Medieval Bookworm

Another round of library loot this week!  I don’t have too much to share, just three books.  I’ve been requesting a lot of books, so I’ve been reading my acquisitions surprisingly quickly.  I hope to get through the two YA books this weekend.

The library books are the three at the bottom:

• Empress Orchid, Anchee Min – I have really been eager to read more by Anchee Min ever since I finished Pearl of China.  I have her novel Katherine on my TBR pile but this one has always appealed to me, too.
• Just In Case, Meg Rosoff – Continuing my small obsession, I appear to be determined to read all four of Meg Rosoff’s books in a couple of months.  Actually, the release date of The Bride’s Farewell may prevent that, but I will definitely be reading it.
• The Forest of Hands and Teeth, Carrie Ryan – I’ve been wanting to read this since release and now I finally have my hands on it.

The top two are books that came to me in the mail.  I thought it would be fun to add them in for once, too, so I’m hijacking my own post.

• Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay – I have Nymeth to thank for this.  I don’t recall if I ever mentioned that I didn’t get a gift from the Book Bloggers Holiday Swap.  My Santa never responded to emails, and when I chose one of the donations to make up for it, that person didn’t respond either.  So Ana generously offered to buy me a book herself, and I’m so grateful that as a result I have the newest release of one of my absolute favorite authors.  Thank you, Ana!
• Virgin Widow, Anne O’Brien – Got this one for review.  It’s about Anne Neville, and I will admit that I hesitated to accept it.  But it’s my thing, it’s been too long since I reviewed a medieval historical fiction novel, and it’s had good reviews.  It comes out in the UK later this month and will be published in the US later this year – I imagine I’ll be seeing a good number of reviews for it around then!

Thanks as always to Eva and Marg for hosting Library Loot!

I haven’t done a Library Loot post in a really long time.  I moved and then it took me a couple weeks to find time to join the library, plus I haven’t been reading as much so a little part of me wondered whether I should stick to my own books for now.

Of course that didn’t happen; I am now a proud member of my latest library with a good number of books checked out.  We actually plan on joining another library system nearby (I know, it’s an addiction) because they have a greater selection, but we’ll have to go on the weekend and we’ve only spent one weekend here so far and aren’t likely to stay for a couple more.

So!  I bring you what I have taken out so far:

• Leviathan, Scott Westerfeld – I’ve been wanting to read this since it came out, and I actually already have but neglected to review it.  I will probably include it on a mini-review post soon.
• Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher – Random Read-a-Thon selection.  Again, no review; it was okay.
• Edith Wharton, Hermione Lee – I am still in the middle of her Virginia Woolf but I knew I wanted to read this one next, so I went and got it out.  I love Edith Wharton; I know I may find some unpleasant truths in her biography but I’m willing to take that chance.
• Rumours, Anna Godbersen – I wasn’t totally in love with The Luxe but I really need some relaxing YA.  Plus my library has all of this series, so I might actually be able to read it all.
• Dreams from My Father, Barack Obama – I’ve been wanting to read this for a long time.
• My Name is Red, Orhan Pamuk – I thought this sounded awesome.  It’s set in 16th century Istanbul and billed as a thrilling murder mystery with meditations on love, artistic devotion, and tensions between the East and West.  And I’m sure I’ve seen positive reviews somewhere.
• Then We Came to the End, Joshua Ferris – Another wishlist book.
• Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell – I’ve been wanting to read this one for a long time too.  My mom also just let me know that David Mitchell’s new one has arrived to their address for me, so I decided I should read this first.
• The Boy Who Loved Books, John Sutherland – How could I not want to read a book about a boy whose life was saved by books twice?  This is a memoir and I hope it’s as good as it sounds.
• Chinese Cinderella, Adeline Jen Mah – I tend to browse the Chinese history section each time I go in and this just caught my eye.
• Chains, Laurie Halse Anderson – I’ve been wanting to read another of her books since Speak and this is the one they had in!

Sorry for the lack of pictures/links – I’ve meant to post this since Monday but can’t sustain the energy to do more than write it out.  You don’t want to know how many reviews I have waiting to be written, either.  I’m definitely still adjusting to this work thing even though it’s been a month.  I’m not complaining, this is what I wanted, but I still find it hard to believe I have to go there every day!  On the bright side, I have managed to start commenting a little on breaks – I just need to figure out how to work in writing for my own blog.  I decided a post without links and pictures was better than no post at all.

Thanks as always to the fantastic Eva and Marg for hosting this meme!

This was a fairly quiet week at the library for me.  I haven’t been reading many of the books I’ve taken out, mostly because I’ve actually been reading a bit less this month.  For one thing, my evenings are generally no longer my own because I’m married, which I clearly don’t mind, and while I’m unemployed, I’m in charge of the flat, so I spend more time cleaning and cooking.  Nanowrimo takes a couple of hours out of my day, and I spend time every day looking for and applying for new jobs, if I can find any I’m qualified to do.  There are depressingly few jobs out there that aren’t for IT specialists or business/marketing majors.  If there are any British publishing companies out there looking for someone who is passionate about books, I’m willing to work!

Anyway, on to the books!  Click on the pictures to be taken to individual Librarything pages.

• Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier – Chevalier is a hit or miss author for me, so I got this out of the library for a reason.
• Crazy for You by Jennifer Crusie – I really enjoyed the first book of hers I read and was recently getting annoyed that I’d read all the lightest fiction I have in my possession (in this country – 2/3 of my TBR is in the US) except for a few historical romances, which I’m not in the mood to read right now.  Jennifer Crusie seemed like a good way to remedy the situation.
• Touch the Dark by Karen Chance – Same reasoning here as above, and I liked Karen Chance’s story in On the Prowl.
• Daisy: The Life and Loves of the Countess of Warwick by Sushila Anand – I mentioned this book in my Sunday Salon post and I’m still enjoying it.  The first half of the book was more about Daisy’s love life, while this second half is much more about Daisy’s involvement in politics.  Both are interesting and quite a reflection on the turn of the century in England.  I’ll be finished with this one soon.

