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?
The Captive Reader 
You must have a truly wonderful library. I guarantee my little small-town library doesn’t have these though I could probably request them. There are several that look very interesting especially since I always want to read about life during WWII.
I do have a wonderful library and it’s one of the best-used library systems in the world, I’m happy to say. It’s been encouraging to see the services and branch hours extended over the last few years when elsewhere those things are contracting.
If you’re interested in WWII, there are definitely some titles here to interest you!
Great post, lots of interesting reads! I thought the Comfort Food Diaries was a pretty good read, for a foodoir some of her recipes were great too! Schadenfreude sounds interesting, as an expat amidst the German-speaking countries I somehow didn’t realize it was such a neglected genre either. That one sounds worth a read!
I look desperately for expat memoirs and travel memoirs about Germany but it is definitely an unfilled niche. Italy and France get all the love (except mine – that is definitely saved for the Germanic and Slavic worlds).
I’ve missed your “library loot” blogs! And what a great selection of books. I’m highlighting several of them to look for at my library. I love reading about WWII but have read nothing from the German point of view so am interested in those.
It’s been encouraging to see more social histories come out in the last ten or twenty years about life in Germany and occupied Europe during the Second World War. It still feels like the market is dominated by British books (fair enough – much more palatable to read about the cosy rather than the bleak) but this is progress!
What a wonderful library haul! Diary of a Wartime Affair just went on my TBR list, and I’m interested to hear how you enjoy JA, The Secret Radical and The Bletchley Girls. Happy reading!
Thanks, Jessie! I’ve started the diary and it’s a bit meh for me so far but I’ve not reached the war years yet – maybe it will pick up then.
Oh that’s too bad-hopefully it will pick up!
I do like the rather lengthy sub-title of the Rebecca Schuman memoir. Plus, I have been meaning to read one of Simon Armitage’s books for some time, but I have still not got around to it. I shall look forward to your reviews of both of these.
We have three week library loan periods in our area (one can, of course, return them earlier than that). This is currently extended, owing to the rapidly approaching holiday period. I could hold on to the three books I took out yesterday until 6 January. The three books were Anthony Horowitz’s Moriarty, Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Bookshop and Sara Baume’s A Line Made by Walking (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/feb/10/a-line-made-by-walking-review-sara-baume). This is in addition to House of Snow, an ebook loan about Nepal that I have just started. Meanwhile I am also reading a book about the Elizabethans and one about the Romanovs. There is plenty of violence and torture in the last two: not features I actively seek out when selecting my reading.
Yes, reading about the violent lives of the Romanovs can be exhausting! I started Simon Sebag Montefiore’s book last year and made it about a third of the way through before all the murder and mayhem had me longing for something less bloodthirsty. It’s a wonderful book and I’ll return to it one day but have learned to pace myself when it comes to the Romanovs.
Happy reading!