The American Library - Janet Skeslien Charles

      

     In October, 2024, we spent a couple of days in a Dallas B&B that had its own version of a Little Free Library inside the rental. A sign on the container invited us to take a book or two with us when we left, and to leave something behind if we had anything to contribute. The Paris Library is one of two books I took home with me at the end of that weekend, but I’ve just now gotten around to reading it. I tend to read a steady diet of historical fiction, and was a little burned out on World War II fiction, so I ended up putting the book aside when we got home - and immediately forgot I even had it until stumbling upon it a couple of weeks ago. (I still haven’t read the second book.)

      The Paris Library was published in 2021 by Atria Books (a Simon & Schuster imprint) and runs 351 pages long, including the Author’s Note. My impressions are mostly positive ones for this well-researched account of how the American Library functioned in Paris during World War II:

• Will appeal to a broad audience of readers
• Centers on a handful of nicely developed characters who evolve and change during the course of the novel
• Uses flashbacks to the main story while occasionally visiting the main character some forty years in the future
• The American Library almost becomes a central character itself 
• Explores the difficult choices Parisians were forced to make during the Nazi occupation of the city - and the hypocrisy of those who sometimes benefited from the tough choices made by others
• Based on historical figures, letters, and memories of those who were there
• Intensively researched for accuracy

     I was a little slow to warm to the characters and plot of The Paris Library, largely I think, because I found the writing to be a little on the dry side. Once I got deeper into the story and became clearer on which characters were destined to play the main roles, that all changed. I got more used to the author’s writing tempo and lost myself in the story. If you read this one, don’t quit on it too soon because the ending is a memorably intense one. For me, this is pretty close to a four-star book.

Inside The American Library in Paris

Photo of The American Library featured in the novel

Library Haul...Now What?

 

I live relatively close to my local library (my wife would say too close), and it's by far the best branch in the entire county system. So I stop by the library at least once a week, and it's often twice a week. As a result, this stash has accumulated over the last two weeks or so, but luckily all of these were available for a six-week check out. They are stacked with the one due first placed on top of the stack, the ones due last at the bottom. I suspect that a few of you will recognize titles that you just reviewed yourselves in the last couple of weeks. If you do, just know that this is all your fault because that's why those titles ended up in this stack.

If this stack were all I planned to read in the next six weeks, I wouldn't have much of a problem, but that's not the case. From my own shelves, I am also about 120 pages into a 500-page Robert E. Lee biography (one written well after the Great Awakening that trashed the man's reputation and promises to set the record straight), a little over 100 pages into The Lineup anthology, well over 300 pages into my e-book copy of Your Perfect Year, plus about 100 pages into a review copy of Matt Coyle's series novel Odyssey's End. (I won't even talk about the other 10 books that are still on hold.)

And I know that you guys are going to keep adding to my immediate stack via the great books you all continue to uncover and review every week. I would think that something is seriously wrong with me except for the fact that I've read so many similar confessions on many of my favorite book blogs. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Houston's Little Banned Library

 The banned-books issue in Texas is not all that surprisingly one that reflects the same political divides that separate most of the country these days. Lots of people on the left, lots of people on the right, and a much smaller number closer to the middle. Personally, I strive (it's not always possible) to keep myself as near the political center as I can on most issues, and that's where I find myself on this one. 

I generally do not believe in banning books...period. But my conscious makes it  impossible to be that far to the left on this one anymore because I do support limiting access to certain books to age-appropriate readers. There are some subjects no on will ever convince me that early elementary school children should be exposed to. Too, I think there are certain books simply too dangerous to be made available in public libraries, for instance, those that contain detailed information about bombs that can be built in the privacy of your own home. I realize that the information is out on the web, and that those crazy enough to want it are going to find it, but I draw the line at making it so easy for would be anarchists or terrorists to get their hands on the instructions. This leaves me trying to answer the question of whom, or what group, should be deciding appropriateness for the rest of us. Yet another nut to crack. 

