Welcome to our Library Joy Series in honor of National Library Week! Here we are highlighting some of our amazing staff to share how and why they love what they do. Last, but certainly not least, in our series is Kim, the Marketing and Communications Manager.
Why did you decide to get into Library work?
Like many of us, I've been an avid reader and library user since I was a very tiny child, but I never really considered becoming a librarian. After college, I intended to go to grad school with the goal of becoming an English professor. However, I kept putting it off and putting it off, never taking the GRE or applying to schools. One day, I was in the library, wondering yet again why I wasn't moving forward with my plans, when I thought, "Wait, this is what I want to do." I started looking into what I needed to do to become a librarian that day. I never expected to end up in marketing and communications at the library, but I love that I can use the skills I already had to help our system!
What is your favorite part about working for a library?
Problem-solving and trying new things. With communications, our department is involved in a little bit of everything, so we get to come up with creative solutions to assist and improve so many areas of the system.
Do you have a book or collections recommendation?
The most recent new read I liked: Something Wicked by Falon Ballard.
One of my always favorites: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.
What's a fun fact about you?
I was named after a soap opera character!
Thanks for checking out some of our amazing staff at the library! We can't wait to see you at one of our locations soon!
Something Wicked
The country of Avon is in deep turmoil. The Uprising has overthrown Avon's monarchical rulers, and a decree has been issued. Candidates for the first presidential election will be selected by the completion of a special task: to kill the former monarch of their home province. Callum, the son of the recently dethroned king, is determined to be in the running. But to do so, he must come to terms with killing his father, the key to which lies in the hands of Lady Caterine, a Gifted courtesan at La Puissance, Avon's premiere sex club. Lady Caterine has always had the magical ability to manipulate the emotions of anyone who experiences an orgasm in her presence. If Callum can only open up to Cate, he will be able to commit the newly fated murder without suffering the guilt and take his place as the rightful candidate from his province. But Callum has a deep-seated mistrust of the Gifted. And the last thing he expects is to be confronted with an undeniable connection with Cate that neither of them understands, nor wants. With the fate of the country at stake, Callum and Cate search for ways to bare themselves to each other, and discover a darker force building within La Puissance, one that might ruin the future of Avon for good. To stop Avon from violently falling to ashes, they must sacrifice everything they have . . . even if it requires betraying each other.
The Thirteenth Tale
When Margaret Lea opened the door to the past, what she confronted was her destiny. All children mythologize their birth...So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter's collection of stories, which are as famous for the mystery of the missing thirteenth tale as they are for the delight and enchantment of the twelve that do exist. The enigmatic Winter has spent six decades creating various outlandish life histories for herself -- all of them inventions that have brought her fame and fortune but have kept her violent and tragic past a secret. Now old and ailing, she at last wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. She summons biographer Margaret Lea, a young woman for whom the secret of her own birth, hidden by those who loved her most, remains an ever-present pain. Struck by a curious parallel between Miss Winter's story and her own, Margaret takes on the commission. As Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good, Margaret is mesmerized. It is a tale of gothic strangeness featuring the Angelfield family, including the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess, a topiary garden and a devastating fire. Margaret succumbs to the power of Vida's storytelling but remains suspicious of the author's sincerity. She demands the truth from Vida, and together they confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves. The Thirteenth Tale is a love letter to reading, a book for the feral reader in all of us, a return to that rich vein of storytelling that our parents loved and that we loved as children. Diane Setterfield will keep you guessing, make you wonder, move you to tears and laughter and, in the end, deposit you breathless yet satisfied back upon the shore of your everyday life.