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President Biden Declares November National Native American Heritage Month | Currents

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President Joe Biden has issued a proclamation naming November 2021 as National Native American Heritage Month, a time to “celebrate the countless contributions of Native peoples past and present, honor the influence they have had on the advancement of our Nation, and recommit ourselves to upholding trust and treaty responsibilities, strengthening tribal sovereignty, and advancing […]

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Front yard decorated to look like a grave yard, with fake head stones and signs that read "Ghost" and "Boo."

Happy Halloween!

2 Comments / Literature & Psychology, Personal, Quotation / By / /

Why do we read scary books? “We’re a peculiar lot, when you think about it: we work so hard to make our world, our environment safer… and then we actively seek out things that will make us afraid. Horror movies, urban legends, ghost stories. We hunt down the darkness and we revel in it. Why?

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Carmen Mola: Lauded Spanish female crime writer revealed to be 3 men – CNN

Author News, Oddities, Personal / By /

Spain’s literary world has been thrown into chaos after a coveted book prize was given to “Carmen Mola” — a lauded female thriller writer who turned out to be the pseudonym of three men. Source: Carmen Mola: Lauded Spanish female crime writer revealed to be 3 men – CNN I found this oddly appropriate, since

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Book Club: Clear your schedule — the National Book Festival starts NOW

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This issue of our newsletter is devoted to the Library of Congress National Book Festival, which begins in less than an hour! It all kicks off at 11 a.m. with Michael J. Fox talking about his new memoir, “No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality,” and then U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo will

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stack of books with text: Notes in the Margin is Under Renovation

Please Pardon the Dust

6 Comments / Notes in the Margin, Personal / By /

There’s been a lot going on around here, most of it behind the scenes until now. But I have finally, as Lady Macbeth would say, screwed my courage and taken the big step. I installed a new WordPress theme. Back when WordPress introduced the Gutenberg editor, now usually called the block editor, I started using

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photo of camera with title Why I Gave Up on Instagram

Why I Gave Up on Instagram

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I tried, I really did. But Instagram finally got the better of me. Settling on the kind of post I wanted to present was my first problem. Many bookstagrammers (what the bookish folk on Instagram call themselves) include the complete publisher’s description of the book, followed by their own discussion and evaluation of the book.

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sign: Tacoma Public Library, George O. Swasey Library

A Visit to the Library! And a Restaurant!

1 Comment / Libraries, Personal / By /

On Monday I saw an announcement in our local paper that two branches of the Tacoma Public Library would be opening for timed-entry, in-person browsing beginning the next day. One of those two is a local library for us, so this was a not-to-be-missed opportunity. A quick click to the library web site revealed that

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