Friday Ramble

Oh what a whirlwind is March ... but it is, officially, Spring now! There's tiny green leaves on trees and cheerful early blooms spreading their cheer, the days stretching longer with the hope of a new season. And the weather is as wacky as only a Carolina March can be. Some things never change, eh? 

#LucyMaudMarch Update
I'm a little behind on what I planned to read, mostly because I got sidetracked by a few other really good books, including Love & Saffron (Fay) and Run, Rose, Run (Parton + Patterson). Finding out the print in my copy of Pat of Silver Bush was much smaller than remembered slowed things down a bit too, ha ... It was delightful to revisit Silver Bush after many, many years however. I'd like to read one or two more before the end of the month - optimistic, I know. But maybe, just maybe ... I'll keep you posted. 

Have you done any Lucy Maud reading?

Tolkien Reading Day
Today is a glorious day for fans of hobbits and elves and dwarves! On this day, in the Lord of the Rings, the Ring was destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom. You can find out more from the Tolkien Society here, and if you want to find a Middle Earth-related (or Tolkien-related!) read for the weekend, here's a quick link to a broad library search.

Audiobooks
Over the last several years, I've really fallen in love with audiobooks ... the make me feel like my driving time is somewhat productive, and it's fun to mix things up a bit. Typically, I've listened to the more traditional books on CD/MP3, but recently I discovered how to connect my phone to the car audio, and can now play digital audiobooks in my car! It's glorious, ha. My favorite part is being able to pick up the story again easily if I switch cars, or if the urge to take a nice spring walk arrives - just switch to earbuds and I can listen and walk.

Have you explored our collection of e-audiobooks in the Digital Depot? There's over 400 to listen to! And you can search, download, check out (and return), and listen all within the Libby app! So easy!

And for even more, you can swing by the NCKids collection (just add NCKids as another library in Libby, pick Randolph County, and sign in with your library card & PIN numbers). NCKids is a great resource for elementary and middle grade books - although they have some YA fiction as well.

Read Together

As I'm playing catch-up with my TBR {To Be Read} list, trying to balance backlist titles and new releases, I recently stumbled my way into reading two novelized accounts of Agatha Christie's disappearance back-to-back. Each novel was unique in their approach, perspective, and theory as to "why" and "how" Agatha vanished - so much so that reading them back-to-back gave an added dimension to each.

Obviously, I'd recommend reading The Mystery of Mrs. Christie (Marie Benedict) and The Christie Affair (Nina De Gramont) together, but might I also suggest the following, to further round out the experience?

The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Agatha Christie)
Agatha's first Hercule Poirot book, and the namesake of the house/estate she and her husband purchase (the one she runs away from).

The Grand Tour: Letters and Photographs from the British Empire Expedition 1922 (Agatha Christie)
Agatha spent a year abroad with her husband, where the things she saw (and the people she met) inspired characters and events to occur in her novels to come.

The 8:55 to Baghdad (Andrew Eames)
After divorcing Archie Christie (after her mysterious disappearance), Agatha traveled some on her own.

Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life (Laura Thomspon)
A recent-ish biography of Agatha, for those who'd like to know more facts.

#LucyMaudMarch

I recently joined a readalong on Instagram for L.M. Montgomery's The Blue Castle (also available as an ebook through NCKids digital). It ended up being a reread for me - Goodreads informed me I first read it back in 2014 - but there is something about Montgomery's writing that begs to be revisited again and again. I couldn't tell you how many times I've read the Anne of Green Gables series, and even though I know exactly what is going to happen - have some passages practically memorized - it always feels like going home, opening the pages and getting lost in that familiar and cozy world. Rereading The Blue Castle, and seeing plans on Instagram for a few other specific Montgomery readalongs, got me thinking ... and what started as an off-hand comment to a friend began to take root. 

I'd like to officially invite you to join me for #LucyMaudMarch - a relaxed and informal reading of L.M. Montgomery (aka: Lucy Maud). There is no required reading - I won't ask you to read a particular book on a particular week - and there are no group discussions. This is merely a chance to revisit - or perhaps discover for the first time! - a simpler time.

While most famous for the much beloved Anne Shirley, Montgomery wrote many more books about other fascinating and enchanting heroines. There's Emily of New Moon, and Jane of Lantern Hill. Kilmeny of the Orchard, Pat of Silver Bush, and The Story Girl. And let's not forget Anne's youngest daughter, Rilla of Ingleside, coming of age during WWI.

Perhaps you'd like to learn more about Montgomery herself, either in a biography (House of Dreams) or a novelization (Maud). 

Maybe you want to introduce a young reader to Anne, in which case I highly recommend the work of Kallie George. With dreamy illustrated books like Goodnight, Anne and If I Couldn't be Anne and a first-chapter series that begins with Anne Arrives, you can tell George is a kindred spirit. 

Another kindred spirit is Winston-Salem author Sarah McCoy - Marilla of Green Gables is an imagining of Marilla's life in the before times, and is an engrossing story on its own, as well as a loving homage to the original.

There are so very many options, more even than mentioned here, and I invite you to read any that catch your fancy, at any point during the month of March. All I ask if that if you do, let us know. I'd love to know what you read and what you think. Comment on any of the posts I make during the month, or tag us in your posts (and please, use the #LucyMaudMarch hashtag too!).

Big Updates!

Extra, Extra, Read All About It!
Big things coming to the Library in March!

STORYTIME returns March 3rd!

Preschoolers (and their grown-ups!) are invited to join us for Storytime with Ms. Haley on Thursdays at 10am.

As you can see, Ms. Haley and our furry ambassadors are very excited, and have been practicing to be ready for the big day. (Notice our bright and cheerful new carpet circles? What fun seats for our storytime listeners!)

