Member of the Month: Carolyn Biggins

In this issue, we’d like to spotlight Carolyn Biggins - Membership Chair - to our other FURL members. Thank you, Carolyn, for answering our questions and sharing your passions with us!

(Interview compiled by FURL Member/Vice President Diana Manevskaya)

What is your role with the FURL, and why is this involvement important to you?

I am the chair of membership with the Friends of the Urbana Regional Library (FURL) and the leader of the FURL Book Club. FURL is an important organization because it raises funds for the Urbana library’s programs, advocates for public library funding, brings people together and supports the goal of literacy for our community.

How would you describe the Members of FURL?

FURL members are dedicated volunteers, love their library, and consistently show their support through donations of books and funds, as well as donations of time and effort at our events. FURL members come from all over the area but are predominantly from Urbana, Green Valley, and Monrovia. They encompass families, teens, working people, and retired folks. FURL members staff events, design our webpage and artwork, conduct fundraisers, sort donated books, perform administrative tasks, write our blog, and develop ideas for future contributions to our library. We are a friendly group always looking for new members! You can join online at https://www.urbanafriends.com/.

Could you tell our readers more about the Book Club?

The FURL book club is open to everyone. We meet once a month on Thursday evenings in the upper floor conference room. Every six months, we choose our books to read. We have read over one hundred books since the book club’s inception in 2014, including classics, recent best sellers, banned books, Maryland One Book selections, memoirs, fiction, science-fiction, and non-fiction. We like to stretch ourselves and read books we might not otherwise have read.

What book was the most memorable for you among those read by the Club?

The most moving book I have read in our book club was Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, a book about the Equal Justice Initiative and confronting injustice – just so powerful and compelling.

What is an interesting/fun fact about yourself for our members to get to know you better?

Because we have a new puppy, I am reading dog training books right now, including The Power of Positive Dog Training by Pat Miller (found at the FURL Used Book Sale!). Bella is an English Shepherd, a dog breed used on the farms of our grandparents, bred for hunting, herding, and guarding (mostly she likes chasing squirrels). Right now, we are learning the basics plus frisbee catching.

Over the years, living in Frederick on a small farm, I have loved the books of Jon Katz. He lives in upstate New York, on a farm called Bedlam Farm, with a myriad of rescued farm animals and dogs, including several border collies. His adventures in dog and farm ownership are funny, sometimes sad, but always entertaining.

What recently read book did you enjoy and would like to recommend to our members?

A Question of Freedom: The Families Who Challenged Slavery from the Nation’s Founding to the Civil War by William Thomas. It tells the story of enslaved families of Prince George’s County in the late 1700s and 1800s who sued for their freedom, their attorneys, and the slaveowners who fought against them.

Have you ever met a famous author face-to-face? If so, who was it? If not, who would you like to meet?

In a college class in American Studies, we read The Johnstown Flood, and I have loved books by David McCullough ever since then. I would love to have met him, but he died in 2022 at the age of eighty-nine. His best book for me was John Adams, but I also loved The Wright Brothers (written when he was eighty-two!).

Do you prefer hardcover, paperback or eBooks? Audiobooks? Do you judge a book by its cover?

Hardcover and eBooks are my favorite ways to read a book, but audiobooks are great for when I am working outside. Do I judge a book by its cover? Absolutely! A cover can tell me so much about the book, whether it is a memoir, sad, scary, science fiction, etc. And why not? A lot of work and money went into that part of the production!

Many thanks to carolyn for the lovely, insightful chat!

For a finale, what would you say to someone to encourage him/her join FURL?

For a one-time contribution of $10, you can join FURL for life, helping to support your library though events, a used book sale, and with a great group of people!