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 has the Mr Linky this week!
Not too much of excitement to report this week, though I did almost get run over by a priest on a bicycle while walking to the library yesterday. That was a bit unusual but added some welcome variety to the day. I was down with the flu for much of last week and busy with birthday celebrations on the weekend, so there has not been a lot of reading since I finished War and Peace. Hopefully, I’ll get back into the swing of things soon because goodness knows I have enough books waiting for me!
At Mrs Lippincote’s by Elizabeth Taylor – We meet again, Mrs Taylor. I tried several of Taylor’s novels last year during Virago Reading Week and did not get on with them at all. But enough time has passed that I’m willing to write those failures off on account of a bad mood and try again. Both Harriet and Darlene reviewed At Mrs Lippincote’s last month and then there it was on the shelf when I went browsing yesterday – clearly a sign! Taylor was born in 1912 and a year-long Elizabeth Taylor Centenary Celebration is being held in honour of what would have been her 100th birthday, complete with readalongs. Knowing that many of my favourite bloggers are Taylor fans (Rachel, Simon T, Jane, Verity and Harriet are all hosting readalongs), I figured I better give her another shot early in 2012 so, if I do end up completely adoring her work this time, I’ll be able to enjoy the rest of the reading events this year!
The Gentry: Stories of the English by Adam Nicolson – I love Nicolson’s writing and I’ve been looking forward to this since the first, glowing reviews started coming out last autumn.
Prize-winning author Adam Nicolson tells the story he was born to write — the real story of England. It is the gentry that has made England what it was and, to a degree, still is. In this vivid, lively book, history has never been more readable. We may well be ‘a nation of shopkeepers’, but for generations England was a country dominated by its middling families, rooted on their land, in their locality, with a healthy interest in turning a profit from their property and a deep distrust of the centralised state. The virtues we may all believe to be part of the English culture — honesty, affability, courtesy, liberality — each of these has their source in gentry life cultivated over five hundred years. These folk were the backbone of England. Adam Nicolson’s riveting new book concentrates on fourteen families with a time-span from 1400 to the present day. From the medieval gung-ho of the Plumpton family to the high-seas adventures of the Lascelles in the 18th-century, to more modern examples, the book provides a chronological picture of the English, seen through these intimate, passionate, powerful stories of family saga.
The Invisible Heart: Economics and Family Values by Nancy Folbre – while I was reading Dorothy Canfield Fisher’s The Home-Maker last month (which I loved and will hopefully review soon), I was suddenly struck by the urge to reread this book which examines the economics of caregiving. We read excerpts of it for one of my university classes and I ended up reading most of the book after that. I remember feeling frustrated by it, particularly when it was compared to the academic articles on the same topic that I was reading at that time. I do remember it being very readable though and I’m interested to find what I think of it this time around.
What did you pick up this week?
I feel as though I should have already read Elizabeth Taylor… but i haven’t.
Enjoy your loot!
I, obviously, feel the same way and am determined this time to at least finish the book, even if I don’t end up loving it, just so that I can say I’ve at least read one of her novels. But I really do hope I enjoy it!
Hooray for your Taylor find and I covet the Nicolson book. I have flipped through it during my last two visits to Nicholas Hoare in Toronto but the guilt of several non-fiction books languishing on my shelves stops me in my tracks.
I brought home Sarah Waters’ ‘Affinity’ and a book/dvd set called ‘Museum Masterpieces: The National Gallery, London’ just yesterday.
Sorry for your trouble, Claire, but in the end…I do admit to having a chuckle about your accident with the priest. I hope he’s in the confessional for that come Sunday!
I am so excited about the Nicolson! It sounds so interesting and Nicolson always writes beautifully. And I really hope I enjoy the Taylor!
‘Museum Masterpieces: The National Gallery, London’ sounds most intriguing!
I do hope you get on better with Ms. Taylor this time around. The centenary celebration is proving to be a lot of fun!
I do too!
The Invisible Heart sounds interesting. Enjoy your loot.
It is interesting, I can assure you of that!
The Nicolson book sounds fascinating. I may have to check that out as well.
I have also heard rave reviews about Elizabeth Taylor’s writing, though I have yet to try it myself. I had no idea there were so many Taylor-related events going on!
Nicolson writes beautifully, so I’d encourage you to try any of his books, but I am particularly excited about this one!
If you’re ever going to read Taylor, this would be the year to do it so as to enjoy the centenary celebrations!
Oooh, I really want to check out that Nicolson book! I’ll be interested to see what you think of it.
I haven’t checked out anything this week as nothing has really tempted me and I am trying to limit the number of books I bring home!
I admire your restraint and I hope to have good things to report back on the Nicolson!
New here – glad to have found you!
Definitely checking out Nicolson’s book – sounds fabulous and I love a good historical that’s well written and engaging (if you haven’t already, Four Queens by Nancy Goldstone is another lovely historical that reads like a novel).
Welcome, Janet! I’m glad you found me too!
Thanks for recommending Four Queens. I hadn’t heard of it before but, having now read up on it, it sounds fascinating! When I was younger I used to love books about Eleanor of Aquitaine and it’s been far too long since I read anything about her.
I hope you enjoy it, Claire – I look forward to your thoughs on it if you do a post 🙂
checking out The Gentry sounds quite interesting
It does sound fascinating!
These three books like like they will inform one another, which is always fun in a set. I’d probably read them all at the same time, leaving them scattered about the house and picking up whichever is closest, so the effect is always heightened. Enjoy!
I don’t necessarily see the links that you do between these three, but that just goes to show how differently each reader, informed by his or her experiences, approaches the same set of books!