Food, fun and fixin’ (by the Methow Recycles Repair Cafe’ crew) were all part of the Mazama Market last week.
Confession is good for the soul. So, here is a tiny little confession to start this blurb: I originally wasn’t completely a proponent of the new Winthrop library.
Don’t get out the torches and pitchforks to chase me out of town quite yet. And I write this also so that if you are like I was, on the fence about it, maybe your mind can be changed too. A big expensive library in tiny little Winthrop? What is wrong with our current library? Aren’t there more pressing needs for the money? These were all thoughts that I had.
But consider all of the uses for the Winthrop library. Obviously, there is access to books, and even movies, for free. But also a gathering place, a meet-up spot, a safe haven for kids to wait for parents, a classroom of sorts, a homework center, internet for those without, and a leveling of the playing field. Everyone is welcome at the library except wolverines. The Winthrop library is a place for all of us. A place where the community can gather, connect and discover.
So, what does this all have to do with Mazama? Several things. First, Mazama resident, Boo Turner is part of the group, FOWL (Friends of the Winthrop Library) and she is working really hard to gain awareness and support. Next, in case you haven’t noticed, Mazama does not have a library. Finally, Mazama’s three book groups utilize the Winthrop library to order books. Did you know that North Central Regional Library (NCRL) will order the number of books your group might need so that no one has to buy a book? How great is that? Thanks, NCRL!
Boo’s book club is called Mazama Readers. There are approximately 15 in the group. They meet monthly, rotating the types of books they choose, and they have fantastic food and drinks. One of the favorite books they have read was “Educated” by Tara Westover. A special treat was being able to hear Westover speak at the Twisp library via a livestream from Wenatchee. Again with thanks to NCRL.
Louise Stevens reports that the Mazama Book Club was originally called the Goat Wall Literary Society and the first book they read as a group in 2009 was “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. “This group has 16 members that meet monthly for dinner and discussion, rotating at the homes of members.
However, the Mazama Book Club actually is a splinter group of a book club began in 2000 by Ann Diamond and Tracy Sprauer. Ann says that the group was mostly young mothers. Each summer they would do a play reading from start to finish. Penny Klein would bring costumes and they would sit with the windows wide open in Ann’s bunkhouse and read Shakespeare. This group began changing as more families moved down valley, finally evolving into the group that exists today which is less a Lost River group and more of an Edelweiss group.
The third Mazama book club boasts 19 years together. This, unfortunately, is almost all that I have to report on them. Maybe this is the secret to their longevity as a group; they are mysterious. Or perhaps they aren’t mysterious at all and I just need to get out more.
