When you check your mailbox for the day’s mail, how excited are you to find a few pieces of junk mail you never solicited? Probably not very. Add to that let-down feeling the worry about the unnecessary waste of paper. Sigh. By contrast, what do you feel when you pull a handwritten card or letter from your mailbox? A happy little thrill? Mm hmm, I thought so.
With the advent of electronic communication we have experienced the decline of this happy little thrill in our lives. Handwritten cards and letters have been replaced with emails, text messages, live phone calls or voice mails, except, fortunately, around holidays and birthdays, when we still get to experience this dear form of communication as it comes through the snail mail. Continue reading “April Is National Card and Letter Writing Month”
Today, April 19, marks the anniversary of the start of the Revolutionary War. The war was long, lasting over 8 years. Countless lives throughout the colonies were affected by those seemingly endless years of fighting as the new nation came into being. The Revolutionary War years were filled with drama, so it is not surprising how many fiction titles are set during that time. Here are some novels at the library that readers who enjoy historical fiction may want to explore:
“America’s First Daughter” by Stephanie Dray: we’ve heard stories about our Founding Fathers, but what about the rest of their families? Dray’s book offers a fictionalized look into the life of Thomas Jefferson’s oldest daughter, Martha “Patsy” Jefferson Randolph. Patsy was close to her father and served as a stand-in First Lady to her widowed father. Dray’s book, which is based on letters and historical documents, follows Patsy’s journey from Monticello to Paris and ultimately to the White House, and offers insight into the personal sacrifices she made in order to help her father achieve the presidency. Continue reading “Revolutionary War Fiction”
Last month, our book club read “The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio,” a memoir about a struggling family in the 1950s and a mother who enters contests to augment the family’s income. Our conversation about the book morphed into a discussion of what those times were like. It was a time when “housewives” were courted to submit jingles for popular products, when radio broadcasts and newspapers were still the main source of information about the world and traveling salesmen were regular visitors to households around America. Salesmen went door to door selling everything from “Fuller Brushes” to encyclopedias.
I didn’t anticipate how animated the discussion would become around our memories of using encyclopedias — for doing homework, looking at the sometimes exotic pictures and just the sense of pride over a family owning their own set. Encyclopedia sets were displayed proudly, and usually in a prominent place, in the home. I can remember how fascinating it was to turn each page and see information and beautiful pictures on a variety of subjects. It probably wasn’t that dissimilar to the feeling one has when accessing the internet for the first time and realizing you could instantly receive information on almost anything with the touch of your fingertips. Yet, the information on the internet can come from a variety of sources, some trusted, some not so much. Continue reading “Knowledge at Your Fingertips: Encyclopedias Offered at Your Library”
Having lived in college towns for much of my adult life, I have come to recognize a feeling of anticipation during the spring semester. It seems to be connected to the reality of students graduating and moving on to the next phase of their lives. For some it is graduate school, for others perhaps travel, but for many (and to the relief of their parents) they are beginning to work on obtaining employment. There are newly retired individuals looking for part-time jobs to augment their income and stay involved in the community. Spring also seems to be a time to job hunt for a better salary or to increase job satisfaction. Continue reading “Job Searching Tips for Everyone”
Do you like to eat well in the sense that you want your food to be delicious and nutritious? I think most people would answer “yes” to that question. Is it challenging to provide meals that fit the delicious/nutritious definition for yourself and/or your family members? Most of us would have to answer “yes,” at least some of the time, because we all know life makes many competing demands of our time. Continue reading “Freezer Meals: Eating Well When Time is Limited (or You Just Need a Break from Cooking)”
The Oxford Dictionary defines “craft” as “an activity involving skill in making things by hand.” In this day and age when everything is machine made, why should we make anything by hand?
As a teen, I thought history was only about presidents, generals and Henry Ford. Perhaps that had something to do with the textbooks in use back in the day. I didn’t realize the biographies I loved to read — Amelia Earhart was a favorite — also counted as history.
For more than thirty years, the National Women’s History Project has tackled the “important work of writing women back into American history.” March is National Women’s History month, and the theme for 2017 is “Honoring Trailblazing Women in Labor and Business.” Let’s learn about some of those women. Here are a few titles to begin with:
“Grace and Grit” is Lilly Ledbetter’s story of working at Goodyear. After nineteen years as a manager, she discovered she was making forty percent less than men in the same position. She spent a decade seeking legal redress, sticking with the case all the way to the Supreme Court. Though she lost on appeal, her efforts led to the signing of the 2009 Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Continue reading “Women’s History Month: Women in Labor and Business”
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and its less severe cousin, concussion (also known as mild traumatic brain injury) have been getting a lot of attention lately, partly because of the concussion crisis in the National Football League. This attention is a good thing. TBI and concussion can be considered a silent epidemic in society; an estimated 1.5 million head injuries appear every year in United States emergency rooms, and at least 5 million Americans currently live with disabilities resulting from TBI. The suffering caused by the loss of mobility, career, hobbies and even family because of TBI is not often reported, partly because of the stigma attached to brain injury.
Unfortunately, from personal experience I can say that I’ve been there. In March of 2015 I had a bad spill on my bicycle that caused a head injury and serious concussion that took me over a year to recover from. I had a helmet on, thank God, or I would now be dead. It was a painful, long and sometimes completely disheartening journey, but I did indeed recover fully. March is Brain Injury Awareness Month, and the library has some fantastic resources about recovering from and living with traumatic brain injury. Continue reading “March is Brain Injury Awareness Month”
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2017 by The Biblio-Buckaroo
Event Horizon, Kara Walker, 2005
The magic of visual art lies in its ability to communicate in ways not possible through words. Much like music, art is a universal language that can rise above cultural barriers. African-American art, specifically, is full of examples of this transcendence. Art in the black community has been used to exorcise pain, to rejoice and to record life. From artists like the silhouette artist, Kara Walker, or the painter, Jacob Lawrence, we can learn history not always taught in our schools. Art gives us a window into lives that may be different from our own or reveal how similar we all are when preconceived notions are stripped away.
Aesthetically, I gravitate towards art that is full of rich colors, bold shapes and dynamic compositions. There is a bounty of African-American art, in a variety of media, that fits this bill.
If you have ever made the drive to St. Louis from Columbia, you might have noticed a house that has been deteriorating for at least the last 30 years. I have watched it over the years as I drive back and forth; each time it is a little more dilapidated. It used to have a porch. That is gone now. The roof, windows and door frame sag; vines and bushes have grown around and throughout the house. Yet, you can tell it was a good, solid house at one point. I hope that it had a time of being cherished and a place people lovingly called home. Continue reading “Ghost Towns: Escaping Into the Past”
Having lived in college towns for much of my adult life, I have come to recognize a feeling of anticipation during the spring semester. It seems to be connected to the reality of students graduating and moving on to the next phase of their lives. For some it is graduate school, for others perhaps travel, but for many (and to the relief of their parents) they are beginning to work on obtaining employment. There are newly retired individuals looking for part-time jobs to augment their income and stay involved in the community. Spring also seems to be a time to job hunt for a better salary or to increase job satisfaction. 
