Boston Public Library, city driving, and Joan of Arc

It's summer, which provides time for exploring, meandering.  However, it's August, time is getting short before the school year begins, so my daughter and I added a little multitasking to this week's meandering.  She is a relatively new driver so we headed into Boston to practice some city driving before spending a little time at the Boston Public Library studying in its glorious reading room.  

We love the Boston BPL.  What's not to like? Grand scale, Sargent murals, nooks and crannies jammed with visual sumptuousness, a glorious reading room filled with people who are working quietly, and a hushed, awed demeanor by the myriad tourists.   The building is filled with energy.   
We discovered the BPL's enormous Joan of Arc collection on a recent visit.  The bulk of the collection was donated by Cardinal John Joseph Wright of Pittsburgh in 1976.   Here's an interesting post about it from a children's literature point of view: 10,000 Ways of Looking at Joan of Arc.  And, I was thrilled when my internet research this morning turned up a beautiful book by a friend.  Look at "HERetic: Joan of Arc" by Dorothy Simpson Krause.  It is a fascinating, stunning, beautiful, virtual flip book.   

Great morning spent in Boston.  Good driving practice, she was very calm as the driver, I less so as the passenger.  The Library was fantastic, and we're heading back on a regular basis.