Category Archives: Libraries

Back to the Library

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Illustration by David Small. Cover of The Library, by Sarah Stewart.

Long closed due to the pandemic, our library has finally reopened! Hallelujah! On Friday, I visited it for the first time in I can’t remember how long, and it was a delightful 20 minutes I spent there. They have excellent virus protection precautions in place, and as a result, we are restricted to a 30 minute time period. There were only two of us there, besides the librarians, so it was incredibly quiet. Oh, how I’ve missed being able to walk there and spend time exploring the stacks!

My Anti-Racist Education

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I am a Learner. That’s why I became a teacher (and also because I loved spending my days in the hopeful and inspiring world of young people). So in trying to deal with the horrific events of the last few weeks, I realized that I have so much to learn. I decided to begin an important undertaking:  I am now focusing on educating myself on how to become Anti-Racist.

“In a racist society it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.”
― Angela Y. Davis

“The opposite of racist isn’t ‘not racist.’ It is ‘anti-racist.’ What’s the difference? One endorses either the idea of a racial hierarchy as a racist, or racial equality as an anti-racist. One either believes problems are rooted in groups of people, as a racist, or locates the roots of problems in power and policies, as an anti-racist. One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an anti-racist. There is no in-between safe space of ‘not racist.”
― Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist

And one of the most hopeful things I’ve discovered in making this commitment to become anti-racist is that so many other people are doing the same thing! I took the photo above just this morning when I got on the library website to look for some e-books to add to my growing list of books to read on this subject. Every. single. book. has a waiting list of weeks and weeks! My heart soared with HOPE to see that there are so many other Learners out there!

On this page, I will keep a list with links to my reviews of books and other resources that I’ve found and appreciated, so please come back here occasionally to see this self-education journey.

Red: Click to read my review
Blue:  Read but not reviewed

BOOKS READ AND REVIEWED:

  1. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
  2. Dream Big Dreams: Photographs from Barack Obama’s Inspiring and Historical Presidency, by Pete Souza
  3. They Called Us Enemy, by George Takei
  4. Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race, by Reni Eddo-Lodge
  5. We Should All Be Feminists, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  6. Dear Ijeawele: or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  7. Becoming, by Michelle Obama
  8. Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America, by John Lewis
  9. Kindred, by Octavia Butler
  10. Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams
  11. The Beautiful Struggle, by Ta’Nehisi Coates
  12. Misty Copeland: A Life in Motion, young readers edition, by Misty Copeland
  13. Idia of the Benin Kingdom, by Ekiuwa Aire
  14. The Cay, by Theodore Taylor
  15. I Am Loved, by Nikki Giovanni
  16. Bud, Not Buddy, by Christopher Paul Curtis
  17. Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation, by Duncan Tonatiuh
  18. A Kid’s Book About Racism, by Jelani Memory
  19. Ruth and the Green Book, by Calvin Alexander Ramsey and Gwen Strauss
  20. Almost to Freedom, by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and Colin Bootman
  21. Through My Eyes, by Ruby Bridges
  22. The Story of Ruby Bridges, by Robert Coles
  23. Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqueline Woodson
  24. Barracoon, by Zora Neale Hurston
  25. The 1619 Project: Born on the Water, by by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson
  26. Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah
  27. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
  28. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
  29. Seven Spools of Thread: A Kwanzaa Story, by Angela Shelf Medearis
  30. The House of Dies Drear, by Virginia Hamilton
  31. Beloved, Toni Morrison
  32. Harriet Tubman: Conductor Of the Underground Railroad, by Ann Petry
  33. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor

ART and ARTISTS I ENJOY:

 

Links to Podcasts and Other Sites to Visit:

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Waiting for the Biblioburro

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Waiting for the Biblioburro, by Monica Brown, is based on a true story from Colombia about the children who live in remote areas and don’t have access to libraries or even school books.

In this picture book story, a young girl, Ana, longs to have books to read but she lives too far away from a library. But one day she hears the clip-clop of a burro approaching. She looks to see who is coming and sees a man leading a burro, and the burro is loaded down with bags of books!

This is a wonderful little book that can start many important conversations in a classroom, and is a sweet read for any of us who simply love books and libraries!

To learn more about Luis Soriano Bohórquez, the man who started the biblioburro, a real-life mobile library, click here.

I chose this book to read for my personal challenge, “Wanderlust,” an effort to read books that are from or take place in each country of the world. This was a book that takes place in Colombia.

Valentine’s Day at the Library

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Byron and I visited one of our nearby libraries today. The Hillsboro Library is a very nice library with beautiful grounds which include paved walking trails, a creek, and ponds that host many water birds. It was a fun way to spend Valentine’s Day morning, both inside and on our walk outside the library.

Inside the library, I appreciated the “Blind Date” display and checked out one of the books that turned out to be a vegan cookbook. Perfect! I loved the clues on the front of each of the wrapped books and hope that many others checked out one of those parcels as a blind date!

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Lovin’ My Library

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“When in doubt, go to the library.”
~ J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

One of the important criteria when searching for a home in Oregon to buy for our retirement years was that it be located within walking distance of a library. We were very fortunate and found a lovely home and a sweet library! So we spend a lot of time at our local library. Our daughter now works there. It’s an important place for the entire family!

On this sunny morning, I again walked to the library, took some books back, picked up a book on hold, and checked out the Friends of the Library book sale. I also took a bunch of photos to share my library love with you. I hope you enjoy the slideshow!

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Fractured Reading

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fractured-ice

Do you ever feel as if your reading life is fractured?  I always have at least three books going at the same time…an audiobook to listen to while driving or knitting, a Kindle book, and a library book. Perhaps because of the bitter cold, dreary, and confining weather we are having, plus the dismal state of the union at the moment, I find that my reading life is definitely fractured!  I am reading 7 different, very diverse, books at the same time ! And I’m enjoying them all!

Currently reading

  • Kindle Books: I am in the middle of The Two Towers, by J.R.R. Tolkien, my re-read of his Lord of the Rings trilogy. I am also reading Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott, for Roof Beam Reader’s Classics Book-a-Month Club. I started Wild Seed, by Octavia Butler, last month then set it aside to start Little Women…but I keep going back to it. And then I pre-ordered the book The Meaning of Michelle, by Veronica Chambers, and it came in last week, so I started it, too!

Definitely fractured reading, and It’s a little like a reading frenzy, too. Does this ever happen to you, or am I completely losing it in the middle of the very January January??

Small Town Reading

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Another Little Free Library

Okay…I’ve been posting about all the “Little Free Libraries” that have just recently started popping up in our town, excited that I live in a town full of readers. This morning on our walk we ran into another new one in the neighborhood! As always, I photographed it and checked out the books inside, and much to my surprise, I found a book that I had just donated to our local library last Friday! I know it was mine because I pulled it our and looked inside and found this bookmark that I’d forgotten to remove before I donated it. I’m wondering if this “Little Free Library” was built by one of our librarians or library volunteers? And I’m very pleased that my donations are finding new life in the town’s libraries both big and small!

bookmark2