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.

The glorious spring has turned to winter here.  There is snow everywhere and I hate every single flake of it.  But, on the plus side, there are plenty of books to keep me entertained when I am not fixating on how much I hate snow.

Something Wonderful by Todd S. Purdum – A thoroughly entertaining look at the partnership of Rodgers and Hammerstein.  I adore musicals so sped through this as soon as I picked it up.

A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr – A classic I’ve yet to read.

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice – I recently discovered the very wonderful Sentimental Garbage podcast, the first episode of which is devoted to this novel.  My own copy is in storage so, desperate to reread it, I turned to the library.

What did you pick up this week?

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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.

Sharlene has the Mr. Linky this week.

Two VERY exciting books for me this week:

The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal – When I picked up The Calculating Stars last week, I wasn’t sure how it would go given my mixed feelings towards Kowal’s previous books.  By the time I was a third of the way through it, I was hooked and racing to place a library hold on this sequel.  Kowal has created such a fascinating world, with the exploration of space completely reimagined in the wake of a meteorite hit in the early 1950s that speeds up global warming and forces humankind to look for ways to colonize space as the planet becomes uninhabitable. I am so excited to read more.  (Book Depository)

The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden – IT’S HERE!!!  Originally scheduled to be released last August, I feel like I’ve been waiting ages and ages for this final book in Arden’s Winternight trilogy.  The first book, The Bear and the Nightingale, was one of my favourite reads of 2017 and I sped through the second book, The Girl in the Tower, early last year.  I can’t wait to see how Arden concludes the series. (Book Depository)

What did you pick up this week?

This post contains affiliate links from Book Depository, an online book retailer with free international shipping.  If you buy via these links it means I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you).  

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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.

Leap In by Alexandra Heminsley – I wrote about this swimming memoir over the weekend but to sum it up: I couldn’t put it down.  Highly recommended. (Book Depository)

Darling Ma edited by James Roose-Evans – Do I know much about Joyce Grenfell?  No.  Do I need to in order to enjoy these letters she wrote to her mother?  We’ll find out.

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal – An alternate history with a decidedly feminist twist from the always intriguing Kowal. (Book Depository)

Buttercups and Daisies by Compton Mackenzie – Simon really enjoyed this last year, which is reason enough for me to try it!

(Not Quite) Mastering the Art of French Living by Mark Greenside – With my May trip to Brittany booked, I’m eager to read all I can to get myself in the mood.  However, there is a lamentable lack of travel or expat memoirs about the region.  Thankfully, Greenside, an American who has been living part-time in Brittany for decades, published a new memoir last year. (Book Depository)

A Question of Honor by Lynne Olson and Stanley Cloud – I was in the mood for really well written popular history and few people do it as well as Lynne Olson (here writing with husband Stanley Cloud).  This fascinating book focuses on the story of the Kosciuszko Squadron, Polish pilots who played a vital role in WWII.  And, since I can never recommend it enough, a reminder that you must read Olson’s Last Hope Island, about the contributions made by occupied countries to the war effort. (Book Depository)

What did you pick up this week?

This post contains affiliate links from Book Depository, an online book retailer with free international shipping.  If you buy via these links it means I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you).  

Read Full Post »

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.

In my last Library Loot post, I mentioned I had just read (and adored) Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos.  Audrey then got my year off to a spectacular start by alerting me to the fact that there were not one but two sequels: Belong to Me and I’ll Be Your Blue Sky.  What joy!  Naturally I got my hands on them within a few days and have read them both already with great delight.

In contrast, I’ve known about Hearts and Minds by Jane Robinson since it was first announced, long before its publication early last year, but have had to wait ages for my library to get a copy.  I am really looking forward to this history of the Great Pilgrimage of 1913, when suffragists (not suffragettes, importantly) marched from across the UK towards London to raise awareness of the fight for women’s suffrage.

I’ve borrowed Fascism by Madeleine Albright before but it has been in great demand and I wasn’t able to finish it before the due date.  I’m excited to return to this “examination of Fascism in the twentieth century and how its legacy shapes today’s world.”  Albright’s perspective is shaped by both her professional experiences as an American politician and diplomat, and her personal experiences of growing up in exile after her homeland was overrun by fascists (which you can read more about in Prague Winter).

I was browsing the food writing section of the bookstore by my office and noticed Unprocessed by Megan Kimble.  I’m always intrigued by experiments and find Kimble’s one – to eat only whole, unprocessed foods for a year while living on a student budget – particularly intriguing.

Finally, it’s been two years since I first borrowed War Diaries, 1939-1945 by Astrid Lindgren.  I didn’t manage to read them that time but I remain intrigued and eager to know more about what life in neutral Sweden was like during the war.

What did you pick up this week?

This post contains affiliate links from Book Depository, an online book retailer with free international shipping.  If you buy via these links it means I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you). 

Read Full Post »

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.

