Julie's Journal : Franklin County Library Patron Favorites for 2020

Every year I like to look back and see what books and movies were the most popular with our patrons.  So without further ado, here are some favorites for 2020.  

New Releases:

1.  Camino Winds, by John Grisham

2.  Blindside, by James Patterson

3.  Long Range, by C.J. Box

4.  Golden in Death, by J.D. Robb

5.  The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, by Kim Michele Richardson

DVDs:

1.  Maleficient : Mistress of Evil

2.  Hobbs and Shaw

3.  The Lion King 2019

4.  Knives Out

5.  Joker

Early Readers:

1.  An Elephant & Piggie Biggie!, by Mo Willems

2.  How I Met My Monster, by Amanda Noll

3.  There's a Dragon in Your Book, by Tom Fletcher

4.  How to Catch a Unicorn, by Adam Wallace

5.  Twinkle, by Katherine Holabird

Juvenile and Youth

1.  Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid, by Jeff Kinney

2.  The Big Secret, by Alexa Pearl

3.  Bad Kitty Goes to the Vet, by Nick Bruel

4.  Wrecking Ball, by Jeff Kinney

5.  Wrath of the Dragon King, by Brandon Mull

Young Adult

1.  Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs

2.  The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins

3.  The Shadow Wand, by Laurie Forest

4.  The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton

5.  Midnight Sun, by Stephanie Meyer

Nonfiction

1.  Before and After, by Judy Christie

2.  Air Fryer Cookbook

3.  The Writer's Library, by Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager

4.  Without Pity, by Ann Rule

5.  What Color is Your Parachute? 2020, by Richard Bolles

Biography

1.  Where I Come From, by Rick Bragg

2.  Greenlights, by Matthew McConaughey

3.  Frontier Follies, by Ree Drummond

4.  Educated, by Tara Westover

5.  The Answer Is..., by Alex Trebek

Tom's Two Cents : William Faulkner - Absalom, Absalom and The Sound and the Fury

 

In the early half of the 20th century, three authors dominated American Literature, and though only one (ironically the one who did not win the Nobel Prize for Lit) is still widely read and praised (and again, ironically, for just a single book), the three deserve attention from any careful and committed reader of American Lit.  Interestingly too, they all made their first literary splashes during the roaring 20’s: William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Nowadays—well, time moves on, though it is still hard to believe that some of these authors’ works were published literally a hundred years ago!  Isn’t that enough to make yours truly feel absolutely ancient!  I’ve already written in this column about Fitzgerald and Hemingway, but not Faulkner, who is, by all odds, the most difficult and the most elusive to understand and fully appreciate.

Faulkner was that rarity in American Lit, a true Southerner, born and bred in Mississippi, who spent time early in his career on the West Coast, mostly trying to write movie scripts unsuccessfully, and much later as Artist-in-Residence at the University of Virginia, but his real home was Oxford, Mississippi, and Oxford was the center of both his actual and literary world.  He even created a fictional county, unspellable and unpronounceable, Yoknapotawa, and peopled it with several representative types of families, Sartoris, Snopes, Compson, Sutpen, etc. in that area.  Today in Oxford there is a statue to him downtown, sitting casually on a park bench.  His home, Rowan Oak, is on the edge of Oxford, and who else but John Tutor could have managed to turn up a vintage whiskey bottle in the property’s dumping ground!  (Faulkner’s fondness for “the juice” is well documented, and one of the central traits he shared with his fellow writers, Fitzgerald and Hemingway.)

The two novels referred to in the title allude to two Southern fictional families, Sutpen and Compson, that represent the Old and the New South, and I am using those terms to mean pre and post Civil War Era.  Although a number of creative writers have used these eras historically,
relatively few have taken on the issue of Slavery as deeply or directly as Faulkner.  His attitude toward the subject is often as convoluted and complex as these works, both of which are written, in whole or in part, in a modern style of writing first appearing in Europe, known as “stream of consciousness,” and first expounded by writers like James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.

I am not a fan of this style, and that is putting it mildly.  So it will suffice here to say that the style attempts to convey a character’s thoughts and/or feelings, as they supposedly exist in the mind or psyche, in random order, with no thought given to the organization imposed by grammar, syntax or punctuation.  There may be some kind of order, but it is in no way apparent to the general reader.  To say that such an approach renders much of these novels virtually incomprehensible is no exaggeration.  The reader must concentrate in a way that is seldom demanded by general fiction of today, and Faulkner is definitely not for lazy readers.  His work is both challenging and substantive, and to be fair, many of his other works are written in a far more accessible style.  But central to almost all of his work is the Southern Family, and rarely does he paint a pretty picture.

