It’s the fourth week of Bookshelf Travelling in Insane Times which is hosted by Judith at Reader in the Wilderness, you can read about it here.

This week I’m looking at the bookcase which stands on the upstairs hall outside the room that Jack has as a study/office. It’s a tall IKEA one and when we first moved to this modern house we thought we were going to have to get a saw out and chop some of its height off as it wouldn’t fit downstairs. Then I decided to measure the ceiling heights and would you believe it – upstairs ceilings are three inches higher than downstairs – how weird is that?! So we just managed to fit it in sans sawing.

Anyway, this bookcase is home to the many books by modernish Scottish authors. Jack has read all of these but I have such a lot of catching up to do. I’ve really only read the Christopher Brookmyres, a couple by Margaret Elphinstone and the William McIlvanneys. Click the photos to see them enlarged.

Voyageurs by Margaret Elphinstone appeals to me, the blurb says: In the early 1800s, Rachel Greenhow, a young Quaker goes missing in the Canadian Wilderness. Unable to accept the disappearance, her brother Mark leaves his farm in England, determined to bring his sister home. It sounds like a bit of an adventure.

Hame by Annalena McAfee is about a woman who leaves New York after the breakdown of a relationship and moves with her 9 year old daughter to a remote Scottish island. She has been commisioned to write the biography of a cantankerous old Scottish poet who has an international reputation. It’s described as a dazzling kaleidoscpe of a novel.

This Is Memorial Device by David Keenan. The blurb on the back says: It’s not easy being Iggy Pop in Airdrie. The Year is 1983 and Memorial Device are the greatest band that ever existed. It’s described as being intoxicating and brilliant, compelling, funny and often profound. It might be a bit niche but I intend to give it ago soonish. Jack thinks it is brilliant, you can read his thoughts on it here.