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.
November seems to be off to a bumpy start, which seems the perfect excuse (as though an excuse were ever needed) to stockpile a ridiculous number of books.
Too Marvellous for Words! by Julie Welch – the inter-library loan system is running again! Sort of. To the extent that other libraries around the province/country are open and sufficiently staffed to participate. It may be back in only a small way but it meant I was able to finally get my hands on this memoir of 1960s boarding school life that I’ve been trying to track down since first hearing about it in early 2017.
An Accomplished Woman by Jude Morgan – I never, ever get tired of reading this Heyer-esque tale.
A Rage for Rock Gardening by Nicola Shulman – I’ve not been able to escape the plant collector Reginald Farrer this year, mainly because I keep reading Ursula Buchan and she keeps mentioning him. There was a piece about him in a collection of her garden writings, then he appeared in her biography of her grandfather John Buchan, and finally there was an essay about him in the Summer 2020 edition of the Slightly Foxed quarterly. Clearly, Buchan finds him interesting and I’m intrigued to learn more about him in this slim biography.
Beartown by Fredrik Backman – I had my first encounter with Backman last month when I read his newest novel, Anxious People, which I loved. I’m intrigued to start on this soon.
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett – I’ve had this on hold for ages but have been leaving it paused (a wonderful feature! Bless all libraries that allow this), waiting for the right mood to hit. As the days grow darker and shorter, now seems like the right time to pick up this latest offering from the always dependable Patchett.
The Lost Love Song by Minnie Darke – I was surprised in the spring by how much I enjoyed Darke’s first novel, Star-Crossed, a romantic comedy centered around astrology. Happily, I didn’t have a long wait before this, her second book, came out and I sped through it right away and with great satisfaction.
Two Trees Make a Forest by Jessica J. Lee – In Lee’s first book, Turning, she combined memoir and nature writing beautifully as she wrote about her experiences swimming in the lakes around Berlin. Here she explores Taiwan to discover the land her family came from.
Ask Me Anything by P.Z. Reizin – I’m fairly skeptical of “smart” technology but what if it were plotting to help you? I’m looking forward to Reizin’s take on that in this “romantic comedy for the technology age“.
The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher – I read September by Pilcher when I was on holiday at the end of the summer and while I had my quibbles with it I can’t deny that it was absorbing. I know this is many people’s favourite of her works so thought I’d give it a try.
Something of His Art by Horatio Clare – It’s here! I have been waiting years for the library to get hold of this (truly, it appeared in the catalogue so long ago that my first hold expired – which means I’d had it on hold for more than a year and a half). It’s a slim book to carry the pressure of so much anticipation but it was worth the wait for just the beautiful cover design alone – Little Toller have done a stunning job.
Finally, the remaining two titles from Handheld Press that I’d asked the library to buy have come in: Kingdoms of Elfin by Sylvia Townsend Warner and The Runagates Club by John Buchan.
What did you pick up this week?
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