Anyway, I stumbled upon this video today that shows the rather creative approach one Houston man is taking to ensure that many - but not all - of the books recently banned by various school boards in the area are available to the young readers living in his own Houston neighborhood. The video shows how he has made a clever adaptation to the Little Free Library concept to get the books out there.

Now I'm curious to know if the optimism expressed here has survived the past three months, but so far I haven't found an update anywhere. If I turn one up, I'll come back to post a follow-up. 

My Library Has Opened Its Doors for the First Time in 15 Months

I had a great surprise on Thursday morning when I called my local library (Barbara Bush Branch) to schedule curbside pick-up of three books that were waiting for me there. The librarian asked what time I wanted to pick them up...but offered me the option of coming inside and checking them out for myself anytime I wanted to because the library OPENED its doors yesterday for the first time in the last fifteen months. 

As you probably guessed, I immediately drove over to the library, found my three books, and proceeded to browse the shelves on both floors of the library for the next 90 minutes. And, now, as you also probably guessed I have library books stacked all over my desk again just like in the good old pre-pandemic days.

The Great Courses video class on mysteries and thrillers has been so much fun that I've taken to creating a special TBR just from books mentioned in the videos. I'm particularly taken by some of the older stuff like the Chester Himes novel from the fifties I'm reading right now, but I've also learned about mysteries written by other minorities (Himes is African-American) and by writers from other parts of the world. Two of the books I brought home this afternoon were mysteries written by Native Americans in the nineties: 

I also spotted this one by Qiu Xiaolong, who was a student in the United States in 1989 when the Tiananmen Square tragedy took place back home in China. He was granted asylum in this country, and is now a prize winning novelist and poet who is well known (I think) in Great Britain for his Inspector Chen Mysteries and their BBC adaptations. This is a new series to me, but Becoming Inspector Chin is already the eleventh novel in the series. 

My reserved copy of Any Weir's new science fiction novel, Project Hail Mary, was also waiting for me today. Weir, of course, earned his fame, reputation, and lots of cash from the huge success that The Martian turned out to be for him a few years ago. I opened up Project Hail Mary while still inside the library, and before I knew it, I had read a dozen pages. This one promises to be very good and lots of fun.

And, finally, there's a series of interviews conducted by Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager called The Writer's Library that I couldn't leave behind. This one is subtitled The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives, and it includes 22 interviews in all. Among the authors interviewed are several favorites of mine like: Louise Erdrich, T.C. Boyle, Michael Chabon, Jennifer Egan, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Richard Ford, Donna Tartt, and Russell Banks.

I easily spotted at least another half-dozen books I'd love to read right now, but I managed to stop for today with only these five coming home with me to join the two that were already here. Having a whole public library almost to myself (apparently word is not much out yet that the doors are actually open again) today was a total joy. Now, I'm tempted to stop by there every day until word does get out and it starts to get more crowded. After all, the library system allows me thirty total check-outs at a time, and I still have room for twenty-three more at the moment. 

Libraries Are Racist...Librarians Are Racist...The Dewey Decimal System Proves It!

"America's Wokest Librarian"

Oh, good grief.

So, let me get this straight. Now it's libraries, librarians, and the Dewey Decimal System that are racist? Forgive me if I struggle with this one a bit. I woke up this morning thinking that I must have had some kind of surreal dream during the night, but no, a quick search on Bing confirms that this ludicrous charge has been put forth by some woke extremist of a Cornell librarian who wants to claim her 15 minutes of fame before this whole woke-nightmare finally burns itself up out of sheer silliness. 

According to the Toronto Sun:

America’s wokest librarian doesn’t appear to actually like libraries.

Reanna Esmail, an outreach and engagement librarian (whatever that is) at Cornell University, claims that libraries aren’t the knowledge repositories you thought they were.

[...]

“Libraries are predominantly white fields, and Cornell is no exception in this regard. Libraries themselves also have a fraught history of being complicit in racism, and in some cases, upholding and disseminating racist ideas.”

