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My Covid Story
by Cindy Matthews
Covid 19 ended my school year abruptly and left me alone in a house where my 12 -year old Golden had recently passed. In my loneliness I began devouring books No longer able to go out to get books, and having read everything in my home, I started reading all of my straggler library books a second time. Then came HOOPLA. FIVE BOOKS A MONTH-- ebooks, audiobooks. I was in book heaven. However, Covid-19 quarantine continued and my reading habit could not be appeased with only five books. I needed more. So I shot an email out to our beloved Rye Public Library and lo and behold I was granted 7 books a month. This was a true gift. Now I was reading two ebooks and listening to an audio book all at once. Then the whole world changed. I got a Golden retriever puppy, Patience Margaret Bess aka Patsy. Those of you who have raised puppies know there is no such thing as sleep with a puppy in the early days. There is crate training and failure and a screeching little puppy. Until I had the brilliant idea of playing audiobooks for the puppy and me to put us to sleep and it worked. Patsy and I have listened to Girls With No Names and The Fifth Avenue Story Society!
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Remember that in honor of this year's National Library Week celebration Rye Public Library Patrons are now able to borrow SEVEN items each month through Hoopla. This easy to use, universally available resource offers thousands of ebooks, audiobooks, TV and film selections, comics and more ! Please enjoy two more items each month as our thank you for your patience and flexibility as we all navigate this unprecedented period in public library service.
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Rye Public Library is a proud member of SAL: Seacoast Area Libraries.
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581 Washington Road, Rye N.H. 03870 603-964-8401
June 5, 2020
Vol I
Issue 10
weekly
Turning Pages
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I'll be brief. This is YOUR issue. We asked for your submissions; we got them; please enjoy them! Thanks to our contributors, including Angela Thibault who provided the title you voted for on Facebook!
Please Be Well, Andy Richmond
Director, RPL
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Hurray For Hoopla!
by Kendra Gemmett
Hurray for Hoopla! It had been recommended to me many times as I'm a big fan of listening to audio books while driving. Since I no longer have any place to drive, audio book listening has shifted to something portable, which can accompany me on walks and yard work - bingo! Hoopla to the rescue. With my own phone and a Bluetooth connection.
I started with the book suggested by Andy, Nine Perfect Murders, and was instantly hooked, and pulled a lot of weeds. It's a new world for me. Thank you, RPL
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Covid-19 Reflections
by Dane Peters
I find myself asking what are we learning from this historic pandemic?
Humanity is far better off when everyone is working together, rather than forming tribes and forcing people to care for their tribe rather than caring for humanity. In America, we experienced this humanity/tribe effect before, during, and after the Civil War and World War II. This evolution of humanity is so well explained in the popular book Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. It is a must-read.
On a lighter side . . . during the social distancing period, a big treat in my wife, Chris's, and my day has been taking advantage of the invention of five o'clock virtual-phone call or video conference-cocktails. They keep us in touch with so many of our friends from all over the country. You discover the benefits of this activity in wearing whatever you want-waist down-to the event; not worrying about needing a designated driver; and getting to look good by offering to pick up the drinks tab at the end.
How fortunate that as senior citizens we are retired and can manage on Social Security, Medicare, and not having children in the house. During these weeks of social quarantine, we found great satisfaction in having each other; being with and serving our grandchildren; supporting organizations by making masks for those individuals providing service to individuals in need; and making YouTube videos of my book readings for children-children I normally read to-for their "home" classrooms and the Seacoast Repertory Theatre's "Honey Punch & Friends" weekly online young peoples' program.
Humanity comes in often as I think about those families who have lost a loved one or personally experienced the virus, and about giving thanks to all those workers who risked their lives in serving all of us throughout this crisis.
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The Perfume Of Human Wisdom
By Sherry Wood
(appeared May 17 in the New Hampshire Union Leader,
where Sherry Wood is Night Editor)
I miss (and worry about) my 7-month-old granddaughter Eleanor, who lives in Brooklyn with her RN mom and IT guru dad.
But I also miss libraries, which closed in March when Gov. Chris Sununu's stay-at-home order was issued.
I was smitten at 6 when I walked into a roomful of books and for the first time, felt truly at home. Even after a baby brother took a crayon to "Green Eggs and Ham," leading to a lecture from the school librarian, I sought sanctuary in that place of neatly labeled shelves.
By the third grade I hit the nine-book-a-week checkout-limit, honing in on "921" - biography in the Dewey Decimal system. I still have a crush on Abraham Lincoln.
My Southern Baptist farming family did not support this habit. Curled up with a book, I was chided for being lazy and soon learned to read by moonlight (after all, Abe read by firelight).
By 11, I was inhaling Thomas Hardy, James Fenimore Cooper and Jane Austen. I had to re-read some of these books later in life to fully grasp their significance. But as a pre-teen I understood I was in the presence of greatness.
I fell in love with a "Yankee" and moved to New Hampshire at 23, becoming a confirmed British mystery addict at Portsmouth
and later Rye
Public
Library
. The library was a daily destination
for
our kids
, Matthew and Eliza
.
In 1992, I discovered the Portsmouth Athenaeum, a 200-year-old nonprofit membership library and museum on Market Square. The smell of leather binding, parchment, beeswax, mold and the indefinable perfume of human wisdom confirmed that I had found a place of worship.
Like so many of our cultural institutions, its doors are now shuttered. The public health rationale is undeniable, but oh, what a loss. It was to the Athenaeum I headed when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in my 40s, taking solace in the words of Benjamin Rush, a Philadelphia physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence who in the early 1800s brokered a truce between Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.
If two deadly enemies can be reconciled, I reasoned, I can face cancer.
And so this library has been a source of strength, and the place to which I turn for comfort. Yes, the online archives are amazing (
portsmouthathenaeum.org), but oh, how I long for the conviviality of fellow knowledge-seekers, and the closest thing mortals can come to peace of mind.
I miss libraries...
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Thanks again for this week's special edition Booster! From title to content it was all Rye. Luckily, our contributor Sherry won't have to miss libraries for long.
With a forthcoming announcement of a new pilot phase of library service,[watch for an update later today] we will introduce RPL 2.0. I must also use this edition to announce a change of schedule for the RPL Booster newsletter. The next issue will come out on June 19th and the Booster will continue as a twice monthly rather than weekly edition in future months. Library Staff will be soon be back in the building and busy with other duties again, so the amazing font of content we've offered over the last few months will have to be slowed a bit to reflect that. Thanks for your positive response and feedback on the Booster, and a special thanks for your outstanding contributions to this unique community edition. See you at the Library soon!
With gratitude for the Rye Community,
Andy Richmond,
Director, Rye Public Library
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