Harper Lee provides a good contrast to Faulkner.  Her work also concentrated on the South and the Southern Family, but her view was much gentler and not so flawed.  Faulkner’s people are seldom admirable and sometimes downright despicable.  Nonetheless they seem very true to life, or to Southern type.  As for the style, you may be able to slug right through or surely not be as annoyed by it as a former English teacher!  It is what it is, and what it is is what Faulkner wanted it to be.  He was not striving for clarity, but depth, and the deepest waters are often the murkiest!

Julie's Journal : What I Have Checked Out

For a slight variation on "What I've Been Reading", I thought I'd give a run down on what I have checked out of the library.

Physical Books:

Where I Come From, by Rick Bragg - A collection of true short stories about living in the South.  I've read a few of the stories and enjoyed them.  I shared one, about the perils and pleasures of fishing, with my husband and he enjoyed it as well.  Although short story collections don't circulate well in the library, I like them.  It's a book I can dip in and out of while reading other things.  

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, by Christopher Paolini - This is the first adult science fiction offering by Paolini.  I haven't started it yet, but I have his Young Adult series, the Eragon books, in my own personal collection and reread them occasionally.  I'm sometimes a little leery of Young Adult authors who venture into Adult books, but I'm interested to see how he makes the transition.  

Where the Forest Meets the Stars, by Glendy Vanderah - This debut novel caught my attention when it came into the library.  It's about a mysterious child and two strangers who come together to try and figure out what to do about her.  Although I checked it out a while ago, I keep bypassing it to read other things.  I'm going to have to either buckle down and read it or bring it back. 

All Thirteen : The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team, by Christina Soontornvat - I was fascinated along with the rest of the world in 2018 when I heard about the dramatic rescue of the soccer team from a flooded cave.  I'm interested to read the whole story.

Fortune and Glory : Tantalizing Twenty-Seven, by Janet Evanovich - I'm cheating a little bit by putting this on the list because I finished the book last night and turned it in this morning.  It is the latest offering in the Stephanie Plum series.  Stephanie and her gang of quirky sidekicks and their bounty hunting adventures are always good for a laugh.  It has a waiting list on it, so let us know if you want added to the list.

 

E-books : 

Never Caught, by Erica Armstrong Dunbar - This is the true story of Ona Judge, a slave of George Washington who ran away and was never captured.  I've just started this but I think it will be very interesting.  It is giving details of slave life from the point of view of the slave which I haven't seen very much.

The Last Train to Key West, by Chanel Cleeton - I haven't started this one yet, but I've heard several positive reviews of it.  The tag line on Libby reads, "In 1935 three women are forever changed when one of the most powerful hurricanes in history barrels toward the Florida Keys."  Sounds intriguing!

DVD : 

The Jetsons : Complete Series - For fun and a little nostalgia I also checked out The Jetsons.  I'll probably watch some of it this weekend while my husband is hunting.  I'm not sure I can convince him to watch the whole thing with me!

Do you see anything here that interests you?  What have you been reading lately?

Julie's Journal : A Comparison of Two Books

I'm going to start off this post with a few warnings...

1.  Trigger Warning : Suicide - both of the books mentioned below deal in large part with suicide, but in very different ways.  

2.  The following are very much my personal opinions.  I had very strong reactions to these books because of my personal beliefs about suicide and the culture around it.  You may or may not agree with me and that's ok.  

3.  If you haven't read the books, this post will contain spoilers.

I read Me Before You by Jojo Moyes not long after it first came out at the very end of 2012.  Since then it has stayed at the top of my "Books I Hate" list.  Anytime anyone asked me about books I didn't like, this one came to mind.  The biggest emotion I felt when I finished the last page was anger.  More than any other book I can think of, this book made me see red and I still feel angry when I think about the story line.  The story centers on Louisa and Will.  Will is a quadriplegic after an accident.  Louisa takes a job as his caregiver/companion.  She discovers pretty quickly that Will has decided that for the sake of his parents he will hang on another six months and then he is going to take advantage of an assisted suicide facility and end his life.  His pre-accident life had been one of extreme physical activity.  He was a bit of a daredevil who lived life on the edge.  Now that he is confined to a wheelchair he cannot see any reason to keep going.  Over the course of the story, Louisa and Will fall in love, and Louisa begins trying to show him how wonderful their life could be if he chooses to continue his.  I read this entire book hoping she would convince him to live, and he does tell her that the last six months have been the best of his life.  However, in spite of Louisa and his family, he still decides to end his life.  Will is such a selfish, selfish character.  This is not a case of depression keeping him from seeing clearly.  He knows exactly what he is doing and who it will hurt, but continues anyway.  What I took away from this book was that the author does not see that the quadriplegic life as worth living and that if your life doesn't turn out the way you expect it to, it is perfectly fine - normal even - to decide to end it all, regardless of the affect your actions have on the people around you.  

