Library Loot: June 9-15, 2010
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? Marg has the Mr. Linky this week.
Yep, I actually managed to put a vlog together! Here my ramble about my impressively restrainted loot:
P.S.: Is it just me, or is YouTube making uploaded videos look awful these days?! Any recommendations for other free sites I can upload my vlogs to? I swear: when I edit them, they’re nice and sharp…then when I embed them they’ve gone all fuzzy.
I’ve had a little policy change with links. Before, I linked to Powell’s. But now I’ve decided to link directly to the publisher’s website! (I haven’t decided what to do about non-translated classics yet…I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.) I’m doing this not only on my Library Loot posts but also on my Books Read page and on any of the book list posts I do from here on out. I’ve been inspired by Beth Fish Reads to start paying more attention to imprints and editors than I used to, and it seemed for me the simplest way to do that was to start going straight to the source for book information. Also, the publisher’s pages turn out to contain considerably more useful information about the book than any of the third-party bookstore sites (go figure!). So here are the covers/linked titles new-and-improved edition:
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende (for fun), The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw (for fun), Bellfield Hall by Anna Dean (for fun)
Among Flowers by Jamaica Kincaid (What’s in a Name? 3 Challenge), Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran (for Colorful Reading Challenge)
A Striped Armchair 
I hope you love The Girl With Glass Feet as much as I did.
Boy, it sounds so hot where you are. I am rubbish with hot weather, but we don’t really get a lot of it in England.
I hope so too! It is hot here, but it’s not normal. Summers here in CO are usually 60s-70s. :)
I like your idea of linking straight to the publishers – even apart from the better information about the book issue, I think linking to publishers would make me more aware of imprints and like that. Then I’ll know whom to ask for books from. :D
I’m really enjoying the new linking, even though I don’t do the ARC thing. ;)
I don’t really either usually – but I was looking at the fall lineups from some of the publishers, and there are a few books that I would looooove to read. Early. Because I am impatient like a little child. :p
I liked Allende’s books, they all seem to blend in my mind right now, but Daughters of Fortune was good as I remember. Like you, I’ve been inspired to look at editors/translators more carefully, especially through Frances of Nonsuch Book. It makes a heap of difference with some works, like Japanese translations or The Brothers Karamazov!
I’m obsessed with translators. :) If there’s more than one option for a translation, I research it to death to decide on the right one, and I won’t read the ‘wrong’ one even if it’s the only one available. lol That being said, I don’t know much about Japanese translators, so if you’d like to share be my guest. ;)
I really want to read one of Allende’s books, so I’ll be anxious to see what you think of Daughter of Fortune.
I’d highly recommend starting w/ House of Spirits since it’s her debut. :) As long as you enjoy magical realism, that is!
wow I haven’t read Isabel Allende since highschool when we were assigned House of Spirits. that story, scenes and themes have stuck with me to this day, hauntingly, but i haven’t thought to try anything else by her until i saw your loot today! Daughter of Fortune looks great, I will give it a try!
I’ve read both her fiction & nonfic and never been disappointed! :)
I think I have The Girl With Glass Feet at home. Can’t wait to hear what you think.
It seems like a good one to have on the TBR shelves!
I’m really looking forward to hearing what you think of The Girl with the Glass Feet. I’m remembering there were some very mixed reviews a few months back. I just saw this book on my library shelf the other day. If you recommend it, I will check it out.
That’s funny; I only remember the positive reviews! lol I’ll let you know what I think. :)
I just finished The Girl With Glass Feet and am working on a review. I loved loved loved it. Shaw writes with the ear of a poet and the eye of an artist. And I’m pretty sure those are his drawings on the cover because there was a page on the book’s site with a kind of slide show. of similar drawings that he had done of the creatures and landscape.
I read Daughter of Fortune when it was an Oprah selection in 2000 I think. Enjoyed it but remember being a bit disappointed in it. Can’t remember why. Maybe because it didn’t have the elements of magical realism that House of Spirits had which I was expecting and which I love.
I’ve not read of any of the other three but have read a Kincaid sometime ago. And I was devouring books about Iraq and the history of the West’s relations with the Islamic nations between 2003 and 2006. I guess I burned out on it too. Or maybe it’s because I have a nephew on his second tour as an Army medic over there right now and about the time I learned he was heading over the first time it suddenly changed from being academic/theoretical to personal. Or maybe its just because the libraries closed for six months and by the time they opened again my interests had shifted.
At any rate I’ll be watching to see what your take is on Imperial Life.
