Your Neighborhood Librarian Recommends

I learned a lot from the 751.2 section of our libraries and about a dozen inter library loans. Through my experiments I have found The Flower Painter's Essential Handbook by Jill Bays to be the most helpful, straight forward, and step-by-step. I look forward to painting more. I also figured out why watercolor is so appealing to me. It is a little like pysanky, which I have been making for over 15 years in that you work from light to dark and you have to have a picture in mind before you start. I also like that there are so many happy accidents when you work wet on wet, go with bold strokes, and work quickly-- all things I have found I need to do to create the best look. Also, no eraser, make it work or try again!

This week I started to paint with watercolor. My kiddos have Crayola paints and Melissa and Doug Paint Pads. I have tubes of "Crafts 4 All" inexpensive paint from Amazon. If we are successful at this endeavor we will upgrade. First, I went to the 751.2 nonfiction section of our local public library. I found a lot of books to peruse. I recommend the DK book for young people and beginners. I also bought 2 books after a lot of research. One is for more simple paintings and one is for more realistic botanical paiting. I am only interested in flowers at this point but I am intrigued by landscapes. Here are pictures of my experiments and book recommendations. My pansy painting got 106 likes on Facebook! I don't think I have ever recieved that many for any other thing, maybe a new baby. Happy Painting!

I have some go-to types of books for reading for fun: Billy Bryson style humorous nonfiction, cooking/travel fiction or nonfiction (anything about Julia Child), Jane Austen inspired fiction, lighter murder mysteries with some historical component, and smart romantic comedies. Other types have floated in and out of rotation. Man, I  really lucked out with this last romantic comedy. It makes me wonder what is next in my to read pile because if it is another rom com I might have to skip it for a while and branch out. Evvie Drake Starts Over was fun and believable. I liked looking in on the characters lives and I rooted for them to succeed. I highly recommend it. Serve with a Campari and soda.

This is your summer beach read. You're welcome. Do you love Shakespeare? Do you have a problem copy editing random things people might not appreciate you editing? Our protagonist does. She also starts this story as a doubter of astrology. I dig and dig for books like this. I start about 30 ARCs a month and abandon them with sadness.  I am  tickled that the author is also a Gemini Librarian.

First of all, don't ever tell me a picture book is "cute". A friend, (who had been on the Caldecott and Newbery Committees) who was the nicest librarian who ever lived, would get so angry when anyone dismissed a picture book as "cute"-- really people there are so many other words. There is so much depth and complexity in children's literature, at least their should be. Even Captain Underpants has a few different layers. Pictures books are a beautiful medium for authors and illustrators to share stories. They build visual literacy, have depth, and connect children to the world around them. Most teacher and parents use picture books as teaching tools with young people. For a book to be successful to me, it has to have a gel between the story and illustrations. It should have a flow between pages and as a whole work. Some of the best have a great theme and they should never patronize young people. That's Children's Literature 101 lesson A. Moving on...

This is a nice cookbook for a new cook, young or old. There are many great tips such as cracking the freshly hardboiled eggs and letting them sit in cold water to make them easier to peel ( I also add baking soda to the water while boiling). The recipes looked pretty solid and there are a lot of them. They include verything from breakfast smoothies to baked, grilled, slow cooked meals. I could see a young person who is honing their skills in the kitchen really liking this. The style is mature enough that any age beginner would like it.

    This is my personal experience and opinion. Please pardon my conversational tone and know that this is not all I have to say on the subject. It is about one percent of what could be said in defense of libraries and in defense of equitable access to information.         With that said... I don't bite. Pardon the fishing metaphor but when someone says something that is wrong or ignorant on the internet, in the comments, in passing, 99% of the time I don't bite. I mentally remind myself just to let it go. But in person, especially with people I am close to, I sometimes bite. I have had to explain to people more often lately why libraries are important. In the most recent instance a relative casually said libraries will be  "obsolete" and are "replaced by the internet".       So I said something like this: I teach 21 classes, 375 students every 6 day cycle. Our library checks out 18,000 PRINT BOOKS A YEAR. That is one school. Yes we have...