Book Raid

We still haven't given in and opened the boxes from Barnes and Noble. I even had a coworker who offered to assist. I was for it, but my Bookman said we should just leave it since Solstice is now less than two weeks away. I mostly don't think about the boxes, but yesterday I had a little pang when I saw the New York Times was reviewing the Leonard Woolf bio. I didn't read the review. I couldn't, not only because it would make me want to rip open the boxes but also because I don't want anyone to ruin my pleasant anticipation by saying the book is extraordinarily good, or worse, bad. Since we have been so well-behaved and have not been able to fondle the non-holiday books that are with the holiday books, we raided the clearance shelves at Half-Price Books. Oh what fun, and guilt-free too since the books are only $1 each. Here is the stack I brought home:

• My Mother's House and Sido by Colette. I would probably not have noticed this if Dorothy hadn't written so many wonderful posts about it a few months back.
• The Amateur: An Independent Life in Letters by Wendy Lesser. I've heard good things about her and her author photo reveals her to have very curly and delightfully frizzy hair. My hair, though not as curly, also tends to frizz so she feels like a kindred spirit in that respect.
• Name All the Animals by Alison Smith. Susan has mentioned this book before and it was a Discover New Writers Award winner.
• Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope. I've been wanting to read Trollope. But now I see this one is the second book of six, The Warden being the first. Do I need to begin at the beginning?
• The Well-Beloved with The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved by Thomas Hardy. A two-in-one! It seems to have a sort of Pygmalion thing going on. Plus the cover is a detail of a painting in which a woman with curly hair sits reading a book. Her hair is not frizzy, but that's just because the artist was kind enough to leave that part out.
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee. I am not much of a play reader but I have always been curious about this one. This copy of the book made its way here from the University of North Dakota and was used as a text in English 322. The student's name was Harris (he or she wrote it across the top outside edge of the pages. I wonder how Ms or Mr. Harris did in the class because this book is pristine. No notes or underlining. Oh, wait! I've found some in plain pencil toward the end. The lines belong to George and they are "Flores; flores para los muetros. Flores." The note says "A Streetcar Named Desire." Out of all the things that might be important in this play, it's a movie reference the student notes?
• A Garden Stroll: Knits Inspired by Nature by Lori Ihnen. I am a sucker for knitting books. I have more pattern books than me and my poor tendonitis-prone wrist will ever be able to make. This one was not one dollar but it was still dirt cheap for a knitting book and it has some gorgeous sweaters in it. I can dream, right?