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.
I had a weekend adventure only other library-lovers may be able to appreciate. For the first time, I am using InterLINK, which allows patrons from linked public libraries to a) visit other library systems and use their usual card to borrow items and b) return the items to their home library. The inter-library loans remain incredibly slow (1-3 months right now) so I can bypass that waiting period by hoping on the bus for – in this case – an hour, enjoying a wander through a new neighbourhood and lovely library, and getting what I want. Even better, while ILLs are restricted to older items (nothing published this year or last) and books only, InterLINK allows you to borrow anything. A few of my items below were picked up this way, along with lots of obscure foreign language DVDs.
I am doubtlessly going to go mad with this new power.
Memory Speaks by Julie Sedivy – Sedivy, a language scientist, explores the connections between language and memory from both a scientific and personal perspective. Sedivy left Czechoslovakia and came to Canada as a small child, gradually losing most of her mother tongue but then reconnected with it as an adult. I’m reading this right now and finding it so fascinating.
Overdue by Amanda Oliver – Based on Oliver’s experiences as a librarian in Washington, DC, this promises to “highlight the national problems that have existed in libraries since they were founded: racism, segregation, and class inequalities. These age-old problems have evolved into police violence, the opioid epidemic, rampant houselessness, and lack of mental health care nationwide—all of which come to a head in public library spaces.”
The Bay of Noon by Shirley Hazzard – I am working my way backwards through Hazzard. Having started with The Great Fire (2003), I moved on to The Transit of Venus (1980), and now I’m back to 1970 with this novel about a young Englishwoman in Naples.
The Radical Potter by Tristram Hunt – Practically everything I know about Josiah Wedgwood has come at me sideways through books about Charles Darwin, his grandson. Everything I’ve read about the man and his achievements has impressed me and I’m looking forward to learning more. This was well-reviewed in the Guardian.
The Frequency of Us by Keith Stuart – In Second World War Bath, young, naïve wireless engineer Will meets Austrian refugee Elsa Klein: she is sophisticated, witty and worldly, and at last his life seems to make sense . . . until, soon after, the newly married couple’s home is bombed, and Will awakes from the wreckage to find himself alone.
No one has heard of Elsa Klein. They say he was never married.
Seventy years later, social worker Laura is battling her way out of depression and off medication. Her new case is a strange, isolated old man whose house hasn’t changed since the war. A man who insists his wife vanished many, many years before. Everyone thinks he’s suffering dementia. But Laura begins to suspect otherwise
Stepping Up by Sarah Turner – an utterly familiar plot – an irresponsible woman finds herself as guardian to her niece and nephew after a family tragedy – that is supposed to be well-done.
The Gran Tour by Ben Aitken – When Ben Aitken learnt that his gran had enjoyed a four-night holiday including four three-course dinners, four cooked breakfasts, four games of bingo, a pair of excursions, sixteen pints of lager and luxury return coach travel, all for a hundred pounds, he thought, that’s the life, and signed himself up. Six times over.
Windswept by Annabel Abbs – This was what prompted me to test the InterLINK system as my pleas for my library to buy its own copy have gone unheeded. I am SO excited to start reading this memoir/group biography.
How We Met by Huma Qureshi – a short, gentle memoir about Qureshi’s experiences growing up in a family and culture that shaped her approach to finding a romantic partner – and how she eventually chose a different path and a very different sort of husband.
What did you pick up this week?
I was SO happy when this happened here, but I did find I did less browsing in those other libraries since they would send books to my local branch. You have a much nicer idea that I am going to emulate!
I always have fun visiting other library branches in my city but it was even more exciting to go somewhere brand new. Especially in this case as the branch was very beautiful, with gorgeous floor to ceiling windows looking towards the mountains.
Thanks for these Claire. I found Frequency and When Memory Speaks at the TPL, but no hint of How We Met. At least, not by Huma Qureshi
I’ll admit How We Met is only in the VPL catalogue because I repeatedly requested it (first last year when it was released in the UK and again recently with the eBook release here). Excited that TPL has those others, though!
I thoroughly enjoy your posts ..so keep on sending..at age 84 I get a chuckle from the cover of The Gran Tour😂
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and my library has The Gran Tour..just reserved it😂
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Wonderful! Happy reading.
That interLink system sounds great. I have not used ILL for a long time- since here there is a fee (whereas in other place I’ve lived it was free- and I made much use of it then!) Never heard of it so I wonder if it exists here.
Memory Speaks looks very interesting. And Overdue immediately caught my eye, though the synopsis doesn’t sound like what I expected. All the more intriguing! As usual, you just added to my ongoing TBR.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed they have something like InterLINK where you are!
Overdue looks amazing! I gotta read it!
Very intriguing, right? I’m not sure I’m totally in the right mood for it right now but we’ll see. It can always be borrowed again if necessary.