Have you read any of these books?  What did you think?

Library Loot is a weekly meme hosted by Eva and Marg.

I waited to do my loot (hosted by Eva and Marg) until I’d been to both my libraries.  I’m hoping that the libraries help stave off my intense desire to buy books.  It’s only been two weeks; right now we’re quite poor so that’s helping, but I don’t know if I’m going to be able to resist once I do have money of my own.  I’m starting to apply for jobs, so we’ll see what happens.  I know it could be months but I’m foolishly optimistic.

Anyway, at the moment I’m using Keith’s cards so I can get my own under my married name without hassle in a week and a half (!) so we go on the weekend when he’s around.  I have two piles to share with you today.  In theory, I have two public library systems.  They both charge for loans from other libraries, though, so I’m limited to what’s inside.  The first is from the bigger city library:

• The White Mare, Jules Watson – This is historical fiction about the Roman conquest of Britain.  I’d never heard of it before but it looked pretty enough on the shelf, so I decided to give it a try.  It’s the start of a series.
• The Warden, Anthony Trollope – I have been craving classics lately.  Since I have Barchester Towers, I thought I’d start at the beginning, even if this one is not as good.
• The Iron Tree, Cecilia Dart-Thornton – I saw the middle one of this series in my old York library but don’t think I actually managed to check any of them out.  I saw it and decided to read it now!
• Cotillion, Georgette Heyer – The library had maybe five Heyers and it was hard choosing!  I remembered some positive reviews for this, though, so I took it first.
• The Painted Man, Peter V. Brett – Another fantasy that I had out of the York library but didn’t get a chance to read.

And my second, smaller library.  This one is literally three minutes walk away, so I got more, figuring I can pretty much always get there when the books are due.

• The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga – Last year’s Booker winner.  Booker winners tend to be hit or miss for me, but I’m still optimistic about reading a lot of them.
• Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood – I have The Year of the Flood over here to review, but I haven’t read it yet because I didn’t want to spoil what happens in this book.  I’m hoping to start this today or tomorrow.
• Wolfskin, Juliet Marillier – I love Marillier’s work!  I think I’ve won her latest book, but I took this out to tide me over.
• Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates – I don’t really have a reason for reading this.  I haven’t seen the film or anything, but it’s supposed to be good, and it’s a quick read so I have to get to it before Saturday.  The quick reads, which are non-renewable and due in a week, are hopefully going to help me read new releases without keeping them for months on end until someone else requests them.
• Very Valentine, Adriana Trigiani – This author has had lots of positive reviews around the blogosphere and this book of hers was cover out, so I thought why not?
• London: The Biography, Peter Ackroyd – I’m really excited about this!  I love London and huge sweeping histories are totally my thing.  It is gigantic, though, so I’m glad I have a few weeks to read it.
• Emma, Jane Austen – This one’s not pictured because I forgot it was elsewhere – sorry!  Anyway, as I mentioned on Sunday, I got this to coincide with the BBC miniseries.  I’ve finished and loved it now, the review will be up in a few weeks.

So that’s my loot!  Read any of these books before?  Let me know what you thought!

(And in case you’re curious, those are indeed my own books alongside and behind the library books.)

This meme is hosted by Eva and Alessandra.

This one extends over two weeks.  Since I’m almost at my limit of 20 books at the library, I can usually only get out as many as I’m returning.  I try to keep it to 18 or 19 so that I can get any holds which come in at bad times.  Each week, then, I get about 3-4, so in two weeks I’ve amassed enough to justify another post!  I think I’ve taken out some good ones these last two trips.  Here they are:

1. Guilty Pleasures, Laurell K. Hamilton.  I don’t know why I picked this one up.  I know the series deteriorates massively over the last few volumes.  I guess I just wanted to see all the fuss about the Anita Blake series for myself, plus the library rarely has the first volume of a series staring me in the face like that, so I took it.
2. Unnatural Fire, Fidelis Morgan.  I picked up the second book in this series at the library book sale so I thought I would take out the first and make sure I hadn’t missed anything.
3. The Luxe, Anna Godbersen.  I’m going to go ahead and blame Beth Fish for this here.  She posted about it and I, like the good sheep that I am, put it on reserve.  This is a series that the library does not continue, so if I like it, I’ll have to buy the rest.
4. To Catch an Heiress, Julia Quinn.  My quest to read Quinn’s backlist continues.
5. Slightly Sinful, Mary Balogh.  I recently welcomed Mary Balogh to my favorites list and this is the one my mom couldn’t find at our favorite charity bookstore.
6. The Cellist of Sarajevo, Steven Galloway.  Thanks to Gautami Tripathy, I almost bought this one at Sainsbury’s, but then decided to wait and got it out of the library instead.  I’m trying to acquire fewer “cheap” books so I can buy more expensive hardcovers and support the authors.  Also, someone told me that in the UK, authors get paid royalties for me checking books out, so that sounds pretty good to me.
7. The Great Cow Race, Bone vol. 2, Jeff Smith.  I actually got vol. 1 last week but read and returned it already.  I can also lay this one at the door of Beth Fish Reads!  Nymeth gets credit for finally pushing me over the edge though.  I’ve actually already read this and might stop in for vol. 3 tomorrow.  My library only has up to 5, so I’m not sure what I will do afterwards.