Review of Here Comes Lolo, by Niki Daly

Beginning Chapter Books, Children's Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

Here Comes Lolo

by Niki Daly

Catalyst Press, 2020. Originally published in 2019 in Great Britain. 78 pages.
Review written November 27, 2021, from a library book
Starred Review

I read these beginning chapter books about Lolo out of order, and still love every one of them. This is the first one, where Lolo is introduced. She lives with Mama and Gogo (her grandmother) in South Africa. As all good beginning chapter books, the stories about Lolo reflect the interests of a young child beginning to learn to read. What’s fun about Lolo is that living in South Africa makes her concerns a little different than they might be if she were an American child — yet her personality and adventures are relatable.

There are four short stories in the book:

“A Gold Star and a Kiss for Lolo” is about her desire to win a gold star for reading from her teacher, but the setback that happens when she does.

In “Lolo’s Hat,” Lolo falls in love with a floppy hat in a shop window — but it isn’t there when she and her Mama go back for it.

“Lolo and the Lost Ring” begins like this:

Whenever Mama, Gogo, and Lolo went for a walk, Mama would look up and say, “I love the clouds against the blue sky.” Gogo would look around and say, “I love those trees,” or “What a nice dress that woman is wearing.” Stuff like that.

Lolo liked looking at the ground where flowers grow and where there were cracks to jump over on pavements.

And that’s where she found it: a ring lying in a crack in the pavement!

“Lolo and a Dog Called Hope” is about a dog that lives next door and is being mistreated. What should she do?

Lolo deals with small problems with flare — and with the help of Mama and Gogo.

Often with beginning chapter books, I read just one to get the idea of the series. But with Lolo, I wanted to read them all.

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke

Fantasy, Fiction Review, Sonderbooks25, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

by Susanna Clarke
read by Simon Prebble

Macmillan Audio, 2006. 32 hours, 30 minutes.
Review written November 24, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Originally reviewed October 26, 2004.
Starred Review
2004 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #1 Science Fiction and Fantasy

I reread (via listening) this book as part of my celebration of #Sonderbooks25 – my 25th year of writing Sonderbooks. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell was my favorite new book for adults that I read in 2004.

I’m sorry to say that I wasn’t as enamored with the book as when I read it the first time – it’s definitely not my favorite book of the year this year, or even close. But I still thoroughly enjoyed revisiting the story and getting caught up in Susanna Clarke’s highly detailed alternate world. Let me talk about the good things, but also why I’m not raving about it this time around.

The book is long. The first time I read it, the only way I could bring myself to tackle it was one chapter per day while I read other books – until I got about halfway through and was more obsessed. This time around, it required two separate checkouts of the eaudiobook, with a wait in between. 32 hours! But the length is also a strength. The incredible detail – with footnotes! – of the alternate-reality England during the Napoleonic Wars is an incredible feat of world-building. Simon Prebble feels like the perfect reader for the book, reading it with the voice of a scholarly old gentleman that just suits the story perfectly.

The story takes you through first Mr. Norrell and then Jonathan Strange being the first practical magicians that England has seen in hundreds of years. We’ve got hints about the Raven King, who used to control magic in England. We’re warned about the Faery realms and see the drastic consequences when Mr. Norrell messes with fairies – but consequences that he keeps secret from everyone else. We watch those consequences play out, and we watch Jonathan Strange do magic to win the war with Napoleon – and then diverge from his teacher. And eventually, we watch the prophecy happen about the two of them bringing magic back to England. And always a nefarious fairy causing trouble behind the scenes.

The book is immersive, and listening was a great way for me to tolerate the great length. So why was I not as enraptured this time around?

First, I already knew about the amazing world-building, so I took it more for granted this time. I did notice this time the blatant racism and anti-Semitism. It probably accurately reflects attitudes in England at that time, but was still unpleasant to read about. And there was a “historical” story told about the magic of Native Americans – including footnotes – that felt like a demeaning caricature. So I do feel like I should warn about that.

