Hello and welcome to Episode Thirty Two of Page Turn: the Largo Public Library Podcast. I’m your host, Hannah!
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The English Language Transcript can be found below
But as always we start with Reader’s Advisory!
The Reader’s Advisory for Episode Thirty Two is Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang. If you like Dragon Hoops you should also check out: Spinning by Tillie Walden, Almost American Girl by Robin Ha, and Attucks! by Phillip Hoose.
My personal favorite Goodreads list Dragon Hoops is on is Tales from the Hardwood.
Happy Reading Everyone
Today’s Library Tidbit is about Nordic comfort and relaxation. I know, we live in Florida so the comfort rituals of societies living in freezing lands is possibly a little out of touch with reality here, but I think we could all use some comforting this holiday season in particular.
Let’s start with the concept everyone has probably heard of hygge. Hygge is a Danish word that we tend to translate to coziness. However, the concept is a lot bigger than that. Hygge is a way of life in Denmark. It is a combination of coziness, with the correct lighting, food, drink, and togetherness.
The closest other cultural practice to hygge is koselig. I don’t want to angry any Norwegians listening but really from the outside they appear to be the same thing, just hygge is Danish and koselig is Norwegian. Koselig also includes natural light, fire candles, etc, cozy clothing and blankets, warm drinks or booze without the intent of getting drunk, and comfort foods. Both hygge and koselig have the same connotations of intimacy and togetherness mixed with the coziness.
On the other side of staying sane during a long and frozen winter we have the Fins and kalsarikännit. (You try saying that.) Päntsdrunk is less about coziness and intimacy and more about unwinding and letting go of the day’s stress. And while drinking alcohol is part of the practice the purpose is not to get drunk. Proper päntsdrunk includes snack items, especially candy, while both hygge and koselig are more about the pastry and cake life, päntsdrunk is about the candy and chips life. Päntsdrunk is mostly done alone and at home. If you do päntsdrunk with friends you are very close. Aside from the drinking and the snacks the other aspect of päntsdrunk is to strip down to your underwear, pajamas at the most.
You must be at least 21 years of age to practice päntsdrunk.
The last cultural practice I’m going to talk over today is lagom. Lagom is a Swedish concept that roughly translates to the perfect amount or in moderation. It is not about achieving perfection, but rather in recognizing when the right amount or fit comes along, stopping there, and being happy and content.
I’m trying to think what the Florida equivalent for these practices are since most of them seem to require fire and bulky warm clothing. What comes to mind for me is the perfect day at a beach empty of everyone but your party, with a breeze coming off the shore, sitting under a shade shelter reading a good book, eating salty snacks and drinking a cold drink. But I don’t know I avoid the beach and the sun so what do I know. Come in let me know what the Florida equivalent is.
And now it’s time for Book Traveler, with Victor:
Intro: Hi! Welcome to Book Traveler. My name is Victor and I am the Community Access Librarian at the Largo Public Library. Today I’m going to talk to you about the book The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala Harris.
Synopsis: “As the first African American woman with roots in South Asia to become California’s attorney general, as well as the second black woman in history elected to the United States Senate, Kamala Harris is breaking new ground on her route to the national stage. But how did she achieve her goals? What values and influences guided and inspired her along the way? In this edition of her memoir, we learn how her family and community influenced Senator Harris’s life and we see what led her to discover her own sense of identity and purpose. The Truths We Hold follows the path that Senator Harris has chosen throughout her life as she explores the values that he cherishes most: those of community, equality and justice.Through an inspiring and empowering reading, this book challenges us to become leaders of our lives and shows us that, with determination inaction and perseverance, all dreams are possible.”
Opinion: I had not heard of Senator Kamala Harris until she entered the race for President of the United States. Due to her nomination for the Democratic Vice Presidency, I wanted to learn more about her.
The Truths We Hold is a political memoir. This book is an introduction to Harris and achieves its purpose. Harris was born in Oakland in the 1960s to a Jamaican economist father and a Tamil-Indian endocrinologist mother. Her parents met in Berkeley during the civil rights movement. She and a sister, Maya, who is two years younger, were raised by her single mother after her parents broke up when she was still a child. She married Douglas Emhoff, a lawyer, in 2014. Emhoff has two children from a previous marriage.
Harris begins her book by talking about her youth and the importance of recognizing that our nation has been enriched by immigration. She is proud of her black heritage and chose Howard University for her undergraduate degree and graduated from the University of CA Hastings School of Law in 1989. She then began working for the district attorney as a prosecutor and later served as a prosecutor district of San Francisco. This was followed by the election of California Attorney General and, more recently, California’s third female senator (and the first of Indian or Jamaican descent).
Senator Harris highlights her professional accomplishments, discusses many of the problems America faces today, and details what she has done and plans to do to fix these problems. Ms. Harris comes across as a woman of deep intellect and compassion, and I have a lot of respect for her after reading this book.
Since she was in Washington, Senator Harris has been a forceful and outspoken critic of Trump’s policies and is considered a favorite in the Democratic Party. We learn that her name Kamala means lotus, a flower that blooms on water while its roots are planted in the mud. She is certainly someone I will be watching during her political career.
Outro: It’s all for today. Until the next edition of Book Traveler. Bye.
Stay safe everyone out there! Wear a mask if you come into the library Check out our virtual programming here and also don’t forget to sign up for our Read Woke Initiative on Beanstack!
For everyone interested our intro music is by Break the Bans and the outro music is by Jahzzar, both artists can be found on Free Music Archive.
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