Books and Brent and Me

 It isn't the last day of the month yet, but I have finished nine books this month, and do not think I will finish another one before tomorrow, and I have time to write today, so I am going to go ahead and do my "Books Read" post for the month of August 2026.

However, first, for your viewing pleasure, a book cart that I came across in the library on Friday, at the fourth floor sorting shelves:

I had to go back to my office and get my phone so I could take a picture of it to send to Josie! Because her library director thinks just book carts are tacky, and he doesn't like them to be seen (like, they are standard in libraries!! does he ever go to any libraries? Seriously!) and I just wonder how he would react to this one!!

This one is honestly pretty tacky! I am not sure that my own library director would be happy about the state of this cart! This is the only cart like this in our library (that I have seen--we have hundreds of book carts) and I do not think that anybody except a shelver named Lali is decorating their carts quite this much.

Our stacks manager lets her student employees claim a cart, usually just with a sign that says something like "this cart belongs to Lali L; do not take" or words to that effect, so that when they come on shift there will be a cart for them to use. The rest of the carts are up for grabs. I personally go down to the west end of level four to borrow a cart on the regular, and always try not to take a personalized one, although I have been known to borrow one quickly if a personalized cart is the only one there. So, I get why they do it.  But Lali L. has taken personalization to a whole new level!!

Maybe my nine books (that I have read this month) would enjoy a ride on such a dazzling book cart!

1. The midnight library (2020) by Matt Haig was our book club chosen book for the month of August, so I read it first this month to be sure to finish it by the middle of the month. However, it was really good, so I read it quickly. The book, to quote Wikipedia is a  "speculative novel...about a woman who finds a mystical library between life and death to explore alternate versions of her life." It was a lovely read, and I recommend it. (The copy I read had a broken back, which I did not discover right away, but made it difficult to read in the middle--I finished it quickly and reported the problem at the library so the poor book could be fixed! But it was a sign that it had been used many times in its short life.)

2. Games Untold (2024) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes explored the Hawthornes as the other Inheritance Games novels do, but this one is short stories (and long stories, honestly)--eight in total. My favorites were the ones about Avery's mother and her relationship with Toby, and Avery's sister Libby and her relationship with the oldest Hawthorne brother, Nash. I like the story format, and these filled in bits and pieces about the characters in the books, so I enjoyed it.

3. Max in the land of lies: a tale of World War II (2025) by Adam Gidwitz, the sequel to the Max book I read last month. Max parachutes into Germany and begins his mission--the one assigned by his spy master in the UK, to gain entrance to the Funkhaus in Berlin, and the self-appointed mission to find his parents. Lots of suspense and intrigue in this well-written book.

4. The queen of poisons (2024) by Robert Thorogood--the title doesn't refer to a person, but to a plant, aconite, otherwise known as wolfsbane or monkhood, that was used to commit the murder that the team of Judith, Becks, Suzie and Tanika must solve. Aconite is fast-acting and lethal, hence is the queen to the king of poisons, arsenic. Another good mystery by Thorogood.

5. The last of August (2017) by Brittany Cavallaro--aargh. This book made me begin to dislike all of the Holmes family, most of whom I met in the first book in this series that I read last month. If this had been a movie, I would not have been able to sit down and watch it--my family knows what this means: I would have been up and down and in and out because too much too much for me--and I would have hated the ending. And I did hate the ending of the book, and I am not going to read any of the other books in this series. This one was too much for me.

6. Montgomery Bonbon: Murder at the Museuam (2023) by Alasdair Beckett-King takes the unlikely premise that a ten year old girl (Bonnie Montgomery) can fool people into thinking she is an old-man detective (Montgomery Bonbon) and thus solve mysterlies. A fun read with unlikely characters, written of course for younger readers. But this older reader still likes to read books written for younger readers.

7. Magic can't save us: Eighteen Tales of Likely Failure (2025) by Josh Denslow. I was staffing the fifth floor reference desk, and picked up this book from one of their book display shelves, and found it interesting enough to finish. My friend Lynn would approve of the title--she dislikes fantasy for this very reason: Magic can't save us! Not in real life. Each of the 18 stories introduces a magical creature or happening -- mermaid, poltergeist, harpies, dragon, unicorn, centaur, etc.--into already difficult situations. The Amazon blurb reads, "In these eighteen tales of likely failure, when a magical creature shows up, you know things are only going to get worse from there." Yup.

