Jencey's Corner

 My favorite book that I have read so far in 2023  is The Last Book Shop In London by Madeline  Martin.   This book follows the life of Grace Bennett during World War II in London.   Grace journeys to London after being put out of the family home that she grew up in by her uncle and his family.   The initial journey to London leaves Grace with uncertainty about her future.  " August 1939: London prepares for war as Hitler’s forces sweep across Europe. Grace Bennett has always dreamed of moving to the city, but the bunkers and blackout curtains that she finds on her arrival were not what she expected. And she certainly never imagined she’d wind up working at Primrose Hill, a dusty old bookshop nestled in the heart of London. Through blackouts and air raids as the Blitz intensifies, Grace discovers the power of storytelling to unite her community in ways she never dreamed—a force that triumphs over even the darkest nights of the war."(Goodreads, 2021). My Thoughts:   I loved t

  By Jencey Gortney,  Adult Services Librarian,  Wrightsville Beach Public Library, Public Libraries Online, jlgortney@crimson.ua.edu published on  July 31, 2022                                 Discoverability is defined as a ” problem for content creators to find an audience given an abundance of choice.”         We at the Wrightsville Beach Public Library feel that discoverability is important and impacts the services we offer our patrons.  We implemented a plan to increase discoverability by promoting and increasing visibility and access to reference resources, on the library website. It all starts with the catalog which shows the resources that the library has.  In the article   Thirteen Ways  of Looking at Libraries , Discovery, and the Catalog: Scale, Workflow, Attention  by Lorcan Dempsey  explores the way that libraries can build discoverability.   The catalog lists the resources that can be used by the reference staff or patrons.   The staff works with different forms of metad

Kristin Harmel has recently released her latest book to the world The Book of Lost Names.  I cannot wait to read it myself.  I have very much enjoyed her other books.  Kristin needs our help!  Due to COVID-19, there has been a delay in printing more copies of  The Book of Lost Names.   Many of the bookstores around the country's shelves are empty. We all want to be able to share more stories from Kristin in the future.  Purchasing a copy of her book ensures that we readers will hear more from Kristin Harmel in the future.  She is relaunching her book starting tomorrow. I will include some buy links:   Bookshop.org                             Barnes and Noble Books-A-Million                       Amazon         Simon & Schuster Here is a synopsis of the book  "Eva Traube Abrams, a semi-retired librarian in Florida, is shelving books one morning when her eyes lock on a photograph in a magazine lying open nearby. She freezes; it’s an image of a book she hasn’t seen in sixty-f

Last summer I had the honor of reading the Queen Bee by Dorothea Benton Frank.   Do I consider this book a beach read? Yes, it is.   It is also the last book that Dorothea Benton Frank will ever share with the public. I also had an opportunity to meet her once. She passed away last summer and was at the top of my list   when came to thinking of my favorite writers that publish during this beach read season.   A patron where I work highly recommended this one. Beekeeper Holly McNee Jensen quietly lives in a world of her own on Sullivans Island, tending her hives and working at the local island library. Holly calls her mother The Queen Bee because she’s a demanding hulk of a woman. Her mother, a devoted hypochondriac, might be unaware that she’s quite ill but that doesn’t stop her from tormenting Holly. To escape the drama, Holly’s sister Leslie married and moved away, wanting little to do with island life. Holly’s escape is to submerge herself in the lives of the two young boys ne

Dewey Readathon begins with introductions:  My name is Jencey Gortney.   I am reading from Atlanta Georgia in the US.   I am reading and will be starting with two books  The Last of The Moon Girls by Barbara Davis and continuing with my audiobook Written In My Own Hearts Blood by Diana Gabaldon .   I am looking forward to finally reading a Barbara Davis book and not using an audiobook.   The snack that I am most looking forward to beginning with is my Cinnamon Starbucks coffee.  I will then proceed to the oatmeal bars that I made from scratch.  I just finished yesterday twelve hours of graduate school.  I am working on my master's in Library Science from the University of Alabama.  I work at a library in north Atlanta and I love books.  I am glad to be here to do because this is a great activity to do while in quarantine! :) This is not my first Dewey Readathon.  It has been a while since I participated.  I am glad to be back.  One action I would like to do to make my