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.
For the first time in a few years, I visited the university libraries over the weekend. My library is absurdly well-stocked and, as we know, I love the inter-library loan system but there’s nothing quite like browsing through unfamiliar shelves. Many, many shelves. There are multiple libraries at UBC and I only visited two of them, sampling the education library for the first time, which has a fantastic selection of children’s and young adult books. I will definitely be back!
A City of Bells by Elizabeth Goudge – Taking advantage of the university library to try this much-loved novel from Goudge, the first in her Cathedral trilogy.
The Silent Stars Go By by Sally Nicholls – I have been waiting patiently for this 2020 release to be old enough for me to request it via ILL (you can’t request books published this year or last year). So at the start of January I placed my request and am delighted to finally have my hands on this YA novel that landed on so many Best Of lists.
A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus – I feel like I’ve been in the hold queue forever for this children’s novel about siblings evacuated from London during WWII and fighting to stay together.
Love and Saffron by Kim Fay – a brand new (released yesterday) epistolary novel about food, friendship, and love. Sarra Manning featured it in her list of top February new releases.
The Deadly Hours – I reread A Desperate Fortune by Susanna Kearsley over the weekend and was left in my usual position after finishing one of her books of not feeling like anything else was good enough to pick up next. This collection of linked novellas kicks off with a story by Kearsley so seemed an obvious pick and – as I just discovered when I started reading it at lunch yesterday – the novella is a sequel to A Desperate Fortune. HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS?!?!?
Squashed by Joan Bauer, Wild Roses by Deb Caletti, and A Lantern in Her Hands by Bess Streeter Aldrich – a trio of young adult novels all recommended by Nancy Pearl. I’ve already sped through the delightful Squashed, about a teenager who is very dedicated to growing a gigantic pumpkin, and Wild Roses, where a Seattle-area teen struggles as her musician stepfather becomes increasingly unhinged.
Prague Pictures by John Banville – a very subjective and personal portrait by the Irish novelist of one of his (and my) favourite cities.
What did you pick up this week?
The Captive Reader 
These look like a good set of books. I’ve never been to a University library (or even University). Since the pandemic I have been using the Library App Libby and reading them on my phone!
Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog
Thank goodness for ebooks throughout the pandemic!
Definitely! It was only due to the pandemic that I started to seriously look at books online!
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley and Out of Bounds by Val McDermid
Enjoy!
Ha, I might like Squashed. I read a book few years ago about men who compete to grow the largest pumpkins. It was crazy!
It’s fun and well done – I’d recommend it.
Many years ago, I worked as a research assistant at a university. I loved spending lunch breaks at the library, even though it was quite a walk from my office.
Heaven! My idea of a perfect lunch break is a walk and time spent with books so that sounds ideal to me.
I love evacuation stories and liked A Place to Hang the Moon nearly as much as The War
I am not familiar with The Silent Stars Go By and I don’t know why my library doesn’t have it. It looks like my friend Charlotte has read it, however, so maybe I can borrow it from her – it looks great.
I always feel the same way about Kearsley’s books. In fact, I have been saving her most recent one since September as a reward for when I really need it. Several years ago she was doing a book signing in Rhode Island and I skipped out of work early and drove a long way on a rainy night to meet her. It was a dreadful event in some ways – there had been a contest to win a visit to your favorite bookstore. It had been won by a dreadful young woman who had falsified entries (and boasted about it), so the poor publisher had paid to send her to RI, thinking there were dozens of fans waiting there for her. In fact, it was Dreadful and her parents, a woman who I think was the bookstore owner’s mother, bookstore owner, and yours truly. I tried to make up for Dreadful and Kearsley was very nice, although tired from travel and I think on crutches as well. She had been in Arizona at an event with Diana Gabaldon who had been very kind to her.
Constance
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