Building a Limitless Library with Michelle Tolman

On this episode of the We Share podcast, Alex and Julie are joined by Michelle Tolman, director of the Bonneville County Library District—and self-described mom and wife extraordinaire—to explore the powerful role libraries play in shaping community, connection, and a love for reading. Michelle shares the inspiring grassroots origin of the district, her journey from stay-at-home mom of nine to library leader, and how her team created thriving local branches with limited funding and endless dedication.

Together, they dive into creative ways to make reading fun for kids of all ages—including reading aloud during Lego time, audiobooks on family walks, and using voices and picture books even for older readers. Michelle emphasizes how the library serves as a safe, welcoming space—especially during Idaho’s long winters—and how it has evolved into more than just a place to borrow books. It now hosts community classes, story times, STEM events, and personalized recommendations tailored to Bonneville County's unique interests.

The episode also kicks off the We Share Summer Book Club, inviting listeners to read along with their three-book series for June, July, and August. With discussions on favorite titles like The Midnight Library, the value of shared reading experiences with kids and adult children alike, and the importance of modeling curiosity and connection through books, this episode celebrates the magic of stories—and the vital community spaces that bring them to life.

Transcript

Having neurodivergent kids and especially nine all different levels. How do you make reading a fun thing for everybody? So what I learned is I let go of some of the expectations that I had, where it had to be. Everyone's sitting, snuggling together. Sometimes that happened, and I love those moments. But other times it's, hey, you're playing Legos while I read to you.

Sometimes it is. We're all listening to the audiobook. Sometimes we read separately and then we talk about it. Today on the We Share podcast, we're joined by Michelle Belknap Tallman, director of the Bonneville County Library District.

Welcome to the We Share podcast. I'm Julie. I'm Alex. We share ourselves and we provide a platform for others to share. We believe everyone has a purpose and a story to tell. And we're back on the We Share podcast. I'm Julie and I'm Alex. And today, kicking off our desire of building our book club and our reading clubs together.

We have invited Michelle Tolman on. She's the director of the Bonneville County Library District, and I can't leave out that she's mom and wife extraordinaire. Mother to nine kids. Hi, Michelle. How are you? Well, great. So fabulous to be here with all of you. So, you know, nine, nine kids. I teased earlier that she's in heaven, and you and I are hanging on to her coattails to get there, because with nine kids, you're automatically there.

You've done. You've done your share of twins. One set of stairs soon going to be 22. So fun. I've learned so much from my kids. I'm so grateful. To be a mom is the best thing ever. I love that because the hardest. Yeah. Oh, and you give the most. I would. I'm totally going off the concept of library right now and headed down another pathway.

But I was telling my daughter, who is pregnant, by the way, we were talking about the fact that you leave every kid that you have leaves DNA within you. Yes. So as mothers, we have all of this. You have nine sets of different DNA still traveling around your body. I have three sets of different DNA. Alex has four sets of different DNA traveling around our body.

So even when they move away and they go and they do their own thing, they're still part of you on the inside. Yes. And then they're also part of us out there in the world. Yeah. They're like, I got my mom. Yep. So it's it's a beautiful, I would say, godlike plan. Yeah. That we're a part of. Okay, let's get back to library.

Tell us a little. Yeah. Tell us about. Get back to those card catalogs. The Dewey decimal system. Let's get let's talk about the Bonneville County Library District. It was burst. I think we could say. Has it been two years now? Two and a half. So we're coming up on three years. October 1st, 2022 is when we started.

So it's really been an amazing journey. And I was hired about this time three years ago. So why I some people might be like, well, why did you birth the Bonneville County Library District? What was the need for this, this new venture? I'm so glad you asked me because I, had gotten injured and had a feeling that I should find my new purpose.

I felt like there was something for me. And two days later, one of the board members for the Bonneville County Library District called me. We just barely connected through a homeschool source, and she told me about the decision of separating from Idaho Falls. And so once I learned about that, because I had been involved in a group that had advocated for an Ammon library, I became hyperfocus on it.

It was like an obsession. And I'm not typically like that. So I knew that it was something more divine. And it wasn't meant to be. Yeah, it was my calling. So I, I never thought I'd be the director, but I just started. I was injured, so I had time to research, and that's what I'm good at and learn about how that works and, explore other libraries, how they do things.

