Wonderful Trip to the Beach

What a wonderful time our family had on vacation this July. Lots of swimming, looking for shells, cooking--low country boil, shrimp and grits, gumbo, boiled shrimp, fresh flounder, and hot dog!
Everyone helped...and all are super cooks. Finished 2 books The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder by Rebecca Wells (of Ya Ya Sisterhood fame) I predict a movie from this one too. And What Southern Women Know About Faith by Ronda Rich. I highly recommend it. I started on Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich but only finished it after we returned home.

School starts back in 1 week for faculty and staff and two weeks for students. It will be a year with little money as Alabama is in proration for education, and all our classroom supply money and library enhancement money has been taken away for this year.

But I started years ago with a chalkboard, chalk, and a teacher's edition. It can be done.

Return often to hear about this year in the library.

TO THE BEACH

It's to the beach this Saturday for a week long vacation with the whole family. As I am packing essentials there is, of course, a book bag going along. Right now it has 4 books for me.... however, a friend at the public library said she carried 3 bags of books on her recent vacation. My husband is trying to finish a Clive Cussler novel before we leave so I am not sure what he will be taking. We have a Jodi Piccoult on CD for the drive.

Friend's Passing

My funny, funny friend, Marsha McCrory Pope, librarian for 22 years at Sanford Middle School in Lee County, Alabama, died on Wednesday, July 8, after a brief battle with breast cancer.

She was a delightful friend, a dedicated teacher and librarian, and a wearer of the most tasteful seasonal earrings you can imagine. Her sister told me tonight at visitation that they made sure she had on some earrings......so God would recognize her.

September 1, 1946 - July 8, 2009

Mary Kay Andrews, Carolyn Hart, Dorothea Benton Frank, Charlaine Harris

Just finished Mary Kay Andrews new book The Fixer Upper set in fictional Guthrie, Georgia. Nice summer read. Reading now a Carolyn Hart book. Her main characters Max and Annie Darling live on a small island off the coast of South Carolina. Annie runs the Death on Demand book store. Mrs. Hart peppers her books with references to mysteries and mystery authors. One mentioned in this book is Charlaine Harris and her Sookie Stackhouse series (which I enjoyed much more in book form than I do the HBO version.) In the car I am on the last CD of the audiobook The Island of Mango Sunsets by Dorothea Benton Frank. Seems I am stuck on the south this summer. It is a nice place to be.