2023 Book Lover of the Year: “She is a sharer of books”
When Laura Flett was growing up, her mother would tell her to go outside and play. She’d climb a mimosa tree with three limbs that formed a seat—and read.
“I was always a reader,” she said.
Flett’s love of books is woven through her life—from her role as the 14-year volunteer leader of a popular book club at Shreve Memorial Library’s Broadmoor branch to decades as a Caddo Parish elementary teacher to leading a seminar class at LSUS for future teachers to coordinating a group of women writers weekly in her home. She has bookshelves everywhere, and her yard sports a Little Free Library. Oh, and she reads 40 to 50 books a year.
For her generous gifts of time and intellect and her appreciation for stories, she has been named our 10th annual Book Lover of The Year. As one nomination said: “Laura Flett is not only an avid reader but one who promotes and inspires others to read and write.”
And from another: “Laura is a reader of books, an author of books, a proponent of books, reading and writing. You would be hard-pressed to identify a more fervent Book Lover of the Year than Laura Flett.”
With the award a secret until now, she was interviewed for what she thought was a piece on book clubs and spoke with enthusiasm, using words such as “cool” and “magical” to describe her efforts—quick to say she thinks of herself not as a “facilitator” but as a “collaborator.”
A dedicated book club leader
The Broadmoor Book Club has met on Tuesday evenings and Wednesday mornings monthly for 14 years, with 24 attendees this month—and new members welcome. Flett, 74, guides both groups and encourages each member to express ideas about the month’s selection. She makes up an annual master list of titles suggested by attendees and compiles a list after a vote. She keeps the club informed by email and reads each book closely. Her desire when she started the club was deep discussions about books, and that has happened. “We wanted to be able to talk about books,” she said. “It added a whole dimension to reading.”
Along came a writing group at her house
More than a decade ago she assembled a group of female writers who call themselves “Wednesday Writers (Now Meeting on Thursday),” hosting the group in her home and helping put together an annual trip to The Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, Ark.
“For years, Laura has led workshops locally about writing and journaling and published a book about journaling as her way of dealing with the unexpected loss of her son. Laura is currently writing an autobiographical book about her extensive career as a teacher of individuals of all ages—from her days developing a nature lab for preschool students at Stoner Hill Elementary to her experiences as an adjunct professor at LSU-Shreveport helping to prepare teachers for our schools,” another nominator wrote.
Flett said her first memoir, “Writing Toward the Light, A Grief Journey,” available on Amazon, “was “therapeutic. It was written more for me.” According to a member of her writing group, she “appreciates the responsibility and struggle of an author… and the importance of recording one’s story.”
Books in every room
Her enjoyment of personal reading shines. As yet another nominator said, “If you were to visit Laura, she would have bookshelves like most of us who are writers and avid readers, but what I love most are her stacks of books in various places as if she needs to be within reach of this love of hers. She is a sharer of books; she knows the value of them is not in the hoarding but in the sharing. She often loans her books to others, tells others about what she is reading and has an encyclopedic knowledge of books and authors.”
Flett admits she just can’t turn loose of books. “This is my wealth.”
Congratulations to Laura Flett, 2023 Book Lover of the Year!
Flett joins former recipients: 2014: Shirley Ledbetter, tutor; 2015: Tannie Lewis Bradley, book club leader with a passion for connecting African American authors with readers; 2016: book advocates McKenzie Hobbs, B&N; Lisa Marshall, Shreve Memorial; and Claire Griggs, who started a book swap in a dentist’s office; 2017: retired teacher Cathy Carroll, book club organizer; 2018: Lola Russell, library volunteer in her 90s; 2019: Ashley Havird, former Caddo Parish Poet Laureate; 2020: journalist Allan Lazarus; 2021: Jack Gore, retired teacher who reads to students; and 2022: Duke Griffey, community book reviewer. For each of their stories, see www.shreveporttimes.com.
Columnist Judy Christie has had 18 nonfiction books and novels published. She co-authored “Before and After: The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children’s Home Society” with bestselling novelist Lisa Wingate. See www.judychristie.com or follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JudyChristieAuthor.
This article originally appeared on Monroe News-Star: 2023 Book Lover of the Year: “She is a sharer of books”
