Hello friends!

What a summer, huh? We always get so excited in the spring and plan all kinds of activities and events. This summer was busy! We had 58 kids and nine adults attend our summer events which included lawn games and an outdoor movie. We had 29 young ones at our summer storytimes and 15 students turned in reading logs showing a total of 19,689 minutes spent reading! We are so proud of our wonderful community and are looking forward to seeing you grow as readers and people!  

In the early spring the Friends of the Library resurrected the Programming Committee - these are the group of volunteers and staff responsible for hosting events here at the library. In the summer months we enjoyed lawn games under the tent, and outdoor movie, and a started a new cookbook club. Our two largest events were a spellbinding presentation from Dave Kobrenski about living and learning music in West Africa as well as an afternoon with psychic Sara Moore. Between those two we hosted almost two hundred visitors! 

Now the kiddos are back in school and we are settling in to a new season's routine. Even with that peaceful change things continue to be busy here at the Library. Honestly, I am so occupied planning and promoting events and displays that I feel like I barely have time to tell you about them! Here's a list: 

• Music, Stories and Too Much Fun! Saturday, September 23 at 7pm at the Whitney Center -- Our own Greg Marsello with musician and DJ Caroline Cotter will transform the Whitney Center into and old time radio show music and story telling competition. Think Garrison Keillor comes to Jackson. Today Greg announced they will premiere an original song entitled Jackson, My Hometown. Tickets are $25pp or $250 for premium seating at a table for six. Purchase online at https://jplfriends.square.site/ or bring a check to the Library.
• Native American storyteller, magician, actor, director, and mime, Leland Faulkner, will perform his show Walker Between Worlds on Saturday, October 1, 2022 at 3pm. In the early summer of 2020, I took my kids to see Mr. Faulkner perform at the Denmark Arts Center. We were all captivated by his charisma, his way of integrating magic into a story, and the uplift we enjoyed extended that throughout the day. This is appropriate for all ages and will be outside on the lawn so bring your comfy chair. If the weather doesn't cooperate, the raindate is October 15. This is cosponsored with the Pope Memorial Library, Bartlett Public Library and Friends of Jackson Public Library and is part of this year's One Book One Valley celebration. 
• We are bringing back Crafternoons for the winter making season. This year we will be meeting on 4th Thursday of every month at 4pm. Everyone is welcome to bring whatever project they are working on to show off to the group, get help with, or just enjoy some conversation in our beautiful space while making progress. New for the fall, we will featuring some kind of craft every month with a quick demo and some materials provided to try it out. In September, Melinda will demonstrate some basic origami.
• Storytime is happening on the 1st & 3rd Tuesday at 11am with Ms. Meredith and Petunia. 
• Our book group meets on every second Wednesday at 4pm. In October we'll be talking about this year's One Book One Valley pick, Night of the Living Rez. The list of upcoming books is available online. 
• Erik Koeppel will be with us on October 22 at 4pm to present some of his paintings and talk about his work and process. 
• We are working on scheduling an introduction to using a telescope & find things in the sky, a photographic journey to Australia and New Zealand, a winter concert from Dominique Dodge, and a casual discussion about Alzheimer's management - look for details on those in later missives. 

We keep all our events in a Google Calendar so you can always subscribe and have Google remind you when things are coming up. I swear, if it weren't for those reminders, I would forget to come to work at all. 

I always like to end with some personal book reviews and I usually am an audiobook devotee, but I've found that when nights start getting cool and the anxiety of transitions creep in, reading a flesh-and-blood book really helps to sooth and comfort me. I recently read the new one Thank You for Listening, it's a solidly entertaining romance in which the protaganists are both audiobook narrators. (See what I did there?)

I am finding romances particularly nice lately because I can count on them not to include violence, death, abuse or much of any other upsetting stuff. The romance part of it is always the least interesting bit, though. I like learning about the inner life of women and they almost always include details about their other relationships that are charming. A friend recently hipped me to Jenny Colgan, which I have been loving. I finished the Isle of Mure series recently and it has stuck with me - I recommend it gustily. Start with Cafe by the Sea - we will have to order it for you. You won't be disappointed. 

Another friend handed me a couple paperbacks by Colleen Hoover in July. She has been getting very popular and I had read a couple that did not impress me but count on a friend to cut to the chase. (Thanks, Barb!) Friends, you have to read Reminders of Him and It Ends with Us. The covers are decieving - these are not breezy romances, they are accessible portraits of how various societal issues affect actual people and framed in a way that make them a bit easier to digest and understand. I added both to our collection and the sequel, It Starts With Us is coming out this fall. 

I have more to recommend and I'm feeling chatty today but I'll stop there. See you soon!

Lichen