Library books

I get my books at the library these days, because whereas I once had discretionary funds, I seem to have them no longer.  Wordy, but you get the point.  It makes me feel claustrophobic to be without funds.  I want to drive off in my car to Mexico, but I'd have to sleep in it as well.

Anyway, I go to the library and pick books the way I used to when I was a kid:  by the Holy Ghost.  Here's a list from the last few weeks:

GILEAD by Marilyn Robinson.  I recognized her name and knew she could write and I was not disappointed.

DICTATION by Cynthia Ozick.  Very literary and academic.  Four stories.  If I'd known that I wouldn't have taken it, because I prefer novels.  One story had Henry James and  Joseph Conrad meeting socially at James's house.  She did a fine Henry James imitation.

A SIGHT FOR SORE EYES by Ruth Rendell.  A well-written mystery.  She must have been close to Marilyn Robinson.  I didn't know a thing about her, but find out she's British and well liked.

DIVE AT CLAUSEN POINT  by Ann Packer.  I couldn't believe the ending.  I was so annoyed with it and the protagonist.

THE MAIDENSTONE LIGHTHOUSE by Sally Smith O'Rourke.  Just a sick romance/mystery, but I got hooked with the plot.  It had a cheesy lighthouse cover on the front.  I should have known.  Sally Smith O'Rourke is really a woman and her dead husband who used to make up book plots together and she has written them up since he died.  Boo hoo.

Ann Dee Hale loaned me THIS IS WHAT I DID which I thought was an excellent YA novel.  I especially liked the way she incorporated silences.

I also check out a half dozen house design books when I'm at the library, because those are my favorite picture books.