I have been reading the current book club selection and thinking about book choices — and all of you. I hope you are well, cared for and connected somehow.

     Reading The Leavers amidst the lockdown, frightening news reports and uncertainty, was not easy. I had trouble staying interested and could not connect with the characters. How much of this is the story, the writing, or the reading environment?

     I am currently reading Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and thinking a lot about Magpie Murders. I have also thought a little about our 2016 selection Station Eleven, which was about a world-altering pandemic.

     As I’ve thought about future selections, I am even more interested in what you have been reading and how this lockdown has changed your experience of the books you read, the movies you watch and the news you experience, through social media, television, magazine or newspaper. Do you have recommendations? Do you need help accessing more free content, from magazines and newspapers to movies and books? Even though we are closed, the library is providing help with accessing electronic media.  Please check out our website at lvccld.org.

     Even though we won’t be meeting in person, at least through June, I hope that we will still be able to exchange thoughts and comments by email — I can collect them and post them to the Whitney Book Bistro Journal.  You could also post them directly here below.  Perhaps we can even find a way to meet through our computers, once the library reopens. This is a brave new world and we can and should make the most of it!