8. Ten little herrings (2015) by L.C. Tyler--second book in the Elsie and Ethelred series of which I read the first one last month. This book was super confusing to me. By the end I wasn't even sure if Elsie was really Elsie or if she was someone else, and same with Ethelred, which I thought was who they were. What? Since I have to interlibrary loan these titles, since our library doesn't have them, I am going to save the library money and not read more. 

9. The girls trip (2026) by Ally Condie was very good! Three friends, whose friendship was formed in a virtual book group during COVID, meet in real life for the first time. The reader is not completely in on the whys and wherefores: these are slowly revealed. For awhile nobody is sure about anything, and their friendship with each other and their outside relationships are sorely tested until you finally find out whodunnit! Recommend.

That was the books part of this post. Now on to the Brent part of the post. My cousin Brent, that is. (Link to his obituary.) I wanted to grab his picture from the obituary to put here, but on my new laptop, I don't know how to do it! You will have to go to the link to see how handsome young Brent was, since the picture at the link is of him young. Here he is old, with his wife LaPreal.

I was so happy to be able to virtually attend my cousin Brent's funeral via Zoom yesterday morning. (I notice from my brother's blog that he was also in attendance, but they didn't have it set up so that you could "see" who was there.) I appreciated the opportunity to get to know Brent better, even though it is too late in this life for me to sit down and have a good chat with him.

Brent is much older than me--he was born in 1940, so was 86 years old at the time of his passing. I have a memory of him visiting our family before he left to serve a mission, but that would have been 1959, and I doubt that I can really remember then because I was not yet two, so I think what I really have a memory of is a photo that was taken on that occasion--but I don't have that photo, so I can't prove it. 

And I have a memory of going with my parents to Brent's wedding reception when he and LaPreal got married. I was so excited to go to that reception, not because of Brent and LaPreal, honestly, but because my cousin Penny (or Pamela), Brent's younger sister, had had a baby boy and I wanted to see the baby. Well, Penny and LaDell, her husband were there, but no baby. So I asked Penny if she didn't bring the baby with her, and then she teared up and told me and my mom that the baby had died. Which we did not know!!

Two asides: 1. tell people things!! Then they don't ask hard questions, and you don't have to provide sad or awkward answers, in public places. If people know things, they can even help you to be more comfortable with hard things. 2. LaPreal. LaDell. I know. What are the odds of two such unusual La names popping up through marriage in the same family?

So--Brent's funeral. I learned so much about him!! What an awesome and amazing guy he was!! He was super quiet, like his father my Uncle Royal, but under that quiet was strength and dignity and kindness and testimony of Jesus Christ our Savior. I will just tell one story from the funeral because I want to remember it.

When Brent finished university, he got his first job as a teacher of speech and dramatic arts at the Ririe, Idaho High School. (That Brent was a thespian was also a surprise to me--but actually many quiet people shine on the stage, where they don't have to show off themselves, but someone else: a character.) All was going well until there was a discipline problem with a student, and that student told a lie in order to save himself. He said that Brent stabbed him with a pencil. It was his word against Brent's, and his father was a powerful man in the community, so he used his power, and Brent was fired from his teaching position. (Brent was lucky--if that had happened NOW-ish, it would have gone to court, and he could have ended up with legal charges too. Besides getting fired.)

Brent was, of course, devastated. It is a terrible thing to be falsely accused and unable to clear yourself of the accusations. He went into the wilderness to pray and had his own Enos experience which gave him the courage to go on, because he knew that the Lord is real and that he was seen and loved by the Lord. And go on Brent did, always providing for his family, mostly as a builder, but he never again was a teacher. 

But that is not the end of the story. One of his sons--I think maybe Bruce? (my brother tells me it was Kevin) the last speaker, but Brent has six sons, and I am not sure who is who. Anyways, this son (Kevin) had moved to Arizona from Idaho, and one day at a stake meeting at church, he met another man (older than he was) and they got talking, and realized they had both grown up in the same part of Idaho. It came out that the other man was born and raised in Ririe, so Brent's son said, "Oh! I lived in Ririe for awhile when I was about four years old. My dad was a teacher there." And...well, they had introduced themselves to each other, and so the Ririe man knew that Brent's son was a Hancock, and there weren't many Hancocks in Ririe, so...soon the other man left and that was the end of the conversation.

