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.
Happy New Year! I hope 2020 is off to a great start for everyone. Our family traditions here don’t allow much time for reading (lots of outdoor time to ensure the year gets off to a healthy start, followed by cooking time to ensure it also begins with lots of leftovers) but I’ve got plenty of books ready to go. (So I am, of course, starting the year by reading something off my own shelves. Oh well.)
Here’s what I’ve picked up most recently:
The Seine by Elaine Sciolino – I loved Sciolino’s last book, The Only Street in Paris, about the rue des Martyrs and can’t wait to revisit Paris in her company. (Book Depository)
Brief Flower by Dorothy Evelyn Smith – I am happy to report that my interlibrary loan copy of this has no dustjacket and therefore no extremely creepy child. I’m trying to track down another of Smith’s books (O, The Brave Music, which Simon raved about last year) but in the meantime thought I’d try one of her other books. There’s a little info on it on Goodreads and I thought I’d give it a try.
Poems of Arab Andalusia translated by Cola Franzen – My big travel plan for 2020 is to spend a couple of weeks in Andalusia next autumn. It’s a long wait so until then I’ll content myself by reading as much as I can about it. The main reason I’m interested in going is the region’s Arab history so this volume of poetry seemed perfect. It will also inevitably remind me of how much I need to reread The Lions of Al-Rassan (which I am 100% okay with). (Book Depository)
Love from A to Z by S.K. Ali – In my last Library Loot post, I mentioned picking up a different YA book by Ali, which I haven’t actually read yet. But at the same time I’d placed a hold on this, her newest release about two Muslim teens who meet in Qatar. I read it just after picking it up and really enjoyed it. And I don’t think I’d ever read something set in Qatar before! (Book Depository)
The Rosie Result by Graeme Simsion – Like everyone who read it, I adored The Rosie Project and can’t resist its sequels (even though I though the second book wasn’t very good). Hoping for better things with this one! (Book Depository)
Less by Andrew Sean Greer – The time has finally come. I have heard so many glowing, enthusiastic things about this novel from readers I trust that I am finally overcoming my completely illogical bias against Pulizter Prize-winners to give it a try. (Book Depository)
What did you pick up this week?
The Captive Reader 
I just finished On Fortune’s Wheel by Cynthia Voigt which had to be inter-library loaned. It’s the second book in the Jackaroo series. Classic adventure tale. The Smith book looks interesting. The author sounds like a peer of DE Stevenson.
Oh, Cynthia Voigt! That’s an author who brings back some childhood memories. I haven’t read anything by her in years; maybe it’s time for a revisit.
The Jackaroo series harkens into Lowry’s later books after The Giver with its medieval village setting. Slow paced, yet rich characterization.
Andalusia should be really interesting. You’ve got some very interesting reading ahead and you’re right, that child on the cover is creepy😃
So creepy! The 1960s was a bleak era for cover design in general but this is particularly bad.
I love Andalusia – it is my favourite part of Spain and I have visited many times. I recommend ‘Death’s Other Kingdom’ by Gamel Woolsey, wife of Gerald Brenan, as an insight into the experience of the Spanish Civil War in Andalusia.
Thanks for the recommendation, Alice!
My Book Group decided to read The Rosie Project a couple years ago and I accidentally picked up and read the sequel, not realizing until halfway through the discussion that I had read the wrong book. I was sitting there, perplexed, wondering (a) why only I thought the book was mediocre at best and (b) had I read it too quickly and was that the cause of their talking about things I did not remember. Oops!
Oops indeed! The second book was definitely a disappointment (I abandoned it) but this third book has been delightful.