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.

As promised last week, my holds have all arrived so there is no shortage of things for me to read now!

The Good Companions by J.B. Priestley – a 1920s novel about a theatrical group sounds like a recommendation from Simon but this actually came from checking through a list of James Tait Black award winners.

The Two Bishops by Agnes Sligh Turnbull – I thoroughly enjoyed my first encounter with Agnes Sligh Turnbull last year when I read The Gown of Glory, about a minister and his family in Pennsylvania in the early 20th century, so am looking forward to reading more by her.

The Kew Gardens Girls by Posy Lovell – a recent historical novel about young women working as gardeners at Kew during the First World War.

Strangers in Skye by Mabel Esther Allan – Given what a ridiculously large number of books Mabel Esther Allan wrote, it’s remarkable that I haven’t read anything by her before.  Or perhaps not when you consider how many months it took to get my hands on just one of her books, but it was worth the wait.  This is a fun 1950s story of a young woman who – ordered by her doctor to spend the summer resting her eyes and not reading before starting university in the fall – joins her brother on Skye where he is the warden of a newly opened youth hostel.

The Viscount and the Vicar’s Daughter and The Work of Art by Mimi Matthews – I discovered Matthews’ gentle romances last year and have been enjoying working my way through them.  These are the last I have left to read – just in time to enjoy her new release which came out yesterday, The Siren of Sussex.

The Burning and The Reckoning by Jane Casey – I’ve been hearing good things about this crime series for a few years and finally am giving it a try with the first two books.  It’s not a genre I usually read but I’ve just finished The Burning and can confirm it was excellent.  I’m feeling very clever that I checked out book number two so I could jump directly into it after finishing the first.

Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King – like crime, I don’t often read short stories so clearly I’m feeling open to the unfamiliar as we start 2022!

What did you pick up this week?