I'm not going to go into this woman's reasoning, faulty as it is,  because, frankly, I just can't take it all that seriously. I feel sorry for this wanna-be book burner, and I hope she enjoys her fifteen minutes.  I do hope that someone at Cornell is suitably embarrassed on her behalf.

 

A Surprise Christmas Present from My Library

 I made my second run to the library this week and picked up a couple of books: Sara Paretsky's latest V.I. Warshawski novel, Dead Land, and the new John Steinbeck biography, Mad at the World: A Life of John Steinbeck. I was surprised that I was the only one in the whole county requesting either of these titles and by how quickly they arrived. 

Steinbeck is one of the first "serious" writers I ever read, and at this point in my life, I've read most everything he wrote, including a substantial collection of his letters - some of it multiple times. I'm really hoping that the bio lives up to all the hype it's received from places like Amazon and The New York Times. We'll see.

As for the Sara Paretsky title, it's part of a series I read for a long time but seem to have put aside a while back. And then it became an "out of sight, out of mind" thing. I need to sit down and see how far behind I've gotten on the series and whether or not I want to read it actively again. Dead Land will help me decide.

The best thing about my library visit, though, is that I received my first Christmas present of 2020 there - all nicely wrapped with a hint about what was inside the paper. I am a big fan of short stories, so I think I'm really going to enjoy what appears to be the third volume in a series called Short Stories by Texas Authors.

As for as COVID-19 days go, this was a pretty good one.

Melbourne City Library Goes Well Beyound the Call of Duty by Calling Patrons for a Chat

 How about a bit of feel-good news for a change?

From The Guardian comes a story about how the Melbourne, Australia, city library and its regional libraries reacted to being closed down by the Covid-19 pandemic back in March. The article is titled "When Covid closed the library: staff call every member of Victorian library to say hello." It could have just as easily been titled "Another reason we love our libraries and librarians so much."

When Melbourne’s Yarra Plenty regional libraries first went into lockdown in March, shut the doors and left the remaining unborrowed books on their shelves, staff were sent home with a phone.

“One of the hardest things about lockdown was people being separated from their community,” said Lisa Dempster, Yarra Plenty’s executive manager of public participation.

“The library is often a hub for the community, and we identified the most vulnerable cohort of our community would be the elderly.”

So the library staff pulled from their database the phone number of every library member over the age of 70 – a total of 8,000 records.

Then the librarians started calling those members. All of them.

Librarians and social workers made those 8,000 calls. Some of the calls lasted five minutes or less, and some of them went for as long as thirty minutes. The goal was giving the elderly library patrons back their sense of community and connectedness. And it worked. The library system also delivered as many books as possible before the pandemic lockdown tightened, and they did that in innovative ways. 

Now, with Melbourne being in its fifth week of what they are calling "lockdown 2.0," the staff is calling all 8,000 of its elderly patrons again to see how they are coping with the stress of being shut-in for so long. 

Click on the link up above for the rest of the story. It's a good one.

Are Little Free Libraries Being Raided by Used-Book Bookstore Operators? Sure Looks That Way.

 

Photograph by Andrew Beaujon.who reported this story

I suppose it was always only a matter of time, and I doubt that this is the first time something like this has happened, but one Washington D.C. bookseller has been accused of raiding Little Free Libraries to help stock his own bookstore's shelves. 

According to this Washingtonian.com article, Don Alexander may have been caught stripping Little Free Libraries in his Alexandria Virginia, neighborhood of sellable books and replacing them with books he cannot sell in his soon-to-be-opened D.C. storefront.

"...Hodgins says she’s seen Alexander go through her Little Free Library several times, piling books on the roof of the library and then replacing them with books she’s unlikely to have stocked, including a Sudoku book. She has put more than $400 into building and maintaining her Little Free Library, which she fills with books from her book club as well as some by authors from her native Canada, that she’s purchased at full price with the expectation that they’ll be taken for noncommercial purposes."

