Library Loot

Published on November 7, 2009 by Margaret2 Comments

I went to the library this week just to return some books and had no intention of borrowing any more as I don’t think I’ll be able to finish the ones I’ve already got out before we leave the area.

But I made the mistake of looking at the first display stand, which contained some very short books in the Open Door series. I hadn’t come across these books before. They are by Irish writers and all the royalties from the sales go to a charity of the author’s choice. I chose The Builders by Maeve Binchy. The royalties go to Our Lady’s Hospice, Harold’s Cross, Dublin. From the back cover:

With family complications and crooked property developers things are about to get very messy.

I have a feeling it’s going to be too short.

Next I wandered over to the fiction, looking for more slim books and picked up The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith. I’ve been wanting to read this for years. It’s Mr Pooter’s diary first published in book form in 1822, a record of

…the daily grind in respectable suburbia and the City office. It tells of his constant war against insolvent tradesmen and impudent juniour clerks, his incomprehensible, irrepressible son Lupin, and his overwhelming feeling that the biggest joke is on him. It is both entirely fictional and transcentally true.

Inevitably I was drawn to longer books and chose City of the Mind by Penelope Lively, one of my favourite authors. According to the book jacket this is a

… wonderfully rich and audacious confrontation with the mystery of London, with the buried lives that make us what we are …

I hope I don’t have to return them unread.

As I shan’t be going there for much longer I’m posting a photo of the oustide of my local library.

Library Loot

Published on October 31, 2009 by Margaret10 Comments

I went to the library yesterday and borrowed just four books. As we’re moving house at the end of November I may be able to read these in time. In fact I only have one week to read Dewey: the Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron. I only have one week because this is part of the library’s “Top Ten Best Sellers” and cannot be renewed.

I first read about this book last year when many book bloggers were writing about how good it is. As Dewey is a ginger cat and a library cat how could I resist borrowing this book. (Our own little ginger cat Lucy also loves books, always rubbing her head round the piles of books lying around the house and trying to read the one I’m reading!) Dewey dropped into the library returns box as a tiny kitten grows into “a strutting adorable library cat whose antics kept patrons in stitches, and whose sixth sense about those in need created hundreds of deep and loving friendships.”

The next book I found is Excursion to Tindari, an Inspector Montalbano Mystery by Andrea Camilleri. “A young Don Juan is found murdered in front of his apartment building early one morning and an elderly couple are reported missing after an excursion to the ancienmt site of Tindari “. I haven’t read anything by Camilleri but I thought this looked good. The praise on the back cover from The Times is “A joy to read”, whilst the NewYork Times calls it a “savagely funny police procedural”.

Moving along the shelves I came across Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver. I borrowed this because I loved Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible. Pigs in Heaven is apparently “a spellbinding novel of heartbreak, love and complicated family ties.”

My final choice is Shakespeare: the World as a Stage by Bill Bryson. I’ve liked everything I’ve read by Bryson and I love Shakespeare, so this was an easy choice. Bryson wanted to know more about Shakespeare because the records reveal little about him. “In a journey through Shakespeare’s time, he brings to life the hubbub of Elizabethan England and a host of characters along the way. Bryson celebrates the glory of Shakespeare’s language – his ceaseless inventiveness gave us hundreds of now indispensable phrases, images and words – and delights in details of his fall-outs and folios, poetry and plays.” I thought it would complement 1599: a year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro, which I’ve started to read.

The only question now is – will I have time to read these?

Note: the quotations are from the back covers of the books.

Library Loot

Published on July 14, 2009 by Margaret5 Comments

I came back from the library today with this pile of books.

