Library Checkout: August 2017
A thin month for library books overall, although I did read two very good ones. The Aldo Leopold book is a nature classic I’m pleased we could find via the library of the university where my husband works. In the second week of September I’m going along with him to Ghent, Belgium, where he’ll be presenting a research paper at a landscape ecology conference. Though we’ve been before, it’s a lovely town I’ll enjoy wandering – in between keeping up a normal virtual workload. After that we head on to Amsterdam for a long weekend; it’ll be my first time there and I’m excited to take in all the sights.
LIBRARY BOOKS READ
- The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
From my parents’ local branch in America:
- Sparky! by Jenny Offill [a picture book illustrated by Chris Appelhans]
CURRENTLY READING
- A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
CURRENTLY SKIMMING
- Grief Works: Stories of Life, Death and Surviving by Julia Samuel
CHECKED OUT, TO BE SKIMMED
- 2 guide books to Belgium
- 2 guide books to Amsterdam
RETURNED UNFINISHED
- White Tears by Hari Kunzru – I read the first 145 pages, skimmed another 70 or so, then gave up. The vibe is Jonathan Franzen meets Zadie Smith circa The Autograph Man; the theme is cultural appropriation, especially of a blues song by a forgotten master. (I had the song from The Wire in my head the whole time.) My interest started to wane after what happens to Carter happens, and by the time the parallel road trips kicked in I was lost. So to what extent this was realist or magic realist or absurdist or whatever I couldn’t tell you. I liked the writing enough that I would try something else by Kunzru if I thought I’d connect to the subject matter more.
(Hosted by Charleen of It’s a Portable Magic.)
Have you been taking advantage of your local libraries? What appeals from my lists?
Library Checkout: May 2017
We fly to America tomorrow morning, but, as you can see, despite my best efforts I’ve managed to leave behind a sizeable pile of library books for when I get back.
And that’s not to mention this gorgeous set of review copies awaiting my return!
I’ve added in ratings and links to any reviews of books I haven’t already featured here in some way.
LIBRARY BOOKS READ
- Ashland & Vine by John Burnside
- The Otters’ Tale by Simon Cooper
- Glad of These Times by Helen Dunmore [poetry]
- The Valentine House by Emma Henderson
- Bodies of Light by Sarah Moss
- Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift
- Gizelle’s Bucket List: My Life with a Very Large Dog by Lauren Fern Watt
SKIMMED ONLY
- A Smell of Burning: The Story of Epilepsy by Colin Grant
- Sculptor’s Daughter: A Childhood Memoir by Tove Jansson
- In the Bonesetter’s Waiting-Room: Travels through Indian Medicine by Aarathi Prasad
- Where Poppies Blow: The British Soldier, Nature, the Great War by John Lewis-Stempel
CHECKED OUT, TO BE READ
- Multitudes: Eleven Stories by Lucy Caldwell
- Hidden Nature: A Voyage of Discovery by Alys Fowler
- Bee Quest: In Search of Rare Bees by Dave Goulson
- What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell
- A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman
- Gerontius by James Hamilton-Paterson
- Human Acts by Han Kang
- White Tears by Hari Kunzru
- Signs for Lost Children by Sarah Moss
- Island Home: A Landscape Memoir by Tim Winton
As to America: I hope you would agree I have been very restrained in only requesting three books to borrow from my parents’ local public library. The Coates and Shapiro are extremely short memoirs I should have no trouble getting through, and the Strayed, a collection of advice columns, is the kind of book that I can dip in and out of. My Kindle and my personal library will more than make up for any further shortfall in reading material.
ON HOLD, TO BE CHECKED OUT
- Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Tiny Beautiful Things, Cheryl Strayed
IN THE RESERVATION QUEUE
- Hourglass, Dani Shapiro
(Hosted by Charleen of It’s a Portable Magic.)
Have you been taking advantage of your local libraries? What appeals from my lists?
Library Checkout: December 2015
This month while staying with family in the States I’ve gotten to do one of my favorite things: raid Maryland’s public libraries for some American titles I’d been hankering to read. Through the local Prince George’s County Memorial Library System I’m able to request any book in Maryland for free on interlibrary loan.
We picked these books up from the library on the 11th, so I think I did pretty well to get through 12 in total, considering it was the holidays and we were busy going back and forth to Pennsylvania and visiting friends. It helped that several were poetry collections, two of the memoirs were very short, and two books I only skimmed.
Still, my reach was wider than my grasp: I had to return four books unread.
(Thanks to Shannon at River City Reading for the great blog idea and template! Check out her blog for other link-ups.)
LIBRARY BOOKS READ
The Open Door, Elizabeth Maguire (novel about Constance Fenimore Woolson)
Kayak Morning: Reflections on Love, Grief, and Small Boats, Roger Rosenblatt
Ongoingness: The End of a Diary, Sarah Manguso*
My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer, Christian Wiman
Do Not Go Gentle: My Search for Miracles in a Cynical Time, Ann Hood
Learning to Walk in the Dark, Barbara Brown Taylor*
[Not books, but I did also borrow and finish Parks & Recreation Seasons 4 and 5.]
+ Poetry books:
Deep Lane, Mark Doty*
The Last Two Seconds, Mary Jo Bang*
Erratic Facts, Kay Ryan
Once in the West, Christian Wiman
* = interlibrary loan orders
Skimmed only:
The Shelf from LEQ to LES: Adventures in Extreme Reading, Phyllis Rose
Selfish, Shallow and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids, ed. Meghan Daum
RETURNED UNREAD
Tickets for a Prayer Wheel, Annie Dillard
The Vermeer Conspiracy, Eytan Halaban
Notes on the Assemblage, Juan Felipe Herrera
The Folded Clock: A Diary, Heidi Julavits
ON HOLD
The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World, Andrea Wulf
What were some of your best recent library reads?
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 