Library Loot ~ January 22-28

A Perfectly Good Family ~ by Lionel Shriver, 2007, fiction (North Carolina)

Following the death of her worthy liberal parents, Corlis McCrea moves back into her family's grand Reconstruction mansion in North Carolina, willed to all three siblings.  Her timid younger brother has never left home.  When her bullying black-sheep older brother moves into "his" house as well, it's war.  Each heir wants the house.  Yet to buy the other out, two siblings must team against one.  Just as in girlhood, Corlis is torn between allying with the decent but fearful youngest and the iconoclastic eldest, who covets his legacy to destroy it.  This is a stunning examination of inheritance, literal and psychological:  what we take from our parents, what we discard, and what we are stuck with, like it or not.

The Sunday Philosophy Club: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel ~ by Alexander McCall Smith, 2004, mystery fiction (Scotland)

Isabel is attending a concert in the Usher Hall when she witnesses a man fall from the upper balcony.  Isabel can’t help wondering whether it was the result of mischance or mischief.  Against the best advice of her no-nonsense housekeeper Grace, her bassoon playing friend Jamie, and even her romantically challenged niece Cat, she is morally bound to solve this case.

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire @ The Captive Reader and Linda @ Silly Little Mischief that encourages us to share titles of books we’ve checked out of the library.  Add your link any time during the week, and see what others got this week.