April 25, 2016

Well, here it is:  my LAST ARTICLE  for this column!  My plan was to keep the column going until June !st, but events have been traveling fast and I have not been able to do much reading.  I will miss writing these articles and I will miss hearing from readers about how they have become fans.  The initial reason for writing the column was to get folks involved in what was going on at Finley Library, and I hope that I have done that.  BUT, these articles have become so much more to me:  they have become a connection with you, the reader, and a way to get some good out of the books that I read that goes further than me.  (I'll insert here that the articles written for the Press are catalogued on Finley Library's web site at finleypl.org if you would like to check on a book.  The website has reviews on many of the books in the library and most of them written by folks other than me!)  Time marches on, though, and now folks would rather check their phones than read the newspaper, so maybe this article will be discontinued completely; that is up to the new library board. 

Thanks to the library board that asked me to join them way back in 2007!  I was thrilled to be a part of such an important aspect of Finley life and didn't even think about saying , "No!".  When the previous chair wanted to do something else for a change, I was happy to take over (although it had taken more time than that person would have liked!).  Now it is Carolyn Paulsen's time to work her magic on the library along with a completely new board save one member.  (Thanks Pam for hanging in there among all the changes, new ideas and moving forward!)  I think that if you support them and the library they will certainly give you what you want there--it will just take some time for everyone to get into their new traces and pull together. 

And I will miss all that.  And I will miss this town, this state and the people who live here.  I will miss calling the bank and them not needing to know my account number because they know who I am.  I will miss the kind and considerate voices on the phones calls I make to various businesses.  I will certainly miss you people of this great state of North Dakota--kind, generous, caring, hardy, smiling, stoic, friendly, giving, sharing--I could go on and on.  Thank you for taking in two souls from California who needed some rest from the hustle and bustle of that other state.  We are rested, but we are ten years older as well.  Still, we go back to California and to a new life of grand-parenting and coping with the ultra busy daily life there.  We are hoping that our little house there will give us another ten years of good life--not a North Dakota life, but a fun and fulfilling life, nevertheless.

Looking forward to seeing many of you again and hearing from you, hopefully.  Our new address is:  780 West San Ramon Avenue, Fresno, CA 93704.  We will keep you in our hearts and minds and memory banks as long as possible.  Thank you. And GOOD READING!

Here is one last review:

The Empty Chair by Jeffery Deaver.  (PB)  (Lincoln rhyme series #3)  (2000)  Lincoln Rhyme has decided to try experimental surgery to give him more physical ability for motion.  He, Thom (his aide) and Amelia Sachs have have driven down from NYC to North Carolina to the hospital and doctor who are doing these surgeries.  Because they are a bit early, they become involved in a murder, a likely murder and an abduction, the evidence from which points to a sixteen year-old-boy who is referred to as the "insect boy" because of his knowledge and simpatico relationship with the insect world.  If you are not familiar with this area of NC (as I wasn't), it is an area of swamps, swales, trees and insects.  Sachs puts her life on the line to find out what is happening.  It all leads them where they need to go (don't want to give too much away), but will Sachs really have to go to jail because she wanted answers?  Will Rhyme's operation do any good or will  it make him worse as Sachs fears?  I thought the end was almost too neatly squeezed into the last couple chapters, but as always Deaver writes a well-planned, suspense-filled story that will keep you turning those pages!  (I am really enjoying this series.  I am reading #4 in the series now [The Stone Monkey, PB, 2002], but didn't get finished to review it.)