Thank you for joining us again on our book group and Reader’s advisory podcast! Ariel and I have had such a good time talking about books with you this season.

We have been exploring all new ideas for books and book suggestions, so you can expand your reading horizons, and share more information with your library community. We looked at prompts from the 2023 PopSugar reading challenge this season. 

And now we are wrapping up the season! We’ve really enjoyed reading books with you, and having book group fun!  If you have missed any RWL, our archives are on the website. You can go back to cmle.org any time and listen to any of our podcast episodes. The book group is always here for you!

This week is pretty frustrating to discuss. We are librarians, and CMLE helps to support over three hundred different kinds of libraries across Central MN. We support the freedom to read, and the freedom to choose the books you want to read. If you have kids, you can encourage them to read the books you like and think are good. But it does not give anyone the right to tell other people they cannot read and enjoy a book. It’s so wrong to keep books away from people, just because of the irrational fears or prejudices of a few individuals.

Check out our show notes page for links to our beverages, our resources, and the books we share today.

This season, we continue to travel around Minnesota, learning about all the historic sites in the state. We pick one interesting fact about the site, and share six books about that prompt. This is our final episode looking at the historic sites; so if you missed any of the great things across the state, go back and browse through both seasons.

For our final episode on this topic, we admire the Jeffers Petroglyphs. It is home to about 5,000 sacred rock carvings, also called petroglyphs, made by the ancestors of today’s Native Americans. Celebrate this ancient site with a book about art.

In our show notes for this episode, we link each book to one of our state’s great independent bookstores: Drury Lane Bookstore in Grand Marais. It gives you a description, so you can get more information about the book to help you make a decision about your reading or recommendations.

Thanks for joining us for the last two seasons, as we journeyed across the state of Minnesota to see our historical sites. This is our final podcast of this series, and it has been so great to talk about books with you!  All of these episodes are available on our website: cmle.org. You can also download them on your favorite podcast app.

We have a series of past seasons where we talked about every county in Minnesota, and suggested books to go along with each of them. And, in yet another series, we looked at every state park in Minnesota, suggesting even more books to go along with each of these treasures of the state.

It has been wonderful to talk about so many books with you, and to virtually visit so many wonderful places across Minnesota. Please enjoy reading the books we have all discussed over the last few years of this podcast. And also, I encourage you to get out there and enjoy some new and interesting places to visit. Minnesota is filled with some great places, people, and things to enjoy – so get out there and experience it all!

It’s a tough time for libraries, and people in customer service. And while we don’t want to veer into any toxic positivity, it is good to spend a little time focused on building your happiness level. We are not going to solve people’s serious mental issues here. But bringing some happiness skills to your week can be helpful to everyone!

Mondays can be a little hard, even when things are going fine. Use this small injection of a happiness skill to your week. We are here to support you, and to help you to be a little happier in the library.

You spend a lot of your life at work; and while libraries are not always perfectly happy places, it’s a good goal to strive toward.

Check out this excerpt from the article Three Secrets to Happiness at Work According to Research:

“Organizations are investing increasing amounts of money and resources in improving happiness at work, from team-building exercises and fun consultants to Google’s Chief Happiness Officer (Spicer & Cederström, 2015; Tan, 2014).

After all, the benefits are obvious. Happy workers enjoy what they do and work harder and smarter. Companies take fun, play, and satisfaction in the workplace seriously because they recognize the importance of happiness for productivity, staff retention, and employee wellbeing (McKee, 2014).

1. Happiness in the workplace is essential

Research suggests that it improves sales, productivity, and accuracy while boosting health and quality of life. Despite a clear link between employee happiness and business outcomes, it needs to be taken more seriously (Achor, 2011).

2. Positive psychology

When Achor introduced positive psychology principles into KPMG, one of the big accounting companies, following the 2008 banking crisis, they saw an increase in life satisfaction, work optimism, perceived effectiveness in work, and a reduction in perceived stress. Moreover, the effect was not short-lived. Four months later, improvements to personal and professional happiness were maintained (Achor, 2014).

3. Job crafting

However, while research typically finds a positive link between happiness and productivity in the workplace, chasing it may leave us feeling less happy and even frustrated.

Instead, we may be better off focusing on crafting our jobs and living our lives to align with our values, creating long-term meaning and fulfillment (Seligman, 2011; Ryan & Deci, 2018).”

CMLE can be part of your support network; we are here for you, and support you in your library work. Take a nice deep breath in, and whoosh it out; it’s going to be okay today.

Thank you for joining us again on our book group and Reader’s advisory podcast! 

We are here to talk about books and share library ideas!

This season we are exploring all new ideas for books and book suggestions, so you can expand your reading horizons, and share more information with your library community. We are looking at prompts from the 2023 PopSugar reading challenge this season. You can read along with their challenge, linked in our show notes, or just enjoy some different books. 

This is a week of fun books, because the idea of starting a new TV series or a new movie is always exciting! It might be great, it might be terrible – but the possibility is real and there are so many opportunities to enjoy new things.

Check out our show notes page for links to our beverages, our resources, and the books we share today.

That’s right: every week we are going to celebrate some small holiday! We want you to join us in celebrating every week – because really, everyone needs a little more happiness in their lives.

Join us in celebrating the holiday just yourself, and take some small quiet time to enjoy it. Or, take our book and program ideas, and celebrate in a larger way in your library. Take a small, goofy opportunity to have a little more fun today! (We celebrate you in doing this!)

As you know, we spend a lot of time talking about relaxation and living a good life – however you define it for yourself. Nature is always a way to bring some relaxation and happiness to your life. Of course, it’s starting to be lovely outside and maybe you are starting your own garden. That is wonderful – and water those plants. Or, just plant some seeds in containers and grow them inside. Or, get some flowers from the store and just enjoy them! A paper garden is always a good thing to have in a library; so distribute supplies and let your patrons start creating things!

Enjoy some books, and share them with others (along with some flowers):

• Flower: Exploring the World in Bloom, by Phaidon Editors
• Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, by David Grann
• Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes
• The Language of Flowers, by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
• Wild Flowers: Adult Coloring Book, by Penelope Wilde
• Fresh Water for Flowers: A Novel, by Valérie Perrin

Join us in celebrating the holiday just yourself, and take some small quiet time to enjoy it. Or, take our book and program ideas, and celebrate in a larger way in your library. Take a small, goofy opportunity to have a little more fun today!