On the other hand we have The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig.  The book begins with Nora losing her job and her cat in the same day.  Her relationship with her brother has faltered, and her one piano student is no longer interested.  Overwhelmed by depression, when her neighbor also no longer needs her services to pick up his medications she decides that there is no one who needs her and no reason to keep going.  She takes a handful of pills and waits to die.  She wakes up in the Midnight Library, staffed by Mrs. Elm, a librarian who was kind to Nora in her childhood.  Nora is first given a book of regrets and is quickly overwhelmed by the weight and content.  She is told that she can change decisions she made earlier in life and see where her life would be now if she had followed a different path.  All of the books on the shelves are stories of her life lived a different way.  She can take trips she didn't take, go on dates she said no to, or continue activities she previously set aside.  The first life she tries finds her married to the guy she recently broke up with.  They are running a pub in the English countryside like they always dreamed of doing.  It takes her less than the course of an evening to realize that this life isn't what she had hoped it would be.  When she returns to the library, one regret - the one of not marrying Dan - has been erased from her book of regrets.  Over the course of the book and several more lives, Nora realizes that life has infinite possibilities and all suicide does is erase the chance to make new decisions and change directions.  She ends up returning to her original life and quickly discovers that many of the things she thought had ended had in fact only paused.  She quickly finds joy in all the possibilities life offers that she hadn't seen before.   

Both these books are available in the library, but I feel that The Midnight Library is by far the better book.  It doesn't gloss over the difficult parts of life, but the reader is left with a very life-affirming feeling.  I definitely prefer that feeling at the end of a story over a feeling of depression and anger, like I had at the end of Me Before You.  I want books that glorify life rather than ones that glorify death.  Of course you are welcome to try them both and decide for yourself!  

Julie's Journal : A New Author

2020 has been the year that keeps on giving, hasn't it?  I have struggled to keep a positive outlook as the year has progressed.  One symptom of the year is that I have struggled to focus on books, particularly new-to-me books.  I have spent a lot of my reading time this year re-reading old favorites, rather than jumping into new books.  I probably haven't been as good at recommending books for patrons this year because of that.

However, I have discovered a new author I am enjoying.  Beth O'Leary is a young British writer.  On her website she says, "I write uplifting love stories - the sorts of books you reach for when you need a hug."  That has certainly been the type of book I have wanted this year.

Her debut novel was The Flatshare.  Tiffy is in need of a place to stay, and fast.  Leon needs a roommate.  They agree to an arrangement where Tiffy occupies the apartment at night, and Leon, who works nights, has possession during the day.  They will not ever actually meet.  The arrangement works out better than either could have expected and they begin to get to know each other through the notes they leave for one another.  I usually like a book written in dual POV (points-of-view) and this was no exception.  Although this is a light read, with a predictable happy ending, it does deal with some darker subjects - emotional abuse, stalking, wrongful imprisonment.

O'Leary's second book is The Switch.  Again written with a dual POV, the main characters this time are 29 year old Leena Cotton and her 79 year old grandmother, Eileen.  The book begins about a year after Leena's sister dies of cancer.  Leena is being required to take a sabbatical from her high-pressure job in London.  Eileen is looking for love after her husband left her, but she's finding pickings to be very slim in her small village.  They decide to switch lives - Leena will take on all her grandmother's projects in the village, and Eileen will move into Leena's London apartment and try to find love.  Both women are at first very lost in the others' world, but soon settle into their new lives.  Again, although the story is a light, happy read, it does deal with heavier topics; in particular The Switch deals with grief and moving forward after a death.

A word of caution - I have found that British authors seem to be much more liberal in their use of bad language than we might be used to, so don't be surprised to find profanity sprinkled throughout both books.

The Switch is available now on Overdrive/Libby and both hardback books should be coming soon to FCL.

Tom's Two Cents : A Larry McMurtry 'Quintet'

In literature there is a trilogy (three books in sequence) and a tetralogy (four books in sequence), but seldom, if ever, a “quintology,” which apparently is not even a word, so Larry McMurtry resorts to calling his five books in sequence by a musical term, “quintet,” which it is definitely not! The books in question, and in successive order, are: “The Last Picture Show,” “Texasville,” “Duane’s Depressed,” “When the Light Goes” and “Rhino Ranch,” the last novel McMurtry has written, published in 2015.

