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.

Lots of recent releases for me this week and inadvertently in a very consistent colour theme.  I’ve had some trouble settling down with books recently but this batch has helped me break through that – I’ve already read four of them and enjoyed every single one.

Chums by Simon Kuper – Kuper was at Oxford with many of the men who have led Britain in recent years and looks at how the school’s culture helped shape them and their worldview.

Crazy for You by Jennifer Crusie – I miss new books from Crusie but am always happy to return to her backlist.

Hither, Page by Cat Sebastian – I’ve seen Sebastian’s name mentioned regularly as the author of queer historical romances but they didn’t seem like my thing.  However, this cosy mystery set in a small village shortly after WWII and focused on the local doctor and the spy who comes to investigate a recent murder was just delightfully warm and satisfying.  I’m delighted to know there’s a sequel.

Blackwater Falls by Ausma Zehanat Khan – I have been so looking forward to this first book in a new crime series from Khan after discovering her work last year (The Unquiet Dead made my list of favourite books for 2021) and am happy to report it’s her best book yet.  And it was even reviewed in the NYT recently!

Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade – Dade’s “Spolier Alert” romance series about the stars of a Game-of-Thrones-esque show has been surprisingly delightful, with the first two books heavily focused on fandom antics.  This deviates from that formula by focusing a romance between costars and I loved it.  This was the light but still emotionally relatable book I needed to break my reading drought.

The Candid Life of Meena Dave by Namrata Patel – Meena Dave is a photojournalist who, after losing her adoptive parents as a teen, has never had a true home.  When she is left an apartment in Boston by a women she didn’t know, she discovers a co-op that runs like a family and begins to uncover her own history and culture, as well as learn how to connect again with others.  I read this over the weekend and really enjoyed it.  The characters felt realistically complicated, as did the loneliness Meena struggled with.

What did you pick up this week?