Mini April Fool's book haul

Hi friends :) Sorry for the (not so) brief absence. I can assure you, it was entirely unintentional... Though I am not allowing myself to feel too bad about it. I am in the home stretch of my degree after all! And I've now submitted my LAST EVER ESSAY!! :D (yay me!)

So anyway, now that we're safely into the Easter holidays, I thought I would ease you all (and myself) back into this whole blog malarkey with a mini book haul. I've entitled it 'April Fool's', but to be honest, there's nothing really April-Fool's-y about it apart from the fact that it's 1st April today... Oh well! (Plus, it's really annoying me that I can't work out where the apostrophe goes in 'April Fool's'.. I've made my choice and stuck by it, but I can't help doubting myself! :P)

Due to my severe shortage of funds, I was not intending on buying any books until after graduation when I can start earning money again, but, alas, the Oxfam bookshop summoned me with its Oxfam-bookshop-y wiles and I succumbed to the lure of cheap books. But they were extremely cheap, and I had just submitted my final essay, so I'm going to give myself a break on this one.

Anyhoo, here's what I bought:

Aren't they great!? I am super excited to start reading them (and to have more time to do so...!)

The first one I picked up was Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson, as it's a Persephone Books edition, and I'm always attracted to those! Just look at these beautiful endpapers!

The next one I picked up was The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. I'd come across this author when searching the internet for women writers from South America (they're surprisingly difficult to find! Most of the recommendations I found for that continent were for male authors), and this seemed to be her most popular book. I hear it's sort of like One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in that it's a magical-realism family drama spanning many generations, but with more of a focus on the women of the family. But I shall wait and see!

And, finally, I couldn't resist picking up a copy of Northern Lights by Philip Pullman (known as The Golden Compass in the US I believe). This is a firm favourite of mine, but until now I only personally owned the other two books in the trilogy, and had to borrow my sister's copy of the first one. Slight impulse buy, but one that I definitely don't regret!

So there you have it! A short but sweet book haul to get me back into the blogging spirit. I hope you enjoyed it, and please let me know what you think of these books, or what books you've bought lately, in the comments below. I'd love to hear from you!