Librarians, gotta love 'em

Service with a smile at the JBLM Library

It's an adventure sharing "Boocoo Dinky Dow: My short, crazy Vietnam" with the world. One of the best ways to do that is to get the memoir into libraries, which is why I love it when readers ask their local library to order it. That can be done online by looking for the "contact us" information on the library website.  But I highly recommend strolling in to the building and asking a librarian face-to-face. They're the nicest, most helpful people in the world. Among them is Jane Cherney, acting chief librarian at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, pictured here.

Because Grady went through training at Fort Lewis, I stopped by the base library to donate a copy of his memoir this fall.  Jane was delighted to add it to the collection. She invited me to come back and give a book reading. And she spread out a map to show me how to get to the old barracks that show up in Grady's tales and to newly remodeled base museum, which I added to the must-see list for my next trip to Western Washington.

Another reason to visit libraries in person or on-line is to see what kind of books about Vietnam are available. With the 50-year commemoration of the war under way, there's extra incentive for the library to provide the community with stories about this important episode of our country's history.

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