For over 20 years, the Minnesota Book Awards have celebrated Minnesota authors connecting readers and writers of all genres. The 36 finalists for the 2021 award were just announced and include some favorite authors and new names too. Check out the list for your reading pleasure and then check back April 29 when the winners will be announced. Or, even better, join the free virtual festivities.
After decades of librarianship and managing countless summer reading programs for children and winter reading programs for adults – all encouraging the pure enjoyment of reading (whatever form: paper page or tablet or headphones), I have discovered the phenomenon of reading challenges. While I have participated in any number of knitting challenges: 52 hats in one year, 12 shawls, themed cowls, etc., I never thought about reading challenges other than to set an annual Goodreads goal along with 2.6 million other Goodreads participants. But trust me they abound! I’ve listed a few resources I found inspiring but, if these are not to your liking, a simple Google search will yield 700 million more. Thanks to Swedish school librarian, Elin, for my introduction to 2021 reading challenges.
Happy Reading!
Just like “rain drops on roses…and warm woolen mittens”, good whisky should be added to Julie Andrews’s My Favorite Things. My special bottle of The Sassenach Blended Scotch Whisky Spirit of Home (not available in Minnesota) was shipped by boat from Scotland to New Jersey where USPS took up the task of delivering it safely to my Mother’s house in Wisconsin and I picked it up today for our tasting delight. They say whisky is an acquired taste and retirement is certainly allowing this acquisition. We have already enjoyed a “wee sip” necessitating the late evening, poorly light photo with the seal still intact. Thank you Sam Heughan aka Jamie Fraser.
Sláinte!
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.
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.
During the hazy days of August, The Directors – a library loving, book reading, wine drinking group of retired friends, discussed the practicality (or lack thereof) of fingerless mittens. And, eureka – a winter gift idea was born. Just as autumn arrived, I cast on the first of five pairs of mitts with colors and fibers selected for each recipient from my stash. The Mitty pattern includes three repetitive rib rows so I propped up my iPad with enlarged font and read Elizabeth Hunter’s Elemental Mysteries while knitting. Although I did have to pay close attention on the fourth mock cable row. With today’s official arrival of meteorological Winter, each friend has a pair with which to experiment or re-gift.
Stay warm. Drink hot chocolate or lots of wine.
Fox Socks Box Knox Knox in box. Fox in socks.
After my toe-up Ruisseau Socks, I swore off knitting this particular clothes item. Too fussy. All that work to complete just one and, of course, one is not enough so you are done but not done. Then the September Knit Camp project was (you guessed it) SOCKS. So, ever the practical person (after all why pay for classes and then skip them) I tackled another pair. Designed by Marie Greene and dubbed Milkshake Socks because this is “An old-fashion recipe for plain socks that you can shake up with your choice of colorful yarns. … Think of your yarn choice like adding flavor to your milkshake.”
Gauge for Ruisseau required US #1 needles. My first time working with something that small and my sock learning experience was to continue as Milkshake necessitated a #0 based on my tension and this yarn. To get a sense of size – pull out a ruler with metric measurements. A #1 needle is 2.25mm in diameter and the #0 a fraction smaller at 2mm.
New socks. Two socks. Whose socks? Sue’s socks. Who sews whose socks? Sue sews Sue’s socks.
No new yarn was purchased for this project as I did a stash dive for this orange-turquoise-gray self-striping skein called Enceladus (one of Saturn’s ice moons). The color combo was unique to Northfield Yarns and purchased during the 2015 YarnVenture shop hop. At the time I had yet to knit a pair of socks or even add them to my project queue. I picked up the exclusive hand dyed skein solely because as it was featured by what I now dub my local yarn store (LYS).
With my Milkshake Socks complete, I think I may really be done with socks – – – Thank you Dr. Suess and Fox in Socks [or not!]
We had planned a July trip to the popular destination of Nissawa. Yes, I know this Minnesota town may not be on your travel go-to list, but we enjoyed time together in August 2018 that included good conversation, shopping and attending Wine & Words. It was while we were at that first author brunch that we named ourselves, The Directors. Plus, a walk in the Grand View gardens is always a beauthiful setting. But Covid-19 foiled our 2020 plans. Initially, we simply thought to forego the large dinner/brunch gatherings but then the event planners managed a major shift from on-site to virtual and so, today, we connected online to hear the six 2020 Wine & Words authors. This year the brunch social hour had the authors video chatting from their kitchens and, appropriately, sharing drink, food, and summer canning recipes.
Knit+ Librarian 