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Book a Week 2020 - BW34: Our Singing Strength


Robin M
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5 hours ago, marbel said:

So yesterday while picking  up a hold at the library, I inadvertently rented a book, $1 for one week, not renewable. I have it on my overdrive holds list at 2 libraries; it's got a long queue; and when I saw it on the shelf I just grabbed it. I never noticed the "rental" sticker on it or the sign on the shelf! ....

I'm envious that you can enter your library to select books while at the same time I'm grateful that my local library does not rent books. I recall that my daughter encountered that phenomenon when she did a study abroad in New Zealand. I'm wondering how many of us have a library that rents books.

I'll mention that I have a free (actually paid for by property taxes) membership at my local library while I pay a yearly fee (currently $130) to use the library in my neighboring city. So, I guess you could say that I'm renting those books.

Regards,

Kareni

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I recently finished a reread of Linesman (A Linesman Novel) by SK Dunstall which I enjoyed once more.

My husband and I have been listening to the audio version of The Curse of Chalion  by Lois McMaster Bujold. The narrator is Lloyd James who does an excellent job with the many voices. We are almost finished and have both enjoyed it thus far. It's my husband's first exposure to the book while I read it for the first time some months ago.

Regards,

Kareni

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55 minutes ago, Kareni said:

I'm envious that you can enter your library to select books while at the same time I'm grateful that my local library does not rent books. I recall that my daughter encountered that phenomenon when she did a study abroad in New Zealand. I'm wondering how many of us have a library that rents books.

I'll mention that I have a free (actually paid for by property taxes) membership at my local library while I pay a yearly fee (currently $130) to use the library in my neighboring city. So, I guess you could say that I'm renting those books.

Regards,

Kareni

Within our library system there are a few branches that offer book rentals. I suppose it's to offset the cost of buying some extra copies of popular books, though I don't really know. It's a small number of books overall!

I guess we who have taxpayer-funded free libraries are all renting in a way. 🙂  I have access to my county library and the Philadelphia Free library system, by virtue of being a PA resident. I use my Philly card almost exclusively for e- and audiobooks, as going into the city for actual books is never really convenient for me, especially so now! 

It was so nice to be in a library; they  have recently opened here with limited hours and limited browsing time. It was my first time in one since March. My own township library (branch of the county system) was in the midst of moving into a new building when Covid brought everything to a stop in March. I still have books out from that branch; they have just opened up the book drop in the new building. No word  yet on when they will open. I can't wait!  

 

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We no longer have to have an appointment to pick up our books curbside. That is a welcome change as appointments are often three days out.

We are not being charged fines at the moment. That is lovely, but I guess there is little incentive to return physical books on time. For one book, I have been #2 on the waiting list for a reaaallly long time. 

I am most eager for ILL to restart. 

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The past couple of days have been hard on my Overdrive stack as nothing seemed to please me.  I ended up buying myself the next book for me in the Acton and Doyle series (Murder in Shadow) and am finally able to settle down and read again!  
 

Yes, Kareni I have finally started that series up again. 😉

Libraries........my library had one week “hot” books pre Covid but did not charge a rental fee.  The late fee on the “hot” books was expensive, think $1 a day.  You were only allowed 2 hot books at a time.  My library still is not busy from passing the parking lot, no appointments after the first couple of weeks.  They are still doing curbside.

My UK library still has not reopened in the village.  Apparently some sort of curbside can be arranged with the Central Branch but no one is entering the smaller branches so the choice is going to be extremely limited as the collection is spread rather randomly system wide.  For those who weren’t here a few years age this is a huge system with about 20 libraries left staffed almost entirely by volunteers.......I think there are still around a dozen paid staff system wide.  I served on our local board during the forced transition.......none of us could have ever guessed what having an elderly “staff” would do to the system.

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I finished Dorothy Day: Dissenting Voice. It wasnt what I'd expected but it was really good. 

It's a slightly impersonal book and I never felt that I was really getting to know Dorothy. It doesn't try to imagine her inner life. It's much more interested in describing her community-- the people who supported her and kept her going, the books she read, the trips she went on. It does a great job at that. I also liked the way it described the changes to American society over her lifetime.

Her relationship with her daughter was heartbreaking. I appreciated that the book didn't sweep that under the rug but also didn't judge.

 
 
 
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21 hours ago, Kareni said:

I recently finished a reread of Linesman (A Linesman Novel) by SK Dunstall which I enjoyed once more.

