Demon Copperhead - by Barbara Kingsolver

Over the course of about four weeks three different friends recommended three different Barbara Kingsolver books to me. First up was a recommendation by a fellow librarian - Demon Copperhead. She not only suggested I read it, but also expressed a desire to get together over Zoom so we can discuss it. I've finished by book, discussion is pending.

Based on Charles Dickens' David Copperfield (which I have not read) Kingsolver's book takes the reader into a world of poverty, foster care, hunger, and drug abuse. Nevertheless, throughout the despair libraries bring hope. Young Damon (aka Demon) longs to see the ocean. He has seen pictures and a "hypnotizing screen saver of waves rearing up and spilling over on a library computer". Fellow foster Tommy Waddles was "the type to make the best of things, mostly by reading library books and ignoring the fact of people hating him". Years later when Demon and Tommy meet up again Demon discovers that Tommy's understanding of pop culture is slim - Tommy having "squandered his youth on library books and had zero experience with cable TV."

As a recovering addict Demon recognizes that living in a city, even if you're poor, has some benefits including having a library within walking distance of his halfway house. He describes the "Halley Library branch on the north end of Knoxville" as "the other half of [his] halfway life". It was here that he met Lyra a "hot librarian" (is there any other kind?) "...with a full sleeve tattoo representing the book of Moby Dick". Lyra, however was not just another pretty face and sexy body, she taught Demon how to use the library's scanner and "rocked [his] marbles" by "turning [him] on to the adult comics and graphic novels section of library".

Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service - edited by Michael Lewis

Each essay in this collection features an unsung federal government employee. People we've never heard of who go to work daily and keep the government going. These profiles of humble yet remarkable workers include number crunchers, data keepers, and health workers. Of special interest to me was Sarah Vowell's essay on one of her fellow Montanans Pamela Wright of the National Archives aka "The Equalizer". Wright intends to digitize all documents available in the National Archives so that anyone can access them online no matter where they are in the world, and so that they are preserved for future generations. Presidential records, maps, censuses as well as original documents including the United States Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are all part of what is preserved in the National Archives. That is unless a convicted felon steals them and puts them in a private bathroom. 

It is noteworthy that this book was published in 2024, before Trump's second term and before the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was established. Since its writing Trump has fired Dr. Colleen Shogan, the National Archivist without cause.

I recommend this worthwhile and accessible read to all.

Calm - by S.J. Baker

I picked up this YA Dystopian novel from a local Little Free Library. In this fool's paradise the government has drugged the water supply to keep everyone lulled into a sense of complacecny and from having any feelings (good or bad). Of course books in this world are also hard to come by. And as with any dystopia there are resistors. Tiegan, a young dyed-in-the-wool Resistor who is running from the Servants remembers that her own home had a "little store [of books]...hidden in the cupboard...even though their very presence in the house meant danger."

Something else worth mentioning about this book it that it recognizes that when on the lam menstruating people may have trouble managing their periods. It was frankly refreshing to read a book that appreciated this problem.

Apex Hides the Hurt - by Colson Whitehead

A nomenclature consultant is paid to name things, mainly products, but in this satire the unnamed hero is hired to pick a new name for the town of Winthrop. Winthrop has a hotel, a bar, and of course a library. In fact one of the town's former librarians wrote a history of the town. This is provided to the consultant who supposes that "writing your town's local history was the librarian version of climbing Everest". Maybe so, as long as it doesn't get too badly edited for not being "ass-kissy" enough. 

While the consultant does meet one of the librarians (Beverly) and has some between-the-stacks type fantasies about her, he doesn't really get to use the library as it is being moved from one building to another during his visit.  Descriptions of the nearly empty space have a definite dystopian air

The place was a husk. The books were gone. Where he would usually be intimidated by an army of daunting spines, there were only dust-ball rinds and Dewey decimal grave markers. As if by consensus, all the educational posters and maps had cast out their top right-hand corner tacks so that their undersides bowed over like blades of grass. Nothing would be referenced this afternoon, save indomitable market forces.

Even the globe was gone. Over there on a table in the corner he saw the stand, the bronze pincers that once held the world in place, but the world was gone.

One would be forgiven for thinking that this was a description of a contemporary library once Moms for Liberty had their way with it. 

Beverly "a young white chick with dyed black hair [and] twenty or forty bracelets on her wrists...made an unlikely librarian, stereotype-wise". Nevertheless the consultant decides that she must be wearing "one bracelet for every shush".

A quick fun read that I picked up at my local library.

Mockingbird Summer - by Lynda Rutledge

 In 1964 Ms. Delacorte public librarian in High Cotton, Texas suggests newly-minted teenager Kate "Corky" Corcoran read To Kill a Mockingbird. Corky shares the book with her brother, Mack who has just completed his first year of college; and with her new friend, America who otherwise cannot use the library in the segregated town.  

Through the lenses of these characters we see how each creates their own meaning of Harper Lee's work. Corky's journey includes learning what the word "rape" means as well as a discovery that although the story took place three decades prior it really wasn't so long ago as the same battles were still being fought in the segregated south.

The Civil Rights bill forms a backdrop to the story and Corky's mother Belle is expecting to benefit herself from the legislation as it also includes rights for women. Belle is looking forward to taking a job at the public library, in defiance of her husband.

96 Miles - by J.L. Esplin

A mysterious power outage leaves brothers John and Stew to survive in the Nevada desert without their father. With the help of neighbors they are able to attend a community meeting at their school library. 

Although I understand the importance of libraries as meeting places, I almost skipped posting about this book, as it was the only time a library appeared in the work. However, later in the novel, when I read that their small school housed grades K-12 and had 47 students total I realized the magnitude of the fact that the school even had a library, and in fact had a librarian. In a time when school librarians are being considered superfluous, and school libraries are closing due to lack of staff, we see a world in which libraries are clearly understood to be the essential spaces that we know them to be.

Free for All: The Public Library (PBS: Independent Lens)

Featuring viewpoints from PEN America, The American Library Association, librarians, and library users this documentary film provides an historical perspective of libraries from Benjamin Franklin, Melville Dewey, and Andrew Carnegie to the present day culture wars that involve drag queens and a book banning crisis. In addition to many little known librarians throughout history the film gives insight into Arturo Shomburg who built a black history collection during the Harlem renaissance and to Ruth Brown who was fired during the McCarthy era for "harboring" subversive materials. Throughout, the film demonstrates the importance of libraries in all parts of the country (urban, rural, and suburban) as well as the tenacity of librarians in the face of tax cuts and calls to shut down libraries completely.

The documentary Free for All: The Public Library is available for free for all at pbs.org