My thanks, as always, to Eleanor for posting about her recent library reads!

We spotted Porto’s library bus at the Foz do Douro on our recent trip to Portugal.

From My Autobiography of Carson McCullers by Jenn Shapland:

“Library books, especially annotated ones, or ones with page corners creased, or with notes or bookmarks or other ephemera tucked into them, have given me this same feeling, this reprieve from loneliness, since I was a kid. Someone else was here.”

This sentiment feels more applicable to university or specialist library books. If, during my volunteering, I come across books with dogeared pages, I unfold them; I also remove any items used as page markers and put them in our basket for lost bookmarks. Secondhand book purchases, I find, tend to have more of an aura of their previous owners.

My library use over the last month:

(links are to any book reviews not already featured on the blog)

READ

• Tender: 100 Poems for the First 100 Days of Life by Harry Baker
• Our Numbered Bones by Katya Balen
• Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd
• The Migrant Painter of Birds by Lídia Jorge
• The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel
• First Class Murder by Robin Stevens

SKIMMED

• Eva Luna by Isabel Allende (for April book club)
• Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Transform Our Health by Daisy Fancourt

CURRENTLY READING

• The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg (a reread)
• A Beautiful Loan by Mary Costello
• The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich (for May book club)
• 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
• Nonesuch by Francis Spufford
• The Murderer’s Ape by Jakob Wegelius (a reread)

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
• Wise: Finding Purpose, Meaning and Wisdom Beyond the Midpoint of Life by Frank Tallis
• Greenwild by Pari Thomson
• Women Talking by Miriam Toews

ON HOLD, TO BE COLLECTED

• Almost Life by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
• The Careful Surgeon: Finding Light, Courage and Compassion in the Face of Life and Death by Shehan Hettiaratchy

IN THE RESERVATION QUEUE

• Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
• Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash
• Dominion by Addie E. Citchens
• The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
• 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
• Alice with a Why by Anna James
• My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein: A Fiction by Deborah Levy
• A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides by Gisèle Pelicot
• The Original by Nell Stevens

RETURNED UNFINISHED

• Our Better Natures by Sophie Ward – I managed the first 76 pages but found none of the three storylines compelling and gave up hope of them feeling significant in conjunction with each other. Disappointing as I loved her first book and named this one of my Most Anticipated titles of 2026.

RETURNED UNREAD

• The Impossible Thing by Belinda Bauer – Silly me; I don’t read crime. (I was attracted by the setting of Bempton Cliffs and the plot element of stealing seabird eggs.)
• Katherine by Anya Seton – Sarah Perry thinks this is one of the best examples of historical fiction out there, but I can’t get over my antipathy for the time period.
• Sempre: Finding Home by Raymond Silverthorne – Requested because it came up on a search for Portugal in the library catalogue; I didn’t realize it was self-published.
• A Far-Flung Life by M.L. Stedman – The first few pages didn’t draw me in, so I’ll let the many others in the reservation queue have a go.
• Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart (audiobook) – I didn’t end up having an opportunity to listen to an audiobook. Perhaps one day I will get to Stuart’s back catalogue!

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.