The whole business of whether or not this is a “quintet” can be settled most easily by simply re-classifying “Texasville” as a film script rather than a novel. Indeed, it follows the modern tendency of many novels today to read like filmscripts, with heavy emphasis on dialogue and not much else. By his own admission, McMurtry has written at least sixty filmscripts, so it is easy enough to see why he lapsed into that writing mode after completing his magnum opus, “Lonesome Dove”, in 1985. By the time he wrote “Duane’s Depressed,” in 1999, McMurtry was back into a true novelistic mode, focusing throughout on the character of Duane Moore, Thalia’s football captain in a very early novel that proved to be a great film success—“The Last Picture Show.”

I’ve just re-read the first three cited above and only recently finished the fourth, “When the Light Goes.” Maybe I’ll read the last, “Rhino Ranch,” later, but right at the moment I’m “McMurtried Out.” (This marathon all started several weeks ago with McMurtry’s Memoirs. Lest it be thought that I’ve read tons of pages, let me quickly stress that the sum of all these eight books has been less than the sum of one Russian novel, that being “War and Peace”!) The best of these five is certainly the middle one, “Duane’s Depressed,” going as it does into a considerable depth of its male protagonist, Duane Moore, who does not emerge until “Texasville” as a personality in his own right.

The next-to-last novel is not a worthy sequel, and I’m guessing that the sequel to the sequel isn’t, either. Again, as in many of his books, McMurtry’s female characters are generally more interesting than his male ones, Gus MacRae and Woodrow Call excepted. Duane is interesting somewhat, but he is mostly a very passive character, dominated by strong women. And this so-called “quintet” begins to lose steam after “DD” very quickly, degenerating, in my opinion, into what, from a less prestigious author than McMurtry, I would call “cheap trash.” Be thus forewarned!

Tom's Two Cents : A Larry McMurtry Binge

 

Some sage once said that desperate times call for desperate measures. It doesn’t really matter at the moment who said it, but right now it’s certainly true.

I am in the middle of what I can only call a Larry McMurtry Binge. Is it better than a nightly binge out? I wouldn’t know because in Mt. Vernon, at least, where I am pleasantly stuck, I wouldn’t be having a binge out, even if it were possible. (The closest I have come to a binge here lately was a few weeks or so back, when I had a couple of rum and cokes at lunch at Stevo’s and had to be driven home by my heroic EJK, where I got out of his truck and promptly sat down in the middle of my own flower bed.) Anyway, a McMurtry binge is much safer, and, at my age, surely less embarrassing!

It all started with a re-reading of “Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen” (1999), a substantive book about McMurtry’s family as much, or more, than the German philosopher of the title. There followed, in 2008, 2009, and 2010, three short volumes of a “memoir,” respectively entitled “Books,” “Literary Life,” and “Hollywood,” each devoted to separate phases of McMurtry’s career: book collecting and selling, book writing, and film-script writing.

Surprisingly, McMurtry says that collecting, not writing, is his real passion, and that script-writing (some seventy in all) rather than fiction writing has been his “bread and butter” over the years. He further contributes his fame as a writer to the success of the mini-series of “Lonesome Dove” (adapted by Bill Witliffe) rather than to the book itself, despite its winning him a Pulitzer Prize. Surprisingly as well, he does not name “Lonesome Dove” as one of his own favorites among his books. Well, all I can say to that is, writers are seldom the best judges of their own work. “Lonesome Dove,” remains, in my opinion, his crowning achievement, and was so recognized by the Pulitzer Committee.

The eldest son of the youngest of nine sons of a pioneering West Texas family, McMurtry didn’t live the Cowboy Dream, but he was surely in a unique position to write about it. It being that unique period in Western U.S. History before the advent of the railroads and barbed wire changed the Cattle Trail Drives forever. If you are at all interested in McMurtry and stories of the old West, try “Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen,” which might lead you to explore one or more of the other memoirs.

McMurtry, now 84, divides his time between Tucson, Arizona, and Archer City, where his book store “Booked Up” still operates.

 

 

Julie's Journal : FCL's Favorite App Based Games

I just took a scientific survey of the library staff and came up with 12 great apps for your enjoyment!  Unfortunately, Debbie isn't here today, so I can't include her favorites.  All of us use iPhones or iPads, so while most of these should be available for Android devices, I can't guarantee it. 

Lisa:

1.  Redecor - This is a home design game with various challenges.  You can vote on your favorite designs and if your design wins, more options become available.  Lisa says this is her favorite game!
2.  Happy Color - Happy Color is a color by number game.  Some of the pictures are quite intricate.
3.  Crossword Puzzle Redstone - Just a good basic app to challenge your brain with crossword puzzles.

Julie:

1.  Homescapes and Gardenscapes - These are both Match 3 games where every win gives you stars with which to remodel either a dilapidated mansion or garden.  Austin the Butler, along with a cast of characters give you challenges to complete.
2.  Looney Tunes: World of Mayhem - I love anything Looney Tunes so when my nephew clued me in to the existence of this game, I immediately downloaded it.  Characters battle each other by dropping anvils on each other or using gavels to whack each other senseless.  When your team wins, new abilities and characters are unlocked.   

Christian:

1.  Candy Crush Soda - A fun Match 3 game where you are helping Kimmy on her journey to find Tiff.  Over 3000 levels of Sodalicious fun!
2.  Bubble Witch 3 - By the same creators as Candy Crush, Bubble Witch 3 is a bubble shooter game.  Your goal is to help Stella solve the puzzles to rescue the Fairy Queen. 
3.  Hidden City - Hidden City is a hidden object game.  There are 69 locations to search and over 5000 quests to complete.  The game includes challenges and mini-games in addition to the hidden object quests. 

Kass:

1.  Tap Tap Fish - uses a simple tapping action to gain points and build an aquarium
2.  Neko Atsume - Attract cats with food and then watch them play with your toys.  Special items get rare cats to visit your neighborhood.
3.  Animal Crossing Pocket Camp - Animal Crossing games surged in popularity during the shut down.  The app based version lets you design a campsite, camper or cabin with furniture, clothing, and accessories.  Fulfill animal requests to make friends with them and invite them to your campsite. 

Julie's Journal : FCL Book Challenge Update

At the beginning of the year, we offered a book challenge with 20 books to read in different categories.  I thought I'd share with you a few thoughts about the books I've read so far for the challenge.  My chart of completions so far is below:

The 7 1/2 deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton was strange.  It is a science fiction take on the concept of Groundhog Day.  Aiden is living the same day over and over again.  He is trying to solve the mystery of Evelyn Hardcastle's murder.  However, he only gets to keep the memories of the last 7 days, so if he fails to solve the mystery he must start over with no recollection of previous attempts.  I'm not sure I'd recommend it.  It was hard to get into and to keep straight what was going on.  However, I got sucked in and wanted to know how it ended.

A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos was also very different.  The earth has been blasted apart and now exists in island like structures called Arks.  Ophelia's marriage is arranged with a diplomat from another Ark for the purpose of political alliance.  She must leave her own warm and casual existence to travel to her fiance's polar ark and learn to navigate the complicated political atmosphere.  This series of four books was originally written in French and only two have been translated into English so far.

Southern Lady Code by Helen Ellis was fun.  She is a Southern born and raised woman living in New York City.  Her short essays on life and clinging to her Southern traditions in the Big Apple are funny and sometimes uncouth.  I like essay collections for how easy they are to read just a little and have a complete story.  I enjoyed some of the essays more than others, but I think that's just to be expected.

I read His Majesty's Dragon, by Naomi Novik because I enjoyed her later two books Uprooted and Spinning Silver.  His Majesty's Dragon is set in the era of the Napoleonic Wars, but in this story, both sides have dragons in their arsenals.  Temeraire and his Captain, Laurence, are an unlikely pairing because Laurence was originally a sea captain, but after winning Temeraire's egg in battle the two become a team.  They quickly prove their value on the battlefield and Temeraire finds he has an unusual capability.  His roar has destructive powers.  The series has nine books in it and I'm almost finished with the second one now.  I'm really enjoying it.

Simone St. James's books are auto-reads for me now.  The Sundown Motel is set at a remote motel outside a small town in upstate New York.  Carly arrives in town and takes night clerk job at the motel.  It's the same job her Aunt Viv was working when she disappeared 35 years ago.  Carly hopes to find out what happened to Viv, but she will quickly find that there are more residents of the motel than those listed on the register.  St. James is very good at creating an eerie atmosphere for her ghosts to inhabit.

I've read Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility but I had never read Emma, by Jane Austen.  Emma is a head strong single girl who spends her days caring for her worrisome father.  She fancies herself a matchmaker, but is horribly bad at it and manages to mess up her friends' lives with her efforts.  Fortunately, in the way of all good regency novels, everyone ends up happily married in the end, including Emma.  I enjoyed Emma for the dry wit and laugh-out-loud moments.  Sometimes I got bogged down in the details of the book, but was able to skim over them to the best parts of the story.  Emma was first published in 1815 so it more than doubles the requirement for a book to be more than 100 years old.

I've written before on this blog about Mary Balogh's regency romance books.  They are light funreads and I have loved falling into her worlds and her characters lives.  I re-read  Someone to Trust because it suited my mood for something fun!

