Books & Such

Ah, Wednesdays..
A patron just brought back The Quiet Girl by Peter Hoeg [the Danish author who published Smilla's Sense of Snow about 15 years ago - a terrific novel, by the way, if you haven't read it, except for the ending, which as I recall kind of falls apart and my isn't this a giant digression] and said "I'm not sure I can recommend this. It's just weird. Really really weird. I'd kinda like you to read it so we can talk about it". Well, sure. What librarian wouldn't want a challenge like that? So I've now read the front cover synopsis and you know what? It sounds weird. Really really weird. This should be fun.

We had Mystery Group Monday evening at Bear Pond - talked about Edwin of the Iron Shoes by Marcia Muller [the first Sharon McCone novel] & A Great Deliverance [the first Lynley/Havers et al novel] by Elizabeth George. Terrific discussion, I thought - strong opinions, enthusiastically expressed. And we decided that, for a novel published in 1977, the Muller is remarkably undated. Maybe that's because there's not a lot of 'you-are-there' description - just crisp dialogue & good characters. The only - glaring - exception is McCone's police lieutenant/ future love interest, who persists in calling her 'papoose'. Really, she should've just smacked him one & been done with it [although they do eventually break up, can't imagine why.] The McCone books are a terrific series. Muller's one of the relatively few authors - Bill Pronzini, Lawrence Block, Margaret Maron & Walter Mosley are some others - whose characters actually change believably over time. And can anyone think of anyone else?

Summer is a great time to visit Kellogg-Hubbard

I joined Kellogg-Hubbard Library as its new executive director last month and am enjoying getting to know the wonderful staff, board of directors, volunteers and the many patrons who come here daily. I am following Martin Hahn, who served so astutely for three years and is now off on an exciting life and professional adventure for a year overseas. We wish him the very best.
We are fortunate to have the tremendous support of so many folks in our direct service area as well as those who choose to come here from other towns.
My professional background includes organizational management, fund development, marketing, communications, media relations, public relations, customer satisfaction, volunteer management, among other things. I have been involved in the communities of central Vermont in various ways, including the Boy Scouts of America, Rotary Club of Montpelier and Green Mountain United Way, for which I currently serve as president.
When I first heard late last fall that this position might be opening, I immediately contacted Martin and the board to express my interest and began doing some research on libraries and their future. Libraries have always evolved to meet the needs of their patrons and the future of libraries looks even more exciting than their significant past. We are enjoying an increase in patron visits and lending despite the technology explosion.
Please drop by for a visit this summer. Check out our website at www.kellogghubbard.org for a schedule of activities. I also invite you to consider being a donor to keep the library going and to contact me or one of our staff to discuss leaving a legacy to this wonderful organization which was founded in 1894 and has continually served the area since then.
Best wishes for a memorable Vermont summer!

Daniel L. Pudvah, Executive Director

Louise Penny

We had Rapid Reviews at Bear Pond Books last night [having openly swiped the idea from the library, thank you very much] and one of the more enjoyable things about it - besides getting to listen to the other people that were there - was getting to rave about Louise Penny. Woo-hoo! Louise Penny: Canadian. Author of three novels so far in the Three Pines mystery series [Still Life, A Fatal Grace, The Cruelest Month]. A superb writer. A clever and subtle [without being mechanical - you never hear story joints creaking] plotter. Creator of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surete. Creator also of Three Pines, a small Quebec village, and the inhabitants thereof - inhabitants among whom I - and you, I bet - would actually want to live. AND she apparently knows her hockey. Louise Penny: maybe the first great crossover Canadian mystery author. I'm a fan. Jump on the bandwagon now.

