Judith at Leeswammes blog is once again hosting the Literary Giveaway Blog Hop and so I thought I would join in again – it’s fun to share books you love!
This time I will be offering once more three volumes to choose from, which represent some of my Bookish passions!
The first is my current obsession, “The Master and Margarita” by Mikhail Bulgakov, in a brand new Wordsworth Classics edition. I recently picked up a copy of this for myself (as I suddenly seem to be collecting all the editions…) and the translation is one by Michael Karpelson. There seems to be a bit of a history with this, as it appears that Karpelson self-published through Lulu and now the translation has been picked up by Wordsworth. The first few pages seem very readable and there are useful notes, so I will look forward to reading and comparing!
The second book is a Virago – brand new again, Angela Thirkell’s “High Rising” which was republished by Virago recently. This is the first of Thirkell’s highly-rated Barchester series. Again, I have my own copy on the tbr and am looking forward to it!
The final volume is one of my favourites – “The Nine Tailors” by Dorothy L. Sayers. I first came across her Lord Peter Wimsey stories in my teens, when I watched the lovely Ian Carmichael versions on the BBC. I then devoured all the books and love them still – she’s such a wonderful writer. This particular story is one of the best, as far as I’m concerned, so I’d like to share it!
Once again, I’m asking people to leave a comment below with a suggestion of a book that I might like and might not have heard of – either an obscure Russian volume, or a Virago I might have missed or maybe your favourite Golden Age crime novel. Winners will be picked at random and if you would prefer one particular book, please say so! I’m happy to send to overseas places, but this will be by surface mail due to horrid UK postal costs. Looking forward to hearing your suggestions!
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Feb 09, 2013 @ 07:18:22
Hmm, I haven’t read a lot of Russian literature and most Viragos have been rather popular…I see you’re reading Underground Overground, have you read Underground London? More than just the Tube (which weirdly, I find fascinating even though I’m an Aussie) but it was interesting just what is under carparks and the like… I also like Camilla Lackberg and Barry Maitland for crime novels.
Thanks for offering a great giveaway – all three look brilliant. My email is samstillreading[at]gmail[dot]com .
Feb 09, 2013 @ 07:23:14
My reading of Russian literature has been restricted to bits and pieces of historical fiction. Thanks for sharing a great giveaway. Like the Angela Thirkell book!
Feb 09, 2013 @ 07:39:44
It’s not Russian, but the Turkish & Greek history in Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernieres might be of interest to you. It’s epic – rich, multi-layered; sometimes crude, sometimes horrific, often tragic.
Virago-type suggestions: Nancy Mitford’s Pursuit of Love, Henrietta’s War by Joyce Dennys, or even Clara Callan by Richard B. Wright.
For golden-age crime, Ellery Queen (especially the early ones) are elegant!
I’d particularly like the Bulgakov,as I’ve read the Thirkell (although I’d happily reread it.) Thanks for the chance to win!
Feb 09, 2013 @ 10:14:02
The master and Margarita sounds great to me (I’ve published my book through Lulu too)
Feb 09, 2013 @ 11:32:06
Having recently discovered Angela Thirkell, I’m pretty excited about your giveaway! Thanks for doing this!
Feb 09, 2013 @ 12:47:01
I’ve never read a single Virago (hence my choice of High Rising for the giveaway) and recently I have been doing Russian lit at university. Pushkin is a very obvious recommendation, but it seems like not a lot of people have actually read any of his stories!
Feb 09, 2013 @ 13:41:51
Wow, if I had a hat I’d tip it to you for adding such an awesome classics piece as M&M to the giveaway
Should I be the lucky one, I’d go with the Virago.
As for the suggestion to you… Hmm. (Always sneaky things those book suggestions
) But having taken a look at your blog and noticed your attraction towards Russian authors, I’d make maybe a somewhat odd suggestion, that is if you have not read this particular book yet: Anton Chekhov’s “Sakhalin Island”. I haven’t read it yet, but it is in my to-be-read list. Maybe something a little bit different from Chekhov…
Thanks for the awesome giveaway.
Feb 09, 2013 @ 14:41:53
If a previous winner is not disqualified I’d try my chance with the Thirkell book, as the first book I’ve read this year was Wild Strawberries and I simply loved it.
My recommendations (and sorry if they are well known in the UK, but they certainly are’nt in my country):
Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
The Matchmaker by Stella Gibbons
Russian Disco by Wladimir Kaminer
Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann
Feb 09, 2013 @ 16:00:05
Thanks for the giveaway! I would love to win a copy of The Master and Margarita – everyone talks about it, but I’ve yet to get my hands on the book. My fault, of course, but this would be a wonderful way to correct that!
