Sweet Charity

Oh dear, I've been let loose in the book section of my local charity shop again. Given the current teetering state of my reading pile I should've exercised more restraint, but I justified my purchases because they're all in a good cause. I did put a few books back, in fact, so I was really being quite restrained, after all. What's more, I've been hankering after some of the titles here for a while...

First up is Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, a story of the brutal conditions in Stalin's Siberian labour camps, which Solzhenitsyn experienced first hand. I read a review on Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings blog here and am especially pleased to see my Penguin version is by her preferred translator Ralph Parker.

By contrast my next book is The Rotter's Club by Jonathan Coe, a comic coming-of-age tale set in the 1970s. I read Coe's The Rain Before it Falls when he visited Bath Literature Festival a few years ago and wasn't totally convinced. One of my fellow stewards told me The Rotters Club was way better, so I'm giving him a second chance.

Then I chose What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn purely because it was recommended by my daughter's English teacher (it's possible she was actually recommending it for my 15 year old daughter now I think about it). Mrs Cunningham I'm holding you responsible...

And finally, lacking a little Mantel in my life while waiting for the final instalment of the Wolf Hall trilogy, I found a near pristine copy of A Place of Greater Safety a story of the French Revolution. At 872 pages it definitely falls into the long novel category, but I always find Hilary Mantel immensely readable.

So there we have it - four completely different worlds to explore for a total outlay of £6! Now all I need to do is read (and review) these previously-loved treasures...