Tag Archives: volunteering

Love Your Library, May 2024

By Rebecca Foster on | 25 Comments

Thanks to Eleanor (here and here) and Marcie for posting about their recent library reads! Everyone is welcome to join in with this meme that runs on the last Monday of the month.

Earlier in the month I had an all-volunteering Tuesday where I went from 1) a busy morning library volunteering session straight to 2) a coffee meeting with the local repair café coordinator to discuss publicity, then 3) caught up on receipts and accounts for the suite of community gardening projects for which I’m treasurer and 4) went out to one of the garden sites to help fill newly constructed raised beds with compost, wood chip and veg plants. And of course, as I do every day when I’m not on holiday, I 5) stopped by the neighbourhood Little Free Library I curate to tidy the shelves and check whether any new stock was needed.

Ever since I was invited to become a local school governor last year (I declined) and a trustee of the neighbourhood nonprofit arts venue where I attend gigs and sometimes volunteer tending bar (earlier this year; I’m still thinking about it), I’ve had the feeling that others view me almost like a retiree. I postulate two main reasons. One, as an underemployed freelancer, I don’t appear to have a proper career. I don’t mind people thinking this as it feels true for me much of the time. Secondly, I don’t have children, a major commitment for many women of my age bracket. As Sheila Heti wrote in Motherhood, “There is something threatening about a woman who is not occupied with children. There is something at-loose-ends feeling about such a woman. What is she going to do instead? What sort of trouble will she make?”

I’m not particularly ambitious professionally; I wish I was in a financial situation to be the full-time volunteer that some perceive me to be – after all, my unpaid roles are, in many cases, less annoying and more rewarding than much of what I do for money. Maybe I’ll work out the right balance sometime in the near future. It’s important to feel productive and valued. In the meantime, it is gratifying that my skills are appreciated in my charitable work.

 

My library use over the last month:

(Links to reviews of books I have not already covered on the site)

 

READ

 

SKIMMED

  • Beautiful Trauma by Rebecca Fogg
  • Second Helpings by Sue Quinn (a leftovers cookbook; we’re intrigued by the coffee grounds cookies!)

 

CURRENTLY READING

  • Death Valley by Melissa Broder
  • Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville
  • Kay’s Incredible Inventions by Adam Kay
  • After Dark by Haruki Murakami
  • Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
  • The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

 

CHECKED OUT, TO BE READ

(The rest of what is pictured in the three photos!)

 

ON HOLD, TO BE COLLECTED

  • Piglet by Lottie Hazell
  • Languishing by Corey Keyes
  • You Are Here by David Nicholls – The other week when I took this screenshot I thought there were a lot of holds on this one, more than I have seen since Lessons in Chemistry first came out. I looked again yesterday and I am now 1st out of 53. All waiting for one copy!

  • Knife by Salman Rushdie
  • The Spoiled Heart by Sunjeev Sahota

 

RETURNED UNFINISHED

  • Mona of the Manor by Armistead Maupin – I read the first 30 pages. It seemed fun enough, if edgy for the sake of it (every main character is queer; crass speech). I encountered many more typos than I expected for a published book, including missing articles and quotation marks. Ultimately, I think you have to be invested in this series and its characters, whereas I had only ever read the first book, Tales of the City, and it didn’t captivate me.

RETURNED UNREAD

  • Have a Little Faith by Kate Bottley – I admire her as a person but the first few pages made me think she’s not cut out for being a writer. This promised to be generic and twee.
  • Learning to Think by Tracy King – Requested after me. Will try another time.
  • The Half Bird by Susan Smillie – Did not enjoy the writing style at all.
  • Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman – Requested after me. Might try another time.

 

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.

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Love Your Library, March 2024

By Rebecca Foster on | 33 Comments

Thanks to Eleanor, Laila, Laura and Naomi for posting about their recent library reads! Everyone is welcome to join in with this meme that runs on the last Monday of the month.

My library system’s delivery van has been unreliable recently, so the branch transfers have really stacked up. Last week I had to stay nearly an hour longer than usual for my volunteering to get through all the requests. Some of my holds had been stuck in transit and arrived all at once, so I will have a bunch to pick up tomorrow, including Land of Milk and Honey by C. Pam Zhang for the Carol Shields Prize longlist. I’ve been dipping into other prize lists as well, as I recounted in Saturday’s post.