Well, this son of Brent began to notice that at stake meetings, this Ririe man was always avoiding him--like, it began to seem obvious, because if they were headed towards each other down a hall, this man would veer off somewhere, like every time. But one day, after about a year of avoidance, the Ririe man confronted Brent's son, and said, "I need to talk to you. I know who your father was. And I was the kid who got him fired." He admitted to Brent's son that as a young man trying to save his own skin from deserved discipline, he lied. He knew his dad had power in the community against which a young teacher could not stand. And now, as a grown man, this man was full of remorse for the wrong that he had done to Mr. Hancock. 

Ririe is a Mormon town. So the repercussions for Brent weren't felt just at the professional level, but also within the church community. There were hard feelings against him for his perceived attack with a pencil on a young man. Like, this was a big, life-changing ordeal for Brent in all areas of his life--work, home, church, community. Naturally, Brent moved his family--they moved to Idaho Falls. 

How wonderful for Brent and his family that they got to hear the end of that story! To know that the student who had lied admitted, at least to Brent's son, that it had been a lie! Nothing could change the difficulty that Brent endured because of the lie, and Brent had overcome that terrible event to the extent possible. But to have admission and asking for forgiveness happen--what a blessing!

So. I wanted to remember that story from Brent's life. There were other stories about his quiet goodness. I just grew in my admiration for and appreciation of my cousin Brent! Better late than never!!

One last thing!! The ME part! I have forgotten to post about my latest scholarly publication. I wrote in July 2024 about my first meeting with the editors of Scholarly Editing for the micro-edition I was working on of ballet teacher Jo Anna Kneeland's work. Well, it was finally published on July 24 this year. This link takes you to the list of issues: https://scholarlyediting.org/issues/ of which the 2026-07-24 issue is at the top, but it won't always be. Click on that and it takes you to the contents page of the issue. Mine is the third, The Amazing Kneeland Methodology. When you click on the title, it takes you here, which is my introductory essay about the edition. To get to the edition itself, you need to click on the words The Amazing Kneeland Methodology in the box above my essay, labeled Edition Contents. Or click here. That link is what Jo Anna Kneeland wrote, and which me and three editors and two copy editors edited. That was a lot of work!! Fully two years!! It was so hard to get permission, because Jo Anna's only son, although he is ten years younger than me, has residual damage from a stroke and has aphasia, so if I would send him an email, by the next day he forgot. It was "Fifty First Dates" only with trying to obtain permission to publish! (If you have not seen that movie, do! It is so good!)

Beginnings and Endings

 We are reaching the ending of August, which means the beginning of September is coming! And the last week of August on campus is the week of University Conference.

Monday we had the general session, which I walked to with Janice and Colette and Rachel. The speaker was Gerrit Gong, who I have posted about before. I really like him and the things he has to say. Then, the faculty session I sat with Nicole Becca, and Janice then found us and we sat together. And then I had to wait around for the session for department chairs (we were in the Music Building for both of those meetings) where I sat with Becca. That session was just a Q and A. Seems like it is always the same people with the Qs! (And of course, the same people with the As--the president and various vice presidents.)

People come to campus at this time of year, bringing their kids to school, or having a last week of holidays. This can mean visitors for me, and this happened for me on Tuesday!

A man and two of his children came--he looked vaguely familiar, and turned out to be the husband of one of our students, Megan, who worked for us a long time ago. Like 25 years ago to maybe 20 years ago. So that was fun. Megan did not come with them because she just had her ninth baby three weeks ago! His name is Gideon, and his older brother Elijah, the one who came with his dad, is maybe 21 years old. Since they are a half Japanese family who have lived in Japan, I introduced them to Tim, in the office next door, who is the Asian Studies Librarian, and who might be a good contact for Elijah, who is majoring in Japanese. The dad (I think his name is Micah--but I never really knew him super well, so I don't want to write that in stone) showed me a picture of their entire family including the new baby, and I wish I had asked him to send it to me. But I didn't. And I didn't ask to take a picture with them because none of them are actually Megan!

Megan was also good friends with my nephew Craig--they worked together in Book Repair. 

In the afternoon of Tuesday, along came John...

That reminded me of a song:

and then along came John tall thin John
Slow walking John
(Deep voice)
Slow talking John along came long lean lanky, John

Those lyrics remind me of our former student, because he is a long lean lanky John! Only--all these years I thought it was John, but it is actually Jones!! How did I not hear that?

So John came and we had a wonderful visit, and then I took him to visit Elizabeth, because I knew that she would be sad to miss seeing him! She has been very supportive of his work on the musicals he has written with Lauren Laws, who she also knows. They took their musical Barbara (and Kenneth) to the Fringe Festival in Ireland two years ago, and it has had an off-off-Broadway run, and they are gearing up for an off-Broadway run. Elizabeth was so excited to see John!