I’ve been cutting back on my library loot lately but it isn’t going to appear that way to anyone looking at my list this week. :)
Have you read Portrait in Sepia? I don’t think that had as much magical realism in it as House of Spirits, but I still enjoyed it. :)
I hope your nephew is alright; my dad’s in the Air Force so I know a lot of people who have been/are over there. It’s definitely stressful. Have you read Soldier’s Heart, a memoir by a Westpoint English prof? I really connected with it.
I still haven’t read Isabel Allende and I’m pretty sure I’d like her works. I’ve added her to my TBR list and can hopefully create a reading space for her soon. I’ve seriously considered linking straight to publishers. I often do this when reviewing professional books, but haven’t done this on my blog yet. It is a very good idea! My sister lives in Golden. She hasn’t mentioned the heat to me yet and I’m surprised. Hopefully it will cool down a bit for you soon. By the way, I love the neckline on your sundress — so pretty!
Do give her a try! The heat wave has broken now, for which I am utterly grateful. And thanks so much for the compliment! :)
Thanks so much for the shout-out and the good work about imprints and editors. I’m so glad that you’ve decided to pay attention and I am looking forward to seeing what you discover.
I love Allende and, in fact have her newest one waiting for me. I hope to read it very soon. Good loot this week!
You totally deserve a shout out. :D You know, I was first in line for Allende’s newest one, and then I was too sick to read it before I had to return it! :(
These look good. I am fascinated with Imperial life in the Emerald City.
Great title, isn’t it?
Please apologize to Marg because apparently I can’t figure out how to do the link thing right and leave a comment. What I wanted to say was just that I think in the current crashed economy, libraries are a life-saver for anybody who loves to read. We need libraries now more than ever!
Yep: w/o my library I’d probably have gone crazy! Can I help talk you through the Mr. Linky?
Dearest Eva,
As always, I enjoy reading and watching your blog posts. I am at the tail end of my B.A. English degree and am taking Intermediate Spanish. Since I want to learn more about the culture, I have begun to read Latin American literature. .. in particular, the ‘magical realism’ genre. I have read some of Jorge Luis Borges’ works, but have yet to read Isabel Allende. I look forward to reading her works and may begin with your Library Loot suggestion to get me started!
Karenne
Thanks so much Karenne. :) I’d suggest House of Spirits as the best place to begin with Allende, but I enjoy reading authors in their published order! Also, have you read The Hummingbird’s Daughter? It’s set in Mexico and one of my favourite LA reads ever.
I’d like to see what you think of the Jamaica Kincaid Among Flowers and the Imperial Life in the Emerald City.
I’ve just begun Among Flowers, and so far it’s marvelous!
I have The Girl with the Glass Feet from the library right now too! Looking forward to it, eventually :)
That’s fun that we both have it out! :)
I had to laugh when you mentioned the popsicle bars! I am hooked on those too :)
Loved seeing your library loot vlog. I won’t be joining in library loot for a while as I’m on a library ban so I can whittle down some of my stacks. I am sure I’ll go back to the library in a couple of months.
Aren’t they the best?! We have the pomegranate multipack in our freezer right now. :D Good luck with your ban; I completely understand it, even though I think I’d fail miserably! :)
Wow–no AC! That is brutal. I’ll be interested to see how you like Daughter of Fortune. It has been in my TBR pile for too long!
It was for the first few days…now my body has adjusted, and when the other day the high was ‘only’ 75, I was actually kind of cold. lol Fortunately, the library has a/c, so I can always escape there! ;)
I want to read Among Flowers.
Hahahaha that comment about The Girl With The Glass Feet really really made me giggle. Glad you have finally managed to get a copy of it Eva as its a real treat, well I thought it was anyway! Lovely to see my favourite post of the week back – hoorah!
I really liked Daughter of Fortune so I hope you like it to! I like the cover of The Girl with Glass Feet so much that I want to get it for that alone!
I listened to Imperial Life in the Emerald City on audio a while ago and found it surreal, disturbing, and surprisingly funny. Looking forward to finding out what you think of it!
Now that you mention it, you do look a little blurry in the video. ;-) I’ve not noticed that on my own videos, which I post to YouTube. In fact, I’d say they look a bit better than they used to. I make my videos with a very cheap camera that’s really meant for taking still pictures. I have to keep the videos I do make very short, too.
I don’t use Vimeo, but I’ve seen quite a few blogs using it now instead of YouTube. I don’t know if it’s a free service or not. You might want to check it out.
I read Daughter of Fortune many, many years ago and loved it. Here is my loot.
http://bybookorbycrook.blogspot.com/2010/06/library-loot_09.html