Your Latest Thrift/used Book Store Finds

  • This message board permanently closed on June 30th, 2020 at 4PM EDT and is no longer accepting new members.

Joanie Kay

Well-Known Member
May 25, 2017
74
344
63
North Carolina
Half a dozen Lisa See novels, including my favorite, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. (Be warned: the foot binding scenes are very difficult to read.) Also the entire Lonesome Dove series by Larry McMurtry. It was the final day of the library sale, so I got all I could stuff into a paper bag for five bucks. Not a bad haul.
 

Kurben

The Fool on the Hill
Apr 12, 2014
9,682
65,192
59
sweden
Got two books for a dollar. Alison Weirs Henry VIII - The King And His Court. Also Karen Armstrongs One City, Three Faiths (about Jerusalem, she is a very good and interesting historian of religions). I have read about Henry before but for 50 cents? Of course i bought it. Weir is usually reliable as a historian.
 

Dana Jean

Dirty Pirate Hooker, The Return
Moderator
Apr 11, 2006
53,634
236,697
The High Seas
Got two books for a dollar. Alison Weirs Henry VIII - The King And His Court. Also Karen Armstrongs One City, Three Faiths (about Jerusalem, she is a very good and interesting historian of religions). I have read about Henry before but for 50 cents? Of course i bought it. Weir is usually reliable as a historian.
I've read that first one on Henry. I thought it was very good.
 

Dana Jean

Dirty Pirate Hooker, The Return
Moderator
Apr 11, 2006
53,634
236,697
The High Seas
Half a dozen Lisa See novels, including my favorite, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. (Be warned: the foot binding scenes are very difficult to read.) Also the entire Lonesome Dove series by Larry McMurtry. It was the final day of the library sale, so I got all I could stuff into a paper bag for five bucks. Not a bad haul.
Love Lisa See. I actually think she writes better than Pearl Buck.
 

kingricefan

All-being, keeper of Space, Time & Dimension.
Jul 11, 2006
30,011
127,446
Spokane, WA
So today I came home with a dvd of Prophecy (the 1979 version that's scary), a hardback copy of In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (bookclub edition but states First Printing on the copyright page and also has a price of .25 cents written inside so I'm thinking it must be a real 1st printing bc), a new poster frame for one of my Prince posters that I bought while at Paisley Park in Minneapolis and a 1st hardback printing of Beyond The Poseiden Adventure by Paul Gallico (which I read in paperback years ago).
 

Kurben

The Fool on the Hill
Apr 12, 2014
9,682
65,192
59
sweden
Looked at a sale at the Library today. Bought Rising '44 by Norman Davies about the Rising in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1944. How it was encouraged by the allies (the russians were just on the other side of the river) but let down. The Germans regrouped and crushed it while the russians looked on. Stalin decided that he wanted control of the area and that would be easier if they didn't fight alongside the poles. 150.000 people living in Warsaw died during the rising.

The library didn't want the book anymore and sold it for a swedish crown (about 15 cents). Thats cheap for 700 pages of solid history.
 

doowopgirl

very avid fan
Aug 7, 2009
6,946
25,119
65
dublin ireland
Got two books for a dollar. Alison Weirs Henry VIII - The King And His Court. Also Karen Armstrongs One City, Three Faiths (about Jerusalem, she is a very good and interesting historian of religions). I have read about Henry before but for 50 cents? Of course i bought it. Weir is usually reliable as a historian.
As far as I'm concerned Alison Weir is the rock star of historians. I love her book about Elinor of Aquitane.
 

Kurben

The Fool on the Hill
Apr 12, 2014
9,682
65,192
59
sweden
As far as I'm concerned Alison Weir is the rock star of historians. I love her book about Elinor of Aquitane.
I dont mind her. Shes good although a bit too biography for my taste. I am a person who like context in histories and also chronology. She tends too, at least in her book on Henry VIII, to be a little too thematic in her chapters. But i think its very good thats someone shines a little light on people like Eleanor, Isabella (wife of Edward II) and Anne Boleyn and other female important persons in english history. Thats about time! She seems to focusing on A single person or a single event in her books and in that case it doesnt matter how much you try, and she does try, you always lose a bit of context then.
So if i want to deepdive in a person i might go to her but if i want to deepdive in a timeperiod i would go someplace else.
 

doowopgirl

very avid fan
Aug 7, 2009
6,946
25,119
65
dublin ireland
I dont mind her. Shes good although a bit too biography for my taste. I am a person who like context in histories and also chronology. She tends too, at least in her book on Henry VIII, to be a little too thematic in her chapters. But i think its very good thats someone shines a little light on people like Eleanor, Isabella (wife of Edward II) and Anne Boleyn and other female important persons in english history. Thats about time! She seems to focusing on A single person or a single event in her books and in that case it doesnt matter how much you try, and she does try, you always lose a bit of context then.
So if i want to deepdive in a person i might go to her but if i want to deepdive in a timeperiod i would go someplace else.
I see your point. She really does focus on biographies. Eleanor is one of my favorite women. She was amazing. But yes, if you want timeperiod you would go elsewhere.
 

Joanie Kay

Well-Known Member
May 25, 2017
74
344
63
North Carolina
Just picked up a novel called The Virgin Cure, by Ami McKay, an author I'd never heard of. Got the book for a quarter at the library sale. Here's the weird part: on the cover it says, "Uncorrected proof, not for sale." I've never seen this. Are any of you familiar with it? What the heck?

The book, by the way, is riveting. Think underbelly of 19th century NYC. A 12-year-old female protagonist who'll steal your heart...or you have no heart. Filing this book under "Wish I'd written that."