I read Gone With the Wind for Mr. Tom Wilkinson's seminar.  At 1,037 pages it well exceeded the 500 page requirement for the list.  Gone With the Wind begins at the very beginning of the Civil War and follows willful Scarlett O'Hara through the war and her three marriages, children, and Reconstruction.  Her foil is the daring and rebellious Rhett Butler.  They dance around each other through the whole book, but their marriage and life together don't begin until the last part of the story.  I found Scarlett charming and childlike at the beginning of the book, but those same characteristics became annoying as she aged, but didn't mature.

For the graphic novel category I read New Kid, by Jerry Craft.  I wasn't sure what to expect but once I settled into the comic book style I enjoyed the story.  Jordan Banks is African-American and his parents are sacrificing to send him to an up-scale private school far from his lower-income neighborhood.  He begins to find a place for himself in his new school, but then finds that it is harder to fit in with his friends at home.  He gradually learns to balance both sides of his life and to be himself.

I'll be honest and tell you that some of these books aren't available through Franklin County Library.  In fact I think I found the first three at the Houston Public Library's Overdrive site.  Does anything on my list catch your attention?  Do you have any recommendations for my remaining categories?

Julie's Journal : A Few Things I've Learned Recently

Johanna Basford's new coloring book, "Flourish" is free to download. - Johanna Basford is my favorite coloring book artist.  Pretty regularly, she puts coloring pages on her website for free download, but recently she made a new mini-book available in its entirety for free download.  It's called "Flourish" and contains 12 new illustrations for coloring.  I printed it twice thinking that I might do it once with pens and once with pencils but we'll see how it goes.  Pictured are my first attempts with pens.  You can find the download here.

How to make a fabulous cheese danish at home. - Do you like a good cheese danish?  Well, the Pioneer Woman published a recipe on her website that was incredibly easy.  I've made these twice now, and they are wonderful!  They use puff pastry, which only requires thawing to be ready to go.  The hardest part for me is remembering to thaw the puff pastry and let the cream cheese come to room temperature. I didn't get a good picture of my final product, so I'm including the Pioneer Woman's picture!
 Find the complete recipe here.  

It is hard to concentrate on a book during a pandemic. - I could not concentrate on a book while I was at home.  I just couldn't focus enough to fall into a story.  I think the constant barrage of news and the tension I was feeling about what would happen next really messed up my ability to focus.  I did manage to finish a couple of short story collections.  I also found non-fiction easier to read than fiction which really surprised me.  I guess I could dip in and out of it easier without losing my place in the story.  I was not the only reader who had difficulties.  I found a bevy of articles written by readers lamenting this very problem. 

Puzzles are great for settling a restless mind. - While reading couldn't hold my attention, I found that a jigsaw puzzle was good for quieting my over-stimulated mind.  My mom likes to give puzzles as gifts - the harder the better.  I found this puzzle she had given me several years ago.  It's billed as the World's Smallest 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle and the pieces were smaller than a penny.  It was very challenging and completing it gave me a huge feeling of accomplishment.  Now I want to find another puzzle.  I'd like one with a unique subject, but I'm not sure I want another tiny puzzle. 

Julie's Journal : What I've Been Reading - Quarantine Edition

You would think that with all the time I've been spending at home that I would be checking books off my to-be-read list like crazy.  It hasn't really worked out that way.  The first few weeks of quarantine have been interesting.  My husband and I have both been attempting to work from home, which is a totally new experience.  He is a teacher, and 5th graders and online instruction are an interesting combination to say the least!   As for me, so much of my job is done online anyway that I have been able to adjust somewhat, although I miss seeing all our patrons and facilitating the programs for kids that I've been doing for years.  Also, for a time, both before and after we closed the library, the news about the virus was changing so fast that I was always on edge, wondering what was going to happen next.  It has taken me awhile to adjust and settle down enough to be able to focus on a book or a crochet project or any other project for that matter.  I seem to have gotten past that though, so hopefully I can start knocking some books off my list. 

I did decide that now would be a good time to read some of those books that I have brought home and saved to read "when I have time". 

I have had three of Pam Jenoff's books on my shelf for awhile and I pulled "The Diplomat's Wife"  off at random.  I enjoyed the story about a Polish woman who survived a Nazi prison, only to lose her first love in an airplane crash.  Her marriage to a British diplomat leads to her involvement in a spy mission in Czechoslovakia.  The people she meets while attempting to carry out her mission, along with the things she learns along the way, end up changing her entire life.  Several of Ms. Jenoff's books are available on Overdrive/Libby, but I don't think this particular book is.