 

Since last month:

READ

 

SKIMMED

  • Doppelganger by Naomi Klein

CURRENTLY READING

  • The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (rereading for book club)
  • The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
  • The Song of the Whole Wide World: On Grief, Motherhood and Poetry by Tamarin Norwood
  • Come and Get It by Kiley Reid
  • How to Raise a Viking: The Secrets of Parenting the World’s Happiest Children by Helen Russell
  • The Collected Stories of Carol Shields
  • Before the Light Fades by Natasha Walter
  • Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang

 

CURRENTLY READING-ISH

(set aside temporarily)

  • Death Valley by Melissa Broder
  • The Year of the Cat by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
  • King by Jonathan Eig
  • Babel by R.F. Kuang

CHECKED OUT, TO BE READ

  • After Dark by Haruki Murakami
  • Jungle House by Julianne Pachico

 

RETURNED UNFINISHED

  • A Sign of Her Own by Sarah Marsh: I was intrigued enough by the premise – the story of a deaf pupil of Alexander Graham Bell’s – and the fact that the author is surgeon Henry Marsh’s daughter to put this on my Women’s Prize wish list. However, the writing just wasn’t there in the first chapter, when it’s imperative to draw a reader in, nor has Marsh been well served by her publisher, who allowed this to go to press with three glaring errors within the first 10 pages: a missing period at the end of a sentence on p. 5, “he’ll being saying” [for he’ll be saying] on p. 6, and “tthere” on p. 8.

 

RETURNED UNREAD

  • Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu

 

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.

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Love Your Library (and Life Update), October 2023

By Rebecca Foster on | 29 Comments

My thanks, as always, to Elle for her participation in this monthly meme, and to Laura for mentioning whenever she sources a book from the library!

I’m posting a bit later than usual because it’s been a busy time, and quite an emotional rollercoaster too. First was the high of my joint 40th birthday party with my husband (whose birthday is in late November) on Saturday evening. It required close to wedding levels of event planning and was stressful, especially in the week ahead, with lots of dropouts due to illness and changed plans. Yesterday and today, I’ve been up to my knees in dirty dishes, leftovers, and soiled tablecloths and bedding to try to get washed and dry. But it was a fantastic party in the end, bringing together people from lots of different areas of our lives. I’m so grateful to everyone who came to celebrate with cake, a quiz, a ceilidh, a bring-and-share/potluck meal, and dancing to the hits of 1983.

The next day was a bit of a crash back to earth as I snuck away from the house guests to attend my church’s annual Memorial Service. With All Hallows’ Eve and then All Saints coming up, it’s a traditional time to think about the dead, but all the more so because today is the first anniversary of my mother’s death. It’s taken me the full year to understand and accept, with both mind and heart, that she’s gone. I’m not marking the day in any particular way apart from having a cup of strong Earl Grey tea in her honour. I feel close to her when I read her journals, look at photographs, or see all the many items she gave me that I still use. We recently moved her remains to a different cemetery and it’s strangely comforting to think that her plot could also accommodate at least a portion of my ashes one day.

Love Your Library

Last week I was trained in how to use the library content management system and received log-ins for limited access to return, issue and renew books and search for information on the internal catalogue. It has been interesting to see how things work from the other side, having been a customer of the library system for over a decade. At busy times I will be able to help out behind the counter, but because I have to call a senior for literally anything more complicated, I am not a replacement for an employee. It is a sad reality that some libraries have to rely on volunteers in this way; none of the smaller branches in West Berkshire would be able to stay open without volunteers working alongside staff.

Novellas in November will be here before we know it. I have a huge pile of library novellas borrowed, in addition to all the ones I own.

Since last month:

READ

CURRENTLY READING

  • Western Lane by Chetna Maroo
  • The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

CURRENTLY (NOT) READING

  • The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
  • The Year of the Cat by Rhiannon Lucy Coslett
  • Reproduction by Louisa Hall
  • Weyward by Emilia Hart
  • The Last Bookwanderer by Anna James
  • Findings by Kathleen Jamie (a re-read)
  • Before the Light Fades by Natasha Walter

I started all of the above weeks ago, but they have been languishing on various stacks and it will take a concerted effort to get back to and finish them.

