I know lots of my readers are dedicated library users. Why not join in with Library Checkout this holiday weekend, or next month? It’s a quick and fun post to put together, it celebrates libraries, and it gets me some of my best engagement! I generally post on the last Monday of the month, but whenever suits your schedule is fine. Use the image above, and paste a link to your post in the comments. (I haven’t worked out an official link-up system yet.)

As usual, my “Checked Out” pile is so stupidly big that I’m just going to list and photograph the new arrivals since last month. Also as usual, I’ve added in star ratings and any links to Goodreads reviews of books I haven’t already featured on the blog.

LIBRARY BOOKS READ

• The Only Story by Julian Barnes 
• The Darling Buds of May by H.E. Bates 
• The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn 
• Sugar Money by Jane Harris 
• The Executor by Blake Morrison 
• Brainstorm: Detective Stories from the World of Neurology by Suzanne O’Sullivan 
• Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie 
• The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim 
• Night Sky with Exit Wounds [poetry] by Ocean Vuong 
• Tin Man by Sarah Winman 
• Island Home: A Landscape Memoir by Tim Winton 

SKIMMED ONLY

• The Most Perfect Thing: Inside (and Outside) a Bird’s Egg by Tim Birkhead 
• Sight by Jessie Greengrass 
• How to Develop Emotional Health by Oliver James 
• Eat Up!: Food, Appetite and Eating What You Want by Ruby Tandoh 

Recent and current Wellcome Book Prize themed reading. Top row from library.

CURRENTLY READING

• Anecdotal Evidence by Wendy Cope [poetry]
• The Trick to Time by Kit de Waal
• The Unmapped Mind: A Memoir of Neurology, Incurable Disease and Learning How to Live by Christian Donlan
• Places I Stopped on the Way Home: A Memoir of Chaos and Grace by Meg Fee
• Leaving before the Rains Come by Alexandra Fuller
• When I Hit You by Meena Kandasamy
• The Long Goodbye: A Memoir of Grief by Meghan O’Rourke
• The Reading Promise: 3,218 Nights of Reading with My Father by Alice Ozma
• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

CURRENTLY READING-ish (set aside temporarily)

• To the Is-Land: An Autobiography by Janet Frame
• Tender by Belinda McKeon
• Never Mind by Edward St. Aubyn

Women’s Prize long- and shortlisted books.

CHECKED OUT, TO BE READ

• The Day that Went Missing: A Family Tragedy by Richard Beard
• Happiness by Aminatta Forna
• The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton with Lara Love Hardin
• The White Book by Han Kang
• The Seabird’s Cry: The Lives and Loves of Puffins, Gannets and Other Ocean Voyagers by Adam Nicolson
• A Normal Family: Everyday Adventures with Our Autistic Son by Henry Normal
• The Still Point by Amy Sackville
• That Was when People Started to Worry: Windows into Unwell Minds by Nancy Tucker

Latest library book haul

ON HOLD, READY TO BE PICKED UP

• The Lido by Libby Page
• First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A New Story about Anxiety by Sarah Wilson

IN THE RESERVATION QUEUE

• A Moment of Grace by Patrick Dillon
• The Stopping Places: A Journey through Gypsy Britain by Damian Le Bas
• The Hidden Ways: Scotland’s Forgotten Roads by Alistair Moffat
• The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It’s Broken
• The Crossway by Guy Stagg
• Rosie: Scenes from a Vanished Life by Rose Tremain
• The Librarian by Salley Vickers
• Shepherd of Another Flock: The Charming Tale of a New Vicar in a Yorkshire Country Town by David Wilbourne
• The Boy behind the Curtain: Notes from an Australian Life by Tim Winton
• The Paper Lovers by Gerard Woodward

RETURNED UNFINISHED

• Carry On, Warrior: The Real Truth about Being a Woman by Glennon Melton 

RETURNED UNREAD

• Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life by Peter Godfrey-Smith (lost interest, plus it’s requested after me)
• The Sealwoman’s Gift by Sally Magnusson (requested after me; I’ll get it out again another time)

What have you been reading from your local libraries? Does anything appeal from my stacks?

