Photo of several puzzle piece with various hand-drawn designs on them. I Love Libraries logo. Text over photo reads: "Find Your Joy and Return to It Often: Why Libraries Matter More than Ever. Sam Helmick, 2025-2026 ALA President" ALA150 American Library Association

"So this week, I encourage you to engage with your library in person or online. Wander the stacks. Attend a program. Ask for a recommendation. Let yourself be surprised." - ALA President Sam Helmick

Read Sam's full piece: https://bit.ly/4cQ4Qvf

📸 Tomahawk (WI) Public Library

#NationalLibraryWeek

Schools across America are quietly admitting that screens in classrooms made students worse off and are reversing years of tech-first policies | Fortune Millions were spent putting laptops in every student’s hands. Now schools want them back as technology in the classroom is turning out not to be the miracle solution it was sold as.

It’s almost like WE ALL SAID THIS WOULD HAPPEN fortune.com/2026/04/10/a...

Today is National School Librarian Day. THANK YOU, school librarians & school library workers. We celebrate you. For so many library kids, the school library is the only place they have access to books. It is where they learn to believe that stories are for them. Thank you for your library joy 💛📚🥹🤟🏽

Bleak House Slow-Read a slow-read of Bleak House by Charles Dickens “I find the nights long, for I sleep but little, and think much.” I think for many of us, there are those books that you’ve long heard of and considered...

📖 Next weekend we'll start our slow-read of Bleak House by Charles Dickens (one "installment" of chapters a week, all the way through August)

For those interested, feel free to message @thevogelman.bsky.social or me and we'll send you more details!

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

I rarely like fiction from this time period, but maybe Dickens will be an exception.

Aside from what was probably an abridged version of Great Expectations in 8th grade, I've never read Dickens.

I'm on the fence about this one . . .

The Supreme Court did not strike down conversion therapy bans today.

Not nationwide. Not in Colorado. Not anywhere.

Here's what actually happened in Chiles v. Salazar—and why the coverage you're seeing serves the conservative legal movement more than it serves you.

Drafted by the MLA Task Force on AI in Research and Teaching, the latest statement from the MLA "asserts that centering communication as a human act is at the core of our work as educators." Learn more: mla.org/EC-actions

I'm not sure I'll be able to make this one, but I'll try!

This is my song. “Those are the real stakes — not white children feeling guilty, but white children armed with truth, history and a righteous desire to work with others to change the world.”

I wanted to read this in 2025, but (like a lot of things) it didn't happen. I'll prioritize it in 2026.

Anna Karenina is my favorite book of all time. I should probably read it again to see if that's still true. I was nineteen when I read it, but I still remember how it made me feel.

happy new year written in gold balloons on a purple background ALT: happy new year written in gold balloons on a purple background

Happy New Year, Everyone! May 2026 bring us more justice and some peace.

When I was an undergrad, I felt like I needed to own all the classics even if I had no desire to read them. I thought it was part of being an English major.

They are no longer on my main shelves, but I still have most of them.

Agreed. I don't need or want a review of 2025.

My goal is always to read the books I own, but that rarely happens. I need to figure out how to pause time.

It has been a long time since I've spent time with Shakespeare, but I'd probably put Othello, The Tempest, and King Lear as my top three.

Romeo and Juliet would also be close to the bottom of my list.

I'm focusing on "hereafter." I'm reading it in The Norton Shakespeare and the footnotes offer differing interpretations.

"She would have certainly died someday."

and

"She should have died at another, more peaceful time."

Then there's McKellen's offering of "future."

It's quite interesting.

A2: This is one of the most interesting moments of the play especially now that I've watched Ian McKellen's analysis. I love the complexities and how meaning changes depending on your interpretation of certain words.

#SundayMacbethChat

A5: I'm going to agree with Marcus and put it closer to the bottom of my rankings. This may be because I've never taught it or studied it in depth, but it didn't measure up to the others I've read, taught, and/or studied.

#SundayMacbethChat

A4: I made the mistake of reading everyone else's answers before fully thinking through mine, but the first word that popped into my head was power. I think it can encompass hubris and ambition, which are also apt.

#SundayMacbethChat

A3: It adds to the suspense and creates a bit of chaos as Macbeth realizes that the prophecies are coming true and he's probably not going to make it out of this alive.

#SundayMacbethChat

A1: My initial reaction was, "That's it?" Yes, everything is resolved, but I was expecting some sort of profound statement or a return of the witches to bring everything full circle.

#SundayMacbethChat

This makes me wonder why he isn't focusing more on finding Fleance.

A5: This is hard, and it's come up in my classroom in so many contexts. I'd like to say that it depends on the situation, but even if good comes out of the deception, you've still violated someone's trust to get there. There's always the chance that you won't be forgiven for that.
#SundayMacbethChat

A agree. He's messy and he seems unsure of what to do at this point.

Like you, I expected him to be more heroic and a clear contrast to Macbeth.

A3: I want to know why she assumes the worst of her husband? She also points out that fleeing makes him look like a traitor, which takes me back to my questions after they fled.

How much danger would they have been in had they stayed?
Could their presence have changed anything?

#SundayMacbethChat

A2: What stand out is how quickly he writes off the prophecies as being impossible and thinking that he's safe. There's so much hubris there.

If I were teaching this, I'd ask students to figure out how these prophecies could come true.

#SundayMacbethChat

I'm seeing what you're saying about them being a device, and I'm thinking about all the ways I can view their role. Are they an embodiment of evil? A reminder not to tempt or attempt to change our fates? (I wish I had more time to spend with this.)