Yankee Paperback's closing

So, you've probably heard: Yankee Paperback Exchange [aka 'The Yankee'] is closing. Saturday, June 21 will be its last day. I'm feeling kind of melancholy about this. On the one hand, Bob & Toni [Forrend] have kept the store going for over 30 years; they richly deserve their retirement. On the OTHER hand - I'm really gonna miss 'em. They're terrific people. I was in the store last Saturday watching them herd their granddaughter around while she & her small friend put up books and remembered their daughter doing much the same thing [25?] years ago. It's a great success story.
And the books: any number of writers who have become popular here in hardcover showed up first at the Yankee in paperback. Donna Leon? She showed up at the Yankee in paperbacks from Canada before she was ever published in the States. Charlaine Harris? I found both the Aurora Teagarden & Sookie Stackhouse series there one fine day. And this is not even to mention the romance section. Name a romance writer, Toni could give you a rundown on her [or his, pseudonymically] output. And she's a pretty fair guesser-from-vague-descriptions too.
They started a paranormal romance/suspense section a year or so ago, too. [Well, where else would you put Sookie?] In that section, about a month ago, I found my new favorite writer. Her name is Patricia Briggs. She's published science fiction and fantasy novels before and is now three novels in to the Mercy Thompson series [Moon Called, Blood Bound, & Iron Kissed] about an auto mechanic who can also shapeshift to coyote form. As it happens, this comes in handy. I think Briggs will be the Next Big Thing - her first hardcover, fourth in the Thompson series, will come out next year and I'm sure the library will get it - but without Yankee Paperback I'd never have heard of her, much less have zipped through most of her books. The Yankee's the best. Send Bob & Toni your good thoughts, or just stop in to wish them well. Me, I'll be stopping by Thursday. And maybe Friday.

Bear Pond Mystery Group

Well, it's been a while...

For the past few months, we've had a Mystery Book Group going at Bear Pond Books [my other place of semi-gainful employment] and it's been a load of fun: good books, good discussions, and stuff I wouldn't ordinarily have read. I think particularly of the very first Georges Simenon Maigret novel - A Man's Head, if you're wondering. Man, it was terrific: short, really powerful, and an interesting portrait of Paris in the 1930's. And it didn't feel even slightly dated despite being published in 1931. Yowza. We have a bunch of other Simenons here in the library - libraries are so good for that - & I'm looking forward to plowing through them.

We're doing one newish & one 'classic' book each month, by the way; our books for June are A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George & Edwin of the Iron Shoes by Marcia Muller. The Muller book - the first modern private eye novel featuring a woman, way predating Sue Grafton - is, sadly, out of print. Again, nice thing about libraries. Other books we've read recently are The Collaborator of Bethlehem by Rees & The Janissary Tree by Goodwin [newbies] and Whose Body? by Sayers & The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Christie. And raving about Christie [or Goodwin] can be a whole different post. Our next meeting is Monday, June 30 at 7:00p at Bear Pond. I'd take suggestions for books & authors, too. Feel free to throw 'em on, below.

Rosie's Girls Summer Program

SUMMER CAMP OPENINGS
A program by Vermont Works for Women

Rosie's Girls Summer Program 2008, a three-week summer day camp for girls entering
6th – 8th grades, has camper openings for the Central, VT sessions.

The 2008 dates and times are:
BARRE: July 21 - August 8, 2008
Monday - Friday, 8:45 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Rosie's Girls is a unique and exciting program for middle school girls combining hands-on instruction in the skilled trades with a rich array of expressive arts activities. The camp gives girls a chance to develop their own strength, power, and confidence in an atmosphere that is fun, encouraging, positive, and empowering as they do things like:
• build a toolbox
• design and wire their own lamp
• weld a metal sculpture
• get under the hood of a car
• Paint a mural
• learn self-defense
• construct a gift for a local community service project
• silkscreen t-shirts
• swim for fun
• practice yoga
• voice their opinions in a constructive setting

Financial aid is available.

For more information, or to request an application, call (802)655-8900/toll free 1-800-639-1472 or email rosiesgirls@vtworksforwomen.org. More information is also available at our website: http://www.vtworksforwomen.org

Gardeners wanted for Library Gardens

The Kellogg-Hubbard Library has beautiful gardens thanks to the Central Vermont Master Gardeners.They are looking for a few people who love to play in the dirt to help make the gardens extra special this year. Actually, they are beautiful every year.

