Skip to main content

Three-Part (Literary) Harmony

My birthday occurred last week and it was a lovely one, filled with sleeping in, unexpected flowers and jelly beans, Boston-style pizza, and cake made to order. But it started off in the wee hours with the best part. Just after midnight, DH asked me if I wanted to open the first part of my present. "How many parts are there?" I asked curiously. "Three," he replied. After some thought, I agreed and he brought out a promising package, just the right size and shape to fill my heart with anticipation. I quickly unwrapped it and slid it out of its protective clear, plastic slipcase. Beauty. The one I'd been wanting. For ages.

"It's a signed, first edition," he said.

They all were, as it turned out. 
And I opened one later that day. And one the following day. Two Robin McKinleys and a Mary Stewart (Signed! I'd never even seen one of those before.) The boy knows me well, doesn't he?

I also received a stack of shiny, new pretties from my parents (Beauty and The Hero and the Crown already stuck in there with their new shelfmates).
And to top it off, my perspicacious mother-in-law joined the excellently-themed birthday with much-needed new shelves to put the gifts on (I'm particularly fond of that corner one):
So as you can see, it was sort of perfect. As my dad has said for years, "We do birthdays well."

Comments

  1. Wow. Yes, your family does do birthdays well. They win at birthdays. WIN.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy belated birthday. And might I say I am very envious of those presents! I agree that your family knows how to party!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Lin! It's low-key partying, but it's quality. ;)

      Delete
  3. Happy late birthday! Those are awesome presents. (Robin McKinley! Mary Stewart!)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Happy Belated Birdthday!

    Those shelves are gorgeous and those gifts are perfect! I hope this year brings you all the joy in the world. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Amy. I really appreciate those good wishes.

      Delete
  5. NICE PRESENTS!!! the bookshelves are beautiful, and so are the books!

    I wish my own birthday were further away from Christmas--I would love book presents in August!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's true, I've always loved having an August birthday. My boy has an early-ish December one and I've always felt bad.

      Delete
  6. Happy birthday! You have an awesome family who know just the kinds of gifts to give you. McKinley! Stewart! First editions! Signed! Cool corner bookshelves! It sounds like a wonderful birthday, perfect for any booklover.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are awesome. I'm a lucky duck.

      Delete
  7. Oh wow. Happy (belated) birthday! What fantastic presents.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Glad you had a wonderful birthday! I am incredibly jealous of your first-edition signed Beauty. Beauty's my favorite Robin McKinley story and my favorite Beauty and the Beast retelling of all time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Beauty is incomparable. I always return to it.

      Delete
  9. That sounds like a perfect birthday!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Happy Birthday! I got chills reading your post, so I can't even imagine what your reaction was. I just read Gabriel Hounds this summer for the first time. Every time I read a new Mary Stewart book I wonder why I hadn't read it sooner and I get more determined to find another. Speaking of Mary Stewart books, every time I read one I feel like I'm channeling my Dad and your Mom and I picture them as kids reading them. The book shelves are beautiful; I'm glad you had a nice day. love ya!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Did you really? The Gabriel Hounds is one that's grown on me with each rereading. The first time I was like, this is nuts! In a good way. But nuts! But each time, I've loved it more. One of my favorite first lines of hers. But then she just excels at first lines. I love them all. So which ones haven't you read yet? Hmmm? :)

      Delete
    2. I, of course, love and adore the merlin trilogy (um even though there are 4 books??? maybe 5???....all I know is that I own the triolgy and read the 4th), Anyway, I've also read the Ivy Tree, Nine Coaches Waiting, and now the Gabriel Hounds. After talking to your mom this summer I think Madam Will You Talk is on deck....what next? I don't know what it is about Mary Stewart books, because they don't have to move fast in order to keep my attention like most books that are written today and they don't have steamy love scenes, but they are in and of themselves perfect and classic. I always feel like it's been time well spent after reading a Mary Stewart book.

      Delete
    3. Of course. ;)

      Definitely proceed to Madam, Will You Talk. And after that I highly recommend you read This Rough Magic. You will NOT be disappointed. I think your assessment is spot on. They're just perfect. The writing is so good, she can kind of do whatever she wants at whatever speed she wants and I just sit back and eat it up.

