Now to tell you about the books that I added to my wish list after going up and down the aisles at BookPeople. I should have snapped some pictures inside the store because they had some great book displays. I liked that they weren’t just promoting brand new books but some other favorites.

Here are the books that I want:

One Fell Swoop by Virginia Boyd. By turns hilarious and poignant, this daring, debut novel begins with the violent end of a marriage. A local wife-and-mother has killed her husband after finding him in the midst of an affair. Each chapter, written from a different community member’s point of view, shows the ripple effect of that dramatic event and how it has affected the townspeople differently–some directly and others less so, but all meaningfully and irrevocably.

Biting the Wax Tadpole by Elizabeth Little. In her debut book, writer and editor Little searches in linguistic nooks and crannies for the quirks, innovations and implausibilities of the world’s languages, threading witty pop culture references through tapestries of language trivia written with the not-so-linguistic reader in mind.

I also found a few mystery series that I want to check out one of these days. They are the Judge Dee series by Robert Van Gulik, the DI Charlie Priest series by Stuart Pawson, and the Marjorie McClelland series by Amy Patricia Meade. If any of you have read these let me know what you thought.

And, I did say that I bought a book right? Well, I bought one book at BookPeople and then I went to Half Price Books to use my 50% Off coupon.

I only got two books but I am happy with my finds. Here’s what I got:

At BookPeople I bought Death at Wentwater Court by Carola Dunn. Danielle recently mentioned this book and I kept thinking it was a book I had tried to read before and couldn’t get into. Which kind of seemed odd to me as this sounds like a book I would totally enjoy. So, when I saw this I couldn’t help but picking up and read just a bit and that’s when I realized I must have confused this with another book. I haven’t tried to read this book before after all. What a good discovery, huh?

And, at Half Price Books I found a book that had been on my wish list for quite some time, The Fabric of Night by Christoph Peters.

Ok, off to try and finish a book for book group on Tuesday, and don’t forget that Tuesday is also the start of National Poetry Month – whee!

Happy Sunday Salon everyone. It’s been a while since I had the chance to participate but here I am today.

The trip to Austin was a quick one but oh what fun. Aside from doing a bit of wandering around the South Austin area, where it’s filled with an eclectic mix of shops and restaurants, we also went to the Austin Museum of Art to see the exhibit on New Art in Austin. My favorite pieces were from Alyson Fox who used old books for her art. She stripped the books of the pages and then made some illustrations on covers. You can see more on each of the artists by checking out the interactive website.

We also spent a couple of hours hanging out in BookPeople. Aside from a wonderful selection of books, they also have some great gift items. I fell in love with a few pieces from the Flash Fiction Gems, jewelry with a story behind it. How clever is that?

Of course I added more books to my wish list and bought a book but I’m going tell you about that in another post. Right now I have to get ready to go have lunch with a friend, and then I have a 50% Off coupon to use at Half Price Books. Can’t let that go to waste. So hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday.

I know I had mentioned that I planned to join the Orbis Terrarum Challenge and now I finally have my list of books. I’m going to be a bit sneaky in mix in a couple of books from my foreign authors book group and also from other challenges but you never know, I may end up reading a lot more foreign fiction and I’ll adjust my list to show other choices.

The challenge runs from April 1 through December 20. The bottom line: choose 9 different books, written by 9 different authors, from 9 different countries.

Here is my tentative list:

• Madame by Antoni Libera (Poland). I’ve already started this and it’s great. I hope to finish it by next Tuesday as it’s also a book group read.
• Wild Swans by Jung Chang (China). Also a book club book.
• The Seville Communion by Arturo Perez-Reverte (Spain). This is also another challenge read.
• The Sleeping Car Murders by Sebastien Japrisot (France). A Very Long Engagement was a favorite read a couple of years ago. This Japrisot novel seems quite different but should be interesting.
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (Brazil). I’m the last person to read this right?
• April Witch by Majgull Axelsson (Sweden)
• Women with Big Eyes by Angeles Mastretta (Mexico)
• The Quest for Christa T. by Christa Wolf (Germany)
• Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (Japan)

I tried to stay away from listing British and Canadian authors as I seem to read a lot from these authors anyway. So, I think I’m set to go on a nice trip around the world with this list. Thank you B&b Ex Libris for hosting the challenge. I think it’ll be great fun.

Speaking of trips, I’m off for a quick visit to Austin. Hope to hear a little music on Sixth Street, do a bit of browsing at BookPeople and savor some good eats at Kerbey Lane. Hope everyone has a great weekend!