Library Loot: July 6 – 12

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid 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!

Marg has Mr Linky this week

Most of these are from this past week but a few are from the week before. They barely scratch the surface on what I have checked out (40) and what I have arriving (at least 15) in the next week on mine and my husband's cards. Everything has to go back at the end of next week even if there are still renewals allowed as I'm leaving for my Mom's in Longview WA on the 17th not to return until August 7th. I could hang onto the books with two renewals left and unlikely to be requested but I probably won't. I would have to remember to renew while up there with everything going on. And if something didn't renew I'd have to call Ed and have him hunt for it and return it. Besides I'd just as soon have a fresh start with an empty card.

I do hope to watch all the DVD before I leave though (I've listed less than half of what I have at home and more are on the way) but I've probably overestimated the available time what with everything I have to get done in the next 10 days. Especially if I continue spending 4+ hours on my posts each day!

I've been checking out a lot of books in the last month with full awareness of this. Many of them are intended for reading at this time. From a few I need some info. For a few I hope to finally write the book review I never finished at the time I read the book. For many though I just had to send for them and browse the pages after reading something about them online.

The first two take center stage in my heart this week:


If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland.
Graywolf pbk. ed.
Pub/Date St. Paul Graywolf Press, c1987.
xii, 179 p. 21 cm.

I use to own a copy and read some of the passages so many times I had nearly memorized them. When this popped up in catalog search for something else I decided it was time to reread it. It has been at least 11 years.

Summary: In her 93 remarkable years, veteran freelance writer, memoirist, and writing teacher Brenda Ueland published some six million words. She once said there were two simple rules that she followed absolutely: to tell the truth, and not do anything she didn't want to do. Such integrity both distinguishes and defines If You Want to Write, her bestselling classic that first appeared in the late 1930s and has inspired thousands to find their own creative center. As Carl Sandburg once remarked, Ueland's primer is "the best book ever written on how to write."

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown.
Large print ed.
Publisher/Date: Waterville, Me. Thorndike/Windsor/Paragon, 2011.
Description: 527 p. 22 cm.

Summary: Unwillingly brought together to care for their ailing mother, three sisters who were named after famous Shakespearean characters discover that everything they have been avoiding may prove more worthwhile than expected.

I learned of this in a copy of Book Note I picked up in the library a few weeks ago and immediately got in queue and I mean before I left the library. The regular print copy already had over fifty in queue but the large print only 2.

What the summary I copy/pasted from the catalog doesn't say is that this family is a bookish family. The father is a prof of literature and of Shakespeare in particular and does most of his communicating in Shakespeare quotes and occasionally the ladies of the family do as well.

I hope I get to this before I leave town. I may even put the reading of the sequel to Chocolat on hold until I get back. I'm currently reading Chocolate and had hoped to be finished in time to read both its sequel, The Girl With No Shadow and The Weird Sisters before leaving.

The Gormenghast Novels by Mervyn Laurence Peake 1911-1968

introductory essays by Anthony Burgess and Quentin Crisp
Woodstock, N.Y. Overlook Press, c1995.:

1172 p. -- illustrated -- 21 cm.

There have been two attempts to translate this series to the screen. One in the 70s did a series of 8 episodes that included all three novels. One in the late 90s for PBS was a 4 hour miniseries that did not include the third. That is the one I have high on my Netflix cue. It mystifies me why the library does not have it. For a long time they were sans one of the novels entirely--either the first or the last--as well.

The recent acquisition of this book is a good sign that they are going to give this series the respect it has earned.

I first read the trilogy in the early 80s when I was in my early 20s and remember loving it. But I've gone through such significant changes since then that a new reading would likely garner me many new insights.

I discovered this in the catalog while it was still in technical services and got in queue so I'm the first or second to have a crack at it. I sent for it primarily for the essays by Burgess and Crisp and the Critical notes in the last section as the print is so small I think I'd rather have it read to me and am in luck that our system has all three audio books.

Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake.
Pub/Date: Ashland, OR Blackstone Audiobooks, p2000.
15 compact discs
Read by Robert Whitfield.
Unabridged.

The covers on these CD audios are the same as the covers on the paperback editions I read over 30 years ago.

Note the publisher Blackstone of Ashland OR. That's just ten minutes drive south of where I sit.

I've got the first at home now and the other two have been shipped. I doubt I'll get to all of them before I leave.. If not I may actually risk taking one or both of the two on their way with me on the trip hoping that no holds get put on so that they will renew for me three weeks from the day I check them out.

The Triplets of Belleville DVD

An animated for adults tho rated PG13 and would likely be enjoyed by children much younger even if more than half of it goes over their heads.

I'll just add this: It has the ambiance of a Dickens novel. If you want more you can read the review I posted last night after watching it yesterday.

It was my first ever movie review so I would appreciate some feedback. If you have never seen it, would you be more or less likely to watch it after reading it? If you have seen it, did I do it justice? Did I cover enough bases, give enough info or too few, too little?

Aquamarine DVD
Publisher/Date Beverly Hills, CA 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, c2006.
1 videodisc 103 min.
Based on the novel by Alice Hoffman.

