As the Page Turns (the Book Thread)

[Susan1]

Still thinking........ right on the instruction page -
Find and open your library or school's digital collection using one of the following:

• Our new Libby app (recommended for public library users)
• Sora (available for most schools)
• The original OverDrive app (for all other library or school users)
• OverDrive.com

Not that I'm going to be able to use them anyway.

Just finding a place to type. I just got a wireless keyboard and set it up myself. Woo-hoo. I'm going to have to figure out how to type again. I don't have anywhere to put my wrists. My wrist rest is too tall. So far being farther away from the monitor is working o.k. Is the radiation or lithium battery or something making me sick? I unplugged it and I am using the battery though. I have it up on two old phone books on each side away from the fan. I tried to get an adapter for my old monitor so I can put everything on my computer desk. I didn't know what to get. He had me buy the wrong thing, but I can take it back. I'm going to try plugging it back in after I go get milk. (I'm still hitting the caps lock when I hit "a". I never did that on a regular keyboard.)

 

[Susan1]

Book drops are open!

"If you have Library materials to return, please place them directly into the Book Drop or Automated Materials Handler at your Branch Library. All returned items will be quarantined for four days. After quarantine, they will be checked in so that others may safely borrow them. The due date for anything borrowed prior to March 13 has been extended to June 30. "

And -

Curbside pickup service is now available. Here’s how to use it:

1. Reserve the items you want to borrow using our online catalog, or call the Ask Me Line at 937.463.2665 to request materials.
2. Wait for a text message, email or phone call letting you know when your items are ready for pickup.
3. Call 937.463.2665 to arrange for pickup at the Library of your choice. Curbside hours at all locations are Tuesday through Friday, 3 - 6 pm and Saturday, 12 - 3 pm.
4. When you arrive, your bagged materials will be placed directly into your vehicle trunk, or you can pick up your marked bag at the Library entrance.

Part 2 -
Guess what I just did? Took back four of my books. The update on the website was dated today, so I might have been the first person. I was the only patron. The lights were on inside, but I didn't see anybody. I had to take back the two interlibrary ones, so it would stop driving me crazy. I checked when I got home. They are checked in. And I took back two others. I still have three read, three unread and one I was reading that I didn't like that I'll have to finish now. It's got three renewals after June 30. I need to pace myself. I'll take the other three back tomorrow morning before it gets too hot.

I checked my reserve list. The one that was there on March 13 after I picked them up says Shipped 82 days ago. Another one says shipped 5 days ago and another one says shipped today. One I reserved on May 22 says pending. And the one that was reserved on March 11 still says active. I guess they stopped looking for it on March 13.

They have a curbside pickup sign outside. What if I want to use the book drop and pick up at the same time?

 

[Japanfan]

NM

 

[Susan1]

You quoted me with no comment?

I'm still trying to figure this out. Am I going to have to read my 13 digit library card number to them over the phone? And my password? This is weird.

 

[Japanfan]

You quoted me with no comment?

After rereading your post, I figured out that the point I was going to make was not relevant.

 

[Susan1]

After rereading your post, I figured out that the point I was going to make was not relevant.

okey dokey. I took the other three read books back this morning. Now they are off my "out" list. The book that has been there since March 13 now says "on hold". I was right at the library and I couldn't go in and get it! I'll have to wait for them to call or send an email?

 

[ryanj07]

My latest reads have been:

Whisper Network by Chandler Baker: It is a #metoo story of four women in the corporate world who come together when their boss, who has a questionable history with several female employees, is primed to become CEO of their company. The first 60% was very slow paced and took me over a week to get into but the action really picked up near the end. It was solid overall; not one that I would read again but I would give the author another try.

The Break by Marian Keyes: Marian has been a long time favorite of mine and thankfully she has not gone the way of Sophie Kinsella and other authors that I've grown less fond of their work with time. After 17 years of marriage, Hugh decides he is going to travel the world and take a "break" from his marriage, which surprises his wife Amy when she realizes that she is also on a break. I predicted the ending early on (but hoped I was wrong!) and really enjoyed it but it's not among my favorites from her like Anybody out there? and Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married; it's still a very good read though!

