This is the post where I talk about all those lovely books that I received for Christmas and that now adorn my never diminishing TBR Pile. I know that it is almost the end of January, but bear with me. I’m sure I’m not the only person always playing catch-up with the reading pile. Here’s a brief run-through of my latest acquisitions.

Two books in particular I had had my eye on for a while, so when I got word that a family member wanted gift ideas, well that was my opportunity. The two books in question were The Lost Rainforests of Britain by Guy Shrubsole (William Collins) and Where the Wildflowers Grow by Leif Bersweden (2022, 2023 Hodder). I have begun to read the former and I am already fascinated by the huge variety of lichens and mosses to be found around Britain. The only problem I am having is wrestling with the Latin names; as Shrubsole points out, very few lichens have common names unlike more well-known specimens in the wider plant world.

I also had a Christmas crime fix in my book stash (which was in addition to a couple of library crime books awaiting my attention) from He Who Put the Shelves Up. Now, these two sets of crime novels resemble two sets of twins. In each corner I have a Japanese classic crime novel and a British Golden Age crime novel. The similarity is quite uncanny really, or would be if my crime fiction tastes were not so well known to my nearest and dearest. The Japanese mystery is from an author new to me, Fūtarō Yamada (1927-2001). This is the intriguing sounding The Meiji Guillotine Murders (2012, translated 2023 Pushkin Vertigo), a historical crime story set in 1869, after a recent civil war. My second murder tale is Murder in Blue (Galileo 1937, 2021) by Clifford Witting (1907-68), another author new to me. This tells of a case of a murdered policeman, whose body lying alongside his bicycle is discovered by a local bookseller and writer out for an evening stroll. This reprint is of Witting’s first crime novel from an eventual sixteen. So far Galileo seems to have reprinted a couple of titles so maybe there will be more to come. The original books are apparently very collectable and rare now. I did find a first edition copy of Murder in Blue on ABE for, wait for it… £1,622.48 (plus postage and packing!) Thank goodness for good quality reprints is all I can say.

By way of a complete contrast to anything that has gone before, I received a copy of a collection of George Eliot’s essays (2023 Renard Press) from one of my sisters. The titular essay is, ‘Silly Novels by Lady Novelists’ in which Eliot lists the ‘qualities of silliness that predominates’ in the novels in question. As you will surely want to know, I will tell you that they are, ‘the frothy, the pious or the pedantic.’ This book contains a collection of four essays, all published in journals between 1854 and 1879. So I shall be dipping into Eliot in between crime novels I think.

Finally, my post-Christmas TBR pile includes a copy of Hilary Mantel’s A Memoir of my Former Self: A Life in Writing (2023 John Murray). This is a collection of Mantel’s writing collected and edited by Nicolas Pearson, Mantel’s longtime book editor. I have read several of Mantel’s novels including the Thomas Cromwell trilogy, but I haven’t read any of her articles or reviews.  I have dipped into this collection only a little so far, enjoying very much her essays on Anne Boleyn and Marie Antoinette. Mantel’s range is wide, so it looks to be an interesting anthology.

Now that is the Christmas present list wrapped up, but I did mention that I had a couple of library crime reads on the dreaded pile. The Japanese novel in my library pile is by Seishi Yokomizo (1902-1981), The Devil Comes and Plays his Flute (1979, translated 2023, Pushkin Vertigo). This features Yokomizo’s regular detective character, the rather eccentric but endearing Kosuke Kindaichi grappling with a very strange case indeed. I have read all of the Yokomizo titles reprinted by Pushkin Press and highly recommend them. The other library classic  is The White Priory Murders: A Mystery for Christmas by Carter Dickson (the pen name of John Dickson Carr), originally published in 1935 but reprinted in 2022 by the British Library. I did borrow this before the festive season, planning to read It over Christmas, but sadly that didn’t happen. I will squeeze it in while we are at least still in the wintery months!

My task now is to read all of those books, before the distraction of acquiring anything else to read. Why don’t you drop me a line and share your TBR Pile status?