Library Loot: August 11-17, 2010
Library Loot is a weekly meme co-hosted by Marg and Claire to share the books you’ve gotten from the library.
Vlog, featuring a new setting:
Linked covers/titles:
Chronicles of Chrestomanci Vol. One by Diana Wynne Jones, No Beginning, No End: the Ultimate Heart of Zen by Jakusho Kwong, Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
Instructions by Neil Gaiman & Charles Vess, My Mother’s Wedding Dress by Justine Picardie, The Last War by Ana Menendez
Epitaph of a Small Winner by Machado de Assis, The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless by Eliza Haywood, Mosquito by Roma Tearne
The Bone People by Keri Hulme, The Ongoing Moment by Geoff Dyer, Care of the Soul by Thomas Moore
The Gospel According to Woman by Karen Armstrong, Beyond the Sky and the Earth by Jaime Zeppa, Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
Better than Beauty: a Guide to Charm by Helen Valentine & Alice Thompson, God Needs No Passport by Peggy Levitt, Mind: a Brief Introduction by John Searle
Reading the Bible Again for the First Time by Marcus Borg, Forget Sorrow by Belle Yang, No god but God by Reza Aslan
Women With Big Eyes by Angeles Mastretta, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie, The Pakistani Bride by Bapsi Sidhwa
A Striped Armchair 
This is not mere loot! this is the whole library here!!!!
They all look good. It will be hard to decide which one to read first!
Great loot! I just picked mine up this morning and am jonesing over the great books!
I’m loving the loot this week. Seeing what you’ve picked up always makes me excited for the review you’ll post up. :D
Interesting titles, Eva! ‘God needs no passport’, ‘Reading the Bible again for the first time’ and ‘No god but God’ are all fascinating titles! Looking forward to reading your thoughts on them. ‘Women With Big Eyes’ looks interesting too.
Eva, I’m on a religion kick myself. The titles that jump out at me are the exact same ones Vishy mentions above.
Yay! The chair! :) And I hope you *heart* Chrestomanci.
I’ve never heard of any of these! My Mother’s Wedding Dress caught my eye though. Enjoy your loot!
Striped walls = awesome. What colors? I can’t wait to see where you go with this nouveau-Victorian decorating scheme.
I suspect you will really enjoy Nancy Mitford whenever you get around to her. She struck me as kind of like champagne ice cream. :-)
Oh you got Women With Big eyes – I hope you enjoy it. It took me a bit to get into it because I was thinking it was a novel and it’s really short stories. Very good though. And, I love Hotel Du Lac. That was my first Brookner and I’m a fan now :)
With so many books to choose from I’m not sure where I would begin. You’ve inspired me to make another library run after work today. I have books by Diana Wynne Jones on my list after reading Ana’s blog. I’m hoping I can get one or two to read in the coming week. Enjoy your books!
I hope you enjoy Care for the Soul. I read it in college many moons ago and thought it was a wee bit hokey. :)
Beyond the Sky and the Earth was just an amazing read for me…left me longing to travel to very foreign places, even though it was a challenging time for the author. It’s a wonderful book, loved it!
What an amazing pile of books you brought home! I’ve read the Chiang, Hume and Alexie but now have to add several of these to my TBR list. You’ve done it again, Eva!
Some gorgeous books in there Eva, enjoy your reading!
I adore the cover for The Last War. I think I’d spend as much time looking at the cover as reading the book! I’ll also look forward to hearing more about My Mother’s Wedding Dress. It’s been on my TBR list for so long that I’ve forgotten what drew me to it initially but I might have to prioritize it now! Am looking forward to starting No god but God: hopefully we both enjoy it.
I LOVED No God But God by Reza Alsan ! I made by “best of” list a few years ago. I hope you enjoy it, too. God Needs No Passport and Reading the Bible Again For the First Time have both been on my TBR for a long time. Years ago I found Beyond the Sky and Earth in the laundry room of my old apartment and I’m ashamed to say I have STILL haven’t read it ! Therefore, I await your review !
I’m so glad you’re reading Chrestomanci! When I was organizing my new bookshelf I made sure to put out the books I have by her, and I really just wanted to crack them open and read.
Eliza Haywood is always an interesting read. I read “Fantomina” and a few other short pieces in college and really loved them, so I hope you enjoy her work.
“Reading the Bible Again for the First Time” caught my eye. I’m interested to see what you have to say about it.
You finally found your Machado de Assis! I thought the book was good; I’d like to find his book Dom Casmurro, now. I’ll be curious to see what you think of The Bone People, too. I agree with Claire about the nice view of Istanbul (not Constantinople) on the cover of The Last War. I hope you can find your way over there someday; there’s so much history and great architecture, not to mention amazing food. The Turks are very friendly, too.
