What's the last book you bought, new or secondhand?

[SiouxsieSiouxStiletto]

I'll start with The Handsome Man's Deluxe Cafe by Alexander McCall Smith.

I've bought it for DFIL who is a little bit poorly and is enjoying some lighter reads. It's a lovely hardback edition and was from a great little charity shop.

What's your latest purchase?

Tell Me How This Ends by Jo Leevers
£1 kindle deal yesterday so haven't read it yet
Prior to that it was a Beast Quest bundle and Percy Jackson set for the dc

I’ve not read it yet as it’s only just arrived but it was Battle Hymn Of The Tiger Teachers by Katharine Birbalsingh. A lot of people on here don’t like her but I respect her approach and what she’s done at Michaela. I read her earlier memoirs and I liked how she refuses to make excuses for the kids.

Lots on Kindle but the last physical book was
This is Uncool: The 500 Greatest Singles since Punk and Disco Paperback - Gary Mulholland as a gift for DS.

AngloSaxon Oxfordshire. Read it some time ago, managed to get a secondhand copy for £8 instead of the £40 usually being asked.

Comprehensive and very interesting . ( I’m a bit of and Anglo Saxon nerd).

I didn't buy these, got them on borrow box, but on Tuesday I got The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell (read the whole thing in one day and bit of the night!) and The Five by Hallie Rubenhold. Read a bit of The Five this morning, very gripping but sad.

I get most of my books from the Little Free Library down the road these days..read them and put them back, but I just bought Niccolo Rising because everyone keeps raving about Dorothy Dunnett and I've never read one.

I read Grey Bees last year and loved it.

The last book I bought was Watch Us Dance by Leïla Slimani. Loved In the Country of Others so looking forward to reading it.

Given by a friend: The Thursday Murder Club. Finished
Bought on Facebook Marketplace (€5) to read on holiday: Normal People. Only read the Kindle preview to see if I wanted it.
Bought new at Shakespeare and Company Paris: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Only read the introduction…

I'm getting into Jane Austen at the moment - I think this was the last book I actually bought (SO many in my to read pile) https://www.waterstones.com/book/jane-austen-at-home/lucy-worsley/9781473632202, got there via https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-mistresses-of-cliveden/natalie-livingstone/9780099594727 which I highly recommend, very well researched and written

Have you tried learning the language? I ordered a copy of 'Teach Yourself Old English' literally this morning. I've been reading a biography of Tolkien, who was professor of Old English/Anglo-Saxon, and it sparked an interest.

Also, have you watched Michael Wood's documentary series on the dark ages? You can see it on youtube. It's really good (the book is very good as well).

The Claire Tomalin biography is great. She also wrote a brilliant biography of Thomas Hardy.

I bought three at once:

Peter Ackroyd's biography of William Blake

The Collected Letters of Ted Hughes

Virginia Woolf: Jacob's Room

The Textbook of Non-Medical Prescribing. 😒

Looking forward to getting back to my non-fiction books on my kindle. Will use this thread to hopefully add a few more.

A (Dutch) children's cookbook for a friend, preorder of Joe Gibson's Seventeen on Audible and the last one I bought and "read" (Audible) was Kathleen Stock's Material Girls.

Raynor Winn's "Landlines" which I've nearly finished and Ben Aitken's The Marmalade Diaries which will be next up.

Great thread. I love seeing what others have bought.

Today I got these 7 books from a local charity shop for £3 total.

Chasing The Dram:Finding The Spirit of Whisky by Rachel McCormack
London Clay:Journey In The Deep City by Tom Chivers
My Life In Houses by Margaret Foster
The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman
Eat Me: Natural and Unnatural History of Cannibalism by Bill Schutt
Wham: George and Me by Andrew Ridgley.
Coasting: Running Around the Coast of Britain - Life, Love and (Very) Loose Plans
and Me by Elise Downing.

What's for Dinner by Sarah Rossi (mentioned on MN) and The Slimming Foodie in One by Pip Payne. Both recipe books. I am in a cooking rut, need new ideas. Both great.

I bought some holiday reading:
How to kill your family by Bella Mackie (not finished yet, but so far it’s fun)
Not read yet:
Lessons in chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Vox by Christina Dalcher

A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe
Women Talking by Miriam Toews

Both charity shop finds.

I love that this post came straight after ShelfObsessed's book about cannibalism! 😂

Mine's "The Mother" by T.M. Logan and was £4 from Sainsburys yesterday. I've already finished it though. I loved it but there's nothing more irritating than reading the hype about "You'll never guess the amazing plot-twist!" and realising that you actually did so very early on.

I know it's all about personal taste but that book by Bella Mackie is the only book I've disliked so much that I started a thread on it 🤣.
Be warned, the link contains spoilers.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/what_were_reading/4409708-How-to-kill-your-family-by-Bella-Mackie-CONTAINS-PLOT-SPOILERS

Bought Educated and got Queenie out of the library this week. Love both.

The Silk Road. Keep looking at it new, then saw it second hand on a charity stall. Not started it yet.

Clean and Green by Nancy Birtwhistle. She won bake off years ago is local to Hull. It's a real gem of practical tips on making household cleaning products.

I could not get into that Bella Mackie book, read 2 or 3 chapters and gave up.