil War. Other Press, Sept.
(2 - bottom) John Addiego, Tears of the Mountain. America's pioneer roots, as seen through the eyes of one man from Sonoma County, California. Unbridled, Sept.
(3) Kathleen Kent, The Wolves of Andover. The prequel to The Heretic's Daughter, a love story set in the harsh wilderness of 17th-century Massachusetts. Reagan Arthur (Little, Brown), Nov.
(4 - top) Joyce Hinnefeld, Stranger Here Below. The stories that pass from mother to daughter in 20th-c Appalachia. Unbridled, Oct.
(4 - bottom) Jonathan Evinson, West of Here. Literary epic of Washington State. Algonquin, Feb. 2011.
(5) Bruce Machart, The Wake of Forgiveness. Love and frontier violence in 1910 rural Texas. Oct, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
(6) Lisa Klein, Cate of the Lost Colony. YA fiction that moves from Queen Elizabeth's court to Walter Ralegh's colony at Roanoke. Bloomsbury Children's, Oct.
(7 - top) Jessica Francis Kane, The Report. A reimagining of a WWII civilian disaster and the inquiry that surrounds it. Graywolf, Oct.
(7 - bottom) Michelle Hoover, The Quickening. Conflicts between the wives of two Midwestern farm families in the early 1900s. Other Press, June.

A thanks to all the publishers involved; I'm looking forward to reading them all.

And a special thanks to McGraw-Hill for supplying the giant red tote bag that I carted around on both days. The size of this bag was very impressive, and I'm sure it'll be making a return trip to future BEAs. In the meantime, my 7-month-old kittens have claimed it for themselves:


Ollie and Abby (brother and sister) will have to share it, but it's big enough to easily hold two.

Below are some other NYC book purchases, because even with the galleys I acquired at the show, you can never have enough books.

This quartet, clockwise from top left, moves from early 20th-c NYC to 1899 South Africa to 1940s Iraq to 1940 San Francisco. Around the world through historical fiction: the best way to travel without leaving your house.

16 comments:

  1. I am 1000 kinds of jealous!!!! What gorgeous loot!

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  2. Nice haul! Glad the kitties got some use out of the bag!

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  3. Wow, I only have 8 of the books you grabbed, and 3 I didn't even get at BEA. Amazing how we can all go to the same show and (even looking for the same genres) come away with such different stuff.

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  4. I didn't pick up any adult historicals but I did get Cate of the Lost Colony and several other YA historicals. I'm reading Cate right now and really enjoying it.

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  5. Michelle, I hope you can find some way to come to BEA next year!!

    Susan - I think the kittens liked it even more when the books were still in the bag! The crazy UPS place didn't even take the books out of the bag before packing up my box. Sheesh.

    Jen - I'm looking look forward to your BEA post. I know there are some historicals I missed, and they're probably ones you managed to grab. I got a few contemporaries, too.

    Rebecca - it does look pretty good. I didn't see any other YA historicals - well, except for ones with very long lines (like Donnelly's Revolution, which I wanted, but I had a schedule conflict). I wish I'd spotted more of them.

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  6. Love your box of books! And had to LOL at your cat photos ... my cat has taken quite the liking to my Book Blogger Con swag bag - contents and all. Just haven't gotten a good enough photo yet.

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  7. Am I the only blogger without cats? Seriously, I see them everywhere online....

    On a side note, great stash of books!

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  8. Sarah - the other YA historicals I got were The Twin's Daughter (which looks like it is a historical mystery/suspense story), Prisoners in the Palace by Michaela McColl (about a young lady's maid to Victoria right before she becomes queen), Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson (the sequel to Chains), Wildthorn by Jane Eagland, Annexed by Sharon Dogar, and Revolution. I think that's all I got for historicals.

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  9. Melissa - it took a number of tries to get these cat photos!

    Trisha - as both a blogger and a librarian I figured cats were inevitable :)

    Rebecca - thanks for the info on the YAs. There are a few you mentioned that I hadn't heard of... I neglected to write down info from the children's galleys to grab post (from PW) before I left.

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  10. Oh I got the Cleopatra and the Wolves of Andover. I think the cover of the Cleopatra is just gorgeous! I am jealous about Cate of the Lost Colony - I completely missed that one! Great stuff.

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  11. I'm so jealous! I was only there for a little while on Thursday but I did get the recent non-fiction book about the serial killer who inspired Arsenic and Old Lace.

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  12. Elizabeth - can you tell me more about the Arsenic and Old Lace book? I haven't heard about it before. If it's about Amy Archer-Gilligan, she has a connection to my home town (Newington, Connecticut). There's a house known as the Pillars that my school bus drove by every day... everyone thought it was haunted because she used to live there. Rumor had it that some murders took place there, although I believe that didn't start until she'd moved to Windsor.

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  13. Heather - I agree the Cleopatra cover is gorgeous! It's a photograph, which is unusual for nonfiction, but it doesn't make it look like fiction either. It's very striking.

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  14. That is some fabulous loot! And why is it that kitties love bags *so much*?

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  15. I don't know, but they do! All you have to do is bring a bag into the living room here, and instant kitty house.

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  16. Wow, what a nice haul! That was really nice of you to bring back a gift for your kittens. The size and color look just right. I really don't think you shoul;d plan on fetting the tote back. LOL!

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