I have had a really nasty cold. The I-need-sympathy part of myself wants to claim it was pneumonia, but no, it was/is just a cold. One of those versions where your head is all bunged up and you can't sleep properly at night because you can't breathe, and then spend the daylight hours moping around feeling watery and miserable...you get the picture.

The Albion Bookshop has started its closing down sale - 50% off everything in the shop. I am sad they are closing - where will I go for my book buying habit? I need a place with both knowledgeable staff and character. As I pointed out on dovegreyreader's blog a little while ago, that leaves Canterbury with two Waterstone's and a WH Smith, and me wanting to scream! There's one specialist Christian bookshop (it IS Canterbury after all, seat of the Anglican archbishop), and several secondhand and charity bookshops which are great, but every town needs a really good independent. I am a rudderless boat...

Ok, enough of the melodrama! None of this has turned me off taking advantage of the Albion sale. My first foray into the burgeoning shelves has produced a lovely bagfull, most of which are heading straight out the door as Christmas presents for all the nieces and nephews:

An Angel Just Like Me - Mary Hoffman
Better known for her Amazing Grace series, Hoffman has created here a lovely story of a young black boy puzzled by all the Christmas tree angels being white and female. He goes in search of an angel in which he can see himself, starting with a visit to Santa (turns out it is family friend and art student, Carl) and a wish...

Daddy-Long-Legs - Jean Webster
For the young teenage girl in your life. A funny and touching account of an orphan girl whose education is paid for by a mysterious benefactor. It was only on re-reading it myself last year that I realized just how much of a feminist and social conscience young Judy develops. When I read it as a teenager, however, I only noticed the romance and related to the boarding school experience. Recommended for the teenager/tween in your life who has already read and loved Anne of Green Gables, What Katy Did, Little Women, and the Laura Ingalls Wilder series.

The Diddakoi - Rumer Godden
Kizzy is a diddakoi - gypsy - and so different from the rest of the children in her village. She lives in a wagon in an orchard with her grandmother and smells of woodsmoke from the evening fire. A wonderful story about pride in being different, and learning to accept difference in others.

Goodnight Mister Tom - Michelle Magorian
One of my favourite children's books of all time - I give this to every child I know. Be careful about the right age: at least aged ten I would recommend, as the themes are serious and quite traumatic. Every child we have given it to has come back to us saying they loved it and wanting to talk about it. Willie Beech is evacuated to a country village during the Second World War and billetted with a crotchety but kind Mister Tom. This turns out to be his saving grace after years of deprivation and abuse in the city. Very sensitively handled and a compelling story of genuine friendship and love.

The Silver Sword - Ian Serraillier
Children make their way across Second World War Europe, trying to find their parents. The bravery and self-sufficiency of these children is what appeals to young readers.

The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity - Amartya Sen
Sen is a genius, and one of my favourite make-you-think intellects. We were in India when he won the Nobel Prize for Economics and it was great to see the festivities as a result. I remember being stuck in traffic and looking up at a giant billboard proclaiming "SEN-SIBLE ECONOMICS" which I thought was very clever (really wished I'd had my camera with me at the time). The cover blurb here from Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, is accurate at summarizing his approach:

The world's poor and dispossessed could have no more articulate and insightful a champion among economists than Amartya Sen. By showing that the quality of our lives should be measured not by our wealth, but by our freedom, his writings have revolutionized the theory and practice of development.

If you haven't read him and are interested, I'd suggest you start with the excellent Development as Freedom, which is written in an accessible fashion for the general reader, rather than as an economics text.

Interesting Times: A Twentieth Century Life - Eric Hobsbawm
I've been wanting to read this since it came out and my excuse for buying it is that the Kent library system does not own a copy so my arm has been twisted! Who can resist (those of you that like history books) the cover blurb:

Hitler came to power when Eric Hobsbawm was on his way home from school in Berlin, and the Soviet Union fell while he was giving a seminar in New York. He translated for Che Guevara in Havana, had Christmas dinner with a Soviet spy master in Budapest and an evening at home with Mahalia Jackson in Chicago. He saw the body of Stalin, started the modern history of banditry and is (presumably) the only Marxist asked to collaborate with the inventor of Mars bar.

This all sounds a little sauced up of course. I read some of his history texts in coursework (Nations and Nationalism since 1780 and The Invention of Traditon) and rather admired them, so I'd like to read this too.

I did hope to resist the urge to buy more books this year, and I have clearly failed, but my excuse is that it is a one-off opportunity with the sale, and that most of them are not for me...