It's a new year!

I hope you are all staying warm during this cold weather we’ve been having! We haven’t had a ton of snow yet this year, but the library does look beautiful in the winter. I managed to get this gorgeous picture of the library at sunset the other day.

As beautiful as this historic building is, it does require a lot of upkeep! I’m pleased to say that the repair of the children’s room ceiling and the back bathroom at the end of December went well, so that is one project checked off the list. We have a beautiful unblemished ceiling in the children’s room now. Our lobby is also full of new books, so definitely take some time to come check them out! Did you know that we have a reader’s advisory form available online? You can find it at this link, or under the “Services” tab on the website. If you’re looking for some suggestions of what to read, all you need to do is fill out the form and we will send you a list of books specifically suggested for you based on what you like to read! You can always also just chat with staff about what you like and ask for recommendations as well, we love to help people pick out books. And if we recommended a book and you don’t like it, definitely let us know! Knowing what you don’t like about a book is just as important as knowing what you do like about a book.

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A book I read recently that I quite enjoyed was If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio. My sister got it for me for my birthday last year, and I finally got around to reading it. It’s a literary thriller about a group of theater students studying Shakespeare. One of them is killed and there is a bit of a mystery surrounding the event. I don’t really read very many mysteries or thrillers, but this book was written beautifully and was quite an engaging read. The relationships between the characters was complex and it was interesting to watch everything unfold. Otherwise, I’m still working my way through Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive series (on the most recent book now!) on audio. While it might seem like it’s taking me a while to get through these books, Rhythm of War, the one I’m on, is over 57 hours long! The book itself is over 1000 pages, so it takes a while to get through each one. They’re such excellent books though, I will be impatiently waiting for the next book in the series to come out once I finish this one. I'm sure many of you can relate to the painful wait times between books by authors you like!

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I hope you’re all staying warm and safe this winter. I’m looking forward to seeing what new opportunities this year brings. We've got some fun ideas for things to do this year, so keep your eyes open! Our community garden is launching this summer, and we've got a few other things we're working towards. Warmer weather will open up a lot more options for us when we can do things outside comfortably, but if you need something to keep busy during the cold months remember we have a book group, writing group, and knitting/crocheting group regularly you could try out. And definitely let us know if you have any suggestions of other things you'd like to see at the library!