What are you reading this summer?

Inquiring minds would like to know. With the warm sunny weather upon us, the countdown has begun to the official start of summer — and the season of great beach reads (or, unfortunately, the occasional rainy day) filled with stories of intrigue, adventure, escapism, romance, scifi, fantasy and “ah ha!” moments of “that can’t possibly be true!” And with the return of summer reading, so does the PARLreads Big Summer Book Club 2018. Starting on June 1, it is your turn to share with us your favourite reads (or not so favourite) and why you feel it is the best book ever (or, sadly, possibly the worst, and help someone avoid the same misfortune).

All you need to do is read a book, and when you return it to the library write an anonymous shelfie note telling us about the book. Then fill out a ballot to win great monthly and grand prize draw items. The sticky note or shelfie note is placed on the cover of the book and shelved on a “Readers Recommend” shelf at each of our libraries, for all library patrons to browse and hopefully find their next Best Book Ever!

There are great prizes this year sponsored by the Adopta-Library Literacy Program, including an adult bike and two one-night stays at the Holiday Inn in Truro.

For more details, drop by your local library. Flying the friendly skies NFB Film Club at the River John Library will be showing the documentary film “As the Crow Flies” on Thursday, May 31, at 6:15 p.m. As the Crow Flies follows a young group of Royal Canadian Air Cadets through an elite seven-week flight-training camp, where they are studying to get their pilot’s licence (a process that normally takes six to eight month). Filmmaker Tess Girard — herself a graduate of the program — creates a unique and intimate portrait of an extraordinary, yet also very recognizable, group of 17-year-olds as they come of age.

Going on an African Safari Ever wonder what happens on a safari? The Westville Library’s welcomes Kelley Cavan as a guest speaker on June 6 at 2:30 p.m. Kelley will share with us stories about her adventures on safari in Botswana (Botswana is a landlocked country in Southern Africa that has a landscape defined by the Kalahari Desert and the Okavango Delta. The country becomes a lush animal habitat during the seasonal floods and is home to numerous animals including giraffes, cheetahs, hyenas and wild dogs). All are welcome, and light refreshments will be served.

A KnitIn

The Stellarton Library is hosting a KnitIn for World Wide Knit in Public Day celebrated on June 9. All are welcome to drop by and join us at the library from 1 until 3:30 p.m., and bring your own knitting, or share in some community knitting projects we have on the go with our Stellar Knitters.

The library also has pairs of knitting needles, and yarn that you can borrow to use, while visiting the library.

For more information on upcoming library programs, special events and services, please drop by your local library branch, follow us on Twitter, find us on Facebook or visit us online at www. parl.ns.ca.

Trecia Schell is the community services librarian and branch manager of the River John and Stellarton public libraries.

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”

— Jorge Luis Borges