Library Blog

Librarian Andrea Nelson recommends Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks: A Librarian’s Love Letters and Breakup Notes to the Books in Her Life by Annie Spence.

Sometimes, life is hard. Really hard. Don’t get me wrong… life is wonderful, too. Love is the most wonderful thing of all, but it sure can sucker-punch you. It happened to me recently. Both of my beloved parents passed away six weeks apart this fall. It is hard to imagine a world without them. The holidays? Terrible. Not having your mom tell you, “Drive safely…there are deer on the road,” every single time you leave her house? Miserable.

The fact that the Golden State Warriors could somehow keep playing basketball without my dad there to watch them with me? Impossible. Yet autumn has somehow turned to winter, and winter will turn to spring. The world keeps turning and taking me along with it. Friends and other family members help, of course. So (they tell me) will time and rest. It’s just hard to imagine when things are still so raw.

Sometimes what helps most is to curl up in front of my fireplace with a book that makes me laugh, and Dear Fahrenheit 451 does just that.  

I love this little gem of a book even more because a librarian wrote it. Dear Fahrenheit 451 is a collection of letters the author, Annie Spence, writes to library books. Some are love letters to books she adores, like Ray Bradbury’s seminal classic about a world after books, Fahrenheit 451 (1953). Others are “Dear John” letters to books that—to put it gently—have not aged well.

Spence’s funny, irreverent take on literary classics captivated me when I needed it most.

Spence is clearly a colorful, salty soul. An author who could moonlight as a stand-up comic, her chosen books are personified. In some of her missives, she confesses her own guilty pleasures (cough…romance novels). In others, she regrets her ill-chosen one-night stands. She also bemoans a few books; mainly, those that broke her heart. She lays bare her bitterness over the lofty, unfulfilled promises books like Anna Karenina (1878) leave unfulfilled. (Admit it. You hated Anna Karenina just as much as I did.) 

Ever honest, Spence even takes a moment to dash off a few notes to books her library is weeding. [Note: Weeding is a library euphemism for books we pull from the shelves to make room for new books, generally because they have not been checked out for many years…or, well, ever.] Some weeded books get dispatched with a sweet au revoir and a promise of rebirth—others with an overdue good riddance! 

Reading Dear Fahrenheit 451 is like stumbling upon a long-lost diary. Even when you know you should stop reading, you can’t. I kid you not…it is as addicting as it is hilarious. The perfect gift for bibliophiles, library-lovers and librarians, it (unlike Anna Karenina) delivers what it promises: bite-sized bursts of much needed joy.

Find it in our collection here.

Museum Community Engagement Manager Kristine Bretall recommends This Immeasurable Place: Food and Farming from the Edge of Wilderness

Recipes from Hell’s Backbone Grill. Authors: Blake Spalding, Jennifer Castle, and Lavinia Spalding, with photography by Ace Kvale.

This is a book about food, place and community. Hell’s Backbone Grill is a restaurant, but it has become not just a restaurant, it’s a farm, a way of living and eating, and a source of education and an example of how to live a good life, and a community. I’ve not been there, yet.

In an alternate life, I live just like Blake and Jennifer in a place like Boulder, Utah. Small town, slow traffic, really quiet. Life and work are inextricable because they’re both so great. Maybe I even live and work there at Hell’s Backbone itself. Lots of dogs and other animals, incredible food grown locally, stunning scenery, and a close-knit group of humans making it happen in the best way possible.

It’s not an easy life. It looks idyllic from the outside, and when I’ve lived in a similar-ish way (working at a boarding school in Colorado), there was a wonderful rhythm in living with a community that all pulls in the same direction.

The book contains words of wisdom to live by, gorgeous photos, inspirational stories, poetry, book lists, and some rules for living in the middle of nowhere: close gates behind you, always keep a headlamp close, be nice to everyone, be respectful of local customs, always tell someone where you plan to hike.

One of my favorite chapters was food related, but I like to think of it in terms of “real life” … What to adopt and What to avoid. (their list includes “adopt noticing, adopt a habit of making what you eat and drink support your health and well-being” and “avoid unpronounceable ingredients, avoid poisons!, avoid hassling yourself about every food choice.”)

Another favorite section (because it’s really all my favorite) was the list of book suggestions: some I’ve read that I’ve loved: The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, My Life in France by Julia Child, Comfort Me with Apples by Ruth Reichl … and not read yet: His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, What Are People For? by Wendell Berry, Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit.

What else can I say? I loved it. And see what happened, it was a book that contained other books throughout it. And the recipes. Just made pork chops with apple-poblano chutney – really, really good. But those thick cut pork chops take a while to cook, just saying.

Find it through interlibrary loan here.

Children’s Librarian Judy Zimmer recommends The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart. Audio book read by Khristine Hvam.

Coyote Sunrise hasn’t been home for five years. She’s been living in an old school bus with her dad, crisscrossing the country trying to outrun the grief of losing her mother and two sisters.

Coyote is a thirteen-year-old with a big personality and a unique way of looking at the world.

When she reads that the park in her hometown in the state of Washington is being torn down, she knows she must return to rescue the memory box that she buried there with her mother and sisters—all without revealing the truth of the destination to her dad.

Let the adventure begin!  Starting in Florida, she races to get to her destination in Washington before the memory box is gone.

Along the way, Coyote picks up a fascinating cast of characters:

A kitten named Ivan, whose name was inspired by Coyote’s favorite book The One and Only Ivan, a pet goat named Gladys, Salvador, a young boy traveling with his mom, Lester, who is looking to reunite with his girlfriend in Idaho, and Val, who has run away from home.

If you’re looking for an adventurous road trip, coming of age novel, I recommend this book to upper grade Middle schoolers. Find it in our collection in print and eAudiobook and on YOTO here.