Thanks to Laila, Laura, Marcie (the middle and right-hand images below), and Naomi (here and here) for posting about their recent library reading! Everyone is welcome to join in with this meme that runs on the last Monday of the month.
It was National Library Week in the USA the week of the 7th, and I enjoyed Gretchen Rubin’s post about the libraries that have been special to her over the years. I can think of so many that have meant something to me, mostly back home in Maryland: the Silver Spring, Bowie and Frederick public libraries, and the Hood College library. And in England, the University of Reading library, the University of Leeds Brotherton library, the King’s College Maughan Library, Senate House Library, and all the county branch libraries I’ve been a member of, up through Newbury Library now. How about for you?
I’ve read some great stuff over the past month! I link to my reviews of anything I haven’t already covered on the blog.
READ
- Barcelona by Mary Costello
- Life in the Balance: A Doctor’s Stories of Intensive Care by Jim Down
- The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (a reread for book club)
- The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
- Come and Get It by Kiley Reid
- The Collected Stories of Carol Shields
- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (a reread)
- Moral Injuries by Christie Watson
- Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood
- Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang
SKIMMED
- Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan
- Blood: The Science, Medicine, and Mythology of Menstruation by Dr Jen Gunter
- How to Raise a Viking: The Secrets of Parenting the World’s Happiest Children by Helen Russell
- Before the Light Fades: A Memoir of Grief and Resistance by Natasha Walter
CURRENTLY READING
- Cloistered: My Years as a Nun by Catherine Coldstream
- Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
- The Door-to-Door Bookstore by Carsten Henn
- Kay’s Incredible Inventions by Adam Kay
- Mona of the Manor by Armistead Maupin
- After Dark by Haruki Murakami
- Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang
CHECKED OUT, TO BE READ
- Jungle House by Julianne Pachico
& the rest of what is pictured above and below:
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 
I somehow missed your review of Stone Yard Devotional but glad you enjoyed it. I am a devoted Wood fan – such a versatile writer and I never know what I’ll get.
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So different from The Weekend! I’m enjoying the similarities I’m finding in Cloistered, another story set at a convent.
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You have SUCH a good haul this month! The libraries I remember most fondly are two childhood ones: Palisades Library in DC and Bradford-on-Avon Library in Wiltshire. Most libraries I have to visit for work make me cross (I’m looking at you British Library) but I loved working in Trinity Hall’s Jerwood Library (definitely the most beautiful, sod off Rad Cam Oxford) and the University Library in Cambridge (hideous but v user friendly).
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Another two from that big stack are now requested after me, so it’s time to get stuck into some more!
The two libraries where I’ve worked were hideous 1960s constructions but I was fond of them all the same.
Uh oh, what’s the deal with the BL?
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It’s just such a pain to use! Not its fault right now as it’s recovering from the cyber attack but I just find it a generally unhelpful place. I was really struck by how different the Library of Congress felt when I went last year.
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[Butts in] could not agree more, the BL is user-opaque even when not crippled by Russian cyber terrorists and I have never enjoyed using it, to the immense dismay of my thesis supervisors [butts out again]
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I’ve toured the outer bits of the Library of Congress but never used it as a researcher. It’s a gorgeous setting.
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You’ve had an excellent reading month! As to libraries, my favourite of all time is the John Rylands Library in Manchester. If you’re ever in that city, do go. I know you’d love it too. https://margaret21.com/2012/11/21/our-day-out-with-john-rylands/
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I’ve only been to Manchester the once, in 2015, but I did make it into John Rylands for a brief look, as well as Chetham’s Library. https://bookishbeck.com/2015/09/11/literary-tourism-in-manchester/
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Gosh, you did pack a lot in on your visit! And a healthy amount of Good Eating too.
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We were really impressed — lots of hipster eateries.
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I’m so excited to hear what you think of Cloistered, and I’ve got a copy of Help Wanted waiting for me to pick up at the library when I get back to the UK!
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One thing that maybe hampers my enjoyment is that the time she was writing about was nearly 30 years ago, so it feels like she’s being quite general, and mostly psychoanalyzing her past self, rather than recreating vivid scenes — because who could at that distance? I also feel like the publisher has set it up for there to be this big conflict that precipitates her leaving, and I’m not sure it will actually live up to that billing. (Just some predictable interpersonal issues instead?) But I always like reading about nuns, in fiction or non-.
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Oh, that’s frustrating. I had the same issue (psychoanalysis of self, not enough immediacy) with Amy Liptrot’s The Outrun, though there isn’t the excuse of 30 years having passed there.
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I’ve been disappointed with both of Liptrot’s books.
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So many 4 star reads! I have Land of Milk and Honey out right now, in the wild hope of a time miracle. I see you have a copy of Bad Cree in your pile! Have you started it yet?
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I ended up returning Bad Cree unread to make room for others on my account. But I’ll plan to get it back out another time.
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Thanks for including my library photographs for #LoveMyLibrary. It’s only taken me…how many? don’t count…years to finally catch the habit of it. I think I’ll actually have a post for this month’s! But, we’ll see.
Of your stack, I really want to read Help Wanted. Everything about it appeals to my current mood!
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Yay! I hope you will.
I ended up returning that one unread. Just too many books out all at once with reservations after me.
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