Library Loot

Published on May 1, 2009 by Margaret5 Comments

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Alessandra that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.

I haven’t written about my Library Loot for a few weeks as I’ve been trying to catch up on reading my ever-growing piles of books. I have of course been visiting the library but not adding much to their issue figures. In fact I’ve returned more recently than I’ve borrowed.

But here are four more library books I’ve acquired in the last few weeks, none of which I’ve started to read (descriptions from the library on-line catalogue):

The Island That Wasn’t There by Rita Snowden. “One day, Rosie finds a mermaid, Anemone, tangled in the seaweed. The mermaid is too scared to swim back. But when Rosie tries to get help, no one believes her – except for an old man called Yan Eye.” This children’s book is Rita Snowden’s first novel. So far I’ve only looked at a few pages but it is obviously drawn from folk-lore and myths.
Doctored Evidence by Donna Leon. When the body of a wealthy elderly woman is found, brutally murdered in her Venetian flat, Commissario Brunetti decides – unofficially – to take the case on himself. I keep reading about Donna Leon’s books – how good they are etc, but I’ve never read one. I like the map of Venice on the inside covers of the book.
Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovitch. Stephanie Plum is back in town, along with her sidekick Lula, her Grandma Mazur, and an ever-widening cast of freaks, criminals, deranged felons, and lunatics looking for love. And just when Stephanie thinks her life can’t get any more complicated, in walks the mysterious Diesel. Janet Evanovich is another author I’ve never read, but seen reviews on some blogs. I thought I’d try this one.
The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie. No library description, but then the title says it all. From the back cover – “The Bantrys have awoken to find the body of a young woman in their library. … But who is she? How did she get there? And what’s the connection with another dead girl, whose charred remains are later discovered in an abandoned quarry?” I must have read this years ago, but as I’m taking part in the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge I decided to read it again. Have a look at the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Carnival for reviews of Christie’s books.

Here are two more phtos of my library – the Children’s Section and the little reading area where my husband sits and reads the paper whilst waiting for me to choose books – he chooses his much more quickly than I do.

Library Loot

Published on April 3, 2009 by Margaret8 Comments

I gave myself a pat on the back as I walked out of the library yesterday, because for once I’d borrowed fewer books than I’d taken back. As usual though I can’t wait to start reading them and have already started the genealogy book – well I’ve dipped into it. My loot this week is:

The Anti-social Behaviour of Horace Rumpole by John Mortimer. This has such a beautiful cover. I think it may be the last novel published by Sir John Mortimer who died in January this year. The Times is quoted on the back cover: ” Very funny about the old dinosaur’s attempt to fit into the depressingly clean modern world”. It promises to be good – about petty criminials, kids playing football in the streets and it even looks as though Rumpole himself will be getting an ASBO (Anti-Social Behaviour Order).
Not the End of the World by Kate Atkinson. I’ve become a fan of Kate Atkinson so I have to read this one. It’s a collection of short stories, beautifully illustrated with woodcuts, described on the cover as:

Vibrantly contemporary, plausibly implausible, refreshingly original … a timely meditation on mythology and transformation …

The Beginner’s Guide to Tracing Your Roots by Diane Marelli. I’m researching my family history whenever I get the time. Actually once I get started it’s hard to stop, but then my brain gets addled and I get everyone mixed up. So I was interested in this book which decribes how Diane Marelli went about her research and I thought it looked rather different from other “how-to” books. It’s written with enthusiasm and is very funny in parts – it’s not a text book but is still packed with information.
The Birthday Present by Barbara Vine. Cath’s post on her blog Read Warbler about Barbara Vine made me realise that I hadn’t read any of Vine’s books, although I’m familiar with her work through the TV adaptations. Anyway books are better than filmed versions so I thought I’d see what the library had. Again from the book cover, The Birthday Present is described:

Set against an age of IRA bombings, the first Gulf War and sleazy politics, The Birthday Present is the gripping story of a fall from grace, and of a man who carries within him all the hypocrisy, greed and self-obsession of a troubled era.

I hope it won’t be too long before I get time to read these books!

And to finish off here is another photo of my local branch library, showing a display of books on Mediterranean Cookery with some of the fiction shelves in the background. Note the stand of reading glasses!