RETURNED UNREAD

  • The Seventh Son by Sebastian Faulks
  • This Other Eden by Paul Harding
  • All the Little Bird-Hearts by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow

All were much-hyped or prize-listed novels that didn’t grab me within the first few pages, so I relinquished them to the next person in the reservation queue.

 

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.

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Love Your Library & Miscellaneous News, July 2023

By Rebecca Foster on | 20 Comments

Thanks, as always, to Elle for her faithful participation (her post is here).

Today happens to be my 10th freelancing anniversary. I’m not much in the mood for celebrating as my career feels like it’s at a low ebb just now. However, I’m trying to be proactive: I contacted all my existing employers asking about the possibility of more work and a few opportunities are forthcoming. Plus I have a new paid review venue in the pipeline.

Tomorrow the Booker Prize longlist will be announced. I haven’t had a whole lot of time to think about it, but over the past few months I did keep a running list of novels I thought would be eligible, so here are 13 (a “Booker dozen”) that I think might be strong possibilities:

Old God’s Time, Sebastian Barry

The New Life, Tom Crewe

Fire Rush, Jacqueline Crooks

The Wren, The Wren, Anne Enright

The Vaster Wilds, Lauren Groff

Enter Ghost, Isabella Hammad

Hungry Ghosts, Kevin Jared Hosein

August Blue, Deborah Levy

The Sun Walks Down, Fiona McFarlane

Cuddy, Benjamin Myers

Shy, Max Porter

The Fraud, Zadie Smith

Land of Milk and Honey, C Pam Zhang

 

See also Clare’s and Susan’s predictions. All three of us coincide on one of these titles!

Back to the library content!

I appreciated this mini-speech by Bob Comet, the introverted librarian protagonist of Patrick deWitt’s The Librarianist, about why he loves libraries … but not people so much:

“I like the way I feel when I’m there. It’s a place that makes sense to me. I like that anyone can come in and get the books they want for free. The people bring the books home and take care of them, then bring them back so that other people can do the same. … I like the idea of people.”

I recently added a new regular task to my library volunteering roster: choosing a selection of the month’s new stock (30 fiction releases and 9 fiction) and adding them to a PDF template with the cover, title and author, and a blurb from the library catalogue or Goodreads, etc. The sheets are printed out at each branch library and displayed in a binder for patrons to browse. I was so proud to see my pages in there! There are three of us alternating this task, so I’ll be doing it four times a year. My next month is October.

On my Scotland travels last month, I took photos of two cute little libraries, one in Wigtown (L) and the other in Tarbert.

I’m currently on holiday again, with university friends in the Lake District for a week (Wild Fell, below, is for reading in advance of a trip to, and on location in, Haweswater), and you can be sure I brought plenty of library books along with me.

My reading and borrowing since last time:

 

READ

 + 3 children’s picture books from the Wainwright Prize longlist:

  • Blobfish by Olaf Falafel: Silly and with the merest scrape of an environmentalist message pasted on (the fish temporarily gets stuck in a plastic bag).
  • The Zebra’s Great Escape by Katherine Rundell: Loved this super-cute, cheeky story of a little girl whose understanding of animal language allows her to become part of a natural network rescuing a menagerie held captive by an evil collector.
  • Grandpa and the Kingfisher by Anna Wilson: Nice drawings and attention to nature and its seasonality, but rather mawkish. (Adult birds don’t die off annually!)

SKIMMED

  • A Life of One’s Own: Nine Women Writers Begin Again by Joanna Biggs – The backstory is Biggs getting divorced in her thirties and moving to NYC. Her eight chosen female authors are VERY familiar, barring, perhaps, Zora Neale Hurston (thank goodness she chose two Black authors, as so many group biographies are all about white women). Do we need potted biographies of such well-known figures? Probably not. Nonetheless, it was clever how she wove her own story and reactions to their works into the biographical material, and the writing is so strong I could excuse any retreading of ground.

 

CURRENTLY READING

  • One Midsummer’s Day by Mark Cocker
  • King by Jonathan Eig
  • Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
  • Milk by Alice Kinsella
  • Wild Fell by Lee Schofield

 

CHECKED OUT, TO BE READ

Lots of lovely teal in this latest batch.

