Justin Cronin

So while I was gone I did do a little reading.... okay so maybe like 1500 pages of Justin Cronin. I really didn't mean too read the whole thing. Both whole things. 

They was really good. I was amazed. I don't usually like post-apocolyptic stuff, but this was mesmerizing. It did get a little heavy in The Twelve with all the shooting and tanks and guns and stuff, but it was tempered with some other stuff too. The Passage was really the better of the two books. There seemed to be more emotion and description and feeling. There was also more mystery. I was still wondering what Amy was going to do... what her purpose was. I liked imagining how things would be "after" people. I learned a lot about what might be needed to survive a vampire virus: guns, food, a basement, and lights. 

The premise sounds pretty lame, but it worked here. A crazy virus spreads quickly across the US making everyone either dead, or a vampire. These are not just regular vampires, but more animal like beasts with no control over their appetite. There are pockets of people that survive, which is described in The Passage, and then in The Twelve, those different pockets of survivors combine and then fight against the twelve original vampires.

I will definitely read the third in the series The City of Mirrors when it comes out in May 2014.

On a different note... I'm done with school and I can now read what ever I want for hours on end without having to do homework. I am also going to spend more time writing. Finally!

I Like Big......

Did you think I was going to say butts?

Ha!  It says 'big books'!!
Can I get a t-shirt with this on it?

A Couple of Weeks Off

I hate to say it, but I have to take a break from reading. I've got too much on my plate. I graduate in 4 weeks and I've got 2 papers and 1 group project, Thanksgiving, and bookfair. There just isn't enough time. I am crazy anxious and reading is not going well anyway. I'm too worked up to sit still and read. All the books don't seem like they can hold my attention because I am so worried about other stuff.

That is no way to read.

I love reading and if I try to hard to squeeze in reading, it makes it unenjoyable.

So until then, I might be a little quiet so that I can focus and get my shit done.

I will be back by December 7th at the latest, the day my last assignment is due.

Please excuse me while I cogitate copiously.

Scholastic Book Fair

My book fair starts Tuesday!!

I got it all set up today at school and so totally should have taken a picture. It is gorgeous. I'll take one Tues. am before the kids come in and wreck it.

There's been a lot of discussion in my school district about whose job it is to run the book fair. Some of the older and lazier librarians refuse to put on the fair since it is not in their job description. It requires extra time, lost of heavy lifting and usually the closing of the library for a week.

I'm totally cool with it and you want to know why? Because it freaking makes the kids happy.

Scholastic also gives us half the profit in new Scholastic books. Who could say no to that? Definitely not me.

The most exciting part of the book fair is that the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid - The Third Wheel comes out on Tuesday. Easiest way to start a riot in an elementary school library is to start displaying the new Wimpy Kid book. My trusty UPS man will deliver boxes full of the new book first thing Tues. am.

Do you have goosebumps? I do.

Bram Stoker's Birthday

It seems as if every book website and blog is saying something about Bram Stoker's 165th birthday, so I thought I'd chime in as well.

To start my story you have to remember way back to 1992 and this movie.

It was a really big deal when Bram Stoker's Dracula was turned into a movie starring Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, and Gary Oldman. It was HUGE. I was a junior in high school and everyone went to see it.
I can't remember what I thought of the movie when I saw it the first time except that it made me want to  read the book. It was the very first time I read a gothic Victorian novel and I've been in love ever since.
Yes it was confusing, but it was also mesmerizing. The diary format made it easier to read for a first time gothic novel reader. I have read almost every other gothic novel since. So while the movie has faded in my memory the book never will.
I recently stumbled across this book, The Forgotten Writings of Bram Stoker, which will be released on Christmas Eve this year. The link will take you to the table of contents and a sample.
It's already in my shopping cart.

Happy Birthday Mr. Stoker.

This was on my list for November and I did indeed read it.

It was freaking awesome.

So cute, so innocent, so romantic. It was very Jane Austeny with all the groups of young people who needed to marry, some for money, and some just for love. There were mix-ups and traded partners and accepted and denied marriage proposals. Oh and don't forget the big fancy castle that crumbles into the sea. Everything in the end is summed up perfectly and everyone lives happily ever after.
It was a perfect Sunday afternoon read. I would even read it again, and again.

Highly enjoyable.

I have to also say that I tried Claudine and Colette. There must be something lost in translation because it just seems to be missing something. There is too much dialogue and the phrasing seems off. There isn't enough description and just in the first few pages there are too many characters.
This one will be going right back on the shelf until I can read it in the original French. (And yes I can read French, I just have a hard time speaking French),

On to the next one.

Cloud Atlas Finished

So I finished the book last night.... it was good, but it didn't have a tidy ending like I wanted. It just kind of leaves off and makes you think. Since I read it on my Kindle I couldn't flip back and forth between the stories to help me interpret things. It's way too hard on a Kindle. There was some cool stuff happening that was a little stressful for me while reading it. Just when the story gets good it always switches to another story which is frustrating and then when the story comes back around I had forgotten some of the characters which was also frustrating. It was making me very anxious.