And it became really clear to me that this could happen with the money that they had, and it'd be tight. But I know how to be tight because I've got nine kids. You know, I've been a stay at home mom a lot of that time, so I knew how to pinch pennies and stretch dollars. And so I went to the board, did a special presentation showing them, here's my proforma, here's how you can do everything that we've talked about.

Here's a visualization. Here's a space. All the things that they could need to make that decision if they were interested. And it took months. And then it got to a point where they I said, you really are, to a point where you got to have a director. But when they interviewed people from California and New York and all these people with experience, they didn't know how to start something from something from zero.

So that's where I came to my realization that I could do this. I've been growing this baby all the way along. I've learned so much. Like, yeah, I don't have a degree. I don't have a master's library science. But I've been a learner all my life, and I've been doing an in-depth study of all this. And so I said, would you give me a chance?

And they, after interviewing everything, selected me for a six month interim contract. And we exceeded their expectations. And then they gave me another six month interim contract to see if I could run the library. And now I'm permanent and I love it so much. And I couldn't have done it without an amazing team of people like we had volunteers come from all over to help us get started, because I couldn't even hire anyone until July.

This is just months, three months before we are supposed to be open. And meanwhile volunteers would come and we'd interview people for those few positions that we could afford to have, and just the most amazing people were willing to work for what we could afford and brought the expertise that we needed. We even had former library directors volunteer their time.

The whole consortium of East Idaho rallied around us. So many amazing things happened to create that branch, but I feel so honored to be a part of it. It's like, how do you be a part of a miracle and not be so grateful? I'm just my ignorance. I just don't understand. I mean, with you explaining it and the name of it and everything, it sounds like it's been established for decades.

Oh, like, how did we not have this? Let me tell you about that. So, back in 1980, the the Bonneville County people that were outside of the city limits of Idaho Falls wanted to have library services. So they started a movement to create a district so that they could contract with the city of Idaho Falls to use their library, because, right, that made the most sense.

And for 42 years, that's what they did. They the the decision was made in 1981, but unlike other libraries, we have a household fee instead of an avalanche tax. So we have a flat amount that is charged to every household. Whereas other libraries within Bonneville County, within the Bonneville County, outside the city limits of Little Falls. That's what our county commissioners advised us to do because it protected farmers, which was most of that community, because they would have been disproportionately taxed.

And it's difficult, right, for farmers, as we know, to even keep their inherited farms. So that was honored. And the in 1981, it was voted to go about creating that district, making it a tax district. We pay the Bonneville County to collect those taxes. And then that household fee is used. It has been, you know, used to contract with that of falls.

But then when this decision was made, it was finally decided. I think it's time for us to start our own library systems and bring them closer to the people, because for at least 20 years, it was documented that people have been saying over and over, we wish we had more control, we wish we had more say, we wish we had libraries close to the people.

And as Idaho Falls and the surrounding areas have grown, it's harder and slower to get across town to the Idaho Falls Library. Even though it's amazing if you can't get there, it doesn't serve the purpose that it was intended to serve. So that's when this all happened. And at first, little baby steps were made. So a community in Iona, a community group, the friends, the Iota library, they're amazing.

They started a community library and then actually volunteered at that. Really? Really. Yeah, yeah. When I mean, I, I'm, I feel old now, but in my much younger years, as I was trying to teach my kids to love reading because it was so important to me. And it works, by the way, if you're listening and you have little kids and you think you can't teach them to love to read.

I have three children who love to read because we spent so much time reading and so I would volunteer, doing that and I it was a really it's just a group of people with the same desire you have, and they make it work. Well, I felt like it was a formula almost when we were young, younger, having our small children.

It was just part of my daily routine when I was a stay at home mom. We're going to go by the library, we're going to get some books. We'll go to story time. I'd meet other moms there, and I just I feel like a lot of that has fallen away, like. But you know what? It hasn't now. No.

Yeah. I thought it was gone. And then, you know, because I. If libraries are more than five miles away from the people, they don't go. That's sad. Yeah. So it even though it was a difficult decision, it did serve a purpose. And it's it's met a lot of people's needs. We're getting people back that haven't used libraries in years.

