Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading 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.

I’m so thrilled to let you all know that I’m the new co-host for Library Loot! The lovely Claire from The Captive Reader has been helming it for a while now and I’m really excited to be t. I’ll be hosting next week, so please see her post for the details!

Also, hello! Hello to you new readers and subscribers, thanks for popping over here to check out my blog. A little bit about me – I love libraries and visit our local library with my two boys (ages 5 and 7) every week. We borrow lots of books – chapter books for the 7yo, beginning readers and picture books for the 5yo. As a result, my tote bags are full of kids books and my shoulders are aching. So pretty much all the library books I get for myself these days are ebooks via the Libby app!

Meanwhile, here’s what I got from the library this week.

The Cloud Roads – Martha Wells

I’ve heard of Wells’ Murderbot series and that’s on my tbr list but when I saw the cover of this one, I just wanted to start with this.

Moon has spent his life hiding what he is — a shape-shifter able to transform himself into a winged creature of flight. An orphan with only vague memories of his own kind, Moon tries to fit in among the tribes of his river valley, with mixed success. Just as Moon is once again cast out by his adopted tribe, he discovers a shape-shifter like himself… someone who seems to know exactly what he is, who promises that Moon will be welcomed into his community. What this stranger doesn’t tell Moon is that his presence will tip the balance of power… that his extraordinary lineage is crucial to the colony’s survival… and that his people face extinction at the hands of the dreaded Fell! Now Moon must overcome a lifetime of conditioning in order to save himself… and his newfound kin.

A Princess in Theory  – Alyssa Cole

Reading romance novels is quite a new thing for me. I had long turned my nose up at them, but I’ve since found some really smart writing, great characters, and fun reads. I enjoyed Cole’s An Extraordinary Union and was curious about this one.

Between grad school and multiple jobs, Naledi Smith doesn’t have time for fairy tales…or patience for the constant e-mails claiming she’s betrothed to an African prince. Sure. Right. Delete! As a former foster kid, she’s learned that the only things she can depend on are herself and the scientific method, and a silly e-mail won’t convince her otherwise.

Prince Thabiso is the sole heir to the throne of Thesolo, shouldering the hopes of his parents and his people. At the top of their list? His marriage. Ever dutiful, he tracks down his missing betrothed. When Naledi mistakes the prince for a pauper, Thabiso can’t resist the chance to experience life—and love—without the burden of his crown.

The chemistry between them is instant and irresistible, and flirty friendship quickly evolves into passionate nights. But when the truth is revealed, can a princess in theory become a princess ever after?

 

 

Some holds came in for me just this morning!

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows – Balli Kaur Jaswal

I’ve enjoyed Jaswal’s other stories like Sugarbread and Inheritance, both which are set in Singapore. So I’ve been looking forward to reading her latest.

Nikki lives in cosmopolitan West London, where she tends bar at the local pub. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she’s spent most of her twenty-odd years distancing herself from the traditional Sikh community of her childhood, preferring a more independent (that is, Western) life. When her father’s death leaves the family financially strapped, Nikki, a law school dropout, impulsively takes a job teaching a “creative writing” course at the community center in the beating heart of London’s close-knit Punjabi community.

Because of a miscommunication, the proper Sikh widows who show up are expecting to learn basic English literacy, not the art of short-story writing. When one of the widows finds a book of sexy stories in English and shares it with the class, Nikki realizes that beneath their white dupattas, her students have a wealth of fantasies and memories. Eager to liberate these modest women, she teaches them how to express their untold stories, unleashing creativity of the most unexpected—and exciting—kind.

As more women are drawn to the class, Nikki warns her students to keep their work secret from the Brotherhood, a group of highly conservative young men who have appointed themselves the community’s “moral police.” But when the widows’ gossip offers shocking insights into the death of a young wife—a modern woman like Nikki—and some of the class erotica is shared among friends, it sparks a scandal that threatens them all.

 

Normal People – Sally Rooney

Silly me, I had started this book a few months ago, then somehow my library ebook was due and I didn’t realize that, and of course it disappeared from my Libby app! I know you can do that Airplane Mode thing, but well, I just forgot. Surprisingly there was quite a bit of a wait on this book so I only just got my grubby hands back on it this week.

 

Connell and Marianne both grow up in the same town in rural Ireland. The similarities end there; they are from very different worlds. But they both get places to study at university in Dublin, and a connection that has grown between them despite the social tangle of school lasts long into the following years.

Sally Rooney’s second novel is a deeply political novel, just as it’s also a novel about love. It’s about how difficult it is to speak to what you feel and how difficult it is to change. It’s wry and seductive; perceptive and bold. It will make you cry and you will know yourself through it.

Books from previous weeks

 

I’m still listening – and enjoying – this audiobook

And I’m also working on Stay With Me

What did you get from your library this week?