A surprise on the shelf

Do you ever just go and look along your bookshelves, reminding yourself of the exciting and interesting books you've been meaning to read?  It generally fills me half with joy that they're there, and despair that I don't have time to read them immediately.  But it's also fun to pull things off the shelf, re-read the blurb, remember where you bought, ponder on how good they might end up being...

Today I did that with an author I've intended to read more of for ages - Janet Frame. I read a collection of her short stories four years ago, and have bought a fair few over the years.  One of the most intriguing was The Adaptable Man, with this blurb:

Electricity is coming to Little Burgelstatham, cottages are being modernised and the Overspill from London is starting to encroach on the village.  While some would rather live in the past, Muriel Baldry welcomes the coming of electricity, as she can now hang her Venini Chandelier and organise a dinner party to celebrate it.  But does adapting to the twentieth century demand darker deeds?

This is a vividly portrayed and poetic novel with a beautifully balanced sense of the ridiculous.

That sounds wonderfully up my street - odd and quirky, but still domestic and parochial.  I moved it to my 'must read soonish' pile. In fact, I think I'll read it for Kim's ANZ Reading Week (extended to include New Zealand this year.)  And then I spotted this...

Well, that was a nice surprise!