Christmas shopping at the Used Book Superstore can be fun if not for one itsy bitsy problem… for every book I found for a gift, I found one for myself!!

One thing I love about used bookstores is that I always discover new authors. Don’t get me wrong, I love going to big chain bookstores like Barnes and Noble, but they have to meet requirements for advertising new authors and recently published items.  So many hidden gems are not always prominent or there at all. But used bookstores always have something new.  I haven’t read any of the authors from this haul and many have written more than one book. So it was a real joy as always to explore the shelves.

The following are the books I just purchase for next to nothing:

• Daughter’s of the Dust – Inspired by her Sundance Festival award-winning film “Daughters of the Dust,”Julie Dash has put her cinematic vision on the page, penning a rich, magical new novel which extends her story of a family of complex, independent African-American women. Set in the 1920s in the Sea Islands off the Carolina coast where the Gullah people have preserved much of their African heritage and language, Daughters Of The Dust chronicles the lives of the Peazants, a large, proud family who trace their origins to the Ibo, who were enslaved and brought to the islands more than one hundred years before.
• In Her Majesty’s Request – Biography of the African princess saved from execution and taken to England where Queen Victoria oversaw her upbringing and where she lived for a time before marrying an African missionary.
• Rattlebone – A vivid recreation of the black Midwest of the 1950s focuses on the fictional community of Rattlebone, north of Kansas City, introducing such unforgettable characters as the new schoolteacher, October Brown, and young but wise Irene Wilson.
• Russian Princess – Former Bolshoi ballerina Nina Revskaya auctions off her jewelry collection and becomes overwhelmed by memories of her homeland, the friends she left behind amidst Stalinist aggression, and the dark secret that brought her to a new life in Boston.
• The Heretic’s Daughter – Martha Carrier was one of the first women to be accused, tried and hanged as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts. Like her mother, young Sarah Carrier is bright and willful, openly challenging the small, brutal world in which they live. Often at odds with one another, mother and daughter are forced to stand together against the escalating hysteria of the trials and the superstitious tyranny that led to the torture and imprisonment of more than 200 people accused of witchcraft. This is the story of Martha’s courageous defiance and ultimate death, as told by the daughter who survived.
• The Art of Hearing Heartbeats – A poignant and inspirational love story set in Burma, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats spans the decades between the 1950s and the present.  When a successful New York lawyer suddenly disappears without a trace, neither his wife nor his daughter Julia has any idea where he might be…until they find a love letter he wrote many years ago, to a Burmese woman they have never heard of. Intent on solving the mystery and coming to terms with her father’s past, Julia decides to travel to the village where the woman lived. There she uncovers a tale of unimaginable hardship, resilience, and passion that will reaffirm the reader’s belief in the power of love to move mountains.
• The Saffron Kitchen – In a powerful debut novel that moves between the crowded streets of London and the desolate mountains of Iran, Yasmin Crowther paints a stirring portrait of a family shaken by events from decades ago and worlds away. On a rainy day in London the dark secrets and troubled past of Maryam Mazar surface violently, with tragic consequences for her daughter, Sara, and her newly orphaned nephew. Maryam leaves her English husband and family and returns to the remote Iranian village where her story began. In a quest to piece their life back together, Sara follows her mother and finally learns the terrible price Maryam once had to pay for her freedom, and of the love she left behind. Set against the breathtaking beauty of two very different places, this stunning family drama transcends culture and is, at its core, a rich and haunting narrative about mothers and daughters.

I love the mix of books I found. They will take me all over the globe and I won’t even have to leave my couch!!

I plan on reading these in 2015 and promise to post reviews.

Happy Reading!!

Belinda