June, 2010

Written by Mary R. Braley

It’s June! This is one of the most delightful months of the year. All our students “escape” from school to the pleasures of a long vacation. Their teachers, are as happy as the kids, if not more so. Nature seems all fresh & new, with green leaves pretty flowers, baby birds & animals, and the longest days of the year.

Our 14th Annual Book Sale is coming up on the 12th of this month. It will be held on Sat. June 12th from 9-12 in the Old Town Hall . We will have a huge number of books to sell at bargain prices. There will be some craft tables, organic vegetable seedlings, and a pie sale with some other goodies as well. Please mark your calendars, tell all your friends and then come to our big sale. All the proceeds will go to the library, and in these days of rising prices and tight budgets, we need all the help we can get! It’s also a good way for our customers to stretch their own budgets, too. Many of the books we have are in brand new condition, suitable for gifts for the readers on your lists. The Boy Scouts will be having a yard sale in our parking lot the same day, so there will be all sorts of opportunities to find bargains. We hope to see you all on Sat. June 12th.

We will be putting out our list and display of the 101 Best Summer Reads near the middle of the month. We have the list done, but if you know of a book that should be on a 101 list, let us know. We will happily start on next year’s list at any time. If you really enjoyed a book, there is a good chance that someone else will, too. Our May display of garden books will stay up till we put up the 101 Best Summer Reads in their place. Be sure to take the time to browse through the 101’s. There will be some really good reading there.

We extend our sympathies to our librarian, Kay, whose much-loved grandmother passed away last month in Oklahoma . Kay and her family traveled out there to see her before she died and then attend the funeral. She appreciates the kind thoughts of all her library friends.

Our Summer Reading Program this year will be held from July 12th to August 20th. The theme is Make a Splash at Your Library. We will try to find some books that go with the theme, but the children can read any books they want. Instead of craft hours at the library this year, Kay will make up craft kits that the kids can pick up whenever they come in to show how much they’ve been reading, and then take home to do at their leisure. She has some interesting ideas for these kits. As usual, each child will choose a goal to reach during the program. The goal can be for the number of hours spent reading or the number of books read, whichever the child prefers. The important thing is to set a goal and reach it. The shipment of Reading Program supplies arrived late in May and Kay will be working out the details during this month. Watch for posters, and next month’s newsletter for more information.

Many people have generously donated lots of books to us now that the book sale is coming up. Most of them will go into the sale, but we have kept a lot to put on our shelves. One really big donation was of many, many mysteries & thrillers. There were both hardcovers & paperbacks. There are a lot by favorite authors that are popular here in the library. We kept those that we didn’t already have, so look at the “new” book shelf over the next few weeks for some books by old favorite authors that you might have missed. Our “paperback corner” where we put donated mass-market paperback has benefited from this donation also. The paperback corner often runs strong to romances, but this large donation has added 30 or more mysteries & thrillers to that section. We are trying out some new & different authors in the paperbacks, but have plenty of old friends there, too. The authors from that donation include Linda Fairstein, Stuart Woods, Brad Thor, Jonathan Kellerman, Lisa Gardner, Brad Meltzer, Greg Iles, & others. Look through the paperback corner for some thrilling mysteries.

A month or so ago, Kay went to her favorite store in NH where she finds great buys in audiobooks. This time she found several Agatha Christie mysteries read by David Suchet and Hugh Fraser. These 2 actors are famous as the men who played Hercule Poirot & Captain Hastings in the BBC television series, Poirot. Kay and one of our audiobook fans have listened to some of them and say that they are wonderfully done. If you enjoy these classic mysteries, check them out.

Our Red Tent Book Group has chosen the books they will be reading for the next 6 months. Unfortunately, all but one are back-ordered, so we can’t tell you in which order they will be read. The only one ready to be shipped is “The Girl She Used to Be” by David Cristoforo, so we presume that will be July’s book. The rest, to be read in some order are: “Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen” by Susan Gilmore; “The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society” by Mary Ann Shaffer; “The Language of Sand” by Ellen Block; “The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie” by Alan Bradley: “Book of Bright Ideas” by Sandra King. All our book groups are thriving. If you are interested in joining one, leave your name, address and/or e-mail at the library, and we will have someone from the group get in touch with you. If people want to start a new book group, Candy Bradbury, who started our first one, will help set it up and get it started. Let us know so she can contact you if you would like to start a new group.

Special Note: Mary will publish the next newsletter in early August after she has a chance to catch up from her very busy summer!