November Book Club Picks

Here's what the Sandy and Hoodland libraries are reading for November!

Men's Book Club

Monday, November 4th
7:00 PM
Sandy Library Community Room

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

For further information please contact Maureen Houck: mhouck@ci.sandy.or.us

 

Digital Book Club 

Thursday, November 7th
7:00 PM
Online via Zoom

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

For further information and to receive the Zoom link, contact Kat Aden: kaden@ci.sandy.or.us

Women's Book Club

Thursday, November 14th

6:00 PM

Sandy Library Community Room

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

For further information please contact Maureen Houck: mhouck@ci.sandy.or.us

*Please note that the Women's Book Club is now in person only. 

Hoodland Book Club

Tuesday, November 19th

4:00 PM

Hoodland Community Room

Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal

For further information please contact Alex Steinmetz: asteinmetz@ci.sandy.or.us

Sandy Seed Library - October 2024

Upcoming Events

Alternative Ground Cover

This presentation will explain how a few small (and large) changes to your landscape can reduce time devoted to its maintenance, reduce expenses, and provide a friendly environment for the other creatures with which we share it.

When: Thursday, Oct 17th at 6pm

Where: The Sandy Library Hoyt Community Room

A Shroom of One's Own: At Home Edible Mushroom Production

by OSU's Extension Service

If you like growing your own food, then perhaps culinary mushroom cultivation is next on the menu for you. With a focus on Shiitake mushrooms, OSU Extension agent Alicia Christiansen will cover preferred growing media, inoculation methods, caring for your logs, money-saving tips, harvesting and more.

When: Tuesday, Oct 8th from 12-1pm

Where: Free Online - Register Here

How Does Fire Affect Wild Bees & Other Pollinators?

Bee City USA Action Group is hosting Dr. Graham Frank, a forest ecologist, to discuss the effects of wildfires on the biodiversity in our local ecosystem.

When: Thursday, Oct 10th from 6-7pm

Where: Sandy Community Center (38348 Pioneer Blvd, Sandy)

Banned Books Week: September 22 - September 28

 

Banned books week is an annually event celebrating the freedom to read. Starting in 1982, Banned Books Week began as a way to highlight growing censorship taking place in libraries, bookstores, and schools. 

Celebrating Banned Books Week and highlight the growing call for censorship is more important than ever this year. In 2023, the number of titles targeted by censorship in libraries grew over 92% from the previous year. 

Although this number seems to have grown exponentially, book bans have been going on for centuries. According to Freedom to Read, book banning goes back to 259 BC when Chinese emperor Shih Huang Ti burned Confucian scholars for writing down the history of their time. And in America, the first instance of book banning was in 1637 (before America was even a country) when the Puritans banned Thomas Morton's New English Canaan. 

The theme for Banned Books Week 2024 (September 22-28) is "Freed Between the Lines." We can find freedom in the pages of a book — but book bans and censorship threaten that freedom, along with many other rights and institutions. - ALA

Here are a few ways you can celebrate banned books week:

• Read a banned book! The ALA publishes a list of the top 10 banned books every year, check out 2023s list and reserve a copy through LINCC. 
• Spread the word! Check out the social media graphics here and share them to your social media! 
• Follow a banned author on social media!
• Check your local library or bookstore for banned book week events!
• And always, support the freedom to read! 

Book banning is not something we can easily escape, but we can do our best to support the freedom to read, expand our reading to include banned books and ensure that censorship doesn't creep into our backyard. 

What's your favorite banned book? 

Head to BannedBooksWeek.org or the ALA Banned Books Week site to learn more. 

October Book Club Picks

  Here's what the Sandy and Hoodland libraries are reading for September!

 

Digital Book Club 

Thursday, October 3rd
7:00 PM
Online via Zoom

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

For further information and to receive the Zoom link, contact Kat Aden: kaden@ci.sandy.or.us

Men's Book Club

Monday, October 7th
7:00 PM
Sandy Library Community Room

Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization by Neil deGrasse Tyson

For further information please contact Maureen Houck: mhouck@ci.sandy.or.us

Women's Book Club

Thursday, October 10th

6:00 PM

Sandy Library Community Room

Same Author October - Harlan Coben

Read and discuss any book by the author Harlan Coben

For further information please contact Maureen Houck: mhouck@ci.sandy.or.us

*Please note that the Women's Book Club is now in person only. 

Hoodland Book Club

Tuesday, October 15th

4:00 PM

Hoodland Community Room

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

For further information please contact Alex Steinmetz: asteinmetz@ci.sandy.or.us

Happy Roald Dahl Day!

 

I think it is safe to say that every child is impacted by the works of Roald Dahl in one way or another. 

Whether you've seen Matilda for the first time, your teacher reads you the BFG, or you were horrified by Anjelica Houston in The Witches, Roald Dahl is likely a staple of you or your kids childhood. 

That's because Roald Dahl creates magic. A chocolate factory? A talking fox? A GIANT PEACH? His stories build a world of imagination. 

September 13th is celebrated as Roald Dahl day in honor of the author's birthday. Although the author left us in 1990, his magic still resonates. 

We asked some of our staff members what Roald Dahl has meant to them and here are some of their answers:

Brianna Chase, Library Clerk:

"James and the Giant Peach" is one of my earliest memories of having a book really spark my imagination. It was so much fun to insert myself into the story and imagine what it would be like to live inside a peach and to have a bunch of creatures as friends.

Richard Camp, Library Clerk:

As a kid, his stories were huge for me, but as wannabe-writer adult, it's his writing shed that I admire most (which Wes Anderson recreated for his Dahl Netflix adaptations).

