Library Loot: November 18-24, 2009
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by myself and Marg 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!
Want to share your loot?
For the vlog, I just discussed the books I got from the library yesterday, but the covers/links include last week’s books too. I don’t want the books to feel neglected simply because I was too sick to do a post!
Covers/linked titles:
The Gates by John Connolly (love the author), The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat (Caribbean Lit Challenge), Once Upon a Quinceañera by Julia Alvarez (Women Unbound Challenge)
Zero: the Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife (Science Book Challenge), Wednesday is Indigo Blue by Richard Cytowic (random-I’m interested in synesthesia), The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski (Lost in Translation Challenge)
Angels of Destruction by Keith Donohue (love the author), Changing My Mind by Zadie Smith (Women Unbound Challenge), Ethan Frome; Summer; Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton (Classics Circuit)
Without Reservations by Alice Steinbach (Jill recommended it), Agamemnon’s Daughter by Ismail Kadare (November Novella Challenge), Through the Narrow Gate by Karen Armstrong (Women Unbound Challenge)
The Tiger Ladies by Sudha Koul (Women Unbound Challenge), Baby Catcher by Peggy Vincent (Women Unbound Challenge), Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan (wanted an international graphic novel)
The Last Days of Old Beijing by Michael Meyer (China Challenge), Chocolate by Mort Rosenblum (Science Book Challenge), Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi (Women Unbound Challenge)
Walking With the Great Apes by Sy Montgomery (Women Unbound Challenge), Raise the Red Lantern by Su Tong (November Novella Challenge), Taking on the Big Boys by Ellen Bravo (Women Unbound Challenge)
Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf (Science Book Challenge), The Ladies from St. Petersburg by Nina Niklaevna Berberova (November Novella Challenge), The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (I originally put this on hold for Banned Books Challenge in September-I finally got to top of list, lol)
Aura by Carlos Fuentes (November Novella Challenge), Born in the Big Rains by Fadumo Korn (Women Unbound Challenge), Ruins by Achy Obejas (for fun)
Ruined by Paula Morris (for fun)
Veronica Mars, Season One (TV on DVD), Robin Hood, Season Two (TV on DVD), Midsomer Murders, Season Seven (TV on DVD)
Big Love, Season One (TV on DVD), Cranford (TV on DVD), Foyle’s War, Season One (TV on DVD)
A Striped Armchair 
Yay!! Love the dress. :)
Also, I received Changing My Mind as a surprise from the publisher last week, and I’m excited because I can read that for Women Unbound too. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on it! And The Perks of Being a Wallflower is one of my absolute favorite YA books… I’m looking forward to hearing what you think of that one too!
I’m so glad that you have Veronica Mars season 1 – I loved it and looking forward to your thoughts. Big Love is also very, very good.
Great library bag!
I am trying to get on top of my TBR pile so I won’t have much of a library loot this week bar one nonfiction title for the Women Unbound Challenge; they cancelled my request for Women: An Intimate Geography as the copy is missing :(.
I really want to read Embroideries! I can’t wait to see what you think of it.
Do you manage to read and watch all of that in two weeks? I read The Perks of Being a Wallflower for the first time in high school and then many times since- it is one of my favorite coming-of-age stories.
Veronica Mars is also a good show. It was at its best during season 1- enjoy!
I love looking at your library loot. It always has me racing off to the library or bookstore, which is a good thing.
I loved tv series of Robin Hood, was great.
Oh, yeah! I forgot about Big Love when you asked for rental suggestions a couple of weeks ago. Glad someone else brought it up, if that’s the case :)
Veronica Mars! I love that show! I’m currently watching Season 3 via Netflix (ie one DVD at a time). Unfortunately my library isn’t too good at the tv series sets. As always, what great loot!
I loved The Book of Lost Things! I can’t wait to read what The Gates is like.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower gives Catcher in the Rye a run for it’s money I think. I wasn’t too big of a fan of the latter, though, so that could be why I think that ;p
Great loot! !
Another great week for loot. I’m going to have to find Once Upon a Quinceañera. That one really, really sounds interesting.
You are so right. You cannot pull kids away from the dollar section in Target. Every time I take the kids with me there, that’s where they want to spend all their time at. ;) I’m still waiting for the new Zadie Smith essays but I don’t mind waiting. I have a ton of library loot I need to read first. Happy reading.
