Tell us about your last book purchase! Enquiring minds want to know!
- What’s the last book you bought?
- Why did you choose it?
- Where did you purchase it?
- What format is it in (audio, paperback, etc.)?
- How soon will you read it?
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“One Night, Two Souls Went Walking” by Ellen Cooney. Read a positive review online and I was curious to explore the subject. Bought through Amazon, a paperback. As a matter of fact, I started it this evening. So far interesting subject based a young interfaith hospital chaplain as she tends to the souls of her patients.
I normally do not buy books, but my son always is buying books. He usually gets them from Amazon or a local bookstore.
I read Kindle books from NetGalley.
I tend not to buy books for myself–that’s what the public library is for–but do splurge occasionally. Earlier this month I bought a gift certificate to a friend’s favorite independent bookstore where she lives for her birthday but not sure that counts as a real book purchase. In February I bought a paperback copy of Theo of Golden at the local independent bookstore because the holds list at the library was so long. I was somewhat swept up by all the hype surrounding it & assumed we’d read it in my book group so decided it would be good to have my own copy (it’s next month’s title), I’ll need to re-read it to see if I feel any differently about it (I wasn’t as enamoured by it as everyone else has been)
The Friend by S Nunez for my Kindle. Just bought it this week. I was looking at the info on BB about her book, It Will Come Back to You, which lead to her other books and realized I had seen the The Friend movie (Naomi Watts, Bill Murray) which I really enjoyed. Curiosity about her writing then lead me to purchase the very reasonably priced Kindle edition which I started immediately. It is written in an unusual format of short, separate paragraphs. I’ve not read her before.
The Nightingales by Emil Wilson and The Song of Stork and Dromedary by Anjet Daanje.
I heard about The Nightingales on a podcast and while I don’t read many graphic novels it sounded very different and a beautiful story. It is a hardback that I hope to get to maybe this weekend as I think I will go through the story pretty quickly and then go back and study the illustrations.
The Song of Stork and Dromedary I bought because I really enjoyed the author’s first title and then of course when @kim.kovacs gave it a glowing review I couldn’t resist. Paperback. This is a pretty long one so it will have to be worked in somewhere perhaps before the end of the year when publishing slows down.
Both came from Half Price Books.
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Backtalker: An American Memoir by Kimberle Williams Crenshaw
I thought it would be nice to read more about the women who gave us “Critical Race Theory”.
I was fortunate to attend a very intimate gathering in someone’s home on Martha Vineyard where she was speaking. It’s a hard copy which she signed for me. I’m reading it now and enjoying every page!
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A little while ago I bought THIS IS HAPPINESS by Niall Williams at a used bookstore. It’s a large paperback in good shape, although I always prefer hardcover. I love his writing. He writes sentences so well he makes you want to reread them.
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I’m sure you will enjoy every single page of Backtalker @Joyce_Montague. I really knew very little about Dr Williams except for her theories of intersectionality and CRT. Now I know how incredibly special she is and what an amazing life she is living.
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For Services Rendered
I purchased the ebook of the 17th book in Will Thomas’ Barker and Llewelyn series on August 18, 2026 (the release date), however, had also pre-ordered the audiobook last year. I started the book on August 24th and finished it the next day. I LOVE this historical mystery series set in Victorian London and make an exception to purchase these books because I will enjoy them again.
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I really enjoy Niall William’s writing.
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The last book I bought was “Coyote Moon” by Rick Just, a local Idaho author.
The book is about his great- grandmother, who as a young women, left her husband and a religious sect, and ended up fighting for rights in a courtroom. Has a lot of Idaho history.
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I bought a paperback copy of Agatha Christie’s At Bertram’s Hotel. I got it from Abe Books and wanted a book to take to London that was set in London. It was an easy read and based on a real London Hotel where we might have had tea, but didn’t. I thought I might just leave it in England but brought it back in case I want to pass it on. Fun !
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I’m glad you picked up a copy of that one, @Anne_Glasgow. I think you’ll like it, but I also think it’s going to be a polarizing book. The 11 novella-length chapters stand alone, and the author is very detailed in each. She also repeats themes throughout, and about the third or fourth time she includes a story about sisters you start to wonder. However, I ended up thinking about the novel as a theme and variations, and that was reinforced by an interview with the author. I thought it was absolutely brilliant and a novel that’s stayed with me, but again, it’s likely not going to be everyone’s cup of tea.
Seems like a theme. She went over some of the same territory several times in The Remembered Soldier also. I’m looking forward to it because I really did enjoy the first book even though I thought it was perhaps unnecessarily long.
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The last book I bought was Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, for our 1000 Books to Read Before you Die side read (and feel free to join in - we’ll be reading for a looooong time to come). It also fits well into the BookBrowse Reading Challenge as an award-winning book, so there’s that, too. I bought it in both audio (from audible.com) and ebook (from Amazon/Kindle) formats, because I’m short of time and wasn’t sure which format would work better. I hope to be getting to it in the next day or two!
The Cellist of Sarajevo
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I am a big fan of Steve Cavanagh. He is a mystery/thriller writer that lives in Ireland. He just released a new book, One of Us Is Lying last month. Unfortunately, his books take a year to be released in the US. So, for the first time ever, I purchased the hardcover book (signed by the author) from a bookstore in the UK. I felt like a kid at Christmas unwrapping it. I’ve already read it, and gave it 5 
.
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I purchased the hard back version of LAND by Maggie OʼFarrell at the Barnes & Noble store in the Kansas City Plaza. It was birthday present for my husband on Friday, August 14, 2026
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The last used book I purchased was The Gunfighters from the Time-Life Series on the Old West, which I collect. I purchased from the Friends of the Library Bookstore at my local library. I’m a FOL member and it is my downfall! It is in mint condition and is a padded hardcover. Not sure when I will read it.
The last new books I purchased (all at the same time) were Raising Hare, Fox and I, The Soul of an Octopus, and Mailman. All were on special at a big box bookstore and I couldn’t resist as I love books about animals and Mailman was a freebie for buying the other three. All are paperback and I hope to read all before the end of the year.
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