Thanks to Eleanor for posting about her recent library reading, including for 20 Books of Summer (here and here). Thanks also to Skai for joining in again!
Further to last month: My library system’s reclassification seems all the stranger the more I look at it, especially in the children’s section. Yellow stickers will have: one black stripe (Beginner Reads), two black stripes (Short Chapter Books), three black stripes (Picture Books for Older Readers) or a T (Teen). Okay, that last one makes sense, but taking in the number of stripes at a quick glance when organising a trolley or shelving? Seems like a recipe for misfiling.
Also, as a member of senior staff astutely observed, surely the length of a book is the one thing you can tell just by looking at it! So why make that its own designation? Especially when those double-stripe books will be mixed in with the rest of the chapter books, which from now on will not be given a very helpful label on the spine with the first letter of the author’s surname.
It’s having the two systems on the go at the same time that is most confusing. Apparently, these changes were handed down from on high, to keep us in line with other libraries, but no one consulted with the people who actually handle the books on a day-to-day basis. As in, the staff and volunteers. Ahem. We shall see how it goes.
My library use over the last month:
(links are to books not already reviewed on the blog)
I’ve been borrowing some Booker and Wainwright Prize list reads, as well as looking ahead to our mid-September trip to Berlin and Novellas in November.
READ
- Good Night, Little Bookshop by Amy Cherrix
- Bothered by Bugs by Emily Gravett
- More Katie Morag Island Stories by Mairi Hedderwick
- The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce
- The Dig by John Preston
Last month we joined my in-laws for a few days at the holiday cottage they’d rented in Suffolk. We crammed in loads: Orford Ness, a former military site with a very unusual shingle landscape where hares live and the wind howls; Minsmere RSPB reserve; and Sutton Hoo, the site of a famous Anglo-Saxon ship burial, discovered there during an archaeological dig of the mounds in 1939; and Woodbridge, the nearest town to the cottage, whose museum has a project underway to build a full-size replica of the ship. I didn’t put two and two together to realize that The Dig, adapted into a 2021 Netflix film starring Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan (there was a big on-site exhibit about the filming), is about Sutton Hoo or I would have gotten it out of the library to take with us. Instead, I caught up afterward.
Preston focuses on the few spring and summer months of Basil Brown’s amateur excavation, which was then co-opted by museum professionals. Edith Pretty, the landowner, was a widow in her fifties, raising her plucky son Robert on her own and struggling with ill health (she had Robert at age 47, almost unheard of in those days, and would die after a stroke in 1942). The day to day of the excavation was engrossing and I enjoyed the interactions between Brown and Pretty. I didn’t need the third narrator, Peggy Piggott, wife of one of the archaeologists and excavation staff in her own right, nor the extra background about characters’ marriages and museum bureaucracy. Meanwhile, the epilogue from Robert returning to the site in the 1960s made me wish that there had been more of that retrospective viewpoint. This was enjoyable in a minor way but I wouldn’t have read it had I not been to Sutton Hoo. I wonder if the film would be, on the whole, more successful. 
SKIMMED
- I Think I Like Girls by Rosie Day – I took a desultory look but the content seemed pretty lite and the writing style iffy. (Hadn’t heard of Day but I guess she’s a celebrity?)
SKIMMING
- Cuddy by Benjamin Myers (for book club; I also skimmed it when it first came out)
CURRENTLY READING
- The Most by Jessica Anthony
- The Honesty Box by Luzy Brazier
- Bellies by Nicola Dinan
- The Wedding People by Alison Espach
- The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
- An Eye on the Hebrides by Mairi Hedderwick
- The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
- Of Thorn & Briar: A Year with the West Country Hedgelayer by Paul Lamb
- The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller
- The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: True Stories of the Magic of Reading by James Patterson & Matt Eversmann
CHECKED OUT, TO BE READ
It’s nearly time for Novellas in November planning! Thus I borrowed a quartet of books from the university library (the bottom stack below), two of which were recommended by blog friends: the Barker (Blow Your House Down) by Margaret and the Hesse by Kaggsy. The Kertesz is on my radar thanks to C’s bandmate Jo. And I’ve enjoyed the two Sagan novellas I’ve read so far so thought I’d source another.
ON HOLD, TO BE COLLECTED
- Sojourn by Amit Chaudhuri
- The Names by Florence Knapp
- Love in Five Acts by Daniela Krien
- Red Pockets: An Offering by Alice Mah
- Birding by Rose Ruane
- Opt Out by Carolina Setterwall
- Slags by Emma Jane Unsworth
- Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
IN THE RESERVATION QUEUE
- The Two Roberts by Damian Barr
- All the Way to the River by Elizabeth Gilbert
- Helm by Sarah Hall
- The Haunted Wood: A History of Childhood Reading by Sam Leith
- What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
- The Eights by Joanna Miller
- Endling by Maria Reva
- Buckeye by Patrick Ryan
- Flesh by David Szalay
RETURNED UNREAD
- Fragile Minds by Bella Jackson
- Enchanted Ground: Growing Roots in a Broken World by Steven Lovatt
- Wife by Charlotte Mendelson
- The Forgotten Sense: The Nose and the Perception of Smell by Jonas Olofsson
I lost immediate interest in all of these but would be willing to try them again another time.
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 
Many commiserations with that categorisation system!
Suffolk looks well worth exploring. I watched The Dig for the second time recently and enjoyed it just as much. Well worth a look if you ever have access to Netflix.
I spotted several favourites in your On Hold and Reservation lists. I’d not read Damian Barr before but The Two Roberts was so good I’m sure I’ll read more, and Buckeye kept me absorbed despite its doorstopper length. I also loved the Krien and Wood and I’m keen to read the Setterwall.
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I would like to see The Dig if I get a chance.
