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.
It’s been ages since I last posted about my loot but there is much to share! Three months away from my library has made me even keener than usual to use it and I’m reading at a spectacular pace right now. Here’s some of the things I’ve got out, both read and unread:
Diary of a Wartime Affair by Doreen Bates – Sarra Manning recommended this back in January and I am always up for wartime diaries.
Last Hope Island by Lynne Olson – billed as a “groundbreaking account of how Britain became the base of operations for the exiled leaders of Europe in their desperate struggle to reclaim their continent from Hitler” there was never any chance I wasn’t going to read this. Also, just about every review I’ve come across has mentioned that it includes the story of John Hackett’s time being sheltered by the Dutch resistance. His memoir of this, I Was a Stranger, was my favourite book last year so that was definitely a draw here, too.
Rogue Heroes by Ben Macintyre – a very readable history of the founding of the SAS. Doubt I’ll review this in full but the founding story can be summed up as “Absolute Crackpots with Guns: A Desert Adventure.”
Fire and Fury by Randall Hansen – FANTASTIC look at the Allied bombing of Germany. The best overall summary I’ve found, particularly in how it distinguishes between the missions of Bomber Command and their American counterparts.
The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck – a moderately good novel about the post-war lives of a group of women whose husbands were killed for plotting to kill Hitler.
The German War by Nicholas Stargardt – those with good memories may remember having seen this social history of Germany during WWII here several times before. It falls into the category of “books I am too excited about to actually get around to reading in a reasonable timeline.”
Jane Austen, the Secret Radical by Helena Kelly – I will give anything Austen-related a shot.
The Comfort Food Diaries by Emily Nunn – ditto anything food-related.
The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories by Penelope Lively – Excellent collection of short stories by one of my favourite writers.
A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler – I’ve just discovered Tyler and am really enjoying her writing. Here, she looks at the stories of several generations of a Baltimore family.
Schadenfreude: A Love Story by Rebecca Schuman – a memoir about Germany! Do you know how few of those there are? It’s ridiculous. Very fun and yet still quite annoying, so much so that I will probably have to write a review about it at some point.
Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak – breezily written story with an excellent gimmick: a family forced to be together for seven days at Christmas when the eldest daughter is quarantined on her return from Africa after working with victims of an epidemic. A fun and entirely unbelievable (every melodramatic plot twist you can imagine is used) read.
The Sages of Icelanders – a mention in Michael Dirda’s Browsings reminded me how interesting these sagas are. Always fun to dip in and out of.
Walking Away by Simon Armitage – as my walking adventures are done for the year, it’s time to read about the journeys of others.
The Bletchley Girls by Tessa Dunlop – I recently read a rather disappointing book about women’s roles at Bletchley (by Michael Smith) so am interested to see how this compares.
What did you pick up this week?
There is a special place in my heart, in the hearts of all readers I suspect, for books about books. They are the tangible equivalent of a book blog, where we share our love of all things bookish with one another. We are the writers and the readers – an uniquely insular tribe that cleaves tightly to one another, always eager to share a new favourite title or expound on the joy of a newly discovered bookshop. And the best testament for a book about books is not just how much pleasure you gain reading it but how many new titles it adds to your to-be-read list.
As I’ve said before, one of the great pleasures of reading P.G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters edited by Sophie Ratcliffe has been learning Plum’s thoughts on books and other authors. I’ve shared how he 
