Who would have thought ...

Authors are always looking for a hook, a way to be different, interesting, and enticing to the reader. Colin Cotterill writes a wonderful series set in communist Laos with the main character the national coroner, Dr. Siri Paiboun. The novels have a well plotted mystery involving superstition, government bureaucracy, and insightful, if primitive, forensics. Dr. Paiboun, based in Vientiane, exposes the reader to this fascinating culture struggling to modernize in the midst of poverty and dismal economic conditions. In Disco for the Departed, the story moves to the former royal seat of Luang Prabang where he meets the deposed king tending a royal orchard.

The series stands at four titles including 33 Teeth, The Coroner's Lunch, and Anarchy and Old Dogs. I recommend them to those who like mysteries and are looking for something off the beaten path.

Not so far off the beaten path but still not your usual mystery, are the stories about my favorite Bangkok detective, Sonchai Jitpleecheep, the only uncorrupted cop in Bangkok. John Burdett writes this mystery series and the titles are Tattoo, Bangkok 8, and Bangkok Haunts, so far. The milieu might be a tad seamy for the weak hearted. The sights and smells of Thailand are quickly at hand as Sonchai takes us deep into the Bangkok underworld to ferret out serial killers and drug traffickers.

While I'm in the Far East it would be a crime not to mention the grippingly tense series featuring assassin John Rain. Barry Eisler hits just the right notes with these finely crafted thrillers that range the globe from Argentina and Paris to Tokyo and Hong Kong. I got hooked with my first contact Rain Fall up to the latest, Requiem for an Assassin. This series has been around for a few years and there are 6 titles in the run. From the beginning: Rain Fall, Hard Rain, Rain Storm, Killing Rain, The Last Assassin, and recently Requiem for an Assassin. Our library owns 5 of the series but we are missing Hard Rain which I will try to get.

Adults Reclaim Library

The kids are back in school and the library belongs to adults until 3:30 PM, or so. We have quiet space, available computers, nooks for reading, and plenty of books for browsing. Welcome back and enjoy the quiet.

I am back from a week of vacation during which I stayed home and read 7 books, worked in the garden, and had visitors from Topeka, Wichita, Eldorado, and Scottsdale. I like time off.

I owe Gerri George thanks for reminding me that I liked to read mysteries by Giles Blunt. He writes a good mystery, which he sets in Algonquin Bay, Ontario. They are procedurals with likable characters and stories that flow. We own Forty Words for Sorrow, Black Fly Season, The Delicate Storm, and By the Time You Read This, all enjoyable stories featuring Detective John Cardinal. Blunt spent 20 years living in New York writing for Law & Order and other TV programs.

I also finished Larry McMurtry's Buffalo Girls which will be discussed at my "last Tuesday of the month book discussion" group. Next month we will be reading and discussing Doctorow's Ragtime. The September discussion will take place at 10:30 AM on September 25th. Everyone is welcome to attend but to join in the discussion you will need to read the book. There are multiple copies available on top of the New Book shelves.

Getting started...

We are six months into our new building and we still enjoy the newness of our building. The sights, smells, textures, and sounds of our new/old building are refreshing. Everyone has had a positive response to our new building, nary a discouraging word has been heard about the building, not so our hours.

We opened originally 4 days per week, Monday through Thursday from 10 AM to 8 PM 40 hours per week. That was what we could afford. We went from staffing less than 10,000 square feet of building spread over 2 floors to staffing 23,000 square feet of building spread over 3 floors - what a jump - 308% growth! It took everyone we had to cover the 40 hours, forget about the 48 hours we had been open. Not everyone, let me revise, no one thought 40 hours a week was enough. We selected the schedule that we did for a couple of reasons: one, it gave us service hours for all groups - morning, afternoon, and evening; and second, it gave us evenings for the expanded programming that our building allowed us.

By summer staff was running on empty being here for 4 10 hour days, and with school out the library board changed our hours to 5 days per week with only 1 evening. So far this change has worked out fairly well and as we go into September I think we will maintain this schedule.