It's National Library Week: don't fear the library!
7 April 2025
Dear Friends Who Read and Readers Who Are Friends,
This is the start of National Library Week.
And I’m a novelist for lots of reasons, but among them? Public libraries.
My family moved often the second half of my childhood, and at one point I went to five schools in six years in three states.
To wit, just before I started eighth grade, my family moved from a suburb of New York City to Miami, Florida, and we moved over Labor Weekend. The following Tuesday, I started school at Palm Springs Junior High, and then -- right after sch00l -- saw my new orthodontist (a sadist, it would turn out, if ever there was one). He gave me some orthodontic headgear that looked like the business end of a backhoe, and I had to wear the device for four hours a day. I couldn't speak when I was wearing it, and I wasn't allowed to sleep when I was wearing it. So, some days, I would come home from school, put in my headgear, and go to the library to read.
There I devoured books as different as William Peter Blatty's "The Exorcist" and Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird." I began to understand little bits about literary momentum and narrative drive, and how first person narrators are every bit as made up as the fictional constructs around them.
Now, of course, libraries are under threat. It began with "book banning," (as recently as 2023, my novel, "Midwives," was among the books pulled from library shelves in a part of Florida). But the threat has gotten worse in recent months. To wit:
- At the U.S. Naval Academy Library, among the 381 books that were removed after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the school to eliminate titles promoting DEI were Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" and "Memorializing the Holocaust."
The staff of the Institute of Museum and Library Services was put on leave.
- Many libraries have had previously approved federal grants terminated.
- Texas legislators are considering a bill that would impose criminal penalties on teachers and librarians who provide books with "sexually explicit content," regardless of whether the book has literary or educational value.
- Mississippi's Library Commission had to cut off access to eBooks.
- Ohio's summer reading program is in limbo.
As I wrote back in 1998 when my little Vermont village library was destroyed in a flood, a library is far more than a roomful of books. It's a multigenerational community center used by all demographics, from toddlers to seniors.
No one becomes a librarian to get rich. None of them signed up to be a wall of defense for the First Amendment.
But that's where we are.
What can you do?
- Ask your congressional representative via email or phone to support federal library funding.
- Vote in local elections for citizens who will support your library.
- Thank your librarians the next time you visit.
- Learn about the American Library Association.
- Share your love of libraries with friends and family, in person or on the social networks.
There is obviously more. But this is a start.
Thank you, my friends. May you always have a book you love by your bedside.
All the best,
Chris
www.chrisbohjalian.com
Praise for The Jackal's Mistress
An Instant National Bestseller
"Inspired by true events….A moving tale about the difficult choices people must make in dangerous circumstances." -- The Washington Post
"All the propulsive plot and character development one has come to expect from Bohjalian." -- The Boston Globe
"It’s hard not to get pulled in from the first sentence….The Jackal’s Mistress gallops along, sweeping us up in its heart-pounding final pages." -- The Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"The Jackal’s Mistress. . .is destined to be a classic worthy of Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway. . .[an] unforgettable read that cements Bohjalian’s placement on the literary Mount Rushmore of American writers." -- BookReporter
"Elegant, poignant, and richly atmospheric. . .Bohjalian once again demonstrates his profound respect for women, endowing his female protagonists with depth and nuance.” -- Booklist, starred
One of the New York Times's 24 Books to Read This Spring
One of the Washington Post's 10 Noteworthy Books for March
An Indie Next Selection for March
An Amazon Editors' Pick for March
A Barnes & Noble and BookBub "Most Anticipated Book" for March
Dear Friends Who Read and Readers Who Are Friends,
This is the start of National Library Week.
And I’m a novelist for lots of reasons, but among them? Public libraries.
My family moved often the second half of my childhood, and at one point I went to five schools in six years in three states.
To wit, just before I started eighth grade, my family moved from a suburb of New York City to Miami, Florida, and we moved over Labor Weekend. The following Tuesday, I started school at Palm Springs Junior High, and then -- right after sch00l -- saw my new orthodontist (a sadist, it would turn out, if ever there was one). He gave me some orthodontic headgear that looked like the business end of a backhoe, and I had to wear the device for four hours a day. I couldn't speak when I was wearing it, and I wasn't allowed to sleep when I was wearing it. So, some days, I would come home from school, put in my headgear, and go to the library to read.
There I devoured books as different as William Peter Blatty's "The Exorcist" and Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird." I began to understand little bits about literary momentum and narrative drive, and how first person narrators are every bit as made up as the fictional constructs around them.
Now, of course, libraries are under threat. It began with "book banning," (as recently as 2023, my novel, "Midwives," was among the books pulled from library shelves in a part of Florida). But the threat has gotten worse in recent months. To wit:
- At the U.S. Naval Academy Library, among the 381 books that were removed after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the school to eliminate titles promoting DEI were Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" and "Memorializing the Holocaust."
The staff of the Institute of Museum and Library Services was put on leave.
- Many libraries have had previously approved federal grants terminated.
- Texas legislators are considering a bill that would impose criminal penalties on teachers and librarians who provide books with "sexually explicit content," regardless of whether the book has literary or educational value.
- Mississippi's Library Commission had to cut off access to eBooks.
- Ohio's summer reading program is in limbo.
As I wrote back in 1998 when my little Vermont village library was destroyed in a flood, a library is far more than a roomful of books. It's a multigenerational community center used by all demographics, from toddlers to seniors.
No one becomes a librarian to get rich. None of them signed up to be a wall of defense for the First Amendment.
But that's where we are.
What can you do?
- Ask your congressional representative via email or phone to support federal library funding.
- Vote in local elections for citizens who will support your library.
- Thank your librarians the next time you visit.
- Learn about the American Library Association.
- Share your love of libraries with friends and family, in person or on the social networks.
There is obviously more. But this is a start.
Thank you, my friends. May you always have a book you love by your bedside.
All the best,
Chris
www.chrisbohjalian.com
Praise for The Jackal's Mistress
An Instant National Bestseller
"Inspired by true events….A moving tale about the difficult choices people must make in dangerous circumstances." -- The Washington Post
"All the propulsive plot and character development one has come to expect from Bohjalian." -- The Boston Globe
"It’s hard not to get pulled in from the first sentence….The Jackal’s Mistress gallops along, sweeping us up in its heart-pounding final pages." -- The Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"The Jackal’s Mistress. . .is destined to be a classic worthy of Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway. . .[an] unforgettable read that cements Bohjalian’s placement on the literary Mount Rushmore of American writers." -- BookReporter
"Elegant, poignant, and richly atmospheric. . .Bohjalian once again demonstrates his profound respect for women, endowing his female protagonists with depth and nuance.” -- Booklist, starred
One of the New York Times's 24 Books to Read This Spring
One of the Washington Post's 10 Noteworthy Books for March
An Indie Next Selection for March
An Amazon Editors' Pick for March
A Barnes & Noble and BookBub "Most Anticipated Book" for March
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message 1:
by
Cosmos
(new)
Apr 07, 2025 03:42PM
As a librarian I really appreciate this post. Even if I wasn't one, though, I'd appreciate it anyway. People use the library for all sorts of reasons. Books are just one of them, but seeing a book taken off the shelves is horrible because it silences a voice and also takes away the lessons that others would have learned from the owner of that voice and their own experiences, or the story they had to tell.
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Thank you, Chris, for your support. I work both for a library system and a local public library. We need all the help and support that we can get.
Thanks, Chris. As a librarian and a patron of libraries, please join your local library and do all you can to support it!
Thank You. Our libraries being under attack is just horrible.
