More Than Meets the Eye: Why You NEED a Library Card

When's the last time you visited a public library? Libraries across Mississippi have oodles and oodles of fantastically fun resources for you, the patron, to use. There are 53 library systems with 234 libraries in Mississippi ready and waiting to serve you and, as September is Library Card Sign-up Month, now is the perfect time to step foot inside one of these local community hubs. Why should you visit a library? Well, there's more to them than meets the eye!

Read with MLC: Book in Translation

Welcome to September, and the ninth month of the 2024 Read With MLC reading challenge! This month's reading prompt is to read a book in translation. Why should we read books originally written in languages other than English? Georgi Gospodinov, winner of 2023's International Booker Prize for his book Time Shelter, says, 

When we have ears and eyes (and a translation) for the story of the Other, when we hear and read it, they become a person like us. Storytelling generates empathy. It saves the world. Especially a world like the one we live in today. We write to postpone the end of the world. And the end of the world is a very personal thing. It happens in different languages. Translation gives us the sense that we are working towards this postponement together.

Still, when some people think of translated fiction, their thoughts may immediately turn to dry, ponderous tomes that have no connection to their lives or interests. Luckily, the staff at the Mississippi Library Commission have shared some of their favorite works in translation below.