 

[Prancer]

They have a curbside pickup sign outside. What if I want to use the book drop and pick up at the same time?

Call the library and arrange a pickup time. Go there and park in the curbside delivery area. Let them deliver your books to your car. Wait until they return to the building. Drop your books off in the dropoff box. Drive away.

 

[Susan1]

Call the library and arrange a pickup time. Go there and park in the curbside delivery area. Let them deliver your books to your car. Wait until they return to the building. Drop your books off in the dropoff box. Drive away.

I can read. They have to call or email me to tell me my items are ready. I can't just call them because I see that it is on hold. They used to leave an automated message at 9:30 a.m. Now I will have to call that number back, which is the main number, not a specific library, to make an appointment at the Miamisburg library, because that's where the book is on hold. Are they going to stand outside and wait for me? How does the book actually get checked out if I do not scan my library card and put in my password?

After I have a book delivered to my car, I will have to put my car into reverse to get into the parking lot and walk across the street right where they are putting books in people's cars to put returned items in the Automated Materials Handler in the lobby because the curbside delivery area is the parallel parking in front of the building. That's Miamisburg. I don't know where West Carrollton's curbside pickup could be. It's the whole civic center's parking lot. And I'd still have to walk into the lobby to put books in the Automated Materials Handler.

 

[Prancer]

I can read.

I assumed that was the case, but then you asked.

I'll bet you could a) call them and get the answers to the rest of your questions or b) roll the dice and just go with it and find out how it works, and everything will turn out fine.

 

[Susan1]

I got the call at 9:30. Obviously it was a different message than "you have one or more titles on hold at the Miamisburg library". I have to call the main number to make an appointment. I'm guessing I will have to read my 13 digit library card number to them. (Why can't they just take it from my account on the website. I don't even have to type it in. It fills in.) And they will have to call the branch to get my books off the shelf and check them out? And I have to call the main number again when I arrive to pick up my book(s). I guess I will have to give them my license plate number? How do they notify my branch that I am sitting outside?

We're supposed to have thunderstorms in the afternoon today and tomorrow. I can only go between 3-6. I won't even be able to see if it is the right book(s). They have put the slips in the wrong books on the shelf before.

Three other books have been shipped. Maybe they will come in by Saturday. I can go between 12-3 to get all of them at once. Maybe they have to be quarantined for 4 days after they arrive from all over Ohio?

From the instructions -

or you can pick up your marked bag at the Library entrance

With nobody there? Anybody could pick up my books that I already checked out and I would be responsible for them. It took them 2-1/2 months to come up with this system?

 

[Susan1]

One more book is on hold. I will get an automated message at 9:30. I won't delete this one in case I missed any details yesterday. I just noticed it says they will be on hold for 21 days. It used to always say 7 days, but now you can't just pop in any time. I can't go between 3-6 today. The other three have been shipped, including the one from March 11.

 

[Susan1]

I've been trying since yesterday to call to arrange to pick up my two books on hold. The main line (for 10 branches) is supposed to be answered live from 12 to 3 today. It is either busy or "........helping other customers". I can't arrange a time. Plus, you are supposed to call that same number when you arrive to pick up. Nobody is going to answer while I sit in front of the library?

 

[barbk]

I finished O Pioneers! by Willa Cather, and I highly recommend. Just beautiful. The way she writes about the land, the people, and their relationships with each other was stunning. And it's easy to access for free on gutenberg.org.




I liked this book, too. Very different, but sometimes amusing and definitely thought provoking. The ending felt abrubt; reminded me of A Doll's House, where there's this tremendous defining moment and that's it, the end.

Thank you for the recommendation.



I've been thinking about reading this so thank you for the recommendation. I've never read any of her books, but the cover of this one with the cherry pie looks very inviting!

