I am working at the library because, first of all, I wanted a summer job. Many of my friends decided to participate in the Mayor’s Summer Jobs Program and my older sister has done it last year. Based on all that, I decided to participate as well since it looks good on a resume, is…
A patron once told me that she never goes upstairs to look for books. She picks all her reading material from the return carts near the circulation desk. I told her that would never have occurred to me. She said, “Well, it lets me know what other people are interested in. It’s like anonymous book…
An SPL blog reader recently suggested to me that I write about “crazy books in the collection.” With over 200,000 volumes SPL definitely has its share of those (among my favorites are a slim little volume on the guys who figured out how to embalm Lenin and a book about the first scientific studies of…
There’s no doubt about it: we’re fascinated by organized crime. Whether it’s The Godfather, Goodfellas or The Sopranos, we can’t get enough of books and dramas that claim to show us the mob from the inside, an alternative underground world with its own laws and loyalties. Citizen Somerville is the genuine article: the memoir of…
Enter Somerville, a city packed with stories larger than itself, to salute a heritage that justifies the fierce pride of its citizens. Share a perch on one of Somerville's celebrated hills with Dee Morris and Dora St. Martin and watch the raising of America's first flag and the stringing of its first telephone line. Strolling…