Oh, Robin Hood! *swoon* LOVE Richard Armitage in the second season. He totally makes the whole season worthwhile (even though it jumps the shark…) /fangirl gushing off/
I really liked Alice Steinbach’s Without Reservations (and her follow up, Educating Alice), and I’m with all the folks who enjoyed The Perks of Being a Wallflower, too. I first read it in a YA class in library school.
Fun stuff! The only one that I’ve read…or attempted to read, is The Gates for the same reason as you but sadly I couldn’t get into it and abandoned it :( The synesthesia book sounds really cool!! I might have to check that one out :)
Great loot. I saw a few episodes of Robin Hood and liked it. I need to order those too!
Ooh, what great loot! Can’t watch your vlog as I’m at work, but I’m sure it will be the highlight of my evening when I get home ;-)
Enjoy Cranford! I am not sure if I’ve seen it, though I own the other two BBC Gaskell adaptations, so I’m not sure why not…
We also have a copy of The Gates here at home (I got a review copy from work), which I’m hoping will work well if read aloud. I really enjoyed The Book of Lost Things, so if it’s anything like that, then we’re in for a treat!
And I hope you enjoy the rest of Veronica Mars! The whole series is quite good, but the first season is definitely the best.
I was just looking at your DVDs and based on what I saw thought of a series you would love. Lark Rise to Candleford – it is a period drama like Cranford,also made by the BBC. It is based on the books by Flora Thompson and it is just lovely.
I have just put Ruined and The Gates on my Christmas list.
What great loots! Of the books you mention I have only read Through the Narrow Gate, which I found really interesting. Later Karen Armstrong has written several interesting books about religions. I have her The Great Transformation -The World in the Time of Buddha, Socrates, Confucius and Jeremiah in my book self waiting for its turn.
Another book by Nina Berberova called The Accompanist was a great hit at my reading group about two years ago. Berberova’s autobiography The Italics Are Mine is also interesting.
I’m going to join the Women Unbound challenge, too. :)
Greetings,
Tiina
Wow, you always have the best loot!
You amaze me every week with how many books you check out from the library! I haven’t read any of the books you got this week but a few of them are on my TBR list. Agamemnon’s Daughter looks especially good!
I’m sorry…I lost everything I wanted to say when you started giggling over that guy’s photo. Seriously, I’m still giggling away with you…despite that fact that you stopped giggling long ago. How many more times can I fit “giggling” into this one little comment? Ahhh…someone shut me up. Sorry, Eva, I don’t know what it is, but something about this vlog just sent me into full-octane giddyness. And well, I love being giddy. So thanks. And now i really will shut up, and go annoy my family instead. :D
I love the idea of Library Loot. It’ll be fun to know what others are reading and to share what I’m reading. I haven’t used Mr. Linky before, but I’ll be giving this a try soon.
As always great loot! I CANNOT wait to hear what you think of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I’ve read it multiple times myself and will be interested in hearing your thoughts on it when you finish. Enjoy your finds :)
Hm, tell us what you think of Veronica Mars! I’ve never seen it before and I have always been curious about it.
I am also curious about Veronica Mars. What a fabulous stack of books and DVD you got.
This is my 1st time here. I am a long time reader of Marg’s Blog, and have trailed around behind her on many online forums/reading groups.
I amazed at how much she manages to read.
This is a link to my post
Jane of Janezworld
you have such an eclectic taste in books, which i think is awesome. :)
p.s. veronica mars is AMAZING! i wish it didn’t end so soon. kristen bell totally rocks. enjoy!
Heather, thank you! What a fun publisher surprise, lol. I remember that Wallflower is a fave of yours.
Claire, I’m glad you approve both of those series! Boo to your library missing the Angier. :( Can you ILL it instead?
BermudaOnion, I’m excited about it-I hope I enjoy it more than Persepolis.
Norah, I have a 3 wk checkout. ;)
Bella, thanks! And I just started season 2 of Robin Hood-it’s so fun.
Bookshelf Monstrosity, yep-someone else suggested it. Otherwise I never would have tried it, since polygamy is not really my thing, lol.
