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.

So determined was I to get to the library today that some poop (make that a lot of poop!) wasn’t going to stop me! Don’t worry, I will spare you the gory details. I’m just grateful for (i) driving an SUV which means I can just change the baby in the boot, (ii) a patient Wee Reader who sat and waited while we diapered up, (iii) that it was a warm day.

And…. so here we are, back to the books. It’s a relief I know, not having to hear more about my poopy day.

So my loot:

Jerusalem: chronicles from the Holy City – Guy Delisle

Guy Delisle expertly lays the groundwork for a cultural road map of contemporary Jerusalem, utilizing the classic stranger in a strange land point of view that made his other books, Pyongyang, Shenzhen, and Burma Chronicles required reading for understanding what daily life is like in cities few are able to travel to. In Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City, Delisle explores the complexities of a city that represents so much to so many. He eloquently examines the impact of the conflict on the lives of people on both sides of the wall while drolly recounting the quotidian: checkpoints, traffic jams, and holidays.

When observing the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim populations that call Jerusalem home, Delisle’s drawn line is both sensitive and fair, assuming nothing and drawing everything. Jerusalem showcases once more Delisle’s mastery of the travelogue.

Black Orchid – Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Dave McKean

After being viciously murdered, Susan Linden is reborn as the Black Orchid, a hybrid of plant and human, destined to avenge her own death. Now, as this demigoddess attempts to reconcile human memory and botanical origins, she must untangle the webs of deception and secrets that led to her death

The Baker’s Daughter – D.E. Stevenson

Claire has written about D.E. Stevenson several times, but this is the first time I’ve picked up one of her books.

 

E-books borrowed:

Evil and the mask – Fuminori Nakamura

The second book by prize-winning Japanese novelist Fuminori Nakamura to be available in English translation, a follow-up to 2012’s critically acclaimed The Thief─another fantastically creepy, electric literary thriller that explores the limits of human depravity─and the powerful human instinct to resist evil.
 
When Fumihiro Kuki is eleven years old, his elderly, enigmatic father calls him into his study for a meeting. “I created you to be a cancer on the world,” his father tells him. It is a tradition in their wealthy family: a patriarch, when reaching the end of his life, will beget one last child to dedicate to causing misery in a world that cannot be controlled or saved. From this point on, Fumihiro will be specially educated to learn to create as much destruction and unhappiness in the world around him as a single person can. Between his education in hedonism and his family’s resources, Fumihiro’s life is one without repercussions. Every door is open to him, for he need obey no laws and may live out any fantasy he might have, no matter how many people are hurt in the process. But as his education progresses, Fumihiro begins to question his father’s mandate, and starts to resist

 

The kids’ loot

Drive –  Nathan Clement

Maisy learns to swim – Lucy Cousins

Sail away – Donald Crews

Dinosaur train – John Steven Gurney

What flies in the air? – Brian Biggs

Truck – Donald Crews

LMNO peas – Keith Baker

Truckery Rhymes – Jon Scieszka

The owl who was afraid of the dark – Jill Tomlinson; illustrated by Paul Howard

Good boy, Fergus! – David Shannon

Too many toys David Shannon

 

What did you get from the library this week?