This is what I bought (summaries from the back of the books):
Shadowlands by Leonore Fleischer
Jack (C.S.) Lewis, author of the much-loved Narnia stories, is professor of English Literature at Oxford. Into his masculine, academic world walks Joy Gresham, a brash, fast-talking American poet who storms the shadowlands of Jack's heart.
Clear to everyone, except Jack, is that they are falling in love. They must marry secretly, only to discover that Joy is terminally ill. Jack, a deeply religious man, is forced to ask: what are God's intentions? Why does He make us suffer? How can we afford to love?
The story of this true and unusual romance, its setting, and the courage and commitment of the lovers, sent theatre audiences out weeping into the night: the pain then, Joy says of her impending death, is part of the happiness now.
The Evening Standard called the play "unbearably moving". The themes of Shadowlands- love, loss and the wonder of life- transform the lives of the people in it and reach out to touch us all
Tell it To The Skies by Erica James
Suddenly in the middle of a crowded Venice street, Lydia glimpses a face that takes her back to England, back to her childhood and to a dreadful secret that she believed she had banished to the past....
As children, Lydia and her sister were sent to live with grandparents they'd never even met. It was a cruel and loveless new world for them, and it forced Lydia to grow up fast. She learned to keep secrets and to trust sparingly, and through it all she was shadowed by guilt and grief.
Then, as an adult, the beautiful city of Venice gave Lydia peace, fulfilment and even love. But in a single moment, a stranger's face forces her to revisit the past she has been hiding for the last twenty-eight years...
Plain Tales From The Hills by Rudyard Kipling
In this collection of short stories Kipling succeeds in shattering such misapprehensions about life in India during the British Raj. Drawing on her own experiences as a cub reporter, he is able to interpret the ways and beliefs as well as the work and pleasures of the Imperial administrators and the races they governed that were half a world away from his original Victorian readers.
Viceroys and beggars, soldiers and their officers, civil servants and children- and some very clever women- all play their parts in the history of a sub-continent. And although everywhere there are barrier between the races, the classes and the sexes, the inevitable misunderstandings between them as often end in comedy as in tragedy.
Look out in this blog for reviews of these books and information on their possible BookCrossing destinations
