Tag Archives: Book Club

Books, Check it Out:

Join the Relaxed Readers Meetup Group

Book fans, listen up! We’re excited to be trying something new. CMLE has started a Meetup Group called Relaxed Readers. It will be an in-person book group, but instead of everyone reading the same book and having Very Important Literary Discussions (also fun, don’t get me wrong) we want people to come to chat about whatever book they are reading at the moment. And just an FYI, you are welcome to join us even if you are not a CMLE member!

If the group indicates interest in all reading one book together, awesome! We can do that! If everyone would prefer to just share their own Currently Reading selection, fantastic! We just want to enjoy dinner and some easygoing book conversation. We’ll have fun questions prepared beforehand and look forward to hearing about what you are reading!

Here is the link to the Meetup Group.

We have two events on the calendar now:

Wednesday, Dec. 11th at 5:30 we have reservations at Mexican Village in downtown St. Cloud!

And Wednesday, Jan 8th at 5:30 we will be at Mexican Village St. Cloud again.

If you are interested in joining our group and have a suggestion about a different location, definitely let us know! Leave us a comment or email admin @ cmle.org (no spaces).

It’s going to be a cold and snowy winter – cozy up with some books and reading friends! Hope to see you there! 🙂

Books, CMLE

Read with us in April!

We think spring is a great time to read, especially because it can sometimes be done outside in the sunshine. If you are looking for books to join you outdoors as the weather warms up, we’ve got a few great choices for you with our Goodreads groups.

This month in our Librarians Enjoying Books group we are reading The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

“A most untraditional love story, this is the celebrated tale of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who inadvertently travels through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare’s passionate affair endures across a sea of time and captures them in an impossibly romantic trap that tests the strength of fate and basks in the bonds of love.”

Plus, the author has a great love and appreciation for libraries! From her Acknowledgements: “I would also like to thank
the librarians of the Reference Desk at the Evanston Public Library,
for their patient assistance with all sorts of wack queries.”

The Evanston Public Library was our Spotlight Library during Episode 4 of our CMLE podcast, check it out here.

In our CMLE Librarian Professionals group, we will be reading Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing your Humanity by Kim Malone Scott.

“Radical Candor offers a guide to those bewildered or exhausted by management, written for bosses and those who manage bosses. Taken from years of the author’s experience, and distilled clearly giving actionable lessons to the reader; it shows managers how to be successful while retaining their humanity, finding meaning in their job, and creating an environment where people both love their work and their colleagues.”

In fact, author Gretchen Rubin (who wrote our December book The Happiness Project!) recommends this book: “I’ve known Kim Scott for many years. She and I worked at the Federal Communications Commission together. After that job, I switched to being a full-time writer, and she worked in a bunch of different places, including three failed start-ups, Google, and Apple. I love talking to Kim about workplace issues. She has such interesting things to say about how to be a terrific boss or colleague who has high standards, and who can help people grow and improve, but also be kind. It can be a tough balance.”

Join us this month and let’s read together!

 

Books, CMLE, Communication, General

Goodreads for March!

We are excited to continue our Goodreads book groups into the month of March! Nothing like some good books to help us look forward to spring. Join us in our Librarian Professionals group, our Librarians Enjoying Books group, or both! Feel free to read along with us and add your thoughts to the discussions.

For our professional development group, Librarian Professionals, we will be reading What If I Say the Wrong Thing?: 25 Habits for Culturally Effective People by Vernā Myers

Goodreads describes this book as featuring “innovative and surprising ways to keep your personal diversity journey moving and the diversity commitment of your organization. Written to make this information bite-size and accessible, you’ll find quick answers to typical What should I do? questions, like: What if I say the wrong thing, what should I do?”

For our fiction group, Librarians Enjoying Books, we will be reading Love Overdue by by Pamela Morsi. It’s the story of a shy book-loving woman that takes a job at the library in a small town only to run into someone from her past!

We hope you will read with us this month!

 

CMLE, Communication, General

Book Boxes!

Fun arrives in the mail!

People usually are vaguely familiar with the idea of subscription boxes – you can sign up to get new beauty products, wine or beer, or even vinyl that is picked out and delivered to you each month. But at CMLE, we were excited to discover that subscription book boxes are becoming very popular!

This article from NPR goes into detail about a few of the subscription services like LitJoy and Owlcrate, even describing the contents of several boxes for the month of December. And each box contains some really cool stuff – all things book-loving people would enjoy. Get a visual sneak peek by following Litjoy, Owlcrate, and Uppercase on Instagram (and while you’re there, follow CMLE too!)

Do you subscribe to a monthly box delivery, book-related or not? We are curious, share with us in the comments!

 

Academic, Check this out:, CMLE, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

December CMLE book group picks

'Cozy Cabin', United States, Wisconsin, Phillips
Get cozy in December with our Goodreads books!

If you have some time over the weekend, and have already finished up our November book group selections, we present – for your reading enjoyment – our December books!

In our CMLE Librarian Professionals discussion group, we will read “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin.

In December, our Monthly Topic is stress management, and this book can be a way for you to get a handle on that. And we all start thinking about New Year’s resolutions as we get closer, so this book can help you to focus some of your energy on thinking about happiness goals!

Gretchen Rubin spends a year thinking about happiness, and how to make her already pretty-good life better. This was a NYT best seller for two years, and if you read it when it first came out, you might want to give it a re-read with some new perspective. She followed this up with several other books on happiness, and strategies for making your life happier.

She and her sister also create a weekly podcast with tidbits of advice on happiness-building activities you can take on. After I listened to “Podcast 91: Delete a Soul-Sucking App” I deleted Twitter from my phone, because it was making me upset to read my feed – but I couldn’t stop myself from spending time following every distressing discussion. I have to say I was much happier afterward!

I have picked up several other useful tips on increasing happiness – a very worthy goal in my eyes – from the podcast, and from the Happier series of books from Gretchen. If you have not explored in this area, try out her first book (this one!), or follow her blog, or listen to the podcast. See if consciously thinking about happiness strategies can make you happier this month! Tell us all about your experiences!

In our CMLE Librarians Enjoying Books discussion group, we are reading “The Strange Library” by Haruki Murakami.

December is a hectic month for everyone, so we want to be respectful of your time and give you a quick book. At 96 pages, this is the shortest of Murakami’s books translated into English from his native Japanese. (“What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” is also pretty short, but not much information on librarians!)

If you have not yet read any of his books, you have an interesting adventure ahead of you! If you have already delved into the somewhat surrealistic world he creates, you will find many of his typical images here: sheep, cats, jazz, whisky.

This is not a library you would aspire to for yourself, but sometimes it’s good to get out there and try some new ways of thinking. Holiday times can be a challenge for everyone, so breaking up your traditions (and traditions of holiday-induced stress!) with an interesting and odd little look into a new world might be just the thing to inspire you to enjoy your lives and your holiday traditions!

Have you read other Murakami books? They are nearly impossible to describe, but what was your favorite part? Were there books you particularly liked? If this is your first time in the Murakami world: welcome! There are adventures to be had here, and things to explore.

We are looking forward to hearing your responses!