Browser's Library Lore for July 20th 2006

Greetings, fellow bibliophiles.
“I Pledge Allegiance to the flag…” Did you know, “Francis Bellamy (1855 - 1931), a Baptist minister, wrote the original Pledge in August 1892. He was a Christian Socialist. In his Pledge, he is expressing the ideas of his first cousin, Edward Bellamy, author of the American socialist utopian novels, Looking Backward (1888) and Equality (1897).”? To find out more, check our wonderful collection of books at our library or one of three computer terminals.
This is relevant because The American Legion Fraser Nelson Post 613 has given the Pine River Public Library a new flag, replacing the much tattered former one. Thank you so much.

The Wine and Beer tasting was a great success, by the way. Thank you to Driftwood Lodge and thank you to Kim from Ultimate Liquors in Pine River, for making this event such a grand one. I didn’t get to go, of course. I prefer cream. I understand, though, that those who did attend enjoyed it enormously. [How about an ice cream social next time? No? But why not?]

The library book club met July 5 and discussed the book “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult. There were six attendees who talked a lot. I know this. I have not read this particular book, however, so I was unable to participate. The next book the club will be reading is “Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini. It begins, "I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975..."
About the author:
“Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1965. He is the oldest of five children and his mother was a teacher of Farsi and History at a large girls high school in Kabul. In 1976, Khaled’s family was relocated to Paris, France, where his father was assigned a diplomatic post in the Afghan embassy. The assignment would return the Hosseini family in 1980, but by then Afghanistan had already witnessed a bloody communist coup and the Soviet invasion. Khaled’s family, instead, asked for and was granted political asylum in the U.S. He moved to San Jose, CA, with his family in 1980. He attended Santa Clara University and graduated from UC San Diego School of Medicine. He has been in practice as an internist since 1996. He is married, has two children (a boy and a girl, Haris and Farah). The Kite Runner is his first novel.”

The summer reading program is rolling right along, as is the summer. Seems it happens every year like this. Just when I get used to being outside summer leaves again. A little pun there. Did you catch it? But I digress…There are only three weeks remaining. Keep up the good work.

Until next time,
I remain,
-Browser, the library cat

Printed in the Pine River Journal July 20th, 2006