      Delete
  11. Happy Belated Birthday.

    What lovely gifts. Glad you had such a lovely day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Alexa. I felt the love for sure.

      Delete
  12. Oh your hubby's a keeper alright. Happy Birthday!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Yep, your family does birthdays really, really well. Signed first editions! I wonder where he was able to unearth those? And I love the pretty shelves - it looks good beside the shelves with cameras on display.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have no idea. I'm kind of afraid to ask about the details . . . lol.

      The camera shelves are his, obvs. I think they go well together. :)

      Delete
  14. Aaron is so awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I love your presents! I also like the photo above the piano!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, thanks Laura! It's a painting my husband got me a couple Christmases ago and I love it, too.

      Delete
  16. I realize I'm so very behind here, but belated Happy Birthday, Angie!! Your husband ROCKS and certainly knows you, not to mention your parents and mother in law. So many lovelies (and yeah, I swooned a little at the signed first edition thing).

    Also I ADORE the painting you have hanging over your piano.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There's something about first editions, isn't there? Particularly of books decades or more old. I swoon.

      The painting makes me happy each time I go in the room. :)

      Delete
  17. Ooooh, a signed Mary Stewart book! I'm very jealous! I've never even seen one. Gabriel Hounds isn't my favorite of hers, but my "least favorite" Stewart is still better than most books out there in the world. ;)

    I just read my first Robin McKinley books this week -- started with The Blue Sword and Beauty -- they're so good!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know! I couldn't believe it was real. And I wholeheartedly agree. My least favorite Stewart is head and shoulders above most other books!

      Jennie, I'm delighted you've delved into McKinley. She never lets me down. What good choices you made, too.

      Delete

Post a Comment

You Might Also Like

Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols

I can't quit Jennifer Echols . Not that I really try that hard, but I read her new ones and often feel as though I'm still searching for that one in possession of that certain something that will make me feel the way  Going Too Far did. Like I couldn't put it it down. And definitely like I didn't hate either of the main characters after the fact. Well, I found it with Such a Rush . I read this 300+ pager in a single night, which clears up the question of whether or not I couldn't put it down. And I finished it definitely not hating either of the main characters. I didn't finish it loving them both unreservedly, though. I loved Leah with my whole heart from page one and that never changed. My feelings regarding one of the Hall brothers remain complicated. More to come on this in a bit. On a side note, I'm delighted that Such a Rush is Ms. Echols' hardcover debut. It's a meticulously designed book, a pleasure to hold in my hands as I stayed up way

Bibliocrack Review | The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

 Hi. Hey. Hello there. It's been a . . . well, you know what it's been. We're all still living this together. So I will simply skip to the fact that I couldn't not review this book here. Because reading it was something special. I knew nothing about Ali Hazelwood 's debut novel except that it involved women in STEM and that the cover made me smile. I decided to set it aside for myself as a reward. Work has been . . . punishing . . . for the last year, and I have been so exhausted every hour of every day. And so I determined to buy The Love Hypothesis  on release day knowing nothing about it. But when I went to the bookstore to get my copy, none were available. In fact, none were available anywhere for love nor money, in store or online. At first I was moderately disappointed. Then I told myself maybe it's not that great after all and I didn't necessarily need to feel this preemptive sense of loss. But it kept gnawing at me. The loss. And so I paused work an

Review | Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

It really is a pretty cover. And dragons. I love them so.  It's been far too long since I've read a book in which dragons played any kind of primary character role. They do here, and they are probably my favorite aspect of this book. But more on that later. It's probably worth noting that I, like the rest of the world, was aware of Fourth Wing and the collective losing of BookTok's mind over it. I mean, it was kind of thrilling to hear that you couldn't find a copy anywhere—in the sense that I love it when books are being consumed and loved. And when that happens in such a way that it takes publishing by surprise (for lack of a better way to phrase it) so much so that they have to scramble to print more. So I did the sensible thing and bought the ebook. And then I proceeded to do the not-so-sensible-but-extremely-Angie thing and not read it. There was a cross-country move tucked in there somewhere between the buying and the reading, but more on that at a later date