Jan Bobbett

The Bregdan Chronicles

In the January Splash you were introduced to our first “series books”—those that share a storyline through each novel in the series. I won’t repeat what I said earlier, but I should add this: By the time you read this, we will have started making the historical Bregdan books available to our readers, beginning, of course, with Volume 1. We also want you to know that the Bregdan series is available on Kindle. Some of our readers might prefer to download the books from Kindle (which is not free) rather than wait for the next book from our library. We won’t take it personally.

Books: on the shelf vs. in the Best Sellers Cabinet

If you’ve read this column before, you know we have our newest releases in our locked cabinet of best sellers. You do have to check them out, since they are fairly new and in demand. Because librarians process them (including checking them out for you), they’re not available at all hours. So, I want to remind you that our open shelves are full of marvelous books at your fingertips—some in regular print and some large print. Today I went to our bookshelves and challenged myself to find four wonderful books in 20 minutes. Read on for the four books I chose.

Two of the books were by writers I love. Book 1: Chris Bohjalian authored The Lioness. I haven’t read it yet, but I like his writing, and I like his opening epigraph: “If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on when you stop your story.” Book 2: Another favorite writer is Isabel Allende, whose epigraph also made me think: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” I can’t help wondering where it will lead. Remember that these and other books may be borrowed without your having to check them out. (I hope you recall from last month’s article that an epigraph is a short quotation or saying at the beginning of a book or chapter intended to suggest its theme.)

Here are the last two books I selected from our shelves: Book 3 is Two Nights in Lisbon, by Chris Pavone, and Book 4 is Dear Wife, by Kimberly Belle.

Librarian of the Month: Doreen Taylor

Meet Doreen Taylor, our head librarian. Her favorite writers include Kristen Hanna and Nancy Turner. Doreen loves living in Sun Lakes. Maybe that’s partly because of our welcoming library. In her case, though, she deserves a lot of credit for our library’s popularity. Her leadership role includes everything from overseeing the processing to maintaining a neat library. Most recently, she has helped us introduce the Bregdan series to our readers. She is shown holding Bregdan book 8, Shifted by the Winds.