I love Willa Cather. If you haven't already read Death Comes for the Archbishop, you might like that too. I read it during a nice week visiting a friend who lived in Santa Fe. I used to get up really early and walk from her adobe on Canyon Road through downtown and the Plaza area before the shops were open and other tourists were around. It was easy to imagine myself back in time.

 

[Susan1]

Sheesh. I sent an email to the Ask a Librarian right after I posted earlier. I sat here for almost 2 hours. I had just changed clothes when the library called. They transferred me to the Miamisburg branch. She was telling me the hours I could come and I said how about now. She said o.k. and I gave her my library card number. She asked what car to look for. I told her. So I got dressed again and left. Lots of traffic. I wonder if they were all going to the protest early. I pulled up and had to turn off the car. It's 88* out. She came out and asked my name. I told her. She said I can either put them in your trunk or here on the sidewalk. I said sidewalk so I can check to see if they are the right books. She put them down - in a clear plastic bag and scurried out of the way.

About that time an older (yeah she was probably only 60, but anybody with white/gray hair looks older than me to me) woman came from the parking lot across the street and said she's been trying to call and couldn't get through so she though she would come on down. The librarian said you have to make an appointment. I said it's faster (uh - faster than never) to send an email (all of us wearing masks and yelling at each other in a triangle at least 6 feet apart because of the traffic on the street next to the library). The librarian agreed. She asked if she could get her books since she was here and the librarian took her information and went in to get them. Geez.

Next time I will use the Ask a Librarian email on the website. How long is this going to have to go on?

ETA - the new books are due June 27 (3 weeks). One has a 3x renewal, the other the usual 5x. The old books are still due June 30 with renewals.

 

[her grace]

Recent read:

I Liked My Life by Abby Fabiaschi tells the story of a father and daughter who are left picking up the pieces after the mom commits suicide. This is a thoughtful book with a lot of heart and sensitive humor that provides levity while it explores themes of guilt, forgiveness, parent-child relationships, grief, and love. I had never heard of this book before seeing it included on a list to fulfill a popsugar prompt, and this book is such a hidden gem. My best read so far this year.

 

[Susan1]

Today I read the book that has been sitting on the hold shelf in the library since March 13.

 

[ryanj07]

Recent read:

I Liked My Life by Abby Fabiaschi tells the story of a father and daughter who are left picking up the pieces after the mom commits suicide. This is a thoughtful book with a lot of heart and sensitive humor that provides levity while it explores themes of guilt, forgiveness, parent-child relationships, grief, and love. I had never heard of this book before seeing it included on a list to fulfill a popsugar prompt, and this book is such a hidden gem. My best read so far this year.

I read that one a few years ago and enjoyed it too! The ending "twist" certainly took me by surprise. I agree that it's a hidden gem, I only discovered it when a coworker gave it five stars on goodreads and l saw the great reviews.

I finished The Wedding Date and The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory. Both were okay, I liked the first one a little more than the second. I appreciate that she creates stories about diverse characters. I found the writing slightly amateurish though, I expected stronger from a Stanford law graduate. It's more of a series I'll continue reading when I want something fluffy and all of my other favorites are on hold.

 

[Susan1]

Recent read:

I Liked My Life by Abby Fabiaschi tells the story of a father and daughter who are left picking up the pieces after the mom commits suicide. This is a thoughtful book with a lot of heart and sensitive humor that provides levity while it explores themes of guilt, forgiveness, parent-child relationships, grief, and love. I had never heard of this book before seeing it included on a list to fulfill a popsugar prompt, and this book is such a hidden gem. My best read so far this year.

I just reserved that book. Thanks. It sounds like a Jodi Picoult book, but I have read a bunch of those and liked them.

Trying to catch up on my favorite authors' latest releases -
I wrote down the Connelly and Harlan Coben books. (Any others like that that I would have on my list?)

Checking James Patterson -
this Women's Murder Club came out in May - The 20th Victim
w/Maxine Paetro
And The Summer House (probably this year's "beach read") w/Brenda DuBois
And Lost w/James O. Born
Then The Midwife Murders - 08 / 11 / 2020

Next June w/Bill Clinton again - "From the authors of the #1 bestselling novel of 2018, The President Is Missing, comes the most explosive new thriller of the new decade. There's a new administration in the White House. But it's the previous First Family who tops an international assassin's hit list."

