11/18/2024“Great Falls This Week” is reported and written by Matt Hudson. Send your news and tips to [email protected] with friends? Join the clubIn 2014, Debbie Stewart started a book club focused on Montana authors and Montana stories. In a state of just 1 million people, how many books could come from that?“You would think after 10 years I might run out of books, but that wasn’t the case,” Stewart said.The club read Stephanie Land and Rachel Bateman and Lisa Schmidt. Ivan Doig is Stewart’s favorite Treasure State author. They read history books about vigilantes and nonfiction about Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks and local flora and fauna. “Jamie Ford and Pete Fromm,” she said. “There were so many wonderful Montana authors who have fiction stories. We were never running out of things to read about.”Some authors joined the club for meetings. Chad Dundas came up from Missoula to speak with the club, Stewart said. They had a Zoom call with Leslie Budewitz. The 25 (give or take) members of Stewart’s Page Forward Saturday Book Club were a dedicated group. They never complained and always read Stewart’s selections, month after month, for the engaging conversation to follow.There was also never a shortage of food. If the current book selection featured a certain dish or a treat held any significance in the story, Stewart brought it to the discussion as food for thought.“Sometimes, if we would read a book and there was no food in it, I would email the author and ask them what their favorite dessert was or whatever,” she said.Now Stewart is closing the back cover on her leadership of Page Forward as she retires from the Great Falls Public Library at the end of the year. Stewart said she’ll miss the group tremendously, but with the new free time she’ll be able to tackle new activities.“I’m really glad,” she said. “Even though I love Montana books and authors, I’m really looking forward to some recreational reading I can do now.”Don’t fret; there is another Page Forward book club led by Library Director Susie McIntyre. And Great Falls is home to all sorts of book clubs for those looking to decompress from the stakes of an election year and dive into this collegial, unplugged world. The library has six clubs on its list. There’s a club through the Arden G. Hill Memorial Library at Malmstrom where members read whatever they’d like and share about it at meetings. There are clubs that read only women authors and a club for male members. There’s rumor of the city’s oldest book club at the Meadowlark Country Club where not everyone reads the book selection. Instead, one person reads it and presents it to the group.Credit: Matt Hudson / MTFPThere’s even another Montana-themed club out of Cassiopeia Books, where the members lead the book selections.“Somebody’s mother recommended a great book, ‘Nothing to Tell,’ which was nonfiction interviews about women who had moved to Montana at the turn of the [20th] century,” said Millie Whalen, owner of Cassiopeia and facilitator of the group.Whalen started the club shortly after she took ownership of the downtown shop. They too have found a wealth of titles, from James Welch to Betsy Gaines Quammen. The group’s current selection is “Think of Horses” by Mary Clearman Blew.“I’m the worst,” Whalen said. “I basically pick up the book a week before a book club meeting.”No problem, though. Whalen usually finishes the book on time. And as an East Coast transplant, she’s found a wonderful world of literature in Montana that she may have not otherwise known.“Mildred Walker’s ‘Winter Wheat’ I think is one of the best books that’s been written,” she said.Ciara Ashcraft, a college student who works at Cassiopeia, is starting a new book club focused on science fiction and fantasy titles. She just created the Facebook group last week and hopes to build enough support to schedule the first meeting. A science student, she has always been drawn to the creativity involved in creating alternative worlds that reflect parts of ours.“It forces you to really consider aspects or potential characteristics or pathways of humanity that maybe you wouldn’t through contemporary fiction, and I really love that about it,” Ashcraft said. “And it’s both the bad and the good.”Over at Great Falls College Montana State University, Library Director Ashlynn Maczko leads a student and faculty book club. The premise is low-pressure: Read what you’d like and then meet with friends. It’s more of a platform for good conversation.“I think having a relaxed approach to reading and just reading what you enjoy has created a very healthy atmosphere in our book club,” Maczko said.Writing in the travel and culture publication Atlas Obscura, Sarah Laskow said that “the book is the excuse, not necessarily the point” in book clubs. They provide something to talk about — or more accurately, something else to talk about.Public NoticeThe Great Falls City Commission will decide on Tuesday whether to reduce funding for the Great Falls Public Library.After months of negotiations between city administrators and library officials, the commission will consider reducing funding by 3.5 mills from the seven mills that have been in place since 1993. This reduction is an improvement from the city’s prior proposal, which would have removed all seven mills by the 2028 fiscal year.You can read background on how the library negotiations relate to public safety funding and the library’s counter-proposal.The city’s proposal keeps 3.5 mills in place through the 2029 fiscal year, at which point the agreement can be extended or amended. It amounts to a cut of about $420,000 from the library’s budget of about $3.1 million.Library officials have proposed a smaller reduction of 2.5 mills (keeping 4.5 mills). In a statement released on Thursday, the library warned that cuts will impact youth services, homebound services and staff levels and may result in closing for one day per week.“Losing 3.5 mills will negatively affect the Library,” library Director Susie McIntyre said in the statement. “However, failing to reach an agreement could result in even harsher consequences by losing nearly a million dollars out of our budget annually and putting our future within city government at risk.”As part of the successful 2023 library levy vote, the library returned $350,000 in annual funding from the city’s general fund.City documents say that the mills pulled from the library, currently valued around $420,000, will “support public safety needs” including courts, legal, fire and police. The current budget for those departments is more than $32 million.Photo Op Credit: Matt Hudson / MTFPStudents from Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine finished a three-session “Farm to Clinician Culinary Medicine Program” that explores the nutritional aspects of health care.Held at the Husted Teaching Kitchen at Benefis’ Sletten Cancer Institute, students worked with Anna Diffenderfer, a registered dietitian and director of Montana State University’s Montana Dietetic Internship, according to a news release from Benefis. The students prepared recipes for taste tests at the end of each lesson, and discussions about the connections between cuisine and osteopathy were led by Touro’s Assistant Medical Dean, Dr. Stephanie Zeszutek. Focus areas included culinary literacy, gut health and adverse food reactions.“It kind of gives you a more humane touch through food,” said student Helan Paulose, according to Benefis’ release. “Which I’m sure we can all use as future doctors.”Calling all photographers: Submit a photo for Great Falls This Week to [email protected] Things to Know in Great FallsProperty tax bills will be late for Cascade County taxpayers, largely due to a late revaluation that decreased the tax liability for the Calumet refinery. This required the county to recertify mill levies for two jurisdictions (more about that here). According to the county, statements should be issued by the end of November, and tax payments for the first half of the year will be due Dec. 31. Property Tax Assistance Programs Exemption payments would be due Jan. 21Great Falls Public Schools and the City-County Health Department are tracking a salmonella outbreak, which includes 10 confirmed cases, nine of which were within four elementary schools. GFPS has removed fruits and vegetables from menus as a precaution and replaced them with canned or dried fruits for now. The source of the outbreak is unknown.Thursday, Nov. 21, is ladies’ night in downtown Great Falls. Destination Downtown Great Falls is hosting this retail-and-restaurant-centric event, which will include dinner and cocktail options until 10 p.m. More information here.The Great Falls Public Schools Foundation announced the results of its annual truck raffle. The efforts of 37 student groups and eight businesses raised almost $80,000 for individual school groups and $73,000 for teacher grants. Grand-prize winner Jody Grundhauser won a 2024 Toyota Tacoma from City Motor Company.Great Falls Development Alliance highlighted veteran-owned businesses in Great Falls during the week of Veterans Day. Check out the highlights and brief profiles of each business on the Alliance Facebook page.The post Curl up with a good book club appeared first on Montana Free Press.