Thanks, as always, to Elle for her participation, and to Laura and Naomi for their reviews of books borrowed from libraries. Ever since she was our Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award shadow panel winner, I’ve followed Julianne Pachico’s blog. A recent post lists books she currently has from the library. I like her comment that borrowing books “is definitely scratching that dopamine itch for me”! On Instagram I spotted this post celebrating both libraries and Pride Month.
And so to my reading and borrowing since last time.
Most of my reservations seemed to come in all at once, right before we left for Scotland, so I’m taking a giant pile along with me (luckily, we’re traveling by car so I don’t have space or weight restrictions) and will see which I can get to, while also fitting in Scotland-themed reads, June review copies, e-books for paid review, and a few of my 20 Books of Summer!
READ
- Rainbow Rainbow: Stories by Lydia Conklin
- The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden
- Under the Rainbow by Celia Laskey
- Scattered Showers: Stories by Rainbow Rowell
- A Cat in the Window by Derek Tangye
- Cats in Concord by Doreen Tovey
CURRENTLY READING
- The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan
- The Gifts by Liz Hyder
- Milk by Alice Kinsella
- Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang
- Music in the Dark by Sally Magnusson
- Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers
- Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater
- The Archaeology of Loss by Sarah Turlow
- The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle by Kirsty Wark
CHECKED OUT, TO BE READ
RETURNED UNREAD
- Pod by Laline Paull – I wanted to give this a try because it made the Women’s Prize shortlist, but I looked at the first few pages and skimmed through the rest and knew I just couldn’t take it seriously. I mean, look at lines like these: “The Rorqual wanted to laugh, but it was serious. The dolphin had been in some physical horror and had lost his mind. Google could not bear his mistake. The sound he raced toward was not Base, but this thing, this creature, he had never before encountered.”
What have you been reading or reviewing from the library recently?
Share a link to your own post in the comments. Feel free to use the above image. The hashtag is #LoveYourLibrary.
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
So many books on the go, and I have read not a single one of them. I’d been wondering about Pod. Not any more. I’ll leave well alone.
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An anomaly on the WP shortlist, methinks!
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Nobody seems to have a good word for it!
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I loved Death of a Bookseller but that might be because it brought back so many bookselling memories. Keen to read the Dolan and I’ve been dithering about Yellowface, a bit put off by the hype. Interested to see how you get on with it. Have fun in Scotland! Hope you enjoy the Burrell and Kelp on your Glasgow day.
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I’m enjoying Yellowface, though from what I’ve heard I’m expecting it to take the ‘unreliable narrator’ to a new level.
Looking forward to our Glasgow tourism day! We’re on Islay now, anticipating a wet day spent mostly in distillery shops tomorrow.
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Hmm… given my liking for unreliable narrators I suspect I’ll read it. Have fun at the distillery shops.
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Good decision re Pod! I’ll have to check out Pachico’s blog as I loved both her books so much.
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You were remarkably gracious re: Pod, from the little I read!
Pachico has a new novel coming out this November, Jungle House. I enjoy reading her thoughts on books and writing and teaching university students.
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I agree that the writing in Pod was incredibly clunky but some sections did work for me (unfortunately I was totally disengaged from Ea’s plot, which makes up the bulk of the novel!) Thanks for the heads up re Pachico’s new book!
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You’ve confirmed what I suspected – that I would not get on well with Pod. If that extract is typical of the prose, I’m astounded it ever got on the shortlist for the Women’s Prize
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A curious choice for the shortlist, I agree!
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Re Pod: What? Actually what? Fortunately I’ve already been warned off it! Hope you’re having a lovely trip.
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I could have gotten on board with a book from the perspective of dolphins … but not with writing like that!
We were charmed by Arran and are having some great wildlife sightings on Islay.
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Nooooooo Pod is so much worse than I had imagined XD
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I hardly gave it a fair try, but still…
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The only one of these I’ve read is Five Red Herrings which I did enjoy; hope you do too, and the others.
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It’s my first from Sayers. I’m not usually one for detective fiction, but I’m enjoying it.
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Glad to hear that 🙂
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Can’t say I’ve done much with books from the library in recent weeks, just Madeline Miller’s Galatea which was a relatively short read.
I’ve still got a classic Arthur Machen novel, a rather battered library hardback from the county library’s stacks, waiting, though goodness knows when I’ll get round to it; I somehow don’t think there’ll be a waiting list for this, The Green Round, from 1933.
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It’s great that you can access older titles like that through your library. That sounds like the kind of thing mine would have weeded out due to disuse.
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I’ve just finished Pageboy by Elliot Page, which I got out of the library last week. Currently waiting for my hold of Yellowface!!
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I have a library hold on Pageboy. Looking forward to that.
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I received a memoir for my birthday–Sonata: a Memoir of Pain and the Piano. I’m really picky about memoir, but this is good. The author, Andrea Avery, received a diagnosis of RA at 12, just in time to ruin her budding career as a classical pianist. So much cool musical info and themes woven in–fascinating. (Also, life as a person suffering from chronic illness–and suffering with the medical establishment–from girlhood on is eye-opening.) Love your haul of books ready for your trip to Scotland. Have the best time! I’m set to visit France and Spain for a quick 10 day visit–haven’t decided what I’ll bring to read yet!
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That does sound good. I appreciate reading about chronic illness and one of my closest friends has RA.
I always try to do some reading on location. I’m sure you’d have plenty to choose from for France and Spain, whatever the cities or regions!
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Yellowface is one of the in-demand library books that I will be reading soon, up next in fact. I’ve heard a lot of good things.
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It’s been so interesting to see how the character vs. the author feels about cultural appropriation and the sort of Twitter wars that start over who can write what.
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