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!
Ah yes, it is the beginning of that post-New Year period when all the holds I placed throughout 2012 (from January through to December – seriously) suddenly decide to come in all at once. And there are more still coming. Bring it on, library. This is what I spend the rest of the year training for. 
Speaking of Jane Austen by Sheila Kaye-Smith and G.B. Stern – having just (on Tuesday) finished reading Kaye-Smith’s wonderful All the Books of My Life, I cannot wait to read more of her thoughts (here joined with G.B. Stern’s) on Jane Austen.
The English Lakes: A History by Ian H. Thompson – I have been looking longingly at this book since it was published in 2010 but always for one reason or another put off reading it. Having spent much of my holiday break planning this summer’s trip to the Lake District, now seems the perfect time to finally pick up this history of the area.
The Lunar Men: The Friends Who Made the Future, 1730-1810 by Jenny Uglow – okay, long-time readers have seen this show up time and time again in my Library Loot, usually around this time of year. But every time I get distracted by other books and other commitments and it ends up being returned unread. I am really, really hoping to break that pattern this time because I know I am going to adore this.
Moranthology by Caitlin Moran – I have a hold placed on Moran’s How to Be a Woman but, given my current position in the queue, don’t anticipate getting my hands on it for some time. To console myself, I picked up this collection of her columns for The Times, which Simon read recently and loved.
Orderly and Humane: The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War by R.M. Douglas – nothing says fun like a new(ish) history book from the Yale University Press about the brutal removal of millions of ethnic Germans from Eastern and Central European countries after the Second World War.
Daughter of Empire: Life as a Mountbatten by Pamela Hicks – I love this sort of memoir and cannot wait to dive into it this weekend.
What did you pick up this week?
Lovely collection! Looking forward to your thoughts on All the Books of My Life, but I see that it’ll definitely be positive 🙂
Showing that you are, somehow, the uniting point for the taste of the Thomas family, my Dad was reading that book on the lakes over Christmas!
So positive, Simon. If I wrote the review right now it would be so gushingly, adoringly positive that only people who have read and loved the book already will be able to make sense of my ramblings. Which is why I am waiting a couple of days. Coherent thought is good.
I feel like the Thomas family library might be the most perfect collection of books ever assembled, at least as far as my tastes are concerned.
Haha! Yes, I know (and have written) that sort of post… I’m very excited to read your considered, calm opinions! 😉
I have The Lunar Men languishing on the shelf … maybe time for it to come down? And the Pamela Hicks biog is also my kind of book … but I mustn’t be tempted so early in the year …
I’m reading Elly Griffiths’ A Room Full of Bones. I liked the first three in this series, but I find that while readers will undoubtedly want more of the same, the characters don’t ‘grow’ very much, the stories are very similar, and perhaps I shall have had sufficient of these stories by the time I finish this one.
I was wondering if you had read the Hicks book yet, Margaret, as I know you share my love of this sort of thing.
I have never heard of Elly Griffiths but can definitely relate to a series growing stale.
Caitlin Moran is really just popping up on plenty of book blogs! I’m looking forward to your thoughts on that. And as for the rest of the loot, nope, haven’t quite heard of them before, but they sound wonderful! Happy reading!
She is very popular right now thanks to How to Be a Woman, isn’t she? I am really looking forward to reading this collection and suspect that I might actually enjoy it more than How to Be a Woman (when I finally get a chance to read it).
Ah, these look tempting.
But– what did I pick up this week? Nothing. I returned all my library books and forebore to release any of my inactive holds, deciding that for a change I would really make a serious attempt to dive into my teetering TBR piles, and finish many of the In Media Reads books.
Okay, okay, I did pick up a biography of the Atlantic Ocean, by Simon Winchester, recently interviewed on The Sunday Edition (CBC). But that’s all. Really.
(ooo, Caitlin Moran….? Maybe….)
I am trying to manage my library books in order to also allow for the reading of some of my personal TBR pile so admire your strategy, Susan. The Winchester book sounds interesting, hope you enjoy it!
I always love reading about your very interesting and different library loot selections.
Cailtlin Moran sounds tempting, I’m thinking I will need to look for that the next time I’m at my library. Enjoy your loot!
Thanks, Kay. I am glad to hear you enjoy these posts since I love sharing my library picks. Hope you’re able to find the Moran at your library!
I haven’t heard of this Jenny Uglow before but it sounds really interesting. And I know I would enjoy the Pamela Hicks – must check my library for that one.
Happy reading!
It was Jenny’s review back in May 2011 that made me so eager to read The Lunar Men and it really does sound like a wonderful book. And the Pamela Hicks just sounds fun!
I am 103rd of 103 people waiting for the Pamela Hicks biography!
At least you know you belong to a well-used library!
‘Moranthology’ is waiting at the library for me to pick up. I am excited. I used to love reading her columns back in the day when The Times was free.
At one time I started reading ‘Lunar Men’ but never finished it. I think I will add it back to my TBR list.
Unlike so many others, I never read Moran’s columns in the Times so am excited to read them now for the first time!
I’d love to get to the Lakes book and the Mountbatten one. I am a sucker for colonial history at any time.
I just read the Pamela Hicks book this morning, Mystica, and really enjoyed it. It is light but still informative and revealing.
Can’t wait to read your review of Orderly and Humane! A few years back a buddy of mine read Lunar Men and loved it. Can’t wait to read your review of that book too!
Orderly and Humane, though I’ve only just started it, seems like it is going to be very interesting. I always feel cheated when other books don’t address this topic so reading this should correct that inbalance!
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