Someone Around Here Is Spoiled

So, here it is, the bookish goodies post. What did I get from my loved ones this Christmas? Lots of books! My loving Fiance' got me the new Rachael Ray cookbook, Rachael Ray's Big Orange Book. Not entirely altruistic, as he enjoys eating the things I cook out of my two shelves' worth of cookbooks!

My mother's birthday is on December 12, and I'd bought her a copy of Brunonia Barry's The Lace Reader. Turns out, she'd already brought a copy home from the library and read it. Since when did my mom start going to the library again? I guess she is, though, because she had a stack of books from the Molly Murphy series by Rhys Bowen, stacked up almost to the ceiling! Since she'd already read the book I got her, I decided to just keep it and get her something to replace it. She had not, however, read The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (ha HA!), which was the other half of her birthday present. She HAD read the entire Maisie Dobbs series, of which I got her the first book for Christmas (I really should have known), but she was very excited to own a copy of it for her very own, since she loves the series so much. I offered to pre-order the newest book for her for when it comes out in February. She also was interested to read The Almost Moon, by Alice Sebold, author of one of her very favorite books, which she won't stop talking about, The Lovely Bones.

Ahem, this post is supposed to be about ME! Between them, my aunt and uncle and two of my sisters got me $70 worth of Barnes and Noble gift cards. Which have all been spent...Ricky and I went to the bookstore yesterday, and I polished off the balance online. Sigh. At the store, I picked up a mystery by Mark Mills called Amagansett. I don't remember where I heard about this book (doubtless on someone's blog...perhaps Jenclair's? I should really start keeping track of where I get my recommendations from.) and it sounded good. Still does. I also picked up the first novel in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes mystery series by Laurie R. King, The Beekeeper's Apprentice. I'm completely excited to start in on this series, which sounds awesome. Online, I ordered the second and third books in Pearl Buck's The Good Earth trilogy. The first book was easy to find...it's a classic and there are copies of it everywhere. But the second and third books? No one carries them, except online! So I've been waiting to get a gift card so I could purchase them. The final item I bought online was Joanna Kavenna's Inglorious, another book blog find. I cannot wait for my choices to arrive in the mail.

In the meantime, I'll have to content myself with browsing the books Santa brought me: The Best American Short Stories, Mystery Stories, and Non-Required Reading of 2008. I love these books and have been collecting them for about ten years now. Originally, I only collected the Short Story and Mystery Story ones, but I added the Non-Required Reading ones a few years ago, while I was in law school. Best gift of the year, every Christmas. Oh! I also picked up a copy of Julian Barnes' Arthur & George, at the B&N after Christmas sale (where I got my half-off Book-a-Day calendar, too!), where it was on remainder. WHEE! Last, but certainly not least in the bookish goodies category, is the subscription that my future-mother-in-law got me to Bookmarks magazine! I'm SO lucky to get along with my (future) in-laws. My sister and her mother-in-law do NOT see eye to eye, and it sucks. Luckily, my future mom-in-law is awesome and loves me enough to get me something I've really wanted for a good six months now!

So that was my literary Christmas. I got a ton of other great stuff, too, but how boring would it be to listen to me list my abundance? My family loves Christmas and we go all out for each other. I'm really, really blessed to have so many people who love me and know exactly what to do to make my season bright!