Buying Books - at Work!

This week The Book People made Thursday a very special day at work for me because they set up a charity book sale just a few metres from my desk! Obviously I was one of the first people there - having circled the area of the sale several times while they were setting up. I found some really really good stuff, here is what I bought:

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt
From BookPeople.co.uk: Set in Oregon in 1851, The Sisters Brothers are the notorious professional 1850s Gold Rush killers Eli and Charlie. On their way to kill a man named Hermann Kermit Warm, they experience a series of violent and unsettling experiences. Bickering brothers who are very different, Charlie will kill anyone for money, while Eli doubts his vocation and falls in love. When they finally meet Hermann in California, they discover he is an inventor who has come up with a magical formula that could make them all very rich. A gripping, stark and sad story about lies and loyalty that is full of dark humour, this is an emotional but exciting second novel from the award-winning Patrick deWitt, author of 2009's Ablutions.

Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes
From BookPeople.co.uk: Catherine has been enjoying the single life for long enough to know a good catch when she sees one. Gorgeous, charismatic, spontaneous - Lee seems almost too perfect to be true. And her friends clearly agree, as each in turn falls under his spell. But there is a darker side to Lee. His erratic, controlling and sometimes frightening behaviour means that Catherine is increasingly isolated. Driven into the darkest corner of her world, and trusting no one, she plans a meticulous escape. Four years later, struggling to overcome her demons, Catherine dares to believe she might be safe from harm. Until one phone call changes everything. This is an edgy and powerful first novel, utterly convincing in its portrayal of obsession, and a tour de force of suspense.

The Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
From The Guardian: If you want shopping at Bendel's, gin martinis at a debutante's mansion and jazz bands playing until 3am, Rules of Civility has it all and more. If you want something original that doesn't borrow at all from Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Great Gatsby or even Boardwalk Empire, you might be a little disappointed. Me, I lapped it all up ... In the opening chapter it's 1966 and Katey's at an exhibition looking at a picture of the man who changed everything for her: Tinker Grey. She is immediately transported back three decades to the night she first met him – on the eve of the most memorable year of her life. Tinker is enigmatic, adorable and lives his life according to George Washington's Rules of Civility. Except that he definitely hasn't read the last rule: "Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience."