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! Autumn is, by far, my favorite season in Maine. The weather is perfect, the leaves are beautiful, and most of the bugs go away. It makes me want to curl up with a good book and a cup of tea, or go for a hike to appreciate the colorful foliage. I hope you all have had some time to get outside and appreciate the experience of fall in Maine! Here at the library we’re preparing for spooky season by decorating the lobby and putting up some displays of scary books. October is one of my favorite months of the year, and Halloween is such a fun holiday. I hope you’re all looking forward to Farmington Fright Nights as much as I am! This is also the best time to pick up that horror book you’ve been thinking about reading--I feel like every Mainer has to read at least one Stephen King book at some point in their lives! We’ve also added another weekly program to our roster, Writing Wednesdays. This is meant to be a fun writing group where people can get together to share their work and get feedback on it. So now we have something for everyone three days in a row: Tech Tuesdays, Writing Wednesdays, and Knitting & Crocheting on Thursdays. Come check out these events, we’d love to see you! You may have noticed some work getting done on our old front entryway steps a few weeks ago. A few years back water leaked into the Children’s Room from these steps, causing some damage to the ceiling. We recently received a grant from the Belvedere Historic Preservation Fund that allowed us to get the steps resealed so we no longer have to worry about water coming into the building. We are very grateful to Belvedere that we were able to complete this part of the project with their help. The next part of the process will be to have the sheetrock in the Children’s Room replaced, which we are working towards. And now, it’s time for me to talk about what good books I’ve been reading lately. Now that I’m back in grad school (last semester!) I have much less time to read for fun, but I still make a point to read something enjoyable. Graphic novels are an excellent medium when you don’t have a ton of time but still want to enjoy a good story. I highly recommend the Monstress series by Marjorie Liu. It’s a fascinating story and the artwork is just breathtaking. If you think graphic novels are just for kids, you’re wrong! For audio, I’m still on a Brandon Sanderson kick. I’ve finished all of the Mistborn series and have moved onto another of his series, the Stormlight Archive, which starts with The Way of Kings. The audiobook is read by the same narrator as the Mistborn series, and I just can’t get enough of him. I’d highly recommend it if you’re into fantasy, we have the print books and the audiobooks are available through the Cloud Library. If you’re interested in what other staff are reading or want to see other fun things happening in the library, follow us on Instagram @farmingtonlibrarymaine. Enjoy the rest of your October! |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
August 2023
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