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.

Good news: my exam is over! I have time to read again. Bad news: in my excitement, I may have wrenched my shoulder carrying all of these books back from the library.  So worth it though.  The only trouble now is deciding what to read first.

Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans – I am SO looking forward to this.  Rave reviews from other bloggers – like Darlene – have only helped fuel my eagerness to start in on it.

What Happened to the Corbetts by Nevil Shute – Shute is always the correct choice, regardless of your reading mood.

Sweet Caress by William Boyd – When Amory Clay was born, in the decade before the Great War, her disappointed father gave her an androgynous name and announced the birth of a son. But this daughter was not one to let others define her; Amory became a woman who accepted no limits to what that could mean, and, from the time she picked up her first camera, one who would record her own version of events.

Maria Theresa by Edward Crankshaw – who doesn’t want to read about Maria Theresa?  My favourite Enlightened despot, hands down.

In These Times by Jenny Uglow – A social history of Britain during the Napoleonic wars.

The Lunar Men by Jenny Uglow – I have been checking this book out from the library for years and years and years without ever cracking it open.  Which is absurd because I am so fascinated by its topic: the impact of a society founded by five amateur scientists on the start of the Industrial Revolution.

Women of the World by Helen McCarthy – I started and way enjoying this last year but had to return it before finishing.  Really looking forward to reading it all the way through this time.

Ring of Steel by Alexander Watson – Alexander Watson’s compelling new history retells the war from the perspectives of its instigators and losers, the Germans and Austro-Hungarians. This is the story not just of their leaders in Berlin and Vienna, but above all of the people. Only through their unprecedented mobilisation could the conflict last so long and be so bitterly fought, and only with the waning of their commitment did it end. The war shattered their societies, destroyed their states and bequeathed to east-central Europe a poisonous legacy of unredeemed sacrifice, suffering, race hatred and violence. A major re-evaluation of the First World War, Ring of Steel is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the last century of European history.

Meet Me in Venice by Suzanne Ma – Meet Me in Venice provides a personal, intimate account of Chinese individuals in the very act of migration. Suzanne Ma spent years in China and Europe to understand why Chinese people choose to immigrate to nations where they endure hardship, suspicion, manual labor, and separation from their loved ones. Today all eyes are on China and its explosive economic growth. With the rise of the Chinese middle class, Chinese communities around the world are growing in size and prosperity, a development many Westerners find unsettling, and even threatening. Following Ye Pei’s undaunted path, this inspiring book is an engrossing read for those eager to understand contemporary China and the enormous impact of Chinese emigrants around the world.

Those Wild Wyndhams by Claudia Renton – I started this very promising biography last year (it won the Slightly Foxed Biography Prize) and am really looking forward to finishing it this time.

Dear Octopus by Dodie Smith – I kept thinking about how much I love this play while I was reading Ten Days of Christmas by G.B. Stern and the urge to reread it (despite my already toppling pile of books) was too great to resist.

The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley – another reread.

In a French Kitchen by Susan Herrmann Loomis – I am always game for foodie books about France.

Paris Was Yesterday, 1925-1939 by Janet Flanner – a collection of Flanner’s “Letter from Paris” columns for the New Yorker.

Paris, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down by Rosecrans Baldwin –  A hilarious and refreshingly honest look at one of our most beloved cities, Paris, I Love You is the story of a young man whose preconceptions are usurped by the oddities of a vigorous, nervy metropolis―which is just what he needs to fall in love with Paris a second time.

Latest Readings by Clive James – I have been looking forward to this so much (even more since Simon reviewed it in Shiny New Books).

The Road to Character by David Brooks – Read this over the weekend and it’s a bit of a strange one.  Brooks offers profiles of individuals who exemplify characteristics he believes are no longer valued in our achievement-oriented society.

Curiosity by Alberto Manguel – A new book from Manguel is always something to be excited about.

What did you pick up this week?