My thanks, as always, to Elle for her participation in this monthly meme, and to Laura for mentioning whenever she sources a book from the library!
I’m posting a bit later than usual because it’s been a busy time, and quite an emotional rollercoaster too. First was the high of my joint 40th birthday party with my husband (whose birthday is in late November) on Saturday evening. It required close to wedding levels of event planning and was stressful, especially in the week ahead, with lots of dropouts due to illness and changed plans. Yesterday and today, I’ve been up to my knees in dirty dishes, leftovers, and soiled tablecloths and bedding to try to get washed and dry. But it was a fantastic party in the end, bringing together people from lots of different areas of our lives. I’m so grateful to everyone who came to celebrate with cake, a quiz, a ceilidh, a bring-and-share/potluck meal, and dancing to the hits of 1983.
The next day was a bit of a crash back to earth as I snuck away from the house guests to attend my church’s annual Memorial Service. With All Hallows’ Eve and then All Saints coming up, it’s a traditional time to think about the dead, but all the more so because today is the first anniversary of my mother’s death. It’s taken me the full year to understand and accept, with both mind and heart, that she’s gone. I’m not marking the day in any particular way apart from having a cup of strong Earl Grey tea in her honour. I feel close to her when I read her journals, look at photographs, or see all the many items she gave me that I still use. We recently moved her remains to a different cemetery and it’s strangely comforting to think that her plot could also accommodate at least a portion of my ashes one day.
Love Your Library
Last week I was trained in how to use the library content management system and received log-ins for limited access to return, issue and renew books and search for information on the internal catalogue. It has been interesting to see how things work from the other side, having been a customer of the library system for over a decade. At busy times I will be able to help out behind the counter, but because I have to call a senior for literally anything more complicated, I am not a replacement for an employee. It is a sad reality that some libraries have to rely on volunteers in this way; none of the smaller branches in West Berkshire would be able to stay open without volunteers working alongside staff.
Novellas in November will be here before we know it. I have a huge pile of library novellas borrowed, in addition to all the ones I own.
Since last month:
READ
- The Whispers by Ashley Audrain
- I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Se-hee
- The Seaside by Madeleine Bunting
- Penance by Eliza Clark
- Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
- By the Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah (for book club)
- Milk by Alice Kinsella
- The Sad Ghost Club by Lize Meddings
CURRENTLY READING
- Western Lane by Chetna Maroo
- The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward
CURRENTLY (NOT) READING
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
- The Year of the Cat by Rhiannon Lucy Coslett
- Reproduction by Louisa Hall
- Weyward by Emilia Hart
- The Last Bookwanderer by Anna James
- Findings by Kathleen Jamie (a re-read)
- Before the Light Fades by Natasha Walter
I started all of the above weeks ago, but they have been languishing on various stacks and it will take a concerted effort to get back to and finish them.
RETURNED UNREAD
- The Seventh Son by Sebastian Faulks
- This Other Eden by Paul Harding
- All the Little Bird-Hearts by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow
All were much-hyped or prize-listed novels that didn’t grab me within the first few pages, so I relinquished them to the next person in the reservation queue.
What have you been reading or reviewing from the library recently?
Share a link to your own post in the comments. Feel free to use the above image. The hashtag is #LoveYourLibrary.
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
Happy birthday, what a lovely way to celebrate!
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We had a blast!
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A year is absolutely nothing when it comes to accepting that someone you love has gone. You are doing really well.
Your party looked a lot of fun!
The library I work in is 100% volunteer run and has been for the last 15 years. It’s only small, and we are lucky to have an extremely supportive outreach Librarian to guide us when we need her. But we have to do a bit of everything and it isn’t always easy. But that little library means the world to me! x
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Thank you, Penny. It’s been a memorable birthday season.
The suburb where we go to church has a fully volunteer-led library. The council gave it a building for a peppercorn rent but it has to source all its own books, catalogue them, etc.
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Penny and I volunteer for the same library service, but not the same library – ours has only been volunteer-assisted for maybe five years. But yes, we are trained in many aspects of library work and its information and cataloguing systems, and it certainly makes the day go quickly. Your party looks like fun – but hard to combine with your thoughts about your mother’s passing a year ago. That, I suppose, is life.
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It will be helpful to be able to handle simple counter enquiries instead of having to direct people to a queue.
All the party planning and stress probably helped deflect some of the grief.
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Sounds like a delightful party. I’m so glad it went well. I hope today passed as easily as possible for you. Bereavement anniversaries are always tough but the first is the toughest in my experience.
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Harder for my sister, I think, who was there at the hospital in her final days and visited her burial site on the anniversary.
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Your party looks marvelous! I’m so sorry we couldn’t make it in the end. Cleaning up after such a huge event is just as exhausting as hosting if not more so.
