Birthday Books!

Sunday was my birthday, and (as always) I got books! I've been using the library so much this year that I didn't ask for as many books as I used to ask for, but what I got was quality:

• Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy in the Tiina Nunnally translation -- I can read the language of Charles Archer's older translation, but it tends to feel like Archer is trying too hard. His archaisms are grammatically correct, so I can stand to read them, but they still feel strained to me, as if he's trying just a little too hard. I've read that Nunnally's translation is also more faithful to the tone of Undset's own words, but I don't read Norwegian, so I can neither confirm nor deny.
  
• From my brother: Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian, The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory, and Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton. My brother just started working at Borders, so he was looking for books to buy me, and I picked a few from my old Amazon wishlist and a few from Diana Gabaldon's "Methadone List". Armed with the list, he actually walked into the store where he works and bought a Phillipa Gregory and a Laurell K. Hamilton! Coming from an almost-21-year-old, that's real brotherly love. (I mean, Master and Commander is love too, but without such potential for young-manly embarrassment.)
  

Adam may very well have gotten me books, too; we haven't had our celebration together yet.