Good for you. You deserve some fun trips. My brother and I loved the local library - books about WW2 and insects were our thing. 🤷🏻♂️.
And for better or worse - I’m pretty sure your talks and book events are never not gonna be well attended. You had the right book at just the right moment - and you’ve since spent that scholarly capital wisely and generously.
Great post! I spent hours in libraries as a kid and high school and college student, majored in history, and have loved my career as a librarian and archivist. I am so grateful for your work.
I feel this in my bones: "I met sales reps who get paid to travel the country talking up books they love (I wish someone had told me this was a job when I was growing up)"! It sounds like it was a refreshing event for you.
Really. They told me how they travel one week a month and take booksellers out for dinner to tell them about books. That job was nowhere on my radar growing up!
The instant I read your worries I was like 'oh you don't need to be worried at ALA!' I didn't make ALA work for me this year, but if I'd been there I would have absolutely have been in that line. I'm so glad my fellow librarians stepped up to make it a great experience for you!
I’m so glad you were rewarded with such a wonderful welcome from so many corners!!
Yes, to be in the company of so many readers, who appreciate and celebrate the power of the written word, is such a gift. I’m so glad you heard from people in the deep red parts of the country.
Maybe, just maybe, the words you have written will be read and heard by others who need it.
So tough to be a librarian in a deep red community! All sides dislike you because you're not enough like them...book challenges, program challenges, budget wars. All you are trying to do is show everyone they aren't so different from each other. Ideas aren't the enemy!
Thank you for this lyrical recollection of your early library experiences ... and those of others, too ... what a testimony for the absolute value of libraries ... AI won't change that, because we are tactile creatures, and strolling through shelf after shelf of books, touching them, smelling them, will, I think, always remain an adventure of body and soul. Those librarians know the value of your book, because a lot of people all around the nation, and the world, have found within its pages the words they needed to identify what they already knew to be defective, but were unable to name it. You gave them the words, and the courage, to call it, and when something monstrous is named, it can be more easily deconstructed. Glad the signing went well ...
It tracks that you're pals with the effervescent, ever-busy, and unchanging Dana Suskind, who back in her surgeon days diagnosed my daughter's hearing loss. Very excited about her new book--thanks for highlighting it! Love your library story too. Also jealous of the librarians with their early access to your new book!!
This is great. I love libraries so much and spent a ton of my childhood there. One of my biggest goals is always getting my books into as many libraries as possible!
Love the ALA! I've been to a few -- my partner is an author and I served as interim manager for a small publisher for a season. For many of us, these are our people.
This brings back library memories for me. There was no book shelf in my childhood home, nor a public library in my local small hometown. So the school library was the first place I found a treasure chest of books. When my parents moved us to that rural/small town location, they did not transfers church membership to the small town congregation and remained active members in the city church. When, as a junior high student, I was allowed to browse in the city library down the street from church after Saturday morning catechism class, my love of reading and libraries became entrenched in my heart. I visit my local library at least every two weeks. Browsing the shelves, especially the new books, is a favorite stress relief.
I really glad you had a weekend that was a respite!
Your story about spending hours in the library brought back memories of the Carnegie Library in our town of about 12K people back in the 60s. It was a place to which I could walk when I was 7 & bike after we moved ten blocks away. It was a marble building which was cool in the summer when air conditioning wasn’t as prevalent as it is today. I read all the Oz books among many others. My older sister, brother & I were often chased out of the adult section having exhausted the children’s inventory so our mother had to get us permission to peruse those offerings.
It probably was responsible for my affinity for finding unused carrels in the library stacks when I went to college. Later in my career I found myself in DC & a colleague showed my how to get a shelf at the Library of Congress. I was lucky to have a boss back then who encouraged such pursuits to improve our skills.
I also spent many hours in the library as a child. Our downtown library was the first place I learned to ride to on the bus when I was 11. After I had read all the horse books at 12 (including learning about colic and hoof issues) I moved on to dog books. Libraries and librarians are the best! I'm 69 now and last year I read 65 books. A lifelong passion!
Kristin, my heart is overflowing for you. I have forwarded your email to my daughter in law who lives in Ontario. Your book isn't available to buy here in NZ but as our local library has copies of Jesus and John Wayne, I'll ask if they will buy Live laugh love. Postage from overseas has become so expensive! Keep up your important work and God bless you.
Good for you. You deserve some fun trips. My brother and I loved the local library - books about WW2 and insects were our thing. 🤷🏻♂️.
And for better or worse - I’m pretty sure your talks and book events are never not gonna be well attended. You had the right book at just the right moment - and you’ve since spent that scholarly capital wisely and generously.
