"They don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us" - Miss Maudie

This summer will be 50 years since To Kill a Mockingbird was published.  A new book, Scout, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird, which will be published next month, asks writers and celebrities what influence Harper Lee's "novel of the century" had on their lives.  I'm ordering this title soon, and in the meantime, you may want to check out a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird - we have both the book and the oscar-winning movie.  Ms. Lee's work is a true rarity, in my opinion - both the novel and the film are masterpieces.

Nice

If you've searched the library's catalog recently, you may have noticed something new.  In addition to seeing where a book is located and whether or not it's available to check out, you can now see "read alikes," and the coolest of all, if a book is part of a series, you'll be able to see the other titles in the series, in the order in which they were written!  All of this added information is thanks to an electronic product called Novelist (which the library subscribes to and is accessible from library computers or your home computer).  I'm pretty excited about this for two very important reasons: 1) the fabulous series listing I mentioned above, and 2) if a book is checked out, you don't necessarily have to go away empty-handed because the "read alikes" section will suggest similar titles.  Reading titles in order, and expanding your reading horizon....priceless.

"Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it!" - vulcanologist David Johnston's last message

Can it really be 30 years since Mt. St. Helens erupted?  I wasn't living in the Northwest at that time, so I don't have a "where were you when it blew" story.  But I'll never forget the first time I saw the mountain up close - there's a point on the road where you come around a corner, and all of a sudden it looks like you've landed on another planet.  The change really is that drastic, and when you consider the enormity of the devastation, you can't help but be in complete awe of the way Mother Nature is reclaiming the scarred landscape.

We have lots of books about this famous volcano (both pre and post eruption), and if you want to browse the shelves, a good call number to remember is 551.2109 (this isn't the only place where you'll find Mt. St. Helens books, but it's a good place to start).  Thanks to Iceland, volcanoes have had a big presence in the news these days - let's just hope that our mountains remain "sleeping" for a long, long time.

Thank you!

Sorry for the long absence from the blog.  I have a good excuse, but excuses sound lame, so my sincere apologies, and here we go...


As my dad likes to say, sometimes good, old-fashioned percussive maintenance fixes the problem.  True, but the power of a well-written thank you note cannot be overlooked (just go with me here...)  I know what you're thinking, you're probably saying to yourself, "yeah, but my thank you notes are boring because I always say the same thing, and clever e-thanks are just a click away, so why bother?"  Ok, I'm going to get a little crotchety now - an electronic, canned message with barking bunnies and hopping puppies (well, you know what I mean) can NEVER replace a handwritten note (harrumph, harrumph).  If the pressure to dazzle someone with real, live, written words causes a rash, then may I suggest an alternative: make the card yourself, and the brevity of the message won't matter because your thoughtful craftiness will astonish and warm the heart of the recipient.  And you know what?  There's a perfect book for you: Thank You Notes by Jan Stephenson Kelly.   Don't worry - you can thank me later (with a beautiful, handmade note...)