Library Loot

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by A Striped Armchair and Alessandra that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.

This is the FIRST time I am participating in Library Loot and I decided to do so because I've recently became a member of the national library (NL). My last visit there was on May 3. I visited again this afternoon after church.

Here are the books I've checked out from the NL:

1. Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
2. Up on Cloud Nine by Anne Fine
3. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Here are the book synopses:

Kira-Kira. Glittering. That's how Katie Takeshima's sister, Lynn, makes everything seem. The sky is kira-kira because its color is deep but see-through at the same time. The sea is kira-kira for the same reason. And so are people's eyes. When Katie and her family move from a Japanese community in Iowa to the Deep South of Georgia, it's Lynn who explains to her why people stop them on the street to stare. And it's Lynn who, with her special way of viewing the world, teaches Katie to look beyond tomorrow. But when Lynn becomes desperately ill, and the whole family begins to fall apart, it is up to Katie to find a way to remind them all that there is always something glittering—kira-kira—in the future.

Up on Cloud Nine. Ian's best friend, Stolly, is up on cloud nine. He's in the hospital, unconscious and hooked up to machines. The question Ian is trying to answer is: How did Stolly end up there? In a way, Stolly's always been on cloud nine, living life by his own rules and making those rules up as he goes along. His parents' careers have them constantly rushing around, so Ian's family has all but adopted Stolly. That's why it's up to Ian to figure out what happened to his best friend. But once the pieces start coming together, the answer doesn't seem to make any sense. Two-time Carnegie Medal winner Anne Fine takes an honest look at family dynamics and the saving graces of friendship in this powerful and poignant novel.

Never Let Me Go. Kathy, Ruth and Tommy were pupils at Hailstam—an idyllic establishment situated deep in the English countryside. The children there were tenderly sheltered from the outside world, brought up to believe they were special, and that their personal welfare was crucial. But for what reason were they really there? It is only years later that Kathy, now aged thirty-one, finally allows herself to yield to the pull of memory. What unfolds is the haunting story of how Kathy, Ruth and Tommy slowly come to face the truth about their seemingly happy childhoods—and about their futures.