When I travel outside of the country, I usually have foreign currency left over when I get to the airport for the trip home.

I have a favorite way to spend it.

It is a good excuse to buy books. Sometimes I will buy picture books from the country I have visited, or maybe try and find a book by a local author.

Of course, my recent trip to Canada was no different. I spent my last Canadian dollars on books.

Here is my local selection. This book caught my eye with the title and the picture on the front cover.

Death of a Patriot by Don Gutteridge is a Historical Fiction Mystery that is set in Canada during their fight for independence from England.

I also found that it is part of a series, so if I like this one I will probably go back and read the previous five in the series. I have been more interested in Canadian history since I found out that several ancestors lived in Canada. See: Almost Canadian?

As you can see the first two books have a sticker that says 2 FOR $20. After selecting the Marc Edwards Mystery I had to find a second book.

This book caught my eye and I took a closer look. Some Girls, Some Hats and Hitler  is a memoir by Trudi Kanter who fell in love just before embarking on a journey to escape Austria with her family at the beginning of World War II. It made me think of The Sound of Music and I look forward to digging into it soon. It is near the top of my to-read list at the present.

I also picked up a copy of Longbourn by Jo Baker.

The book is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice from the servants point of view. I had been thinking of Pride and Prejudice as I had watched Bride and Prejudice with my friends in Toronto. I have read all the Jane Austen books, so this will be an interesting read.

This also makes me think of a post that I wrote a little over two years ago.

Click on A Janeite Journey to see one of my early book posts.

Actually this book was the first one that I picked up in the book store. Conn Iggulden has written two great Historical Fiction series on the Mongol Khans and Julius Caesar. I have read one of the ones from the Mongol Khan series and both series are somewhere way down on my to-read list.

War of the Roses: Stormbird looks to be a good start to another series. The book especially caught my eye as I have been doing some research into this time period in British history. The book has some great genealogy charts in it and they even have a few of my ancestors on them.

You may have seen another book by Conn Iggulden. In partnership with his brother Hal he wrote The Dangerous Book for Boys.

Now to decide just where these books fall on my to-read list.

Which of these would you read first?

Steven