We walked into the LAO where her office is, and the people in the office said, "I think Elizabeth is busy this afternoon..." I kept walking and said, "Oh, I think she will make an exception for John..."

And she popped right out of her office as soon as she saw him and gave him a big hug. Then she called her next appointment (happened to be Kellie, my department assistant) and asked for ten minutes. We probably took fifteen, including me asking one of the students to take our picture together.

John is off to West Virginia to be an innkeeper for a minute. While he works on music. So lovely to see him!

Wednesday was our Library Conference day. It was held up South Fork of Provo Canyon, which is where my dad's family is literally from, but at a place called Trefoil Ranch, which probably was not called that in my dad's day. Kellie and I just drove up for the awards ceremony and the lunch. (Both Tim and Robert from our department received faculty awards. I knew about Tim's because I nominated him, but I didn't know about Robert's, which was based on his cataloguing, and I am only his chair when he wears his Subject Liaison hat.) Then we came back to work.

And today was Thursday, and when I got to work this morning, I opened my email and read: 

"Dear Library Colleagues,

I’m writing to share some very sad news with you. Yesterday afternoon, Joe Everett passed away unexpectedly. He had been paddleboarding at Deer Creek Reservoir with our colleagues Quinn Galbraith and Trevan Hatch, and while sitting on the beach he seems to have had a heart attack or pulmonary embolism. He died quickly and peacefully. Quinn was able to bring Joe’s car and belongings to his home and visit with and minister to Joe’s wife Judith and their teenage son.

I’m in contact with campus administration, who will be coordinating with the Missionary Department (Joe was family history librarian, so worked with a bunch of senior missionaries) and the Commissioner’s office to handle some of the administrative details that will need attention, and Elizabeth and Lety and I will be working together to manage internal matters."

Having fun after the library conference has been a "thing" for many years. For a long time, there were a lot of golfers, and people would go to the golf course after. This year, these three librarians decided to go to Deer Creek Resevoir to go paddleboarding. This is what happened:

All three were in the water, and then after, Joe stayed on the shore while the other two went out again. They were close enough that they were in actual conversation with Joe (probably shouting a bit, because they were also out a ways in the water), when he slumped over suddenly. They quickly made their way to shore, and Quinn, who has substantial first aid training, got to work on Joe. 

Miraculously, there was also a group of police and EMT at the lake on a training exercise, eight of them, so they ran over and took over. They worked on Joe, but to no effect--whatever the medical event was, it was a very quick thing. 

Having those EMTs there was good for Quinn's morale, because he doesn't have to feel like he "didn't do enough"--because even eight professionals could not save Joe. 

But it was Quinn's sad duty to drive Joe's vehicle and take his belongings back home to his wife and son, and stay to give some comfort.

I will miss Joe--I worked with him over the music microfilm, because all of the micro formats have to be in the Family History Library where the readers are. My colleague Tim, my next door office neighbor, has not had a lot of experience with death, and it hit him hard. He and Joe had been working a lot on Asian genealogy projects. And Joe was about 52, while Tim is 55. Close in age. It is very sobering.

Some of my earliest memories are about death and funerals--my Aunt Zilpha, my grandpa, attending funerals in Taber with my parents while my siblings were in school and I was still at home. So I guess I am a bit used to it. But--it is still sad and hard. They cancelled all meetings today in the library and held a little support group (serving the food that was meant to be served at meetings that were cancelled) and that was nice of them. 

Joe was a fun guy. He sang with a choir--I think the Mapleton Chorale, maybe. He built a Hobbit House in his backyard for his children. Clearly he was sporty, too. Joe will be missed. A lot. 

Oh--and also my cousin Brent died on August 21, and I found out on Sunday, the 23rd. Another ending or beginning depending on perspective. 

August 22, 2026

Another hot week. Last week I thought "Hurray! Things are cooling off a few degrees." But no. Still very hot, low 100s, and one morning it was 79F when I got up at 6 AM. So not fall weather. Definitely still summer weather.

This week, one of my librarian friends (Rachel) arranged for a "Ladies of Research and Learning" lunch at the Cannon Center. It was actually really fun. We are going to do it again in a few months.

