Library Loot ~ April 13-19

For about a week now, I've been reading mostly books from my own shelves or borrowed from a friend.  It felt strange to realize I had not one, single book checked out from the library.  Today, I picked up three (below), even though I haven't finished re-reading the Constance Garnett translation of The Grand Inquisitor by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, published in 1956.

Daughters of the Stone ~ by Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, 2009, fiction (Puerto Rico)

"It is the mid-1800s. Fela, taken from Africa, is working at her second sugar plantation in colonial Puerto Rico, where her mistress is only too happy to benefit from her impressive embroidery skills. But Fela has a secret. Before she and her husband were separated and sold into slavery, they performed a tribal ceremony in which they poured the essence of their unborn child into a very special stone. Fela keeps the stone with her, waiting for the chance to finish what she started. When the plantation owner approaches her, Fela sees a better opportunity for her child, and allows the man to act out his desire. Such is the beginning of a line of daughters connected by their intense love for one another, and the stories of a lost land."

The Whale Rider ~ by Witi Tame Ihimaera, 2003, YA fiction (Maori, New Zealand)

"The only survivor in the line of chiefly succession, a young girl in tribal New Zealand overcomes patriarchal pressures in her village and hopes to prove her worthiness as a leader."

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough ~ by Ruth Pennebaker, 2011, fiction

Joanie's ex-husband is having a baby with his new girlfriend. Joanie won't be having more babies, since she's decided never to have sex again.  But she still has her teenaged daughter Caroline to care for. And thanks to the recession, her elderly mother Ivy as well. Her daughter can't seem to exist without texting, and her mother brags about "goggling,"-while Joanie, back in the workforce, is still trying to figure out her office computer. And how to fend off the advances of her coworker Bruce.  Joanie, Caroline, and Ivy are stuck under the same roof, and it isn't easy. But sometimes they surprise each other-and themselves. And through their differences they learn that it is possible to undo the mistakes of the past.

Since this last one is new and I can't keep it more than seven days, I may have to read it first.

Library Loot is a weekly meme 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.  Claire has the Mister Linky this week, if you'd like to share a list of the loot you brought home.