It’s been a year since I relaunched the Library Checkout meme. I want to say a big thank you to the handful of bloggers who have joined in since then. It’s such a quick, fun and easy post to put together by the final Monday of each month. Why not take part?!
In the past month I’ve been reading from the Booker Prize longlist. Although I also read within my comfort zones of historical fiction and memoirs, I’ve dabbled in genres I don’t read as often, like graphic novels and middle-grade fiction.
For November’s challenges I’m stockpiling novella-length books, one of them for Margaret Atwood Reading Month. At some point I’ll have to get real about how many more 2018 releases I can read before I fly to America for Christmas, which may mean canceling some reservations. I’m holding out for at least the Murakami and Obama titles to arrive in time!
(As usual, I’ve added in star ratings and links to Goodreads reviews where I haven’t already featured the books on the blog in some way.)
LIBRARY BOOKS READ
- Another Year of Plumdog by Emma Chichester Clark [graphic novel]
- French Exit by Patrick deWitt
- Sabrina by Nick Drnaso [graphic novel]
- Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
- All Among the Barley by Melissa Harrison
- Tilly & the Bookwanderers (Pages & Co., #1) by Anna James
- The Seabird’s Cry: The Lives and Loves of Puffins, Gannets and Other Ocean Voyagers by Adam Nicolson
- Rosie: Scenes from a Vanished Life by Rose Tremain
SKIMMED ONLY
- My Father and Myself by J.R. Ackerley
- Noonday by Pat Barker
- The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan [Read in 2015; re-skimmed for book club.]
- Wilding by Isabella Tree
CURRENTLY READING
- Everything Under by Daisy Johnson
- The Overstory by Richard Powers
CURRENTLY READING-ish (set aside temporarily)
- The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
CHECKED OUT, TO BE READ
- Surfacing by Margaret Atwood
- The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
- Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
- The Man Who Came Uptown by George Pelecanos
- The Long Take by Robin Robertson
- The Mussel Feast by Birgit Vanderbeke
ON HOLD, TO BE PICKED UP
- Varina by Charles Frazier
IN THE RESERVATION QUEUE
- The Bus on Thursday by Shirley Barrett
- Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family by Garrard Conley
- West by Carys Davies
- Sincerity by Carol Ann Duffy [poetry]
- House of Glass by Susan Fletcher
- In Miniature: How Small Things Illuminate the World by Simon Garfield
- The Glorious Life of the Oak by John Lewis-Stempel
- Holloway by Robert Macfarlane et al.
- Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami
- Becoming by Michelle Obama
- Fox 8 by George Saunders
- Cassandra Darke by Posy Simmonds [graphic novel]
RETURNED UNFINISHED
- Swan Song by Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott
RETURNED UNREAD
- A Man in Love by Karl Ove Knausgaard – Too dang long! Tiny print and over 500 pages. I don’t think I’ll be completing the My Struggle series.
- Now We Shall Be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller – This was requested after me, and I knew I wouldn’t have time for it. Also, I think I’ve lost interest for now.
What have you been reading from your local libraries? Does anything appeal from my stacks?
I don’t have an official link-up system, so please just pop a link to your blog in the comments if you’ve taken part in Library Checkout this month. (Feel free to use the image in your post.)
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
I’ll tell you why I don’t join in. The shame of only having about 4 books to share compared with your 15. I know it’s not a competition. But still ….. It’s been even fewer this month as I’ve been savouring Julie Orringer’s The Invisible Bridge, which I know you loved too. I’d like to read more of her books.
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No worries! You could always do a more casual several-month roundup if you preferred. I’m so glad you’ve been enjoying The Invisible Bridge.
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Ghost Wall is superb. Hope your interest in the Miller will be rekindled.
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I enjoyed Pure so much that I do intend to try more of his books in the future. Just maybe not this year 😉 I do own a copy of Ingenious Pain.
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He’s at his best with historical fiction. I’m sure you’d like both!
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Thanks for the reminder to put Michelle Obama’s book on hold! I’m currently number 18 on the list, not bad!
Here’s the link to my Library Checkout if anyone else wants to take a look:
https://bigreadinglife.wordpress.com/2018/10/27/library-checkout-october-2018/
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I’m at #2 for that one, but given how slowly books that are on order seem to come in I’m not sure I’ll be reading it before Christmas!
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Even though I do enjoy reading your post on the meme (and Laila’s, too), it would be the opposite of a quick and easy post for me. I think the quotas and limits on Toronto library card usage afford me far too much leeway to be unreasonable. And, so, because I am, in the rest of my life, unremittingly responsible and cautious, I abuse this privilege monstrously. I currently have a very small stack of 29 books borrowed, with well over a dozen books en route, nearly 50 on hold (which, sometimes, to be fair, take weeks, even months to make their way to me, depending on copies/demand) and over 300 on my wish-list (which is a way of saving titles of interest so that they are easier to place on hold when desired – like pre-holding). It’s shameful, I know! (I have the opposite problem that Margaret has – although I would be “good” if someone made me. *grins*)
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If my library system allowed any more than 15 holds at a time, I would surely take advantage of it! As it is, it’s a fairly sensible limit that helps me to focus on my priority new releases. One thing I do take outrageous advantage of, though, is my husband’s university library card — up to 20 items on a pretty much indefinite loan (unless requested by someone else). I’ve given up listing those loans in Library Checkout because I’ve only actually read a few of them in the past year or more; the rest just live on my bedside table shelves.
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I hardly use my library which I know is AWFUL and I really should to avoid losing it. Gah! I keep hearing people say if we like Kingsolver we will like The Overstory. And I really enjoyed Unsheltered (I finished it on Sunday, Matthew is still reading it, oops!).
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I would love to visit the central Birmingham library. I have heard it’s quite something (and seen photos). I presume you’d use a smaller satellite branch? Yes, The Overstory is a comparable read to Unsheltered. Both are very forthright in their environmental message. Powers spreads the story out over more characters, so it’s a bit hard to keep track of and have sympathy for all of them, but it’s also a very powerful and timely book.
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Yes, our branch is on our high street but we can borrow from the big library too (come and visit and see it!). I think I would like to read The Overstory, too.
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