I’ve been meaning to participate in Rebecca Foster’s (Bookish Beck) Library Checkout meme for a couple of months now and I finally remembered and got my act together enough to put together a post before the end of the month! Yes! She’s skipping this month due to travels but if you’ve never checked out her blog before please do so for some insightful and varied reviews (such a voracious reader.) Note: I’m only highlighting books checked out for me in this post. At any given time I have about 15 books checked out for my son in various states of being read!
LIBRARY BOOKS READ:
- The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths (Ruth Galloway mystery #2) ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
- The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
SKIMMED:
- Just Cook It!: 145 Built-to-be-Easy Recipes That Are Totally Delicious by Justin Chapple
CURRENTLY READING:
- The Bird’s Nest by Shirley Jackson (I’m about 70 pages from finishing – boy, it’s nuts!)
- The Book of Self-Care: Remedies For Healing Mind, Body, and Soul by Mary Beth Janssen (I’m pretty much skimming this one too.)
CHECKED OUT, TO BE READ:
- An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole
- The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael Twitty
- Shadowhouse Fall by Daniel Jodie Older (Shadowshaper series #2)
IN THE HOLDS QUEUE:
- Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston
- There There by Tommy Orange
- Yes We (Still) Can: Politics in the Age of Obama, Twitter, and Trump by Dan Pfeiffer
- The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life And Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton
- The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz
- The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware
- Dear Mrs. Bird by A.J. Pearce
RETURNED UNREAD: None.
Anything from my list appeal to you, or have you read any of these? What have you checked out lately from your local library?
What a great list! Radium Girls looks interesting, but I haven’t read it yet!
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Thank you! It was very interesting, but for me it became too sad as the young ladies’ diseases and maladies cropped up over and over again from exposure to radium. They were so brave and their stories needed to be told, though, and I’m glad I read it.
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Great list The Death of Mrs Westaway is fab!
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Oh yay! I know Fiction Fan liked it too – I’m excited to read it! I’m WAY DOWN on the library holds lists, though, so it may be a while.
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Great list! The Sun Does Shine looks like a tough, emotional read. Definitely one that caught my attention.
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YES – I read another Oprah recommendation book a couple of years ago about prison in America called Writing My Wrongs and it was awesome, though a tough read. I look forward to this one too!
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I loved The Death of Mrs Westaway, wasn’t so keen on the Horowitz (though I’m in the minority on that one, so don’t let me put you off) and really quite fancy the Shirley Jackson…
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You and Cleo both love that one, yay! Anne Logan liked the Horowitz – I’ll try to temper my expectations and we’ll just see what happens! The Shirley Jackson is SO weird. It’s one of her earlier ones and it feels a bit overlong but it’s certainly interesting and worth the read. I want to read all of her works.
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So many great reads here! I loved Radium Girls, Dear Mrs. Bird, The Bird’s Nest, and An Extraordinary Union. Happy reading, Laila!
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Oh I’m so glad you loved Extraordinary Union. It’s a bit out of my reading comfort zone so I’m not sure what to expect. I don’t read a lot of romance.
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I very rarely read romance either, and wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy Extraordinary Union. I thought the writing was strong, loved the characters and espionage drama, and thought there was just the right amount of more traditional romance novel elements. Hope you’ll enjoy it too!
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How in the world did I not know Shirley Jackson had a book called The Bird’s Nest??
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It’s not one of her more famous ones, from what I gather – it’s an earlier one, so maybe that’s why. If I wasn’t such a Shirley Jackson fan, I wouldn’t have been aware either! I intend to read everything she’s written.
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There are still books coming out from her estate! All of her papers were stored and saved. Some of them are incomplete, but her children publish her stories and essays in big anthologies every few years, it seems.
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This looks like such a fun meme – thanks for introducing me to it!
I love your list. I’m adding the Shirley Jackson to my TBR – it looks fun! And I have the Ruth Ware out from the library right now, too. I can’t wait to dive into it!
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Oh you’re welcome! I’m glad I finally remembered to do it before the end of the month for once! Ha ha.
The Shirley Jackson is bonkers, as you might expect. I’m not loving it as much as We Have Always Lived in the Castle or Hill House, but it’s still good. I’m WAY DOWN the holds list for the Ruth Ware but I think it will be great.
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Haven’t heard of many of these, although I’m really interested to see your take on some of those cookbooks-I love cookbooks!!!! Also, after reading GTL’s review of Baracoon, I’m looking forward to reading your review of it too!
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Oh Anne, I’m terrible – I check out cookbooks all the time but I NEVER cook! My husband is the cook in the family. I really would like to be able to cook at least a few things, though, just to feel some mastery and a sense of ownership over my own food! So I am resolving to learn to cook a little bit over the next few months. Maybe I’ll post a bit about my cookbooks and cooking adventures. 🙂
I *did* make some quick pickled onions out of the Justin Chapple cookbook – I love pickled onions on salad!
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oh that’s impressive! I’ve never made pickled anything. Yes, I’d love to read about your cooking adventures-please do post about that!
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Thanks so much for taking part! You’ve reminded me that I had The Sun Does Shine on hold earlier in the summer and I should reinstate it. I’ve had good luck with Oprah reads recently. I think you will love Dear Mrs Bird.
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Oh that is good to hear! I expect I will. 🙂
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Aw I’m excited for you to read the Alyssa Cole! She’s one of my all-time favorite authors so I always love to see people enjoying her work. Also I cannot WAIT to hear your thoughts on The Bird’s Nest. I didn’t care for it much but it was interesting for sure. Have you read The Sundial though? It’s the best of her books apart from the famous two.
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I HAVE read The Sundial and I loved it. It definitely ranks up there before The Bird’s Nest. Review to come on that one!
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What a fun meme! Sounds like you have a lot of great books ahead of you! 🙂
And I love that you only included your own books. I’m the same way checkout out 15-20 books for my kids each trip to the library. They love books 🙂
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I’m so glad you’re a heavy library user too! I do like this meme. The trick is trying to remember which books get checked out when, and returned unread when, etc. But I’m writing it all down in a little notebook now!
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Smart! That’s a fun way to track everything. I always feel sad when I return books unread to the library.
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But even if you don’t read them, your checkout still benefits the library! So there’s that!
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Good point! I like that! 🙂
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Nuts? It’s funny how just one word can make you want to read a book! *laughs*
Does she always include the hold queue? I would be so embarrassed for anyone to see how many books I have in the queue. Even more than I have on loan, which is also embarrassing. *hangs head*
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Yeah, sometimes “Nuts” is just what you want! Shirley Jackson writes “nuts” better than anyone I think.
As far as I know the holds queue is always there. How many books can you place on hold at your library system? I can place 25 (physical items) at a time. But some of my slots are taken by movies and music as well.
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It used to be 50 but I think they’ve raised it to 75. Either that or the check-out used to be 50 and they raised THAT to 75. It’s not uncommon for me to approach either of those, so I have told myself it’s still 50 everywhere, just to pretend to control the uncontrolled burn. *rolls eyes at self* We also have a “list” feature which allows you to keep a wishlist, which is also nice, and also easily abused. *hangs head*
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50! Wow! Even that number astounds me (as someone who handles people’s holds every day.)
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