The Captive Reader

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading 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.

Remembered when I warned that I had many library holds suddenly all starting to move towards me at the same time?  Here they are.

I had a hold shelf almost to myself at the library to hold them all.  Unfortunately, I have no free shelves at home!  They, along with the other books I already had out, are now piling up on surfaces around the house.  It is slightly chaotic but, on the plus side, means you are never far away from a book.

Last Witnesses by Svetlana Alexievich – This is one of the 2019 releases I have been most excited about (another is further down the page).  It is the new English-language translation of Alexievich’s 1985 oral history of Soviet children’s experiences of World War Two.  I read it immediately after picking it up and it is every bit as good as you would expect.  It’s an interesting companion piece to The Unwomanly Face of War and I hope to write more about it soon. (Book Depository)

Triumphs of Experience by George E. Vaillant – if you read anything about happiness or longevity research, you’ve doubtless come across the Harvard study which began tracking the lives of students in the 1930s and followed them through their entire lives.  I’ve seen the study referred to in many other books and articles so am excited to read more about it and its subjects at length.  (Book Depository)

The Way Home by Mark Boyle – I have absolutely no memory of where I came across this one but I am all for people abandoning technology so presumably that was enough to have me placing a library hold. (Book Depository)

The Second-Worst Restaurant in France by Alexander McCall Smith – the newest entirely inconsequential, unmemorable, and yet strangely comforting novel from the always prolific Alexander McCall Smith. (Book Depository)

Never Greener by Ruth Jones – This was in every shop window when I was in London so it seemed like a good idea to get with the times and see what the fuss was about.  (Book Depository)

How Was It For You? by Virginia Nicholson – Hurrah!  Alongside Last Witnesses, this was one of the books I’ve most been looking forward to reading this year.  Nicholson has been working her way through the 20th century with her social histories focused on British women’s experiences (most recently in Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes) and she has now reached the explosive 1960s.  I cannot wait to read this. (Book Depository)

I’m back from Europe so it must be time to start thinking about my next trip!  I’m thinking of Andalusia in 2020 so have picked up a couple of books to inspire me: South from Granada by Gerald Brenan (Book Depository) and Driving Over Lemons by Chris Stewart (Book Depository).

Dirty Work by Anna Maxymiw – Far removed from sunny Spain, this is a memoir about spending a summer working at a wilderness lodge.  I am so, so, so happy to read about such experiences rather than have them myself. (Publisher)

The Beekeeper by Dunya Mikhail – I read a slightly mixed review of this a few weeks ago but it was enough to have me intrigued and eager to try it myself.  (Book Depository)

Inland by Tea Obreht – I loved Obreht’s debut novel, The Tiger’s Wife, and now she is back with something completely different – a western! – that is supposed to be just as wonderful. (Book Depository)

The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman – I know nothing about this book other than that it is set in Prague.  That’s reason enough for me. (Book Depository)

What did you pick up this week?