Inspiration From The Distant Past

Inspiration From The Distant Past
Found note in an old book... warms the cockles of my bookish heart...

Monday, August 22, 2011

Bargain Book Bonanza (22): Kate Grenville and Drums Along The Mohawk


 Welcome to Bargain Book Bonanza!

A book haul linky party for bargain loving bookworms!




Want to join the party? Just visit the Bargain Book Bonanza page for the particulars.


Lesa is hosting this week!

 Yippee! Two more treasures off the fifty cent hardback table at the never ending library sale!


Yet again, I feel like such a dunce.

Why hasn't Kate Grenville been on my radar?

She is one of Australia's best known writers and has won many literary awards. (maybe DeLynne will share some info in the com-box. hint hint...) The Idea Of Perfection won the Orange Prize for fiction in 2001 and it so sounds like my cuppa.

Listen to this synopsis of the synopsis: 
A plain rawboned woman with a dangerous streak and a shy gawky engineer with jug-handle ears arrive in the eccentric little country town of Karakarook at the same time. She is there to build a heritage museum and he is there to demolish a quaint bridge. A collision of opposites reveals an amusing tender tale of unlikely love blossoming in the Australian bush.

And it is told in elegant prose.

Can't wait to dive in! 


Now on to Drums Along The Mohawk

I almost missed this little jewel. I spotted it the same week that I found the two Pearl S. Buck books and the Prisoner of Zenda (featured in BBB 20 and received nary a comment. For shame, BBB peeps, for shame!) but I didn't buy it.

Drums Along The Mohawk was a bit shabby and though it sounded so familiar, I couldn't place it.
So I left it. Then proceeded to kick myself for not nabbing it. But it was still there awaiting rescue the next week. Whew! 

This 1936 novel is a Revolutionary War epic set in the New York Frontier. It was on the US bestseller list for two years and was second only to Gone With the Wind for part of that time. (Thanks, Wikipedia) 

Isn't that fasicinating? Two popular war novels duking it out on the eve of WW2.

I'm almost sure I've seen the movie adaptation but the book will be better and I can't wait to read it!

My threadbare but intact edition is from 1952...


and it is yet another originating from Mayer, Arizona. Yes, I'm stilling wondering about these book's journey to Oklahoma.  (check out BBB 20)

Look at this...


Inside the back cover, someone (maybe the librarian in Mayer?) glued a cut-out synopsis. Funny. And the price for a bound hardback in 1952?  Four Dollars. 

Have you read any Kate Grenville? What about Drums Along the Mohawk or other books by Walter Edmonds?
   
If you have a bargain book, please share. We love to brag on bargains!



3 comments:

  1. Wow, I must be a visual person, because her photos look so familiar, but I don't recognise her work or name. She's won all the big literary prizes in Australia and yet I've never read anything by her.... oh the shame!

    Lesa, I will get right on to reading!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ack! I can't believe it! Hie thee to a library immediately, woman! Or a bookstore, whichever is closest...

    According to Wiki there are movies so maybe you saw one or more. Toni Colette was in one, I think.

    ReplyDelete
  3. +JMJ+

    You find the most fascinating stuff, Lesa!

    I haven't been actively looking for bargains lately, so my BBB post features a new book that belongs to my brother. =P

    ReplyDelete

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