On Saturday (or Sunday, if it rains on Saturday), we'll officially begin the Kellogg-Hubbard gardening season with a Spring Clean-Up and Get Acquainted. If you can work, please bring gloves, tools (trowels, weeders, shears, edgers, buckets (to carry debris to the trash/compost)), water and a hat (it can get hot!). If you don't have time to work, please stop by and say hello and get acquainted with the other volunteers and the garden itself.

We'll loosen up the soil, transplant as needed, apply mulch, do some pruning and generally tidy up. We'll try to have some photos from last year so we can begin to label the plants and also see what we might want to add (or subtract). I'll also have a summer sign-up sheet; as many of you know, we ask one or two people to sign up for one - or more - weeks during the season during which they will take care of the necessary chores: weeding, watering, dead-heading, staking, pest control, etc. That generally works better than trying to schedule work days. Work done or needing to be done is recorded in a notebook by the circulation desk, so the next week's workers know where to start.


The K-H garden continues to be a commitment of the Central Vermont Master Gardeners, but we welcome and appreciate other volunteers from the community. If you know someone else who would be interested, bring, or send, them along. The K-H garden is a wonderful meeting place and gives great pleasure to patrons, staff and the many who just pass by, enjoy the color, play with their children, or even have their wedding photos taken.

Georgia Valentine and Jane Lendway

Photography Exhibit by Jamie Cope

We have been fortunate to convince noted local photographer (and dedicated library volunteer) Jamie Cope, to display her stunning black and white portraits of people in our community. Accompanied by statements from those who were photographed, both the portraits and the statements form a moving portrait of people whom we might see every day in cafes, on the street, or in the library. I took time away from my desk today to give the exhibit the time it deserves, and came away hugely impressed. Have a look in the main reading room and in the Frances Holmes Room on the first floor, next time you're in the library. We are lucky to have so much talent in our community!

Irish Poetry Reading by John F. Deane

We are currently in the middle of a program series called, The Irish. Although, the event listed below is not a Kellogg-Hubbard Library program it certainly may be of interest to those who love all things Irish!

A poetry reading by the award-winning Irish poet John F. Deane
will be held on Friday, May 2, 2008 at 6:30pm at the St Johnsbury Athenaeum,1171 Main Street, St Johnsbury, Vermont 802-748-8291

Deane will be introduced by Vermont poet Galway Kinnell.

The Irish Times says of him: “This is a major European writer of conscience. . . No other contemporary Irish poet, and few Irish writers, have mastered the art of eloquent, impassioned expression as artistic statement so beautifully. . . In common with Yeats and Kinsella, Deane possesses an instinctive feel for beauty.

John F. Deane is editor of The Poetry Ireland Review, and winner of the O’Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry. He is a member of Aosdána, established by the Arts Council to honor artists whose work has made an outstanding contribution to the arts in Ireland. In 2007 the French Govern¬ment honored him by making him “Chevalier de l’ordre des arts et des lettres”. Mr. Deane lives in Dublin and this spring he is poet-in-residence at Boston College.
His books include: The Instruments of Art, Manhandling the Diety, In Dogged Loyalty, The Heather Fields and Other Stories, and A Little Book of Hours to be released in 2008.

Celebrating Poetry

We've had a great time reading the poems that people have posted on Hilari's National Poetry Month post on April 7th. We are up the 12 poems. It's nice to see the Vermont Poets receive attention here. The Bridge is celebrating National Poetry Month, too, with a look at what's happening around Montpelier in terms of slams and poetry reading. Nat Frothingham, The Bridge's editor and Scottish poet, Len Irving, are presenting An Evening of Poetry at the library on Shakespeare's birthday, April 23, next Wednesday at 7pm. Nat and Len will take turns at the mic sharing their favorite poems with us. Len, a published poet, will also read a few of his favorites by Robert Burns and William Shakespeare. On Friday, April 25, we're hosting a Mud Slide Poetry Slam with slam master, Geof Hewitt at 7pm. Since the library will be closed, please use the School Street entrance to the Hayes Room.