Valuable, urgent lessons for these WILD times we are currently witnessing.
Link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/borrowed-returned/id1453877748?i=100071630...

Ruthless. Stealing people‘s lives from ‘em and making ‘em work to make ‘em money. The old folks back on the island used to say that‘s why they were white; they lost all their color when they lost their souls. You gotta be a certain type of soulless to believe you can own somebody the way they do.

If you know, you know!!!! 🐈😽📚💳

(But, this is what my husband and I refer to as returning books to the library…dropping them off in the Dewey Box)!

My checkouts today.
I have 14 total checkouts right now…I‘ve GOT to get back on track to go through my own shelves, so I can read➡️choose what to donate. I‘m not sure when we‘re moving yet, but I want to be prepared!

This was a moving, tragic and powerful memoir. Nearly every page is a gut punch. From a young age, Dr. Amani knew she wanted to break the norms and do something extraordinary with her life. She became educated in the medical field and immediately threw herself into the pain of others, believing she could make a difference. With bombs all around, continuous strikes, shrapnel, gunfire and collapsing buildings, she continued to show up and⬇️

I am not hopeless. I know that human beings are capable of changing history. I believe in the ability of people in democracies to change government policies and to help others elsewhere through humanitarian gestures if their governments won‘t. We can all do our part. My colleagues and I in The Cave never faltered or wondered, What difference can one person make? Every helping hand is precious. Individual efforts can snowball into ⬇️

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️📚🤍

In the final installment of the trilogy, the legacy of Mr. Murray McBride lives on. Twenty years after his time with Jason, he continues to inspire despite his death. Jason is now living on borrowed time, as his heart is giving out. He has complex feelings about accepting a new donated heart, but when he meets a small girl who is unjustly fated to deportation, his entire life changes. Another list of wishes is created, and a new mission⬇️

The legacy of Mr. Murray McBride continues in the second book of this heartwarming trilogy. Two years after his wife died, he has lost the will to live—until he meets a 10 year old boy who will soon die unless he gets a new heart. Together, they try to fulfill 5 wishes, receiving a new meaning for their lives.

The first of a trilogy that focuses on one man who leaves behind a legacy in more ways than one, this was such a touching book. Mr. Murray McBride‘s wife Jenny has Alzheimer‘s and he can no longer care for her on his own. He makes it his mission to give her one last beautiful day, vowing never to leave her side while she still breathes. What would you do with that kind of day? How would you show that unyielding love?

How do you get someone to believe a lie? You create distractions, change the language, look for vulnerabilities, and you repeat the lie again, again, and again. We are living in a time of horrific events that are being erased right in front of our eyes, regardless of hard evidence (video, photograph, eye witness). Document everything while you still can. Speak the truth, hold them accountable! An important read as we watch democracy fade.

At first, I hesitated when I saw this book, because I don‘t like romance. But I saw a good review here, took a second look, and decided to check it out. I loved this book! I would love to see it adapted onto the big screen. Full of dark humor, this is a lighthearted story about grief, family relationships, and death. What would you do when you‘re a ghost writer, and the ghost of your editor suddenly shows up at your door when you‘re⬇️

When it‘s the 1950s and you‘re a Black woman working in a high design wedding shop owned by a white woman, and you have a 6th sense…your secret won‘t stay secret for long. The main character finds herself in such a situation with secrets too dark to stay buried, and inquiring people who don‘t have good intentions are demanding secrets be told. An interesting read, especially if you‘re a person with an extra sense.

This book had very ‘Stranger Things‘ vibes and that‘s why I wanted to read it. A secret compound where gifted children are kidnapped, held hostage and abused. What could go wrong? A screen adaptation is coming soon!