Heather, Marinda, Tonya, Cassandra, Jamie then across the table to Paulee, Bethany, Toni, Maggie. Then go back to me then Jennifer and Cindy, then at the back right Teresa, new science girl whose first name I forget, but Margetts is her last name, Meg; then the last row of standers are Betsy, Rachel and Suzanne.

In other news, Rachel (my granddaughter, not my friend Rachel) got her first haircut of her life that was not done by her mother. Instead, another mother of six children, Janice, also well-experienced in the art of the haircut, cut Rachel's hair. Yes, Rachel's boss cut her hair. This is what happens when your boss is a family friend!

Ready, set...

Go! Janice forgot to bring her hairclips down to the kitchen, so she enlisted Rachel to hold the hair of the layer that would have been in a clip. 

I did not take a picture at the end of the haircut, though. But trust me, it looks great. The same as it was, only shorter.

Weekly Recap

Well, apparently autumn really is in the air!! We had a terrific rain storm last night, and cooler weather all day today, and it looks like it will be a cooler night!! I am very thankful about this!!

And I got my new computer, and look at me, I am on my blog! Everything seems to be working just fine--my fears were unnecessary, apparently.

Josie and I took Miriam and her luggage to the airport on Tuesday. Josie insisted (probably correctly!) that she was the only one who could wrangle those heavy bags of Miriam's. Rachel stayed behind to meet up with her Arabic 102 class and get in some more studying before the final exam on Wednesday morning.

We took pictures before leaving for the airport:

I thought they looked way too happy! So this was the next pose. I mean, they are not going to see each other for at least 20 months! 

Then Josie took a picture with me in it:

And I took a picture with Josie in it. (I took a couple, but caught Rachel with her eyes closed every time. Sorry!)

It was fun to have Miriam in our home for a few weeks!

I wondered if maybe Rachel might go to her room and cry a little bit after we left with Miriam (I would have!!) but she assures me that she did not. She can be very stoic.

Then, on Thursday, it was time for me to say goodbye to my research assistant, Megan, who is off to Indiana University for three years, where she is accepted into a double master's program--musicology and library science. She has been a really great student to work with, and she will be missed on the fourth floor of the library!

Megan gave me a very sweet little card, pink because she knows I like pink! (Navy blue envelope.)

That was very sweet of Megan! Here is another picture of us just to finish off the post.

Old friend surprises

 On Thursday afternoon, I had someone in my office, and so let a call go through to voicemail. On our phones, voicemails get converted to text, so I actually read the call I had missed, and was very surprised, indeed shocked, to hear an old friend's voice telling me that he and his wife were being baptised on Saturday, and they hoped I could come. He asked if he could text to that number.

I responded via text, telling him he could text to my office phone, and expressing "happy surprise" about his phone message. 

He sent me this text message:

Alan is quite a renowned violist.  I have known him since 2002, when I attended my first International Viola Congress, which was in Seattle that year. I have written a bit about him before, like when he donated his materials to PIVA in 2015. I just honestly thought that he (and by extension his wife Evie) had no interest in religion at all. I am pretty sure he low-key teased David Dalton and Dwight Pounds both about their religiosity (David as LDS and Dwight as Baptist) and he was a person who really enjoyed the vino. However, he was also a good friend to them, and he did in fact play on the program at David's funeral. 

David Dalton had extracted a promise from Alan to watch over PIVA, and Alan and his wife Evie moved to Utah, to Mapleton, 8 years ago, so he has been a presence in the library quite frequently doing his due diligence about PIVA. I thought that they would hate living in Utah--so did the Daltons, who would ask "are you sure you want to live among all these Mormons?" But instead, they have loved living here! Go figure.

Still, I never expected them to want to get baptized!! 

Then I forgot about the time of the baptism until 2:20 on Saturday. I quickly looked up how long it would take me to drive to the location (20 minutes) and was out the door by 2:30. (Because I need extra time in case I make a mistake on directions.) I arrived at maybe 2:52. I went in, and saw Donna Dalton sitting alone, and she motioned me to sit with her, and so I did.

Alan has taught students who have done very well professionally. And he has taught students who come from storied backgrounds, so I fully expected the Marriotts to be at the baptism, and they did come. Neill Marriott is known in the church for serving on the YW General Board. But also, she is President Jimmy Carter's cousin. (Her Wikipedia article does not so state. However, it is true.) And her husband David, who is a very nice person, is the son of one of the J. Willard Marriott sons, I just don't remember which one. 

Here is Alan with Kate, the Marriott daughter who studied viola with him at Indiana University.

