Book Haul #1

I'm going to start this post with an apology - sorry I've been AWOL for the past month. April and May felt like the beginning of the year, with lots of exciting opportunities and new things in my life. The culmination of these new exciting things was two weeks of work experience in Penguin Random House. At the end of the two weeks one of the assistants walked me round the office and let me pick up any books I wanted. As it turned out I only picked two books myself - the rest were recommendations from the office! There's nothing I love more than being given a book by someone whose eyes light up when they talk about it, so I can't wait to get my teeth stuck this huge pile of books!

I won't go through each of these, we'd be here all day, but here are five that I'm most looking forward to:

1) The House at the Edge of Night by Catherine Banner - I've started reading this already and it's stunning. Set on a small island off the coast of Italy, this tells the story of Amedeo, a man without family who finds home on the island. The story follows through the generations that follow and I'm completely besotted with the story so far.

2) Sweet Home by Carys Bray - this is a collection if short stories. I've been wanting to read more short story collections and I've heard wonderful things about Carys.

3) A Book for Her by Bridget Christie - Bridget Christie is hilarious so I'm really looking forward to this!

4) The Four Dimensional Human by Laurence Scott - I've been trying to read more non-fiction and this book looks like it is going to be a fascinating examination of the space humans inhabit.

5) Shame and Wonder by David Searcy - another non-fiction to add to my growing collection, this collection of essays has a beautiful cover.

Are there any books in this (massive) haul that you're interested in reading? Let me know by leaving a comment below or tweeting me @VickiMaitland