Reviewer Spotlight

Branch: Main Library

Susan, who manages Main Library, is the reviewer of the month for June. She is an avid reader and has contributed fiction and non-fiction reviews to Reader’s Club. Here is what she has to share with us:

When I was in elementary school the public library was also the school library, sort of stuck on the back of the building. Way back then, the librarian was very strict about not letting the students even go into the adult half of the library, let alone touch any of those books. By 4th or 5th grade I had read everything I wanted to in the children's half, so my Mom had to talk to the librarian and let her know that it was all right with my parents for me to read those 'adult' books. I remember I got on a kick of reading opera librettos and biographies of composers, as well as whatever passed for youth fiction in the dark days of the '50s.

Now my favorite authors cover a range of fiction, from Barbara Kingsolver and Jane Smiley to Tony Hillerman and Dana Stabenow. I range from current literary fiction to mysteries, with some nonfiction sprinkled in. I'm a great fan of books on CD and was thrilled when George Guidall spoke at Staff Day in 2005. He's my favorite 'voice', along with Barbara Rosenblat. I've also enjoyed listening to the Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith because the woman who reads these, Lisette Lecal, has just the right voice for this series set in Botswana.