Thanks...I think!

When I had my Ladies' Tea in October, one of the ladies who came brought me a small bag of books, which was extremely kind of her. She is a reader, and although she reads Polish and Russian well, she has not had much success with reading English. She was clearing off her shelves, and brought me some English books she had acquired over time, none of which she ever read. It's an extremely eclectic little pile, and reflects neither her taste nor her reading ability, probably, but only the availability of English books during the communist era. Some of these books are quite old.

1. A couple of brochures about Wawel Castle (I'll take you there if you visit me in Poland) and a book of less-commonly known legends about Krakow.

2. The Widow Jones by Mollie Chappel--an extremely abridged romance story published in (small) magazine format. It cost 40p (British pence) in 1986.

3. A 1970 paperback copy of Love Story by Erich Segal. The original price was 95 cents, and someone wrote "10 cents" on the front with a black marker.

4. The Story of My Psychoanalysis by John Knight. This was printed in 1953, with an original price of 25 cents. There is warm praise by Sterling North printed at the front of the book.

5. The House of Exile by Nora Waln. This, I think is the plum of the pile. It's a 1938 Penguin paperback. (To think--when this was published in England, Hitler was ruling Germany and Neville Chamberlain was preaching appeasement!) I've already blogged about this, and I think this is the only book from the pile that I'm likely to read.

Although I have to confess...the psychoanalysis book has piqued my curiosity.