Bargain Book Bonanza (23): Classics, sort-of

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.


Leslie is hosting this week!

Good morning, all. I had intended to write this last night, but we ended up watching a movie - a SAD movie - and I was too tired after that to get this out. (Just FYI, Mars Needs Moms is very sad. No spoilers, but if you have sensitive kids, maybe pass on this one. One of ours ended up in the middle of our bed last night! If you have a bunch of ingrates, maybe this is a good one. Just saying.)

Anyway, at this pernt in time, when I go book shopping I look for children's books. I am interested in early readers for my two younger ones and fiction books that will get my older one interested in trying new subjects.

This week I found two little goodies - The Cat in the Hat and The Hardy Boys. Both are recent editions. 

99 cents each at Goodwill

I read all The Hardy Boys books when I was a kid and loved them (I never could get into Nancy Drew) so I thought this might be fun for my 10 year old. He hasn't opened it yet, but I may just read it with him.

And The Cat in the Hat has a lot of "sight words" that children need to know as well as rhyming. Plus it's fun! 

So, while not quite as much of a bargain as Lesa can find, me likey!

My second "find" is not really a bargain exactly, but it is a follow up of a previous bargain, and I am equally excited about it. I bought Corre, Perro. Corre, which is the full-sized version of Go, Dog. Go from another website. I won't say the name, but it starts with an "O" and rhymes with Cloverstock.

 

I absolutely adore these books. First the English book, the original, shows location and direction, opposites and contrasts. The vocabulary is fantastic for a kindergartner and first grader.  And the Spanish is exactly the same, but - get this - IN SPANISH! So again, learning all of the above, but IN SPANISH: 

My 6 year old reads the sentence, then we look at the picture and I ask, "Ok, what does perro mean? (DOG) Right! And what does grande mean? (looks at picture~BIG) Exactly and so what does perro grande mean? (BIG DOG!) YAY! You got it! See how easy Spanish is?"

I get such a big grin when he figures it out! LOVE. IT. 

Anyway, I paid about $7 for Corre, Perro. Corre. Not a bargain in the absolute sense of the word, but it is a great aid, so I think it's a good deal for what it is giving us!

So, what about you? What bargain books have you gotten? Maybe they are not at rock bottom prices, but they are a bargain for what they offer!

If you have a bargain book, please share. We love to brag on bargains!

Salvation Creek

I have just finished reading Salvation Creek, and was enthralled.  It's not always an easy read, as Maggie Tabberer (an Aussie icon) alludes on the cover, but it is an excellent read.


The autobiography centres on the life of  Susan Duncan during some extraordinarily difficult years, through to her ultimate, wait for it.... salvation.  


It's about life, love, cancer, death, dogs, nature, cooking, boats and island living.  Reading it made me rush to the phone and contact my friends and family who had recently battled cancer, just to let them know I was here if they needed me.  They may have won their battle years ago, but still bear the scars in so many ways.


But don't think this is a depressing book.  Yes, almost every major character has or has had cancer, and some die, but this is an uplifting book--one of those life-affirming stories.  She, like me, was mad enough to get two puppies at a time, and I was nodding in agreement about her travails. I was also wanting to move to an island just like she did, and start cooking more like Tracy and Lesa.


Many autobiographies are self aggrandizing, but this one seems so honest, with Susan willing to share her failures and failings.  I felt as if I just might respond in a similar way to her situation.


It's a wonderful book to read if you are interested in the Australian bush and wildlife.  Susan moves to Pittwater and lives close to nature most tourists have to pay extra to see.  She develops a love of nature she hadn't known during her high-powered city life.


This is a beautiful story, and you should pour a glass of your favourite refreshing beverage and read it with your feet up on a verandah, deck or porch.  That's what I think, anyway...






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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!

Bargain Book Bonanza (21): Paperback Trio

 Welcome to Bargain Book Bonanza!

A book haul linky party for bargain loving bookworms!

BBB is the place to showcase all the great books (new, used, vintage, electronic, audio) that you have scored on sale, dirt cheap or even free. 

Each Monday through Thursday, all book lovers are invited to carouse, make merry and revel with bargain book abandon!

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


Lesa is hosting this week!

My bargain paperbacks tend to come in threes. At least the ones from the library with the never-ending sale. Why? Because paperbacks are three for a dollar or fifty cents each. And as a savvy cheapskate bargain hunter, I always go for the best deal-- even if there is really only one book that I want. 

So which one of these three did I really want?

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Skeleton Crew by Stephen King

Yep, good ol' creepy King. And it is your fault! Oh yes, it is-- you just had to blog about the King book you read, didn't you!  

I haven't read any King since the early 90s and the urge to revisit the weirdness and horror has been growing stronger this last year.  

This collection contains one novella and twenty-one shortstories. Seems like a decent not too intense way to dabble but if I have any nightmares, I am blaming you!

Rounding out this BBB trio:

Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
(I don't recall anything about the movie-- surely the book will be more memorable.)

Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff by William Inge
(Never heard of this one-- apparantly Inge wrote a couple of novels in addition to his famous plays and this is one of them.)

Have you read any of these books? 

If you have a bargain book, please share. We love to brag on bargains!

Guest Post: Dellylu's Favorite Bookstore

My favourite bookstore ever is Berkelouw Books.

               

 It reminds me of my gram's house because of its smell. I don't know why though.  

                                       

                                           

  I bought a gorgeous drawing book there. So I'm non stop drawing.

Anyway, It doesn't only have books, it also has a little section with little trinkets like, pretty journals, nice smelling candles, book bags, pencils, and lots more.

I spend hours there, and I like looking at the little shops around there.

TTFN (tata for now) Dellylu :)

PS sorry for not posting in awhile!