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.
Love in the Blitz by Eileen Alexander – Sarra Manning flagged this collection of letters from the Second World War back in March in her list of 2020 non-fiction releases, describing it as “It’s like somebody put all my favourite things into a magical book-making machine and this is what came out.” Sold!
Love from Boy edited by Donald Sturrock – I am so in the mood for letters or diaries but haven’t found anything to suit me yet. I have high hopes for the Eileen Alexander book (above) but am also excited about this collection of letters from Roald Dahl to his mother.
Walking to Samarkand by Bernard Ollivier – I love books about walking and books about the Silk Road (have you read Lands of Lost Borders yet?) so this seems ideal for me. I have only just realised that it is actually the second volume, the first being Out of Istanbul so now I’m off to find that too.
Women and Their Gardens by Catherine Horwood – I read Horwood’s excellent biography of Beth Chatto earlier this year and was delighted to see the library had this earlier book, a survey of female British gardeners from the Elizabethan period onwards. It seems to have originally been published as Gardening Women if you’re looking for it in the UK.
The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischvili – I love a family saga and I’m always interested in books from Eastern Europe so this doorstopper (well-reviewed in the Guardian last year) seemed ideal. But is it ever huge – thank goodness the library has extended its loan periods and eliminated late fines during the pandemic.
Angels by Marian Keyes – After reading a few of Keyes’ books over the summer (Grown Ups and Rachel’s Holiday) I’m not ready to let go so it’s back to the Walsh family series.
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman – People are so enthusiastic about Backman’s books but I’ve never read any of them. But I’ve broken that curse and am now halfway through this touching story about a bank robbery turn apartment-viewing-hostage-situation and loving it.
One Game at a Time by Harnarayan Singh – Bit of a niche interest this. For my non-Canadian readers, Singh is a sports announcer for the Punjabi broadcast of Hockey Night in Canada (because yes, that is something we have). In his newly released memoir, he tells his story of growing up on the prairies and pursuing his dream of working in a sport where no one else looked like him.
Can’t Even by Anne Helen Petersen – There has been press about this everywhere (did you see it in the Guardian? Or NPR?) and as a millennial I feel I should at least give it a try to understand what the rest of my generation is apparently feeling.
What did you pick up this week?
The Captive Reader 
I hadn’t heard of Love in the Blitz but I am going to absolutely need to read it. Your library has an amazing selection of books. Or are these books you request? I can’t imagine walking into my small-town library and finding all the wonderful books you find.
One of the benefits of living in a big city is having an amazing library system. And probably living in Canada also helps – I’ve seen bloggers in major UK and US cities describe the neglect of their libraries so I know we’re lucky here. The library has a great collection and it also allows users to recommend purchases, which helps.
There are more than 20 branches and I live near a small one so it’s easy to place a hold and have things moved between branches. It was happening very slowly when they first reopened but it much smoother now and takes 2-3 days if the item is available. They’ve shut down the inter-library loan system in my province due to Covid so I can’t get all the really obscure things right now, but I’ll survive 🙂
It’s Thanksgiving here this weekend and having access to a great library system (especially after doing without it for months in the spring) is one of the things I am very thankful for!
Morning, Claire! Just placed a hold on Love in the Blitz. To pass the time between customers coming in to pick up their holds I’ve been going through the catalogue, catching up on what’s been ordered while I was on leave. Thanks for shining a light on this one and I’d like to find a copy of the garden book as well.
Hurrah! I am focused on my reading for the 1956 club this week but can’t wait to start in on Love in the Blitz. It looks wonderful.
Darlene, I’ve started reading Love in the Blitz in earnest and it is wonderful. I can’t think of the last time I was this excited about something (and I was very exited earlier this year about Business as Usual, but this tops it). You’re going to love it!
[…] of Istanbul by Bernard Ollivier – I picked up Walking to Samarkand a couple of weeks ago only to realise it was the continuation of a journey which started with this book. Luckily, it […]