I managed to get through six library reads in February. I’ve added in ratings and links to any reviews for books I haven’t already featured on the blog in some way. Currently I have a lovely quartet of books on the go; given that I got a bit carried away with the free reservations, it looks like I’ll be reading a whole bunch of library books in March.
LIBRARY BOOKS READ
- Short and Sweet: 101 Very Short Poems, edited by Simon Armitage
- The Tell-Tale Heart by Jill Dawson
- From Me to You: Love Poems by U.A. Fanthorpe and R.V. Bailey
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
- Family Life by Akhil Sharma
- The January Man: A Year of Walking Britain by Christopher Somerville
The current library reads. I hadn’t noticed until I took the photo that they all feature black, white and red on their covers…
CURRENTLY READING
- Pondlife: A Swimmer’s Journal by Al Alvarez
- The Unexpected Professor: An Oxford Life in Books by John Carey
- Bad Dreams and Other Stories by Tessa Hadley
- Let Them Eat Chaos [poetry] by Kate Tempest
CHECKED OUT, TO BE READ
- Ashland & Vine by John Burnside
- Outline by Rachel Cusk
- Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller
- Still Alice by Lisa Genova
- A Smell of Burning: The Story of Epilepsy by Colin Grant
- Finn Family Moomintroll & Sculptor’s Daughter by Tove Jansson
- Human Acts by Han Kang
- The No Spend Year: How I Spent Less and Lived More by Michelle McGagh [to skim only, I think]
- Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library by Chris Paling
- Nonsense by Christopher Reid [poetry]
ON HOLD, TO BE CHECKED OUT
- The Good People by Hannah Kent
- The Best of Adam Sharp by Graeme Simsion
IN THE RESERVATION QUEUE
- Go Lean Vegan: The Revolutionary 30-Day Diet Plan to Lose Weight and Feel Great by Christine Bailey
- Days Without End by Sebastian Barry
- The Owl at the Window: A Memoir of Loss and Hope by Carl Gorham
- Where Poppies Blow: The British Soldier, Nature, the Great War by John Lewis-Stempel
- Augustown by Kei Miller
- A Beginner’s Guide to Losing Your Mind: Survival Techniques for Staying Sane by Emily Reynolds
- Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
It looks like you were less fond of Family Life than I was.
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I seem to have enjoyed it more than Rebecca also
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I’ve read some wonderful nonfiction about TBI, but I just thought the writing here was so flat and unemotional that it hindered my ability to empathize with the family.
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That’s interesting. I think knowing that it was based on his own family’s experience and how difficult it had been for him to write it fed in to my feelings about it.
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Our library is one of those in severe danger of being ‘chopped’ thanks to this government’s cuts, so I have become one of the team of volunteers about to be trained to take on some of the roles there (there will still be a few professionals around). So I imagine that actually spending significant periods there will have me wandering home with further big piles of reading matter…….
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The same is happening here in West Berkshire with the smaller branch libraries, which I think will be staffed by volunteers only. I considered signing up but then realized it would involve all the worst aspects of my old library work: health and safety training, etc. Plus they require three references — just to be a volunteer!
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Smaller branch libraries? Ha! I’m talking about Ripon, population 17,000. Grrrr.
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Im trying hard not to get carried away with library holds so I can make more inroads into the hundreds of books I have in what I call my ‘personal library’ – in other words the bookshelves at home. But I did go and put The God of Small Things on reserve today….
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I’m trying to maintain a balance between library reads, my own books, advance books from NetGalley and Edelweiss, and assigned review copies. It’s not easy, though!
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Moomins! Surely the perfect escapist reading to be found. I love that you have the moomins next to Han Kang in your library TBR – now that is eclectic! 🙂
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That hadn’t even occurred to me 🙂 I recently read Moominland Midwinter, so I’ll have a break before going on to another one. It will be very interesting to read Jansson’s autobiography in conjunction with another Moomin book.
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Lovely eclectic reading as always! I am not using the library as much as I should be these days as between my own books,gifts and NetGalley my supply is kept constant. I am taking a pile of hardbacks up there to donate soon, though. I want to hear about the Simon Armitage book!
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It’s a brief anthology of short poems (fewer than 13 lines, so no sonnets!) of all time periods and styles. The order is interesting: they go from longest to shortest. Most I was unfamiliar with.
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I have more books than I would like from the library right now. I’m going to have to make some tough decisions, especially because many are ILL books. I might do up a quick post if I have time!
Happy to see 4.5 stars for Hoomegoing. 🙂
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I like that library loan periods force me to read things in a timely fashion. Downloads on my Kindle linger there for far too long…
Homegoing was a case of the hype being well deserved 🙂
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I’ve heard only good things about Homegoing. And Still Alice is one of my favorites! I hope you enjoy it.
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I really enjoyed the movie, so I hope the book will be at least as good. Sorry I didn’t realize you were the new host of Library Checkout; I only found out via Naomi of Consumed by Ink. I’ll be sure to link to you next month 🙂
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