"Beneath heaven is hell. Beneath hell is Furnace."

So begins Alex Sawyer's new life inside Furnace, a high security prison built to house the worst of the worst juvenile offenders. A life of harsh rules rules. A life of hard labor and brutality. A life without the sun or freash air. A life where a single mistep could bring the blood watch in a place where there are things worse than death.

Problem is, Alex is innocent.

Set in the turn of the 20th Century China City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell is the stoy of two Mennonite Missionaries who leave home to live in the plains of Northern China. In China they discover love, hate, danger, turmoil, doubt, but also deep contentment. Life is hard, sometimes excruciatingly so, but their love for the people of China and dedication to God keeps them standing firm through good times of plenty and hard times of drought, famine, and war.

This tender story is one of deep relationships and the amazing power forgiveness has on the lives of all it touches. Full of wisdom it is based on the real lives of Caldwell's grandparent's, enhanced with pieces from the lives of other missionaries to China making the book an even more compelling read. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Once again I find myself procrastinating on my classwork.

This semester's class is Collection Development which is actually pretty interesting. We have developed a plan for collections for a library of our choice and mine is a mobile library. Imagine that. Only one part of this plan remains, it is the shortest assignment to date and probably the least challenging and yet I find myself sitting in front of my computer screen staring at a mostly blank word document.

I think it's finally happened. My brain is full. The knowledge is now jammed in there so tightly that it can't get back out. Do you think my professor would accept that as an excuse?

What to do?

Since I'm a children's librarian (almost) and use this song all the time but hate spiders, sleep talkin' man made me guffaw out loud.

This is what he said but you really need to hear him, say it. The link is in my blog list on the bottom right of this page and the date is Nov. 2.

"(sing-song) The itsy-bitsy spider, craaaawling.... SMACK IT WITH A NEWSPAPER, get on with your life!"

(I tried to link or inbed it here but it wouldn't allow it. Or maybe I just couldn't figure it out. Either way)

Things that bug me...

People who are so self-absorbed or too stupid (yes I said stupid) to realize that it is inappropriate for a three year old to be in a rated R movie!