 

RETURNED UNFINISHED

  • Undercurrent by Natasha Carthew – This was requested after me. I read 21% and will either pick it up on my Kindle via the NetGalley book or get it out another time.
  • The Gifts by Liz Hyder – I’ll try this another time when I can give it more attention.
  • Music in the Dark by Sally Magnusson – I loved The Ninth Child, but have DNFed her other two novels, alas! I even got to page 122 in this, but I had little interest in seeing how the storylines fit together.
  • The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers – I’m awful about trying mystery series, usually DNFing or giving up after the first book. I just can’t care whodunnit.

 

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.

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Love Your Library, May 2023

By Rebecca Foster on | 18 Comments

Thanks to Elle for her monthly contribution, Laura for her great reviews of two high-profile novels, Birnam Wood and Pod, borrowed from her local library, and Naomi for the write-up of her recent audiobook loans, a fascinating selection of nonfiction and middle grade fiction. I forgot to link to Jana’s post last month, so here’s her April reading, another very interesting set.

My biggest news this month is that we now have a Little Free Library in my neighbourhood. This project was several years in the making as we waited for permissions and funding. The box (and a wooden bench next to it) were hand-crafted by my very talented neighbours, and the mayor of Newbury came to officially open it on the 7th. There are also a few planters of perennials and a small cherry tree. It really cheers up what used to be a patch of bare grass next to a parking area.

I’m the volunteer curator/librarian/steward so will ensure that the shelves are tidy and the stock keeps turning over. I try to stop by daily since it’s only around the corner from my house. We’ve ordered a charter sign to link us up with the organization and put us on the official map. Anyone visiting Newbury might decide to come find it. (I, for one, look out for LFLs wherever I go, from Pennsylvania to North Uist!)

My library reading and borrowing since last month. I’m back in the States for a visit just now, so don’t currently have any library books on the go. It felt prudent to clear the decks, but I’ll have a big stack waiting for me when I come back!

 

READ

 

SKIMMED

  • Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks
  • You Are Not Alone by Cariad Lloyd

CHECKED OUT, TO BE READ

RETURNED UNFINISHED

  • All the Men I Never Married by Kim Moore – I hadn’t heard of the poet and had never read anything from the publisher, but took a chance. I got to page 16. It’s fine: poems about former love interests, whether they be boyfriends or aggressors. There looks to be good variety of structure. I just didn’t sense adequate weight.
  • The Furrows by Namwali Serpell – My apologies to Laura! (This started off as a buddy read.) I pushed myself through the first 78 pages, but once it didn’t advance in the Carol Shields Prize race there was no impetus to continue and it just wasn’t compelling enough to finish.

 

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.

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Love Your Library, January 2023

By Rebecca Foster on | 16 Comments

Elle has been reading loads from the library (and discovering the freedom of DNFing or not reading the library books you borrow; this is not a problem in the least, and it still helps the library’s statistics!). Naomi always finds interesting books to read and review from her library system. Margaret’s “My Life in Book Titles 2022” almost exclusively featured books she’d borrowed from libraries. Through Twitter I saw this hilarious TikTok video from Cincinnati Library about collecting book holds. If only I could be so glamorous on my Tuesday volunteering mornings. Washington Post critic Ron Charles’s weekly e-newsletter is one of my greatest bookish joys and I was delighted to see him recently highlight an initiative from my hometown’s local library system. Whenever I go on the cross trainer, I read library books or my e-reader so exercise time isn’t ‘lost’ time when I could be reading.

Since last month:

 

READ

  • A Night at the Frost Fair by Emma Carroll
  • Bournville by Jonathan Coe
  • A Heart that Works by Rob Delaney
  • The Weather Woman by Sally Gardner
  • Leila and the Blue Fox by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
  • Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny
  • Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
  • Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

CURRENTLY READING

  • Once Upon a Tome by Oliver Darkshire
  • Martha Quest by Doris Lessing (for our women’s classics book club subgroup)
  • How to Be Sad by Helen Russell
  • Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout
  • City of Friends by Joanna Trollope (for February’s book club)
  • Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

 

My library system has a ton of new books on order – I set up an alert so I would be e-mailed a weekly digest of all 2023 adult fiction and nonfiction releases added to the catalogue – so my reservation queue is nearly full now with all kinds of tempting stuff, including a new biography of Katherine Mansfield and a bereavement memoir by Blake Morrison, whose And When Did You Last See Your Father? was my favourite nonfiction read of 2018. In fiction, I’m particularly excited about The New Life by Tom Crewe, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz, and Maame by Jessica George.

