March 5th - Rochester Reads Event - Civil War Women

Join Us On Monday

March 5th

7:00 PM

Rochester Public Library Auditorium

Guest Presenter:  

Vicki Wendel 

March 4th - Rochester Reads Event - Civil War Weapons

Join us this Sunday!

March 4th

3:00 - 4:00 PM

Olmsted County History Center

1195 West Circle Drive SW

Rochester, MN

Book Review - Thirty Rooms to Hide In

Book Review

Thirty Rooms to Hide In

Luke Longstreet Sullivan

"'The Shining... but funnier.'

That's about the best way I can describe Thirty Rooms To Hide In. It's the story of growing up with my five brothers in a big house in Minnesota. Yet even with winters raging outside and our father raging within, our mother's protection allowed us to have a wildly fun, thoroughly dysfunc-tional time growing up in the 1950s and ‘60s." 

~ Luke Longstreet Sullivan

I rarely enjoy memoirs, so it was with no little amount of reservation that I began reading Thirty Rooms to Hide In at the suggestion of one of my Facebook Friends, who mentioned that it was her book club's current selection and that she just "couldn't put it down."  Probably I would've let the suggestion go at simply that - a suggestion - but then she mentioned that it was not just a memoir; but the memoir of a child who'd grown up in Rochester and who's father was a Mayo Clinic orthopedic surgeon.  And then I realized:  the family had lived in one of those gorgeous homes that so many of the Mayo doctors lived in!  Wow!  What would it be like to live in one of those homes?  What would it be like to grow up in one of those homes?  With that, I was sold.  I had to read this book just to satisfy my voyeuristic nature, if nothing else.

To my surprise, this book was very well-done and much like the author had tagged it - "The Shining...but funnier." But, unlike my expectations, it wasn't "funnier" in a comedic way; but "funnier" in the way that sometimes you simply have to laugh to survive, kind of way.


Thirty Rooms to Hide In is a memoir by the 5th son of a well-respected 1950s Mayo Clinic surgeon (Dr. Roger Sullivan) who, while brilliant, suffered from severe alcoholism and mental instability.  The onset of his disease was subtle but, once engaged, grabbed ahold of the young doctor and changed the lives of his wife and children forever.


In a time when alcoholism and chemical dependency were not fully understood, and domestic abuse was "between a husband and his wife," there was no safety net to catch the family as the bottom fell out from beneath their feet at their father and husband's loss of sanity.


Thirty Rooms to Hide In is a gripping memoir that takes the reader back to the 1950s and '60s when the rules of society were more repressed, the Cold War was a daily threat, and "sex, drugs and rock 'n roll" were just beginning to hit the landscape...but not so much in the small and conservative town of Rochester, Minnesota.


Throughout the book, the author vacillates between the rebellious antics of he and his five brothers as they struggled to understand and cope with their father's behavior, and on their mother - Myra Longstreet Sullivan - who deserves a great deal of credit for the love she brought to their home in spite of the fear and oppression that was their daily lives.  As a reader, I found her to be an inspiration to all mothers on how to not only survive, but to persevere against the most insurmountable odds.


Thirty Rooms to Hide In is a fantastic, though sometimes painful, read; and one I would recommend especially to Rochester readers as it tells the story of "one of our own."


This book is available at the Rochester Public Library and through SELCO interlibrary loan.  For more information about this book, visit the author's website dedicated to this book at www.thirtyroomstohidein.com.  There you can find more information about the author's life, video footage from their youth, letters and diary entries from that era, audio sound bytes of the two oldest brothers' band, photographs from the author's youth and the grown men he and his brothers have become today.


~ Catherine H. Armstrong

Happy Valentines Day

I 've been in love three hundred times in my life, and all but five of them were with books.
Lee Glickstein

Rochester Reads! Save the Date!

Don't forget to come to the Rochester Public Library for our
Rochester Reads Title Kick Off
- we are promoting the author Tony Horwitz, with two of his books concerning the Civil War: Confederates in the Attic and Midnight Rising (the story of John Brown). The New Pearl Buttons will be providing FANTASTIC music!

Friends Bookstore Annual Report

2011 Annual Report Friends' Bookstore The past year was a full and busy one; here are the highlights of the successes and changes in the store.