And they're realizing libraries are so much more than a place to pick up some books. It's a place to connect with others. It's, for story time for steam classes, for reading challenges, for, community classes. We have a Dungeons and Dragons club, we have a 4:00 fan club, and we do games and homework helps. And, you know, different kind of construction and craft projects.

It's pretty amazing. All the things. We have something going on almost every day. I looked at your schedule on Facebook, and she's exactly right. There's not just one thing a day. Yeah. There's multiple things a day for people to, you know, get involved in. I also found the library as a mother who was trying to juggle. How do I keep these kids busy when it's, you know, seven degrees outside the library was a friend in the wintertime for me, a, you know, it was a place where we could go when it was an outing and it was something we all enjoyed and it became just part of their lives.

I'm so thankful that you have. You've done this work, Michelle. It's great. Tell people where this library is located. So we have five branches. We have one in Ammon. I own a Swan Valley West Side and Yukon now. We just opened in September. Okay. I didn't even know you had advance. That's right. That is amazing. In two and a half years.

Yeah. That's amazing. Well done. And she's living up to that statistic that you've got to have the library close if people want to use it. That's that's our mission. And really hard. People are the same principles that started us. We had $400,000 to do for branches, like we use those same principles to be able to expand our collection.

We've gotten donations from people. We've just stretched every dollar and gotten community helps and grants. And it's amazing. You take what we can, donations we do. We're a lot pickier now. Okay. Because we're too big to catalog all. We have over 130,000 items. We have kits that you can check out that have not only the the books, but resources for learning so you can learn how to play the ukulele, crochet or knit.

You can learn how to play Dungeons and Dragons. You can have a, Pride and Prejudice night. You can have a date night. You can teach your family about a new baby coming. There's just so many ideas that we have, so we just expand our kits and resources and classes based on the needs that we see. We respond to the requests that people give us for books, so that we're tailoring our collection to the interests of our community, because it's different than maybe New York.

You know, new York Times bestsellers may not be bestsellers here, so we want to tailor that to the needs of our community, which is very unique. And even, you know, I own it has a little different flavor and of interest than Ammon or Yukon or Swan Valley. So we look at that and try and coordinate all that. So that we're better serving our people.

I just I admire her so much for the work ethic and what she's done. Did you love reading as a kid? Was this in you from the beginning? I got grounded from reading, too much to read books for you. I she she's a teacher, so I. And her mom is gold, by the way. I know her mother.

And your mother is gold. Yeah. And so it pained her to do that, but I, you know, you just get so caught up in someone else's journey, right? It's magical what you could do. Like, you could go to foreign lands, live in different time periods all through a book. Right? But it's true. It can be like anything if you do too much of it.

Right. So you can be to get a diversified. Yeah. My mom taught me some good, good values there to like, oh, that's a great thing to do. But let's make sure that we take care of these other things first. Let's also go play softball for a minute. Yeah yeah yeah. I mean if our bodies exercise. Yeah. Mind and body.

Yeah. You mentioned that you have some fun stories that have happened over the to the last two and a half years, what have you, what have you witnessed during that time. It it delights me to have people come in that were maybe pretty upset about the decision. And they went from being very antagonistic to being our biggest champions, and so grateful for the things that we've done and advocating for us and helping us with our collection.

I had one lady that she was an avid reader, and of course, when we got started, we didn't have nearly as many books as she would like to have seen, especially compared to the volume she was accustomed to. But we said, look at all these donations. Will you help us pull out the best things so that we could prioritize cataloging them?

And over time, she's just been a great support of our library. We have families that come in and they're like, we have never read so much, ever. And it's unified our family because we're reading together. We have a darling mother daughter book club that was started by a volunteer, Esther Manwaring, and she is amazing. She finds the most inspiring books that are perfect for that 8 to 10 year old girl.

And having those conversations about different times and places and why that's important, has been so good for everyone in that group. We just love it, and it's been fun to share that with our daughters. It really is a sense of community. Yeah, and we have people. Oh, sorry. I was going to say the library offers that that center community.

