Happy 2020!
With the start of a new year come New Year’s Resolutions. Please allow us to suggest a couple; both have to do with reading, of course.
Resolve to be more environmentally friendly. Don’t purchase books, check them out from the library. If we don’t have it, we can either order it to add to our collection or request it through the State Library’s Inter-Library Loan program.
Spend less time on your smartphone and more time reading! Study after study shows that spending less time on a smartphone is better for us in many ways (lifehack.org/articles/productivity/16-reasons-reduce-your-mobile-dependence.html), and we all know that reading is good for us (capcana.com/news/10-benefits-of-reading-why-you-should-read-every-day/)
Best Books of 2019. The best books of 2019 are on display at the W. A. Bachelder Library. Titles were collected from our own circulation records, and best seller lists from the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. Stop by to see how many of the best sellers you have read. We’re sure you can find many titles that you haven’t read yet. Be sure to visit the library and check them out.
Book Club: This month the book club will be reading Pulitzer Prize winner, Anne Tyler’s A Spool of Blue Thread. We’ll be meeting on Wednesday, January 22 at 7 PM at the Bachelder library.
The Whitshanks are one of those families that radiate togetherness: an indefinable, enviable kind of specialness. But they are also like all families, in that the stories they tell themselves reveal only part of the picture. Abby and Red and their four grown children have accumulated not only tender moments, laughter, and celebrations, but also jealousies, disappointments, and carefully guarded secrets from Red’s father and mother, newly-arrived in Baltimore in the 1920s, to Abby and Red’s grandchildren carrying the family legacy boisterously into the twenty-first century, here are four generations of Whitshanks, their lives unfolding in and around the sprawling, lovingly worn Baltimore house that has always been their anchor.
Brimming with all the insight, humour, and generosity of spirit that are the hallmarks of Anne Tyler’s work, A Spool of Blue Thread tells a poignant yet unsentimental story in praise of family in all its emotional complexity. (Amazon)
Both libraries have copies of A Spool of Blue Thread, swing by to pick up a copy.
Upcoming Events:
February: Do you dare go on a blind date with a book? Stay tuned for more information in next month’s newsletter.
March: March Madness: earn a raffle ticket for every visit you make to the libraries to check out materials.
WABL Walkers: We are still walking every Monday and Wednesday, weather permitting. Please join us at 9:30 AM at the WA Bachelder Library as we head up Chase Hill Road. This is a hilly walk with fantastic views.
Please see the Beacon for a list of our recent acquisitions.
Sincerely,
Lee Wells and Priscilla Poulin