But I also realized that I didn’t remember how it ended – and was kind of let down when it did. Yes, many threads come together, but I didn’t think the ending was terribly satisfying. And then I realized that I didn’t really like any of the characters much. So the world-building and the delightful scholarly tone is the best part of the book. And they do carry the book the entire 32 hours, but it wasn’t quite as wonderful as I had remembered.

All the same, if you’re ever in the mood for a great big doorstopper of a fantasy novel that is not a romantasy but does present an amazing alternate world of magic – Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is worth reading. And, yes, rereading.

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Review of Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow

Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

Wundersmith

The Calling of Morrigan Crow

by Jessica Townsend
read by Gemma Whelan

Hachette Audio (Little, Brown), 2018. 12 hours on 10 CDs.
Starred Review
Review written November 6, 2019, from a library audiobook

First, how did this review get buried so long in my unposted drafts? I’m not sure, but here, at last, it is.

Wundersmith is the sequel to Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow, or I should say the second book in the series, because the story isn’t finished yet.

All her life, Morrigan Crow has been told she was cursed, and any misfortune that happened to anyone around her was blamed on her. In the first book, she learned that she’s actually a Wundersmith – an amazing gift with the ability to manipulate Wunder, and she’s brought to Nevermoor, a magical place that folks on the outside don’t even know about, and she competes to become part of the Wundrous Society.

In the second book, she’s officially part of the Wundrous Society and ready to begin her classes with the eight other members of her unit. They’re supposed to be like her new brothers and sisters.

But things don’t go like the reader expects. Suppose in the Harry Potter books that Voldemort had a particular powerful gift and was still in power outside Hogwarts. And then suppose Harry was the first wizard to have that exact same gift in one hundred years. Would people be willing to actually train him in his gift?

That’s the situation for Morrigan Crow. The “most evil man who ever lived” was a Wundersmith, and he has been banished from Nevermoor and his name is mentioned to frighten children. Morrigan is the first person to have this gift in a hundred years, and no one in the Wundrous Society wants to teach her “the wretched arts” that a Wundersmith uses.

The only class she’s assigned is a history of Wundersmiths, taught by an instructor who goes over and over how evil or stupid every single Wundersmith has been.

Meanwhile, her unit is told that if they tell anyone that Morrigan is a Wundersmith, they will all be expelled from the Wundrous Society. But someone starts blackmailing them, one by one, or the secret will be revealed. Do they care enough about Morrigan to keep her secret?

At the same time, various people and creatures start going missing. Is Morrigan to blame? Her patron, Jupiter North, is spending all his time working on the problem – so he’s not around for Morrigan to confide in.

The situations all work to a dramatic finish, but with hints of more problems to come.

This book is delightful, and I especially enjoyed listening to it, the narrator’s accent adding to my enjoyment. Jessica Townsend has a vivid imagination, throwing fun tidbits into the story – tricksy lanes that do strange things to you as you walk into them, a smoking room that generates different flavors of smoke, a building made of water, and so much more. I didn’t want to think too hard about how some of the things would actually work, but they were great fun to read about.

Now, there were many places in this book where, like the Harry Potter books, I firmly wished they would just tell a teacher! As with those, various motivations were given for why they didn’t, and it did all work out in the end. There was also a huge coincidence that Morrigan ended up stumbling on something that ended up being a major plot point, but all things taken together, it didn’t ruin the book.

So if you want to read another saga set in an imaginative, magical world, where a young magic user must learn how to use her power to fight evil, in the company of loyal friends – look no further! This series would also make great family listening. I can’t wait to find out what happens next!

HachetteAudio.com

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Review of Rain Reign, by Ann M. Martin

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Rain Reign

by Ann M. Martin

Feiwel and Friends, 2014. 226 pages.
Review written September 16, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review
2025 Mathical Honor Book

It took me a long time to get around to reading this highly acclaimed middle grade novel, but I’m glad I finally did.

