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.

Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes by Virginia Nicholson – subtitled “the story of women in the 1950s”, I’m intrigued to see what Nicholson makes of this bizarrely regressive decade.

The Givenness of Things by Marilynne Robinson – a collection of essays that offers “an impassioned critique of our contemporary society while arguing that reverence must be given to who we are and what we are.”

Confessions of a Tinderella by Rosy Edwards – self-explanatory, surely.

Not My Father’s Son by Alan Cumming – I’ve checked this out once or twice before but not had the chance to read it.  It seems to be universally praised and I was happy to see it won the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography prize recently.

Man in Profile by Thomas Kunkel – this biography of Joseph Mitchell sounds so good.  Sometimes it’s the biographies of people you know the least about that are the most interesting to read.

The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat – a 1951 novel following the experiences of a group of British sailors through the Second World War.

What did you pick up this week?