Okay, This Looks Bad

Since I posted that I was doing the TBR Triple Dog Dare, which means not reading new books either from the library or from stores, I detailed my library loot showing the six new books I picked out, plus the five e-books I sent to my reader over the interwebs. Hmm.

This week I've brought home five more (although I avoided extra e-books). But I can explain! Is it my fault that last week almost all my holds, which were placed legitimately before the end of last year, came in? Well, sorta. And this is the week I picked up my next batch of Library Quest books, which is a totally acceptable exception. And I only get them all at once because it's much easier to track which column of the library I'm on, instead of trying to remember which shelf of the column.





The Miracle at Speedy Motors, Alexander McCall Smith. Since I'm trying to vary my locations, I picked the book set in Africa. Also, I like the Precious series.

God Help the Child, Toni Morrison. Of course I grabbed a Toni Morrison.

Miracle at Augusta, James Patterson. Patterson gets almost a whole shelf to himself. I hope I like this one.

The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworth, Julia Quinn. I've read other books by Quinn and enjoyed them, and I like Regencies.

Airtight, David Rosenfelt. I believe this is set in New Jersey.


I've currently got 46 things out from the library, including ebooks, books for me, and books for the kids. The TBR Triple Dare is already working! Also, that should be 45 books, but I seem to have misplaced one. Oops.

I'll go sign in to Library Loot which is at The Captive Reader this week to see what everyone else is getting.  Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Linda from Silly Little Mischief 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. 

I'm continuing my Library Quest, as you see from the books checked out above.  I'm still in the Large Print Fiction section, so everything feels thick and important.


Songs From Willow Frost by Jamie Ford. This historical novel painted a vivid picture of life in the Chinese community before and during the depression. At times it seemed that Willow got hit with every possible bad twist of fate -- orphaned, raped, abused by bureaucracy, you name it. And her son's life had it's own incredibly awful spots. But if you can handle the darkness, it's a good read.

Dick Francis's Refusal, Felix Francis. Felix returns to his father's character Sid Halley, giving him a wife and kid to add to his vulnerability as he's unwillingly pulled back into the world of investigating corruption in British horse racing. I found the stupidity of Sid's wife to be annoying -- Sid treats her as a taller version of his kindergarten aged daughter, which makes sense seeing her behavior and reasoning but makes for an odd marriage. But when he's away from home I could fall into the patterns of danger and manliness that I look for in a Francis novel. Not quite up to his parent's standards, but a pleasure read.

Dreaming Spies, Laurie King. I have a love/hate relationship with the Mary Russell books. I like Russell, but I feel a basic tenet of a Sherlock Holmes book is that he's impossibly good. The whole point of the Russell book is that she's his equal, and I don't buy that. So I kind of read her as an oblivious Watson, where she thinks she's keeping up with him, but I as a reader don't buy it. Which of course makes her seem like an idiot as she dashes about comparing herself favorably to Holmes (when they are studying Japanese together she admits she has to "stretch herself" to match him). And I spotted the secret hiding place the first time, even though she's so proud of herself for seeing it later. So I'll probably get the next one when it comes out, and I'll still feel guilty for not accepting Mary Russell as a Sherlock Holmes level genius.

The Heist, Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg (audio). It's still hard for me to listen to new audio books; I can't adjust the pace and zip through embarrassing or painful moments, or slow to savor the fun parts. So I liked the action parts better the the UST parts, although the snark was fun. My son liked what he heard but was OK with just occasionally hearing what was going on, so I didn't have to time it for when he was in the car.