Not Delivered By Stalks, But By Telegram & Dove(greyreader)... And Through BAFAB Week Through Me Too!

One thing I have loved about blogging about books is all your feedback, comments and thoughts. I don't get paid to do these reviews or anything of the like I just LOVE books. So imagine my suprise when on my birthday last week I got a lovely email from Telegram Books who "publish the best in new and classic international writing, from debut novelists to established literary heavyweights. Telegram has brought cutting-edge and authoritative voices from the UK, Spain, North Africa, Korea, Hungary, France, China, the Middle East and beyond" . I admit I hadnt heard of them as a publisher (sorry) but as soon as I started reading their catalogue I recognised their books. Whats more was that they were wondering if I would like to have some review copies of my choice that if I loved I could pop on here. Well what do you think I said? They arrived this morning!

I chose The Cleaner and My Driver by Maggie Gee because I had heard her interviewed on Open Book on Radio 4 which is one of my Sunday morning pleasures, I would kill for Mariella's job. I also liked the idea of novels written by characters who know their employers every little secret which these books, as they are a series, seem to do. Memoirs of a Midget by Walter De La Mare was another book that I instantly thought I would love "Miss M., a pretty and diminutive young woman with a passion for shells, fossils, flints, butterflies and stuffed animals, struggles to deal with her isolation from the rest of society due to her extraordinarily small size. When her father dies, she must make her own way in a world that treats her as an entertaining curiosity, a momentary diversion from the game of making ones way up the social ladder. An elegiac, misanthropic, sometimes perverse study of isolation, de la Mare's prize-winning classic seduces by its gentle charm and elegant prose." So a big thank you to the lovely people at Telegram, very, very kind.


Now there of course has to be a negative in the week and bar the fact I seem to be blogging very late in the day this week which will stop, or the fact that I havent picked up The Cellist of Sarajevo yet as I started a Patricia Cornwell I picked up in a charity shop - don't you hate it when you have saved the start of a book for a long tube/bus/train/plane journey get to the station/airport/stop and realise you've forotten it then you thankfully seea charity shop on the corner! No it is none of those... the big negative of the week is the fact that the flying rodents of London have been using my wonderful, grown with real love, Winter Pansies as a runway/landing pad!


Now there could have been quite a sulk (like when no one comments on my blog hahaha) and some distress at this, well ok there still was a bit but it was softened when I then got another email entitled 'Belated Birthday Present' from the lovely Dovegreyreader! She had seen this post and had a spare copy of The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie and has posted it as a birthday treat, I cant wait for that bundle to arrive I have heard wonderful things from people I trust book recommendation wise, the reviewers were very anti this book when it was long listed for the Man Booker. This was such a kind thing of her to do and I was amazed that she was even reading my blog as I am very fond of hers, so another thank you!

Thats something I love about Book Blogging and Book Bloggers, no not the free books, the relationships and friendships I am slowly but surely building. So in honour of all that I am joining in with all the Buy A Friend A Book Week high jinx and will be giving a copy of one of my highly rated reads... am just deciding which one. so lets say like Juxtabook its a surprise, but a very nice one! Here is my question though to qualify... and its a toughy... "If you were stuck on a desert island and you only had one book to read that you havent read yet, which would it be?" So if you fancy it let me know on here and the Non-Reader will pick out the winner Wednesday!