Alexander denies that he has done anything wrong, even to mentioning that he has a Little Free Library in front of his own home. I may be a cynic, but his vehement defense, including his personal Little Free Library, just does not ring true to me. It defies common sense; what better way to acquire books for resale in your own shop could there ever be than a little baited trap at your own front door?

"It’s not illegal to sell books from a Little Free Library, though anyone doing so would defy the spirit of the program, which it describes on its website as “fostering neighborhood book exchanges.” In its FAQs, the organization encourages people who believe someone is taking books from their Little Free Library with the intention of selling them them to stamp books or mark their spines with a Sharpie to make them less salable. On its website, it shares the story of a Little Free Library “steward” in the Chicago area who successfully got the police involved with someone who was clearing out his box."

You decide. Go to the Washingtonian link up above for more details, including Alexander's snottily aggressive first response when challenged about what he was doing.  Personally, I'm betting that all that vigorous protesting of the anti-social charge against him is a whole lot of hot air. 

The bigger question, though, is how big a problem this is around the country? As the article points out, this practice is not currently illegal; but it sure as heck is unethical.

Colorado Authors Are Book-Bombing Little Free Libraries

I've been an advocate of Little Free Libraries since I first became aware of them in early 2013, and I've posted on the subject on a few occasions over the years:

You Can Have Your Own Little Free Library

Shame on You City of Shreveport

Seattle Pre-Schoolers Lose Their Little Free Library to Arson 

The funny thing is that despite my interest in the whole concept of people exchanging free books with each other this way still being keen, I've only ever spotted two of the things for myself. And both of those, as it turned out, were devoted exclusively to children's books, so I could do little but grab a picture of them and move on. 

Now it seems that some rather brilliant authors in Colorado are using Little Free Libraries around the state to get their own new books into the hands of readers. Obviously, this only works if you are seeking exposure over profit, but for debut authors, this might just help sell some books post-pandemic time (whenever that finally turns out to be). 

According to this Denver Post article, what was initially planned as a one-week "book bombing" of Little Free Libraries across the state of Colorado, has now been extended by some participants through the end of August. Harper McDavid (pictured) and Melissa Payne are two of those authors.

“It’s a win-win as far as we’re concerned,” said McDavid, who has watched traditional libraries struggle to keep up with demand for book borrowing. “I volunteer at Jefferson County Public Library, and even if you request a book, it takes forever to get to you right now. So this is a way for us to give back to the community — and get ourselves out there a little.”

While the distribution only amounts to a book or two per day, per author, the program is already showing results. The first book McDavid donated contained a bookmark with her contact information. Within hours, someone reached out to her asking if they could get copies of “Zapata” for a book club.

 As I was putting together this post, I found the Little Free Library search engine, and I see that there should be four charted Little Free Libraries in my area. I hope to take a look at them, and maybe grab a few pictures in the process, during the next few days. 

Bestsellers? Well, according to Curbside Larry, "We got 'em!"

I just stumbled onto this video from my local library on the Texas Monthly magazine website. I've watched it a few times this morning because it makes me laugh out loud.

"Curbside Larry" is pushing the library's curbside pickup service in the manner of the kind of used car salesman all of us have seen on our televisions at one time or another. I used to think that these guys only appeared on small-town televisions stations (because I grew up in one of those), but there are similar ads on Houston television even now.

So, if you want a good book-nerdish kind of laugh today, meet "Curbside Larry."

Howdy Y'all! Meet Curbside Larry.... We Got'em! #libraries #curbsidepickup pic.twitter.com/Rkvzrt3ScU

— Harris County Public Library (@harriscountypl) July 22, 2020

One British Library Finds All Its Books Re-shelved by Height

What happened to one public library in the U.K. made me chuckle a bit, even though I feel their pain. I've been there. 