This was a moving memoir about a privileged woman accused of a murder she did not commit, who then found herself incarcerated, and at the center of a huge Italian news story. I am trying to learn more about incarceration and so I wanted to read this book. Her story echoes the misogyny the world throws at women who end up in a troubled situation. Amanda is pulled back and forth into prison, through acquittal and back again. It is frustrating ⬇️

I was really excited about this book but by the time it wrapped up, I didn‘t love it. When a woman with a traumatic past ends up moving into a historic home to try and end her writer‘s block, she meets someone who is obsessed with Poe…maybe a bit too much.
I liked elements of the story (dark, gothic academia Poe, occult minded people), but I just wasn‘t into the ending. It felt too obvious.

This is exhausting. All of it. Pretending to be okay while the world changes around you and leaves you behind to sit with whatever loss you found.

I knew this book would tear me open and shatter me; it did. Each page, I felt like I would cry. In the last few pages, when she describes the last moments, I did. I am a hospice volunteer, and a family member of someone with Alzheimer‘s; I know this devastation personally. It is a hell I wish on no one; it (and any dementia) is the thief of all thieves. I will always support bodily autonomy in every aspect—MAID medical aid in death) is no ⬇️

It came to him (and with the force of a revelation) that life was basically one long SAT test, and instead of four or five choices, you got dozens. Including shit like some of the time and maybe so, maybe not.

Her name was Marjorie Kellerman, and she ran the Brunswick library. She also belonged to something called the Southeastern Library Association. Which, she said, had no money because “Trump and his cronies took it all back. They understand culture no more than a donkey understands algebra.”

(Much love to SK for always taking trash about this orange nazi fuck). ⭐️

In the past, I would have said that I was heartbroken. These days, I know better what “heartbroken” is and I‘m a little ashamed that I used to use it so lightly and foolishly, indulging in my own rich emotional life. What an idiot.

I encourage her, again, to talk to her daughters about her concerns and I know everything I am saying is pointless. Finally, I ask for her daughter‘s phone numbers, and Rachel cannot or will not give the numbers to me. She winds up in the care of one of her daughters, and she does not get to Dignitas, because that window probably closed two years earlier, and she will spend the rest of her life in a memory-care unit, and the best outcome I⬇️

Whether you are medical personnel, clergy, worried child, or hopeful spouse, you do know, even if you never say so, that this disease progresses as steady as winter, and the person who is still smiling that crooked, loving smile this year, even as they are unsure about locations, histories, appointments, and bills, will be unable to truly converse with meaning or engage in a relationship in a couple of years and will be unable to walk or ⬇️

I‘d rather die on my feet than live on my knees.

Reading is for everyone…but you should know how to recognize propaganda when it is presented, and how to have conversations that examine it with critical thinking skills.

There‘s a lot of deception out there.

Link to read: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/03/far-right-book-publishing-passag...

Link to read: https://archive.ph/2025.05.26-112416/https://magazine.1000libraries.com/this-lib... This Library in New Zealand Is Replacing Dewey With a System Rooted in Māori Tradition - Magazine

I don‘t want to end my life, he said, but I‘d rather end it while I am still myself, rather than become less and and less of a person.

I‘m looking forward to wrapping up the Mr. Murray trilogy. I had this on hold but couldn‘t resist looking at the new release shelf…where I saw 2 copies of ‘I See You‘ve Called In Dead‘, which I first heard about on NPR (I‘m intrigued). Friends Helping Friends is one I‘m taking a chance on..we‘ll see. Friends, my library books are piled up on the table…I bring on the pressure all by myself, feeling anxious about due dates. But isn‘t this a⬇️

“Vainly my heart had with thy sorceries striven:
It had no refuge from thy love,—no Heaven
But in thy fatal presence;—from afar
It owned thy power and trembled like a star…”

(Be still my gothic heart!)

I wasn‘t the first woman to be slapped with a scarlet letter, and I know I won‘t be the last.

Silly girl, tables are for eating😬🤓📚

My holds came in…picking up No More Tears wasn‘t planned, but it was on the new release shelf, which I had to look at. Dark, informative stuff I want to get into.

We each control the amount of love we have in our lives. Because at any time, no matter what‘s going on, we can choose to give it.

