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’s been an awful last few days here in BC, where torrential rains have caused flooding and washouts that have forced thousands to evacuate their communities and shut down major transportation routes. Living in Vancouver, I am happily safe and the only inconvenience I’ve experienced has been a few hours without power but it’s still been upsetting for everyone.
At least there are always books to depend on. I have all these intriguing books below to read but, to be perfectly honest, I’m currently curled up with Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin because I love it and know it will make me happy (for the forth or fifth time) and can also be found flipping through Nancy Pearl’s Booklust books for the gazillionth time since I find the act of list-making (as in, “ooo, I need to add these few hundred more books to my TBR list”) soothing.
Bookworm by Patricia Craig – someone somewhere mentioned Barbara Fitzgerald recently, which led me to Somerville Press. I’m intrigued by Fitzgerald and will likely get to her one day but was immediately distracted by this memoir of childhood reading.
River Kings by Cat Jarman – so excited to read this “brilliant and unusually wide-ranging new history of the Vikings” (according to the Financial Times).
One of Them by Musa Okwonga – Woven throughout this deeply personal and unflinching memoir of Musa’s five years at Eton in the 1990s is a present-day narrative which engages with much wider questions about pressing social and political issues: privilege, the distribution of wealth, the rise of the far right in the UK, systemic racism, the ‘boys’ club’ of government and the power of the few to control the fate of the many
The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid – I’m dipping back into fantasy and the Tor review of this has me intrigued.
Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Is grief really what I what to read about right now? When Adichie is the writer, yes is obviously the only answer.
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles – I loved Towles’ last book, A Gentleman in Moscow, so was excited to quickly get ahold of this new release about a young man looking forward to making a new life with his young brother after being released from a juvenile work farm – and the two runaways from the farm who upset his plans. It is extraordinarily readable – I read it Sunday afternoon – but didn’t move me in any way.
How Did Lubitsch Do It? by Joseph McBride – for a change, a little bit of cinematic history about one of my favourite directors.
Miss Moriarty, I Presume? by Sherry Thomas – the 6th book in Thomas’ Lady Sherlock series is here!
Sway with Me by Syed M. Masood – I was far too silent when I read Masood’s first two books – the YA novel More Than Just a Pretty Face and the adult novel The Bad Muslim Discount – earlier this year but I loved them both. And the best time to discover a new favourite author is just before they have a new book come out, in this case a YA novel about matchmaking, dancing, family and love. Very excited to start reading!
What did you pick up this week?
The Captive Reader 
Interested to hear your response to Lincoln Highway – I too loved Gentleman but I loved it so much it’s made me nervous of reading anything else by him in case it disappoints! And the setting appeals less too…
It didn’t put me off Towles but it’s an entirely different and inferior reading experience. One that can easily be skipped, I’d say.
It’s always hard to resist a book about books! I’m always curious if I have the same favorite childhood reads as other bookworms.
That’s always the best part, isn’t it, seeing what other people think about books you know and love.
Okay, I’ve put Lubitsch on hold at the library.
Let’s hope we both enjoy it! I suspect I’ll be placing holds on DVDs shortly after I start reading…
[…] I took was reading Clair’s recent Library Loot post to inspire me to grab a few more books. Foolish, since I still have a towering stack of previously […]
My husband and I both loved Towles’ first two books. My husband just read the new one and feels as you do. He thought it was very flat and nowhere as good as the others. I don’t think I’ll rush to read it. Very disappointed.
Your husband is clearly a man of great taste and discernment 😉
This felt much closer to Rules of Civility (there is indeed overlap with the characters), which didn’t wow me, but a far, far lesser book than A Gentleman in Moscow. I think you’re safe to skip it.
That’s a great mix of books! I tend to only borrow one book at a time otherwise I get too stressed! I started using the library app Libby on my phone and I got a message come up asking me to start reading a book that I had borrowed after a couple of days! I opened the first page to get rid of the notification then read it at my own pace!
I think I’m the reverse – I get stressed if I don’t have lots of books – and therefore lots of ready choices – available 🙂
How interesting. I have a pile of 93 books in my TBR pile so doubt that I will ever be without 😂