Knitting in the City

February 10, 2021March 24, 2021 annbh3561 Comment

When launched as a Covid coping tool, Knit+ Librarian was intended to highlight my current reading without being too book-reportish. However, a quick review of recent posts reveals a dearth of titles and lest you think this librarian has given up on books – not to worry. I have simply opted not to report each book title-by-title. My Goodreads account is a finely-tuned tool that provides titles, dates and ratings on a five-star scale, as well as a list of what I am reading and an ever-growing want-to-read list. At the moment I have six titles open:

Ghosts of the Shadow Market by Cassandra Clare – a YA paranormal fantasy audio book for multitasking while I knit
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson and A Good Time for the Truth, an anthology edited by Sun Yung Shin – for upcoming book discussions I am leading at church (reported on earlier)
The Bookseller by Mark Pryor – the first in the Hugo Marston murder series for the upcoming The Directors’ bookclub
The Art of the Wasted Day by St. Paul author Patricia Hampl – a recent gift from a friend
Knitlandia by Clara Parkes – another gift from a friend that I come back to chapter by chapter.

Let me recommend – – – For light reading with a knitting tie-in, author Penny Reid, provides the right combination of good things – character development, dialogue, humor, all set against a Chicago backdrop – in her Knitting in the City series. I have finished Book 5: Happily Ever Ninja and downloaded book 6 to my iPad. These contemporary romances can be read as stand-alone titles but there is a nice flow between the books as we meet seven good friends who gather every Tuesday night to knit or crochet all the while enjoying adult beverages and offering great worldly advice. As with every title within this genre, the expected occurs – girl meets boy, attraction, romance and love happen albeit with some challenges. Unlike some series where the characters are so interchangeable so as to be cardboard cutouts from one title to the next, the women of Knitting in the City are as unique as any collection of your friends. Reid uses knitting as a connecting thread week-to-week as the story and relationships develop sufficient to keep any fiber lover happy but without overwhelming the non-knitter. Sometimes she even slips in references to Ravelry patterns. And, for the really knit-nerdy, Reid offers a companion title that includes 27 patterns based on her characters’ knitting creations.

Happy reading!

Reading

Book Club: The Thursday Murder Club

January 14, 2021June 30, 2021 annbh3561 Comment

When I started Knit+ Librarian, I thought I could simply resurrect my blogging skills and, violà, creativity would abound. But I forgot that while the WYSIWYG environment is easy to navigate it also abounds in sophistication. Depending on themes and choices, the options for style and design are wildly numerous. So, as part of my 2021 self-improvement resolutions, I registered for WordPress Courses and, dear reader, you may see some different posts (not just knitting or baking) as I experiment with tools and techniques. First up – learning new formatting options and inserting a YouTube video.

The Directors – a library loving, book reading, wine drinking group of retired friends – just finished our first book club discussion, something new for the new year. Our kickoff title was the charming debut mystery, The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. The septuagenarian and octogenarian characters are laugh-out-loud funny as they gather evidence, support the local constabulary, enjoy a cocktail and, of course as our heroes, solve the mystery. We all agreed, later in life, we could easily conceive of living in such a retirement village as the one nestled in the hills of Kent, England. Enjoy a book promoting interview with the author.

Reading

When life interests intersect …

December 15, 2020August 19, 2022 annbh3564 Comments

Throughout my library career I advocated for the Minnesota Center for the Book and the Minnesota Book Awards. I’ve booktalked Book Award nominated titles and represented Greater Minnesota on the Book Award Advisory Committee, as well as attended receptions at the Library of Congress to celebrate the work of Centers for the Book around the United States.

So I was excited to learn about a new book club – One Book / One Minnesota. Launched in the spring of 2020 as Minnesota went into Covid quarantine and libraries closed their doors to walk-in patrons, One Book encouraged Minnesotans to read together. The three titles selected thus far feature award winning Minnesota authors:

A blending of reading good books by Minnesota authors and retirement life came together last night as I led an online book discussion of A Good Time for the Truth. This anthology contains 16 extremely well written chapters, each by a different Minnesota author, each a Person of Color living and working in our state. Artfully edited by Sun Yung Shin. The first lines of her introduction read:

“You hold in your hand a book of visions. Memories. True stories. Shock. Grief. Dreams. Activism. Recognition. A call for us to listen and learn about one another’s real lives in Minnesota.“

While the setting and many of the references are Minnesota specific, the stories are real whether they occur in Minneapolis or Minocqua, Rochester or Rockford or any city, USA. Stories which reveal how those who look like me – white, middle-aged, educated, financially comfortable, that is to say privileged – take for granted our place in this white patriarchy. Or, conversely as Sun Yung Shin states:

“Most people of color in the United States have to think about race every day, multiple times a day. We are constantly negotiating our bodies, our selves, our identities, in a racialized society.“

These stories are so well written and revealing that I could only read one at a time before setting down the book and taking time and space to reflect, sometimes to cry, about the injustices and inequities to which I was blind. This same sentiment was expressed by several participating in our church’s Common Read book discussion.

We are living the great American democratic experiment. But for it to be truly successful, all the voices need to be heard. Those Indigenous People with whom our government has repeatedly broken trust. Those whose ancestors were brought here against their will chained in the holds of slave ships. Those who came to this “land of opportunity” for a myriad of reasons and every day enrich the whole of our existence but whose contributions are minimized because they are different. I encourage you to pick up a copy of A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota. Read with an open heart the beauty of the language on the page and hear the stories of fellow Americans. After, give me a call or an email or a text so we can chat as we grow and learn together.

P.S. If you want to hear some of the authors in their own voices, check out this One Book / One Minnesota YouTube video with Sun Young Shin and six of the anthology’s authors.