And here are all the BYU related people who were around when picture-taking was going on. Why didn't we bring Donna into the picture? I don't know!! David Day was also there at the baptism, but he and his wife left immediately after, so he was not around for pictures. 

L-R: Haleigh G. V., Kate M., Evie, Alan and me, with David and Neill Marriott behind Evie.

Also, there is not usually a General Authority at every LDS baptism, but there was one for Alan and Evie. Here they are with Elder Hutch Fale.

Elder Fale was the last speaker at the baptism, and it was a very short and very sweet message taken from Mosiah 18:9, that when we get baptized, we take on the responsibliity to serve others. That when we get baptized, we show we "are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places." As he spoke of Jesus and his life of service to others, and his commandment that we love one another, there were literally tears running down his cheeks. I have not ever been so close to a general authority while they are speaking (I was on the second row, directly behind Alan and Evie, and he was standing maybe two feet in front of them.) It was very touching and tender and heartfelt. Awesome. 

Donna wanted me to take a picture of her with Haleigh and Kate, who were both students of David's as teenagers, before they both went off to Indiana to study viola under Alan at university there. I accidentally took a video which was a right mess! Wonderfully, Josie could extract a photo for me from the mess that I made!

And then I realized that I should get a photo of me and Donna with each other. One of the nice ladies in the kitchen took this picture for us.

Someone asked if Donna and I were sisters. Donna responded, "Yes! We are sisters in the gospel!" She is such a fun bundle of energy still, at over 90 years old. I went to her 90th birthday party, or at least poked my head in the door for a minute, and I think that was last year, so 91. She recently renewed her driver's license, and they gave her a ten-year license. I hope she lives to see that license expire!

This baptism was unique because there was so much music in it--a quartet sang four numbers, and three cute little girls sang "I'll walk with you" while their mom played the violin and also piano accompaniment. That song sort of expresses the theme of this baptismal service -- caring for those in need. Caring for others we meet. The bishop also spoke, and the stake president spoke before Elder Fale, and they all talked about "go forth to serve" after baptism. 

Also, Alan's three children and a grandchild all came to support him! I had also met all of them before, at BYU viola events. His daughters both live in Washington, and his son Sean lives in California. So nice to see all of them. 

Another unique thing about this baptism: there were two people in the font with the person being baptised. Just an extra precaution due to disability of elderly people to get them safely immersed and back on their feet again. 

And then today, another Old Friend Surprise!

My good old friend Angelynn Okelberry has moved into our ward! She married Andrew Bay who is in our ward. And his first wife, who died many years ago, was my old friend Ana Maria Preto from Portugal. We took a YA literature class together when I was at BYU when my kids were young--1988, I think. So that is wild that this one man married two of my old friends (who did not know each other) and now I get to have Angelynn as a neighbor again! I am so happy about that.

So, a weekend of old friend surprises it was!

August is also hot

 Still reaching 100F or higher every day--but there were a couple of cooler mornings this week, for which I was grateful! Twice I opened windows for a short while and let in some cool fresh air. I really like fresh air! I get really tired of air conditioned air, even though I am so grafeul to have it. I just prefer fresh air.

I am low-key dreading this coming week--I am supposed to get a new computer. This was supposed to happen last week, so I moved a bunch of pictures and files onto my hard drive, and I am so good at that that I lost a lot of files, so I copied my entire recycle bin from this computer onto my hard drive, which means there is a lot of junk on there. 

I am worried that I will even lose access to my blog, because what is the password? Who knows? I don't think I do!! Arrgh!! I can currently just click into many things because my computer is smart like that, while I am password challenged. All the time.

Oh well!! Progress, right? Gotta love it!

This was Miriam's last full week with us before she flies out to join her family in Doha. We have a couple more days with her, and then it will be airport day on Tuesday.

This last full week was the BYU Organ Workshop that is held every year. Miriam attended last year, and also this year. 

This year, her private organ lesson (on Tuesday afternoon) was with her first organ teacher, when she took the Organ First program at BYU taught by Nora Hess, beginning when Miriam was only eight years old. It was fun to see the two of them interact all these years later, which I got to do because the rules are that minors have to have an adult with them. Rachel had a class at the assigned time, so lucky me! 

It was fun to hear the new pieces Miriam is working on! The Bach Gigue Fugue had a very sticky tune and very tricky timing. Nora got Miriam going with the metronome, and it was, from my point of view, super helpful. The other pieces was litanies of some kind, and I liked how Nora described it as this big rock, and when it starts to roll downhill, it doesn't go at the same rate because science! That was a helpful metaphor for me (who was not the one playing the piece!)

