More new books - John Lithgow and Agatha Christie

Even as I get rid of books, I can't help but buy more.  But all my purchases recently have been for my Kindle.  Here are the latest ones.

First up is Drama: An Actor's Education by John Lithgow.  I've been meaning to read this for a while.  I'm a huge fan of Lithgow, mostly through his film and television work (though I did get to see him in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels on Broadway), and have heard wonderful things about this book.



Next up is a bunch of Agatha Christie novels (Cards on the Table, Death on the Nile, The Man in the Brown Suit, The Body in the Library, and 4:50 From Paddington).  It's surprising that as much as I love mysteries, I've never actually read any of Agatha Christie's works.  I've seen movies and TV versions (I love the Poirot mysteries with David Suchet.  He was an excellent Poirot.  Peter Ustinov… not so much.).  Anyway, I look forward to reading these.











One more Agatha Christie-related note.  My friend Rob Hartmann (along with Liv Cummins) wrote a wonderful musical called Vanishing Point that dealt with the disappearances of Agatha Christie, evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, and pilot Amelia Earhart.  You can hear some of the songs here.

Speaking of purchasing things for my Kindle, I ordered a new Paperwhite Kindle recently.  I'm going to give my old one to my mom because I'm a good son.  The new one should be here this week, and I've already loaded it with a bunch of new books (the ones above, for instance) and all my magazine subscriptions.

Can't wait to get it.

One more purchase - The Drunken Botanist

This is why one-click purchasing is my downfall.  I find something interesting, and boom, I own it.

With my interest in cocktails and my background in botany, I'm pretty sure this will be a good one for me.  And if I ever get around to starting my cocktail blog, it will give me some ideas of things to feature.

Happy birthday - Alexandra Fuller

Today is the birthday of memoirist Alexandra Fuller.

From her Wikipedia entry:

She was born in the town of Glossop, England but moved with her family to Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) in 1972 and was educated at boarding school in Harare. Her first book was Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, a memoir of life with her family living all around Africa. Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight won the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize in 2002, was a New York Times Notable Book for 2002 and a finalist for The Guardian's First Book Award. Scribbling the Cat, her second book, was released in 2004. It is an unflinching tale of war's repercussions. It won the Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage in 2005.

In her third book, The Legend of Colton H. Bryant, she narrates the tragically short life of a Wyoming roughneck who fell to his death at age 25 in February 2006 on an oil rig owned by Patterson–UTI Energy.

Her most recent book is Cocktail Hour Under The Tree of Forgetfulness about her mother, Nicola Fuller.

Fuller's articles and reviews have appeared in numerous publications including The New Yorker, National Geographic, Granta, The New York Times, The Guardian and The Financial Times.

So many books, so little space

I'm trying to cut down on all the stuff in my apartment, and a certain amount of that has to be related to my books (currently four full bookshelves worth and probably 8 boxes full squirreled around the house).

I have already given a bunch of books to the local Goodwill, but I think I'm going to try Amazon's buy back service.  To find out more, click below.

I always take really good care of my books, so hopefully, I'll get some decent money back (so I can buy more Kindle books…).

Isabel Allende: Island Beneath the Sea

Latest purchase.  It's in a long (long, long) line of books that I am planning to read.

Now reading - "And the Mountains Echoed"

Currently reading Khaled Hosseini's "And the Mountains Echoed."

I read "The Kite Runner" and have a copy of "A Thousand Splendid Suns" (which will be in the rotation soon).  I really like his writing.

This is for a book club I recently joined.  We'll be discussing the book next week, so I have to make some progress this weekend.

A Perfect Afternoon