An obscure book suggestion? Hmmm… well, two that I regularly recommend and which people tend not to have heard of are Lust for Life by Irving Stone and The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade by Herman Melville. The first is a fictional memoir of the life of Vincent van Gogh – it is a beautiful book, and wonderfully researched. The second is Melville’s Transcendental American reimagining of Milton’s Paradise Lost. It’s utterly brilliant, but people seem to limit themselves to one or two of Melville’s best known works and let everything else alone.
Oh! There’s also The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym of Nantucket, which is the one and only novel of Edgar Allan Poe. Not the best book in the world, but it is good and it is particularly interesting for Poe fans, considering it’s his only full-length work.
Adam
roofbeamreader(at)gmail(dot)com
Feb 09, 2013 @ 16:19:21
Thanks for the giveaway! I’d love to win The Master and Margarita.
I haven’t read this yet, and it’s Croatian, not Russian, but Our Man in Iraq by Robert Perisic looks interesting.
bookwormsusanna AT gmail DOT com
Feb 09, 2013 @ 17:23:44
Great choices, The Master And Margarita is one of my all-time favourites. I’d love to read The Nine Tailors if I was lucky enough to win. I’ve only just discovered your blog through the hop, so it’s difficult to know what your tastes are like to make a recommendation, but on my own blog I’m giving away two great debut novels that I think deserve more exposure and you may not have heard of. Rites by Sophie Coulombeau is one that I have read recently and want everyone to read and enjoy! Thanks for taking part in the blog hop.
Marie
http://www.girlvsbookshelf.blogspot.com
Feb 09, 2013 @ 18:38:13
Thanks for the chance to win. The Master and Margarita cover had me laughing out loud!
Have you read Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides? I know it has been around for some years, but I only discovered it ~3 years ago. About Greek immigrants to the USA told over 3 generations.
I follow your blog via email: nrlymrtl at gmail dot com
Feb 09, 2013 @ 19:24:00
Thank you for your giveaway. I would love to win The Master and Margarita. As for book suggestions, I’ve become a fan of Kate Morton’s historical fiction novels.
Feb 09, 2013 @ 19:34:36
I compared our libraries on LibraryThing and every Virago that I have but you don’t was suggested! I would recommend Diary of a Provincial Lady by E. M. Delafield – it’s my Desert Island book and I read it and quote it at every opportunity. Of the three titles you are giving away I’d like to read High Rising. I have two other titles in the series and, although I have been assured they don’t need to be read in order, I would like to start with the first.
Feb 09, 2013 @ 19:39:18
Thanks for the giveaway. I’ve been meaning to read The Master and Margarita for some time now, so I’d love a chance to win it.
An obscure book recommendation? Hmm. Well, it isn’t Russian, but I really love The Other City by the Czech novelist Michal Ajvaz. It’s incredibly surreal, but absolutely amazing. His writing is top-notch.
- Emily
eeoshiel (at) uncg (dot) edu
Feb 10, 2013 @ 00:23:49
“Outlander’ is a good book. I don’t know any obscure Russian books, sorry!
mestith@gmail.com
Feb 10, 2013 @ 03:00:57
I’ll recommend ‘Memories of the Future’ by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky. A Russian writer whose work was censored during his lifetime, only being published some 30 or so years after his death. No need to enter me in the contest , I just like giving recommendations!
Feb 14, 2013 @ 11:19:45
Weirdly enough, this has been on my wishlist for ages and I finally gave in and ordered it – it arrived on Monday and I am now reading and enjoying!!
Feb 16, 2013 @ 01:05:13
I first heard of him when one of his stories was read during a radio broadcast of ‘Selected Shorts’. This is an hour long radio show here in the US, where short stories are read aloud, usually by well known actors, in a theater in New York. I think they have a podcast of recent programs on their website, selectedshorts.org
Feb 16, 2013 @ 14:50:31
Wow – sounds fascinating! I’m about halfway through the book so far and loving it!
Feb 10, 2013 @ 06:53:08
Thank you for opening up this drawing for us. What fun.
Have you yet read Petersburg by Andrej Bely? You might want to get a jump on the what and the where of Petersburg before reading but I think you might like this one.
Should I be so fortunate as to win, I sould like The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers.
Feb 14, 2013 @ 11:21:33
Thanks for this suggestion – I *do* have a copy of this, but it’s an old translation – so I am waiting to get hold of the newer version to see what it’s like!
