Twice as many people as last time. This is about 1/20 of the people.

#nokings

#chatterday2025

The plan is to go to the laundromat 🧺 this morning. We go super early (it‘s 5:30 am and we‘ll be packing the van 🚐 soon) so to avoid the crowds.

Later we might go swimming. 🏊‍♂️ Even later we‘ll definitely listen to the Dodgers game. ⚾️ Throughout I‘ll read a bit and I should work on my blanket (crochet). 🧶

Edited to add: Yikes, it‘s Saturday. Protest. We are going to the protest. 🪧

Back to the library because I forgot to pick up a hold yesterday. More reading and more check outs ensued.

#libraries
#childrensliterature

Bird watching at the river mouth. Took about a 30 minute hike through the dunes to get there. Definitely worth it for the beauty of the area. Now we‘re at our usual walking park/beach watching the swallows swoop and swirl, picking their lunch out of midair. :)

#birding
#centralcoast

Another nice afternoon at the library.

Decided to stop by the Channel Islands Visitor Center before our walk. So, now I have a new book. 😬

My son picked this one out, but it‘s a bit long for him. We‘ll be reading it over two nights. A bittersweet beginning to this book. Deals a little with death of a loved one. Mostly about transitions in life. Something I‘m not sure my son can remember since we‘ve finally stayed in the same place for two years. (He has trouble with long term memory.) Would be a good book to read if a child is moving to a new place.
#childrensliterature
#storygraph

Some morning reading with my tea on this cool and overcast day. I can relate to the cold of May mentioned in this book. We don‘t see any warmth until mid-July here.

#naturalitsy #midsummersolace #buddyread #litsolace

A sweet, gentle story about a fox walking through the forest at night, on her way home. It‘s a perfect bedtime story due to its slow pace and gentle scenes. The illustrations add to the quiet feel of the book.

I highly recommend reading some children‘s books during this difficult time. It really helps with emotional regulation. Many children‘s books are designed for that very purpose.

#childrensliterature

The craft for the summer reading program was decorating a rubber duckie. I think Ernie would have loved it. :)
#libraries
#Crafts

I love Mychal.

#childrenslibrarians
#libraries

Such a fun time at the Summer Reading kick off. For those of you whose kids are grown, they have a program for adults at most libraries.

Are you participating in your library‘s summer reading?

#supportthelobrary
#summerreading

1) Í have almost never preordered a book. The one time I did I had a negative experience with the bookstore. So now I just wait. Of course, with ebooks it makes it so easy that I don‘t need to preorder. Just put the date into my calendar. ?

2) See above.

#two4tuesday

All over the place. Medical insurance headaches that are already negatively impacting my kids. Over an hour trying to figure out that my daughter can‘t go to her scheduled appointment with the specialist tomorrow. I have been fighting insurance companies since my oldest was born over 28 years ago. I‘m so tired.

On the good side, my youngest son enjoyed the summer reading kickoff and I won for best speaker at Toastmasters.

#mentalhealthmonday

Happy Monday. :)
#dogman
#kidslit

A Dog Man birthday. :)

#birthdays
#childrensliterature

#chatterday2025

Shopping. 🛍️ New plants. 🌱 Our day‘s plan had to be altered. 😞 Finally picked up the tagged book at the library. 📚 Tried a new (to us) pizza place downtown. It is Neapolitan, which is crazy because I just this week learned about pizza from Naples. It is pretty tasty. 🍕 My youngest has a birthday tomorrow 🎂 so I should go buy the pancake mix. 🥞 And a speech. I am supposed to write a speech for Monday. 🤦🏼‍♂️

#5joysfriday

Pride Month begins.
Trip the dunes
And beach
Visiting the library
Prepping for summer reading kickoff

Half past seven on Daphne Major.

#firstlinefridays

Went to the beach with the kids today and I took the wrong book. 😭 😭 😭 I took one I‘d already read.

The weather is gloomy, but the cool feels nice to this middle-aged afab body. I moved away from the desert at exactly the right time. :)

How is the weather in your parts and what is your fave beach/park read?

#summerreading
#beachlife

Some of our reads at the library today.

#library #librarians #childrensliterature #familyreading

Such a cute book. My son picked this out to have me read to him today. Sweet Penelope wants so much to be a librarian. She just has one little BIG problem. A good book to show children (and adults, hopefully) that sometimes we need to get creative to make our dreams and talents match.

#review
#childrensbooks
#childrenliterature
#libraries

1) Embrace tragic optimism.
2) 🌈📚⚾️
3) A certain someone getting a black eye. God, that felt good. (Stay away from my kids and their rights and health, republicans.)

#wondrouswednesday

Book off my shelf.
Comfort read.
Library book.

#twofortuesday

1) My first thought was to say Judy Blume for the 70s and 80s afab (I see some else did the same.) But that was only when I lived in white suburbia. When I moved to white rural US during middle school, nobody read any books and no one knew what I was talking about when I mentioned the books. :/ So, I suppose it‘s only for a certain group.

2) That said, the tagged book fits 2020. 😬

It has been a very long time since I bailed on a book so early. This book was so predictable; it was boring. Add to that my most hated trope—the super nice guy in love with the least liked female + wedding night attack. If you‘ve read this genre, you know what happens next. The problem is, unlike, say, Rule of Wolves, where you are so heavily invested in the other characters that you force yourself to read on, you do not care.