Go ahead, say, oh, I have a gentleman that will come in. Sometimes he'll bring his own books. But, you know, he's lonely. And where else can you go that's free of charge? They're always welcome. And he just comes because we know his name, and we look forward to seeing him. And, you know, ask how he's doing. What are you reading?

And we a lot of people are like that. He's just one of many that come just for that connection with us and with our community, because we treat everyone like a library friend. They are our library. Well, I have some books for you. I've given up. I mean, my kids call me an organized hoarder and I have a store.

I've bought books for decades. Yeah. And just I don't have a lot of space and I'm not going to read a lot of them. So I just gave all the teen ones away because I'm like, why do I have these? They could help someone, but I didn't know about you, or I would have seen if they could fit into your catalog.

But I do have like another couple boxes to go through. Thank you, so I will. We love it. We had here when and yeah, yeah just new new titles. Hard bounce I just brought this beautiful box of things and that's how we've been able to grow so fast with so little resources. And I'm grateful for our community because clearly they have a value.

They see that it benefits other people they're thinking and not just of themselves, but how to strengthen the community. Right. Thank you for being with us. Yeah, I, I like to buy books. Yeah. I think a happy memory for a lot of people is if they went to a school or they visited a library on a regular basis and they developed a relationship with the librarian that was there, school librarians can be that friend that kids need.

Or is there a specific person who's employed at each of the five branches? How does that work? Like if you visit a branch on a regular basis, are you going to see the same people running the branch? Yeah, we we typically have the same people. But I've also tried to, have people work at more than one branch.

It helps us in two ways. One, it helps us transport things more quickly from branch to branch because we are sharing everything. And the second thing it does is it helps people to have a broader perspective and not feel that tribalism, where I'm just looking out for the I own a library only. We want everyone to be looking out for the entire Bonneville County Library District and all the people involved in it.

Yeah. Oh no, I think this is a great idea. So I think that was. But depending you'll see them rotate through. So you will get to make friends with those who are running the library. We keep a consistent schedule. So if you have a favorite librarian you can know when to come and see them. And because you see them there all the time, we have favorite presenters.

You know, there's people that are doing creative art journaling and they just look forward to spending time with that librarian and people that are doing amazing storytimes. They look forward to spending time with them and the Steam classes. And it really is a like an underrated skill. You know, you would I think that there might be some ignorant people out there is like, what is it?

What you got to know the Dewey Decimal System to be a librarian. That is not how it works. It is the ability to speak to people. And I think that good librarians even get really good at like, kind of watching what people check out and what they like. And then you can recommend for them and you can and you can be that warm smile that people need.

And value. I think we actually didn't use the Dewey Decimal System. We created a more innovative, way to organize things that's more intuitive. It's a modified basic system, and with it, whenever there's a change, people are a little not sure about that, but they've really grown to love it because it's more categorized. When Dewey was created, there, it was mostly geared towards European countries and limited scope and also technology hadn't.

Yeah. So you're taking long, Dewey numbers, trying to cram in all these technology things into a system that wasn't designed for it. So this is working better for us and our size, the library. And also we have genres for our adult fiction. At first that was another, you know, love hate thing. But now that we've tried to, consolidate authors into, less genres, people are really seeing the value of it because most of the time adults have a favorite genre.

Oh, or they're the one. I was like, you know, I really notice, like, trends, what's really, like, popular, there's not a section in our library that isn't going well. So if you look at our genres, those are the most popular ones. Okay. Right there. So that's how we chose them. I would say that totally makes sense to people who are technology savvy because I use the audible app.

I know lots of people use either the Kindle or whatever, but the audible app, it's the easiest way to find a book of that matches the book you just read that you loved. Yeah, yes. You just search the the app just provides it for you. So these genres would be doing that. And we've done some things with our cataloging that also facilitates our librarians to be more successful at connecting the people with the right books.

So we have a group of people that are really looking for clean and wholesome literature. They're still adult. How do you do that? So we created a new line in the record so that we can identify those, things that are clean and wholesome. It don't have sex scenes or or foul words. Yeah. Really bad language. Yeah.

It's really common. And so there's becoming a better divide between those types of literature. And we have people that are interested in both kinds. We don't want to, we want to serve everybody, regardless of what their preference is within our scope and our collection development policy. So yeah, totally makes sense. I want to ask you, what's your favorite book?

