Back to the library went The Brothers Bulger, The World is Fat, and The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay and Diaries, all having been read cover to cover despite my intention to skim them only.
Also going back are Vintage Jewelry, which I borrowed just to look at the pictures, which I did. They are lovely, but none as lovely as the pendant (formerly a dress clip) that Wilhelm gave me a few years back. Also returned is the book on physical therapy. It was ok, but what I really need is a book of anatomy, preferably one by DK, which does such good illustrated books.
I looked at the Medved book, The 10 Big Lies about America, but he was foaming at the mouth a bit and besides I don't think all of his 10 "lies" are untrue, so I skipped it. I also sent back Forty Signs of Rain. I'm disappointed that I didn't enjoy that book as much as I expected. I don't recall who recommended it but I do recall that it was someone whose suggestions are usually solid. The fault probably lies in myself and not in the book.
The fault for my difficulties with The Likeness is entirely mine. I'm sending it back and putting the title on my list for future reading. I loved Into the Woods so much that I know I'll like this book once I'm in the appropirate mood.
Also returning unread is The Missing. I looked it over and read a dozen pages. Too much plot. I like books where nothing happens to fascinating people in intriguing settings over long periods of time. This book is much too lively for me.
I'm returning one of the Georges Simenon mysteries. I need only one at a time.
Waiting for me at the library were some crime fiction taking place in Boston, Robert B Parker's Mortal Stakes (1975), Dennis Lehane's A Drink Before the War (1994), and George V Higgins' The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1972.) I also got a biography by a native Southie, Easter Rising: An Irish American Coming Up from Under by Michael Patrick MacDonald (2006.)
I requested Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto (2004) because I like analyses of pop culture.
And there were three books of literary fiction, W G Sebald's Austerlitz (2001), which I borrowed because Jan in my Trollope group likes Sebald and his recommendations are to be trusted; A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick (2009) - I've no idea why I requested that one; and Rose Tremain's Music and Silence (1999) - again, no idea why I wanted to read it.