I had to go to the library tonight to pick up a hold, and as I was there I picked up two other books. I’m showing a lot of restraint lately aren’t I? Here’s what I checked out:

My Father’s Notebook by Kader Abdolah. From Library Journal: No ordinary father-and-son tale, this beautiful and poetic work interweaves the stories of Aga Akbar, a deaf-mute carpet mender, and his son, Ishmael, with the political history of 20th-century Iran. This is the June selection for my foreign authors book group.

If Minds Had Toes by Lucy Eyre. From Kirkus Review: A teenaged boy is encouraged to start thinking big in this playful philosophy primer. Old thinkers never die-they just wind up in the World of Ideas, a sort of limbo where they’re free to while away the hours debating matters of morality and identity. I picked this one up because I couldn’t resist the title.

Sister Teresa by Barbara Mujica. From Kirkus Review: A lifelong friend remembers Teresa of Avila, “Spain’s most beloved saint,” in this richly entertaining historical novel. This seemed interesting.

I also picked up the latest copy of BookPage. Some books that immediately went on my TBR list are: The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander, The Nature of Monsters by Clare Clark, and The Last Enemy by Grace Brophy.

Now it’s time for me to go and spend some quality time with Don Quixote.

Two new magazines arrived in my mailbox this week, Artitudezine and Somerset Studio. I haven’t been crafting as much these past two-three months. My poor art table is collecting dust. I really miss crafting but I just haven’t been organized and motivated enough to do something about it. I hope these magazines will help me get back a bit of my crafty spark.

In other bookish news, I re-discovered a great source for mystery books, Mystery Ink. I am pretty sure I’ve visited this site before but I had forgotten about it. Lots of mystery book reviews and they also present the Gumshoe Awards for best mystery, thriller, etc. Check out the recent and past winners here.

I’m a bit late but still want to give a shout out to Estella’s Revenge. Another fabulous issue is online so check it out if you haven’t already.

Finally, I also found another online discount bookshop, Bargain Bookshop. It reminds me a bit of Bookcloseouts and Pennyworth Books. I haven’t ordered anything from them yet but I’ll let you know when I do.

That’s it for tonight. Gotta go read.