Rose is happy to have a name that’s a homonym (Rose, rows) and to have a dog Rain whose name is a triple homonym (Rain, reign, rein). Rose is in fifth grade, and she’s on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum. She has an aide to help her remember not to shout when someone breaks a rule, and to remind her that not everyone is interested in homonyms.

Rain lives with her father, who has trouble getting impatient with her at times, but she also has her dog Rain to turn to. Her uncle Weldon lives down the road and drives Rose to and from school. But when a hurricane hits and her father lets Rain out without her collar, Rose is distraught when she can’t find her after the storm. Could she have been swept away down the swollen creek?

But Rose makes a plan and gets help from some new friends.

The plot of this story is fairly simple, but it’s heartfelt, and does take a surprising and poignant turn at the end. Rose tells her own story, and hearing things from her perspective, we don’t think she’s weird – and we feel pain when other people do. But we also feel joy when she finds that having a loving dog can bring people together.

mackids.com

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Review of Nobody’s Girl, by Virginia Roberts Giuffre

Audiobooks, Biography, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Nobody’s Girl

A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice

by Virginia Roberts Giuffre
read by Thérèse Plummer and Gabra Zackman

Books on Tape, 2025. 13 hours, 40 minutes.
Review written January 5, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

This one was tough to listen to. I decided I wanted to hear it for myself from Virginia’s perspective, and I think I was glad I did – despite gaining some mental images I don’t want to think about.

Knowing that Virginia ended up committing suicide made it all the harder to listen to. On top of that, the book began with her writing collaborator telling us that Virginia strongly indicated that she wanted her book published, but also that Virginia’s marriage was much rockier than she paints in this memoir. I so wanted this girl to get a happy ending! But she ended up living with lots of pain for unrelated reasons (broke her neck after having encephalitis!) – and that makes her story all the harder to hear.

But something Virginia was absolutely firm about – even in emails not long before her death – was she wanted to stand up to powerful people and stop them hurting more young girls. She wanted to help other survivors find their voices.

Her story was the one we’ve heard about – she was essentially a sex slave to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell from age 16 to age 19. And after she was starting to recover, she devoted her life to bringing the powerful to account. With the money she got from Prince Andrew’s settlement, she established a nonprofit, SOAR – Speak Out, Act, Reclaim, for survivors of sex trafficking to reclaim their stories.

Even though the first half or so of the book – while she was still being trafficked – was awful to listen to, I’m glad I heard her story from Virginia’s perspective. That way I won’t imagine that she had any choice in the things she did, even though she wasn’t in chains. I’ve got a new understanding of what “grooming” entails. Since Ghislaine Maxwell was there from the start, 16-year-old Virginia thought what they were asking must be okay. After all, this woman was there joining in. When she started to get up the courage to stop doing what they asked, they showed her a photo of her much-loved little brother at his school – making clear that if she disobeyed or told anyone, they’d do something terrible to him.

Almost more tragic than her time with Epstein was the sexual abuse she got from her father from as young as 8 years old – and that he gave her to one of his friends to do the same. And then she found others who preyed on her as a teenage runaway after time at an abusive camp for troubled teens. So when Epstein and Maxwell started abusing and trafficking her, she almost didn’t know what normal was.

And these were powerful, wealthy people. Virginia doesn’t name some of them – making it clear later in the book that she was afraid what would happen to her family if she did. But so many of the men were never brought to account. (Virginia speaks about the need to remove statutes of limitations for crimes of child sex trafficking, because it takes time for survivors to recover enough to deal with what happened to them.)

On top of that, Epstein was not only interested in sex – he was also interested in power. So the people he brought to his conferences and events weren’t necessarily involved with the sex trafficking. Though Virginia’s pretty clear that anyone who came to his house couldn’t help but notice the naked pictures and naked girls and have strong clues that something was going on.