I’ve been thinking about how I choose books since writing my last Weekly Geeks post – am I influenced by the cover, just what is it about a book that makes me want to read it? Here are my reasons for choosing this pile:

The English: a Portrait of a People by Jeremy Paxman. I like to vary reading fiction with non-fiction, so I browsed in the non-fiction section and this caught my eye because of its title and author. I haven’t read anything by Jeremy Paxman but his TV programmes are always interesting and often controversial. I thought I’d like to find out how he defines Englishness. The chapter headings look interesting such as “The Land of the Lost Content”, “Funny Foreigners” and “The Ideal Englishman”. It also looks as though no one else has borrowed this book and it’s always nice reading a brand new book.
Strange Affair by Peter Robinson. I looked for a book by this author based on Roberta’s recommendations in her blog Books To the Ceiling.
My Invented Country by Isabel Allende. South America is largely unexplored by my reading and I have two of Allende’s books waiting to be read. She was on my mind since writing the Weekly Geeks post and so I looked in the Biography section and found this memoir. It promises to be a ‘highly personal tour through Chile.’
Little Monsters by Charles Lambert. I’ve not read anything at all about this book or its author. It’s from the New Books section and its cover was on full display. I don’t like the cover and I don’t like the title, but what attracted me initially is this quote from Beryl Bainbridge on the front cover: ‘Charles Lambert is a seriously good writer.’ I like her books, so I picked it up and on the back cover this quote from Griff Rhys Jones (why him, I wondered) made me curious enough to look further: ‘Sharp like sherbet, poignant and gripping.’ I opened the book and the first pages looked interesting.
Small Gardens – a Royal Horticultural Society Guide. This was in the library sale. We have a small garden, sadly not too flourishing, so I thought it would be useful.
The Riddle of the River by Catherine Shaw – another author I’ve never come across before and in this case it was the title on the spine that drew my eye. The cover is OK, but it was the sub-title and the subject matter that made me decide to borrow the book – ‘Murder and mystery in Victorian Cambridge’. The book summary on the back helped plus the opening pages.

How do other people choose books? Do let me know.

Library Loot

Published on June 13, 2009 by Margaret4 Comments

This week’s visit to the library was good. Although I didn’t go armed with a list of authors and titles I was pleased to find some books/authors that I’d read about on blogs recently – they seem to jump out at me.

First, I saw The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton. The Slaves of Galconda had read this for their last book and from their reviews and discussion I thought I would like it and it looked different from other books I’ve read recently. The library catalogue’s summary is:

The Rosamund Tea Rooms boarding house is an oppressive place, as grey and lonely as its residents. For Miss Roach, ‘slave of her task-master, solitude’, a window of opportunity is suddenly presented by the appearance of a charismatic American lieutenant. His arrival brings change to the precarious society of the house.

Then Anarchy and Old Dogs by Colin Cotterill. Gautami wrote about another book by Cotterill this week, so this book caught my eye too. The library’s summary is:

Courtesy of a runaway logging truck, a blind, retired dentist has just checked into Dr Siri’s downtown morgue. Laos’ one and only coroner is mildly curious as to how anyone could be run over in a country where two vehicles on one road would be considered a traffic jam. Is the ex-dentist’s demise connected to the letter in his pocket?

Ever since I read The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry I’ve been wanting to read more by him and this week I found The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty. From the book cover this is:

the secret history if a lost man who, while leaving no trace on the record, become stamped upon the heart of the reader. It is a deeply felt account of flight and the underlying pull of home, written with passion, tenderness and wit.

Normally sequels and prequels are books I avoid, particularly ones to Jane Austen’s novels, but I saw this on the shelf and thought I’d have a look at it – The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet by Colleen McCullough. This tells what became of Mary, the Bennet’s prim daughter. Now I’ve got it home I’m not at all sure I’m going to like this, although I do like McCullough’s books; the reviews on Amazon and LibraryThing are hardly encouraging. I’ll have to see.

I think I’m on safer ground with the next book – The Hound of Death by Agatha Christie, this is a collection of tales of fate and the supernatural, described in the library catalogue as:

12 unexplained phenomena with no apparent earthly explanation, including a dog-shaped gunpowder mark, an omen from the ‘other side’, an eerie wireless messages, and a levitation experience.

