quiet on the book blog doesn't mean life is quiet....

So here it is a Saturday at the end of January. I have been uncharacteristically silent on my blog, and I'm not sure why. I'm certainly reading! I think I haven't had lots to say because we have been distracted by the difficulties our five-year-old is experiencing. They are extremely stressful on all of us, and don't leave me much time to read, never mind to blog. We have reached the point of having to ask for outside help, because it has taken over our lives, and has for some time now. While we learn how best to help him, it doesn't leave me much extra time that I used to get. I think about blogging, often! And have several posts lined up in my head: 'Graphic novels and how extraordinary they are", "Why Mary Oliver is my Mentor", "Synchronicities in reading", "and How my reading has changed since I began blogging". As time permits......

What I wanted to write today (in between playing soccer games on the Playstation with the 5 year old and losing badly to him, and making dinner) was how you have affected my book buying recently. Yes, that's you, my dear Gentle Readers. You. Look at the books I recently bought in Chapters!!!
Let's see:
Full Dark House (#1) and The Water Room ( Bryant and May series) , recently recommended by Bookpusher, Cath at Read-Warbler,
Book By Book - Michael Dirda - Nymeth - she recommeneded Classics for Pleasure, but when I went to the store, I wanted to start with this one, which was about how he relates books he's reading to his life
The Company of Liars - Booksplease
Cry Wolf - Patricia Briggs - because Kailana says it's even better than the other series with Mercy Thompson (which I find hard to believe)
The Rough Collier - Pat MacIntosh - Geraniumcat (the only one of the series I could find so far, she's read the earlier ones)
Monkey Beach - Eden Robinson - Stephanie, Dewey
and, because I liked the look of them:
Urban Shaman by C. E. Murphy
Greywalker - Kat Richardson
Letters Written in Sweden, Norway and Denmark - Mary Wollstonecraft

And last of all, wonderfully arriving from Amazon.ca in the mail earlier this week, a copy of An Instance of the Fingerpost, because Ann at Table Talk recommended it as a mystery I must read. There is nothing like receiving a book in the mail, is there?
By the way, the Henning Mankell mystery, Before the Frost, in my photo, is the last Wallander and Wallander mystery Henning Mankell will write featuring Kurt Wallander and his new police-daughter Linda. The actress who played Linda in the recent English series (which starred Kenneth Branagh), killed herself last winter, she was a victim of the terrible tsunami in 2004 and never really got over it, and the author was too grief-stricken to carry on the series. So he is starting a new series featuring a judge, which has just come out. I am two books behind in the series, so I hope to catch up during this, my 50 + mystery book year, before starting the new series.

Chris over at Stuff As Dreams Are Made Of has a post similar to mine, and like me, he is featuring a song that is getting him through his time of relative blog silence. Like me, he has also posted about books we have convinced him to buy, so it's good to know that I am not the only one suffering from this period of quiet! And happily reading while we rest. Here is the song that I listen to almost every day. It's Asleep From a Day, by the Chemical Brothers featuring Hope Sandoval. It is haunting and ethereal and beautiful, and gives me a little window of beauty in my day:


Enjoy. With any luck, I'll be back tomorrow to do my first Sunday Salon post for this year. and thank you, dear readers, I have some excellent new books on my TBR mountain!!!