Feb 10, 2013 @ 08:49:07
I wish I had a book recommendation to give you. Not genres I am either familiar with or read a lot of. THE NINE TAILORS would be my first choice thank you.
marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com
Feb 10, 2013 @ 13:57:42
Thanks for joining the blog hop!
All those books look great but I think my first choice is High Rising if I won.
A suggestion for you is the creepy The Collector by John Fowles. Brrr….
Feb 10, 2013 @ 22:55:35
Thirkell book please! bookbelle0819@comcast.net
Feb 11, 2013 @ 02:22:16
Thanks for the giveaway! I would like to win The Master and Margarita.
I haven’t read many Russian lit, but my favorite so far is Doctor Zhivago.
Feb 11, 2013 @ 03:06:28
I would love to win The Master and Margarita. I haven’t read much of Russian literature (just some Tolstoy) so I don’t have any recommendation for you, sorry. Thanks for the chance to win anyway!
my e-mail: elsa_maran (at) yahoo (dot) com
Feb 11, 2013 @ 03:36:05
Not very obscure, but I’d recommend Angela Carter if you haven’t read her yet. Thank you for the giveaway! I’d probably pick High Rising if I won.
Feb 11, 2013 @ 14:10:58
I would love to read the Angela Thirkell – heard so many good things about it. I’d recommend ‘Konstantin’ by Tom Bullough, which is a novel about Konstantin Tsilkovsky, the Russian scientist who went deaf as a kid.
Feb 11, 2013 @ 16:29:32
I`ve read some of the Russian classics (Latvian translation) and I would advise you the following: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Thanks for the giveaway!
dita(dot)skarste(at)gmail(dot)com
Feb 11, 2013 @ 16:41:17
Thanks for the giveaway. I’d love to have a copy of The Nine Tailors as I am fond of vintage mysteries.
Have you read anything of Marie Belloc Lowndes or Anthony Gilbert? I discovered them last year and they are both very good writers of mysteries.
Feb 11, 2013 @ 20:03:53
The Master and Margarita has been on my wishlist for a while, I’d love a copy.
You might want to try Andrey Kurkov if you haven’t read him yet. He’s a Ukrainian writer who was born in Russia and he writes (generally) humourous crime stories. His best known are his Penguin books (Death and the Penguin and Penguin Lost) which are very good, A Matter of Death and Life is very good too. It was through recommended by amazon (based on Kurkov) that I got interested in The Master and Margarite
Feb 11, 2013 @ 20:39:52
Thanks for the lovely giveaway! Was thrilled to see that Angela Thirkell is up for grabs! Have heard good things about her and would love to start with High Rising.
If you like Bulgakov’s works, I highly recommend his memoir ‘A Country Doctor’s Notebook’. It tells of his early days as a young doctor practising in rural Russia before the revolution. I found it to be a very engaging read.
Feb 11, 2013 @ 22:10:42
Thanks for the giveaway! I would really like High Rising – fingers crossed!
Feb 12, 2013 @ 21:37:52
My suggestion: anything with Commissario Brunetti by Donna Leon.
Feb 12, 2013 @ 07:54:05
If you haven’t started to read Mary Roberts Rinehart and her Golden Age Mystery books, you are in a for a treat when you do. I would love to win the Dorothy L. Sayers book, so thanks for the opportunity.
fforgnayr@yahoo.com
Feb 12, 2013 @ 08:08:50
Andrey Kurkov has some good one out there. I like Death and the Penguin. Ok, Ill be honest, I was first attracted to it because of the penguin.
I think from your list The Master looks interesting.
Feb 12, 2013 @ 16:57:49
Thanks for this amazing giveaway – I would love to win! Sorry I don’t know any obscure Russion books to recommend for you but how about The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa?
susanw28 (at) mindspring (dot) com
Feb 12, 2013 @ 19:15:20
Not familiar with those types of books
Thanks
bn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com
Feb 13, 2013 @ 00:11:57
Thanks for this opportunity! If selected, I would choose The Master and Margarita; people RAVE about it on Amazon. I’m not very familiar with the types of books for which you requested recommendations, but maybe if I win this challenge it will open up new doors for me
Feb 13, 2013 @ 00:40:51
Hmm. Most of the Russian literature I have read is far from obscure I’m afraid, Dostoevsky and Pasternak and such. but I was reminded of an old favorite today and I’ll throw it out there just for fun! If you haven’t read The Monk by Matthew Lewis yet I highly recommend it, such a wonderful book! Thank you for the giveaway!