I'll have to put all these on my list on the other computer (till I can get someone to transfer my Office docs over to this laptop).

 

[Susan1]

saw these while I was looking for new releases from my list (had 2 computers/mice/keyboards going <confusing> ) -

Report: Lee Child Retiring, Turning Jack Reacher Series Over to His Younger Brother

Nope—that headline isn't a joke. Lee Child, the mega-popular, New York Times bestselling author, is done writing Jack Reacher books. According to a report from The Guardian, Child, 65 (whose real name is James Grant),

therealbookspy.com

Former Prosecutor Linda Fairstein Has Filed a Lawsuit Against Netflix

She says the series falsely portrays her as a "racist, unethical villain."

www.goodhousekeeping.com

FYI - David Rosenfelt has a new series, starting with The K Team (dogs of course). And two Andy Carpenter books coming - Muzzled, and the usual Christmas one, Silent Bite.

Lisa Scottoline's daughter, Francesca Serritella, has her first book coming out - Ghosts of Harvard. I put that on my list for later.

ETA - I was checking on the Rosenfelt books. I decided to reserve the first two because who knows how this hold thing is going to work out. Muzzled already has 28 holds.

And two more of my reserved books are ready for pickup. They will call tomorrow morning at 9:30. I'll have to email back to have them call me to arrange a time. I really wasn't planning on going out tomorrow between 3-6. We're expecting storms. Normally, I would jut run out during a dry time. It's going to be 94 and storms today around the same hours too.

 

[her grace]

I just reserved that book. Thanks. It sounds like a Jodi Picoult book, but I have read a bunch of those and liked them.

I hope you like it.

I love Willa Cather. If you haven't already read Death Comes for the Archbishop, you might like that too. I read it during a nice week visiting a friend who lived in Santa Fe. I used to get up really early and walk from her adobe on Canyon Road through downtown and the Plaza area before the shops were open and other tourists were around. It was easy to imagine myself back in time.

O Pioneers! was my first Willa Cather. I had planned to read My Antonia, but then found out it's a trilogy so had to start at the beginning! I definitely hope to read Death Comes for the Archbishop some time, too. Thank you for the recommendation.

 

[Habs]

I read that one a few years ago and enjoyed it too! The ending "twist" certainly took me by surprise. I agree that it's a hidden gem, I only discovered it when a coworker gave it five stars on goodreads and l saw the great reviews.

I finished The Wedding Date and The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory. Both were okay, I liked the first one a little more than the second. I appreciate that she creates stories about diverse characters. I found the writing slightly amateurish though, I expected stronger from a Stanford law graduate. It's more of a series I'll continue reading when I want something fluffy and all of my other favorites are on hold.

I was really annoyed by The Wedding Date. It had promise but by the end, I found the characters so ridiculous and unlikable that I almost couldn't finish.

 

[PrincessLeppard]

Willa Cather

But good on you guys for liking it. You are better people than me. (that is a grammatically terrible sentence...)

I'm reading The Passage, which is another book on the dystopian list that was posted much earlier. Of course it's a trilogy and this book is 750 pages long. Arg. Anyway, first third was amazing, second part slowed waaaaay down, but I just started the last third so I'm hoping for some improvement. I'm also not entirely sure how this storyline gets spread out over three books.

 

[puglover]

I finished the new Michael Connelly book "Fair Warning" and I quite enjoyed it. He goes down a road I haven't seen really addressed before - what happens to all the information gleaned by commercial DNA companies and how are they being regulated, if at all. Of course, as with many crime fiction books, some of it is quite implausible but it does touch on a possible new reality to worry about in modern life.