"Mimosa" by Amy Carmichael is an old book.  Written in 1924, it is the biography of an Indian woman whose life was changed by a short introduction to Christianity.  Amy Carmichael was a missionary in Dohnavur, India.  She spent her life there and the school she started still exists.  "Mimosa" tells the story of one young girl who lived her life as a Christian in spite of ridicule and persecution by her peers and her husband.  It was 22 years from the time Mimosa first heard of the Christian God until she was able to learn to read and study the Bible for herself.  The story is inspiring, and the book is short, but the writing is very flowery and I sometimes struggled to follow it.  However, I was glad I read it because a big part of the story was Mimosa's dependence on God to provide her needs.  I thought that part was very timely, as we are currently experiencing empty store shelves for the first time in my lifetime.  Reading Mimosa's story, I realized how little we truly need and how much abundance we have, even now.  I bought this on Amazon several years ago.  Unfortunately it is not available on Overdrive/Libby.  I didn't even see an option to buy it. 

At the beginning of March, before everything went crazy, I read the first book in the Young Adult series, "Truly Devious" by Maureen Johnson.  Stevie Bell is surprised when she is admitted to the prestigious and free Ellingham Academy.  She has been obsessed with solving crimes for years, and is particularly interested in the disappearance of the wife and daughter of Ellingham's founder in the 1930's.  When she gets to the school though, more modern day mysteries rear up to distract her.  The first book ends with the murder/accidental death of a student and the disappearance of another.  I finally started the second book, "The Vanishing Stair" last week and blew through it and the last book in the trilogy, "The Hand on the Wall," very quickly.  The series is the first YA I've read in awhile, and the first without a fantasy element in a very long while.  I enjoyed both the historic and present day mysteries in the story.  Some of the characters are pretty wild, but it made for an enjoyable boarding school read.  It is important to read the series in order.  To me it reads more as three parts of one book rather than three separate books.  The entire series is available on Overdrive/Libby.

So now I have a hard decision to make - What do I read next?  I have "Dean's Watch" by Elizabeth Goudge and "Bonhoeffer" by Eric Metaxas from my shelf or "The Authenticity Project" by Clare Pooley and "These Ghosts Are Family" by Maisy Card waiting on Libby.  Do I want something deep and difficult, or something light and easy?  I'll probably have time for both! 

Julie's Journal : COVID19

My last post was two weeks ago and since then a lot has changed.  Two weeks ago, the library was still open.  We had cancelled all our programs but were still attempting to keep normal open hours.  However, it quickly became clear that maintaining the recommended groups of 10 or less with 6 feet of spacing between people just wasn't going to be possible.  With great sadness we decided that we had to close to the public.  We attempted to do a curbside service where you would be able to drive up and have us deliver your books to you in your car, but again, it quickly became clear that it wasn't going to work.  Even though we were disinfecting materials and wearing gloves, we couldn't be confident that we weren't passing the virus from one patron to the next via our books and movies.  So, for the foreseeable future, our services will be completely digital. 

Please take advantage of our e-book library.  We have over 27,000 books and audio books available for you to check out.  Please don't be intimidated by the thought of using digital resources.  If you have a smart phone or a tablet with internet access, I can help you learn to use our digital library.  Basically, if you have the technology to read this blog post, you can access e-books.  If you have used e-books before but can't remember your login information or if you need help setting up your device for e-books for the first time we are available from 10-2 via phone or by email anytime.  Contact us at:

903-347-2037 from 10:00 to 12:00
903-347-2843 from 12:00 to 2:00
library@co.franklin.tx.us
jbaxter@co.franklin.tx.us
Facebook Messenger: Franklin County Library - Mt. Vernon

You can also contact us for book renewals, technology questions, and general information.  If there is anything we can do for you please don't hesitate to give us a call.  While it is true that our building is closed, your librarians are still here, working for you as much as is possible right now.

If you have physical materials checked out, you may return them in the night drop to the right of the door or you can just hang on to them for now.  We are not charging late fees for anything due during our closure. 

We don't know what the future looks like.  We cannot predict when we will be able to open back up for normal operations.  The President's remarks yesterday, along with the local case of COVID19 do not give me much hope that it will be soon.  However, please know that we so badly want to be serving you in our normal capacity.  Please continue to watch our Facebook page for the most up-to-date information about our services and any changes that may be made. 

Stay at home, wash your hands, and stay well.  I hope to see all of you soon.   

Julie's Journal : A New Normal

Wow!  The world has changed a lot in the last week or so.  Citizens are being advised to practice social distancing to avoid spreading the COVID19 virus.  Even if you are not in a high-risk group it is advisable to avoid groups of people in order not to endanger those among us who are more at risk. I found this article and its simulations quite interesting in learning the effectiveness of social distancing.  The newest guidelines recommend avoiding groups of 10 or more for the next 8 weeks and keeping a distance of 5-6 feet between people.  Unfortunately, it sounds like this crisis might get worse before it gets better.

