My Treasure Trove

I love library book sales. Larger cities have better book sales, but this weekend we went to the book sale for our local library in our small town and found a treasure trove!

We brought home close to 20 books. The total cost? $7.75. We gave them $10 for good measure. Here are a few of my golden nuggets:

Non-fiction: London’s Underworld This covers the history of the down-and-outers in London—prostitutes, pickpockets, forgers, counterfeiters, and the list goes on. What I love about this book is it is not just statistics or conjecture. Many places it gives first hand accounts by the people who lived it. A great book to have on hand for research!

Reference: Why Did They Name It . . .? Covers the history of several well-known products—from food to cars to cosmetics. Just the thing to add tidbits of historical trivia to a story.

Fiction: Mrs. Miniver The book is actually a collection of a series of newspaper articles about British daily life and the looming war, centered around the fictional character of Mrs. Miniver. Looks to be not only a fascinating read but a good resource if I ever want to do a WWII story.

Biography: Starling of the White House This book is the memoir (it’s an “as told to” book) of an obscure secret service man who worked for four U.S. Presidents, beginning with Woodrow Wilson. Since one of the stories I’m longing to write is set in WWI, I’m hoping to glean some insight into both daily life and political life during this time. I love delving into primary sources!

Of course, these are just the highlights of the two bags of books I brought home. After all, each book has a different story to tell, a reason why it drew me, a reason why I couldn’t let it go.