So this isn’t a book to find out who is or is not guilty. She goes into detail about Prince Andrew, since she had a famous court case with him. She also makes it clear that Ghislaine Maxwell was very much Jeffrey Epstein’s collaborator and coordinator. And her presence was what enticed so many young girls into their clutches. But most of the others to whom she was trafficked aren’t named in the book for the protection of her family. And it’s not clear how many of the other public figures who are named committed sex crimes, and which were there simply because of Epstein’s front as a power broker.

It was finally when Maxwell and Epstein asked her to have Jeffrey Epstein’s baby that Virginia determined to find a way to escape. The thought of her unborn child being controlled by those two evil people was too much for her, even though she had never learned to value her own safety that much.

In the end, I’m glad I listened to the book. I’m proud of Virginia Guiffre for finding her voice and telling her story. I hope it will give hope to other victims of sex trafficking to know they are not alone and help them find their voices. I hope it will deepen the resolve of the nation to bring justice to people who prey on children. I hope it will make powerful people think twice about using and throwing away people they don’t think have power. And I hope it will silence anyone who thinks that a 16- or 17-year-old is anything but a victim when they are used sexually this way. I also hope that Ghislaine Maxwell will go back to a regular prison for her crimes. And that the Epstein files will finally be released to the public to bring the evil out into the light and more powerful people brought to account.

So, yes, I do recommend this book. But be warned that the topic is important but not at all pleasant.

speakoutactreclaim.org

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Review of Under This Forgetful Sky, by Lauren Yero

Science Fiction, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Under This Forgetful Sky

by Lauren Yero

Atheneum, 2023. 399 pages.
Review written September 10, 2023, from a book sent to me by the publisher
Starred Review

This book is eligible for the Morris Award, so I’m writing this review after reading it myself, but before any discussion with the committee, so the opinions are entirely my own. I won’t post the review until after our Winners are announced. (Okay, long after – it got stuck in the cracks.)

This book was quite different than the other books I’ve read. It’s set in Chile in the distant future after environmental disaster. Wealthy, comfortable people live in the Upper Cities, closed in by a wall. Below them, without the same things making their lives easy are the Lower Cities, which in many places have been poisoned by chemicals from the Upper Cities.

We first meet Paz, a girl who lives in Paraíso (once Valparaíso), one of the lower cities. She works as a Scout for the Library. Today she found a dead hummingbird, and she’s privately tracking where she finds them, and it points to the Upper City of St. Iago. Here’s how she puts it:

But there’s a saying in Paraíso: sin pega, no vales nada. Without a job, you’re nothing. I was lucky to have this high-class job as a Library scout. I had a curse hanging over my head – in the eyes of the Library, my right arm was a sinner’s arm, shriveled and shameful. Most everybody in my condition picked trash. If I held up the bright green picaflor and told how I’d traced the stiff bodies of a thousand poisoned creatures all the way to St. Iago, I knew how it would look. It would look ungrateful. It would look like I was courting radical ideas. Everybody knew what they did to traitors.

Our other viewpoint character is Rumi, a boy who lives in St. Iago. He lives in comfort, but his every move is monitored. And he sees the world through virtual reality specs. Today’s the anniversary of his mother’s death by terrorism, and official eyes are on him and his mental health.

But then Rumi’s father comes home from a secret trip to the Lower City infected with a strain of Zábran, the virus that caused widespread death and destruction before the Upper City citizens were able to separate themselves from such contaminants. If the government finds out, he’ll simply be expelled to die – so Rumi goes on a quest to find a cure, which may exist in the Lower Cities.

Once there, he gets captured by the terrorists Las Oscuras. Where Paz is also imprisoned. Then Rumi thinks Paz rescues him, not knowing that finding out what he’s up to is her initiation to join the terrorist group. She takes Rumi to the Library, where they do get information how to find a person who has the cure – but Rumi also gets secrets to keep from Paz.

