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.
It feels properly like spring here: the cherry trees are in glorious full bloom, the daffodils are hanging on, and the early tulips are bursting into riotous colour everywhere you turn. It’s beautiful and cheering and a helpful counterpoint to everything else – much like books.
The 1936 Club (hosted by Simon and Karen) is taking place next week so I’ve checked out a few books to give me even more options than what I’ve found on my own shelves: Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie, Live Alone and Like It by Marjorie Hillis, and War with the Newts by Karel Čapek. My biggest problem with 1936 is that I’ve read most of the books that interest me- two of these three are rereads!
The Olive Farm by Carol Drinkwater – the first of Drinkwater’s books about her olive farm in southern France. I am always game for books about finding the good life in a warm, sunny place.
Thinking on My Feet by Kate Humble – Audrey recommended this back in January and, thanks to the inter-library loan system, I’ve now got my hands on it.
The Gown of Glory by Agnes Sligh Turnbull – I flagged a review of this by Bree over at Another Look Book (which no longer seems to be accessible?) four years ago. It sounds like a lovely, gentle story about a minister and his family in their small community.
Ravenna by Judith Herrin – a fascinating-sounding history of the city. I visited Ravenna on a quiet, rainy day back in 2017 and have amazing memories of its extraordinary mosaics but only the haziest understanding (thanks mostly to the fantasy novels of Guy Gavriel Kay) of how the city became important enough to warrant such buildings and art. I am looking forward to learning more.
House of Glass by Hadley Freeman – Off the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography shortlist.
Eat the Buddha by Barbara Demick – Demick’s portrait of life in North Korea (in Nothing to Envy) was wonderful and here she turns her reporting skills to a small Tibetan community.
English Gardens: From the Archives of Country Life Magazine – the ultimate coffee table book in that it weighs as much as a table. Not a fun walk home from the library with this in my bag but it looks gorgeous!
Rhapsody in Green by Charlotte Mendelson – this wonderful gardening memoir is being reissued as a paperback (out now in the UK and coming this summer in North America), which is wonderful news for those of us who love it and have been unable to track down copies. I’ll doubtlessly buy my own copy but it’s always nice to reread at this time of year, to aid in the garden planning and dreaming.
What did you pick up this week?
I hope you like Thinking on my Feet! I also read Living Alone and Liking It a long time ago and it was a lot of fun (and strangely relevant in places :)).
I’m really looking forward to Thinking on My Feet – thanks for the rec!
Happy to see some 1936 titles in there! 😀
Yes! I’m very excited for the club and can’t wait to see what everyone else is reading.
English Gardens is on the shelf at the library and my shift starts in three hours….you know where I’m headed first! And very much looking forward to my hold coming in for Hadley Freeman’s book.
Woohoo! It’s gorgeous – and also a good exercise aide 🙂
[…] Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading to encourage bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write-up your post, steal the Library Loot pic and link your post using the Mr. Linky on Claire’s blog. […]
Gorgeous selection of reads and unfortunately all inaccessible! (other than the Agatha Christie)but I am making a note of them for my next foray to a library.
Good luck at the library!