New Year, time to restart my blog.  

I joined #SixtyBooks in 2016  -  The goal is to read 60 books this year.  My daughter, Jennifer says that the picture books I read for story time don't count.  You can join by going to this website  - http://sixtybooks.com/sixtybooks-in-2016/

I read a trilogy to begin this adventure.  It is The Irish Heart Series by Juliet Gauvin.  The first book, The Irish Cottage: Finding Elizabeth.  Devastated after the death of her great-aunt Mags, who raised her, Elizabeth Lara leaves her life as a top San Francisco divorce attorney and goes to a cottage in Ireland. Through letters left to her by her aunt she discovers the truth about her parents that had been kept from her for thirty-five years.  Through the letter, Connor Bannon (the owner of the cottage) and the towns people of Dingle, Ireland, Elizabeth begins to rediscover herself.

Book 2 The London Flat: Second Chances.  Elizabeth meets old friends she hasn't had contact with since her college days.  Connor Bannon has followed her to London.  Will the romance with Connor continue or will it be a friend from the past?  She also has a quest, to find Mags' lover, Matthieu, and share the letter Mags left for him.  

Book 3 The Paris Apartment: Fated Journey completes the trilogy.  Many "journeys" including Elizabeth's journey to find herself come to completion in Paris.  There are even a few surprises in the final book that were only hinted at in the first two.

Three down.  Reading October Sky and Strike Three You're Dead.

Picture books read this week:

Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
SkippyJon Jones, Snow What by Judith Schachner
Don’t let the pigeon stay up late by Mo Willems
Shiver me letters: a pirate ABC by June Sobel

Getting Social with World Cat

I have used WorldCat, BUT not like this. I use it for looking up items that a teacher is looking for - books on a topic that we don't have, a video to match a book, etc.)This was quite interesting. I created a profile, used a picture from my better days. Not all my favorite libraries were listed on World Cat. I found two. (For some reason the school library name is misspelled.)

I created two lists - "libraries and librarians in juvenile fiction" and "Middle School Fiction" and started to follow a science fiction list. These lists would be handy for reference if someone wanted a book on a topic I was not very familiar with or if a teacher wanted several books on a special topic. Or you could start a list "books I've read" and refer others to it. You could refer patrons to this site and lists you have created in place of printed lists of books on favorite topics (Christmas, dolphins, baseball, etc)

I didn't link any books on this blog to WorldCat, but I did link some on my other blog where I have been doing book reviews. http://wpmu.esu13.org/cmatthew