Library Loot is hosted by Eva.

Library Loot

Published on June 6, 2009 by Margaret5 Comments

I borrowed just three books this week from the library. For more Library Loot click on the button above.

Coastliners by Joanne Harris: a novel about a hardy island community fighting the encroaching seas. A young woman returns to her home island off the Atlantic coast and tries to stop the decline of her father’s fishing village. I borrowed this book because I loved Chocolat and Gentlemen and Players.

The Thirteen Problems by Agatha Christie. This is a collection of short stories. A group of friends, including Miss Marple meet on a Tuesday night and tell sinister stories of unsolved crimes. I’m taking part in the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge and this week this was the only book in the library by AC. I’ve started reading it and am finding it a bit simplistic. So far it’s been Miss Marple much to the surprise of the others (but not to me) who comes up with the solution.

The Gardens of the Dead by William Brodrick: When Elizabeth Glendinning QC dies of a sudden heart attack while making a desperate phone call to the police, her colleagues and family are devastated and mystified. What was she doing in east London at the time of her death, and what was she trying to tell Inspector Cartwright in her last phone call? I’ve never read anything by William Brodrick, so this is new territory. The quotes on the back cover are promising eg: “Worthy of Le Carre at his best” from Allan Massie writing in the Scotsman.

Library Loot

Published on May 18, 2009 by Margaret6 Comments

Hurray! Since writing my post on Gluttony last ThursdayI’ve managed not to buy any books!

But I had to go to the library to pick up two books I’d reserved, so I was unable to resist the temptation of browsing, which inevitably lead to finding more books that looked good – at least they’re not permanent additions to the “library at home”. I took home a mixed bag of books – two psychological thrillers, one chick-lit, one book of short stories, an American classic, and a book shortlisted for this year’s Orange Prize for Fiction, awarded to awarded to the woman who, in the opinion of the judges, has written the best, eligible full-length novel in English.

The first two listed below are the ones I reserved:

The Reunion by Simone van der Vlugt, which according to the back cover is “a tour-de-force from Holland’s top-selling crime writer.” I first read about it on another blog (can’t remember which one – sorry). Also from the back cover: “Sabine was 15 when Isabel disappeared. She remembers nothing from that hot May day. Nine years later, unwanted memories are returning to her. What if she saw something the day of Isabel’s disappearance? What if she could put a name to the shadowy figure in her dreams? What if her knowledge was dangerous?”
The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey – shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction this year. This may be painful reading as it’s about Jake who has Alzheimer’s. He is in his early 60s, has lost his wife, his son is in prison, and he is about to lose his past. I am both fascinated and appalled by Alzheimer’s.
The Fantastic Book of Everybody’s Secrets by Sophie Hannah. I keep reading Sophie’s name all over the place, so when I saw this book on the shelves I thought it was time to read something by her. This is a book of short stories. I read the first one “The Octopus Nest” yesterday and would have read more of them if I hadn’t been going out in the evening. I think I’m going to really enjoy this book, based on this first story about a stranger who keeps appearing in the background of a family’s holiday photographs.
Shoe Addicts Anonymous by Beth Harbison. An unknown-to-me author, but I love shoes and fancied something light and funny. This looks like chic-lit and I can’t imagine ever meeting up with friends to swap shoes, which is what the women in this book do, but maybe it’ll be entertaining.
A Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell. I still haven’t read her book “The Birthday Present”, so this should have stayed on the shelf but the first sentence hooked me: “Eunice Parchman killed the Coverdale family because she could not read or write.” So we know right away who did the murder, but not why.
A Lost Lady by Willa Cather. I have never read anything by Willa Cather. I liked the title, the book cover and the intriguing words on the front cover: “The Madame Bovary of the American frontier.” I opened this this morning just to look at it and read it straight through! It deserves a post of its own.