|
Stories from the Stacks
The Monthly Liaison: February 2023
| |
Three deer walk by The Community Library on a late February night. | |
|
It only takes a skiff of snow, and secret stories surface: a cottontail’s path to a hollow beneath a clump of sage; a mule deer’s midnight stroll along a Main Street sidewalk; a barn owl’s sweep of a wing across a mouse’s trail. Drama that would otherwise be invisible to us appears in sharp relief on the white-dusted landscape.
This year’s Winter Read, Sabrina & Corina, is like that skiff of snow, revealing the undercurrents of life that can be hard to see. Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s short stories are propelled by nuanced female characters, Latina and indigenous women in the contemporary West. They are different ages, in different situations in Colorado and California. All want to be seen and heard.
The stories track disappearances: homes engulfed by gentrification; mothers lost by daughters; daughters lost by mothers; lives marked by violence. Still, in the smallest gestures – a young woman checking her reflection in the rearview mirror, a mother braiding her daughter’s hair “like she was sewing a quilt” – we see the characters asserting their place in the world. Even as they are surrounded by losses, they say to the world, "Here I am."
"Tell me a story," is a repeated refrain between characters in Sabrina & Corina. A cultural myth of Doña Sebastiana (a female representation of Death) gets retold, or a family legend about a great-aunt, or neighborhood gossip—and in the the telling, we see the tracks that stories can lay between people, guiding us all through the dark.
| |
Jenny Emery Davidson, Ph.D.
Executive Director
| |
This Beautiful and Complicated Place | |
|
By Martha Williams
Director of Programs and Education
There are stories we are told about the American West as we grow up in this country: that white settlers traveled westward, expanding a newly born nation into the expanse of prairies, mountains, and canyons so unlike the eastern shore where the pilgrims first landed.
| |
|
We are told stories about the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark’s expedition, and Manifest Destiny. About the native peoples that explorers, settlers, missionaries, and miners encountered. About trades and wars and treaties and disease. About discovery and wonder and awe. About immigrants from China and Ireland who made this land their home—some by choice and others by force—pursuing opportunity or freedom or the stories they had heard.
There are also stories we may only learn later: of massacres and stolen land, of violent religious collisions, displacement and incarceration and greed. The list of things we continue to learn goes on and on.
It is a vast and complicated tale, one that deserves to be heard from many perspectives. . .
. . .from those who experienced it firsthand, to those who dedicate their lives to studying what remains, to those imagining lost voices or reimagining old stories with new endings.
No matter what stories your school history book told, there are always more to encounter in the stacks at the library. New books arrive each month, inquiring into questions hitherto overlooked or representing voices disprivileged by history and its victors. There are new books shedding light on dark corners of established tales, and old books alighting perspectives that some may wish to forget.
At The Community Library, we celebrate all voices. Reading across these different perspectives offers us understandings of eras before our own, as well as insight into our own time. We learn about our neighbors and friends, our families, and our own place in this space of the American West. We build community through these stories, by reading and retelling them, by dissecting and questioning them.
As we close out February, we find ourselves nearing the end of the 2023 Winter Read, a community-wide program in which we invite everyone to read a book together. This year’s pick, Sabrina & Corina: Stories, by Kali Fajardo-Anstine, is a book that brings us all into the lives of contemporary Latinos of Indigenous descent living in the American West.
| |
Some of these stories are hard—because life is hard for some of these characters. All of these stories are, I think, beautiful—because there is always beauty to be found, wherever in history you’ve landed. | |
Each story offers a way to connect, through story, with our histories, each other, and our shared future in this beautiful and complicated place. | |
Herald from the Hemingway House | |
|
"Spending a week at the Hemingway House in Ketchum, Idaho, was a truly magical experience. Surrounded by the natural beauty of the mountains and the quiet serenity of the region, I felt completely immersed
in the rich history and spirit of Ernest Hemingway.
"The cozy atmosphere and charm made me feel right at home, and my
wife and I were able to fully relax and recharge—
a peaceful and inspiring getaway."
| |
|
~Carlos Lecanda, with his wife, Eva, at the Hemingway House.
