Thanks, as always, to Eleanor for posting about her recent library borrowing.

I’ve ordered my first interlibrary loan from another library in the SELMS (South East Library Management Systems) consortium: The Migrant Painter of Birds by Lídia Jorge. This is a novel I discovered through the Rough Guide to Portugal (Rough Guides always have a great section at the back for related reading, including not just travel books but also varied fiction). There is a £4 charge for the ILL service, but I decided it’s worth it because the Kindle book is £7.99 – more than I’d pay for an e-book, plus I read so much electronically for work that I prefer to read in print when I can – and secondhand copies are much more.

I’ll take it on our trip to Portugal next month, along with a couple more Portugal-set novels I found through a catalogue search, some doorstoppers for getting stuck into on the 20-hour ferry rides, and the audiobook of Shuggie Bain in case the waves are so bad I can only lie on my bunk, close my eyes and wait for death. (We had a beautifully smooth sailing to Spain in 2022 and hope that history repeats itself, but can’t count on it. I’ll have the Kwells, acupressure bracelets, ginger ales and ginger biscuits all to hand!)

Spotted with delight in the Acknowledgements of two recent reads:

• Wendy Erskine: “If I’ve not written The Benefactors sitting at my kitchen table, it’s been in one of these beloved spots: Belfast Central Library, the Linen Hall Library, Woodstock Library, Zentralbibliothek Zürich, the Mitchell Library, Glasgow, the Central Library, Liverpool and Central Library, Dublin. Thank you. Nowhere finer than a public library.”
• Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin (Ordinary Saints): “My heartfelt thanks to literally everyone in the world who does anything to support the continued existence of public libraries. In particular, to the staff, volunteers and taxpayers who sustain the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh Libraries and Leith Library.”

My library use over the last month:

READ

• Strangers: The Story of a Marriage by Belle Burden
• Like Mother by Jenny Diski
• Leaving Home: A Memoir in Full Colour by Mark Haddon
• Of Thorn & Briar: A Year with the West Country Hedgelayer by Paul Lamb
• Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy
• The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker

CURRENTLY READING

• Eva Luna by Isabel Allende (for book club)
• The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg (a reread)
• Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (a reread)
• Carrie by Stephen King
• The Spirituality Gap by Abi Millar
• First Class Murder by Robin Stevens
• Our Better Natures by Sophie Ward

CHECKED OUT, TO BE READ

• Pathfinding: On Walking, Motherhood and Freedom by Kerri Andrews
• The Swell by Kat Gordon
• Skylark by Paula McLain
• Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
• Carrion Crow by Heather Parry
• Women Talking by Miriam Toews

I was amused by the found poem (below) that a subset of my borrowed books created on my bedside shelf. I imagined a group of women walking along a coastal path, being overcome by a malevolent wave, and perishing.

ON HOLD, TO BE COLLECTED

• Tender: 100 Poems for the First 100 Days of Life by Harry Baker
• Our Numbered Bones by Katya Balen
• The Impossible Thing by Belinda Bauer
• The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich (for May book club)
• The Migrant Painter of Birds by Lídia Jorge
• The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel
• Katherine by Anya Seton
• Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart (audiobook)
• Wise: Finding Purpose, Meaning and Wisdom Beyond the Midpoint of Life by Frank Tallis

IN THE RESERVATION QUEUE

• Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash
• A Beautiful Loan by Mary Costello
• The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
• Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Transform Our Health by Daisy Fancourt
• Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett
• Honour & Other People’s Children by Helen Garner
• The Shock of the Light by Lori Inglis Hall
• Almost Life by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
• The Careful Surgeon: Finding Light, Courage and Compassion in the Face of Life and Death by Shehan Hettiaratchy
• Alice with a Why by Anna James
• The Wilds by Sarah Pearse
• A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides by Gisèle Pelicot
• Sempre: Finding Home by Raymond Silverthorne
• A Far-Flung Life by M.L. Stedman
• The Original by Nell Stevens
• Greenwild by Pari Thomson

RETURNED UNFINISHED

• The Parallel Path: Love, Grit and Walking the North by Jenn Ashworth – I have to admit to myself that I don’t enjoy long-distance walking travelogues, even when written by authors I generally like.
• Seven by Joanna Kavenna – I hadn’t the patience for something so experimental.
• People Like Us by Jason Mott – I read about 50 pages and it was so satirical, like Paul Beatty on steroids, that there was no reason to care.
• Pick a Colour by Souvankham Thammavongsa – I read 60-some pages and was unspeakably bored. Such a shame as her short story collection was great.

RETURNED UNREAD

• The Brain at Rest: Why Doing Nothing Can Change Your Life by Joseph Jebelli – Requested off me before I had time to even skim it.
• Jolly Foul Play by Robin Stevens – Ditto, but that’s okay because I think I’m tiring of the series and it’s time for a break.

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

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