Summary: Two twelve year old girls are in love with a dilapidated beach club near their home. After a huge storm they check to see how the club held up and discover Aquamarine, a mermaid, in the pool of the club. Aquamarine falls in love with the cute, young boy who runs the food bar and begs the girls to help her set up a date with him. Aquamarine offers to grant them a wish in exchange for help in finding the man of her dreams.

I discovered that while searching for Hoffman's novel Here on Earth to read before I watch the DVD which I have high in my Netflix queue. I'm assuming the movie was based on this book anyway. I'd hoped to get to both before I left but it is looking unlikely. I had thought the novel was a reread but everything but the cover seems quite unfamiliar. I think I had it checked out when it was newly published while I was still living in Longview in the late 90s. I've also had it checked out from this system but never got around to reading it. I have it at home again. So reloot.

The Woman Who Lives in the Earth : a novel / Swain Wolfe.
Pub/Date New York HarperCollins, 1996.
170 p. 20 cm.


This is a reloot also. I sent for it to have as reference as I prepare the review I started at that time. It is an enchanting fable I think intended for adults though young adults would get much out of it as well.

From Jesus to Christianity: How Four Generations of Visionaries & Storytellers Created the New Testament and Christian Faith by L. Michael White

I have sent for this book again but it hasn't arrived yet. I'm substituting this image for one of the DVD as I'm too lazy to go after it. :) The book will be a reloot once it arrives. The DVD is currently at home.

The DVD is of the Frontline documentary based on White's book. It originally aired as a mini-series and is 4 hours long


More reloots:

Teaching Yourself Visually Crocheting

I've had this at home so much in the last four months it is starting to feel at home here. I sent for it for some quick referencing before my trip.

Odd gods : new religions & the cult controversy edited by James R. Lewis

The family : the secret fundamentalism at the heart of American power / Jeff Sharlet.

Still havn't finished this after having checked out a number of times from both this library system and from the Longview library during both my last two visits there. Had passed the halfway point the last time I had it out. The print is small so my eyes refuse to read for long sessions.

Anatomy of the spirit: the seven stages of power and healing by Caroline Myss.

1st pbk ed.
Publisher/Date: New York Three Rivers Press, 1996.
xiv, 302 p.

Summary: Anatomy of the Spiritis the boldest presentation to date of energy medicine by one of its premier practitioners, internationally acclaimed medical intuitive Caroline Myss, one of the "hottest new voices in the alternative health/spirituality scene" (Publishers Weekly). Based on fifteen years of research into energy medicine, Dr. Myss's work shows how every illness corresponds to a pattern of emotional and psychological stresses, beliefs, and attitudes that have influenced corresponding areas of the human body. Anatomy of the Spiritalso presents Dr. Myss's breakthrough model of the body's seven centers of spiritual and physical power, in which she synthesizes the ancient wisdom of three spiritual traditions-the Hindu chakras, the Christian sacraments, and the Kabbalah's Tree of Life-to demonstrate the seven stages through which everyone must pass in the search for higher consciousness and spiritual maturity. With this model, Dr. Myss shows how you can develop your own latent powers of intuition as you simultaneously cultivate your personal power and spiritual growth. By teaching you to see your body and spirit in a new way,Anatomy of the Spiritprovides you with the tools for spiritual maturity and physical wholeness that will change your life.

Have had these two our more than once this year and not gotten to them. Maybe this time.



Yet more DVD:



Goya's Ghosts

Summary: Told through the eyes of celebrated Spanish painter Francisco Goya. Set against political turmoil at the end of the Spanish Inquisition and start of the invasion of Spain by Napoleon's army. Captures the essence and beauty of Goya's work which is best known for both the colorful depictions of the royal court and its people, and his grim depictions of the brutality of war and life in 18th century Spain. When Goya's beautiful muse is accused of being a heretic, the renowned painter must convince his old friend Lorenzo, a power-hungry monk and leader of the Spanish Inquisition, to spare her life.

Boston Legal season 3 all 7 discs!

I can't get enough of this show. I only watched parts of seasons 1 and 2 at the time the aired and was loving it but then I missed a few and what with also having missed so many of the two seasons I decided to wait for the DVD or the availability of streaming online. I had them in my Netflix queue but then our library acquired them. So I started from the beginning a couple months ago. I'll probably have to wait until I get back in August to send for the rest of the series.

I've been a fan of William Shatner since I was 11 when I discovered classic Star Trek. Throughout my early teens I had a massive crush on Captain James T. Kirk. :)

Boston Legal introduced me to James Spader and I've begun to send for the movies he's been in. Because of that I finally watched Pretty in Pink recently. I currently have The Pentagon Papers in my Netflix queue but probably won't send for it before my trip north.


Kate & Leopold

I've been on a Meg Ryan binge this spring and winter.

Summary: Kate and her actor brother live in 21st century New York. Her ex-boyfriend, Stuart, has found a spot near the Brooklyn Bridge where there is a gap in time-- one can return to the 19th century. Stuart goes back to the 1870s and takes pictures, then is followed back to New York by Leopold. Leopold gets help with fitting into the 21st century from Kate's brother Charlie, and meets Kate herself. Kate is climbing the corporate ladder in advertising, but her growing feelings for Leopold cause her to reevaluate her priorities in life.