My husband and I have been listening to the audio version of The Curse of Chalion  by Lois McMaster Bujold. The narrator is Lloyd James who does an excellent job with the many voices. We are almost finished and have both enjoyed it thus far. It's my husband's first exposure to the book while I read it for the first time some months ago.

Regards,

Kareni

I'm always on the lookout for good narrators ... that's an author and a narrator I've been wanting to try out. Now I'll just have to see where I can get my hands on a copy!

 

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FINISHED:

Avalanche (Sheriff Bo Tully #2) by Patrick McManus -- I have two ratings for this book. Because I'm super opinionated that even my opinions have opinions! Well ... let's just get into it.

5 star book -- Excellent narrator and side characters and mystery. Everything tied up so well. It's just what you want when you're looking for a cozy mystery with a fun setting. After years of being the outdoors-man's Dave Barry McManus knows how to do humor and a modern "wild west" setting better than anyone. 

2 star book - Tully's interactions with women were so weird and unrealistic. Every woman was in love with him. They hounded him. They tried to kiss him and lure him away alone. He was repeatedly turning down offers to hook up with them. It might have been intended as a running joke but the joke didn't work for me. In fact it started to annoy me and take away from everything I did enjoy about the book. It read as author wish fulfillment/fantasy and ... I'll just leave it as weird. 

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23 hours ago, aggieamy said:

FINISHED:

Avalanche (Sheriff Bo Tully #2) by Patrick McManus -- I have two ratings for this book. Because I'm super opinionated that even my opinions have opinions! Well ... let's just get into it.

5 star book -- Excellent narrator and side characters and mystery. Everything tied up so well. It's just what you want when you're looking for a cozy mystery with a fun setting. After years of being the outdoors-man's Dave Barry McManus knows how to do humor and a modern "wild west" setting better than anyone. 

2 star book - Tully's interactions with women were so weird and unrealistic. Every woman was in love with him. They hounded him. They tried to kiss him and lure him away alone. He was repeatedly turning down offers to hook up with them. It might have been intended as a running joke but the joke didn't work for me. In fact it started to annoy me and take away from everything I did enjoy about the book. It read as author wish fulfillment/fantasy and ... I'll just leave it as weird. 

 

https://www.pbs.org/video/an-evening-with-pat-mcmanus-mzzbkn/

 

 

Interviews with PM and clips from a one man show of his work with actor Tim Behrens

 

(he talks about difficulty writing humor)

 

ETA - he says at one point that to have a character be funny it has to be a “type” character and I think that may relate to the 2 star issue ...  Bo Tully had to be developed as a “type” (and with exaggeration) for humor. Or at least that is my guess. 

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Today only, a free classic for Kindle readers ~

Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan: A Play About a Good Woman

 "The classic satirical play of gossip gone horribly and hilariously wrong from a master dramatist.
 
“My own business always bores me to death; I prefer other people’s.”
 
Lady Windermere has a happy marriage—or she believes she does, until one of London society’s gossips, the Duchess of Berwick, arrives with her daughter to voice her suspicions about an affair Lord Windermere appears to be having. And the duchess’s testimony is not the only evidence either. Lord Windermere’s private bank book shows that he has been giving large—and frequent—sums of money to a “Mrs. Erlynne,” and he even admits to seeing much of the woman. To add insult to injury, Lord Windermere insists that Mrs. Erlynne be invited to the ball being held for Lady Windermere’s birthday.
 
Employing the witty dialogue, social satire, and outrageous paradox for which he is still remembered today, Oscar Wilde’s classic play shines a light on the destructiveness of gossip and superficial judgment. Lady Windermere’s Fan examines the ambiguous sexual morality and gender politics at the heart of the British ruling class, while simultaneously challenging our perceptions of what constitutes a “good woman.”"

Regards,

Kareni

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13 hours ago, Violet Crown said:

Oh man, I checked that out from our campus student church's library back in the day. How long it's been.

When I was looking it up for @Little Green Leaves I saw that Daniel Berrigan did the intro for the current edition. I have an older edition with a picture of Young Dorothy on it, and I wonder if he did the intro. Alas it is trapped in a storage box several states away, and I am not in the mood for the research. Just for the whine about my far-away books 🙂 

BUT! Daniel Berrigan is here and he is inching closer the top of the TBR pile. I should stop putting things on hold at the library. They come in and throw off my plans! I’ll have to read the play (Trial of the Catonsville Nine) online.

 

 

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