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.

Happy Wednesday! And happy February to you! A new month means that I can borrow more comics on Hoopla. Hooray!

I just discovered that the Libby app has a whole lot of Noel Streatfeild ebooks, many of which I haven’t read. 

Judith by Noel Streatfeild

Passionately, as other children collect shells, stamps or bus tickets, Judith collected kind words and kind looks dropped by Mother.

Twelve-year-old Judith has been brought up in Europe by her mother, governess and highbrow uncles and aunts. She’s had her hand held all the way through life – even though that hand has often been cold and distant. Now she’s about to board a plane to England all alone to visit the father who abandoned her . . .

Although instead of despising her distant father, Judith finds she really likes him. He treats her as an adult, his side of the family seem to enjoy her company and she finally receives the appreciation she’s always craved from her mother. But is he really as wonderful as he seems?

Carnegie Medal winning author Noel Streatfield navigates through complicated family issues in this perceptive coming of age novel, Judith.

I’m reading this for the Read Harder challenge – read an LGBTQ+ history book

Queer: A Graphic History by Meg-John Barker

Activist-academic Meg-John Barker and cartoonist Julia Scheele illuminate the histories of queer thought and LGBTQ+ action in this groundbreaking non-fiction graphic novel.

From identity politics and gender roles to privilege and exclusion, Queer explores how we came to view sex, gender and sexuality in the ways that we do; how these ideas get tangled up with our culture and our understanding of biology, psychology and sexology; and how these views have been disputed and challenged.

Along the way we look at key landmarks which shift our perspective of what’s ‘normal’ – Alfred Kinsey’s view of sexuality as a spectrum, Judith Butler’s view of gendered behaviour as a performance, the play Wicked, or moments in Casino Royale when we’re invited to view James Bond with the kind of desiring gaze usually directed at female bodies in mainstream media.

Presented in a brilliantly engaging and witty style, this is a unique portrait of the universe of queer thinking.

All these are Hoopla titles

The Heart of the Beast – Dean Motter, Judith Dupre

Dynamite Entertainment celebrates the 20th Anniversary of this hauntingly evocative graphic novel, written by Dean Motter and Judith Dupre, and featuring lavishly painted artwork by superstar Sean Phillips (Fatale, Criminal). “Science transformed his body, artistry inspired his soul.” The Heart of the Beast explores the timeless themes of classic horror literature, set against the backdrop of New York City’s decadent art world in the Nineties. Sandra, a beautiful and young bartender, meets the enigmatic Victor, a man with strange scars and stranger secrets. A critically acclaimed tale of gothic love and modern horror, this digitally remastered hardcover edition features additional scrapbook material and commentary by the creators.

 

 

Luisa: Now and Then – Carole Maurel

At 32, Luisa encounters her 15-year-old self in this sensitive, bold story about self-acceptance and sexuality. Single, and having left behind her dream to become a renowned photographer, she is struggling to find out who she is and what she wants. In order to help and guide her younger self, she must finally face herself and her past. When Luisa finds herself attracted to a female neighbor, things become even more complicated… Insightful and funny, this is a feel-good coming-of-age story.

Rascal – Jean-Luc Deglin

Rascal is a cat. My cat. I didn’t ask for him, he just sort of… happened to me. But that’s just how it works sometimes, isn’t it?

When a mysterious mewling package arrives in the mail, one busy young woman’s life changes forever. Rascal lives up to his name, filling every day with wild adventures and long naps: brave expeditions into closets, fierce battles with curtains, and wrestling with slumbering giants… Sometimes she’s tempted to throw him out the window. He’s lucky he’s cute.

Over 128 pages, Jean-Luc Deglin paints a purring portrait of one unforgettable black cat, an elegant inky swirl in a world of striking blue tones. Hilarious and heartwarming, exasperating and enchanting, Rascal captures the full range of emotions that come with keeping God’s cutest killing machine as a pet.

If you love cats, or dream of having one, this book is dedicated to you. Once you bring Rascal into your life, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without him.

Billie Holiday – Carlos Sampayo

Born in Philadelphua in 1915, and dead too early in New York in 1959, Billie Holiday became a legendary jazz singer, even mythical. With her voice even now managing to touch so many people, we follow a reporter on the trail of the artist on behalf of a New York daily. Beyond the public scandals that marred the life of the star (alcohol, drugs, violence…), he seeks to restore the truth, revisiting the memory of Billie. Through this investigation, Muñoz and Sampayo trace, through the undertones of racism, and in the wake of the blues, the slow drift of a singer who expressed the deepest emotions in jazz. By internationally renowned Argentine artists, featuring Muñoz’ strikingly raw heavy blacks, this is not just a biography but a spell-binding art book tribute.

A Gift for a Ghost – Borja Gonzalez

In Borja González’s stunning graphic novel, two parallel stories reflect and intertwine in a tale of youthful dreams and desires. In 1856, Teresa, a young aristocrat, is more interested in writing avantgarde horror poetry than making a suitable marriage. In 2016, three teenage girls, Gloria, Laura, and Cristina, want to start a punk band called the Black Holes. They have everything they need: attitude, looks, instinct . . . and an alarming lack of musical talent. They’ve barely started rehearsing when strange things begin to happen. As their world and Teresa’s intersect, they’re haunted by the echo of something that happened 160 years ago.

 

The kids’ loot:

What did you get from your library this week?

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