Category Archives: Library Loot

Library Loot Wednesday!

by

1

as the crow fliesI only got a few books this week – As The Crow Flies, a graphic novel about a queer black girl at a Christian summer camp that I’ve been dying to read because the art looks amazing, and three books about Asperger’s Syndrome.

Two of the AS books I actually plucked off the Free shelf in the front entryway; I happened to notice them as I walked by to return a few books and pick up holds. They’re both geared towards children and young readers, so I don’t know how applicable they all cats have asperger syndromewill be for my husband and I, but I thought I’d give them a read through, and maybe give them away here in the blog if anyone is interested in them! The third is actually part of a series – all cats have asperger syndrome, all dogs have adhd, and all birds have anxiety. It’s pretty cute, matching single sentences about AS traits with cute pictures of cats. Things like “An Asperger child often has exceptionally good hearing, and loud sounds and sudden movements may scare him” and “When people talk to him he may refuse to look at them.” Typical kitty traits! Unfortunately they use male pronouns throughout the book, effectively erasing autistic women and girls, who have a hard enough time getting diagnosed already! The author, as far as I can tell, isn’t on the spectrum herself, which always makes me immediately suspicious. It was published in 2006, so I can forgive the use of Asperger Syndrome instead of Autism Spectrum. It’s still a little disappointing though.

Probably a good thing I didn’t get much this week; I still have a lot to get through from the last few weeks!

Library Loot Wednesday!

by

2

song of achillesThis week I got two books I’m REALLY excited about. After reading Circe, I learned that Madeline Miller also wrote The Song of Achilles, and it had rave reviews. I’m so excited to finally get to read it myself!

the empressI recently read The Diabolic, by S. J. Kincaid. The sequel, The Empress, just came in as well, so I’m very excited about that.

Yesterday three more holds came in; Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, my life with bobBatman Vol. 2 “I Am Suicide,” and My Life With Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues.

After the past couple of weeks, I have a LOT of reading to do! I think I have some breathing room before more books come in, though. I’ve been utilizing the library’s feature that allows you to freeze holds until you want them, so that’s been helping a lot!

Library Loot Wednesday!

by

4

 

the fifth petalOff the “These Books “Blue” Us Away” (LOL) display, I found The Fifth Petal which seems to be a mystery/thriller set around Halloween in Salem, with plenty of witchcraft.

Holds I picked up this week:

Monstress Vol. 2 – I read Vol. 1 at a friend’s house last week after a different friend was raving about them. I’d seem them praised a lot online, and they’re great.

little bee refugeeLittle Bee, by Chris Cleave – Hits two prompts – “A book mentioned in another book” for PopSugar (it was mentioned in Tolstoy and the Purple Chair), and “A refugee main character” for Booked 2018.

Boy, Snow, Bird – a retelling of Snow White by Helen Oyeyemi, it also addresses issues of racism when the main family is exposed as light-skinned blacks who have been passing for white. It’ll be my first Oyeyemi book, but the descriptions of her others sound interesting, so it probably won’t be my last!

Island of Exiles by Erica Cameron – I don’t actually remember putting this one on hold! But it’s a desert adventure story and looks fun.

smoke eaters

We also dropped by my library’s 3rd annual Comicon, and picked up six books while we were at it. It wasn’t at our normal branch, so it was fun walking around an unfamiliar, much larger library. We picked up:

Smoke Eaters, about Firefighters fighting dragons.

krampus yule lordKrampus the Yule Lord by Brom, which I’ve been drooling over at my local game store for months. It’s out of season, I know, but I don’t care!

The first four books of Lady Trent’s Memoirs – A Natural History of Dragons, The Tropic of Serpents, Voyage of the Basilisk, and In the Labyrinth of Drakes. I keep looking at these at my local game store too, and the library had all four. (But not the fifth. I can probably request it though.)

Library Loot Wednesday!

by

1

After a week of not getting anything from the library (I know, crazy, right?!) I checked out nine books this week, and plucked four more off their free shelf for a total of thirteen!

the diabolicI snuck over into the Children’s section and snagged Judy Blume’s “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret” for the PopSugar prompt “childhood classic you’ve never read” which will also fill the Litsy prompt for “childhood favorite.”