Well, I don't have. Are your kids like, how do you choose a favorite kid? Yeah, right. You don't think you it. But I kind of get in the mood for things like, I love to study, like, self-improvement books. One of my favorite books is by Jim Kwik Limitless. Have you ever read this? I've read I have not. Oh my goodness.

So good. Okay. He had a brain injury and he struggled all through school. And, friend's father encouraged him to read more. And he felt like what my brain's broken. I can't do that. Anyway, by pushing through and becoming an expert on how the brain works now, he is able to like ridiculous things that are crazy. Like, you could go through 100 people, and remember their names.

He chunks. He's got these brain tactics. Okay, this is a book I need to read, several podcasts I recommend. There's a lot of books out there with the name like limitless out there. So just a quick Jim. Jim quick. Okay? Okay. Awesome. Okay. So that's in your self-help section. What would be like your favorite fiction? Oh, I don't have a favorite, but I am enjoying one that we're reading for our book club called Midnight Library.

And of course, you can see why there are some trigger warnings. There's some suicide things and and whatnot. But the thing I love about it is the development of this character. She just thinks everything in her life is a train wreck and she wants to be done. And then she has this experience kind of magical realism, where she goes into a, library that represents all the experiences of her life, every books, the experience of her life and her library from school is there to be her guide.

And she has these redos and develops a different sense of herself and appreciation for the journey she's been on and healing. It's beautiful. Wow. I would love this book. Yeah, I read this book. Lots of great things to talk about. So really let me say that title again, The Midnight Library. The Midnight Library, it's one of our book club ones, so if you want to be part of that discussion, we'd love that.

Yeah. So we can definitely share. We're getting ready to launch our summer reading book club. Yeah. With with we share. We've all announced the titles. Like, when this episode drops, I know we need to select one more, but I've got two with me. So. Which we're just we're having a good time. I, I listen more than I read now because I don't have as much time in the day, but, when you talked about escaping, that's exactly what I thought of, because I've developed these little six mile loops around the city of Idaho Falls, and I go walk them.

And people are always like, you walk six miles, like, what are you doing? And I'm like, I escape into a book and it doesn't feel like six miles, right? It is so good for my body. I get sunshine, I'm walking, and I'm escaping into a book, so my brain gets to just forget about everyday life and pay attention.

One of the things I searched for in a book is amazing dialog. I want well written, witty, you know, not just boring dialog. And then the characters like to deliver it too, because there has been some that sometimes you're like, I just don't know if I can listen to this person much longer. Yeah. And so I look for that and it sounds like Midnight Library would provide that for me.

What a joy. It. So it's interesting because reading is so good for all ages. It really it helps you emotionally. It helps you with empathy. It helps you to escape. But it also can help mundane chores be more enjoyable. Yeah, like when I'm folding laundry or washing dishes. I love to listen to an audiobook so that it's I don't.

Yeah, it's like a treat, right? As you're doing the audiobook, I was like, I don't know that I could read and do laundry, that I know that I could listen. Yeah, for sure. Like my for me, my, with young kids reading it forced me to sit down because I'm a little bit of a busybody, like going a million miles an hour at that time, with them in your lap and reading and escaping into a book.

And it just doesn't happen as much anymore. We need to like, definitely. Yeah. I can't wait for grandkids. I know you already have. Yeah. And I read to him, it's so fun and you just need to just trust the process because what I, I was reading most recently with my grandson, who isn't even quite three yet, Cat in the hat, he has the book memorized.

He says the phrases along with me, this is this is just such a magical process because it doesn't need to be hard to teach kids to communicate. It doesn't need to, you know, you just find the things that they identify with, and then it becomes a much more natural organic growth process for a little kid. Well, it's an evolutionary just it's made to happen that way.

So many people just put devices in front of their kids now. And it's so it's frustrating even. I played totally kind of off topic by page tennis match the other day. Against she graduated last year and I like get to the car and I'm like, she's 18 to die. Yes, I won, I like it. So I dug deep, but she we started talking about devices.

