This week acts as the official bridge between our spring and summer at the library beginning with the Friends of the ETLPL Books and Bites on Saturday. We had collected so many books over the past year that it took nearly an hour and half to set up. Five hours later the bites were gone along with many boxes of books and the Friends had raised over $900. Now begins the process of collecting more.

June 2^nd begins sign up for the Summer Reading Program. All ages are welcome to sign up. Materials are printed, give aways are organized and prizes are arranged. The calendar will be handed out to Little Prairie Primary students who make their yearly visit next week. It’s also available on our website and at the front desk. The framework of our schedule remains the same with year-round reoccurring programs and additional children’s programs on Monday afternoons. There are new programs scattered here and there. Some of those scattered programs are open to adults. We also have a program each month specifically for them.

In June Ben Merens from the Wisconsin Bureau of Consumer Protection will give the presentation Common Scams and Frauds. Merens reached out to public libraries offering a list of twelve presentations from which to choose. Scary to think that many people have found a minimum of that many ways to try and cheat and steal. Look for another of Merens presentations in the fall. The IGET Community Center has kindly opening its space for us at 2:00pm on June 11th. The Community Center is located in ETCSD’s Doubek building. The entrance can be found off of Division Street. Sandwich boards with the IGET center and ETLPL logos will be by the driveway.

July will see us back at the IGET Community Center for Meet the Author: Mary Bub. Nearly two year’s ago Bub’s husband passed away. One of the ways she dealt with her grief was through a series of letters later published as Letters to Betty: the anatomy of one woman’s grief. Bub will talk about her book on July 23^rd at 2:00pm. Copies will be available for purchase and signing as the event. We also have one available for checkout through the library.

Sourdough returns to the library on August 6^th. Experienced bakers are invited to enter their best recipes in a sourdough bake-off, think State Fair rather than British. Margaret Schultz will return that day to run her Sourdough Made Simple class in the evening at 6:00pm. That afternoon at 4:00pm she has agreed to work with three other judges to select the best sourdough baking East Troy has to offer. More details for that will follow as we finalize categories and procedures. In the meanwhile, that are two months left to tweak and perfect baking. A sourdough discard class is available through MasterClass for any bakers wishing for some professional advice before August. Free MasterClass seats are available through the library’s website. Registration for both events will be required.

Reading Now: Return of the Thief by Meghan Whelan Turner (Final book of the Queen’s Thief series which took Turner 24 years to complete. This gives me hope for the completion of Patrick Rothfuss’s Kingkiller Chronicles. Afterall, The Name of the Wind only came out on 2007.)

Listening to Now: Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire (Book 2 in Wicked series.)