Nothing like starting the year off with lots of new books to read (and, as you can see from my loot, travels to plan)!

Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos – this was the last book I read in 2018 (bringing me to a round 150) and it was such a lovely way to end the year.  The story of Clare (age eleven) and Cornelia (age thirty-one) and how they find each other (and the other things they’ve been missing) was warm, charming, and full of golden-age movie references – what’s not to love?

Daughters of the Winter Queen by Nancy Goldstone – I placed a hold on this back when the library first ordered it but am even more excited now to read the story of Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen, and her four daughters.  Why?  Because I reread A Desperate Fortune by Susanna Kearsley last month, which focuses on the Jacobite community living in exile on the continent, so am in the perfect mood for more Stuart history.  I love when the timing works out that perfectly.

The Maisky Diaries edited by Gabriel Gorodetsky – I borrowed this before but never managed to get around to it.  Still, there was no doubt I would return to it – I love diplomat’s diaries, especially from this period (see my all-consuming love of The Siren Years by Charles Ritchie).

Love to Everyone (or The Skylark’s War) by Hilary McKay – I can’t remember where I first saw children’s story set during WWI reviewed but it was enough to convince me to place a hold.  I’ve seen it numerous places since then (the hold list moved very slowly) and it seems to be universally loved.

Matchmaking for Beginners by Maddie Dawson – I have an extraordinary weakness for stories about matchmakers.

The Precious Ones by Marisa de los Santos – I loved Love Walked In so much that I grabbed this off the shelf without even looking to see what it’s about.

All my other reading is suffering since my spare time is currently devoted to obsessively reading about France.  I’m planning to visit Europe in late May/early June this year and have been fretting over where to go.  London is a given but I was completely at sea as to where to spend the rest of my time – too many places appealed to me!  But I think I’ve settled on Brittany, with its beautiful coastline and thousands of kilometers of walking paths.  Now I’m having fun pining down the details.

What did you pick up this week?  

This post contains affiliate links from Book Depository, an online book retailer with free international shipping.  If you buy via these links it means I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you).  

Read Full Post »

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.

Sharlene has the Mr Linky this week.

I’ve been having trouble settling down with a book recently.  I’ve made it 100 or 200 pages into so many books recently only to realise I’m not all that interested in learning how they end.  Rereading has been far more successful – I was absolutely enthralled by A Desperate Fortune, despite having read it several times before, and sped through Home from the Vinyl Cafe – but I long for something new.

Which brings us to this week’s loot.

After reading Weekend at Thrackley earlier this year, I didn’t really have any intention of reading more by Alan Melville.  But the comments to that post were so encouraging about his other books (Quick Curtain and Death of Anton) that I thought I’d give them a try, and throw in one of his plays (Simon and Laura) for good measure.

I’ve already started Quick Curtain and it is wonderful – exactly the kind of fun, absorbing read I needed.

What did you pick up this week?

This post contains affiliate links from Book Depository, an online book retailer with free international shipping.  If you buy via these links it means I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you).  

Read Full Post »

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.

Have you stocked up on books for Christmas?  I am urgently placing holds, willing everything to arrive by Sunday (the last day my library is open until the 27th) so I have supplies laid in for the holiday break.  I still have my fingers crossed that some long awaited holds will come in before then but these books will keep me well entertained regardless:

Prague Spring by Simon Mawer – Naturally, I’m intrigued by any novel about the Prague Spring.  This sounds like it is focused on outsiders’ perspectives and I’ve been seeing lots of enthusiastic reviews in my favourite publications.

House of Gold by Natasha Solomons – I tried with this one.  I really did.  For years, I’ve felt like Solomons was so close to becoming an author I could really enjoy (her early books – Mr Rosenblum Dreams in English and The Novel in the Viola – had promise but were far from perfect) and I really thought she’d turned the corner.  Her last novel, The Song Collector, was marvellous and I loved every page.  Unfortunately, the magic has not lasted and this tale inspired by the Rothschild family has proved a big disappointment.  I made it halfway through but have given up in disgust.

The Assassination of the Archduke  by Greg King and Sue Woolmans – I’ve borrowed this a few times over the years but never gotten to it.  Assassination might not be everyone’s idea of Christmas reading but I’ve always been interested in Franz Ferdinand and this book has come highly recommended by other history geeks.

Walking to the End of the World by Beth Jusino – Always on the lookout for new travelogues about walking, I was at the top of the hold list for this memoir.

Palaces for the People by Eric Klinenberg – Another favourite topic is the social impact of urban planning so this look at the important role played by shared public spaces sounds excellent.

Falling for London  by Sean Mallen – This memoir of a Canadian journalist’s experiences after landing his dream posting in London is in every shop window I pass these days.  I love any sort of ex-pat memoir but one set in London is particularly alluring.

What did you pick up this week?

This post contains affiliate links from Book Depository, an online book retailer with free international shipping.  If you buy via these links it means I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you).  

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