Carnival of Snackery: Diaries 2003-2020 - by David Sedaris

When I read Sedaris' first book of diary entries (Theft by Finding) I lamented that he did not include enough about libraries and that I hoped that the second volume would include more. Alas, this 566 page work mentioned libraries a measly seven times. The first was the sad entry on January 11, 2005

The Guardian ran a story on Gerald Allen, an Alabama state representative who wants to ban books with homosexual characters. They can still sell them in shops, but he wants them out of schools and publicly funded institutions, like libraries and state universities. If the book presents a tragic homosexual, the type who suffers and then commits suicide, that's okay. He just doesn't want the happy kind, the ones who, in his words, "promote homosexuality as a healthy and accepted lifestyle."
Which one am I? I wonder.

Other uses of the library include:

• Waiting
• Taking a Citizenship Test
• As part of a tour (grandmother unimpressed that granddaughter wanted to see this)
• A place not to practice archery
• A place with "nothing but a coloring book and a box of crayons" - this would be a disparaging remark about George Bush (43)'s Presidential Library

My favorite was this: someone checking out a CD of  Lightnin' Hopkins' music wants to know "is that a person or a thing?" Sedaris is able to help where the librarian is not. The young man who checked the CD out kept asking himself "Does it matter?" And eventually returns to the librarian to ask "Does it matter?" "Definitely not" they librarian said. 

That's what I would have said, too.

I Have Some Questions for You - by Rebecca Makkai

I was intrigued by the description of this book because it reminded me of Adnan's Story which I recently read. The story of Adnan Syed's arrest, trial, and life sentence for the murder of a classmate was made famous on the Serial podcast. Because of the publicity brought on by the podcast, Syed's case was re-opened and he was subsequently found innocent. 

Makkai's book is a novel with a very similar plot. A young girl is found dead in her boarding school swimming pool and suspicions are on Omar Evans, an athletic trainer at the school. Omar is found guilty and a former student, Bodie Kane (a podcaster) brings new light to the crime many years later. Bodie questions whether the wrong person has been jailed. 

Bodie has returned to Granby School to teach a winter intersession on podcasting, when some of her students decide to do a podcast on Thalia Keith's murder, they start exploring new suspects, and ask new questions.

The school library is mentioned a few times. For instance: as a place to look up the word "lusty" in a dictionary, before one could simply go to dictionary.com to discover that it meant "healthy and strong; full of vigor"; as a place to do research back in a time when students didn't all have their own computers; a place where old yearbooks can be found; or where a schoolgirl in 1995 could borrow a map of Connecticut to find the location of the street in New Canaan where her crush lived.

The library held a special place in the history of the Granby school. Started in 1814 a young woman Arsareth Gage founded the school with twelve boys as students in a small schoolhouse. Samuel Granby built the library and chapel six years later. Ultimately Samuel Granby became a sugar daddy to the entire town.

For those on the lookout for Easter Eggs regarding the Syed case, Makkai includes a reference to "the girl whose boyfriend was definitely not working at LensCrafters that day".

Jumping off Library Shelves: A Book of Poems - edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins

 

In honor of Library Card Sign-Up Month this collection sings the praises of libraries, librarians, and of course library cards 

More powerful than

the smartest phone,

more powerful than a TV remote,

more powerful than a hundred apps. 

What You Wish For - by Katherine Center

 

When her former crush Duncan Campbell shows up as the new principal at librarian Samantha Casey's school she hardly recognizes the straight-laced stick-in-the-mud from the fun-loving goofball she knew four-years before. There was "nothing likable...to love". He was simply a "dickish boss". Well, you can guess how this plays out.

The story takes places in Texas at a private school where kids are voracious readers and check out 10 books at a time. Of course if it were a public school in Texas there would hardly be any books to check out of the library these days.

Principal Campbell has a Goldendoodle called Chuck Norris who he brings to campus for "security purposes". Chuck Norris turns out to be actually quite lovable, except for his nasty habit of eating books, which Duncan promises to pay for.

No big surprises in this one. A good end-of-summer read.

Book Lovers - by Emily Henry

I had high hopes for this book when I read the prologue. In it the narrator tells us that she is "the uptight, manicured literary agent, reading manuscripts from atop her Peloton", the jilted love interest in the rom com when the boyfriend gets sent to Small Town, USA and meets someone who is trying to save her family business. She's the one "you can tell [is] evil because her hair is an unnatural blond, slicked back à la Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct, and also she hates Christmas decorations." 

I must admit I often think about this character when watching Hallmark movies. Always such an unsympathetic character, but the audience never really knows her. I always try to think of her as a multi-dimensional person and wonder what becomes of her. And I bet she ends up having a great life.

I picked this out to read on August 9 because that was National Book Lovers Day, so really I had no choice. 

The story takes place in the fictitious town of Sunshine Falls, North Carolina ("just a little ways outside Asheville") which also the location of Once in a Lifetime, novelist Dusty Fielding's surprise hit. Literary agent Nora (who has "a beautiful Dewey-decimal organized brain"), and her sister Libby decide to take a vacation there, where, of course there is a lending library, just like the book says (although apparently Dusty has never visited Sunshine Falls herself). The library is set to get Wi-Fi in the fall. It is a "hulking" three story building "of pink brick and gabled peaks". 

Nora and Libby attend the local community theater production of Once in a Lifetime in which a thirteen year old boy plays "Old Man Whittaker" opposite a grandmother playing Mrs. Wilder - the owner of the lending library.

A surprise awaits Nora in Sunshine Falls. Her nemesis Charlie (an editor) happens to be there as well. Romance ensues.

Charlie and Nora agree to meet at the library to discuss Dusty's new book. He tells her he'll reserve a room for them. "At my expression, he laughs. At the library Stephens. A study room. Get your mind out of the gutter.

Apparently Nora has read The Seal's Rebel Librarian and therefore understands the true purpose of a study room. They end up making good use of the study room, but stop short of going all the way.

When we finally do this, Nora", [Charlie] says, straightening away from me, his hands slipping my buttons back into buttonholes as easily as he undid them, "it's not going to be on a library table, and it's not going to be on a time crunch."...."We're going to do this right. No shortcuts."

Nora is surprised to learn that Charlie was held back in school. She tells him that "you put off this... academic vibe. I would've expected you to be, like, a Rhodes scholar, with a tattoo of the Bodleian Library on your ass." He tells Nora that he "spent half of middle school in the library and the other half in the principal's office for getting into fights...the only two places [he] felt like [he] had any control...

In the end, this book was just another rom com. It just had the pieces put together differently. And, yes, a family business does get saved in Small Town, USA (a bookstore, no less).

Sighting: In the wonderfully enchanting Netflix series Heartstopper bookworm Isaac (Tobie Donovan) is seen reading this work.