“Two days after providing a sample of my reproductive cells for analysis, I was in the basement of the Park Slope Food Coop bagging the dried flesh of a tropical stone fruit, trying not to listen to one of my louder coworkers as she explained her decision to pull her first-grader out of a local public school and, despite the cost and the elaborate application process, place him in a well-known private one.”
“In the late nineteenth century, “best reading” gradually replaced “useful knowledge” in the profession’s lexicon, and many patrons continued to use the public library for the best reading it held. In 1884, for example, twenty-four-year-old Hamlin Garland moved from Iowa to Boston to become a writer. Almost immediately he went to the Boston Public Library.”
“The Baron and Baroness were hidden away in their quarters for the evening, and so Mr. Olderglough gave Lucy the night off, his first in many days. He made haste for the village, entering Klara’s shanty without knocking, anticipating a glad reception, but the fire was dim in the stove, and no one was about that he could see.”