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.

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Love Your Library, December 2022

By Rebecca Foster on | 23 Comments

The UK has just experienced its coldest week since 2010, so it’s no wonder we’ve been freezing here in our drafty old house. It’s turning milder (and rainy), so we hope to have it habitable for hosting my parents-in-law on Christmas day, and my sister the week after.

Margaret sent me a link to this charming story about a public library in Poland that moved its entire collection 350 meters down the road using a human chain of over 600 volunteers. Marcie sourced many of her graphic novel and poetry reads, as well as various globe-trotting stories, from the library this year. And Eleanor has been reading loads of print and e-books from her library: everything from Dickens to sci-fi. Thank you all for your contributions!

Earlier in the month my library closed to the public for two days to complete a stock take (which happens once every three years). I helped out for my usual two hours on the Tuesday morning, scanning children’s chapter books with a tiny device about the size of two memory sticks put together. We scanned the library’s nearly 50,000 on-shelf items in the equivalent of just over one working day.

All of my remaining reservations seem to have come in at once. There’s no hope of me reading all the big-name 2022 releases (such as the Booker Prize winner, and Celeste Ng’s new novel) before the end of the year, but I will see if I can manage to finish a few more that I have in progress.

 

Since last month:

READ

CURRENTLY READING

  • Horse by Geraldine Brooks
  • A Heart that Works by Rob Delaney
  • Leila and the Blue Fox by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
  • Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny
  • Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

RETURNED UNFINISHED

 

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.

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Love Your Library, November 2022

By Rebecca Foster on | 9 Comments

Eleanor got loads of her R.I.P. reads from the library last month. Several of my novellas for this month have come from the public library, and before long it’ll be time to gather up a few holiday-appropriate reads.

I cut down my library volunteering from four hours a week to two, to claw back a little more time for work and for myself – between adjusting my meal times and walking there and back, it felt like I lost the whole of my Thursday afternoons, and already I enjoy having them free.

Early next month the library will close for two days for a complete stock take. I’ll go in on my usual Tuesday morning to help out with that for a few hours. I know to expect a lot of standing and repetitive work, but we’ve been promised tea and cake at break time!

Since last month:

READ

  • Strangers on a Pier: Portrait of a Family by Tash Aw
  • Fair Play by Tove Jansson
  • The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay

CURRENTLY READING

  • Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny
  • Pages & Co.: The Treehouse Library (Pages & Co. #5) by Anna James
  • Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
  • Everything the Light Touches by Janice Pariat
  • Leap Year by Helen Russell
  • The Family Retreat by Bev Thomas
  • Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
  • Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

 

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.

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Love Your Library, August 2022

By Rebecca Foster on | 23 Comments

Edited: Belatedly adding in links to this month’s posts by Eleanor and Marcie, with a huge thank you for participating!

And here’s my haul from today. A few short story collections there because in September I always try to focus a bit more on stories.

Naomi has also been reading a lot from her local libraries, and Laura stocked up before heading out on holiday:

Normally my library system would be busily buying up the Booker Prize longlist, the Wainwright Prize shortlists, and big-name upcoming releases by the likes of John Irving and Ian McEwan. I have a file on my desktop with a list of 29 author names I periodically check for, as any on-order titles from them will show up at the top of the results. But there’s been a huge slowdown on acquisitions, and I know exactly why: the librarian who orders and processes new books experienced a family tragedy this summer and has been on compassionate leave for a while already. Were I not a library volunteer who also vaguely knows her socially, I’d have no idea and might be simmering with impatience right now. Instead, I’ll be patient, read what I already have out, and address my review book backlog.