Here at FCL we are open regular hours for now, but we have cancelled all our programs and events.  This includes Breakerspace, Robotics/Coding, Marvelous Mondays, Creative Hands, Alzheimer's Support Group, Circle of Friends Book Club, and any other programs we offer.  We look forward to resuming our regular activities as soon as possible.

In the meantime, e-books are a great option for those of you who are staying at home!  I did a little purchasing on Friday so there are some new titles available.  The books pictured should be available or have short wait times as they are only available for FCL patrons.  Some are available as e-audio books as well.  Give something new a try or revisit an old favorite.  As of today there are over 27,000 titles available so there is truly something for everyone!

If you need help setting up your device for e-books, give the library a call at 903-537-4916.  We'll be glad to walk you through the process and provide you with a username and password. 

I read The Sun Down Motel over the weekend.  I enjoyed this creepy ghost story which has some elements of horror but stops short of being truly terrifying. 

It's a whole new world, and things are changing quickly - by the hour it seems.  If Franklin County Library can assist you in any way please do not hesitate to give us a call.  Stay safe out there!

Tom's Two Cents : Plagued by Fire by Paul Hendrickson

Just when one thinks the last word has been written on the famous and infamous Frank Lloyd Wright, along come a new biography, much of it reading like a novel, covering both old and new ground.  Paul Hendrickson, a former journalist for The Washington Post, is of a sort, a novelist, a psychologist, and a genealogist, all rolled into one, for he is obviously not content just to dig out “the facts” about Wright and report them objectively.  He is searcher for that elusive thing we call “the truth,” something that in our day and time is perhaps more elusive than ever before.

For those of you not familiar with the hierarchy of American architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright has long dominated that field, though his name and reputation have often been eclipsed by others of equal note, though perhaps not of equal talent or genius.  Born in Wisconsin in 1869 of a sensitive clergyman/musician father and a highly neurotic, ambitious mother, Wright found his passion early in life, apprenticing in his early twenties to one of the founding fathers of American architecture, Louis Sullivan, in Chicago, not long after, breaking with his mentor to found his own unique “prairie style” and establishing a predominance in domestic architecture through the cultivation of wealthy avant-garde clients, who wanted to escape from the stereotypical Victorian house of the 1890’s.

Wright was famous by 1910 and a ‘has-been’ by 1930, having been eclipsed by the so-called “international style,” created in Germany in the 20’s by Arthur Gropius and Mies Van Der Rohe.

But he went on to re-capture his fame, producing some of his greatest and most famous works by living into his 90th year.  The controversial—to this day—Guggenheim Museum was still six months from completion when he died in 1959.  However, this biography, rather focusing solely on his work, goes into the considerable depth of his personal relationships, especially with women.  And surprisingly, it all begins in 1914, with the horrific murder of his mistress, Mamah Borthwick, her two children by her former husband, Edwin Cheney, and six of Wright’s student apprentices at his home and school, Taliesin, in Spring Green, Wisconsin.  In fact, the first two hundred pages of this book read more like a murder mystery than a biography, because of Hendrickson’s minute digging into the background and motivation—still shrouded in mystery even to this day—of the murderer, a Black man from Alabama, mistaken at the time as a refugee from the West Indies, who worked for Wright and his “family.”

This non-linear approach to biography proves to be as fascinating and challenging as the story itself, and even if you have read Nancy Horan’s Loving Frank, you should still find this work to be enormously appealing.  It’s, as is often the case, the “story behind the story” that is most fascinating!

3D Printer

Some time ago, FCL received a 3D printer through a grant.

We have spent A LOT of time figuring out how it works and what to do when it doesn't.

We have mastered using Thingiverse to download items to print and have even used Tinkercad to design our own bookmarks!

Lately, we have been playing with Flexi toys.  We really like these designs.  They print really well and are fun to play with!

The printer is now available for the public to use.  You may choose a file from Thingiverse or bring in a .stl file of your own on a flash drive.  You can also e-mail your .stl file to Julie.  There are a couple of things you must keep in mind if you want to use the printer.

• We cannot print anything that will take longer than a typical workday.  It is best to begin your print as early in the morning as possible.  

• Julie or Lisa must be available to assist you with the printer and oversee the printing process.

• Our printer bed is approximately 1 square foot.  Your print must be smaller in order to fit on the bed.

• In order to purchase filament for the printer, we must charge a fee for its use.  The fee is $3.00 for the first hour and $1.00 for every hour after that.  Unfortunately, it is difficult to know exactly how long a print will take until it is underway.  

Come on in and let us help you with your 3D creations!