The good news is that many of these books don't have a line of people waiting for them, so I'll be able to renew them. The bad news is I'll still never get them all read. That doesn't mean I won't try or at least flip through them and read a bit to get a taste. Two of the books are from the library where I work (one being an interlibrary loan book, so I should turn my attention to that one fairly soon). I tend to binge either on library books or on books that I buy myself. I'm being doubly bad lately as I am binging on both. It's a bit like a kid in a candy shop--which should I pick up first.
I've already seen Casanova, but it's such a fun romp of a movie I impulsively requested it again. I know what I'll be watching this weekend.
Spring is slowly starting to show signs of arriving, and I am ready for it. I was thinking this past week how nice it would be to go to the beach and relax, which I won't be doing any time soon, but a beach read is still open to me. I think Cathy Kelly is possibly in chick lit territory, something I really don't read anymore, but Lessons in Heartbreak seems like a perfect beach book. It's basically a glitzy family drama set in New York and Ireland.
I found Kirk Farber's Postcards from a Dead Girl on my library's new book list, and it seemed funny and quirky and is another total impulse choice.
After reading Fleur Fisher's tantalizing post on P.D. James's Talking About Detective Fiction I knew I had to read it. It's a tiny bit of a book, but I bet it's still chock full of wonderful things. I can't wait to read it. It looks like it's the sort of book you could read over a weekend, so I might just try and do that!
Ever since I read a biography of Georgette Heyer and discovered she had several early novels that were autobiographical in nature--not at all what she would later be known for--I knew I had to get my hands on them some way. She never wanted them reprinted, but there are still old copies in libraries (yay for libraries!!). I'm starting with Helen, and I'm very curious to see what it's like and how it compares to her later books.
Both Mary Swan's The Boys in the Trees and Octavia Butler's Fledgling are read-along books, though so far my track record of reading along has not been good. Still, I love the look (and sound) of the books so may get to them on my own schedule (reading along in spirit if a little late).
James Thompson's Snow Angels is a crime novel set in Finland (in the Arctic Circle no less). It looks good and seems to have gotten good reviews. The author is American, however he's lived in Finland for the past decade. Alas, this is one of the few books that does have a line of people waiting for it....I wonder how many books I can possibly read at once.
When I first saw Madeline Goold's Mr Langshaw's Square Piano I thought this looked like just the sort of nonfiction read I would like--cultural history, though somewhat specific in this case. Now, however, I'm wondering if it might be too specialized (for someone who isn't very musically inclined). Has anyone read this one?
I've already started Katharine McMahon's The Crimson Rooms and am finding it hard to put down. It's set just after WWI and the protagonist is a lawyer at a time when women weren't welcomed into the profession.
And last but not least is Patricia Falvey's The Yellow House, which covers the first quarter of the last century in Ireland's very tumultuous modern history. It seems like I really read something Irish in the month of March.
You won't be surprised that I am going to try and get in lots of reading this weekend!