I said something and she's like, oh, I know I hate phones. I wish you didn't have fun. She's a BYU Idaho student. And and I'm like, you know, I'm so glad I didn't have that in high school. Or to deal with that like you have, like, okay, it's just I want to say a couple things because I bet there's listeners out here that are feeling guilty.

Moms love to feel guilty, right? Oh, we do it to ourselves. There are some great ways to use phones to read. I we have had purchased a Scholastic digital program, and one of the for resources is book six, and it'll read along with your kids. I'm not saying that that's a replacement for reading with your parents. I definitely am not.

But that's a great thing that you could use on that phone during that tennis match, right? When you couldn't read. And it's better than trash on YouTube. Oh yeah. And it helps them because it highlights the word as it's going. And then it has a nonfiction and a fiction book comparing the two. So click Clack Moo is obviously fiction.

And then it has a book about dairy cows. And then they can learn more about dairy cows and and and okay, do cows really type on typewriters. And they can have questions asked to them. And that develops a lot of cognitive skills. And so we can use technology in positive ways. But I also want to say this, having neurodivergent kids and especially nine all different levels, how do you make reading a fun thing for everybody?

So what I learned is I let go of some of the expectations that I had, where it had to be. Everyone's sitting, snuggling together. Sometimes that happened, and I love those moments, but other times it's, hey, you're playing Legos while I read to you. Sometimes it is. We're all listening to the audiobook, sometimes we read separately and then we talk about it.

There's so many ways to tailor it to your needs, and instead of feeling guilty about it not being this utopian perfect. Yeah. Situation, do something. Just do. If you can't read for 20 minutes a day, can you do five? Can you? I mean, if you have older kids, don't feel like you have to read chapter books. Picture books are okay.

I read pictures, books to the our friends at the Gables and they were so delighted. I have a request to to come for more storytimes. Do you do you make up your own story for the pictures? I know what's up and I substituted your kid's name in there. Sometimes they love again, that's not utopian because you're not reading every word exactly like it is, right?

My thing that I did with my kids is I did voices. Yeah, but then when we would, we would stop on the page, especially when they were little. And I was trying to teach them colors or whatever. I would talk about the pictures on the page because the words were just part of it. But yeah, it's a picture book, right?

So pay attention to what's been put in and we'll talk about like, oh, this is happening here. Do you see why that cat is scared? Because this or you know, whatever, I love that you did that. And look at how you created space for them to think and process. And you were rushing to check it off the list.

You were experiencing the whole story and all that those pictures had to offer. I love that, yeah. An example to match the technology portion of it. Like I said, in the winter time especially, we visited the library at least once a week, sometimes twice a week. The library was about getting books and was about reading, but I also let them play on the computers while they were there because it was about that too well and can.

Computers were fairly new. They were pretty new. And so but it was a monitored technology experience. Yeah. And those are healthy. They're good. Yeah. And sometimes it's like the best you can do at the time. Like we had a discussion as a team. Like what do we do when parents come in and they don't monitor their kids. So we have a darling little play house and a slide in the admin branch.

I know it's unusual, but in our long winters it's been so valuable to people, but it also gets a little noisier. We're not a huge library, especially during story time. If someone's looking for a quiet space, maybe better go to a different branch. But, we could we can problem solve with you. Don't give up on us. But we want to make sure that we're meeting those needs.

But I'm just saying that, sometimes it's just great to be able to come and let the kids play and connect with other mothers or other parents and be able to find a book that you enjoy or have a few minutes of peace. I think that's still valuable, because you're still helping the kids to connect to libraries and books as a positive thing.

And if that's the level that you can do to that day, it's still something. Yeah, like we need to celebrate our little successes. But also like, obviously, if you could read to your kids every day and read with them and encourage them to read, I mean that it would be lifelong benefits for you. I couldn't agree more. I think you can really create patterns and and you won't even realize you are.

It's just it's naturally happening by just showing up at the place and introducing gets easier the more we do it right and encourage each other. Yeah, I do remember, in lean years when there was not a lot of money going to the library and, when a new book would come out and it would already be checked out and I'd be on like a waiting list to get that.

And being so excited when that book came available. Crazy. Does that still happen? Waiting lists. And we try to keep them small, but with our digital, supplies, they're so expensive that I can't keep them as low as I want. But the physical collection, I've been able to keep it to a 4 to 1 ratio, so it's not usually very long before you get that becomes available.