1.  2
2. At the beginning of 2011, the Bookstore Committee decided to begin taking debit/credit cards. Because the Bookstore is a non-profit organization, it gets a special rate from the company, both in the monthly fees and in the per-transaction costs. We saw credit/debit card sales double each month for the first four months. Now the number of customers using debit/credit cards has stabilized, but we hear multiple compliments regarding the fact that we now accept plastic.
3. The Bookstore participated in several special sales this year, including the White-Out Wednesday sale held on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and sponsored by the Rochester Downtown Alliance. The details of the sale were kept secret until the day of the sale, and that created a bit of buzz. In the end, we offered everything in the store at half price and made over $850.
4. The sorters have been kept busy this year and estimate that they receive an average of 500 books daily. The sorting system has been working very well, with the library taking all that they need for their collections before the Friends begin to select materials. The Bookstore does not lack for books, and we have special sales when one category is full. For example, right now children‟s books are buy-one-get-one-free.
5. The Bookstore donates many, many books and other materials to other organizations. For example, Channel One gets new children‟s, adult fiction and nonfiction books each week. We regularly send shipments to the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, often fulfilling requests. We have donated to other libraries (in Minnesota, in the United States, and overseas), to local charities, and to area schools. We also provide books to new teachers so they can begin establishing classroom libraries.
6. When we have author visits (Catherine Friend in June, the Minnesota Crime Wave, Kamala Nair, and Paula McClain for examples), the Bookstore purchases copies of the author‟s books and sells them during the author visit so patrons have a chance to get the book signed. We also help with set-up and teardown of the auditorium and provide coffee and cookies.
7. The Bookstore sponsored a Mystery Tea and enjoyed an overwhelmingly positive response. Bookstore volunteers and Library staff members were the actors, and everyone baked goodies. We borrowed round tables from the History Center, and their success lead to the Friends Board and Foundation purchasing round tables for use at large auditorium events. Individual Friends purchases table cloths and carafes.
8. In February, the Bookstore sponsored a Food for Thought fundraiser for Channel One, giving customers a discount if they brought in a food donation for Channel One. The store will be participating again this year as Channel One attempts to collect a Mile of Mac „n Cheese.
9. Many new volunteers joined the Friends in both the Bookstore and in the sorting area. We continue to grow. Due to the hard work and dedication of all, the Bookstore is making a record-breaking donation to the Library. The Friends‟ Bookstore Committee voted on Monday, January 9, 2012 to donate $57,000 to the library, leaving a small reserve so we can pay our bills. This amount is a $5,000 increase over last year‟s donation.

nd Saturday Sales continued to be a big hit. In 2010, the sales were a new idea to attract people into the store. During 2011, many of the library patrons were familiar with the Friends' Bookstore, and we saw the benefit in large increases in sales.

WINTERFEST BOOKSALE

Don't forget next week we have a fantastic booksale in the Library Auditorium during Rochester's Winterfest celebrations.

We have a fantastic selection of fiction, hardcover and paperback, an amazing array of non-fiction items, including vhs, cassette tapes, cds, dvds and audio tapes (the latter will be in the Twinkle room).

We will also be collecting food donations for Channel One on the first day of the sale - so if you bring in a non-perishable item you will receive a discount on your purchases!

AND remember, the Friends get in 30 minutes earlier to peruse the great selection! Time to join now!

Friends Winterfest Book Sale and Bookstore Promos

Another Great Selection of BOOKS at fantastic PRICES!! Don't miss  your next winter read!

February Specials

F.

Food For Thought – Last year we put a Channel One barrel in the store and offered a 20% discount to folks who made a donation (hopefully a protein) to the store. This year if folks spend $25 in the store, they’ll get a free tote bag. The Friends kick that off Food For Thought at the February 2nd/3rd Auditorium Sale.  Channel One’s goal is to collect a mile of mac ‘n cheese.  We will be selling boxes of KRAFT mac ‘n cheese at the auditorium sale so folks who didn’t bring boxes along can take advantage of the discount at the sale.  We will give folks a discount off their entire Winterfest purchase with a mac ‘n cheese donation.

2.

Two-fer Tuesdays – Tuesdays are a quiet day in our store (making it a perfect time to browse!).  In order to entice you in on Tuesdays, we are going to try a “Two-fer Tuesday” sale during the month of  March.  Customers will be able to buy-one-get one (of equal/ lesser value) free.  That will apply to most items in the store, the exceptions being the Rochester Reads books and the new canvas bags.  

NB::The Rochester Reads books will be here by February 13, and the bags are already in the store.

Friends Bulletin Board

Annual Meeting and Luncheon

Rochester Public Library - news article

There was a great article in the recent (January/February) Rochester Women Magazine on the Rochester Public Library by Suzanne Jones. Thank you for your informative article, and for reaching more of our community! The Friends support the libray in many ways, but in particular we are involved in the Rochester Reads programme. We would be delighted to publish the 'several pages more abou tthe many incredible programs and services the RPL has to offer' if you have written them Suzanne!

Friends Bookstore = new arrivals

Our Friends Bookstore has a lot of new arrivals - coming in daily. We still have a special on Children's books for the month of January (buy one get one free at equal or lesser value). New displays often highlight interesting books to read if you need suggestions!
Remember our Winterfest Booksale is coming right up too (in the auditorium on February 2, 3rd).