I picked up the first volume of Batman in the DC Universe Rebirth, I Am Gotham. (Mostly because I’m pretty sure the romance/wedding of Batman and Catwoman is in Rebirth and I WANT TO READ IT!)

traitor to the throneAnd because I saw it on the bargain shelf at Barnes & Noble when I was there for Book Club, but checked my library first, I checked out a YA fantasy called The Diabolic.

The sequel to Rebel of the Sands, Traitor to the Throne, came in, along with Patricia Briggs’ newest, Burn Bright. I love the Alpha and Omega series!

For my steampunk prompt for Booked 2018, I picked up Mortal Engines, which I think is becoming a movie soon – it’s post-apocalyptic steam punk, where cities are now vehicles racing across terrain and gobbling up other cities for resources.

the dirty girls social clubAnd in light of all the #metoo accusations around Junot Diaz, I’ve put holds on several of the books written by the women coming out against him. The first of those, the Dirty Girls Social Club, came in today. It’s written by the author of the blog post I just linked to, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez.

Since I walked to the library today, I was in no real hurry to leave, so I browsed the stacks a bit and found The Guns Above, a steampunk fantasy about the first female captain the guns aboveof an airship trying to prove herself, and Dragon Heart, your standard maiden-befriends-a-dragon fantasy.

lord of the wingsThe library’s free shelf had an older edition of Robinson Crusoe in nice condition, and a copy of Elie Wiesel’s Night, which I actually have never read. And I should. The other two from the free shelf are Warriors: A Dangerous Path, about cat warriors (which is apparently fifth in the series, oops!), and Lord of the Wings, which will fill my PopSugar prompt for a book set on Halloween.

Library Loot Wednesday!

by

1

the merry spinsterThe Merry Spinster finally made its way to me through the library system! It’s a collection of short fantasy stories and I’ve been quite eager to read it. The author also recently came out as trans, so this is part of my effort to read more inclusively! There’s apparently a lot about gender in the book, too.

tolstoy purple chairI also checked out Tolstoy and the Purple Chair, which is my PopSugar pick for “favorite color in the title.” It’s about a woman spending a year dedicated to reading, so I’m hopeful I’ll find something in here for another PopSugar prompt, “a book mentioned in another book.” Also, that chair on the cover? I WANT IT.

red clocks dystopiaRed Clocks finally arrived in my holds! I’ve been pretty excited about this one, but there were a lot of people in line ahead of me. It’s another feminist dystopia – I love those – this one set in a small Oregon fishing town, so – my home state! Abortion and in vitro fertilization are both illegal in this dystopia, and it follows the stories of women dealing with that.

pretending to be normal aspergerAnd one of the books off my Autism Reading List arrived from another library system – Pretending to be Normal – Living with Asperger’s Syndrome. This is the expanded version published in 2015.

women from another planet autismIn not-quite-library-loot, I also bought the Kindle version of Women From Another Planet? Our Lives in the Universe of Autism on the recommendation of Catana, who commented on my review of Nerdy, Shy, and Socially Inappropriate.

One of these days I’m going to gather some pictures of my library to show you guys my local branch. The librarians there are pretty awesome.

Library Loot – April 18th, 2018

by

4

queens of geekI mentioned a couple of these yesterday in my Top Ten Books by Autistic Authors. Nerdy, Shy, and Socially Inappropriate, and Queens of Geek are both books by autistic authors that I’m reading for Autism Acceptance Month.

I picked up one more nonfiction book, The Alternative Autoimmune Cookbook. It’s by one half of the blogging team behind the AutoImmune Wellness website. I’m currently working alternative aip cookbookthrough the cookbook written by the other half, The Autoimmune Paleo Cookbook. I have Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, a condition in which my immune system goes haywire and attacks my thyroid. I’ve been on the AIP diet for two and a half weeks at this point, and the amount I’ve energy I’ve regained is astounding. I’m sleeping better, and haven’t had heartburn since I started. So I’m eager to crack the other book for more recipes.

sing unburied singFor fiction I picked up Sing, Unburied, Sing, one of the most popular novels last year. (I requested it in December, but there was a long line!) For my Canadian read I got The Young in One Another’s Arms – besides being Canadian, it’s also about alternative family structures. My last book this week is To Kill A Kingdom, a young adult novel about predatory mermaids. I do like predatory mermaids!

It’s a pretty eclectic collection – but I am trying to branch out from my sci-fi/fantasy habit all the time!