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Where The Books Are Now
A podcast about Vermont's Public Libraries. In each episode we visit with library staff from one public library in Vermont and learn about its history and some of the awesome resources for the community (Did you know many public libraries lend more than books? You can find snowshoes, telescopes, tables and chairs, fishing poles, portable scanners and laminators, cake pans, games, and more). But we don't forget about books and in every episode we'll give you a few of our book recommendations. These are not your grandma's libraries! **Update** WTBAnow is on a recording hiatus for a few months. We hope to be back recording in January of 2025. Stay tuned!
Where The Books Are Now
Episode 12 Windsor Public Library - Windsor, VT
In Episode 12 I chatted with Barbara Ball, the Library Director at the Windsor Public Library, in Windsor, VT. This library is one of three in Windsor Country built by the same benefactor, Benjamin Blood. All three libraries share some common features and have their original shelving. I asked Barbara if the Windsor Library still has the antique metal fold-down steps attached to the shelves - made to help reach books on the upper shelves. And they are still there!
Barbara also told me about programs and events happening at the library, including a special hiking event, book discussions, and open mic nights in the library's backyard. The Library also received a Vermont Arts Council grant to create a story archive of residents' stories. The library is also raffling off a pickleball set at their Fall Festival in September!
Barbara shared some great books that you might not have heard about. She said the first one is great if you're feeling stressed or overwhelmed. How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley. It's a novel with some senior citizen hijinks. Barbara is also reading a book about saving your yard and increasing insects, which helps the bird population and nature in general. And she rounded everything off with a juvenile fiction book, about a 10-year-old girl and her older sister who has been looking out for her forever. Her final book is a novel about two women and touched with a bit a magical realism.
I shared a time travel romance that is also part spy thriller, and part workplace comedy. It was on the NY Times Best Seller list this past spring and folks may have missed it. It is a page-turner and different than anything I've ever read. My second book is a debut novel by Douglas Westerbeke, A Short Walk Through a Wide World. Another book unlike anything I've read before that begins in Paris in 1885 with a 9 year old girl who develops a mysterious illness that doesn't allow her to stay in any one place for more than three days or so. And if that isn't quirky enough, the world she walks through isn't the same as the one the rest of the people live in.
Thanks for listening! Show notes for all episodes and all the books we talk about can be found at https://www.wherethebooksarenow.com/ and please visit us at Facebook for more Vermont public library tidbits. If you would like your Vermont library to be featured on an episode of WTBAnow, please use the contact information on the website or send a Facebook message!