Photo via Austin Kleon

Alex Steinmetz, Library Assistant:

I checked out Charlie and the Chocolate Factory probably a dozen times from my elementary school library. I also made a clay scene from James and the Giant Peach that I entered into my county fair (and won!). Needless to say, many of my core memories of my childhood stem from Roald Dahl. 

What is your favorite Roald Dahl book? 

Seed Library News - September 2024

 "If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need." - Cicero

Recap: Composting with Garden Debris and Worms Bins

"Composting is just one species digesting another species," - Kris LaMar

Our wonderful presenter provided us with a lot of the science behind composting and how we are simply mimicking nature by recycling our kitchen scraps and yard debris.

And leave it to Kris to make learning about worms so exciting! She let us know that worm castings contain more microorganisms, more inorganic minerals, and more organic matter in a form that is more readily available to plants than soil. The only thing to take note of is that it is nitrogen rich, which is great for foliage production, but not as much for fruit.

Since many of us have clay heavy soil, it's nice to know that adding compost once a year will reduce the compaction and make the soil more workable and drain better.

I have been chatting away about composting for over a month, and in my conversations, one of our patrons shared with me about her time in Uganda. The village she worked in used a keyhole garden method. The garden was planted in a mound that surrounded a composting center. Often these gardens are located near kitchens, so food scraps are easily added to the composting center. This got me so excited that she agreed to share a video with me!

To watch a video on how to assemble a Uganda style keyhole garden, click here.

If you are interested in creating something similar for yourself, you can do an internet search of "keyhole composting garden bed" to will find many examples on how to build yourself one or purchase a kit to assemble.

Recommended Reading

Composting for the Absolute Beginner by Dede Cummings

This book does get a little bit repetitive at times, but it offers a lot of useful information and perspectives.

One of these perspectives is that of Cheryl Wilfong - she does not like to turn her compost which means it will take more time to become the nutrient-rich soil amendment. For this reason, Cheryl has 3 bins on her property. Each bin represents a different year. When the year is up, she will not add to that bin again, and by the end of year 3, the first bin it is ready.

No-Waste Composting: Small-Space Waste Recycling Indoors and Out by Michelle Balz

Each option presented in this book provided a DIY example that was very easy to follow. I was most intrigued by the terra-cotta pot system. If anyone has experience with this system, I would love to hear about it.

Michelle Balz has an additional book that touches on keyhole composting as well, Composting for a New Generation

Worms Eat My Garbage and

Worms Eat My Garbage: How to Setup and Maintain a Worm Composting System by Mary Appelhof

I appreciated that Mary mentions weighing the amount of food waste your household produces in a week to determine the size bin you may need.

Upcoming Events

Preserving Tomatoes Presented by OSU Extension Service. Learn how to safely preserve tomatoes and tomato products, such as salsa, using food preservation equipment available through the Library of Things. When: Friday, Sept 13th at 6pm Where: The Sandy Library Hoyt Community Room Fall and Winter Gardening Once the temperatures fall, along with the rain, gardeners often want to "pack it up" and concentrate on indoor plants. But there's lots to be done in the fall and into winter, so next year's garden will thrive. From clean up, to soil testing, to caring for "tender perennials", to growing winter vegetables, the list is endless! And let's not forget how we can make our landscapes friendly to the wild animals who also call it "home". When: Thursday, Sept 19th at 6pm Where: The Sandy Library Hoyt Community Room To receive all the latest Seed Library news email Brianna Chase: bchase@ci.sandy.or.us to sign up for the newsletter!

We Love Memoirs Day!

August 31st is known as We Love Memoirs Day! And boy, do we ever! Many of us at the Sandy and Hoodland Libraries are swapping some of our favorite memoirs, and we thought we'd share a few with you!

Kat Aden Recommends: 

A Sense of the World by Jason Roberts

It is about an incredible 18th century travel who climbed Mt. Vesuvius while it was active and he happened to also be blind! It's an incredible peek into that century and their approach to medicine as well as their ableist attitudes and an honest account of an absolutely incredible person who defied the odds of his century. 

Brianna Chase Recommends: 

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

A beautiful journey through a women's experience handling her deep love for her family and how she handles setting boundaries with them as she gets older. Jeannette lived a highly unusual childhood and the way she balances the traumatic with the love and admiration is very compelling. 

To Shake the Sleeping Self by Jedidiah Jenkins

I am fascinated by journeys that take people out of their ordinary lives and they are then shaped and changed through the challenges of that journey. Jed is a very thoughtful person and writer. His insights encourage self-reflection. 

Felicite Toney Recommends: 

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jeannette McCurdy

Abuse doesn't always look the way we expect it to. Maybe that's because it's so familiar or because it's coming from someone we love deeply. For McCurdy, she lived through years of abuse from her mother without realizing it. This is her story. (The author, a former child actor, narrates the audiobook).

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton (graphic memoir)

Darkness, isolation, harassment -- these are a few of the themes found in Kate Beaton's graphic memoir of the two years she spent working in the Canadian oil sands. There is so much depth in this story, you'll be left thinking about it long after you've finished reading it. (Great recommendation for book clubs). 

Alex Steinmetz Recommends: 

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

This memoir circles around Kaysen's time in a psychiatric hospital when she was 18 years old. She paints a portrait of psychiatric care in the 60s, as well as her relationship with other patients. This book sticks with you long after you've finished reading it. 

Blood, Bones, & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton

If you are a foodie, you will love this book. Eschewing the typical culinary school to restauranteur path, Hamilton writes about the importance that food held to her family, and how she reluctantly became a chef. 

All of these memoirs are currently available in the LINCC catalog. What's your favorite memoir?