Winterfest Book Sale

1st Day Set Price & sales tax will be collected (per state law).

Prices will be: 

      50 cents on Mass Market Paperbacks, Magazines, Cassettes, VHS, Records, Children's Books

 $1.00 on Hardcovers, Trade Paperbacks, CDs, DVDs
   A few special interest & old books will be priced $2-$3
                  
2nd Day will be by donation.

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IN ADDITION IN FEBRUARY:

Food For Thought

The Friends’ Bookstore  at the Rochester Public Library will be collecting food for Channel One during the month of February. During “Food For Thought” month, anyone donating a nonperishable food item will receive a 20% discount off their entire Bookstore purchase.  Channel One is especially in need of protein items, such as peanut butter, tuna fish, and Mac ‘n Cheese.

History Hullabaloo

Mentors, Librarians and MN History Center Staff will be available to help History Day students with their thesis, research and projects. This was a highly successful History Hullabaloo programme last year - and a great opportunity to help out!  The first programme this year (2012) occurred on Wednesday January 4th, the next one will be :

Saturday January 14
from 10am to 3pm
in the Library Auditorium

The Paris Wife

Paula McLain The Paris Wife
One good book leads to another – if you have read Hemingway’s memoir, A Moveable Feast, you have your next book: The Paris Wife. I liked that he finally recognised what he had lost with his divorce, from this comment: "I wish I had died before I loved anyone but her (his first wife, Hadley)." Paula McLain writes primarily in Hadley’s voice providing her version of events. A previous biography (Sokoloff, 1973) is quite good, but this novel portrays the woman who loved him, for himself, and is fascinating! McLain painstakingly researched the biographies, letters, and Hemingway's novels, to accurately detail their lives, including their marriage (1921-1926). She is also a poet, which is evident in her language craft and evocative prose which captures the glamour, emotions and trials of the 1920s, Europe and especially Paris.
Hadley (Elizabeth Hadley Richardson 1893-1979) was a 28 year old midwestern girl when she met the 21 year old Hemingway who was already brash and ambitious. You are caught up in their whirlwind courtship and the infinite possibilities that await them in life (even knowing the baggage that came later, you love the current story). Her inheritance enabled them to move to Paris and initially provided Hemingway with the stable environment which promoted his writing and provided him with material/ experiences.
The reader is charmed by the warm generosity, beliefs and support of Hadley, delighted by the glittering expatriate world which is littered with well know literary and artistic figures as Gertrude Stein, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Ford Maddox Ford, Jean Rhys, and many others, and heartbroken when their marriage dissolves, unable to survive the fame, the drinking and womanizing, especially in wake of the birth of their child (John Hadley Nicanor Hemingway "Bumby") and her family values.
Hemingway wrote The Sun Also Rises during this time frame, dedicating it to her (and their son) partly in recognition of her sacrifice to his art. The royalties were hers as well. I will always wonder if she had stood up to him more, what greatness they could have achieved together. He desired her because she was not the independent, modern woman, but forgot she was her own person. She struggled to find her place in his ever changing world. While she embraced his adventures, the outdoors, the bullfights, etc their romance withered with jealousy, celebrity, ambition, and depression.
McLain is also sympathetic to Hemingway, recognising his early troubles, from his controling mother, the trauma of the great war and his depression. We know the man he became. Hadley married journalist and political writer Paul Mowrer in 1933 (Pulitzer 1929), eventually moving back to Chicago. He was also the Poet Laureate of New Hampshire (1968). Bumby (1923-2000) went on to become an American writer and conservationist (he finished the memoir, A Moveable Feast).
HWM 2012

The Paris Wife - Paula McLain

Paula McLain will be here in the Library this weekend! Sunday 8th January - DON'T MISS IT!
This is a beautifully written and captivating story and promises to be a fascinating discussion.The book is also for sale in our Friends Bookstore! I am so glad she is a friend of one of our Librarians,- what an opportunity to have her visit Rochester! This was my first exposure to her work. I would have been hugely disappointed if I had missed this book!

Gift membership and Donations

Your Membership support is VITAL to the Friends of the Rochester Public Library. We are very grateful to all of you who continue your partnership with us by renewing your annual membership. Please consider joining, or making an additional donation during these holiday seasons, especially in this challenging economy. The Friends’ operating budget comes from your tax-deductible contributions and other fund-raising activities.  With your help, the Friends enhance library offerings by:

• Promoting early childhood literacy with Read with Me book bags for babies
• Sponsoring programming for children, teens, and adults, such as the visiting author series and providing prizes for the summer reading program
• Operate the Friends’ Used Bookstore which contributes proceeds in
                excess of $50,000 annually to the library’s collection
• Directly support library services and enrich our community

Volunteers help patrons at the Rochester Public Library and the surrounding communities in the following areas: the Bookstore, homebound services, social networking, and more. In 2010, the Friends’ Bookstore contributed $52,000 directly to the library allowing them to purchase additional books, DVDs, and other items. We continued this in 2011!

