Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader 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 is out of town this week, so in her absence I’ve got the Mr Linky again:
I love January. I think it is the perfect reading month. The weather is suitably cold and miserable so that there is no question of being outdoors when you could be in and the pre-Christmas activities that occupy the equally dark and damp months of November and December are thankfully done with for another year. All that is left is to curl up inside, ideally under a blanket, with as many books as you can get your hands on. I always look forward to February with its bright sunny days and spring flowers but I always feel a bit resentful that it has come to take me away from my books. For now, let us rejoice that there is still so much of January left to enjoy, that so many reading hours await us after the absurdly early sunsets and in those long, rainy afternoons.
Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution by Mary Gabriel
Drawing upon years of research, acclaimed biographer Mary Gabriel brings to light the story of Karl and Jenny Marx’s marriage. We follow them as they roam Europe, on the run from governments amidst an age of revolution and a secret network of would-be revolutionaries, and see Karl not only as an intellectual, but as a protective father and loving husband, a revolutionary, a jokester, a man of tremendous passions, both political and personal.
After reading and loving Jo Walton’s Tooth and Claw over the holidays, I knew I had to read more of her work. I’d already flagged Among Others (based on Ana’s review from last year) and Farthing (having somehow missed Jenny’s review last spring, this caught my eye when Lisa reviewed it) and, immediately after finishing Tooth and Claw, placed library holds. And of course they both came in at exactly the same time, despite having originally had quite unequal wait lists. Still, if that is the worst kind of hardship I’m going to face in 2012, I can take it.
What did you pick up this week?
Having been plagued with a flu-like bug (annoying to say the least as I’ve had the flu jab) the brain hasn’t been coping with much reading but nonetheless I’ve been enjoying Bill Bryson’s At Home. I’ve not read Bryson before. I know he’s very popular but he’s never really appealed. This book is entertaining and, as some reviewers have said, is a page turner. However … he’s done a very good job on relying on the works of others. What I mean is, he hasn’t gone to original sources but (or so it would seem) he’s relied on the studies by others for his material, i.e. secondary sources not original sources.
This is fine, up to a point, but occasionally there is nothing like – if not going to an original sources (letters, diaries, etc) – speaking with a recognised expert in a particular field. He doesn’t appear to have done this, but then, I’m only half way through the book. He may yet surprise me.
One example I would site is that he mentions Coade stone. I’ve written about this material myself which is a ceramic but which looks like stone and is ideal for buildings as it weathers better than stone and can look crisp after a couple of hundred years in the open air. Bryson says that Coade stone is not manufactured today, but I know one company that makes Coade stone in the west of England. This is just one instance where I would question his statements – there are others – but overall, it’s an interesting potted history of how our homes are how they are today.
I used to get the flu shot every year when I was volunteering in primary school and retirement homes and always felt particularly bitter whenever I got the flu anyways. I hope you have a speedy recovery!
I really enjoyed At Home just for the sheer volume of information it contained. Yes, there are some errors (I blame the editors for this as much as Bryson – oh for the days of skilled fact checkers) and there’s no primary sources that I can recall, but it’s good fun and full of lots of interesting tidbits. I particularly loved reading about gardens and landscaping.
I’ve just realized that I had Among Others out from the library and it went back unread (this was before I read Farthing) – I won’t make that mistake again!
No, you certainly won’t! I was shocked by how much I loved Tooth and Claw and Walton’s writing and I really can’t wait to get started on these.
This week I’m enjoying The Real Mrs Miniver by Jan Struthers granddaughter, it’s being kept in my locker at work to enjoy while I’m on my break. Also, The Yellow Duster Sisters by Susan Kennaway just came up for me yesterday and I’m considering it for my book review at the library. Ooh, and we finally got in the BBC series Land Girls…it’s wonderful!
Mrs. Miniver was a Christmas present, which I devoured faster than the Christmas cookies. I’ve wanted to red The Real Mrs. Miniver ever since. . . my lists keep growing.
