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Spine-tingling reads for an October night

Posted in kids on September 21, 2017 at 6:00 am

By Sheri Boggs My favorite childhood books were often the scariest. If it had a ghost or a witch or a cover with a wind-tossed old tree on it, I was IN. I loved The Ghost Belonged to Me, by Richard Peck, (in which a 13-year-old boy not only learns he can see ghosts but […]

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Mixtape: The Vietnam War era

Posted in Explore and Discover on September 19, 2017 at 6:00 am

by David Wyatt Music is just as messy and various as life. There are few examples as poignant as the Vietnam War and Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s documentary series about the war (airing now through September 28th on our local PBS station KSPS) to remind us there is no single truth to war, and […]

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Overabundance: What to do when the produce is piling up

Posted in Explore and Discover on September 7, 2017 at 6:00 am

By Susan Goertz This spring, I bought a house with a lovely little backyard. At the time, it was pretty hard to tell what was growing back there—just what looked like lots of promising looking twigs and buds. As spring warmed into summer, my vegetative bounty slowly revealed itself. Every new discovery was a delight […]

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Do you have the best back-to-school accessory?

Posted in News on September 1, 2017 at 6:00 am

LIBRARY CARD SIGN-UP MONTH September is Library Card Sign-up Month! You may know Spokane County Library District for the many books, DVDs, CDs, and magazines you can check out when visiting our 10 libraries. What you may not know is that we provide so much more! Our Digital Library has over 50 online resources and […]

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Sgt. Pepper is 50: How an album revolutionized popular music

Posted in Explore and Discover on August 31, 2017 at 6:00 am

by Melissa Rhoades According to Rolling Stone‘s definitive list: 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, the Beatles’ 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band stands as “the most important rock & roll album ever made.” When I fell in love with the album as a preteen in the early 1980s, I had no clue […]

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The Great American Eclipse of 2017

Posted in Explore and Discover on August 17, 2017 at 6:00 am

by Nathaniel Youmans Shortly after 10am on Monday, August 21, 2017, a terrific spectacle of light and darkness will leave millions of people suspended in awe. It has happened before (most recently through the Pacific Northwest states back in 1979), but on this morning many will witness the first total solar eclipse since 1918 to […]

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Save a life: Ask FAST questions when you spot a stroke

Posted in Explore and Discover on August 15, 2017 at 6:00 am

by Debbie Rhodes I woke up wandering into my living room thinking why wasn’t I at work? My husband looked at me strangely and in a very uneasy tone asked, “How many children do you have?” I replied, “Why are you asking me such a stupid question?” It turned out he had a very good […]

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Sharing your harvest’s bounty at library produce swaps

Posted in Explore and Discover on August 8, 2017 at 6:00 am

By Gwendolyn Haley My eyes are bigger than my freezer and pantry. Every year, I plant a little garden, only to be overwhelmed when everything starts to ripen at once. My family starts to groan and say, “No more… beans, tomatoes, squash” and so on. Each spring, I underestimate just how much produce will come […]

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On Tyranny: A reading list

Posted in Explore and Discover on August 1, 2017 at 6:00 am

  By David Wyatt “Lesson 9: Be kind to our language. Avoid pronouncing phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to convey that thing you think everyone is saying. Make an effort to separate yourself from the internet. Read books.” For obvious reasons, this may have been one […]

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My journey in downsizing & killing the clutter

Posted in Explore and Discover on July 25, 2017 at 6:00 am

By Jane Baker Call it what you want—downsizing, minimalism, a trending fad, or decluttering—it is a state of mind that seems to be crossing the generations. Lifestyle websites catering to Millennials promote experience over things. Baby boomers and Gen X are inheriting housefuls of lifetime collections into their already full houses. TV shows l […]

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