By Library Director Ben Heckman
Bexley Public Library is excited to be celebrating our 100th birthday this year, and we are honored to share this once-in-a-lifetime birthday with the wonderful community we’ve been honored to serve for more than a century. While April marks the start of our many celebratory festivities, we invite you to join us for the host of engaging authors, talented musicians, inspiring artists, and more that will join us throughout the year.
by Public Service Associate Juliana
Midori’s cooking was far better than I had imagined it would be, an amazing assortment of fried, pickled, boiled, and roasted dishes using eggs, mackerel, fresh greens, eggplant, mushrooms, radishes, and sesame seeds, all done in the delicate Kyoto style.
— from Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
One of the many, many things that I love about the library is that you can develop an interest in something and absolutely take off with it. By which I mean, you can mine the catalog for any and every resource, and you can follow any connection that happens to come your way. I ended up doing this type of deep dive with Japanese breakfast. An interest was born, I followed one lead to the next and the next. From television to cookware, cookbook to novel, memoir to music. It has been such a fun journey; I have to share it.
by Public Service Associate Juliana
I have been in love with Ireland ever since I was little and believed in fairies. Does that explain why I gravitate toward Irish writers? It seemed like a fairy trick last year when I’d start reading a novel and realize, “Another Irish author! How interesting!”
This month, in the spirit of celebrating Irish history and culture, it feels quite appropriate to highlight a few titles within this trend.
by Public Service Associate Autumn
February makes me want nothing more than to sit and read, wrapped in a blanket, with a mug of tea (or hot chocolate). It’s mucky, wet and still fairly chilly outside, so inside I stay. And, as I learned last year, there is a book subgenre that gives you that same warm, cozy feeling as snuggling inside while the wind rages outside: Cozy Fantasy.
by Public Service Associate Juliana
I was fourteen years old and obsessed with Kurt Cobain. His song, “Heart-Shaped Box”, inspired me to dump my Valentine candy into a bag and use the empty heart-shaped box for safekeeping. Shiny red, about the size of a dinner plate, it was perfect for love notes, by which I mean literally notes of “Things I Love.”
By Associate Librarian – Readers’ Advisory Specialist Debbie
The Yiddish Book Center “Stories of Exile” Series concludes this February and March with the powerful novel Beloved by the Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison. Beloved, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988, is a moving story of an African American family in post-civil war America recovering from the trauma of enslavement.
by Public Services Associate & Creative Content Coordinator Hannah
Bexley Public Library’s Juliana invited fellow Patron Services Associate Hannah to consider her past, present and future reading journey.
By Public Service Associate Paul
2023 was a remarkable year for gaming and as we come to a conclusion on this 3rd year in the 9th generation of home video game consoles let’s take a look back at some of the best this year had to offer. In no particular order, I would like to highlight some of the games this year that, when faced with the challenge of launching in a window of time that was surrounded by so many other hotly anticipated games, rose to the occasion and left an indelible impression on myself and so many others that I would be remiss to not include them today to share with you all.
Revel in the beauty of the All Staff “Reply All” email! I started an email thread asking for lists of favorite materials published in 2023. Collected below you will find a selection of standouts. There is so much variety here, truly something for everyone. Maybe you’ll feel inspired to try a new title or new author. Maybe this is the encouragement you need to read outside your typical genre! Have fun:) Read something you’ve heard lots about or nothing about. As a staff, we read a lot of fiction — psychological, gothic, horror, historical, romance, thriller. We read a lot in general — memoir, essays, picture books, and manga. You’ll also find our favorite movies, television, and music.
by Public Service Associate Juliana
Shorter days make me nostalgic for the winter evenings I sat on a low stool, my back warm in front of a fire that my mother built with logs my father stacked all summer. We’d decorate the tree after Thanksgiving with multicolored lights, salt dough angels and crocheted snowflakes.