Ironically, the city library has The Real Mrs Miniver but does not actually have Mrs Miniver. The university library, thankfully, has both. I’d never heard of The Yellow Duster Sisters before but, having now looked it up, I’ll be interested to hear what you think of it. I’ve got holds on the Seasons 1 and 2 DVDs of Land Girls at the library so I’m glad to hear you’ve enjoyed it!
Your “loot” always has me adding to my lists and this one is no different.
I’ve been reading Two Gardeners, which I haven’t finished but will be discussing today with my gardening buddies. It s an insightful reading of correspondence between two women over a period of twenty years.
Everything I’ve heard about Two Gardeners has been glowing and I can’t wait to read it for myself! I’m so glad you’re enjoying it.
I’ve got Among Others (among others) on my Library Books Sitting on the Hearth Waiting to be Read before They’re Due stack. Definitely more books than I’ll manage in their respective 3 weeks (or 6 or 9 if I’m very lazy and very lucky)
Along with, at long last, Sisters by a River, which the library had “in storage” for months before it found its way to my branch. Also…
2 by Robert Harris
God of the Hive (still!!)
The Slaves of Solitude
A Stricken Field
At Knit’s End
All of them because of blog mentions.
Though I work at managing my holds (putting many on Inactive status until the stack goes down) they still manage to come pouring in. Perhaps I should read more books and fewer blogs.
“More books and fewer blogs” sounds like a very practical plan, but not nearly as much fun! Sounds like you have some absolutely wonderful books out right now – good luck reading them within the loan period!
i completely agree! its much easier to ignore the outside world and only pay attention to the world in your book when its cold and dark outside. winter and reading go together perfectly in my eyes as well 🙂
I am wildly inconsistent in my seasonal preferences, so be warned: come spring, summer, and fall I shall be saying that is the perfect time for reading. And I shall be perfectly convinced each time that it is! But at this moment, with the frosty world outside looking quite foreboding, January does indeed seem like the ideal month for reading.
Here in Arizona it is the opposite – summer is the perfect time for reading because it is too blazing hot to go outside without getting heat stroke. And January is gorgeous, perfect outdoors weather!
I have always wanted to read Jo Walton, but her books are constantly checked out at my library – I need to get myself on a waiting list!
This week I’ve picked up Next to Love by Ellen Feldman + The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.
Yes, my ramblings are definitely climate-specific. When the option is stay inside and read or go outside and melt, I can easily understand wanting to sit back with a good book!
It took me ages to read Tooth and Claw after it first caught my attention because it was always checked out but, once I did, I was very happy to put myself on the hold lists for her other books. Our fellow library readers know what they’re about in constantly having her books checked out!
I haven’t heard of any of these, but I’m taking notes. 🙂
Excellent, Susan!
I have The Real Mrs Miniver (and it’s excellent) as well as the ‘fiction’ Mrs Miniver, the collection of articles from The Times by Jan Struther (Joyce Anstruther) and Two Gardeners is also great. But, as I think I’ve mentioned before, one of my own favourite collections of gardening letters is The 3,000 Mile Garden by Roger Phillips and Leslie Land (and this was made into an excellent TV series but I’ve not been able to find any recordings of this. It was before DVDs and we borrowed a VHS recorder at the time and the recordings were hopeless, all blurry, so I have only my memory of this lovely series.)
The more I hear of The 3,000 Mile Garden, the more excited I am to read it!
I’ve started the year playing catch up! So I’m trying to read some old loot before getting more. Those three books look great. Enjoy!
I’ve got a few left from last year too, Linda, only I’m not nearly as disciplined as you at working through it! I’m down to only having about 7 books out right now, including these 3, so I getting very close to being almost organized. Close, but not quite there!
I love Jo Walton, and in fact went to hear her speak at a book event last night. As you request her other books, be aware that she never writes the same book twice, so Among Others is VERY different from Tooth and Claw, and again very different from Farthing. But they are all good writing.
I also liked her fantasy books starting with The King’s Name. And Lifeload was fascinating. And she has a contract for four more books, so I’m pleased.
I like variety, which is part of why I’m so excited to read more of Walton! It was her authorial voice even more than her writing style in Tooth and Claw that really intrigued me (though I loved how Trollope-esque the style was) and I can’t wait to encounter that again in these works. How exciting that you got to see her only last night!