The last two months were bumper editions and saw me getting through loads of library books. That’s slowed down this month, replaced by books I own, review copies and advanced reads from NetGalley or Edelweiss. Boy, are the library books stacking up! My public library system’s website says you can have 15 books out at a time … but the self-service machines don’t cut you off until after you pass 30, at least not in my experience, so I currently have 32 books on loan. (No, I’m not particularly sorry about that. I’m keeping the library system in business, and the few remaining staff members in their jobs! And anyone who wants these books can simply put in a free reservation request, so I don’t feel that I’m hogging them.)

The “Checked Out” pile is so stupidly big that I’m just going to list and photograph new arrivals since last month. As usual, I’ve added in star ratings and any links to Goodreads reviews of books I haven’t already featured on the blog.

LIBRARY BOOKS READ

• The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place by Alan Bradley 
• The Church Mouse by Graham Oakley 
• To Be a Machine: Adventures among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death by Mark O’Connell 
• In the Days of Rain by Rebecca Stott 

SKIMMED ONLY

• The Wood: The Life and Times of Cockshutt Wood by John Lewis-Stempel 
• The Vaccine Race by Meredith Wadman 

CURRENTLY READING

• The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
• How to Develop Emotional Health by Oliver James
• The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
• Night Sky with Exit Wounds [poetry] by Ocean Vuong
• Island Home: A Landscape Memoir by Tim Winton

CURRENTLY READING-ish (set aside temporarily)

• To the Is-Land: An Autobiography by Janet Frame
• Tender by Belinda McKeon
• Never Mind by Edward St. Aubyn

CHECKED OUT, TO BE READ

• The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
• The Executor by Blake Morrison
• The Seabird’s Cry: The Lives and Loves of Puffins, Gannets and Other Ocean Voyagers by Adam Nicolson
• Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
• Tin Man by Sarah Winman

ON HOLD, READY TO BE PICKED UP

• The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton with Lara Love Hardin
• Eat Up! by Ruby Tandoh

IN THE RESERVATION QUEUE

• The Trick to Time by Kit de Waal
• The Unmapped Mind: A Memoir of Neurology, Incurable Disease and Learning How to Live by Christian Donlan
• Happiness by Aminatta Forna
• Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life by Peter Godfrey-Smith
• Sight by Jessie Greengrass
• When I Hit You by Meena Kandasamy
• The White Book by Han Kang
• The Sealwoman’s Gift by Sally Magnusson
• Mrs. Moreau’s Warbler: How Birds Got Their Names by Stephen Moss
• Brainstorm: Detective Stories from the World of Neurology by Suzanne O’Sullivan
• The Still Point by Amy Sackville
• See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt
• Rosie: Scenes from a Vanished Life by Rose Tremain

RETURNED UNFINISHED

• The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar 
• Leap In: A Woman, Some Waves, and the Will to Swim by Alexandra Heminsley 
• Life in the Garden by Penelope Lively 

What have you been reading from your local libraries? Does anything appeal from my stacks?

Last month I rejoiced that reservations would once again be free through my library system. On the very day the policy came into effect, what did I do? Went into the online catalogue and placed 15 reservations (the maximum). And then when some of those arrived for me, I placed more to get back up to 15. And then when some of those arrived… You get the picture. Why this compulsive placing of holds when I already have massive stacks of books to read? I have nothing to say in my defense. At least books are a benign addiction, right?

This month I also resumed using a library system I haven’t used in several years. I had a few hours to kill in Reading town center before a routine hospital appointment, so decided to take advantage of the library’s stock, which seems to be particularly good on memoirs by women.

So as not to overwhelm you, and because so many books are still hanging on from previous months, I’ll only feature the new to-be-read arrivals since last month’s Library Checkout post, and in photo form. As usual, I’ve added in star ratings and links to Goodreads reviews of books I haven’t already featured on the blog.

