I like animal stories. I've read James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small series. I completely related to Marley and Me: Love and Life With the World's Worst Dog (I adore my beagle, but she did dig up my carpet and destroy my miniblinds). Watership Down got me to look at the world from a rabbit's point of view, and The Cat Who Went to Paris introduced me to Norton, a Scottish fold cat who adventures around the globe with his human. A few others that are on my must read list:

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron

Come Back, Como: Winning the Heart of a Reluctant Dog by Steven Winn

Dog, Inc.: The Uncanny Inside Story of Cloning Man's Best Friend by John Woestendiek

Following Atticus: Forty-Eight High Peaks, One Little Dog, and an Extraordinary Friendship by Tom Ryan

And just so you know, I'm always open to suggestions!

If you haven't picked up a copy of this year's One Book One Community title, there's still plenty of time to get one and join in the fun! This is actually my fourth year participating in this great fall event.

All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling Down House follows author David Giffels and his family as they move into a once beautiful home in Akron, Ohio. Fixer upper doesn't even begin to describe the attention and dedication needed to make the place habitable. But Giffels puts in the hard work, the perseverance, and a lot of love to create not just a liveable house, but a lifelong home.

Northern Kentucky One Book One Community started in 2007 as an annual community-wide reading partnership program between Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton County Public Libraries. The program promotes a sense of community by facilitating the enjoyment of reading and talking about a great book. People all across the region participate in public and private book discussions, attend supplemental library programs, and then meet the author at library talks and book signings.

Literarileigh just had a nice vacation. Now I'm back at the library and ready for action. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and think "Gosh I'm tired. But I'll have a nice cup of coffee and take a shower and head off work for eight hours." Is this a hard life or what?

The answer is NO, it's not that hard. I recently read the book Working in the Shadows: A Year of Doing the Jobs Most Americans Won't Do by Gabriel Thompson. Thompson talks about three jobs he takes over a year long period - harvesting lettuce, night shift at a chicken factory, and bicycle delivery boy for a restaurant in New York City. At each job he talks to the other employees who are mostly undocumented workers and getting paid on average $8.00/hour. They have no benefits, no sick time, no vacation. They work 10 hours a day or longer, often 6 days a week. Many work two or three jobs, or have a full time night job and spend their days caring for their children. They perform repetitive motions and monotonous line work - lift, carry, bend, repeat. Thompson is actually turned down by several employers, or offered a higher paying, easier position because as a middle class white man, no one believes he would choose to do this kind of work. Always respectful of his fellow workers and filled with both sympathy and admiration, Thompson brings the world of these hard working people to life. A must read for anyone who liked Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich.

Today Space Shuttle Atlantis launched for the last time. And when it lands, it will be the end of NASA's shuttle program. As I listened to details of the launch on NPR this morning, it got me thinking about space exploration and the millions of things that could be out there. While some of the ideas may be my own, I have definitely been influenced by the great imagination and speculation of science fiction.

While the search for extraterrestrials has been written about by many sci-fi authors, the book that resonates with me most is The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. From the opening lines in which Father Emilio Sandoz is released from the hospital, we know something terrible has happened. A mission to make first contact with an alien race that produces beautiful, ethereal music began forty years earlier in 2019. Jesuit missionaries along with civilians formed an eight person expedition to Rahkat where they met and learned to communicate with the peaceful alien race they encountered. But their scientific and spiritual objectives were ended by the more powerful, dominant, and aggressive culture that inhabits the planet. Told in a series of flashbacks, Sandoz unravels the mystery of what went so horribly wrong and why he was the only one left. Beautiful language, humorous moments, vivid description and characterization make The Sparrow a visceral reading experience.