This Week’s Library Books

Published on March 14, 2009May 20, 2018 by Margaret6 Comments

I don’t need to borrow any more books, but I had to go to the library to return The Gargoyle (see here) and of course then I couldn’t leave without at least looking at the books. This week I concentrated on non-fiction as I already have a few novels on the go. I read non-fiction much more slowly than fiction, so I don’t read many.

The photo below shows part of my local library’s non-fiction section. It’s not large but it has a good selection of books and I always find something of interest there.

I came home with three books (I was very restrained remembering all my unread books):

library-loot-non-fiction

I don’t read much poetry but The Poems of Thomas Hardy, selected and introduced by Claire Tomalin caught my attention as I’ve read several of Hardy’s novels, but none of his poetry. Hardy wrote over a thousand poems and this selection traces his experiences of life and love. This reminded me that over a year ago I started to read her biography of Hardy, which I’d put down for a while to read more of Hardy’s own works before finishing it. Time to get back to it soon.
Impressionism by Paul Smith. I’ve become very interested in the Impressionists since taking a short course recently. The course concentrated on the sites they painted rather than their lives. To supplement that I’m already reading Sue Roe’s The Private Lives of the Impressionists. This book looks at the social, political and intellectual contexts in which Impressionism came about. Plus it has many colour illustrations of their paintings.
Lost For Words by John Humphrys. I like John Humphry’s style – this book is about the “mangling and manipulation of the English Language”. He thinks language should be “simple, clear and honest” and provides examples of cliches, meaningless jargon and evasive language (which I detest).

Library Loot

Published on March 6, 2009May 20, 2018 by Margaret12 Comments

I’ve spent quite a big chunk of my life in libraries. As a child I used to go about once a week and after I left school I worked in a large city library and then went to library school. After I qualified as a librarian I worked in the library’s Local History Library for about four years and then left to have a baby. But that of course didn’t stop me using the library and again I used to go about once a week. When I started to work full-time again (years later) I spent most lunchtimes in the County Library main library either browsing or reading. Since leaving work I’ve been borrowing books from this small branch library, although I still have trips in to the main library as well.

local-library

This week I’ve borrowed six books and bought two from the Ex Library Stock Sale. These are the books that I borrowed:

The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lilian Jackson Braun. I haven’t read anything by Braun before and it was the title that attracted me to this book. There is a series of The Cat Who … books, so if I like this one there are plenty more to read. I think this is the first one in the series, introducing Koko the brilliant Siamese cat and reporter Jim Qwilleran sniffing out clues to murders in an art gallery.
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie, her first novel and the first of her Hercule Poirot books. I must have read this one years ago when I had a binge on Agatha Christie’s books, but I thought it was time to re-read it.

library-corner The library has a display of new fiction and that’s often the first place I look. This week I borrowed one book from the display- there were actually more new books on display on a bookcase next to the table:

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson. After a horrific car accident which leaves him in a burns ward, undergoing the tortures of the damned, the narrator of the story meets Marianne Engel, a wild and compelling sculptress of gargoyles who tells him they were once lovers in medieval Germany. As she tells her tales, he finds himself drawn back to life – and, finally, to love. I’ve started this one as I can only borrow it for one week as it’s a “Top Ten Best Seller”. After a few pages I nearly gave up on it because of the graphic descriptions of burning skin and flesh. The pages are suitably black-edged. It’s got a bit better now Marianne is telling her tales.

The other books I borrowed are:

The Sound of Butterflies by Rachel King. I’ve read about this one somewhere on someone’s blog, but can’t remember where or when. Anyway this looks so good – the cover and the title and when I looked inside it promises to be a “story of passion and beauty, of brutality and murder, masked by surface splendour.” It’s about a passionate collector of butterflies who in 1903 travels to the Amazon as part of a scientific expedition. He hopes to find the mythical butterfly that will make his name and immortalize that of his wife.
Who Do You Think You Are? by Anton Gill and Nick Barrett. I’ve been watching the TV programmes of the same name and am currently just a bit obsessed with looking up my family history. The earliest ancestor I’ve found so far was born around 1710 and I’d love to know more.
How To Do Everything With Your Genealogy by George G Morgan. We joined Ancestry last year and have been compiling our family tree online, but this book although aimed at tracing your ancestors for Americans does contain some useful information on recording data.