#dnf
#badtropes

There are actually more, but this was the first that popped into my head. I read a lot when I was a kid.

#sundayfunday

Another children‘s book, but that is going to be my emphasis in grad school so it‘s educational. 😊

#pridemonth
#ace
#queer

#chatterday

Well, I‘m reading Six of Crows, so life is rough. I tried to switch to another, happier, series for coping, but I‘m not in the mood. (Why is there no “sad smile” emoji?)

Work is off for 3 weeks; however, it‘s unpaid so it‘s not that great. But the Dodgers won the first two games of their series against the Yankees and I did not expect it so that makes me happy. ⚾️ 😊

Reread this today to see if it can be a comfort book in the same way Six of Crows is. I love this series, but I‘m not sure it‘s got enough darkness to be my companion during the rough times.

1) Already did. I chose Lee. The reasons are a little complicated and maybe even corny.

2) when I was young I had a cat I named after my favorite comic strip, Ziggy.

3) The name William keeps popping up in my reading and in a fanfic I‘m writing, but Kaz will always be my fave. :)

As I am a white person educated in white schools, it should come as no surprise that I‘ve never heard of Diop until this morning. Was glad to find some of his works at the library.

Had my son read two chapters of Dogman, then I read some Borges.

#hyggehourreadathon

I no longer cry easily, but this turned out to be a rougher book than expected. Good character development despite its short length. These are characters I would miss greatly if they were people I‘d known.

#sundayfunday

One of the last books I bought. Used a gift certificate I got for Xmas. Sort of an impulse buy. One of the authors whose name I knew but was never exposed to as an English major.

#weekendreading

The most exciting day of the year!!!!!!

#Scholasticbookfair

Current non-fiction read with my funky weather blanket in the background. The orange color is for 60s. And I will probably mostly use that all year. #beachlife #weekends

#chatterday

Clean the kitchen, work on the blanket (crochet), do some repotting, read, and figure out the best way for my daughter to record her proofs for her finals since the school is now closed and no public library has a whiteboard that we can use for free.

This was such a fun read. Great little mystery with well-developed (for the reading level) characters, a cross between two of my childhood favorites: Nancy Drew and Harriet the Spy. Recommended reading for 4th through 7th grade. I‘ve enjoyed it so much that I‘m going to look for the next book at my library.

#childrensliterature
#schoollibraries

Got me some pink yarn today. I‘m going to attempt to make my youngest a little Kirby doll for his birthday. #crochet

#wondrouswednesday

🌹 I have two that I loved & still own the copies I had as a child nearly 50 years ago. 1) Snow Treasure. 2) The Ghost of Dibble Hollow. They were great escapes from my life. I‘m still an escapist reader when it comes to fiction.

🌺 🌺 Kaz Brekker from Six of Crows, but mostly because when one of his plans is dashed, it doesn‘t take him long to come up with another. He never quits. I resonate with that.

🌷 🌷 🌷 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Display in the school library where I‘m working this week. :)

#petethecat
#dogman
#grinch
#flyguy
#childrensliterature
#schoollibrary

I have spent the last several months working with K-8 students using school libraries as my “office.” I have definitely rediscovered my love for children‘s books. I‘m seriously considering switching to children‘s collections for my Master‘s.

This book is pretty good, so far. I got about a quarter of the way through today because all my second graders were independent minded and told me to bugger off while they worked. :D

#childrensliterature

Going to take a break this summer. I know it means I‘ll have to double up on work in the fall, but I feel like if I don‘t do it this way, I‘ll just quit altogether.

So, lots of reading, lots of writing, lots of planting, lots of crochet and cross-stitch. And, maybe, I‘ll finally decide on a sewing machine and finally learn how to make Kirby pjs for my son who has outgrown children‘s clothing.

#summerplans
#gradschool

My Mother‘s Day gift from my youngest. :) He knows Jiggly Puff is my favorite. 😍

#sundayfunday
Ok, hear me out. I‘ve read this series over 10x now so I should be able to analyze every character. :D That said, Inej‘s mother is my favorite mom because the love she and Inej‘s father gave to Inej in a very strong way helps Inej survive the hellish life she lives once she‘s kidnapped. Kaz continuously thinks “How can Inej still see good in anyone?” It‘s because Inej knows her parents love her, even when they are torn apart. ⬇️

Not much going on except finals this weekend. I finished my exam this morning. I‘m slogging through my project the next two days. This is one of those classes where I‘ll be glad with an A- (which in my program is 96%).

#chatterday
#mlis
#gradschool
#academia
#finalsweek

The only surprise is that it‘s taken this long. The email referred to Dr Hayden in the familiar. Also, they claimed Dr Hayden had placed inappropriate material for children in the library. It‘s almost like they do not know what the Library of Congress does. They saw “library” and a Black, educated woman, and this was their knee-jerk reaction. We are well and truly cooked as a country.

#libraryofcongress
#trumphatestheeducated

Left: what I‘m doing
Right: what I‘d rather be doing, plus the Dodgers spring training hat. :)

#highered #reading #dodgers #priorities #finalsweek