 

Since last month…

READ

  • Where the Wildflowers Grow by Leif Bersweden
  • Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding (for book club)
  • My Life in Houses by Margaret Forster
  • Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden
  • Julia and the Shark by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
  • The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
  • From the Hedgerows by Lew Lewis
  • The Last Wild Horses by Maja Lunde
  • Golden Boys by Phil Stamper
  • The False Rose by Jakob Wegelius

 Also a children’s book I spotted while shelving – who knew it existed?!

  • River Rose and the Magical Lullaby by Kelly Clarkson; illus. Laura Hughes

 

CURRENTLY READING

  • Brief Lives by Anita Brookner (for book club)
  • Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet
  • Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley
  • State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (a reread)
  • Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout
  • The Young Accomplice by Benjamin Wood

A few of these are from the Booker Prize longlist, in advance of the shortlist announcement on 6 September.

And from the university library:

  • Summer by Edith Wharton

 

Still lots around that I’ve borrowed and not gotten into yet:

And various new releases on hold or awaiting me on the reservation shelf.

 

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.

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Love Your Library, July 2022

By Rebecca Foster on | 18 Comments

Margaret posted about books picked at random while volunteering at the library, and the way a certain type of cover can draw you in or fit your mood. I’ve certainly experienced this, too!

I’ve noticed that, lately, my library system has been making an effort to cover gaps in its holdings, purchasing books to boost its collections of LGBTQ and postcolonial literature: reissues of novels by Caribbean and Indigenous (e.g. Maori) authors, more by trans people, Black British authors from the Virago Modern Classics series, etc. They also tend to buy up writers’ back catalogues, especially if reprinted as a uniform series – I keep hoping they’ll do this for Sarah Hall. Though I volunteer at the library twice a week, I don’t have insider knowledge; it’s still a mystery to me how and why some books get ordered and some don’t.

Since last month…

 

READ

  • Orchid Summer by Jon Dunn
  • Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
  • Secrets of the Sea House by Elisabeth Gifford
  • This Is Not a Pity Memoir by Abi Morgan (for book club)
  • The Summer of the Bear by Bella Pollen
  • Transitions: Our Stories of Being Trans, ed. Juno Roche et al.
  • Stormy Petrel by Mary Stewart
  • Madwoman by Louisa Treger – reviewing for Shelf Awareness

 And from the university library:

From whence this amusing quote about library books:

“No T. More in any of the bookshops, so tried Public Library. Can’t think why one never thinks of Public Libraries. Probably because books expected to be soupy. Think this looks quite clean and unsoupy. You get fourteen days. Sounds like a sentence rather than a loan.”

(I sometimes get perfume-y books, but not soupy ones. How about you?)

 

I’ll zero in on one of these, Lessons in Chemistry, because there are 50 reservations after me in the queue – that must be a record for my small library system! Bonnie Garmus made her authorial debut at age 64; you can be sure she’ll be in the running for the next Paul Torday Memorial Prize (awarded by the Society of Authors to a first novel by a writer over 60). Elizabeth Zott is a scientist through and through, applying a chemist’s mindset to her every venture, including cooking, rowing and single motherhood in the 1950s. When she is fired from her job in a chemistry lab and gets a gig as a TV cooking show host instead, she sees it as her mission to treat housewives as men’s intellectual equals, but there are plenty of people who don’t care for her unusual methods and free thinking. I was reminded strongly of The Atomic Weight of Love and The Rosie Project, as well as novels by Katherine Heiny and especially John Irving what with the deep dive into backstory and particular pet subjects, and the orphan history for Zott’s love interest. This was an enjoyable tragicomedy. You have to cheer for the triumphs she and other female characters win against the system of the time. However, her utter humourlessness/guilelessness felt improbable, the very precocious child (and dog) stretch belief, and the ending was too pat for me.

 

CURRENTLY READING

Continuing with my flora and summer themes; continuing to linger in Scotland; reading about the amazing birds filling our skies (and nesting in our eaves):

  • Where the Wildflowers Grow by Leif Bersweden
  • Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding (for book club)
  • Swifts and Us by Sarah Gibson
  • Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden
  • Tenderness by Alison MacLeod
  • Where the World Ends by Geraldine McCaughrean
  • Golden Boys by Phil Stamper
  • The False Rose by Jakob Wegelius
  • Summer by Edith Wharton

 

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.

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