Happy Halloween

 In keeping with my book-related posts of late, click here

to see this wonderful & fun Jacquie Lawson ecard!

Bookz on the Hood

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As I was writing my post yesterday I went out to the living room to get my MLA.  In answer to my husband's look I said, there's a bibliography.  "Of course there is," he said with a laugh.

After he read the post he asked if there were links to Amazon if people wanted to buy the books.  No, I borrowed all the books from the library.  The local libraries are linked in a system called CLAMS (librarians' general penchant for acronyms and a bit of Cape Cod humor) short for Cape Libraries Automated Materials Sharing, Inc.  My local library doesn't always have what I want to read, but the system handles requests and moves books around on a daily basis.  Just depends on how many people are in front of me when I request a book.

In my first library job at the BPL I worked in the office that handled interlibrary loans, since then requesting books has always seemed like a no-brainer.

My local library closed in March.  In June they started offering curbside pickup service.  By that time I had over a dozen books requested.  The order of what I got was random.  Other folks were requesting the same books as I was.  Some libraries in the system were filling requests, others not.  When a book came in I got notified.  Pick up was limited to 2 hours, 3 days a week.  We'd park in designated spaces at the library, call them up, tell them our name, what parking space we were in, and the color of our car.  A library staff member would come out with the books in a plastic bag.  She'd place the bag on the hood of our car and leave.  . . books on the hood!  We would then get out of our car, retrieve the bag of books and drive away.  (my husband gets credit for the title of this post, as well as reminding me how good the movie Boyz n the Hood is).

The pick up system has been modified. Now it's 5 days a week, 2 hours each day.  You still call, but now we are the ones walking up the 18 steps and picking the books up on a table with a plexiglass shield.  Safer for the staff and less required exercise for their legs!

I love libraries.  My town library has the lovely name of Brewster Ladies Library because it was founded by a group of women.  Everyone has always been welcome!  It has retained it's quirky name because this is New England and history is important.  BLL History

Summer Reading List

I've been a library geek for longer than I can remember.  My mom tells how at the age of 3 or 4 she would take me to the library and I would sit quietly, listening raptly to stories read by the children's librarian. 

I remember the library at my Elementary school where we could check out 2 books at a time.  My favorite series was biographies of American women.  I read about Dolley Madison, Harriet Tubman, Annie Oakley, Helen Keller,  Eleanor Roosevelt, others.  There must have been men subjects, but they didn't interest 9 year old me.

  

At about 10 I was old enough to ride my bike alone to the local public library and it was one of my favorite outings.  In the summer I'd sign up for the summer reading program.  When I'd finished a book I'd ride over and add that title to my list, which I seem to remember the librarians kept at their desk.  I have a feeling somewhere in my "family treasures" box there's a certificate or two congratulating me on the number of books I read. 

When my grades in high school were not the A's and B's expected of me, my parents removed all the books in my room.  They thought that's what kept me from making good grades.  That wasn't it.  I kept reading what I wanted, I just said it was for school.

After college, when deciding what I'd do with my life, I looked over at my husband and realized he got to play for a living (he's a musician).  Wanting to play at one of my favorite places, I attended library school, became a reference librarian, and worked in college and research libraries for 20 years.

Courtyard between the old and new buildings at the BPL.

This was my first library job.

This year I embarked on a new summer reading program.

Litograph's Face Mask -- Black Literature 

George Floyd's death made me want to educate myself about racism and the Black/African-American experience.  I set out to read memoirs, essays, scholarly texts.  Honestly I don't think I've read this many books with footnotes since college.  It was easy to find reading lists. Not as easy to read the books.  My daughter made quite a few helpful suggestions.  Summer is over.  Unlike when I was in school, I won't get a certificate or even a pat on the back for this summer reading program.  In fact, sharing this endeavor has made a few of my white friends very uncomfortable.  Oh well.  I read for me and I'm glad I did.  I learned a lot, not the least being there's a lot more to learn. 

Here's what I read, in the order I read them.  I highly recommend every one of these books, tho maybe it's no surprise, the ones I connected with the strongest were written by women. 

Coates, Ta-Nihisi.  Between the World and Me. NY: Spiegel & Grau, 2015.

Kendi, Ibram X.  How to Be an Antiracist.  NY: One World, 2019.  

Eddo-Lodge, Reni.  Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race.  London: Bloomsbury Circus, 2017.

Mitchell, Jerry.  Race Against Time: A Reporter Reopens the Unsolved Murder Cases of the Civil Rights Era.  NY: Simon & Schuster, 2020. 

DiAngelo, Robin J.  White Fragility.  Boston: Beacon Press, 2018.

Fleming, Crystal Marie.  How to be Less Stupid About Race.  Boston: Beacon Press, 2018.

Glaude, Eddie S., Jr.  Democracy in Black.  NY: Crown Publishers, 2016.