Yesterday was the first day of school for many children.  It seems they go back earlier and earlier.  When I was in school it started the day after Labor Day and went until mid June.  I remember it being a time of excitement for me.   Exciting because it was a new school year.  New teacher, back to see old friends and maybe meet some new ones. But most of all it was the learning.  I loved school.  I still do.

Yesterday was my granddaughter Emileys’ first day of pre-school.  I went to take care of Erica so mom could be with Emiley for the day.  I walked in to see Emiley sitting by the door fully dressed with her back pack on.  She didn’t have to be at school for another hour!  She had been sitting there just like that since 5:30 am waiting for it to be time to go.

I’m hoping that attitude stays with her.   I hope she will always have that excitement about school.  That no one will take that away from her and she will always see learning as fun.  There are so many influential people in our lives at that age.  Mostly I think it’s parents.  Mine always encouraged learning.  My dad would talk with us for hours about things he had learned and he challenged us to learn more than he knew.  Mom did the hard part.  She helped with homework, read us stories and made sure everything was ready so we were equipped for the challenges ahead.

Parents and grandparents have the greatest influence on a child’s life.  It is so important that we continue to encourage and challenge them in their quest for knowledge.  Have a great school year.

The library is such a wonderful place.  That place filled with so many books, so much knowledge and lore.  You could spend your whole life there and not know a tenth of what there is to know.

They all look basically the same (lots of books).  They kind of smell the same too but I think that’s where the similarities end.  Each library is a little bit different from any other library.  Every library has a different feel to it.  Some are quiet and reserved.  Some are busy.  Some are big and echoey (I think that’s how you spell that).  Some are noisy places where people are excited about what they’ve read and feel the need to share that information with the world.

The difference in libraries seems to be based on the people who work there and the needs of it’s patrons.  Our library here in Arivaca is one of the best.  (I could be biased).  Mary and Jeannie and the other library ladies really go all out to meet the needs of the community.  And I gotta tell you, both of them are geniuses.  They know everything in the world.  I have yet to ask them something they didn’t know or couldn’t find out.

I think I appreciate this so much because my feelings about libraries when I was younger were quite different.  I remember always having to be quiet.  No touching books you weren’t going to check out.  And heaven forbid if you were late returning a book.

That “method” of library science must have affected a lot of people.  Stephen King wrote a short story about it called “The Library Police”.  It was terrifying!  I just found a children’s book about it called “The Library Dragon”.  Its about a dragon named Miss Lotta Scales who thinks her job is only to protect the books but eventually finds that her patrons are more important and she turns in to a nice librarian named Miss Lotty.

I’m glad libraries have become friendlier places over the years.  They don’t hold the fear that they once did.  Now my biggest problem is what to read first.

I’ve decided to start another newsletter.  This one will be for children’s books.  Since that is my very favorite genre and it’s always difficult for me to decide which book to put into my regular newsletter I ‘ll just do a separate one just for kids books.  Not only that but then I can address different age groups.

I went to the library the other day with my granddaughter just to look at children’s books and I was amazed (and captivated) by the sheer volume of what is available for children.  The  competition must be pretty stiff for children’s authors.  But then again since children’s books are short there needs to be more of them to keep kids entertained.  I have found though that I need to research each book.  Many children’s books go out of print after just one run and so are no longer available.

It’s so wonderful to be able to do what I love.  I have such a great time reviewing books and reading to children.  To watch their little faces light up during the exciting parts truly does something for the soul.

Wow!  This has been one of those summers.  I’m not one to complain about the heat because I love it but I know lots of other people are suffering.  It’s been well over a hundred for weeks now and we haven’t seen a whole lot of rain.  Lots of thunder and lightning but a minimal amount of rain.  Some days its so hot it feels you’re breathing in fire.  It’s been a great time to stay in the house in the air conditioning and read.  I’ve read a few good books lately.

The Angels Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.  That was one I couldn’t put down.  It’s a mystery that takes place in Barcelona.  The story is about an author who is commissioned to come up with a religion.  His research is very interesting as he digs through the religions of the past.  It also has some “murder, death, kill” if you like that sort of thing.  The book held my interest most of the way through.  The middle gets a little draggy but it was worth the read.

Another book I’m reading (not my normal type of book) is Ways of Dying by Zakes Mda.  It’s the story of a professional mourner in new South Africa.  It’s well written and is interesting without being overly morbid about the funerals he is invited to.  It does tell of the atrocities taking place in South Africa.

Larry McMurtry’s Books: a Memoir is about his life in book collecting.  The chapters are short and sweet.  A very fast read.  He’s discovered some wonderful books in his travels.  I’ve acquired a few rare books now that I’m in this business and I gotta tell ya when you hold an old book in your hands you can feel it’s history.  The feel of the book, the smell.  There’s just something really exciting about it.  I don’t know that I want to get into that line.  There’s so much to learn.  But it’s really fun to experience the books.

I’ve been away for a week or so. We took a load of donated clothes, food and medicine down to the people of Alamos, Mexico. This beautiful little Mexican town suffered severe damage as wind and rain from hurricane Norbert ravaged structures and landscape on the night of Oct. 11. Most of the town was without power, water and phone for the first 5 days after the hurricane. Roads and bridges were washed out. Hundreds of people lost everything they had. Their homes, their possessions, their cars and some even lost their lives. People are still missing in the aftermath of this hellish storm.

