Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Marg and myself that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!
Marg has the Mr. Linky this week!
The American Senator by Anthony Trollope
Is it possible to be in the mood for something by an author you’ve never read? And yet I knew I wanted to read Trollope, specifically something light, not part of a lengthy series. And so, after a quick Google search, I came to The American Senator, praised for its depictions of rural life and for its memorable anti-heroine, Arabella Trefoil. I started reading it immediately and am adoring it.
Becoming a Heroine by Rachel M. Brownstein
Eva read this earlier this year and it went straight onto my TBR list. When do I not want to read about the roles of female characters in literature?
Earth and High Heaven by Gwethalyn Graham
I came across this title, the winner of the 1944 Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, when making up my book list for this year’s Canadian Book Challenge: a drama of human relationships — of two people in love who are confronted by the obstacle of racial intolerance — presented with such cutting truth, such fidelity to life, such compassion and understanding, that their problem becomes, indelibly, the reader’s own. With rare perceptiveness, Gwethalyn Graham takes the reader into the lives of Erica Drake and Marc Reiser, whose two worlds are separated by families and conventions.
A Nervous Splendor: Vienna 1888-1889 by Frederic Morton
I’ll be visiting Vienna in September and am how better to get excited about the trip than by reading more about the city and its history?
Merry Hall by Beverley Nichols
Surely, this has got to be the most recommended ‘garden literature’ book about?
The Lunar Men by Jenny Uglow
Did you read Jenny’s review of this? She made it sound absolutely amazing and I’m so excited to have my hands on it.
Sea Room by Adam Nicolson
Dealing with the geology, history, natural history, sociology, and emotional resonance of the Shiants–a trio of Hebridean Islands between Skye and Harris –Nicolson’s book is an all-encompassing characterisation of this remote corner of the British Isles.
Do Try to Speak as We Do: The Diary of an American Au Pair by Marjorie Leet Ford
Recommended by Nancy Pearl in Book Lust to Go.
The Granite Cliffs by Rosemary Aitken
One of Aitken’s Cornish novels, recommended by Nancy Pearl in Book Lust to Go.
Of these the only one I have read – and loved – is Merry Hall. It’s a complete work of fiction although it reads like fact. But most enjoyable!
So glad to hear you enjoyed it!
PS I forgot to say I have The Lunar Men (the great and the good of science who met by the light of the moon) on the shelf (perhaps where they belong, har, har!) But it’s one that I do want to read in time … I have another book by Jenny Uglow: A Little History of British Gardening, which is very good.
I recently read Uglow’s biography of Elizabeth Gaskell, which was excellent, so I’m quite excited to try another of her books. I will definitely have to keep an eye out for A Little History of British Gardening!
They all look good. All new to me as well.
Thanks, Mystica. They’re definitely not all well-known titles (I went on a foraging expedition at the central library to track them down) but I’m certainly excited to have come across them.
I saw review of Do Try to Speak as We Do previously. I think I wanted to read it. I look forward to hearing your thoughts! Enjoy your loot.
Sorry Linda, I ended up abandoning this one after the first chapter. I might go back to it one day, I just wasn’t in the right mood for it now.
Do Try to Speak as We Do looks fantastic. Enjoy your loot! 🙂
Thanks Bina. I’m still intrigued by Do Try to Speak as We Do but I won’t be reading it this time around.
I came across Earth and High Heaven a couple years ago when reading a list of the best forgotten Canadian books (or something like that) and I was very glad I did! I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it.
Oh, I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed it! I hadn’t read any reviews from other readers so this is reassuring.
I too got in the mood for Trollope last year without having read him before. If you want another of his anti-heroines, try The Eustace Diamonds. It’s in the middle of the Palliser series but is about separate characters and events, so stands on its own quite well. I find his books to be slow at first but utterly engrossing once I’ve committed myself to them, glad you’re enjoying this one!
The American Senator started off slow (a few chapters devoted to family histories) but even then I knew from his writing style that I would love Trollope! I think I’m going to try to read the Palliser series in sequence (though my good intentions often fall by the wayside when it comes to what books are readily available at the library) but I’ll certainly be looking forward to The Eustace Diamonds!
Reading about remote islands sounds appealing – I look forward to your thoughts on Sea Room.