Library Loot / Challenges

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they have checked out from the library.


I took the girls to the library this week to renew their very overdue library books. I cannot help but browse whilst I wait for the girls to choose new books and ended up coming out with four new books to read.

1) The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway. I nearly bought this one at the beginning of the year, so I was pleased to find this one in the library. "The Cellist of Sarajevo" shows how life under siege creates agonizing and almost impossible choices. When the mere act of crossing the street can risk lives, the human spirit is revealed in all its fortitude - and frailty.

2) Brook Evans by Susan Glaspell. Another Persephone book to read! This novel was written in the same year as Lady Chatterley's Lover about the effect of a love affair on three generations.

3) The Gourmet by Muriel Barbery. I have heard so much about her other book 'The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which I am hoping Santa will bring me. So I thought I would read this one first. This is about the greatest food critic in the world, who on his deathbed, is desperate to remember the most beautiful flavour he has ever tasted.

4) The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood. Charlie works as the caretaker of the cemetery where his younger brother Sam is buried, and it is here that he meets Grace when she comes to lay her father to rest. This meeting offers Charlie a chance at love, but also forces him to confront the fact that he has allowed the past to haunt him.

I am really pleased with the books I have picked up this week and can't wait to read them.

After taking last week out from the blogging world, I came to a decision about the challenges that I am presently participating in. With December being such a busy month for me, I decided that I didn't want to add even more pressure to my already hectic schedule, so I am abandoning all the reading challenges until the end of the year, apart from the Christmas Reading Challenge. I have done really well with the challenges and I only had a few books left to read for each one, but I really don't want any more obligations to fulfil by the end of December, so I will stop them as of this week.

Wow, I feel so much better for doing that. Now I can read what I please now and enjoy it. I feel liberated. I shall definitely continue to commit to the challenges I have taken of for next year and I know I will take on more challenges before the New Year starts, but for now I will just read what ever takes my fancy.