Library Loot: June 10-16, 2009
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by myself and Alessandra that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!
Life here at chez Eva is insane right now. My sister left last week, but my niece is staying for the summer, and my grandparents arrived on a surprise visit last Sunday. Oh, and we’ve finally figured out why my fibro was acting up so badly: I’ve developed an allergy to wheat. So now I’m trying to research gluten free recipes, line up a job for the fall, hang out with my family, and I’ve been able to actually be active (bike rides! yoga!) for the first time in six months. I pretty much had to choose between reading and blogging, sooo….reading won. But my grandparents leave tomorrow, and my niece and I are off to the library this afternoon, so hopefully I’ll be able to pick up my blogging soon. Honestly, I need to re-establish the habit of blogging daily, or at least every other day!
None of that has anything to do with Library Loot, of course. I have some GREAT books right now, so I should be able to add them soon. But I wanted to get the Mr. Linky up for all of y’all. Also, Alessandra hasn’t updated since March, and I’ve had so many blogging issues lately, that if anyone wants to be my new co-host just let me know! I figure we can trade off who does the Mr. Linky main post on their site every week, so just e-mail me (astripedarmchairATgmailDOTcom) if that sounds like fun. :) (I’ve already had a couple of e-mails.)
Here’s my loot via vlogging:
And the ‘old fashioned’ way:
Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician by Daniel Wallace (for the Southern Challenge), Voodoo Season by Jewell Parker Rhodes (for the Southern Challenge, thanks to Chris’ review), Mudbound by Hillary Jordan (for the Southern Challenge)
Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston (because I’ve been craving some YA faerie drama), Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan (for the Once Upon a Time Challenge), Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson (because Speak was so well written)
The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci (for the Graphic Novels Challenge), The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner (because I love Gardner’s writing), Wanderlust and Lipstick by Beth Whitman (because I have travel fever!)
Liquid Jade : the Story of Tea from East to West by Beatrice Hohenegger (for the Dewey Decimal Challenge), Wesley the Owl by Stacey O’Brien (for the Dewey Decimal Challenge), Antoine’s Alphabet: Watteau and His World by Jed Perl (for the Art History Challenge)
Want to play along with Library Loot? Leave your link at the Mr. Linky!
A Striped Armchair 
Hopefully now that you’ve found that allergy, you’ll be able to get things under control. There is a lot of great gluten-free eating out there! It just takes a little more work to find. :-)
Good to see you out and about!
Lezlie
I hope that now you’ve pinned down a wheat allergy, things start to get better for you! My friend discovered about a year ago now that she had Celiac’s disease. She’s managed to do surprisingly well with the help of the many gluten-free cookbooks out there.
Glad to see you back and hope you do indeed come here to post more often!
If you haven’t discovered Shauna’s blog (glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com) then hurry there now. Shauna write recipes and recommends foods safe for celiac’s. She even wrote a book! Hope you start feeling better.
My LL is up and I’ll post it to Mr Linky.
I didn’t get to the Library this week unless we count the one at the nursing home – and, really, I think we should be able to, right? So, I’ll work on my post. Just wanted to say hello and give a virtual hug!
Hi!
Hope your feeling better and everything gets back to normal. I have posted my Library Loot. Have a great day!
Sherrie
Hanging with family is way more important than blogging every day. I’m glad you’ve been having so much fun!
Gluten-free now, too. Sheesh, girl, before long you’ll be down to just water! ;-) But I am sooooo happy you found out what was going on, and I really, really hope it helps with the fibro!!! (On a side note, I thought you’d be happy to hear that with the exception of Rich, the whole gang has gone vegetarian here.)
I hope that you’re feeling better (or at least on the way to feeling better) now that you’ve figured out what was wrong!
I haven’t posted LibraryLoot in a while, life’s just been busy. I’m planning to post on Monday though from now on. Since I’m accepting a very limited amount of advance copies most of my books are going to be coming from the library.
Sorry to hear about your allergy Eva.
Glad to see you blogging again, look forward to your thoughts on what you’ve been reading.
Eva in brief is better than no Eva at all…
I wish I could choose reading instead of blogging too, but for me blogging has a different charm altogether. I need to balance the two :)
Gluten-free can be a bit of a hassle, but there are some really great recipes out there, and all the health food stores carry a decent selection as well. At least around here. Good luck!
And glad to see you back on line again!
I also was going to mention Shauna’s blog. I hope you do start to feel better, now that you know what’s up!
So glad you’ve been able to get to the bottom of the fibro flare up. Hope you find a lot of delicious recipes that are gluten-free and keep up with those bike rides & yoga :)
I agree – spending time with family is much more important than blogging. Really hoping that having the allergy identified has you on the way to feeling much better soon.