Carlos is the artist behind the exhibit in the Library Foyer,
"Las Catrinas: A Celebration of Mexican Culture,"
part of the 2023 Winter Read: Sabrina & Corina: Stories
by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
| |
|
We've been traveling the stacks to bring you a selection of multi-cultural voices of the American West ... in English and Spanish, and print, ebook,
and eaudiobook. All free with your library card at The Community Library.
| |
|
by Luis Alberto Urrea
In print, Nonfiction
811.54 URR
| |
|
by Kilph Nesteroff
In print, Nonfiction
970.004 NES
| |
|
by Francisco Cantú
In print, ebook, and eaudiobook, Nonfiction
363.286 CAN
| |
|
by Sasha taqwšeblu
LaPointe
In print, Nonfiction
979.7004 LAP
| |
|
by Rebecca Roanhorse
In print, SF/Fantasy
SCIFIC ROA
| |
|
by Dean Rader
In print, Nonfiction
323.119 RAD
| |
|
Margarita Longoria, editor
Young Adult Nonfiction
YA 810.8 LON
| |
|
by Daniel Zúñiga González
Young Adult New
YA G FIC SPA GON
| |
by Patrick Flores-Scott
Young Adult Fiction
YA FIC SCO
| |
|
by Mifflin Lowe
in Children's New
J 978 LOW
| |
by Pam Muñoz Ryan
in Juvenile Fiction
J FIC RYA
| |
|
by Ceclia C. Pérez
in Children's New
J FIC PER
| |
|
by Yuyi Morales
in Juv Easy Spanish
J EASY SPA MOR
| |
by Pam Muñoz Ryan
in Juvenile Fiction
J FIC RYA
| |
by María Amparo Escandón
in Spanish Lit Main
SPA FIC ESP
| |
THANK YOU to Our January Donors | |
|
Serena Altschul
Barbara and Chip Angle
Anonymous - 1
Mary Bachman
Mrs. Danielle Carruth
Daphne Coble and Patrick Murphy
Taryn and Bernhard Derke
Dr. Kenneth A. Fox
Mary Pat and Joseph Gunderson
Carol and Len Harlig
Sylvia and Ronnie Hartman
The Lehman Foundation - Barbara and John Lehman
Dora Levin
Penny and Chris Mazzola
The Merrilyn Foundation
Michael S. Engl
| |
|
Rebecca and Jonathan Neeley
Nemeth-Eagle Trust
Linda and Bill Nicholson
Cheryl Parnell and Samuel Dickerman
Chiyo Parten
Kathryn Keefer Reynolds
Jennifer and Peter Roberts
Roy A. Hunt Foundation - Jodie and Dan Hunt
Lynda and Robert Safron
Pamela Sandine and Joseph P. Williams, Jr.
Sheri Slater
Maryanne and Jerry Whitcomb
Jeanne and William W. Wright
| |
|
Joyce Friedman in memory of Norman Friedman
Lynn and Dr. Bruce Kaplan in honor of Elizabeth Tierney
Lynn and Dr. Bruce Kaplan in honor of Tony Glaves
Robin Leavitt and Terry Friedlander in honor of Robin Calderon
| |
|
Robyn and Todd Achilles
Big Wood Landscape
Kathleen Diepenbrock and Kelley Weston
Claudia and John D. Gaeddert
Diana Hewett
Kyla Merwin
Elaine H. and Michael T. Phillips
Narda Pitkethly
Gay Weake
Anita Weissberg
| |
|
Did You Know You Can Also Give
Out of Your Investments?
| |
|
The Community Library is supported by people who believe in the free flow of news, entertainment, and information.
The Library gladly accepts stock donations. Also, you might look at the benefits of making a gift from your IRA (also known as IRA Charitable Rollover Gifts). Money can be transferred directly from your IRA to a 501(c)(3) charity, such as The Library, TAX-FREE! Donors must be 70½ years of age, and a gift from an IRA helps you meet your Required Minimum Distributions.
Strategize now to save on next year’s taxes. Director of Philanthropy, Carter Hedberg, is here to assist you.
| |
Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram | | | | |
