Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader 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. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.

It has been er, well, two plus years since I did a Library Loot post. I used to do them weekly! And then I’m not quite sure what happened. I still do borrow tons of books, perhaps even more than ever now with the kids. I don’t borrow so many physical books for myself these days – lugging around 20+ kids books is back-breaking enough that I can’t imagine adding more for myself. Plus it’s so much easier to borrow books using Libby. It’s right there, instantly. But Libby doesn’t have many e-comics so I still do borrow physical copies of comics when I can remember to check the catalogue! Oh and also audiobooks!

The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae (audiobook)

I’ve been meaning to have a read of her book, but hey the audiobook is narrated by Rae herself, might as well!

Synopsis: Being an introvert in a world that glorifies cool isn’t easy. But when Issa Rae, the creator of the Shorty Award–winning hit series “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl,” is that introvert—whether she’s navigating love, work, friendships, or “rapping”—it sure is entertaining. Now, in this debut collection of essays written in her witty and self-deprecating voice, Rae covers everything from cybersexing in the early days of the Internet to deflecting unsolicited comments on weight gain, from navigating the perils of eating out alone and public displays of affection to learning to accept yourself—natural hair and all.

Blue Monday (Frieda Klein #1) by Nicci French

To be honest, not sure why I requested it! But oh well, it’s always fun to try a new-to-me author.

Synopsis: The abduction of five-year-old Matthew Farraday provokes a national outcry and a desperate police hunt. And when a picture of his face is splashed over the newspapers, psychotherapist Frieda Klein is left troubled: one of her patients has been relating dreams in which he has a hunger for a child. A child he can describe in perfect detail, a child the spitting image of Matthew.

Detective Chief Inspector Karlsson doesn’t take Frieda’s concerns seriously until a link emerges with an unsolved child abduction twenty years ago and he summons Frieda to interview the victim’s sister, hoping she can stir hidden memories. Before long, Frieda is at the center of the race to track the kidnapper.

But her race isn’t physical. She must chase down the darkest paths of a psychopath’s mind to find the answers to Matthew Farraday’s whereabouts.

And sometimes the mind is the deadliest place to lose yourself.

Stay with Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀

The Dublin Literary Award 2019 longlist was out recently  and it reminded me that there are so many books I haven’t yet read. So I’m trying to slowly amend that….

Synopsis: Yejide and Akin have been married since they met and fell in love at university. Though many expected Akin to take several wives, he and Yejide have always agreed: polygamy is not for them. But four years into their marriage–after consulting fertility doctors and healers, trying strange teas and unlikely cures–Yejide is still not pregnant. She assumes she still has time–until her family arrives on her doorstep with a young woman they introduce as Akin’s second wife. Furious, shocked, and livid with jealousy, Yejide knows the only way to save her marriage is to get pregnant, which, finally, she does, but at a cost far greater than she could have dared to imagine. An electrifying novel of enormous emotional power, Stay With Me asks how much we can sacrifice for the sake of family.

Kids’ loot

Have you read any of these? What did you think of them?