The Year of Yes

 I had a period of time in 2025 and early 2026 where I said yes to new things.  Personal growth, professional growth... you know the story.

And two big things are happening right now that will affect my life for the foreseeable future. First, I was elected president-elect of our state's school librarians organization! I have belonged to this organization since I became a librarian in 2000, and it means the world to me. For many years, I was a a sponge, soaking up all the knowledge I could from more experienced librarians. And then things started to switch, and I became someone who shared my knowledge with new librarians.  And now, I will lead this organization that I love so much. 

The second big thing is that I have been hired as an adjunct instructor for a university in the area with a robust school library program.  The students are mostly teachers getting their M.Ed. with a school library endorsement, or they are initial licensure candidates. I'll be teaching a children's literature course this fall, and next spring, I'll be doing collection development. 

My year of yes has turned into my year of BUSY!!

Things I Notice, #89274927

 

        

     

Practically identical covers! The striped awning, characters hanging around in front of the store, title above the storefront... I'm going to start collecting them here on this post.

The second book is one I am listening to because I had been approved for an ARC of it a while back. When I looked it up on Goodreads, I was hit in the head with "A Clean Romance" under the title.  Not all editions of the book have this on the cover, and I 100% would not have requested it if I had read that in the ARC description. I went back and looked, and that was never mentioned.

I have nothing against a closed-door romance, but I absolutely hate the term "clean romance" because, of course, it implies such a thing as "dirty romance." And I hate that morality policing of the romance genre. 

At any rate, I'm much more looking forward to reading the first book, which is a sapphic later-in-life love story.

Why I Have Trust Issues

I get an email everyday of ebook bargains, and if something catches my eye, I look it up on GoodReads to see what others think.

This book was in my email:

Very clearly, I see "Hard to Fake" by Piper Lawson, #1 in the Denver Kodiaks series.

Yet when I looked it up on GoodReads, this is what I found:

"Hard to Take" by Piper Lawson, #2 in the Denver Kodiaks series.

What is going on here?  The covers are similar, the title font is the same, but one is clearly an F and one is a T.

Bizarre.