check it out! books

My friend Susie (who can frequently be spotted at the library), recommended a novel to me that she said was one of the "best books ever" for her. I'm a fan of almost any novel that is set in the west, and that can transport me to the place it describes.

Five Skies by Ron Carlson is just that type of book. While reading, I could almost feel the wind howling on that high mesa teetering on the canyon edge.

From the book jacket:

"A beautiful novel, as unique and insular as the quiet and powerful landscape it inhabits, and as braided with hope and despair, and hope again, as are the lives of the three men at its center."—Rick Bass

"In Five Skies Ron Carlson has fashioned such a moving and elemental meditation on every man's struggle toward family, toward the embrace of his individual soul, that, by its end, I found my appreciation for both grief and redemption to be profoundly altered. Here is a fine and gracefully rendered novel."—Mark Spragg, author of An Unfinished Life

The Word on Birds

The Main Library in Kalispell was the place to be on this cold Saturday in January. We had a guest speaker from the Flathead Audubon Society, Nancy Zapotocki, who explained how we can help our feathered friends during the winter. The families who attended practiced identifying birds with a scavenger hunt. We had a messy but delightful time making bird feeders out of pine cones, peanut butter, and bird seed. There are a lot of birds in the Flathead who will get a special treat today.

A Commonality of Days

I had finally gotten the computers off to bed, dreaming of tomorrow's currents. The lights had dimmed, and I was reminded of a humming by its cessation. The library floor had an obscure look to it, as if a fireside waited around every shelf.

Then it was that I heard the familiar calling. I walked softly, oh so quietly, so to see the dust gathering upon the old and rarely read. Here I found mirrors to my passion upheld by an age of whispers. Photographed faces ravaged by a time unseen in their eyes.

These patient teachers awaited, all silent but for the leaves turning to the passion of my curiosity. My eye was long held by these lavishly illustrated pages from the Flathead Herald-Journal of January, 1894.


With this evidence of time's passage, I began to realize a commonality of days. Records of births and deaths, accomplishments and misdeeds. Ideas and events bound in hope against ineluctable dissipation. Whatever the morals of the writer, time shows that this will be what we said.

As I walked home past the slumbering citizens of today's Kalispell, I thought back over all those yesterdays, and asked with wonder what it means to be human.

Bigfork Branch receives another donation!

You may have seen the post last month that showcased our Bigfork Branch Library and the new slatwall/display shelving that was recently installed, with a generous donation from the Community Fund for a Better Bigfork. One of our friends, an annual donor to the Flathead County Library Foundation, saw the photos and asked what else needed to be done at the Bigfork Branch. Well, short of an entirely new building, I answered that new furniture would be a great improvement. The donors immediately wrote a check for $1,000 and would like to challenge others to step up to help purchase new furniture in Bigfork.

Interested in helping out? You can call me at (406) 758-5826 for more information; or simply write a check to the Flathead County Library Foundation, 247 First Avenue East, Kalispell, MT. 59901 and note that you want the funds to go the Bigfork Branch Library.

Predictions, anyone?

Happy New Year to everyone! If you’re not too tired of seeing predictions for 2009, check out this list. The author, Tom Asacker, is a management consultant and author who speaks and writes about customer service. Have a look…it’s not what you think and you might be a bit surprised:


http://www.acleareye.com/thoughts/Article_Nine_Predictions_for_2009.pdf