I have encouraged people to understand the principle too, of libraries. We need people to return them. We don't charge late fees, but we. So we want you to be able to finish that book. We're trying to be gracious, but also the only way that this works is if we think of others. And so getting those books as quickly back as you can, right, makes it better for other people.

And sometimes we have like something that's been out for too long and we'll call them and say, we've got someone that's really waiting for that, and that's what motivates people to bring it back. And if they were always thinking that way, I think it would serve our all of our libraries and the whole community and beyond better if that was in the forefront.

Which, by the way, is another great way to teach kids commitments. Yeah. You know you talk it through. Hey we borrowed this book two weeks ago and it's time to go back. And I know you love the book, but somebody else is going to love the book too. So we're going to take it back. We'll get another one and we can get it in a while and we'll bring it back home again.

And there's so many lessons to be taught when experiencing a library. Yeah, yeah. And it's fun because sometimes you're waiting for that big name that everyone is buzzing about, and it gets you to explore something that you didn't expect. And it may be your new favorite. Right? So. Right. Great. We ask, a lot of our guests here on leash share to just kind of share, with our listeners because that's this whole concept we're sharing, maybe a bit of life advice, maybe something that you've learned through this experience.

Maybe it's just a motto you live by. But the thing that you would like to leave with our listeners, I might need to think about that. You can't. And let's while she's thinking, let's talk summer books. So yeah, for our book club, we are just going to have a three books summer we share program book for June, July and August.

And I don't know how it how it's going to happen exactly, but we would like to have our listeners and the community be a part of it. So if you can go to our Facebook page or Instagram page, and then if we can do a live show for the book each month, I think that would be it would be so fun to bring on a few 3 or 4 people.

And let's just talk through the book. Yeah. And so that's kind of of I'm just making this happen, like dreaming up, with Julie. I, I decided to so Jill and I have talked about this before. So if you've been following our podcast for a while, you know, I'm like this self-help book. I have read a lot of self-help.

So I tried to stretch myself and pick things that are not self-help. And then I was going to like Jill and maybe pick as well. What's funny is I've read Be Treat already. Oh, awesome. It's so cute. So I decided to do some lighthearted fun reading because, like Julie, I do tend to listen to more on audible. Now I try to at least read like ten pages a day in something.

Vacations or when I read or like at the pool or, you know, just doing stuff with kids on weekends. So I picked fun ones. So be read. I, Emily Henry and Then Too Late by Colleen Hoover. And we'll announce the third one late. And I don't know which one's going to be which, but we'll have all that I have not my girls have read all of Colleen Hoover's book, so I haven't read one.

I have, so that'll be fun to read. I've only read two by her, and it's the the movie like this is on like, what is it called I can't remember I'll look in my audible like, yeah, I don't know. But she was popular by that movie that came out. And then there was the other one. So I read both of them and made me cry because there was some abuse and but it was a beautiful story and thank goodness I ended well.

Yeah, because I like her and I hope you like it. I like a happy ending. Yeah. So this one will be interesting. 20% off at target. There you go. I am a sucker for sale. So, anyway, we'll get this summer program going and hopefully it'll be a lot of fun. Okay, before we get back to your little piece of advice, I'm now learning the new skill of parenting adult children.

Oh, yeah, all three of my kids live outside of the house. And and what that means is that you're not for me, especially because they live in different states. I'm not with them all of the time. And you have to build bridges of things that you can still share together. And reading is one of them. And we have done this as adults.

We each, like we all read a book and then we'll share it with each other. So it's that reading of Cat in the hat with the little kid, or Harry Potter with the seven year old, or, you know, whatever book we were tackling. I let them read Twilight, and I read it with them because I was a little questionable about the whole thing.

Still am. But we read that as teenagers. It's not mine. Yeah, but they wanted to. And so I read with them. Then it keeps going parenting adult children. You can keep reading with them. It's just different now. It's just a little different the way it looks. And so I they I'm excited because I haven't read any Colleen Hoover, but my girls have.

