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.

It’s holiday reading time!  For some, this means books with Christmas or winter themes, for others it’s the time to pull out big door-stopper Victorian sagas.  For me, it means continuing with a rather varied selection.  But regardless of what we pick, it mostly means lots of time to read!

Enthusiasms by Mark Girouard – one of those books about books that has been on my radar for so long that I’ve forgotten how it got there in the first place (possibly Simon’s 2012 review?).  I’ve already started this and am quite enjoying it – though an essay on the Sackville-Wests made me completely livid.

Roam Alone: Inspiring Tales by Reluctant Solo Travellers edited by Jennifer Barclay and Hilary Bradt – as I mentioned yesterday, 2017 has been not just a year of travel for me but a year of travel reading (no shock to anyone who has been monitoring my Library Loot posts!).  Though my travels are done, my love of travel books lives on.

The Language of Baklava by Diana Abu-Jaber – I love a foodie memoir and was instantly intrigued by this one after I read about it in Ruby Tandoh’s Guardian column.

Notes on a Foreign Country by Suzy Hansen – I’ve been seeing this on lots of “Best of 2017” lists and am intrigued.  Hansen, a journalist, spent years living in Turkey and travelling in the Middle East and around the Mediterranean.  In this book, she recounts her experiences and how encountering anti-American sentiment forced her to reexamine her view of America.

An Odyssey by Daniel Mendelsohn – Another book making it’s way onto lost of “Best of 2017” lists about the relationship between Mendelsohn and his father and how it changes when Mendelsohn Sr. enrolls in Daniel’s Odyssey seminar at Bard College.

The Riviera Set  by Mary S. Lovell – the subtitle surely captures the appeal: “1920-1960, the golden years of glamour and excess.”  Scandal and sunshine make for the perfect Christmas book!

Rhapsody in Green by Charlotte Mendelsohn – in the depths of winter (we have snow here!  why!?!) I often turn to gardening books.  I find them soothing to read when I know there is absolutely nothing I can do in the garden, no matter how inspired they may make me.

A Tour of Mont Blanc by David Le Vay – I checked this travel memoir out a while back but didn’t have a chance to read it.  There are so few walking memoirs of anywhere other than Spain (dear everyone who is ever going to walk the Camino: please don’t write about it) that I am excited to hear about Le Vay’s experiences in the alps.

When the Children Came Home by Julie Summers – I hated Summers’ book about the British WI during the Second World War (Jambusters) but am hopeful I’ll enjoy this more.  And if not, well, that’s why I go to the library rather than buy books!

What did you pick up this week to read over the holidays?