Here are Miriam and Nora together at the end of their lesson:

The other organ event this week was the Hymn Sing that they traditionally do at the BYU Organ Workshop. This was held on Thursday evening, and Rachel and I met Miriam there.

This year, Don Cook, who retired from BYU a year ago, was the featured organist. He was so happy to be there, and so emotional. He was the one who worked tirelessly for a long time to get the huge wonderful pipe organ that BYU has today. "The concert hall pipe organ is the Létourneau Opus 100, a custom-built instrument designed in the English Town Hall style. Installed in October 2024 in the BYU Music Building's Concert Hall, it features 4,603 pipes and 81 ranks." (quoting Google's AI overview) BTW, this is a Quebec-built organ--when Isabelle Demers was here she commented on how close she lives to their facility. 

Don planned a program of 10 of his favorite hymns. As per this event's usual, the printed program had two sides: one for the singers, and the other to explain to organists how he chose to accompany each piece. Also people who were registered for the organ workshop would also have (for one week) access to the free organ accompaniments used on each last verse. These arrangements were mostly by Don Cook himself, but there were a couple by Gerald Dick (he was once upon a time the music librarian at BYU, and then the music cataloguer, and also a bag piper as well as an organist AND apparently was also a harp builder) and the last one was by my good friend Vanja Watkins, which was a free accompaniment for the hymn "Press Forward, Saints" with lyrics by my other good friend Marvin Gardner--we three are currently working on a music project together. Also Marv wrote the lyrics for another one of the hymns that Don planned.

Free accompaniments -- people might not know what that means. "An organ free accompaniment (also called an alternate or free harmonization) is a creative re-harmonization of a standard hymn tune. Organists play it to support the congregation or choir, usually on the final verse of a hymn while people sing the melody in unison." - Google AI but they got their info from the BYU Organ website.

Anyways, here is Don talking about one of the hymns. He just spoke for a minute or two about each one, about why he chose it or what it means to him.

This next picture is an attempt to show that they also had a screen set up on stage that showed his feet while he was playing. (That would have been cool to have for the Isabelle Demers concert, but I guess nobody thought of it until later!)

It happens that I took that picture at the very beginning of "Silent Night." Yes, we did sing not one, but two, Christmas hymns in August, on a blistering hot day!! This is because Don was choosing favorites, and so "Hark, the herald angels sing" and "Silent Night" were chosen.

For "Silent Night" the house lights were turned off, and then on the phrase "all is bright" people were supposed to turn their little candles on. (Because people were given the opportunity to take a little tiny candle light when they came to the concert if they wanted to.) Only the first row would turn on theirs, and then the second, then the third, and so forth, until all the rows in the concert hall had their lights shining by the time we got to "radiant beams" in the third verse. (No free accompaniment for this one.)

 People who came in late (there are a bunch at top left of the above photo) missed out on the opportunity to have candles, so not many lights up there. And we also sang the last verse a capella, in the candle light. It was lovely. It was indeed calm and bright, like the song says.

And at the end, I took a picture of Miriam with her friend Abby who has also attended the BYU Organ Workshop for two years. So they have become pretty well acquainted with each other. It happened that Abby and her mom sat behind us. (That is Abby's mom just behind Miriam, talking to a young man.)

And that is all I have to report on this week! I am just walking every morning while it is still decently cool, and digging lots of dandelions, and dreading getting a new computer next week!

Goodbye July (including books)

 So hard to believe it is July 31! This month has been both too long and too short. And definitely too hot!!! 

Do you know what NOAA is the acronym for? I did not. I had to look it up. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Only I don't believe that average nighttime low, because I think it hardly ever got that low at night!! Sometimes on my 6 AM walk it was 79 F. Or even 82 F. 

I am soooooo thankful we decided to spring for a second air conditioner for the downstairs. With three girls (and three cats) downstairs, it would have been so hot, and just impossible to cool down since the nights were so warm, without air con.

I have been working at BYU for nearly 25 years. It will be 25 years in about the middle of August. I have had three different offices in those 25 years. My first office had dark wood panelling on the walls, and nothing to decorate those walls. My second office had a bit of dark wood panelling, but mostly the walls were cinderblock. I put up a couple of gamelan posters, but mostly I had nothing on the walls because neither panelling or cinderblock are particularly good hosts for artwork. I have been in my third office for one year, and to celebrate, I put art on my walls for the first time in 25 years. TA-DA!