I did find one very useful line in the book,

"Books don't offer real escape, but they can stop a mind scratching itself raw."

Ohhh I love that. It describes almost perfectly why I read. That quote is why I will love this book forever, because I know someone else out there knows what it's like in my mind.

In summary a great book, but read it in print so you can hop back and forth easily.
I want to go back and re-read this reading whole stories at a time, and not jumping back and forth. It definitely needs a second reading for full understanding.

I'll see the movie when it's on Amazon.

Library Science Degree?

Today I was required to write a formal essay summing up my entire learning experience in graduate school. In December I will graduate (if this essay doesn't piss them off to much) with a master's degree in library and information science. As summed up below I feel it was a waste of time and money. I can't be the only one to think so. Here I try and summarize the reasons why and why I will probably not use my degree.

Let me know what you think.

It is difficult to sum up my entire learning experience at SIRLS in one essay. I find it strange that one is required to do so for graduation. Sure I’ve learned a few things, found a few databases I’ve never heard of before, read a few books, and written a few papers, but I really don’t think that adequately measures what I have learned. For the past 3 years I’ve worked at an elementary school library. First as an assistant with a certified teacher-librarian in the library every-other day, then as an assistant with a certified teacher-librarian once a week, and then this year as an “assistant” with no one to assist. I run a 25,000-volume library for 650 students and 100 faculty members. Since this has coincided almost entirely with my time at SIRLS I would have to say that I have learned more about library science working, than I have learned in my classes at SIRLS.

I am not a believer in the fact that library science is in fact a science. I am also not a believer that it should be a profession since it does not protect the health and or safety of its clients. We are not doctors, lawyers, or architects. Most of the classes at SIRLS seem to focus on the information element of library science and try and convince us students that we are gatekeepers to a difficult and highly scientific cache of information. I really don’t find it to be so.

In several of my classes that involved searching and databases I was taught that databases are the be-all-end-all of information. Most of the information that I was looking for could have been found much easier with a simple Google search without the need for an expensive subscription to a database or aggregator. I think most professors are so tied up in the academic world that they forget that the majority of information seeking does not require the use of a database. For a thesis or a doctorate degree, or anything else in the high and mighty world of academia, sure you need databases, but for most regular people Google works just fine. I just frustrates me to no end how it seemed during most of time at SIRLS that the professors were desperately trying to hold on to the ideals and force us to accept that this profession is an exclusive club. It’s not. Information is so pervasive that almost anyone, with the appropriate books and web sites could find anything that they wanted. It doesn’t take 2 years and 36 course work hours.

As I proceeded through the program I was more and more frustrated and disappointed in the program that I had selected. I conducted interviews with librarians at my local library, spoke with teachers in my school district and read all the industry news on the ALA web site.  This is a dying profession and by profession I mean job market. I found out that with my degree I would be able to secure another $10-12 an hour job in a ‘real’ library at either the public or academic level. Then after working for maybe 8-12 years I would know enough to be elevated to an actual librarian position with an enviable salary of $35-40,000, but only after one of the many librarians ahead of me had either died or retired at the age of 70. When I started I was under the impression that after I graduated with a master’s degree I would be considered a librarian. But after applying for many jobs the past few years and following hiring in my community I found that just wasn’t so. Apparently all my years running an architectural firm and two family businesses as well as running an elementary school library do not qualify me to do anything but shelve books and work check-in and check-out software even with a master’s degree in library science. Needless to say I feel that my time has been wasted as well as my $36,000.

I am really curious to know if you get many Final Reflection essays with content like this. I have found the whole experience with graduate school a disappointment. The online learning system is spotty at best. Working on group projects was a nightmare of missed emails and botched attempts at coordination, which strangely enough still resulted in ‘A’ grades. I don’t feel the experience was worth the money I had to spend. Online courses should cost a fraction of the price of real degrees that require face-to-face interaction. I feel I will have just written a check for $36,000 in exchange for a piece of paper that entitles me to nothing.

Now I don’t know what the future holds. I might stumble across the perfect job that will actually make my time at SIRLS worthwhile, but that might be years in the future when the economy has picked back up again. Maybe I’m too close and too frustrated to see the value of the education I received. Maybe with time and space and a good job I’ll change my thinking. Overall I think everything that I learned at SIRLS I could have learned by just picking up the textbook list and reading along.

What made me most disappointed in the program is the lack of classes that focus on reading, literacy, and books.  When I was first looking through the course catalog it seemed as if there were plenty of classes that coincided with my interests, but as I signed up for these classes they were inevitably cancelled due to lack of interest. Or like what happened last semester, I was really looking forward to the Multicultural Children’s Literature class, only to find out that I would be required to volunteer 30 hours in a culturally diverse library. While an interesting idea, it hardly seems possible to a mother of three who works full time and runs a few businesses, as well as already working in a culturally diverse library. I was informed that my time working in my library would not count. I could not take the class.