As for Lee Child and Jack Reacher - I think Lee made a tactical error years ago and his character has no where really to go. Either he (or his brother) have to backtrack and write another story from Reacher's history - or his action hero is just too old to be realistically thought of as this total kick ass hero touring the country righting wrongs and bedding young women. I don't remember which book it was in but there was a premise introduced that Reacher had a daughter. I wish he had pursued that and introduced a new character and kept Reacher around but as a beloved older, wiser and more mellow mentor and version of himself. I think Michael Connelly has avoided that with Harry Bosch by partnering him with Renee Ballard and John Stanford has the Virgil Flowers series to complement Lucas Davenport.

 

[Jenny]

@puglover agree with some of your comments. I still enjoy the books - the last one was quite good, as was the third last one (I think, I may have them mixed up). But the character was aging - physically I guess as a reflection of the author - and losing some of his kickass abilities, and along the way, becoming a bit of a sad and lonely person, which he never was before.

On the one hand I do admire trying to evolve a character, and how many times have we seen the same character decades later still apparently bedding the ladies and whatever else lookingatyouStoneBarrington like some sad middle age crisis the author is going through. But at the same time, Reacher is Reacher for some very specific reasons, including his physical strength and ability to kick butt under just about any circumstance, and his comfort with being a loner. Remember when he shacked up with someone in NY for a couple of books? No one wanted that either. Child seemed to hear that feedback, and while he kept a lot of the gross stuff going, after the time he went way too far IMO he did scale it back quite a bit (assuming in response to reader reaction), leaving in the violence but not that one great big sick thing that the story often revolved around, or built up to.

Good point about the daughter storyline - coulda gone somewhere, ditto his relationship with the one woman who appears in several books, plus I also thought he wasted the unique feature that Reacher was fluent in French, something that could have had more impact in some of the stories.

Glad the link addressed the biggest issue too - the complete miscast for the movies, which perhaps contributed to Child wanting to make the character somehow more real as he got older.

Will look up the younger brother's books, maybe this could work.

 

[Susan1]

@puglover agree with some of your comments. I still enjoy the books - the last one was quite good, as was the third last one (I think, I may have them mixed up). But the character was aging - physically I guess as a reflection of the author - and losing some of his kickass abilities, and along the way, becoming a bit of a sad and lonely person, which he never was before.


Will look up the younger brother's books, maybe this could work.

Was already checking him out -

Author Andrew Grant

The official website of author Andrew Grant

andrewgrantbooks.com

After Robert B. Parker died, different people carried on his series'. They are even called Robert B. Parker's (title of book). I like them better. There is more content, instead of starting the chapter in the middle of the page - "Hello" (double space), "Hello" (double space), I looked at her. (double space) She looked at me. (double space).....

 

[Jenny]

My husband has read some of the post-Tom Clancy books and thought they were good. Plus, I'm assuming that many older authors who still put out a new book every year are getting some or even a lot of help in churning them out.

 

[Susan1]

My husband has read some of the post-Tom Clancy books and thought they were good. Plus, I'm assuming that many older authors who still put out a new book every year are getting some or even a lot of help in churning them out.

See my list of Patterson books coming out above?

this is from 2019 - https://www.thoughtco.com/most-successful-james-patterson-co-authors-4126695

 

[emason]

Today is Day 85, the final day of the War and Peace read along hosted by apublicspace.org. We read 12-15 pages a day and then posted Twitter comments. I can now say, with pride and honesty, I have read War and Peace, all of it, skipping nothing. We used the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation, which seemed a little flat to me; I'm seriously considering starting the book over and this time reading the Maude translation. The whole thing was a fabulous experience; classic books are classic for a reason. They stand the test of time.

 

[hanca]

Today is Day 85, the final day of the War and Peace read along hosted by apublicspace.org. We read 12-15 pages a day and then posted Twitter comments. I can now say, with pride and honesty, I have read War and Peace, all of it, skipping nothing. We used the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation, which seemed a little flat to me; I'm seriously considering starting the book over and this time reading the Maude translation. The whole thing was a fabulous experience; classic books are classic for a reason. They stand the test of time.

That’s 85 days that no one gives you ever back.