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22 | SUN LAKES LIFESTYLES | NOVEMBER 2018 | Library Advisory Committee Quick reminder – The book sale corresponding with the Fall Craft Sale is Nov. 2 and 3 in the hardcover Library. Our committee honored all our wonderful volunteers in October, who help mark and re-shelve books at the four libraries, with a fun luncheon. I hope you appreciate them too! November is for recalling the past summer and fall, all the blessings of the earth and while preparing for winter, give thanks for what we have, for what sustains us. Besides the bounty of harvest, consider how important the many "shelters from the storm" that the love of our families provide. I'd like to consider two bestselling authors (we have many volumes of each in our libraries) who create stories of warmth and hope, such that readers come back to them often for that emotional embrace, the miracles and mysteries of everyday life. Jan Karon (1937-) was married at 14, a mom by 15, and a single mom by 18. She found work and raised her daughter; she did well writing advertising copy. But she knew God had another plan for her and despite multiple rejections, she had her first "Mitford" novel published when she was 59. Father Timothy, Episcopal pastor in rural North Carolina, has his hands full dealing with the young and old, the well and the infirm, as well as multiple other problems, like a 10-year-old boy who needs a ward. People say reading these books is, "like coming home for an extended stay, what has changed… what has remained the same." Mitford is the, "Little town with a big heart." Jan Karon fully invests her characters and scenes with her own up and down emotions; she feels if the author doesn't laugh (or cry), the reader doesn't either. Nicholas Sparks (1965 -) remembers being an avid reader all his life. Starting at University of Notre Dame, after freshman year, home for the summer, his Mom said, "You're bored. You need to keep busy. Write a book." He did and four years later, wrote another (neither published). Working after college he co-wrote a non-fiction book, but it was at 28 that he started The Notebook. Two years later he was "discovered" and this book was published and became a bestseller. On Goodreads.com, his three highest reviewed books are: Safe Haven, A Walk to Remember, and The Guardian. Sparks has stated that his main theme is "unconditional love, its challenges, its risks, and especially its rewards." From some of his books: "What are we, really, without our memories… without our dreams?", "True love is rare and the only thing that gives life real meaning," "Hope is a sense of comfort, knowing that happy endings do exist," "Nothing that is worthwhile is ever easy. Remember that." Have a happy Thanksgiving and enjoy this time of year at Sun Lakes!