On a much smaller scale, I had something similar happen to my home library a few months ago when our new cleaners wanted to start their service with what they called a one-time "deep cleaning." I came home to bookshelves upon which the books were universally dust-free - but some of them were upside down, others backwards, and almost all of them were out of order. It too me several hours to put things right, and I've now banned the cleaners from even touching the bookshelves. 

According to this BBC News link, the Newmarket library's cleaner performed a deep clean of her own and decided that the books would look a whole lot better on the shelves if they were arranged by height. (At least they seem to be right side up and facing the correct direction, and that's a definite plus.)

A Sample of the Cleaners' Work

"James Powell, of Suffolk Libraries, said staff "saw the funny side" but it would take a "bit of time" to correct.

"It looks like libraries will be closed for a while so we'll have plenty of time to sort the books out", he said.

"The cleaner is lovely and does a great job in the library. It was an honest mistake and just one of those things so we would never want her to feel bad about it," he added."

Mr. Powell is obviously a lot more sensitive a guy than I am if he's worried about hurting the cleaner's feelings at this point. And he has a much gentler sense of humor than mine, at least when it comes to anyone manhandling the books I've acquired over a lifetime. My cleaner, I hope, learned a valuable lesson about properly handling books - just as I learned a valuable one about giving complete instructions in lieu of assuming that everyone understands that books are where they are on a shelf because that is precisely where they belong. (I do realize that books are mere decorations for some people, but don't even get me started on that whole selling books by the yard or by color thing.)

The Joys and Frustrations of Digital Libraries During a Pandemic

I got sidetracked on my library's website about two hours ago and have just now managed to break free. I initially went to the site hoping to find an audiobook that might appeal to me, but that didn't happen. I've not had much luck with the last three or four audiobooks I've tried, so it's probably me. I'm a little picky and hard to please right now.

I did find a bunch a books that I would love to read, most of them having just been published in the last two or three months. Fifteen of them, in fact. But when I tried to check them out, I found that only one of them was actually available for check-out. The Other Wes Moore was written when its author learned there was another man by the same name in his city who is living a life 180 degrees from the one the author has known. The author is a Rhodes Scholar, a veteran, a businessman, and a White House Fellow. The other Wes Moore is serving a life sentence in prison. Both men are black. 

The other fourteen books are now on hold for anywhere from ten weeks to six months plus, most of them in the latter category. It appears that the Covid-19 pandemic has caused a  mass run on library e-books and audiobooks now that physical books are off-limits for the duration of the outbreak. I'm really, really hoping that the pandemic will be under control before the six-month availability estimates are tested. Surely, we will be able to get back inside a library before  then...please, say you agree. Among the titles I've put on hold are Anne Tyler's brand new one, Readhead by the Side of the Road, This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger, The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel, and My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. Not all of the requested books are new, even the older ones have a wait-time of at least four months.

But there's some good news, too, and some of you may want to take a look at your own library systems to see if this works for you. The library is offering dozens, if not a few hundred, relatively current magazines for downloading and reading on various electronic devices. The magazines can be kept for only 14 days, but the best part of this is that the number of copies available is unlimited, so there is no hold-list to suffer through. The magazines are immediately available to you. I downloaded the April 2020 edition of Macworld and can't wait to get into it later this afternoon (so now I have yet another another thing to distract me from my regular reading). 

And, I've mentioned this before, but if your library is part of the Kanopy service, there are dozens and dozens of really good movies available for free on the Kanopy app. Normally, a library system allows something like 4-6 movies per month, per patron, to be streamed, but right now because of the pandemic de jour, there is no limit on how many movies you can watch. So...check it out.

So there you have it. Libraries are very frustrating right now...and very, very rewarding. And, two "verys" are better than one very. 

