LIBRARY GROUP COULD USE SOME MORE FRIENDS

BY SUSAN SCHWARZ The Valley Dispatch

As you can see and as promised, the grass is mowed.

No one could stand it anymore so upon advice of lawyers, we mowed.

We are not collecting nor do we really want donations of books now. We have no book sale in the works and there is not room to put all the stuff. What is worse is that some of the items being donated are moldy. If mold comes into the library, it is capable of destroying our whole collection.

If the books smell to you, don’t give them to us. We’ll just have to put them in the trash the same way you should. No one wants books that are dirty, smelly or in bad shape, least of all a library.

Many of you have made use of the passes purchased by the Friends of the Library for museums and zoos. These passes will soon be in jeopardy. Since the library moved off site, the Friends of the Library have not had a fundraiser or a well-attended meeting.

There are still two people trying to keep the organization together, but they cannot do it alone. We had hoped to have a book sale this fall, but with no one to help sort and take part, the sale will not happen. Friends do not meet a lot. Time demands are few. They meet to decide the time and function for a fundraiser and then work at the appointed times.

We are happy to take names either by e-mail, by phone or by just telling us when you visit. We will give names to Betty and maybe we can restart the Friends. If you cannot give this group a small bit of time, the passes will expire and not be renewed. They have until next May to put enough aside to repurchase the passes, which cost $300 to $600 apiece. The only other way to keep the passes is to have someone purchase one for the library when these run out, and who can afford that? Would you become a Friend? Leave your name and we will pass it on.

OK, school is open. The summer reading lists are finished. Does this mean you are no longer going to visit us? I hope not. We are still seeing many people, but I would hate to have the records we are breaking fall by the wayside. However we do understand that this is the season of almost frantic times. With Halloween just around the corner, if you need ideas, we have a lot of materials available. If you want to brush up on sports information, we’ve put quite a few books out for you to look at and perhaps learn a bit.

On the other hand, if you just want to read, Donna Andrews is back with another in the Meg Langslow mysteries. No Nest for the Wicket continues with the zany ideas and activities of this family and somehow, somewhere, there has to be a family like this one. The characters are just short of weird but loving and fun. The stories are never run of the mill and the mysteries well, they are just part of the story. If you want to laugh while you solve the puzzle, try one of hers.

Watch out for the new Sandra Brown offering. Wow, from a very light romance writer to Ricochet, her first hardcover effort, is a big jump. This is not light; it is not her standard format and may upset some of her readers. When a detective knows that a killer is walking free and the judge in question comes down hard on him, what is this detective to do when called to investigate a shooting at the judge’s house? Walk a very thin line you would suppose, but the tale gets even more difficult when the judge’s wife becomes involved. From then on, the story gets stranger. I would have attributed this to almost any other author, but Brown pulls off one of the more interesting endings in her career as an author.

See you soon.

Susan Schwarz is the director of the Moses Greeley Parker Library.