The Captive Reader

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Linda from Silly Little Mischief 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.

Comfort Me with Apples by Ruth Reichl – after years of planning to read Reichl’s memoirs, I finally picked one up and loved it completely.  The sequel to Tender at the Bone, this follows Reichl through her thirties as she establishes her career as a restaurant critic and faces a variety of personal milestones.

Images and Shadows by Iris Origo – one of the local television channels was reairing “Monty Don’s Italian Gardens” recently, a programme I adore, and, rewatching the episode on Tuscany, I was reminded of how much I want to visit La Foce.  In lieu of doing that (no trips to Italy for me this year, sadly), I thought I’d read about the woman behind the famous garden’s creation: Iris Origo.  I haven’t yet read Origo’s more famous memoir, War in Val D’Orcia, but look forward to read that too, eventually.

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell – I’m still on hold for Rowell’s new book, Landlines, so, having enjoyed both Fangirl and Attachments, thought it was time to try this, the most universally-praised of her books.

But, let’s not kid ourselves, as good as the three books above sound, my interest in reading them was nothing – nothing! – compared to the euphoria I felt when I found Written in My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon on my library’s Fast Reads shelf.  A Fast Read means you only get the book for one week rather than three.  Since it’s never taken me even half that long to read any of Gabaldon’s “Outlander” books, I snatched it off the shelf and ran home to start reading.   Not surprisingly, I finished the next day and oh, it was good.  So good that I am now kicking myself for having rushed through it.  As usual, reading the most recent book in the series has made me want to go back and reread the earlier volumes…which is exactly what I’m now doing.  The TV adaptation of the books begins later this summer so there is still lots of time to read the books first…or, if you read at a sane speed, at least the first one or two!  And if you want to know why you should read the books, read “My ‘Outlander’ Thing” .

 What did you pick up this week?