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Library News: August

By Amy Garoutte, Northern Saguache County Library District

We are excited to announce the addition of a Library of Things to our collection in 2024. 

To better meet the needs of our community, we invite you to share your ideas with us. Please complete the survey at www.bit.ly/NSCLD-Things or visit either branch to drop off your suggestions in our Library of Things suggestion box.

The Library of Things will be rolled out gradually. Starting in August, we will offer items including a pickleball set, appliance dolly, 100-foot extension cord, electric pressure canner, 6-foot step ladder, metal detector, tennis racket and ball set and a CD player for listening to audiobooks.

Your feedback is invaluable as we expand our collection, so please share your thoughts and ideas!

Saguache County sales tax grants

As you may have heard, Saguache County is only accepting online applications for the fall sales tax cycle. The Northern Saguache County Library District is proud to support our patrons, community members and Saguache County. 

We are inviting the public to use our space and librarian technical know-how to help with the online application process during the week of Aug. 5. We recommend that applicants type the responses to the grant application topics and questions in a Word document or Google Doc and bring that information to the library. Our librarians will be happy to offer assistance with the transfer of your responses to the online application if needed. 

The staff at the Baca Grande Library are most available to help during the following times: Monday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Tuesday, noon-4 p.m.; Wednesday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; and Friday, noon-4 p.m.

Up and coming events

The Huck and James Community Read is really picking up steam and it’s not too late to join. I just finished Huckleberry Finn and am excited to dive into James. I’m looking forward to the character development that Percival Everett has to offer.

Our celebration and book discussion is going to be amazing. We’ll meet at the T-Road Brewing Company on Friday, Sept. 13 from 5-7 p.m. Our very own Bayou Mountain BBQ will cater the event with catfish po’boys and red beans and rice. Please read the books and join us. The cost for the celebration is $5 per person. Sign up at www.shorturl.at/ZJfKL.

We are thrilled to announce that we were recently awarded a small grant from SciStarter to roll out a community science program at the library. Stay tuned for exciting news about this new program and our first event this fall.

Our new books

Some fiction thrillers/mysteries for summer:

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore. When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide. Early morning, August 1975. 

A camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any 13-year-old; she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents.

And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished 14 years ago, never to be found. As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. 

Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker. It’s 1975 and the Vietnam War is ending. Muhammad Ali is fighting Joe Frazier. And in the small town of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are disappearing. When the daughter of a wealthy family is targeted, the most unlikely hero emerges — Patch, a local boy, who saves the girl, and in doing so, leaves heartache in his wake.

Patch and those who love him soon discover that the line between triumph and tragedy has never been finer. And that their search for answers will lead them to truths that could mean losing one another.

  Middletide by Sarah Crouch. In this gripping and intensely atmospheric debut, disquiet descends on a small town after the suspicious death of a beautiful young doctor, with all clues pointing to the reclusive young man who abandoned the community in chase of big city dreams but returned for the first love he left behind. Perfect for fans of All Good People Here and Where the Crawdads Sing.

Holy City by Henry Wise. This is the captivating debut from Henry Wise about a deputy sheriff who must work alongside an unpredictable private detective after he finds himself on the outs from his sheriff’s department over his unwillingness to look the other way when an innocent man is arrested for murder. 

After a decade of exile precipitated by the tragic death of his mother, Will Seems returns home from Richmond to rural Southern Virginia, taking a job as deputy sheriff in a landscape given way to crime and defeat. Impoverished and abandoned, this remote land of tobacco plantations, razed forests and boarded-up homes seems stuck in the past in a state that is trying to forget its complex history and move on. 

Will’s efforts to go about his life are wrecked when a mysterious, brutal homicide claims the life of an old friend, Tom Janders, forcing Will to face the true impetus for his return: not to honor his mother’s memory, but to pay a debt to a Black friend who, in an act of selfless courage years ago, protected Will and suffered permanent disfigurement for it. Meanwhile, a man Will knows to be innocent is arrested for Tom’s murder, and despite Will’s pleas, his boss seems all too content to wrap up the case and move on. Will must weigh his personal guilt against his public duty when the local Black community hires Bennico Watts, an unpredictable private detective from Richmond, to help him find the real killer. It would seem an ideal pairing — she has experience, along with plenty of sand, and Will is privy to the details of the case — but it doesn’t take long for either to realize they much prefer to operate alone.

Bennico and Will clash as they each defend their untraditional ways on a wild ride that wends deep into the Snakefoot, an underworld wilderness that for hundreds of years has functioned as a hideout for outcasts — the forgotten and neglected and abused — leaving us enmeshed in the tangled history of a region and its people that leaves no one innocent, no one free, nothing sacred.

Nonfiction

Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell by Ann Powers. For decades, Joni Mitchell’s life and music have enraptured listeners. One of the most celebrated artists of her generation, Mitchell has inspired countless musicians — from peers like James Taylor, to inheritors like Prince and Brandi Carlile — and authors, who have dissected her music and her life in their writing. 

At the same time, Mitchell has always been a force beckoning us still closer, as — with the other arm — she pushes us away. 

Given this, music critic Ann Powers wondered if there was another way to draw insights from the life of this singular musician who never stops moving, never stops experimenting.

Yarn Mandalas For Beginners And Beyond: Woven wall hangings for mindful making by Inga Savage. Yarn mandalas, also known as ojo de dios, are a wonderful way to create bright and beautiful woven wall art in a mindful, meditative way. The use of pattern and color can help to reduce stress and aid wellbeing at the same time as developing your creativity.

Recurring Programs

Storytime (ages preK – 3rd grade) every Monday at the Baca Grande Library at 10:30 a.m. and every Tuesday at the Saguache Public Library at 10 a.m. 

Tech Help every Friday from 10 a.m.-noon at the Baca Grande Library and every Tuesday at 1:30 – 3:30 p.m. at the Saguache Public Library.

In Town Hours every Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. at the Little Shepherd Church, in Crestone.

Creative Writing Workshop with Claudia Wolfe each Thursday at 3:30 p.m. at the Baca Grande Library.

Free Food Friday every Friday from 10 a.m.-noon at the Baca Grande Library and the Saguache Public Library. 

Special events

End of Summer Party with the Animals, Saturday, Aug. 3, noon-1 p.m. at the Baca Grande Library.

Countdown to the Saguache County Sales Tax Grant, space, popcorn and support for submitting your sales tax grant application. Monday Aug. 5 to Friday Aug. 9, at the Baca Grande Library and Saguache Public Library.

Art Reception Friday, Aug. 2, 3:30-5 p.m. at the Baca Grande Library.

In Town Hours with Uma and a Craft, Wednesday, Aug. 14, from 12:30 – 2:30 p.m. at the park, in Crestone.

Saguache Community Flea Market, Saturday, Aug. 31, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at Otto Mears Park, in Saguache.

For questions concerning programming, please call the Baca Grande Library at 719-256-4100

Library hours

Baca Grande Library hours are Monday to Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Saguache Public Library hours are Monday to Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. 

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