Like the others who’ve commented, I’ll look forward to your reviews on the religion books, too — specifically Reading the Bible Again for the First Time and God Needs No Passport. No god but God also looks intriguing. Have fun reading!
I really enjoyed The Last War. Yes, it reminded me of my short time in Istanbul, but the story haunted me. I can’t wait to see what you think. I’ve recommended it to a few other bloggers, but very few people have enjoyed it. It’s an interesting read that had me escaping into her own thoughts. I hope you enjoy!
I ll await your thought on thee de assis I ve just reade his chapter of hats ,I ve hotel du lac in my tbr pile ,all the best stu
Yay! Chrestomanci! I hope you’ll enjoy them! ^-^ (Or are enjoying them or have enjoyed them, whichever is applicable.) And I think the shadows aren’t all that bad, really. (And, for what it’s worth, I can sit beside a sunny, reasonably sized window and still have lighting problems worse than you’re having in this vlog.)
There’s such a thing as too long vlogs? That sounds like an awesome pile of books brought home. And huzzah on still keeping up your whimsical reading month! I hope it’s every bit as fun as it sounds! ^-^
These look great! And who could resist the title The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven?
Ooh I do hope you enjoy Hotel du Lac! I really liked that book very quiet as you say and yet it says so much, well it did for me. I have lots of Roma Tearne’s books on the TBR so thanks for the reminder that I need to read them. I also have to read some Machado de Assis, I have two of them, not the one you do or I would have suggested a mini readalong, so they also need to get read very soon.
I have Charmed Life in my Library Loot right now too; I hope Chrestomanci is amazing as everyone says!
I really enjoyed Miss Betsy Thoughtless – interesting heroine and interesting situation!
I loved Care of the Soul and I can’t wait to read Instructions! that is quite a haul, missy. I came back from the library today with 4 books and felt pretty happy about it. :)
The Eliza Haywood novel looks fantastic.
Your posts like this just remind me of how many awesome-looking books are out there that I haven’t had time to read yet!
Your loots are always so interesting! This time I’m especially intrigued by The Last War and The Gospel According to Woman.
Greetings,
Tiina
I’d say you had one or two books to get excited about. :)
Ooh, so many good books! I love The Bone People, and Care of the Soul is one I read in high school. I just recently read the first two Chrestomanci books and they were really fun!
Oh – you’re reading The Bone People – brilliant! It doesn’t get enough attention – not even in NZ. I came across this article a while back which mentioned how the actress Joanna Lumley was on the judging panel the year it won the Booker and absolutely deplored it – thought you might be interested – nothing like a good controversy!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article990828.ece
Wow, I haven’t seen Care of the Soul talked about in years. So many interesting quotes:”We understand our difficulties literally and look for literal solutions, which rarely work precisely because they are part of the problem–lack of imagination.”
Your Library Loot posts always boggle my mind. I need to take a trip to the library and just wander about, selecting what looks good. You’ve inspired me with your no constraints reading.
Kerri Hume is a fascinating author. I loved the bone people, but have had troubles finding the right space/time to read stonefish. Your other finds also look great. Good luck – it would take me 6 months to get through this list!
Great loot, can’t wait to hear your thoughts on these books. I really want to read Forget Sorrow and the Searle. Love the new armchair btw, looks super comfy :)
The vlog isn’t linking correctly (my wifi is weak) but the covers and title look wonderful. I hope you are snuggled away reading to your heart’s content.
Hmmm… the vlog doesn’t seem to be operating… but those look like some great titles! Happy reading!
Wow, what great finds! I always love your library loot posts!
I hope you are ok, Eva. I’m looking forward to reading about your reading adventures :) when you feel like blogging again.
Greetings,
Tiina
My work covers a different territory than his, but I just wanted to mention that not only does Sherman Alexie write a good book, but he also says some really illuminating things in interviews.
Look at all these lovelies! My new library is apparently a very good one so I am looking forward to seeing what they have. I figured out that I will have access to at least five libraries within an easy circle. What riches!!
I *loved* Care of the Soul.
Yay library loot! Here’s my latest haul: http://www.chaoticcompendiums.com/2010/09/library-loot.html
Oooo, if you haven’t already gotten to it, you’ll love Mosquito by Roma Tearne. That’s one of those books that I got from LibraryThing.com’s “Early Reviewers” that I just wasn’t sure I was going to like — and then was thoroughly pulled into the story, and absolutely amazed that it was the author’s debut novel.
Really good stuff!
((Love the new chair, BTW!))
~MizB