Eva! While I miss you and would love to see you blogging regularly again, hanging out with your family, going for bike rides and doing yoga do sound more fun :D I hope you continue to feel better and better now that you figured out what was going on!
PS: Did the Powell’s card reach you okay? I’m just a tiny bit worried I might have sent it to astrippedarmchair at gmail :P
PPS: I’m so sorry I haven’t sent you letter yet! I haven’t forgotten; I just need to get through these last few weeks of the semester and then I’ll get to it.
Ooh you have Tender Morsels! Now that looks like such a delicious read.
Eva, your library always has such great reads…or do you have to request some of these? As always you found some great books and I can’t wait to hear what you think about them. Enjoy!
Lovely books… such pretty covers, as well! I’m so glad you figured out the wheat thing. How did you discover that?
I’ve heard good things about Tender Morsels. I like Plain Janes. Looking forward to your reviews!
You always have such interesting sounding books! The southern ones sound intriguing; I look forward to your reviews to find out if I should read them ;)
I have yet to read a graphic novel – and I also used to think it just referred to erotica!
I’m sorry to hear about your allergy, but glad you have figured it out and are feeling better.
HAHA … the graphic novel thing made me laugh so hard because I, too, thought that graphic novel = erotica when I first started blogging. I’m so glad I’ve broadened my tastes to understand what a graphic novel is and to realize how great they are!
Oh Mudbound was SO good. One of my top books of 2008! Hope you like it as much as I did.
You must have a really terrific library. We just got Halse Anderson’s Chains, recently. I can’t imagine we’ll see Wintergirls for a few more months. And, we have zero graphic novels.
I love your vlogs!
Hey eva!
I just got Plain Janes from the library too. GN are such a great break.
Cheers!
Love, love, loved The Red Necklace. One of my favorites from last year. Can’t wait for the next one, The Silver Blade. Hope you enjoy it!
Oh, and if you like urban fantasy, I would suggest Holly Black — Tithe, Valiant, and Ironside. I enjoyed Tithe more than Wondrous Strange, though WS was v. cute.
I hope you feel better soon. Looking at your titles remind me that I do have ARCs of some of these. I need to dig them out. Mudbound would be a nice one to read, as well as the Magician book. :)
I hope you’re feeling better already…
This is my first time participating in Library Loot: http://www.aliceteh.com/2009/06/library-loot.html
Have a good weekend!
Lezlie, thanks for the encouragement! :)
Meghan, I’ve got some gluten free cookbooks on hold at the library!
Linda, thanks for the link. :D
Care, you should definitely count that post! And thanks for the hug-right back at you!
Sherrie, thanks!
Debi, lol; for the time being, I’m back to just eating vegetarian instead of vegan. But once I adjust to gluten free, I’ll try out being vegan again. I am happy to hear about newly minted vegetarians! :D Let me know if you need cookbook recs!
Alyce, I’ll look forward to your posts! I’d guess at least 80% of my reading this has been library books.
ADevotedReader, thanks so much!
Bybee, you’re so sweet! :)
Violet, usually I balance the two. But when family’s in town, things get crazy!
Stephanie, thanks! I have a Whole Foods down the street, and while I miss Trader Joe’s (from when I lived in Cali), I’m happy to have some options.
Rebecca, thanks!
Iliana, you’re so nice. :)
Suzi Q, I already feel much better: thank you.
Nymeth, I could never give up blogging completely! We’ll see if I end up having to scale back. :)
Olduvai, I’m 50 pages into it, and so far it’s better than I expected (and I had high expectations!).
Samantha, I’m lucky to live in a pretty big city with a great library system, so I very rarely have to interlibrary loan anything. I do put in requests to get things sent to my branch, though, so I don’t have to drive all over town!
Daphne, it’s a funny story…my sister and I decided to follow the menu plans from a book called Bikini Bootcamp, which didn’t include anything with wheat. I noticed my body feeling and behaving much better, and I remembered that one of my mom’s friends developed a wheat allergy when she was an adult. So, I experimented a bit, and there was a definite correlation!
Linda, thanks!
Sarah, that’s why I love challenges: I have ready-made lists of interesting books. :D
Heather, I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought that about graphic novels!! And Neil Gaiman is one of my favourite writers, so I used to be a little embarassed that he had such a well-known graphic novel series. ;)
Suzi Q, I’ll be reading it soon!
Nancy, we do have a terrific library, that I’m very, very grateful for. I wouldn’t be able to read nearly as much or as widely without it!
BooksPlease, thanks so much. :D
Christina, awesome!
Casey, I’ve read Tithe and Valiant, and now that I’ve read Wondrous Strange, I agree Tithe is better. Wicked Lovely is still my favourite though! :D
Matt, I wish I had ARCs that cool!
Alice, thanks for participating!