LIBRARY BOOKS READ

• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (a re-read for me) 
• Herzog by Saul Bellow 
• Harmless Like You by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan 
• Mean Time by Carol Ann Duffy [poetry] 
• The Book of Forgotten Authors by Christopher Fowler 
• Vita Nova by Louise Glück [poetry] 
• Plot 29: A Memoir by Allan Jenkins 
• This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay 
• There Is an Anger that Moves by Kei Miller [poetry] 
• Somebody I Used to Know by Wendy Mitchell with Anna Wharton 
• And When Did You Last See Your Father? by Blake Morrison 
• Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake by Anna Quindlen 
• Spirals in Time: The Secret Life and Curious Afterlife of Seashells by Helen Scales 
• Probably Nothing: A diary of not-your-average nine months by Matilda Tristram [graphic novel] 

SKIMMED ONLY

• With the End in Mind: Dying, Death and Wisdom in an Age of Denial by Kathryn Mannix – I now own a copy that I will revisit for the Wellcome Book Prize shadow panel.

CURRENTLY READING

• To the Is-Land: An Autobiography by Janet Frame
• Life in the Garden by Penelope Lively
• Never Mind by Edward St. Aubyn
• The Vaccine Race by Meredith Wadman
• Island Home: A Landscape Memoir by Tim Winton

CHECKED OUT, TO BE READ

Reading Borough library books

West Berkshire library books

University of Reading library books

(Cut off in middle photo: Cold Earth by Sarah Moss and The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar)

IN THE RESERVATION QUEUE

• The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place by Alan Bradley
• The Wonder Down Under: A User’s Guide to the Vagina by Dr. Nina Brochmann and Ellen Støkken Dahl
• Anecdotal Evidence by Wendy Cope
• The Lie of the Land by Amanda Craig
• Take Courage: Anne Brontë and the Art of Life by Samantha Ellis
• The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
• Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life by Peter Godfrey-Smith
• Leap In: A Woman, Some Waves, and the Will to Swim by Alexandra Heminsley
• Morning: How to Make Time: A Manifesto by Allan Jenkins
• The Wood: The Life and Times of Cockshutt Wood by John Lewis-Stempel
• The Executor by Blake Morrison
• To Be a Machine: Adventures among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death by Mark O’Connell
• Brainstorm: Detective Stories from the World of Neurology by Suzanne O’Sullivan
• Into the Gray Zone: A Neuroscientist Explores the Border between Life and Death by Adrian Owen
• Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
• Tin Man by Sarah Winman
• Not that Kind of Love by Clare Wise and Greg Wise

RETURNED UNREAD

• Testosterone Rex: Myths of Sex, Science, and Society by Cordelia Fine – I lost interest and have plenty of other medical-themed reads on the pile thanks to the Wellcome Book Prize shortlist.

RETURNED UNFINISHED

• The Secret Life of Cows by Rosamund Young – I read the first 33 pages out of 137. I had two problems with the book: the twee anthropomorphism (“almost every day, we see daughters consulting their mothers about impending confinements, or maybe just discussing the weather”), and the fact that the author, a family farmer, can be compassionate enough to call intensive animal-rearing “iniquitous criminality” yet raises animals and lovingly observes their behavior only to see them killed.

What have you been reading from your local libraries? Does anything appeal from my stacks?

I found a plethora of interesting books, many of them pretty recent, on my last few trips to the public library. I had somehow convinced myself that my library system doesn’t have many interesting new books in stock, but I was proven wrong.

Plus, excellent news: As of March 1st, reservations will be free again. Eleven months ago, the library system brought in a 50-pence charge for every reservation and I stopped placing holds altogether. I can only presume that this was an experiment that didn’t bring in enough revenue, or that, now that the council has reduced hours and staffed its branch libraries with volunteers only, they can afford to offer reservations for free again. It’s a sad state of affairs in general, but a boon for me: from next month I’ll be able to place holds on any Wellcome-shortlisted titles I haven’t read, and lots of other recent books I’m interested in.

For once I’ve done a good job of plowing through a bunch of my library books, including the four books that made up the Costa Prize for Poetry shortlist. As usual, I’ve added in star ratings and links to reviews of books I haven’t already featured on the blog in some way.

LIBRARY BOOKS READ

• The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa 
• Women and Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard 
• Kumukanda by Kayo Chingonyi [poetry – shortlisted for Costa Prize] 
• Inside the Wave by Helen Dunmore [poetry – winner of Costa Prize] 
• This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland by Gretel Ehrlich 
• Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry 
• On Balance by Sinéad Morrissey [poetry – shortlisted for Costa Prize] 
• Useful Verses by Richard Osmond [poetry – shortlisted for Costa Prize] 
• The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks 

A selection of the library books I read and skimmed this past month (the others have since been returned).