I’ve borrowed the Krien as pre-Berlin/in Berlin reading — I’m sure you’d have dozens of other recommendations! (Though I’ll be trying to pack light for going by train.) We’re considering the Wood as the Novellas in November buddy read.
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Oh, that’s great. When will you be going to Berlin? Good news on Seascraper too.
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Mid-September with Interrail. I think we’ll have 5 full days there (also going to Lübeck).
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I’m not planning to review it but I just finished Dream State, which I borrowed from the library after seeing your review! Fairly light/fun reading but I liked how Puchner played with the theme of contingency, and how what can seem like world-shaking decisions at the time may not matter that much in the long run (the baboon/raccoon theme).
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Glad you enjoyed it. I thought it was a good read — on my best of the first half of the year list but we’ll see if it makes it through to the Best of 2025 overall. I’m being reminded of it somewhat (at least the initial setup, and Cece to an extent) by The Wedding People.
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I’ve been in Edinburgh since the end of July, reviewing in the festivals – so I returned all my Aberdeen City library books before I left, but I did hang on to one from Aberdeenshire. As the end of the Fringe appeared on the horizon, I finally had time to read, and it was such a joy to lose myself in one of Hazel Holt’s Mrs Malory mysteries, Death is a Word.The books in this long series are extremely light, and for me the social observations of life in a small Devonshire town are far more interesting than the plot, which is usually pretty thin. Recurring characters are so well written; a busybody organiser of committees, the demanding elderly mother of Sheila Malory’s friend, and of course Sheila’s spaniel Tris and Siamese cat Foss.
Hazel Holt was a close friend of Barbara Pym and wrote her first biography. Holt’s writing is quite like Pym’s (far more than many books pushed as such) and her books are just what I need when I am tired and festivalled-out.I read Death is a Word on the tram, on the bus, and in between shows, and it made me realise just how much I had missed burying myself in a book. Back to library borrowing next month.
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I’ve never been to a big festival like Hay or Edinburgh; I think I’d feel overwhelmed! I’m glad you had a good book to retreat with. I didn’t know Hazel Holt’s name. I’m sure you especially love encountering the Siamese cats!
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Glad you liked Suffolk. I was born and brought up there and still visit frequently as I have a lot of family down there.
Orford Ness is seriously creepy!
I always enjoy your love your library blog although it usually results in me adding to my TBR mountain!
Favourite book of the summer so far has been Bird School by Adam Nicolson. I have read many of his books but this is definitely my favourite. His take on whether we should put bird feeders in our gardens really made me think (basically they are good for the birds that are ‘doing well’ but not good at all for those birds that are already struggling).
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We really enjoyed our few days in Suffolk. We had a very good pub meal, too, though it was eye-wateringly expensive! I imagine there are a lot of rich Londoners with second homes in the area. Orford Ness was an odd place. It was incredibly windy while we were there. Loved seeing hares on the shingle.
I’ve not kept up with Nicolson’s recent books. There was some pre-pub hoo-ha about this one using bizarre AI-generated images of birds (at least in the proof copies that went out to reviewers). The RSPB has been slow to warn people against feeding — understandably because they sell a lot of feeders and seed! — but I think they are finally putting that message across. We haven’t regularly fed birds for a couple of years now, and if we do we just throw out some seed or fruit on the path.
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Suffolk can definitely be a bit Chelsea on Sea especially around Southwold. I’m from West Suffolk – check out Lavenham for instance, absolutely beautiful. And I know some excellent book exchange locations!
I didn’t know about the fuss around Bird School. And I definitely need to find out more about bird feeders. Nicolson also got into WHERE all the bird seed we use comes from. The UK can’t grown enough so we apparently import it. And it is often grown abroad to the detriment of other crops.
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I was in Woodbridge recently – it has a jolly nice Oxfam bookshop!
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It does! I actually bought something there, an Elizabeth Taylor novel in hardback. It was just £1.99 because of a tiny blemish on the back cover!
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Those stickers do seem confusing!
I am also interested in The Names, the new Elizabeth Gilbert, and Buckeye. I loved The Wedding People!
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I’m really enjoying The Wedding People. I wish I didn’t have lots of other books on my plate so that I could just read that!
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I’m waiting read what you think of The Summer I Turned Pretty, I have the book but haven’t gotten the chance to read it yet. I’m always trying to find good seasonal books.
Here is my library reading from the past month! https://inspirationalskai.blogspot.com/2025/08/love-your-library-august-july-29-august.html
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The Summer I Turned Pretty felt juvenile to me; I like some YA but this just didn’t work for me.
Thanks for joining in again!
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I have got the hedgelaying book – I bought it to console myself when my hairdresser retired! And while you’re prepping for Novellas in November, you might want to consider prepping for Nonfiction November if you fancy taking part …
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For sure! I’m always reading nonfiction, so that’s not in question. I have a pile of short stuff that would count towards both challenges.
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Ohhh I am about to read ‘The Names’ by Florence Knapp as well – and I loved ‘Seascraper’. Excited to see what you think of them!
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Seascraper is going in unexpected directions!
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Lovely photos! And I love seeing how films were made on sites you’re visiting: such fun! I’m not a fan of breaking down the children’s books by reading level in general and I’m too lazy to check four different sections that are all “picture books” in one sense or another. In theory, I get it. In reality, I think it’s more to suit adults’ ideas than children.
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While I’m shelving or hunting for reserved books I often hear parents saying to their children about something in the children’s section, “that’s too old for you,” and it makes me so sad. Why not let them borrow whatever takes their fancy? They might surprise you, and themselves, by coping with something that’s above their technical reading level!
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/nods Exactly. Maybe by discovering another way of engaging with the story (through partial understanding, through photos, etc.) that an “advanced” reader might have overlooked.
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