Have I really not posted here since January 1?? Wow. I am behind! lol Okay. Let's see here...
1/18 - Mistakes Were Made by Stephen Petis - a children's book by the "Pearls Before Swine" author an odd book, for sure, cute for kids, but probably won't read any of his other children's books
2/18 -- Counting the Cost by Jill Duggar - Definitely an interesting behind the scenes look into the "19 Children and Counting" TV series, but also not what I was expecting. I was expecting more insight into how they were raised, and there was definitely some of that, but much of the focus was on the management of the TV show and the funds from the TV show. Would like to read one of the others by one of the Duggar girls, I think.
3/18 -- Girl on Trial by Kathleen Fine - YA fiction about a girl who gets involved with a "bad influence" and starts drinking. One night when she's babysitting, she sneaks out at the request of this friend. The next morning, the entire family is found dead from CO poisoning. Was it negligence, or something else? Definitely a good read. This is the debut novel by this author, and I would be interested in reading more from her, if she writes more.
4/18 -- A Knock at Midnight : A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom by Brittany Barnett -- Non-fiction. A fascinating but difficult read about those caught in harsh drug sentencing laws. Brittany is a corporate lawyer by day, but has a second full time job (or more!) in the evening, and on weekends, volunteering her time and talents to write clemency petitions to (at the time) President Obama. I learned so much about injustices in our legal system through this book.
5/18 -- Falling to Earth by Al Worden - This is the Apollo 15 astronaut my dad knew personally. Worden was my dad's "Radar Officer in Charge" when my dad was in the Air Force, and my dad also debriefed Worden on some of his flights. It was an interesting read, but he rambles a bit and it was difficult to find stopping points that were in the middle of rather long chapters. And no, my dad is NOT mentioned, not even in passing. I was not expecting it at all, though. But it was fun getting a peek into his life. Oh, and one of Worden's daughters is named Alison. Which my mom doesn't think my dad knew.
6/18 -- We Were the Lucky Ones - I didn't even realize this was a series on one of the streaming platforms. It's about a family of Polish Jews during WWII where all of them survived. It switched between characters every chapter, and I had some trouble following any one person's/couple's stories all the way through, since it was broken up so much, and there are multiple chapters before you come back to the same person. This was also a split read, which didn't help. I stopped reading this one so I could start the number 5 on April 8, eclipse day. Because it seemed appropriate. And I DID get to see totality. It was amazing.
And... that's it for now. I'm not sure I'll make it to my goal of 18 at this point but we'll see.
Now. On a somewhat related note, because I feel this group would be interested in this....
The “reading and books” part of my world has been on a roller coaster ride this week! Last week, it was made know through a "leak" that Friday, May 17th there was going to be an emergency meeting of the library board, where they were going to discuss possibly closing some branches. With like... a day's notice, the community came out in full force. Thanks to this swift action, the meeting lasted over 4 hours (? May have been more like 3), mostly due to citizen comments and concerns. This outcome of this meeting was the announcement that they were considering closing three branches, including the one closest to me, possibly as early as June. They ultimately decided to table that vote for 30 days. And.. Oh my goodness. I don't know if this poor library CEO realized what he was about to unleash with this annoucement, that felt very secrative. Less than a week later, further community involvement has turned this in a positive direction. A very robust FB group was started, the board got over 700 emails in under a week, and they have already admitted that they may (*cough*Uh... may?!?*cough*) have acted too quickly, and maybe they should have gotten some community input first. One board member in particular has been VERY forthcoming, honest, and is pushing back against the possible closures, saying that he is going to make sure the board looks at any other possibilities before closing branches. It's been amazing to watch. As of today, closures are still an option, but they have already backed off the June timeline, saying that just because they tabled the decision for 30 days doesn't mean they will be voting that quickly, and that they will be taking the time to look at other options. It has been an absolutely fascinating look at what grassroots efforts can do. If any of you are interesed, I'll keep you updated (And there's also so much more I didn't post here... Feel free to PM me if you want more details). But I just had to share this somewhere that wasn't Facebook, and wasn't local. Ha!
And I also apoloigze if the above is not clear. I'm STILL trying to wrap my head around it, so I'm probalby not stating things very clearly.