The four posters of similar style were created for me by Nancy when she lived in North Carolina. I used them then--and still use them now--to promote the library. I have some on sandwich boards that I take to things like CFAC NSO. (College of Fine Arts and Communications New Student Orientation.) And so I sent the files to Roger, our PR person in the library, asking to have them printed and mounted for my walls. 

The other poster is from two conference poster sessions, at IAML in July 2025, and at MLA in February 2026. I really like the poster, and there it is as evidence in my office that I do research and scholarly work. Even if about Korean Dramas. 

This other view shows that I also have a piece of art created for me by one of my student workers, Alyssa, which she made for me when I got my PHD, which was I think in 2013.

I only read six books this month. It was a long month, but a busy month, and so I did not do lots of reading, comparatively speaking.

1. A study in Charlotte: a Charlotte Holmes novel (2016) by Brittany Cavallaro. Jamie Watson, greatgrandson of Dr. Watson and Charlotte, who descends from Sherlock, run into trouble at their Connecticut boarding school. This was interesting enough that I have started the second book of this series (but have not finished it yet). (This book reminded me of the book I read last month that opined that Sherlock was really a woman named Charlotte.)

2. Max in the house of spies: a tale of World War II (2024) by Adam Gidwitz. This is one of a two-book series, and I am also about midway through the second book of this series, too. (This book reminded me of the book about Enzio Busche that I read last month, because of how it makes you realize that people in Germany thought the Nazis were good until history and hindsight changed their minds. When you are living in the moment, you are too close to see the whole picture.)

Lately, when books get too tense for me, I have to set them aside and read something else. So I am constantly reading four or five books at a time. The second books associated with both of the books above are like that--therefore taking me awhile to finish.

3. The herring-seller's apprentice (2007) by L.C. Tyler. This is the first in a series called the Elsie and Ethelred mysteries, which feature Ethelred Tressider, a crime writer, and Elsie Thirkettle, his literary agent. I will quote from the blog "Clothes in Books" whose author wrote "Crime writer Ethelred Tressider and his agent, Elsie, are investigating the disappearance and then the murder of his ex-wife. There is an alternating narrative, a lot of jokes about the literary and crime fiction worlds, some pastiche, and some unreliable narrating. It could have been an unfunny disaster, but actually it was great fun, and I was delighted to see that there are more books in the series. Elsie is an absolutely splendid character, and I hope the books will follow her for a long time to come." I concur.

4. My double life (2010) by Janette Rallison. It has been awhile since I read a Janette Rallison, and this was such a fun read. I had forgotten how refreshingly fun her books are. A picture of Lexi is posted online, and is seen by the agent of a teenage singer, Kari Kingsley. She is looking to hire a body double for Kari, someone who can lip-sync onstage at small events while Kari remains in the studio working on her newest album. Lexi discovers that there is a reason she and Kari look so much alike!! 

5. Glorious Rivals (2025) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes is the sequel to The Grandest Game, the puzzle-solving game that Avery and the Hawthorne Brothers have cooked up. It had been too long since I read the latter; I did not have a great handle on the characters going into the book. But it came back to me! I still prefer the original series, The Inheritance Game books, better. But she is a good writer, so I enjoyed this book, too. 

6. The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club (2025) by Gloria Chao. The Thursday Murder Club, The Marlow Murder Club--these books are good, so this title appealed to me. I did finish the book, but I did not love it. I just found her language a little crass. Unnecessarily so. I was suprised that an MIT graduate who was also a dentist before turning to writing full time didn't have a better vocabulary? Or didn't use a better vocabulary in the book, at least. Clearly she is an intelligent person. But so much of my a$$ and your a$$, instead of just me and you. Why? Do people really talk like that? I do not think that they do in my circles!

Today I had another former student visitor, Abby!  She was my intern, then my RA, and she also worked at the help desks. Now her sister, Hazel, works at the fifth floor help desk. Here are we three together:

Me, then Abby, then Hazel in yellow. Abby has had such interesting jobs since graduating from BYU! She worked for the seeing eye dog foundation in Oregon while working on her MLIS from UNT, and also volunteering at the Sandy Public Library in Oregon. Then she went to Alaska, working in Skagway as Lucky Lou, helping cruise ship visitors pan for gold, while dressed in character as a lady of the Gold Rush era. Then she got hired at the public library she volunteered at, and on the side she writes book reviews for Kirkus Review. It was fun to see and catch up with her!!