The bulk of the book is the dangerous journey to find a cure, but there are secrets and intrigue in the background.

Right up until the end of the book, I wasn’t sure how much I liked this book. Some of the interplay between powerful forces was a bit confusing. But let me say only that the author pulled it off. She shows us that people are complicated, but will fight for Hope. She didn’t tie things up in a neat bow or leave too easy solutions, but she showed us people taking steps to find solutions to difficult problems, and learning to see from the perspectives of others with very different backgrounds.

laurenyero.com
simonandschuster.com/teen

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Review of André, written by Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders, illustrated by Lamont O’Neal

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

André

André Leon Talley – A Fabulously Fashionable Fairy Tale

written by Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders
illustrated by Lamont O’Neal

Henry Holt and Company, 2025. 52 pages.
Review written January 7, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

I’m not even a little bit interested in high fashion, but this picture book biography got me very interested in a Black boy who was, and who grew up to be editor of Vogue magazine.

André Leon Talley grew up in the Jim Crow south, finding escape from bullying by reading Vogue magazine. His growing up years weren’t easy:

At Hillside High School, where French was his favorite subject, six-foot-six André stood out. His voice, his mannerisms, and his smarts rubbed some bullies the wrong way. They beat him up because of how he looked and who he was.

But a little before the halfway point, we get a spread of André’s plane landing in Paris, and the rest of the book is about his progressive success as a fashion journalist in Paris, beginning as an assistant to Diana Vreeland, former editor of Vogue, and progressing to where he was the editor of Vogue himself and giving fashion advice to Michelle and Barack Obama in the White House.

The joyful pictures make this book special. In every spread, André stands tall above others, and we see his sense of style progress – from a teen dressed more meticulously than his peers to the flowing caftan style he proudly wore as an adult after a visit to Morocco.

I wasn’t too happy with the back matter – I would have liked a timeline to at least know when he was born and died, so I turned to Wikipedia. (1948 to 2022. I also found out his years as editor of Vogue were 1998 to 2013.) But I suppose it’s not a bad thing that this picture book biography made me want to find out more.

And this is another one I encourage you to check out for yourself. André described his own life as a fairy tale, and his joy in that journey shines through these pages.

cbweatherford.com
robsanderswrites.com
lamontoneal.com

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Review of We’ll Prescribe You a Cat, by Syou Ishida

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

We’ll Prescribe You a Cat

by Syou Ishida
translated by E. Madison Shimoda
read by Naruto Komatsu and Natsumi Kuroda

Books on Tape, 2024. 7 hours, 8 minutes.
Review written January 2, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

There seems to be a new genre of books being written in Japan: A quirky place where people from disparate lives go to receive something that changes their lives. It’s a charming and lovely genre, but since this is the third such book I’ve read in three months, I think I need a break from them to more fully appreciate the charm.

The first such book I read, at the recommendation of my friend Suzanne, who subscribes to Book Talking with Sondy, was What You Are Looking For Is in the Library, by Michiko Aoyama. I was utterly charmed. So when the reviews on Libby said that it was similar to Before the Coffee Gets Cold, I put that one on hold. Then my sister Wendy, who has lived in Japan in the past, told me she was reading What You Are Looking for Is in the Library and loving it – and that it reminded her of the book We’ll Subscribe You a Cat. So I immediately put this book on hold. I indeed enjoyed it very much – but do feel I need a break from this genre for a bit.

This one has a stronger paranormal element than the other two, even the time-traveling Before the Coffee Gets Cold. There’s a “Clinic for the Soul” in part of Kyoto that people can only find if they’re specifically looking for it (and sometimes not even then). It’s run by one doctor and one unfriendly nurse. And after the doctor listens to the patient’s troubles, he prescribes them a cat. He writes a prescription and they take it to the reception desk and get a cat in a carrier, and some gear and food to care for the cat for a specific number of days.