Bookish Odds & Ends for Those Long Coronavirus Nights

Time to share a few bookish odds & ends I've enjoyed reading in the last few days (complete with links back to the original source articles):

Capitol Hill Books

1. I suppose this is not "legal" in about 90% of the country right now because of all the "Stay Home" orders out there, but what a great idea this is. What used-book bookstore fan would not enjoy an hour inside a bookstore all by themself?Washington D.C.'s Capital Hill Books recently allowed its patrons to book one-hour appointments to do exactly that. To get an idea of just how great this would be, take a look at Slate's "One Last Trip to the Bookstore." 

"I started on the first floor - history, mostly. When I found a book I wanted to buy, I merrily tossed it to the floor; the store was mine, after all, and I didn't need to carry my growing pile along with me today. I ran my glove-clad finger across spines like a stick across a fence, stopping at each title that seemed even a little bit interesting."

2. How about a reminder of how good it was back in the good old days before the word "quarantine" was on the tip of everyone's tongue...you know, all the way back to mid-March 2020.  Bill Hayes describes heading downtown to buy a book. Can you imagine? Read "Walking in the City Before the Bookstores Closed" at this Lit Hub link. 

"No one was allowed inside - Troy was sequestered behind the counter and Miriam was on the floor, standing halfway from the entrance - but if you'd 'Just call out the title of the book' you were looking for (or the author, or the genre), they'd find it for you. And they did!"

3. One Michigan library figures that your dogs are probably just as bored as you are right now. After all, they are not seeing their friends either. To fix that, the Ann Arbor District Library hosted a virtual-park event for dogs last Saturday. Rich Retyl, the library's AADL communications manager put it this way, " I think dogs are feeling a little left out." (Honestly, I think they are all in dog-heaven right now, trapped inside with their owners almost 24-7 for the foreseeable future.) Here's the "videoconference for dogs" scoop from MLive.com.

4. From the Guardian, comes a gathering of novelists who want to help you choose "books to inspire, uplift, and offer escape." Contributors include Hilary Mantel, Marlon James, Kazuo Ishiguro, Mark Haddon, Ayòbámi Adébáyò, Colm Tóibín, and a host of others. If you're looking for something to read during our more-or-less national confinement, this is a good place to start: "Novelists pick books..."

5. Wondering how authors are coping with our new stay-at-home culture? Well, wonder no more because this article from The Bookseller paints a pretty clear picture for you. And it's not a pretty one. Click here for "Lockdown: the author's perspective."

"Many authors live in a perpetual state of anxiety. Anxiety our books won't sell. Anxiety we won't get a new deal. 
Anxiety our reviews will suck.

So it goes without saying the past few weeks have taken those anxieties to a whole new level."

I hope you find some of these links interesting, and that they offer a little bit of a change-of-pace to the rest of your day. Hard to believe this is just the beginning of the fourth week of all this voluntary house-sitting for our own houses. Keep reading. Keep smiling. Stay well.

Life Limps On

Thank goodness we live in the digital age. I can't imagine how much harder all of this extreme social distancing would have been to tolerate just two or three decades ago. At least now many jobs can be done from home. There are multiple ways for us to amuse ourselves while confined. And, for the most part, our children and grandchildren are able to transition into online schooling fairly easily. Life limps on.

Just as importantly for the mental health of all the semi-professional readers out there, our virtual libraries are still open for business even though all their brick and mortar locations seem to have locked their doors tightly. This is the perfect opportunity for us to finally tackle the massive TBR stacks we all seem to have on hand. You know, depending on how long all of this may last, I just might finally make a dent in the unread books I have in the house. 

Read on, friends. Stay well.

Are Library Books Safe During the Coronavirus Pandemic?

Barbara Bush Library, Spring, Texas

My local library system is trying especially hard to keep providing a service to its patrons who prefer reading physical books over reading them in e-books or audiobook format. And I'll hand it to these wonderful librarians; they are really going the extra mile right now. Just take a look at the system they currently have in place six days a week for patrons to come by and pick up the books they've asked to be held for them. 