Olduvai, mine’s good at having them, but at having multiple copies, so some have ridiculous queues. ;)
She, you should read Noctures too then! Lots of creepy short stories. :D I’ve never read Catcher in the Rye and I never intend to, but I love Salinger’s Nine Stories and Franny & Zooey.
Dana, thanks! I’m hoping it’s as interesting as it sounds, lol.
Vasilly, I know-they go crazy there! My niece picked out a library bag of her own too-purple, her favourite colour. ;)
Melissa, I know what happens that everyone calls jupming the shark, and it made me consider just not watching season 2 at all. But I figure that’s a bit silly. I don’t understand how all you people can love Armitage when he’s playing an evil person!!! lol
Becker, awesome! :)
Chris, aww-that’s too bad. I wonder if I’ll hae the same reaction.
Linda, I’m glad my library has them, because buying them would be crazy expensive!
Aarti, LOL @ your evening highlight. I’ve already watched Cranford, and I really enjoyed it!
Steph, you and your work review copies. ;) Excited about Veronica Mars!
Vivienne, thanks for the recommendation-my library is currently acquiring it, so I put it on hold and should get it at some point!
Tiina, I’ve read one Armstrong book-A Short Histroy of Myth, which I really enjoyed. I can’t wait to read more of her! And I’m glad your reading group enjoyed a different Berberova!
Kathleen, aww-thanks!
Lola, lol-I tend to just go crazy! I don’t feel obligated to actually read them all though. ;)
Debi, wasn’t that picture ridiculous?! I’m glad you’re giggling away-I still would be if I didn’t have to talk on the video!
Joan, thanks! Mr. Linky’s pretty simple-you just type in your name and then copy & paste the link to your post in it. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me.
Samantha, thanks!
Jenny, I saw the pilot already and was impressed. I’ll report back on the rest of the season!
Gavin, sounds like I’ll be doing a special ‘dvds in review’ post some time soon. :)
Jane, thanks for popping by! If you want other bloggers to visit your post, be sure to add it to the Mr. Linky too!
Jehara, aww-thanks!
WordPress is weird! It keeps using my really old blog as my primary, so that post you commented on is from 2 years ago! I was leaving Brighton after doing a masters at the University of Sussex to go back to Singapore (hope you don’t mind that I’m replying to that comment of yours here!)
I’m excited to see your reviews of Edith Wharton’s works. She is one of my all-time favorites. Ethan Frome is one of the best by her, but I like The House of Mirth better.
Great bag.
The Hermione Lee bio of Woolf is at the bybee-ary. I should grab it next time.
Olduvai, sorry about that! :)
Allie, I’m a Wharton fan too-I’ve read House of Mirth, The Reef, and The Age of Innocence as well as some short stories. So I’m excited to read more o fher!
Bybee, I loved it. :D And I’m glad you like my bag!
What a great haul of books! I just read Proust & the Squid (haven’t reviewed it yet). I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it, I am sure you will have some great insights.
And Foyle’s War… I love it. Hope you do too – I love all 3 main characters and the actors playing them. (especially Anthony Howell who plays Paul Milner and who was Roger in Wives & Daughters) Enjoy your viewings!
I love your library bag! I have a B&N bag but it only fits about 20 books so I have a second plain canvas bag I take on days when I have all my son’s books to return as well. I’m so glad for libraries!
Anyway, lots of good loot! I see you have some reviews up already for the books I was going to comment on, so I’ll go there….
Yay for Veronica Mars!
I just found Library Loot, how timely! I got two books which were on reserve at the library today, Marian Keyes’s The Brightest Star in the Sky and Cassandra Clare, City of Bones. Post is here:
http://misadventuresofmoppet.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/library-loot-the-brightest-star-in-the-sky-and-city-of-bones/
I love Edith Wharton too. My all time favourite is The Custom of the Country and although I haven’t read every single thing she wrote, I doubt that’ll change.
I’m usually along to comment on your Library Loot posts much sooner, Eva, but it was a hellish week. Just wanted to say, I’m SOOOOO glad to know that Keith Donoghue has a new book. I had no idea, and now I can’t wait to try it.
Wow, that’s quite the loot, Eva! I don’t know how you read ’em all!!! =)
I just posted my first Library Loot post!
Here are mine…
http://bookwormnation.blogspot.com/2009/11/library-loot-monday_23.html
Wow, what a great list. We love Sy Montgomery’s kids books at our house.