A Box Full of Lovely Books Arrived Today...

Eh... the picture's shaky because I'm so excited about my new books and definitely not because I was too lazy to take another.

Working from the bottom up:

The Norton Anthology of English Literature


I first became aware of this when my friend had to buy it for her English Literature degree almost ten years ago. It's basically an overview of notable works in English from the middle ages to the end of the seventeenth century. It includes works by Chaucer, Shakespeare, Sir Walter Raleigh, John Donne,  Swift,  Pope,  letters written by Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots, excerpts from the Bible and a description of a trip to the arctic in 1576. And much, much more, hooray!

It looks to be a cornucopia of delights and I look forward to dipping into this treasury.

For Coloured Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange

I ordered this as soon as I read this post at Paperback Reader and it is part of my effort to read more drama.

Little Women and Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott

A classic, that all should own. I do have a copy at my mother's house, but that's not my house and the vintage cover is so very delightful:

 Plays by Chekhov

These were read and loved at school but have never been owned. Again, the cover is by Maurice Denis, so it's great lit and great art, my favourite combination.

Tusk Tusk, Polly Stenham

I am going to read plays this year and started with This Face which was Polly Stenham's highly acclaimed debut. This is her second play. She is still only 23, which makes me sick.

Enron by Lucy Prebble


Yet another acclaimed play by a young English woman. Enron is what it sounds like, a play about the collapse of Enron, the Texan energy company. This is Lucy Prebble's second play and she is also the creator of ITV2's Secret Diary of A Call Girl.