We stayed to help with cleanup, but that process is going to take a long time. It was amazing to watch people who had lost so much give of themselves to others in need. They shoveled, scrubbed, lifted heavy objects, delivered food and water to other workers. They gave of their time and energy in an effort to alleviate the pain and suffering of others like themselves. Looking back on it now I can’t quite fathom what happened there. When I was in the thick of it I really didn’t think about it. But now that I’m away from there and have time to reflect, I am in awe of what the human spirit is capable of. To see the loss and the emotional pain involved here and yet instead of giving up, they gave their all for others. They continued on and will continue to do so. I’m sure the cleanup operation won’t be without problems, but with the kind of tenacity I witnessed there, I believe the people of Alamos will pull together to make it once again the beautiful little town that it was.

Well, we’re getting things moved around, added and edited, deleted and saved etc.  I’m changing my mind about several things so poor Chris is beginning to go bald.  He’s been very patient.  Thank god.  I haven’t spent a lot of time on the web site lately because I decided a newletter might be better.  I will be putting out the first one hopefully by tomorrow.  That’s work too but at least there’s a template and none of these new fangled languages that I have to learn.  All I have to do is fill in the blanks.  That’s not difficult but it’s definately giving my language skills, vocabulary and keyboarding a workout.  How many different ways are there to say “read” without sounding repetitive? 

I’m also suffering from computer burnout.  I’m up by at least 4am and sometimes am on the computer until late into the evening.  The other day was just too stressful so I took off and helped a friend juice pomegranates.  It was nice.  She listened while I told her my woes, we had juice together (pomegranate and fermented grape) and had a wonderfully relaxing time together.  Thank you Maggie.

I’m still working diligently.  I’m not getting a lot of reading time in so if you’ve read a book you absolutely loved, let me know.  I can put something about it here and we can tell the world.

People keep telling me this will get easier as I learn how to do all these things (web page stuff).  But I’ve begun to feel like my brain is full and can’t take on any more “learning”.  I suppose this is all necessary tedium but I just want to do the fun stuff.  You know, talking about books, reading books, sharing what I know and think with others.  I want to get back to reading kids books and books that make me feel something, books that have beautiful pictures and books that make me stop and take notice of myself and the world around me.  I may want to lay off the books that teach you something for a little while.  But I’ll get back to them because they are my third favorite kind of book.  Topped only by, #1: children’s books and #2: good fiction that has a way of blanketing your mind with a new idea or a fresh perspective.

I’ve just finished reading “Change of Heart” by Jodi Picoult.  I try to keep up with her work because I thought “My Sister’s Keeper” was an incredible read.  She has a knack for making the reader see all sides of  key issues, such as mercy killing, organ donation, school shootings, rape, suicide, alcoholism etc.  You come away from the book seeing the subject from many different points of view and in many cases, unable to pass judgment on the persons involved.  

“Change of Heart” is about a man on death row who has been convicted of two murders.  A child and her stepfather.  A younger sister of the victim remains and she has serious heart problems.  The convicted man wants to donate his heart to the younger sister.  The story is told from many different angles.  An ACLU attorney, a priest, an inmate housed with the convicted man and the mother of the girl in need of a heart all present different sides of this story.

Although she eventually got her point across, the book seemed very long and drawn out to me.  She could have cut about a hundred pages without cutting out pertinent information and it would have been better.  It didn’t have the “umph” that some of her other books have had.  I have to say here that I really didn’t think it was worth the read. 

I haven’t read anything “great” lately.  As you can see I haven’t had a lot of time to read this past month but I’ll get back to it.  Maybe you have some suggestions.  I’d like to hear what you have to say about wonderful things you’ve read.

Once again I find myself surrounded by books.  That warm, wonderful energy that emanates from all of those pages of thought and information.  My comfort zone.  Books have been a part of my life since before I can remember.

I came from a book loving family.  My mother was a book fanatic and collected several thousand volumes which I inherited after she passed away.  What a legacy!  We grew up without television.  My father insisted we read.  Each night between 7 and 9 the house was quiet.  No one was allowed to talk and everyone had to be reading.  Nonfiction of course.  You should be learning something!

In turn I raised my own children similarly.  I got rid of the television when they were very young.  We read in the evenings.  Actually they didn’t, I did.  I read to them every night before bed.  When they were tiny it was picture books and as they grew up we went on to chapter books and series of books.  My youngest, even at the age of 16 still insisted that I read to her.  I home taught for a few years so most of the reading was geared toward what we were learning at the time.  I should say here that the idea, “if you read to children they will be readers” is not true.  I read to my children almost every night and 2 1/2 of the 5 of them are readers.  The half being that she reads when she has to and sometimes because she’s bored.  My boys don’t seem to even know what a book is.

I put them in school and decided to help out in the school libraries.  I dearly love children’s books.  Children’s books are so consise, so simple.  We can learn so much through children’s books because there isn’t all the extraneous mumbo jumbo in them.  I have a fairly large collection that my grandchildren are not allowed to touch.  Maybe when they’re older, like 35 or something.  By then they should be able to extract the true meaning from these books.  Hopefully they will have passed that place where they have to prove they’re adults and can let themselves see through the eyes of a child again.

I worked in a small book store after my children left home and had managed it until just recently.  I truly miss my wonderful customers/friends.  As I start on this new venture I am hoping to maybe find some of them and make some new friends along the way.

Books are another kind of friend.  There is a comfort in books that is rarely found anywhere else.