Which Books are You Reading?

My book group just read, The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan. This was not an easy read, but it was very good. It was amazing to read about the ecological destruction that occurred, dust blizzards that enveloped six states and eventually blew to New York, deaths of so many people due to dust pneumonia, eating tumbleweed...I learned so much from reading and listening to this book. Our book group agreed that this was a good book to read and discuss. We also agreed that if it were not a book group selection we would not have read it, excepting one member. The book that we are reading for this month is Barak Obama's Dreams From My Father. I've only read a few chapters at this point, but I'm impressed with "Barry's" early years. There are so many book groups in this area - tell us what you're reading!

May Gardening Galore Raffle Winner

 Andrea Gould is the winner of the KHL Gardening Galore Raffle. She won all of these great prizes:
$75 gift certificate from Boulevard Gardens
*Two Hours of Garden Consultation from Layne’s Garden Design
*$25 gift certificate from von Trapp Greenhouse
*Two Tickets to Goddard College Greatwood Gardens Tour and Tea
*Perennials for American Gardens by Ruth Rogers Clausen and Nicolas H. Ekstrom,donated by The Book Garden
*Gloves and knee pads from Gardener’s Supply
*Two 20-quart bags of manure compost and one 6-quart bag of Compost Plus from Vermont Compost
*$15 gift certificate from Highland Gardens (Vendor at Montpelier Farmers’ Market)
*Assorted seeds and Garden Frogs in Tub
We are grateful to the individuals and businesses who donated these items to the library for this raffle!

Lending to young adults

I just put in the mail a grant application to a small foundation to ask for funds to purchase books for young adults (12-16 year old). I included a chart that shows the increase in lending from Kellogg-Hubbard to young adults:



We have all grumbled a bit about the amount of noise and activity we see from young people after school at the library. But they are reading!

Founding of the Kellogg-Hubbard Library

I have never recovered from the financial strain of those years of bitter conflict, but I would not have back again one penny of that money, if I could get it, for as real men grow older they experience no joy comparable to that of founding institutions for uplifting generations which come after us, and besides, if I have anything to my credit in the bank above, I am sure that this constitutes a considerable part of it.

John W. Burgess, Reminiscences of an American Scholar, Columbia University Press, 1934, p. 277.

This is a quote from the concluding paragraph of chapter in a memoir by John Burgess, in which he tells the story of the stormy founding of the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. (Thank you Hilari for finding this wonderful work!) After reading the chapter, I’m inclined to think the library in Montpelier should be the Kellogg Library.

Follow this link for a brief history of Kellogg-Hubbard.