Library Notes
January 3, 2004
By Pansy Hundley, Librarian.
Ya’ll are spoiling me shamelessly. What if ya’ll corrupt me and I turn into Oscar the Grouch and go to live in a trash can? Here is why I am being so spoiled.
The first nice lady came in with a plate of home made goodies that she had just finished baking.
The second nice lady presented me with a jar of home made jelly.
The third lady brought a gift, with the cutest little box, like a small hat box, that had another surprise in it.
And then, another day, here came this nice man that always brings me peaches, in season, cantaloupes and squash, and he had package in hand. These people always bring me a gift, never forget me, in addition to all the goodies that they bring me from their garden. He said "The one on top is for the library and the one on the bottom for home." I couldn’t imagine what it might be, that I needed one for here and one for home. But the contents clarified that puzzle. I opened that sack and there, right on top, was a jar of chocolate covered macadamia nuts. On the bottom was a big can of the same. As Elmo says in his "Wild, Wild West" video, "Ya-Hoo!" One for here and one for home!! Alright!!
Later that day, talking to a friend on the phone, she told me she had gotten me a little something and would be in later. Later came and there was another gaily wrapped box for me, which I opened immediately. A-hah! A box of chocolate covered macadamia nuts! This was looking better and better, an indefinite supply of this marvelous candy.
Trish came in on the 24th, another box too pretty to open, but I felt obligated to tear into it, as I fussed at her for bringing something. What to my wondering eyes should appear but TWO boxes of chocolate covered macadamia nuts! Great! I can freeze part of them and they’ll last all year, if I’m not greedy in eating.
When it was time to open boxes at Suzie’s house, a couple of days later, among many others was a nice, square box for me. I opened that feller up and, lo and behold, I now had a sack full of chunky, chocolate cookies, with macadamia nuts! Ya Hoo!, yet again and again.
Somewhere people have gotten the idea that I like macadamia nuts. Can’t imagine where. This is marvelous. I am tickled to death to get six boxes of this candy and to continue on with cookies.
Trish bought her two boxes of this candy also. She had never eaten it before, but, honey, look out now. She has discovered it.
My only worry is that everyone may; go out and buy some, to see what all my raving is about, and my candy will all be sold and I won’t have any. Or, the other side of the coin is that it may become so popular, the stores will order more and more and keep it in stock for sure.
But, don’t you come to my house, looking for it. I need every box I got. I’m stingy with it. It’s too good for kids, I know. It’s wasted on them, just get then some ole bar of any kind of chocolate and they will like it.
If you listen closely, you might hear the crunching as I bite into yet another, as I tell you about this latest book, by none other than Dean Koontz. Yep! "Odd Thomas" is the title given to this one and let’s see just how odd it is:
"The dead don’t talk. I don’t know why." But they do try to communicate, with a short-order cook in a small desert town serving as their reluctant confidant. Odd Thomas thinks of himself as an ordinary guy, if possessed of a certain measure of talent at the Pico Mundo Grill and rapturously in love with the most beautiful girl in the world, Stormy Llewellyn.
Maybe he has a gift, maybe it’s a curse, Odd has never been sure, but he tries to do his best by the silent souls who seek him out. Sometimes they want justice, and Odd’s otherworldly tips to Pico Mundo’s sympathetic police chief, Wyatt Porter, can solve a crime. Occasionally they can prevent one. But this time it’s different.
A mysterious man comes to town with a voracious appetite, a filing cabinet stuffed with information on the world’s worst killers, and a pack of hyena-like shades following him wherever he goes. Who the man is and what he wants, not even Odd’s deceased informants can tell him. His most ominous clue is a page ripped from a day-by-day calendar for August 15.
Today is August 14.
In less than twenty-four hours, Pico Mundo will awaken to a day of catastrophe. As evil coils under the searing desert sun, Odd travels through the shifting prisms of his world, struggling to avert a looming cataclysm with the aid of his soul mate and an unlikely community of allies that includes the King of Rock "n" Roll. His account of two shattering days when past and present, fate and destiny converge is the stuff of our worst nightmares – and a testament by which to live: sanely if not safely, with courage, humor and a full heart that even in the darkness must persevere."