Here's a book I could not resist, it's all about the use of librarians and archivists in WWII! At that time the U.S. did not have a good intelligence agency and the president was determined to correct that. He told the military to recruit folks who knew history, who could look things up, who could read and interpret it ... the military was most skeptical, but it not only worked, said 'bookish types' made for excellent spies! My favorite example deals with Enigma, remember that? And all the trouble to decode it? If someone knew where to look, it had actually been filed with the Patent Office in London. In 1927. With all the plans, how to build it, how to use it ... all in English! Then there was camouflage clothing (to start with) ... the military nearly dismissed it because it came from an artist and was considered to 'frou frou'! Museum curators were used, and art experts to locate and recover art stolen by the Nazis. Women were used, as were refugees ... all folks not really of a military bent and yet, they helped win the war, or as it was put, at the end of the book: "We need soldiers to win wars, but we need non soldiers to win peace." (p. 249). Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II, by Elyse Graham was a hard to put down book. You've been warned!

If you read, really read, and enjoy doing so then you should get a chuckle out of Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries and Just One More Page Before Lights Out by Shannon Reed. I found my self laughing and nodding in several places. There are chapters on how to choose a book, spoofs on familiar titles (just a list, but you will laugh), signs you might be a character in a book, and, of course, chapters on why we read. Those include: because we had to (class), to finish a series, for love, to learn, to cry ... all good reasons to keep us up late and turning the pages. Most enjoyable.

Reading Hermit With Dog