So now I'll be able to talk to it to them about it after we read this one. Yeah. Which is great. Yeah. I think it's such a great is amazing. Yeah it is, it is, it does have dividends way, way beyond their early. It starts with us and it ends with us. Those are the two. Those are the two.

Yeah. Yeah. So yeah I've noticed that with my kids too because sometimes, it gives me an insight to who they are, what I read, the books that they're reading, and then we can share it. And, and I see how they're seeing that world. Yeah. And how different is maybe than I, I see that same book and that world in there.

So I think it is a great thing. And also being able to share books that inspired me or got me through hard times has been another way to connect with those adult kids, because sometimes they don't maybe trust in all that you have to say, or they think, okay, that's one source, mom. All right, all right. But if they hear it from another source as well, that's stronger.

Yeah, it's like, oh, it's a good, conversation starter, topic starter, I think. Yeah. Is it, it starts with us or it ends with us. Which one was the movie first? It starts with us. Okay. It starts with us. I know that one was a tear jerker, because before I read it, I watched the movie and then I.

I went back, but my daughter, I was bawling in the movie theater and so was she, because there were feelings that came up from things in our life that were similar, like enmeshed with what they went through. And so then we could talk about it after in a healing way. Yeah. And so that was beautiful. Yes, I loved that.

And it really is a great way to start a deep conversation. Like, I, I love to meet people and like I think, but the things that fill me are those deep conversations. Those are the things I crave to have a really meaningful, vulnerable, authentic kind of communication. She's our core values there. Yeah, I oh, well, yeah, I was watching a TikTok and it was a it's a guy who teaches elementary kids in the public school system.

And he said, I'll talk to kids every day over adults. Some adults gonna walk past me and ask me, how's work going for you? I don't want to answer that question. You know what I want to answer? I want to answer the question that my, student posed to me today, which is, Mr. So-and-so, do robots have feelings?

And then we had this big, long conversation about robots and how they're the how they're, like, computerized and we went way end up. And I was like, that's exactly it. Those are the conversations we're missing out on. And these are the deep conversations that we can have based on books. And I think robots, to answer that question do have feelings.

Yeah. Because they're I, they're programed to have feelings because when I as serious as something I don't like and I said I don't like this and just like I'm sorry like this. So there's a formula. Yeah. That that is, something that they've learned from human behavior. We do the same thing when we read books. We read Wild Robot as a community.

The friends at our library supported that, and I want to plug our fable organization to our other friends group because they support things like this as well. But we read Wild Robot together, and then those that read it and came to the book, discussion, were able to get movie tickets and then have more family discussions. It was so positive.

And we have a local author that is coming to talk about AI and how he and his wife use AI in constructive ways. I've been studying this as well because this is of great value because like, it's a tool, it can be used for great things or not so great things. We might need to have him on here too.

So it's been really fun. And and there are other people that we, I follow that have been very influential in seeing AI for the benefit benefits. Yep I agree. Yeah, I totally agree. And so instead of living in fear, we can embrace it. Look, you know, discern which things are valuable and which things are not just of our own.

Just like computer technology time. How can we get the best things from it without it causing harm? Right. It's always a balance. I don't think it's even though it's different things that we're dealing with. It's always been a challenge throughout history. So we can look to them for inspiration, but also look to good sources and people that inspire you and pay attention to what feels right.

I think. I think we can navigate this, but it's better to do it together. I agree, totally agree. Okay, your bit of life. All right. So I really want to encourage people to believe that they're limitless. Listen to what you're called to do and put your whole heart in it and miracles will happen. I really believe that. And I think everyone's here for a purpose, and I want them to feel empowered to do everything that they meant to do on the earth.

And I hope that together we can make the world a better place. A great way to end the podcast. Yeah, I love it. Thank you Michelle, it's so fun to have you here. We wish you the best of success with this because it is very valuable. Yes. And to everyone out there, happy reading. Oh, and join our summer reading program.

We're starting it next week. So you want to help encourage your child or even an adult to come and read 20 minutes, five other seven days a week. You can get a little incentive and also join a community that's like minded, that's encouraging each other to read. Do they join online or come into the library at five branches?

I'll use five badges at your convenience. Yes, we try so you can't. Swan Valley, Aman, West side, Iona, Iona. Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you Michelle. Michelle, for.

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