The two books I bought are:

The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier – a story built around a series of tapestries, set in Brussels at the end of the 15th century.
A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine Engels. I’d never heard of this author until I came across her name on book blogs (again I can’t remember which ones). This is a fantasy story about Charles who goes searching for his lost father through a “wrinkle in time” and finds himself on an evil planet. Oh dear I’ve just checked this on LibraryThing which tells me that I “probably won’t like” this book – let’s hope that’s wrong! (I wonder how LT works it out?)

I’ll be showing more photos of the library in other Library Loot posts in the future.

Library Matters

Published on February 23, 2009May 20, 2018 by Margaret12 Comments

I started to write Library Loot posts a couple of weeks ago and thought I’d combine this one with the today’s Musing Mondays post as that is about the library …

How often do you visit the library? Do you have a scheduled library day/time, or do you go whenever? Do you go alone, or take people with you?

I don’t have a scheduled day to visit the library, but I do go frequently. Actually I borrow books from two libraries – a little branch library, which I visit the most and the main County library. I either go on my own or with my husband.

Sometimes I go specifically to the library but often I combine my visit with shopping trips. I prefer the branch library because even though there are less books on the shelves to choose from there is a really friendly atmosphere there – the staff know me. In any case if I want a particular book I can reserve it. They have several displays, that I always check first such as new books and first books before browsing the shelves or looking for specific books/authors. It’s a lot easier to park here as well. I usually borrow far too many books. At the moment I’m up to the limit on my ticket – 15 books, but I can always use my husband’s as he doesn’t borrow as many. We often borrow a DVD and have recently been taking out an audiobook as well.

I haven’t been to the library this week, maybe going tomorrow, so my Library Loot post is about some of the books I’ve got out already. Of the 15 books I have out there are four books that I haven’t started to read. They are (the summaries are from the library catalogue, except for the Wodehouse book):

The Crowded Bed by Mary Cavanagh – Joe Fortune, a Jewish GP, has been married to Anna, his Aryan beauty, for 20 years, in a relationship that is sustained with great passion and happiness. But in the shadows of their lives, dark secrets are hidden.
An Imaginative Experience by Mary Wesley – Mary Wesley draws out on a plot of unforgettable impact: of loss, of release, of a necessarily comic acceptance of fate, of love the ‘imaginative experience’. Rich in character and wit, and powerfully moving, this is a novel of the heart’s pain and deliverance.
Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen by P G Wodehouse – extract from the back cover – When the doctor advises Bertie to live the quiet life he and Jeeves head for the pure air and peace of Maiden Eggesford. However they hadn’t reckoned on Aunt Dahlia, aound whom an imbroglio develops involving the Cat which Kept Popping Up When Least Expected.
The Mirror Cracked from Side To Side by Agatha Christie – One minute, Heather had been gabbling on at her movie idol, Marina Gregg – the next, Heather suffered a massive seizure. But for whom was the poison really intended? This is one in a new-look series of Miss Marple books for the 21st century.

Writing about them now makes me want to read them all at once, but since I’m in the middle of other books they’ll have to wait.

Library Loot

Published on February 13, 2009May 20, 2018 by Margaret7 Comments

I went to the library yesterday to pick up a reservation, The Private Lives of the Impressionists by Sue Roe. I’d written about the short course on the Impressionists I’m doing and Litlove recommended this book. It has a lovely front cover showing part of Eugene Manet on the Isle of Wight by Berthe Morisot. I’d love to see the original which is in the Musee Marmottan in Paris.

The course I’m doing is focussing on the sites the painters used and not much about their lives and as I know very little (nothing really) about them this book promises to enlighten me. It covers Manet, Monet (I get those two mixed up in my head), Pisarro, Cezanne, Renoir, Degas, Sisley, Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt, going into their homes, their studios, describing their love affairs and arguments, as well as their canvases and theories. It has some illustrations.

library-loot-impressroe

Whilst I was in the library I looked for other books on the Impressionists focussing on their actual works. There was plenty of choice and I came home with two large heavy books:

library-loot-impress

The Impressionists by Robert Katz and Celestine Dars. This is full of colour illustrations in two sections, one on the history of Impressionism and one on the life and works of the artists in Sue Roe’s book plus Frederic Bazille.
The Impressionists by Themselves, edited by Michael Howard. This is a massively heavy book containing a selection of their paintings, drawings and sketches with extracts from their writing. It’s arranged chronologically covering the years 1856 – 1924

I don’t think the three week loan period will be long enough for me to absorb these books but at least I’ll find out if I want to buy any of them for future reference.