The book is about several people with very different lives who come to the clinic and whose lives are transformed by the cat they are prescribed.

I still like the book featuring a library the best of the books in this genre. Perhaps I was a bit defensive, because I no way no how want to adopt a cat myself. And rolled my eyes a little at how easily a spouse’s cat allergy was resolved with medication. But other than that, it was another delightful and charming book. I think cat lovers will love it as much as I loved the book about the mystical library.

There were some surprises – like the way the man who had trouble with insomnia and bad dreams about his new supervisor was cured by the cat keeping him up all night. None of the cat cures was completely predictable, in fact. And the different ways the prescriptions play out makes for interesting storytelling.

As with the other books mentioned here, this is a feel-good story that will certainly leave you with some smiles.

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Review of Kareem Between, by Shifa Saltagi Safadi, read by Peter Romano

Audiobooks, Award Winners, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Kareem Between

by Shifa Saltagi Safadi
read by Peter Romano

Listening Library, 2024. 3 hours, 22 minutes.
Review written February 15, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2024 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Winner
2024 CYBILS Award Winner, Novels in Verse
2025 Capitol Choices Selection

Kareem Between is about a child of immigrants born in America who loves football and wants to play on his middle school team. But when his best friend moves away on the day of tryouts, he doesn’t do his best and doesn’t make the team.

So when the coach’s son – who did make the team – promises to put in a word with his dad if Kareem will do his homework, Kareem thinks it’s probably worth it just this once. But it turns out that it becomes an expectation.

Now, I’m too much of a rule-follower to have a lot of sympathy for Kareem as he dug himself into a deeper and deeper hole. But then his mother goes to Syria to try to bring her ailing parents back with her to America. His doctor father can’t go, because any Syrian man will be conscripted into the army during war time. It’s the start of 2017, and I remembered what a bad time that was to travel to Syria.

Meanwhile, with his mother gone leaving the whole family on edge, a Syrian refugee family has moved to their neighborhood with a boy Kareem’s age named Fadi, and Kareem is asked to help him at school. But when the coach’s kid starts bullying Fadi, Kareem doesn’t want to get caught in that negative attention.

Well, thankfully Kareem does finally get pushed to the edge and figures out he needs to try to make things right. But as that is happening, Trump’s Muslim ban goes into effect, causing great pain and heartache, and they can’t even reach Kareem’s mother in Syria.

This book is far too timely right now, putting a face and heart to a story of a child of immigrants feeling in between both cultures – and being part of what truly makes America great.

shifasafadi.com

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Review of Forgive Everyone Everything, by Gregory Boyle, art by Fabian Debora

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

Forgive Everyone Everything

by Gregory Boyle
Art by Fabian Debora

Loyola Press, 2022. 112 pages.
Review written January 2, 2026, from my own copy.
Starred Review
2025 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #5 Christian Nonfiction

When I discovered Fr. Gregory Boyle had written a new book, Cherished Belonging, I rushed to Amazon to order my own copy and discovered another book of his I hadn’t read – Forgive Everyone Everything.

It turns out that this book doesn’t contain new writings. It takes short selections from his past three books, Tattoos on the Heart, Barking to the Choir, and The Whole Language, and pairs them with poignant paintings from Fabian Debora, Executive Director of Homeboy Art Academy.

The result is a book that’s perfect for meditative devotional reading in the morning, one spread per day.

I’ll be honest – Father Greg’s books can get a little rambly. Sometimes it’s hard for me to pick out punchy quotations to post on my Sonderquotes blog. So this book full of bite-sized powerful quotations was a delight. Reading one page inevitably gave me something to mull over during the day.

I did, of course, mark up more quotations for Sonderquotes. It’s going to be interesting to see, when I go to post them, how many are already there.

This would be a fantastic introduction to Father Greg’s writings. I do think it will leave you wanting the more in-depth stories. But it’s also a nice way to review his powerful and loving teachings, leaving you with one thought to carry with you through the day.

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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