SKIMMED ONLY

• Your Life in My Hands: A Junior Doctor’s Story by Rachel Clarke 
• Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker 

CURRENTLY READING

• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (a re-read)
• Herzog by Saul Bellow
• Harmless Like You by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan
• The Book of Forgotten Authors by Christopher Fowler
• To the Is-Land: An Autobiography by Janet Frame
• Plot 29: A Memoir by Allan Jenkins
• There Is an Anger that Moves by Kei Miller [poetry]
• And When Did You Last See Your Father? by Blake Morrison
• Spirals in Time: The Secret Life and Curious Afterlife of Seashells by Helen Scales

The currently reading stack.

CHECKED OUT, TO BE READ

Public library:

• The Most Perfect Thing: Inside (and Outside) a Bird’s Egg by Tim Birkhead
• Mean Time by Carol Ann Duffy [poetry]
• Testosterone Rex: Myths of Sex, Science, and Society by Cordelia Fine
• Somebody I Used to Know by Wendy Mitchell with Anna Wharton
• In the Days of Rain by Rebecca Stott
• Island Home: A Landscape Memoir by Tim Winton
• The Secret Life of Cows by Rosamund Young

My bedside table (and environs) with its usual overwhelming selection of review books, library books, and backlist books from my own collection. And yes, it’s double-stacked!

University library:

• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
• Vita Nova by Louise Glück [poetry]
• On the Road by Jack Kerouac
• The Cabaret of Plants: Botany and the Imagination by Richard Mabey
• The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• The Magnificent Spinster by May Sarton

RETURNED UNREAD

• Take Courage: Anne Brontë and the Art of Life by Samantha Ellis – This was requested by another user before I had a chance to read it. Maybe I’ll put a hold on it next month and try again.

What have you been reading from your local libraries? Does anything appeal from my stacks?

Here’s what’s changed since last month:

LIBRARY BOOKS READ

• The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
• Ali: A Life by Jonathan Eig

Two absolutely knock-out doorstoppers!

CURRENTLY READING

• Herzog by Saul Bellow
• This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland by Gretel Ehrlich
• Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry
• On Balance by Sinéad Morrissey [poetry – shortlisted for Costa Prize]
• The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
• Spirals in Time: The Secret Life and Curious Afterlife of Seashells by Helen Scales

Then you’ll recognize a lot of the same titles hanging over from last month. The lack of a firm due date for the university library books (they can be renewed pretty much indefinitely) makes me put them off in favor of other, seemingly more timely, reads.

CHECKED OUT, TO BE READ

Public library:

• Harmless like You by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan
• Inside the Wave by Helen Dunmore [poetry – winner of Costa Prize]
• Useful Verses by Richard Osmond [poetry – shortlisted for Costa Prize]

University library:

• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
• To the Is-land: An Autobiography by Janet Frame
• Vita Nova by Louise Glück [poetry]
• On the Road by Jack Kerouac
• The Cabaret of Plants: Botany and the Imagination by Richard Mabey
• There Is an Anger that Moves by Kei Miller [poetry]
• And When Did You Last See Your Father? by Blake Morrison
• The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• The Magnificent Spinster by May Sarton

RETURNED UNREAD

• Ghosts of Christmas Past, a story collection edited by Tim Martin – The only one I read was Neil Gaiman’s dark 100-word tale, “Nicholas Was.” When it came down to it, I realized I wasn’t actually that interested in holiday ghost stories.
• The High Places by Fiona McFarlane – Once again I borrow a short story collection with the best of intentions but return it unread. Sigh!
• NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman – Alas, this was requested back from the uni library by another user. I’ll have to get it out again another time.
• Bellwether by Connie Willis – My husband read it and enjoyed it well enough, but from his description it sounds silly to me. I’ll try to find another of her books to be the right follow-up to last year’s read of To Say Nothing of the Dog.

What have you been reading from your local libraries? Does anything appeal from my stacks?