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.
Four Gardens by Margery Sharp – after my success with The Flowering Thorn last month, I am looking forward to reading more by Sharp. I am assured this is one of her best.
Mackerel Sky by Helen Ashton – my experience with Ashton last month was less successful than with Sharp (I did not love Yeoman’s Hospital), but a blog reader recommended I try this hard-to-find story of a troubled marriage instead. I read it quickly and am split on whether or not to review it – on the one hand, I found it mediocre and not worth spending too much time on. On the other, there is practically no information about it anywhere on the internet.
Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser – Flashman! I am loving this book so, so, so much. Nothing quite like a humorous adventure story with a cowardly and caddish anti-hero. And it’s the start of a lengthy series!
Russian Poets – Karen’s post about poetry books last week spurred me to check this one out.
Lands of Lost Borders by Kate Harris – I am incredibly excited about this travel memoir recounting a bicycle journey along the silk road. I first heard about it from CBC’s Spring 2018 Canadian Non-Fiction preview, which includes a lot of other great-sounding books.
Things That Happened Before the Earthquake by Chaira Barzini – I read a lot of great things about this novel when it came out last year and was hooked by the idea of both the heroine – an Italian teenager (written by an Italian, thank god) – and the setting – early 1990s LA leading up to the big 1994 earthquake.
Three Mercer Plays by David French – There are two David French plays on in Vancouver right now and, having seen one of them, I became interested in his other works. These three plays about the Mercer family are probably his most famous.
The Husband Hunters by Anne de Courcy – I always have fun with de Courcy’s books and am excited about this social history of American heiresses and their quest for titled husbands.
The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin – yet another set of personality profiles to add to the world (I enjoy learning about them all).
Cookbooks galore! Roast Figs, Sugar Snow by Diana Henry (winter comfort food at its best), The Saffron Tales by Yasmin Khan (delicious-looking Persian food), and In a Polish Country House Kitchen by Anne Applebaum and Danielle Crittenden (self-explanatory, no?)
What did you pick up this week?
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The Captive Reader 
I do hope you enjoy the Russians – I find it very dippable! :))
I am already dipping and definitely enjoying it – though the section of poems devoted to “The Muse” seems a bit long.
I have that little Russian Poets book and I love it so much!
I’m really enjoying it so far!
I have two Elizabeth Strout books to read and Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon, a treat to me! Not from the library though, they’d all be in French, though I should go and check if there’s new on the couple of English bookshelves.
Always worth checking! Enjoy your books. I’ve heard good things about Elizabeth Strout but am not familiar with Joanna Cannon.
A lovely selection of books. I hope that you will enjoy ‘Four Gardens’ as much as I did, and I can tell you that I have read ‘Mackerel Sky’ but never got around to writing about it. I appreciated many of the details but I couldn’t warm to the characters or care too much about the arc of the story.
Glad to know I’m not the only one who feels that way about Mackerel Sky. It was such a messy, overlong and yet strangely dull book. I have much higher expectations for Four Gardens!
I love MACKEREL SKY–i have 2 copies of it.Shame you did not like it.But FOUR GARDENS is brilliant and should be in print.
I have never read any of these books you found. I’ve had to suspend all holds on the library until April as we are getting ready to go overseas in March for a month. I’m just reading bits and bobs at the moment.
That’s a good reason for having to suspend holds! Happy travels.
Oh, you are bad for my wallet! 🙂 I just ordered a copy of The Husband Hunters!
I hope you enjoy it! De Courcy’s books are usually lots of fun.
Margery Sharp – am I right in thinking she wrote the Miss Bianca books? Used to love those!
You are right!
Oh, and Bernard – I think it was Bernard – her ever-faithful assistant… Slightly heartbreaking!
Oh I heard about Land of Lost Borders on CBC too. Just my cup of tea. But the last few weeks I’ve been seriously involved in Life as it Happens, so got no reading done and had to return it to the library yesterday, unopened. (Unrenewable because others want it.) But it’s on my list of Get It Out Again Later books.
That happens to me a lot, too. My Get It Out Again Later list is huge!