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Spring is quickly approaching, and I for one am very glad that the snow is melting and the sun is still out when I leave work most days! What a relief to be able to leave winter behind us. And with the warmer weather also came the good news of cases dropping and restrictions easing, which means here at the library we are looking forward to being able to host some fun activities in the coming months!   One of these activities is going to be the annual plant sale, which will take place on May 7th this year. It’s sure to be a fun time, and a great opportunity to support the library (and buy some cool plants!) Anyone who is interested in donating some plants to this sale is welcome to do so, we will be accepting donations the first week in May before the sale that Saturday. We’re also launching the first “Maine Made in May” event, which will consist of pop-up local vendors that will be selling their products at the library each Saturday in May. So keep your eyes out for that as well! Aside from fundraisers, we also have a couple author talks tentatively planned, and hopefully more events will be in the works as we get closer to summer. I also just purchased a Maine State Park Pass to loan out this year, so come check that out sometime after May 1st! If it’s very popular we’ll get another one. There are so many beautiful state parks in Maine. I have a few other things in mind to get for the library as well, so stay tuned and check out our social media to learn more as things happen.  I’ll sign off as usual with a book recommendation: The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier was an excellent book. It was kind of a thriller with some science fiction thrown in, and was pretty heavy on the psychological elements. I found it to be a fascinating read. It’s hard to explain without giving things away, but it follows a varied cast of characters on a flight that experiences something very strange. I would definitely recommend checking it out, it’s an immensely clever book that definitely caught my attention. It was recommended to me by a patron. Isn’t it wonderful to work in a place where you can get so many good book recs? I certainly enjoy it!
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.  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! 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!
 It is the end of another year and we are heading back into winter. The nice part about the beginning of winter is that at least there are a few holidays to look forward to before we go into the deep freeze of January and beyond. I’m personally not a huge fan of the cold. Maybe if I participated in a winter sport/activity I might be, but for me, winter involves a lot of sitting inside. At least I can get a lot of reading done! We’ve got a cute wintery display set up upstairs with some cozy winter books. I’d like to mention two that are personal favorites of mine, The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey and The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden. Both are perfect winter reads that I plan to revisit every so often in the years to come. They both have such a perfect winter atmosphere to them, I love curling up with one of them under a blanket with a cup of tea. If you have other winter-themed books that are good candidates for a cozy winter read, definitely come chat with me about them sometime! You know what another fun thing to do in winter is? Knitting and crocheting, of course! Winter is the best time to pick up a fun hobby like this when so much time is spent inside. Plus, you can then make homemade gifts for people next holiday season. Remember we offer knitting and crocheting lessons at the library every Thursday night at 5pm!  In other news, as some of you may have seen announced on the Bulldog or our social media, the Children’s Room is going to be temporarily closed the week of Christmas for some construction work and carpet cleaning. We had a leak a while ago from the old front entry steps that damaged the ceiling in there. Thanks to a grant from the Belvedere Historic Preservation Fund we were able to get the steps repaired this fall, so now it’s time to work on the rest of it. The bathroom near the children’s room will also be closed as a part of this work, and there might be another temporary closure later on to finish the project. It’s a work in progress, please just bear with us while we get this work done.  Since I have been so busy lately finishing up schoolwork (I have now passed in all of my assignments for the last semester of my Master’s degree, so I am officially finished with school!) I haven’t been reading for fun much. I did read this very short book A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow. It’s an excellent little book, an interesting twist on the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty, and it has beautiful illustrations in it. Still listening to audiobooks, of course, I’m on the third book in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive series. I’m struggling to decide what to read next on my list! Right now it’s a toss-up between Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian or Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, which both have been on my to-read list for a while. We’ll see which one I pick up first, but mostly I’m happy that I’ll finally have some time to read books for fun again!
I hope you all have a great holiday season. Stay warm! |
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December 2022
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