The BOOK CLUBS are back!

BOOK BITES, our "Un-Book" Club, will resume Tuesday, March 8th at 2pm.

Refreshments will not be served, and we'll also be using the carpet circles to help us space out (and they're just so cute - who doesn't love a pop of color, especially in the spring?)

BOOK BREAK, our traditional club, returns Tuesday, March 15th at 2pm.

We will be discussing Code Name: Lise (Larry Loftis), which was the scheduled read for March 2020, right when everything closed down. 

Updates to the reading list/selections, and discussion of how the club will go forward will also occur, as Ms. Harriet has retired as Book Break leader.

Friday Ramble

Whew. What a wild and wacky start to the year it has been! Snow three weekends in a row. The Olympics beginning. Days getting longer. Valentine's just around the corner. Does anyone know how to slow Time down a bit? Ha.

Agatha Christie

After discovering Mrs. Christie a few years ago, via Dan Stevens's beautifully narrated audio productions of Murder on the Orient Express and And Then There Were None, I've been quite intrigued. Slowly building a collection of her books, and giving tv dramatizations a whirl. [Sidenote: the linked dramatization was surprisingly gory!] More recently I've been reading historical fiction about her 11-day disappearance -- which books will be discussed in more detail soon. The idea that someone could simply disappear for 11 days, and to this day nobody knows what really happened ... that's fascinating. No wonder she's regarded as the Queen of Crime!

Rereading Books

On a whim, I decided to join a readalong on Instagram for one of L.M. Montgomery's lesser known books: The Blue Castle. Turns out I have actually read it before, in 2014, but that has not subtracted from the experience of reading it again. Montgomery is one of those authors I can reread a dozen times, and still enjoy - still pick up some new detail, or thrill over a particular turn of phrase. So much so, I'm toying with the idea of starting my own rereading agenda -- maybe a #LucyMaudMarch? We shall see ...

Do you reread books? I used to reread more often, but lately I've been reading so many newer releases that old favorites are being set aside - unless I pick up the audio, there's something glorious about listening to an audiobook of a well-beloved story. It adds a new dimension. 

Books Vs. Movies

This can be a dangerous topic, but it's one I've been thinking about lately. I recently watched Crazy Rich Asians - and while I thoroughly enjoyed the book(s), I only kept watching the movie because the score was beautiful and I had nothing else to do that night. For me, it's definitely a case of "the book was better." But that's not always the case - I'm a huge fan of the movies for The Princess Diaries and Ella Enchanted, but only so-so about the books, the same for Austenland. I love Confessions of a Shopaholic equally however, feeling like the movie did a wonderful job pulling together pieces of multiple books to make one super enjoyable and true-to-the-page.

Thoughts? What movies do you like better than the books? Or are you a strictly by-the-book person?

A Year in Review

Hello, reader friends! 

I'm not sure about you, but I blinked and it went from Christmas to February. Can someone please help me find where January went? We had a whirlwind start to this new year {3 snowy weekends in a row!}, and lots of schedule changes in the Library, but I'm hopeful that February will be a calmer month. A new beginning to the new year, maybe? Now that we can catch our breath a little, it's time to get the blogging year started ...

Once upon a time, when I used to write a library column for the Archdale-Trinity News, the first piece of the year would always be a review of my previous year's reading. It seems fitting that the first blog post of 2022 should be a "year in review" of my 2021 reading ...

A few fun facts & figures:

• I read 88 books in 2021 - fewer than my official Goodreads goal of 100, but substantially more than I managed in 2020. A whopping 44% more, to be precise. I consider this a huge win.
• According to Goodreads, my average star rating was 4.0 stars - so I clearly read books I enjoyed, which is also a positive sign. 
• I did mark 2 books as DNF (or "Did Not Finish"), but sometimes bailing on a book is a victory of its own. Life is too short to keep plowing through books you don't like and/or are not what you need to read in that moment.
• One of the features I find interesting in the "Year in Books" that Goodreads compiled for me is the "most popular" and "least popular" book. Determined by the number of people who have shelved books on their own Goodreads accounts, my most popular read of 2021 was Lucy Foley's The Guest List (1,172,725 others also shelved it) while my least popular read was J.J. Dupois's Roanoke Ridge (only 394 others shelved it). 

Looking at my 2021 reading {especially compared to my 2020 reading}, I'm feeling good about my reading life and the books I pick up. Going into 2022, I've set my Goodreads goal at 100 again {it's such a nice round number}, and at the time of this writing, I've somehow managed to finish 9 books already! And enjoyed them all, so I have a good feeling about the rest of the year.

Stay tuned for updates on my reading journey - I can already tell there will be mini reviews and quite a few "Read Together" posts in the weeks to come!

How did your 2021 reading journey go? Are you making any changes going into 2022?

What's the best book you've read so far?

When a year ends ...

As the year draws to a close, it seems fitting to take a moment and ... think.

It's been another strange year, and even as we start to find new rhythms and schedules - start to feel something a little bit closer to "normal" - there are more uncertainties and hiccups that come our way. But we're making it, readers and friends, we're making it ... slowly and carefully and sometimes very tired, but we're making it. 

One day at a time. 

One book at a time.

We're not sure what the new year will hold for us here in the Library, but we do know there will be books. So many books. Methods of escape and a way to retreat from the current situation. Ways to learn about new things - or try to understand the world around us. Books that give us hope, make us smile (or cry, if you're in to that sort of thing). 

There will be posts and bookish challenges/games to play, and our furry friends will continue their antics and adventures. 

We will keep making it, one day at a time - one book at a time - together.