Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Review: Our Man in Havana

Our Man in Havana Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a wonderfully clever book by the oh so talented Graham Greene.
Our Man in Havana is as relevant today as it was when it was written, it tells the tale of a British ex-pat Vacuum cleaner salesman in Havana Cuba. Who is recruited rather unwillingly by the British secret service. As an unwilling spy he follows the guidance of a friend, who just happens to be a German ex-pat, and lies about his observations and covert operations a a Spy. This brings very unexpected results and results in some darkly humorous situations playing out.

It's a great tale and a fun read.

Highly recommended

View all my reviews

Friday, March 27, 2015

Autograph Fridays: Fabius M. Ray

This weeks signature is from a book of poetry published in 1904 titled "Translations, Imitations and a few originals" by Fabius M. Ray.





I found a small bio of Fabius M. Ray here


I cannot quite make out the text of the dedication but he signed it on Feb 4th 1911.




The book itself is quite lovely and was published by Smith & Sale of Portland Maine.

Friday, March 20, 2015

Autograph Fridays: Pamela Gien


Pamela Gien found in an autographed copy of The Syringa Tree a novel that was previously a play.




I haven't been able to find any social media accounts for Pamela Gien so if you know of any please let me know and I will add them here.




Introducing Autograph Fridays

I haven't been updating this blog as often as I'd like, figuring that if there isn't content worth adding then perhaps it's best left alone. This however is not what the "blogging experts" recommend, they suggest adding content frequently and consistently.
I probably will expand at some point to talk a little more about the books themselves but for now I really like to just focus on the little histories that are found inside the books themselves. Those little reminders of a previous life that the book itself once enjoyed.

Things are starting to pick up again and I myself am slowly emerging from a semi hibernation of sorts as I start to be less and less affected by the weather forecast for the day.
The particularly bad New England winter that we have had this year has slowed down my acquisitions but I still have a number of things that I need to get around to adding to the blog.

In the last few days I began to wonder what interesting content I could come up with for the blog and had a eureka moment a few days ago. I was sitting at my desk trying to come up with some ideas and suddenly realized that the answer was sitting right next to me.

I keep a big pile of signed/autographed books and have been ignoring this growing behemoth for sometime.

Then I thought there is something in these books that was left there by the authors/illustrators etc.. THE SIGNATURE!!!!

And so I will begin adding posts of signatures on a regular basis look for the tag "Autograph Fridays"

Hopefully it may provide some interest for readers and if nothing else it should be pretty cool.

Do you have any signed books? What's your favorite?  Is there any that you wish you had?


Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Bookmark Wednesday: Milton Public Library



    This weeks bookmark was found in a 1st edition of James Clavelle's Shogun.
It is a bookmark from the Milton Public Library of Milton Massachusetts. It dates from April of 1976 and was presented to the library by Milton Savings Bank.
According to the National Information Center  Milton Savings Bank had just moved to the address listed in the Bookmark. 40 Adams Street, Milton Village, and so they probably saw this method of advertising as a way to get the word out to the community.


After digging around the internet some more it seems that Milton Savings bank was acquired in 1982 by Union Warren Savings bank which in turn became part of Home Owners Savings Bank F.S.B. In 2003 Home owners Savings bank changed it's name to Boston Trust & Insurance Management Company and is now located at One Beacon Street, 33rd Floor in Boston Ma.

So I wonder if anyone still holds an account with this bank from way back in 1976.
Bookmarks can be fascinating

Milton Public Library: Website, Twitter, Facebook