Director of Libraries Message for May
Some of you may have heard about the NPR/Ipsos poll released last month in which they surveyed 2,000 Americans on the importance of reading in their lives. My career is punctuated by these polls every few years from the likes of big data pollsters like Gallup or Pew Research.
In my generation, the trend is usually downward in some fashion with occasional bright spots like the uptick during the pandemic, when so many people had time and inclination to return to books. Unsurprisingly to me, the NPR/Ipsos poll basically concludes that Americans value reading, want their children to read, want to read more themselves, but often do not have the time because life is so busy. This was on my mind as I was recently browsing new releases at Book Shop Santa Cruz (I’m a library user but also buy books I know I want to keep). We’re in the middle of Spring’s publishing season and this year there are so many terrific new reads worth making time for. To illustrate, I thought I would share with you my own personal To Be Read pile of new and upcoming titles-all received terrific reviews and all available from Santa Cruz Public Libraries now or in upcoming weeks.
I’ll start with a book I brought home that day, The Pretender by Jo Harkin. I’m enjoying the final installment of Wolf Hall on PBS, so I’m eager to dive into this historical novel based on real events in Tudor era England, when politics was literally blood sport. The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar is a music infused drama set in a fantasy realm. Music also plays a role in the intriguing Harriet Tubman Live In Concert by Bob the Drag Queen, which creatively imagines Tubman brought back to life as a Hip Hop artist. A man navigating a midlife crisis returns to family on a Mohawk Reservation in Aaron John Curtis’ Old School Indian, described as “an affecting tale of loss and healing.” Two authors who will be offering talks locally in coming months include Alison Bechdel presenting her new graphic novel Spent: a comic novel and Alka Joshi joining our Summer Reading Program to discuss Six Days in Bombay.
For nonfiction, I’m looking forward to reading On Air: the triumph and tumult of NPR by Steve Oney, Robert Macfarlane’s newest exploration of nature in Is a River Alive?, and Laurence Leamer’s Warhol’s Muses: the artists, misfits and superstores destroyed by the Factory fame machine.
These titles are a drop in the bucket of compelling new reads hitting library shelves. We have something for every reader, stop by and pick one out for yourself at your local SCPL branch!
Christopher Platt
Director of Libraries
Mensaje del Director de Bibliotecas
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