Great post! I spent hours in libraries as a kid and high school and college student, majored in history, and have loved my career as a librarian and archivist. I am so grateful for your work.
I feel this in my bones: "I met sales reps who get paid to travel the country talking up books they love (I wish someone had told me this was a job when I was growing up)"! It sounds like it was a refreshing event for you.
Really. They told me how they travel one week a month and take booksellers out for dinner to tell them about books. That job was nowhere on my radar growing up!
My daughter is about to start college to be a nurse and I told her “Did you even know about this other job?” 😂
The instant I read your worries I was like 'oh you don't need to be worried at ALA!' I didn't make ALA work for me this year, but if I'd been there I would have absolutely have been in that line. I'm so glad my fellow librarians stepped up to make it a great experience for you!
I’m used to events where people come for me so I wondered if I’d broken through to the general librarian crowd. It was a relief to see that line!
I’m so glad you were rewarded with such a wonderful welcome from so many corners!!
Yes, to be in the company of so many readers, who appreciate and celebrate the power of the written word, is such a gift. I’m so glad you heard from people in the deep red parts of the country.
Maybe, just maybe, the words you have written will be read and heard by others who need it.
So tough to be a librarian in a deep red community! All sides dislike you because you're not enough like them...book challenges, program challenges, budget wars. All you are trying to do is show everyone they aren't so different from each other. Ideas aren't the enemy!
Thank you for this lyrical recollection of your early library experiences ... and those of others, too ... what a testimony for the absolute value of libraries ... AI won't change that, because we are tactile creatures, and strolling through shelf after shelf of books, touching them, smelling them, will, I think, always remain an adventure of body and soul. Those librarians know the value of your book, because a lot of people all around the nation, and the world, have found within its pages the words they needed to identify what they already knew to be defective, but were unable to name it. You gave them the words, and the courage, to call it, and when something monstrous is named, it can be more easily deconstructed. Glad the signing went well ...
It tracks that you're pals with the effervescent, ever-busy, and unchanging Dana Suskind, who back in her surgeon days diagnosed my daughter's hearing loss. Very excited about her new book--thanks for highlighting it! Love your library story too. Also jealous of the librarians with their early access to your new book!!
Oh wow, small world! Dana is amazing.
SO very happy for your successful weekend -- and meeting old friends, being with your daughter, etc. And yes, libraries are essential.
This is great. I love libraries so much and spent a ton of my childhood there. One of my biggest goals is always getting my books into as many libraries as possible!
I’m so thrilled for you Kristin. You’re one very busy lady.
Love the ALA! I've been to a few -- my partner is an author and I served as interim manager for a small publisher for a season. For many of us, these are our people.
Such incredible people. I was sad to leave!
This brings back library memories for me. There was no book shelf in my childhood home, nor a public library in my local small hometown. So the school library was the first place I found a treasure chest of books. When my parents moved us to that rural/small town location, they did not transfers church membership to the small town congregation and remained active members in the city church. When, as a junior high student, I was allowed to browse in the city library down the street from church after Saturday morning catechism class, my love of reading and libraries became entrenched in my heart. I visit my local library at least every two weeks. Browsing the shelves, especially the new books, is a favorite stress relief.
I really glad you had a weekend that was a respite!
Your story about spending hours in the library brought back memories of the Carnegie Library in our town of about 12K people back in the 60s. It was a place to which I could walk when I was 7 & bike after we moved ten blocks away. It was a marble building which was cool in the summer when air conditioning wasn’t as prevalent as it is today. I read all the Oz books among many others. My older sister, brother & I were often chased out of the adult section having exhausted the children’s inventory so our mother had to get us permission to peruse those offerings.
It probably was responsible for my affinity for finding unused carrels in the library stacks when I went to college. Later in my career I found myself in DC & a colleague showed my how to get a shelf at the Library of Congress. I was lucky to have a boss back then who encouraged such pursuits to improve our skills.
So much of this resonates with me!
I also spent many hours in the library as a child. Our downtown library was the first place I learned to ride to on the bus when I was 11. After I had read all the horse books at 12 (including learning about colic and hoof issues) I moved on to dog books. Libraries and librarians are the best! I'm 69 now and last year I read 65 books. A lifelong passion!
the horse books and then the dog books—yes!
As a librarian- thank you for your work!!
Thank you for yours!!
Kristin, my heart is overflowing for you. I have forwarded your email to my daughter in law who lives in Ontario. Your book isn't available to buy here in NZ but as our local library has copies of Jesus and John Wayne, I'll ask if they will buy Live laugh love. Postage from overseas has become so expensive! Keep up your important work and God bless you.
I think my publisher might be distributing LLL globally. I’ll know more on that soon.