I always have feelings about what I think of as “my dead” at this time of year. No parents, so far, but three friends in adolescence/young adulthood, plus an uncle and three grandparents—the list feels long. Sending lots of light to you and yours.
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I wish you could have made it, I had designs on who I was going to introduce you to and what I was going to have you talk about 😉 (I think you are on the same PhD course as one of the other guests, for instance.)
It does seem like a season of remembering. I wish the ghoulish aspects of Halloween could be balanced with the more respectful traditions other cultures have around the dead.
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A week of mixed emotions for you I’m sure.
I also returned some of the Booker candidates unread, having the exact same reaction as yours, that they just didn’t grab my attention at all
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I’m going to read Tan Twan Eng’s book from the longlist, but I can’t say there’s a whole lot that appealed to me this year.
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Starting Western Land tomorrow to kick off NovNov 🙂
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Hurrah!
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I’m glad your party went well and I’m so sorry I couldn’t make it. Sounds like a difficult anniversary yesterday x
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It would have been great to have you; the more the merrier! But I appreciate it’s a long way to come.
The loss is there all the time, but seems to take more solid form at anniversaries.
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It’s interesting that you can actually work in the library as a volunteer. Here, the volunteers aren’t allowed to do any actual library work. They have to run the used bookstore or do things like reading with dogs (that’s reading with children and dogs, I understand). I looked into volunteering when I first moved here, but having worked in three library jobs, I wanted to actually do library work. It was a little frustrating.
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Several of the small branch libraries have one paid staff member and one volunteer. One suburban library that used to be part of the same system was threatened with closure so went completely independent and is now volunteer run. I suspect that the USA funds its public libraries better.
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It’s that the librarians belong to a union, so the volunteers aren’t allowed to do anything a librarian should do. I doubt if funding has much to do with it.
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Your party looks so fun. What a lovely celebration.
Anniversaries of loss are always difficult and I send you well wishes from afar.
I’m sure your library really appreciates all that you do! I’m sad they’re not adequately funded with staff, though.
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Thank you! It’s time to find more events to look forward to between now and Christmas.
I think many council services here are run on a shoestring. And it doesn’t seem to matter which political party is in charge.
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The photographs of your party are fun and your dress looks lovely! It is a difficult season, sometimes, though, isn’t it. And lossiversaries are always sad, even when one can observe them with a small but meaningful moment, like your cup of tea. I was sure I’d snapped a photo of my novella borrowings from the library but now I can’t find it (which might explain why I didn’t post it either…sometimes my phone ignores the first photo I take when I open the app…annoying but it’s well-behaved MOST of the time). The next time I’m in the right room, I’ll try for another and see what comes of it. It’s nice to think of you working in the library even though of course I agree that there’s no substitute for trained professionals and paid staff in that sector.
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Thank you! I picked that up from a charity shop a couple of weeks before.
Whenever you do find or take a photo, post it for us to see and share!
At one point I was encouraged to apply for casual staff vacancies (basically filling in for sickness or vacation cover) but decided not to, partially because I vowed never to do another interview after going freelance and partially because I like that it’s not paid work — once it is, it becomes an obligation rather than something I do for fun.
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I feel you on the rollercoaster, Rebecca, and hope you’re well. All Soul’s is always a tough one for me. And good on ya for volunteering at your library–God’s work, as far as I’m concerned. From my library, I just finished Rachel Beanland’s The House is on Fire, which I enjoyed on audio. And now I’m halfway into Hanna Pylvainen’s The End of Drum-Time, which I’m loving. Rachel is a friend from Richmond, VA, who, like me, got her MFA from VCU. And Hanna taught there–though after my time. Kinda fun. Pulling for Hanna for the National Book Award, though she’s likely not a frontrunner.
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I loved Rachel Beanland’s novel! That’s one I reviewed early (last year, actually) for Shelf Awareness, and I enjoyed interviewing her too. Alas, I couldn’t get through The End of Drum-Time — a few too many characters, a bit too much detail.
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Oh, nice! I’ll have to find that interview. So much to learn about Richmond in that novel!
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Review + interview here: https://www.shelf-awareness.com/max-issue.html?issue=498
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Your party looked wonderful and I’m sorry I wasn’t able to attend, too. And I can really see what you mean about us having no significant tradition to remember those who have passed around this date. When I spoke to Cruse, the bereavement charity, when I was struggling to cope with the death of a friend, they suggested making my own little ritual and I lit a candle, shared an image in case it helped anyone else who had lost someone / her other friends, and it did help, so I imagine your cuppa will have brought some peace, too – I hope so.
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Lighting a candle and having her and my stepfather’s names read out at the memorial service was very meaningful to me.
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