In this time of economic austerity your membership dues  or donations are more important than ever to help our Rochester Public Library.  Your dues provide you with these personal benefits:

• A 20% discount on used materials purchased in the Friends’ Bookstore
• Early admission to the RochesterFest booksale and other special sales
• Four newsletters per year, whether mailed or electronic. By providing your e-mail address we save printing and postage costs

PLEASE GIVE GENEROUSLY.  THANK YOU.

Membership Levels

      Book Collector      $100 and over             
      Book Lover           $50 - $99                     

      Book Reader         $20 - $49                   

      Bookworm*          $10 - $19                     My gift will be matched by

         *Full-time Student/Senior over 65         ______________________

Thank you for your tax-deductible support of the Friends of the Rochester Public Library

Rochester Reads 2012

The Rochester Reads committee decided to highlight the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War by selecting two books by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist/author Tony Horwitz, as well as a junior title for middle-school students, and a picture book for the pre-school-kindergarten crowd. Confederates in the Attic: dispatches from America’s unfinished Civil War (1998), and Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War (2011) are the two adult titles. Tony Horwitz will be speaking on the topic of Civil War and the origins of the conflict on Monday, April 9 at Willow Creek Auditorium at 7:00 p.m.

The junior title is The River Between Us by Richard Peck, and the picture book is B is for Battlecry by Minnesota author Patricia Bauer, who will be visiting several Rochester classrooms on April 10 as part of Rochester Reads.

In addition to the author visits, we will be hosting a kick-off event with Mayor Brede and the musical group The New Pearl Buttons  on February 13 at the library, and there will be a number of other events - lectures on the Civil War, children’s & YA events, book discussion groups - in March and April. All information will be available on the http://www.rochesterreads.org/ as events are finalized.

Rochester Reads 2012 is sponsored by:
Friends of the Rochester Public Library
Minnesota's Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund
Post-Bulletin CompanyDoubletree Hotel

and partnered with:

Adult and Family Literacy Program
Barnes & Noble Booksellers
Diversity Council
The History Center of Olmsted County
Post-Bulletin Company
Rochester Public Library
Rochester Public Schools
Rochester Community and Technical College

Gift Certificates to the Friends Bookstore

ONLY 11 SHOPPING DAYS LEFT!
Give the gift that keeps on giving - all through the year that will delight the readers in your family and circle of friends. Gift Certificates to the Friends Bookstore come in any denomination from $5 up. And while you are at it, give them a Friends membership which gives them an additional 20% discount! Win win!

Friends' Annual Meeting

2012 Friends of the Rochester Public Library Annual Meeting
Mark your calendars for the Friends of the Rochester Public Library annual meeting in the Auditorium
on Monday January 30, 2012, at 11:30 a.m. Following a delicious lunch a short business meeting will be held to elect new officers and board members.
We will celebrate a successful 2011, review our achievements and give a preview and dates for 2012 activities. Dr. Gerald Anderson, historian and mystery author, will then talk about the evolution of the mystery story genre. His talk is titled - The Mystery Story, Then and Now (and Why We All Love A Good Murder).
In order to plan for food please RSVP by January 24 to Elizabeth Ritman 282-9708, Gail Harris or Marilyn Campbell 328-2341.

Meeting Speaker: Dr. Gerald Anderson
We are delighted that Dr. Gerald Anderson will be our guest speaker for the Annual Meeting on Monday January 30th, 2012. Dr. Anderson received his BA at Concordia College Moorhead, Minnesota with majors in History and Political Science, MA from North Dakota State University, Fargo and his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, Iowa City.
He recently retired after 22 years as Associate Professor of History from the North Dakota State University in Fargo, ND. He has had other extensive teaching experience at Waldorf College, Forest City, Iowa; Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa; Iowa Wesleyan College, Mount Pleasant, Iowa; Austin Community College, Austin, Minnesota and more.
He has received numerous National and International Funded Grants, and Academic Teaching Honors. He is listed in the Who’s Who in America— Midwest Edition from 1978 to the present. Dr. Anderson has had many articles published, but most pertinent for the purposes of his talk are his published mystery novels that are set in Minnesota. The latest one published in 2011 by North Star Press is entitled Murder in Bemidji or Paul’s Bloody Trousers.
The title of his talk is The Mystery Story, Then and Now (and Why We All Love a Good Murder). He intends to speak in a general way about the evolution of the mystery story genre from Edgar Allan Poe to Wilkie Collins and Dostoyevsky. Dr. Anderson will mention the golden age of mysteries such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers and then some general comments about today’s mystery writers and finish with comment on his books and how he writes them.