Thanks so much to Eleanor, Jana and Naomi for writing about their recent library borrowing and reading! Marina Sofia also posted about marvellous library rooms and libraries with great views.
My library use over the last month:
READ
- Interlunar by Margaret Atwood
- Life before Man by Margaret Atwood
- A Beginner’s Guide to Dying by Simon Boas
- Small Rain by Garth Greenwell
- Dispersals: On Plants, Borders and Belonging by Jessica J. Lee
- Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
- Nine Minds: Inner Lives on the Spectrum by Daniel Tammet
- The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman by Denis Thériault
- The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
SKIMMED
- The Place of Tides by James Rebanks
CURRENTLY READING
- Dexter Procter: The 10-Year-Old Doctor by Adam Kay
- Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World by Pádraig Ó Tuama
CURRENTLY READING-ish (more accurately, set aside temporarily)
- Death Valley by Melissa Broder
- The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
- Learning to Think: A Memoir about Faith, Demons, and the Courage to Ask Questions by Tracy King
- Groundbreakers: The Return of Britain’s Wild Boar by Chantal Lyons
- Unearthing: A Story of Tangled Love and Family Secrets by Kyo Maclear
- Late Light: Finding Home in the West Country by Michael Malay
- Mrs Gulliver by Valerie Martin
- Stowaway: The Disreputable Exploits of the Rat by Joe Shute
CHECKED OUT, TO BE READ
- The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski
- The Gate to Women’s Country by Sheri S. Tepper
- Katherine Mansfield: A Secret Life by Claire Tomalin
- The Doctor Stories by William Carlos Williams
IN THE RESERVATION QUEUE
Some 2025 books are on order now, hooray!
- Old Soul by Susan Barker
- Keep Love: 21 Truths for a Long-Lasting Relationship by Paul Brunson
- Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton
- Maurice and Maralyn: An Extraordinary True Story of Shipwreck, Survival and Love by Sophie Elmhirst
- The Meteorites: Encounters with Outer Space and Deep Time by Helen Gordon
- The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes
- Newborn: Running Away, Breaking from the Past, Building a New Family by Kerry Hudson
- Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey
- The Coast Road by Alan Murrin
- The Forgotten Sense: The Nose and the Perception of Smell by Jonas Olofsson
- The Leopard in My House: One Man’s Adventures in Cancerland by Mark Steel
- Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
- Time of the Child by Niall Williams
ON HOLD, TO BE PICKED UP
- Myself and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
- The Mischief Makers by Elisabeth Gifford
- The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness
- The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
RETURNED UNREAD
- The Second Coming by Garth Risk Hallberg
- Bothy by Kat Hill
RETURNED UNFINISHED
- The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami – I read 80 pages but found it aimless and flat.
- After Dark by Haruki Murakami – I couldn’t renew it for some reason. This is at least a nice short one, so I will go back to it once my hold comes in.
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’ve used the Christmas break to get cracking with the 700 page A Voyage around the Queen by Craig Brown.
Read such great reviews of it but didn’t think it was for me and was fully prepared to bail at an early stage but it’s brilliant! A very different approach to biography, highly entertaining, funny, sad and always thoughtful.
LOVED the new Murakami although I can’t say I understood it. My husband is half way through and is a bit luke warm ( he normally loves Murakami). However, he did say that ‘unicorns appearing on page 4’ was a good start!
Also loved Bothy by Kat Hill. Couldn’t bear to stay in one (mice!! ghosts!!) but always enjoy reading about them.
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I can’t see myself ever reading about the royals, but I do enjoy getting stuck into a nice long biography every once in a while. I should choose one or two about authors for 2025.
I don’t think recent Murakami works for me (I’ve DNFed the latest two). I adored The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and also liked Kafka on the Shore, so I need to go back and find other classics from that era.
If I ever stay at the ‘bothy’ behind The Bookshop in Wigtown, I’ll take that along to read!
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I haven’t heard of Interlunar by Atwood. Is it one if her novels, or is it poetry?
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Poetry — reviewed here: https://bookishbeck.com/2024/11/26/marm2024-life-before-man-and-interlunar-by-margaret-atwood/
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I read The Wood at Midwinter this month as well. I loved the presentation, and it boosted Dr. Strange & Mr. Norrell on my TBR list. I’ve been considering reading it for quite a while but have yet to pick it up. Perhaps 2025 will be the year!
Here is my #LoveYourLibrary post for December: https://reviewsfromthestacks.wordpress.com/2024/12/30/draft-love-your-library-24-11/
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Thanks so much for your contribution! I’ll add the link in now. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is brilliant; I really need to reread it.
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As you know, my library borrowing has been dramatically reduced because it takes such a long time to walk in the ice and snow (there are plenty of nice-ish days, but they never agreeably align with the duedates for pickups and returns!) so even the few books I’ve borrowed aren’t getting the proper attention. I finished the few I had for the 2024 public library reading challenge and returned most of the rest of the stack with them. (I have one for the Australian Men’s Lit that Bill is hosting as a conclusion to his long series that focused on women authors down under.) Of the 2025’s you’re waiting for, I’d be most keen on the Eowyn Ivey. And of the others, your enthusiasm for the Greenwell has piqued my curiosity.
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I trust you have plenty of your own books in the house to make up for the shortfall. But the librarians will be wondering where you are!
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[…] (+ the set-aside ones I mentioned last time) […]
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