Thanks to Eleanor and Laura for posting about their recent reading from the library. Margaret has also contributed a profile of a library she visited in Spain.

It’s been a lighter library month for me because I’ve been focusing on my own shelves. You can tell I’ve been looking for comfort reads during a damp, dark and illness-marred month, as there have been a lot of children’s books on my stacks, including Redwall, part of a series I loved when I was a kid. Rereading it 33 years or so later, it’s hard to recapture the magic, but I’m enjoying it well enough.

This Independent subheading was served up to me on Facebook early in the month: “Library use in the UK is dwindling with less than a third of the population using a library service in the last year.” To me, that’s a sad and shocking statistic. A staff member at the library where I volunteer said that loans are down at the moment and it’s important to increase them. Well, I’m doing my best (see reservation list below)!

My library use over the last month:

READ

• The Two Faces of January by Patricia Highsmith
• The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer

An attempt at a meta passage reveals the stark truth about this one!

• Arsenic for Tea by Robin Stevens
• Sam Francisco, King of the Disco by Sarah Tagholm, illus. Binny Talib
• The Best Nest Contest by Luke Western

SKIMMED

• It’s Not a Bloody Trend: Understanding Life as an ADHD Adult by Kat Brown

CURRENTLY READING

• The Parallel Path: Love, Grit and Walking the North by Jenn Ashworth
• Eva Trout by Elizabeth Bowen (for February book club – classics subgroup)
• The Honesty Box by Lucy Brazier
• Redwall by Brian Jacques (reread)
• Carrie by Stephen King
• Of Thorn & Briar: A Year with the West Country Hedgelayer by Paul Lamb
• A Long Game: How to Write Fiction by Elizabeth McCracken
• People Like Us by Jason Mott
• Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff that Isn’t Food … and Why Can’t We Stop? by Chris van Tulleken (for February book club)

CHECKED OUT, TO BE READ

A rare university library book haul…

• Eva Luna by Isabel Allende (for April book club)
• Like Mother by Jenny Diski
• Winter Trees by Sylvia Plath

IN THE RESERVATION QUEUE

• Strangers: The Story of a Marriage by Belle Burden
• Honour & Other People’s Children by Helen Garner
• The Swell by Kat Gordon
• Leaving Home: A Memoir in Full Colour by Mark Haddon
• Snegurochka by Judith Heneghan
• The Brain at Rest: Why Doing Nothing Can Change Your Life by Joseph Jebelli
• Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy
• Skylark by Paula McLain
• Frostlines: An Epic Exploration of the Transforming Arctic by Neil Shea
• First Class Murder by Robin Stevens
• Our Better Natures by Sophie Ward

Also … I took a cue from Eleanor and, even though I felt a little sheepish about it, sent an e-mail to the stock librarian back in November asking if the library system could acquire certain books for me. I thought maybe they’d purchase a few of my requests, but they bought all 13! So I’ve placed holds on all but one (I’ll wait until summer to borrow and read Kakigori Summer by Emily Itami). I hope other patrons will get much enjoyment out of these, too!

Fiction:

• • I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
  • The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley
  • Bog Queen by Anna North
  • Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
  • Carrion Crow by Heather Parry
  • Let the Bad Times Roll by Alice Slater
  • The Original by Nell Stevens
  • Pick a Colour by Souvankham Thammavongsa
  • The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker

Nonfiction:

• • Pathfinding by Kerri Andrews
  • Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green
  • The Spirituality Gap by Abi Millar

RETURNED UNFINISHED

• We Live Here Now by C.D. Rose – Requested off of me, but I’ll get it back out another time.

What have you been reading or reviewing from the library recently?

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