Blue Hill Author to Sign Memoir at Blue Hill Library
Blue Hill author Faith Colburn will sign copies of her book, Threshold: A Memoir, at the Blue Hill Public Library on Saturday, February 9, 2013, at 2-4 p.m.
Threshold began with two images, said Colburn. “The first is an image of my great-great-great-grandmother, Sicily Hendricks, in the golden glow of candlelight and a fire in the hearth, surrounded by neighbors and friends, helping a young woman give birth. The second is an image of my nephew, along with strangers, under the cold green light of fluorescents in a modern operating theater having his leg amputated, labeled “hazardous waste,” and sent off to be incinerated in an undisclosed location. After David’s amputation, I began to wonder how it’s different to be attended by friends and neighbors or by strangers.”
Our families and communities serve as the threshold we cross into our lives. Whether it’s a metaphorical threshold or the actual physical threshold that marks our front door, the crossing informs who we choose to become.
Threshold is a series of eighteen stories, with an introduction and a conclusion, about one ordinary American family’s struggle to thrive across race and through time and space. From five-year-old Joseph Swope kidnapped and adopted by a war chief, to my father blasting up U.S. Highway 41 with a turtle for a co-pilot trying to save a marriage, this memoir reveals what happens when communities fail and how they thrive. These are the stories of people who worked together and shared resources. There’s the smell of wheat dust and sweat and the ozone that precedes a storm and there’s the clang of green beans into a metal pot while friends and family sit on chairs dragged out into the yard where it’s hard to discern the border between fireflies and stars.
“I can remember how safe and comfortable it was when everybody knew my name and they may not have always been glad I came, but I knew they wouldn’t let me ‘go under,’” Colburn said. “Perhaps we can find a pattern in these stories that we can adapt to help us retrieve that feeling in this new century.”
visit an author interview at: wordsprings.blogspot.com
Story Hour for children begins on Saturday, February 2nd at the Blue Hill Public Library. Children 3 years through kindergarten are invited to come and join the fun of a story, activity and craft. Sessions begin at 10:00 A.M. and close at 10:45 A.M.
For more information, or to pre-register, contact the library at 402-756-2701 or bhpublibr@gtmc.net
Often in casual conversation a question will come up that absolutely stumps everyone – just when did they build the old grade school, for example? Or, was their ever a millinery shop on Main Street in Blue Hill?
And then there are the serious family historians and genealogists who are searching for every birth, death and marriage in the family tree that can be found – as far back as possible. Aunt Ethelene is gone now and they didn’t ask enough questions about the lost generations years ago.
The Blue Hill Public Library has the local newspaper, The Blue Hill Leader, available on microfilm. All of the existing issues are on film dating from 1892 until June, 2007. The collection of reels of film was started by the Blue Hill Centennial Committee and has been continued since then as funds become available. A microfilm reader/printer was donated to the library by a devoted and generous patron, Florence Francis Sidlo, some years ago and is used by the public to print pages from the newspaper.
If you are interested in our history try the microfilm or one of the local history books available at the library. Some of the facts and stories are just marvelous and worth learning – plus make great conversation.
The Blue Hill Public Library is now a subscriber to the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries group! Patrons of the library can now go to the OverDrive website and download books to their home computers and enjoy them there or download them to their Kindle, Nook, i-Pod or whatever e-reader they choose. The items are checked out as if they were a regular library item and will expire at the due date.
Audio books can also be borrowed through the same service and transferred to MP-3 players or other devices, and even burned to CDs. Thousands of titles are available to choose from, and can be put on hold if they are being read/listened by another user.
All it takes is a valid library card and ID from the Blue Hill Public Library and the website access and you are ready to follow the instructions to set up your own account.
A mystery? Or a romance? Or a family drama? The November title for Book Circle is an intrguing book writtten by a well-known Kansas author and set in a small Kansas town in modern times. Is the wrongly convicted killer really guilty?
Pick up a copy of the book at the library and join the discussion on November 27th at 7:00 P.M. to add your thoughts to the group’s ideas.