But, while I totally applaud the effort being made here, I have to wonder if this is wise and how long the service will last. How long does the Coronavirus survive on cardboard, paper, or plastic covers? I've heard anything from 24 hours to 72 hours, even longer. The library does say that all returned books are going to kept out of circulation for a minimum of 72 hours, so there's that. But that doesn't really protect you from the possibility that some well intentioned library employee doesn't pass a fresher virus on to you via an infected pair of gloves or hands. Maybe I'm overthinking this?

Here's a summary of the procedure (taken from library website):

• When you receive notification that your holds are ready for pick up, call your pick up location. (branch phone numbers)
• Please have your library number and PIN ready.
• You will be given a time you can pick up your holds.
• When you arrive at the library, remain in your vehicle and call the library.
• Pop your trunk open, so we can place your items inside.
• You will be asked to show your library card for verification.
• Library staff will bring your books to your vehicle

The library has also eliminated all late fees and is making a lot of children's material available online to make up for all those cancelled children's events that are such a large part of the library experience for Harris County families. They are even making it possible to get an instant library card on line for those who suddenly remember that books actually exist (even though I suspect most of the newbie cardholders are going to be streaming movies instead of turning pages). 

So, what do you think? Would you take a chance on printed books right now or would you stick to e-books, audiobooks, and podcasts? Me, I'm probably going to play it safe.

(On a personal note, my wife and I are celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary today. The day is, of course, nothing like the one we had planned, but I thought I would share the news with all of my book friends out there. It's been an exciting and wonderful 50 years, and it hardly seems possible that it's been that long.)

Library Queues and Line-Jumpers - Part II

A quick follow-up to yesterday's post about line-jumping at my local library:

I was in the library this morning (January 24) and couldn't resist simply asking the lady at the circulation desk for an explanation of my question from yesterday because it has become apparent that I'm not going to get a written response from anyone within the system. 

I told her what my theory was (preferential treatment for library employees), and she basically said  that she couldn't answer that question for me. She then thought a minute and came up with something that does make some sense, saying that our county system has recently merged its database with the county just north of us. That means that most everyone would have dropped back a few spaces as the two queues were merged. Now, if that's the case, I do have to wonder why the system still shows only one copy of the book being available in all of two counties. Perhaps, however, that's just a problem with the merging process.

Even if this is what caused the system suddenly to bump me eight places, two of which I've now recovered (indicating that there has to be more than one copy of American Dirt in circulation), I am still a little disconcerted to learn, more or less, that the Hold queue can be bypassed by any librarian that takes a liking to a book I've already been waiting weeks for. The person I spoke with today did not confirm my suspicion, but she would not go so far as to deny it either.

So there we have it...number 44 in line and wondering how many months it will be before I get my hands on a library copy of American Dirt. At this rate, the paperback may be out before that happens.

Library Queues - Who Are These Line-Jumpers?

I am throwing this out primarily as a question for any of my librarian friends who may see this post, but also to enquire of others if they have ever noticed something like this happening at their own libraries. (I have formally asked my own library to respond, but so far my request seems to have dropped into some sort of black hole.)

Two or three weeks ago I electronically placed American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins on hold, and I started out on the list at number 40 because I was a little late in becoming aware of the novel. For some strange reason, the library system shows that only one copy of the novel has been purchased for the county despite the fact that we have near a dozen branch libraries under the county umbrella. I realized that the wait would be painfully slow, and sure enough, I had only moved up to number 38 in the queue as of two days ago. I decided to check my status again last night and found that I had suddenly dropped back to number 46 in that same queue. 

Now, how could that be? Who are these eight line-jumpers and why were they allowed to push me backward like this? Are they library employees who suddenly clicked to the controversy surrounding this particular novel (absurd claims of cultural appropriation are being made against its author) or are they friends of librarians, etc.? Frankly, I can’t think of a legitimate reason for something like this to happen, but as indicated by my email enquiry to the library, I’m willing to listen.

So it’s a simple question, folks: What am I missing here because surely there’s a good explanation for this practice?