Surefire way to get that book

Einstein and Lady Liberty 
on top of a Worm Bin.  
This photo has nothing to do with this post,
but everything to do with the world in 2025.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that there is no surer way to receive a book on hold than to download a truckload of “available now” library kindle books.

This is probably not of interest to anyone, but it is healing to me to write something, and I can’t bear to compose another letter to my #$&*# Senators right now.  I am avoiding that right now, for my mental health.

Here are the titles of the six books I downloaded (at my son’s apartment) last week while waiting for 

a) one of the seven books I had on hold, and  

b) the electricity at our house to be turned back on.  

• Knock, Knock, You’re Dead! By M.C. Beaton (A Hamish Macbeth Short Story).  2016.

• Death of a Liar, by M.C. Beaton   (Hamish Macbeth Mysteries Book 30). 2015.

• Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village, by Maureen Johnson, Illustrated by Jay Cooper. 2021.

• Look for Me There, by Luke Russert. 2023.

• The Thrifty Guide to Ancient Rome, by Jonathan W. Stokes (middle-grade). 2018.

• Gargantua and Pantagruel, by Francois Rabelais.  1564.

In desperation I first downloaded the two M.C. Beatons, but haven’t started reading either.  Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village showed up in my search, and that seemed important, AND it is ultra short.  

Then I looked for travel memoirs and found Look for Me There which promises to be good – it’s the author’s memoir about his father, journalist Tim Russert.  I am missing my parents a great deal these days, so I think I will appreciate this book.  Also showing up in my search for travel memoirs was The Thrifty Guide to Ancient Rome, for kids.  Ancient Rome was a cruel and gruesome place.  I am not in the mood for it.  I made it to page 37 (of 127 total pages) before abandoning it.

Gargantua and Pantagruel - I actually wanted to read Eugénie Grandet by Honoré de Balzac. But the library only has it on kindle in (!!) Spanish.  (It was originally written in French).  Thinking of Balzac made me think of The Music Man and the line “Chaucer!  Rabelais!  Balzac” in the song “Pick-a-little, Talk-a-little.”  And I landed on Rabelais’ Gargantua and Pantagruel. I may have read portions of it in college.  Although it is supposed to be bawdy and satirical, something we need right now, it is unlikely I will read any of the 1,041 pages.  

And then, OF COURSE, one day later, one of my books on hold arrived.  How to Age Disgracefully, by Clare Pooley (2024).  I am less than thrilled with it so far, but it is quite funny in places and the characters are growing on me.