I felt like this was an informative memoir. The author shares her experience as a single mom who escaped an abusive relationship--dreams of being a writer.  Going to school for it while working (cleaning houses) and struggling to house and feed her and her young daughter, with very little support, and lots of stigma...more so, when she was facing another unplanned pregnancy.  We‘re always told ‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps”, get⬇️

I loved this movie—the visuals have stayed with me through the years. The book is very similar but feels even darker. All fairytales are cautionary in some way. This one is no different…we would do well to remember the lesson from this story in our current times.

One hold, one newly discovered.

My husband made this accurate AI picture of us today🤣
He often comes home only to find me at the library behind our house🤓📚, or walking back with more books😬

I love food writing and food memoirs. I didn‘t know what ‘cellar rat‘ meant before reading this book. My knowledge about wine is limited, but I enjoy cooking with it and like to have a glass sometimes. Here, the author shares her entire journey within the restaurant world, from beginning to end. Revealing layers of rampant abuse, it made me wonder about all the places I‘ve eaten, and will eat in. Food industry workers don‘t get the⬇️

I loved this book. Chef Jose Andres founded World Central Kitchen, a pretty amazing thing. He briefly talks about how his work in the culinary world began, shares a few simple recipes, and gives good life advice. Each chapter has stories of food, and towards the end he speaks about his experiences serving food in current times of war. Our world is full of many problems, but food is one thing that brings all of humanity together. The chef ⬇️

Latest library checkouts…I‘m so behind! I have 4 stacks total (2 different libraries)😬🤓📚

It‘s never too early or too late to change the recipe and fix our broken world.

Hot meals are magical. In a disaster or war, they feed your stomach and your soul. Cooking food transforms the ingredients and the way we feel when we eat them. A hot meal tells you that somebody cares.

An old book made it into an EATER email…Happy Pride!!! 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈. Link: https://www.eater.com/24180337/gay-cookbook-lou-rand-hogan

We need to stop the bullshit and be much, much smarter. Because the recipes of the past have not been good enough. New recipes must be written. New ingredients must be brought to the table. New ways of thinking must be embraced. If we don‘t dramatically change what we do, and how we do it, we are wasting our time. Poverty and hunger will worsen in a world with a climate is in crisis. We need to learn from the great successes and the great⬇️

Cooks perform magic by taking raw ingredients, preparing them in the way they want, lighting a fire, and conjuring up a meal that is flavorful, warm, and nourishing. You put everything in a pot, some water and ingredients, and after love and time and heat and warmth, you end up with a dish. Cooking in a terra-cotta pot is the closest thing in a kitchen to becoming a mother. All the ingredients grew together in a pot that bears life.

To asses your own value—to determine whether you were worthy by the metrics determined by a restaurant—you had to set aside everything else. You didn‘t have to be a good person to be good at restaurant work. You didn‘t have to be nice, or forgiving, or ethical, or kind. You only had to be willing to show up and dig into the work that was before you, even if that work was brutal and unfair and traumatic and mean. You did this all, much of the⤵️

Expect the dominoes to start falling quickly in other states. A lot of books will be gone, and others will never even get the chance for a place on the shelf.

Link to read the article: https://bookriot.com/little-vs-llano-county-fifth-circuit/

🔥📚🆘

Cellar rat is the colloquial term used in the industry to describe the people who spend time stocking the wine cellar. It was where my wine education officially began. 🍷🍇🥂

I didn‘t expect this book to be so small. But it certainly packs a punch. Rather than a brief history of the serviceberry tree, the author, who is Indigenous, uses it as an example for how we can and why we should, move away from a capitalist economy, and into a heart centered one. This is called a ‘gift economy‘. In a world not ruled by greed, there is only the cycle of caring, giving, receiving, and giving again. There is more than enough⬇️

I felt like this was a solid, well put together about the history and evolution of American bookshops. Did you know Benjamin Franklin had a bookshop? Did you know there was once a fascist bookshop in LA, that sold and promoted propaganda? This book is full of interesting facts. It shows how the ways in which we get books have changed over time—from street books, to indie stores, to big corporations, to billionaires like Amazon‘s Bezos. ⬇️