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Two of my favorite books this summer were the first in a trilogy by Jane Smiley. Some Luck and Early Warning describe the lives of the Langdons, an Iowa farm family, from the 1920s through the mid-1980s. Golden Age, which will be available this coming October, takes the members of the family through the rest of that decade and into the future, ending in 2019. If you enjoy family sagas this would be a good bet. I especially liked that the events in each chapter took place in just one year and focused on just one or a few characters.

It rained over the weekend, and there was much discussion about it, but fires are still burning and the Inland Northwest is dry. Perhaps some rain songs will convince the skies that we  need more. Rain seems to be a very popular muse for songwriters! Here are a few that either celebrate the rain or were too good to leave off this list.

Rain Dance – Herbie Hancock

Rain Rain Beautiful Rain – Ladysmith Black Mambazo with Natalie Merchant (“Oh come to me beautiful rain”)

Bring on the Rain – Eddie Money

Rain Down Rain – Big Maybelle (skip the lightning in this one and we’re all set)

A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall – Bob Dylan (classic!)

Have You Ever Seen the Rain – Rod Stewart covering the Creedance Clearwater Revival song (there are a lot of covers of this one but no recordings on Freegal of the original).

Have other musical interests? Remember you can download five songs a week from Freegal with your library card. You get to keep the songs – they don’t expire. The library also offers music through hoopla and our extensive CD collection.