To me literacy and reading are the bread and butter of libraries. It seems odd that these are topics are not found in the SIRLS curriculum. There are so many required classes on multiculturalism, ethics, organization and technology but where is the requirement for literacy? Where is a class that teaches teaching skills? I spend more time instructing and teaching as a librarian than explaining the Dewey decimal system of the Library of Congress cataloging system. These are skills that would extremely valuable to any librarian. I just wish there had been more options for me. This is why I think I chose the wrong program.

I love libraries, but more importantly I love books. They are my life. I am never without a book and I tell everyone I know about all the great books I read.  I will continue to be a huge supporter of libraries in the future, but I think I was confused when I chose Library Science as a graduate program. I think I should have chosen English Literature or Publishing instead, but hindsight is 20/20. The greatest thrill I get out of my job as a librarian is when a child comes in and tells me that they loved the book that I directed them too. I love it when I see a child who comes to library every week and never checks out a book. I usually find them in the first month or two of school. I go up to them and ask the why they aren’t checking out anything and then have a conversation with them about the things that they are interested in and find them the prefect book. What I see next is a changed child. They will come to me every week after that with requests for new books and new interests and will be a converted library user ever after. That gives me goose bumps. I make a real difference in these kids’ lives by opening up their world to books and imagination and possibilities. That is not taught at SIRLS. Maybe it can’t be taught at all, but is something that has to be experienced first hand. That is what I want to do with my graduate degree, keep helping children to see what books can do and be for them.

What I have learned at SIRLS is that I don’t need a graduate degree to do that. I can stay right where I am and work at the bottom level of the library job chain and make the most difference. If I was making $100,000 a year managing a library I would not have the impact I do now. If I was making $50,000 a year as a children’s librarian in a public library I would not have the daily interaction that I do now with kids. I know all 650 of my student’s names. I know what they like to read. I know what their reading levels are. I know their income levels and their ability to pay for lost books or not. I can give hugs and dispense caring words along with the books. I just wish I had known this before I decided to go to graduate school.

Book Tattoos

Now I will admit that I have a tattoo. It's a little tiny thing on my right shoulder that I designed with a circle template while in architecture school.
I've always wanted another one, but have yet to be inspired. If I could find a book that spoke to me as deeply as these people I would run out and get a new one, but I haven't found that book... yet.

From Flavorwire today check this out.

But here is my favorite image.
Do you know this book?

Jonesing for Books

I'm book broke. There is no fundage in my coffers for new books and it's making me cranky. There are lonely books sitting in the Amazon warehouses just waiting to be adopted by me. My shopping cart is full. I feel the need, the need for new books.
What's a girl to do?
Also I'm on the outs with my local public library. They say I'm missing a book, THAT I NEVER CHECKED OUT. I'm a librarian, I know how the systems work. I also am very vigilant about any books that I check out. I've never heard nor seen this particular book, and will be forced to pay for it if I would like to continue using the library.
And there are holds waiting for me. ARGHHH!
The only hope on the horizon is the Scholastic Book Fair. I regularly run the whole shebang at my elementary school, and it's only a couple of weeks away.
Sure I'll buy a few books and maybe get a short term fix, but I'll also get my fix by selling all those books to the kids too.
I just love to unfasten those big metal book cases and swing them open and see all those fresh new Scholastic books. I'll set up all the Christmas books, the Junie B Jones multi-packs, and the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book display. There will be books for only $1 and maybe a few YA books for only $5.
I can't wait.
Until then I will keep filling my Amazon Shopping Cart and pretend that I'm just one-click away from the UPS man bringing me a giant heavy box filled with books.

I've changed my look

Ta Da!!
Wait don't go anywhere it's still me!
I've stepped out of the 2009 Blogger template.
I know. It's about damn time.

Movie vs. Book

It's good. It's really, really good. I'm at 25% on my Kindle and it's worth going on.
What it really deceptive about all the movie trailers and posters is that they seem to focus on the futuristic bits of the book, so I thought it was totally a sic-fi story, but I don't think the book it that way at all. I'm only up to the 1970's story, so I've still got all the future stuff ahead of me.
What is disappointing is that the movie has been officially been called a flop. This opening weekend it only made $10.3 million!
What a bummer. Sometimes being a complicated book, and advertising a movie as such, will damn a movie. I'll see the movie eventually, but I'm one of those silly people who HAVE to read a book before I even think of seeing the movie.

Could Atlas

I know it wasn't on my last list of books to read, but this book is so in my face I feel that I have to read it so I know what is going on.
So I am going to attempt to read Cloud Atlas.
I don't  think it's really my kind of book, but I'm gonna try.
Don't you just hate it when a book is everywhere and you can't escape it? I feel guilt and pressure to read it. Is that what the media outlets are trying to do? Am I falling victim to advertising?
Oh the horror!

November Reads

So there are a lot of books in my To-Be-Read pile, but sometimes if I make a list for the next month I am more likely to actually do the reading instead of just willy-nilly picking off the top of the pile.
So for November I would like to read:

Keeping the Castle by Patrice Kindl

The Complete Claudine by Colette

Winter of the World by Ken Follett

Click Millionaires by Scott Fox

Out of Our Minds by Ken Robinson

Big Breasts and Wide Hips by Mo Yan

The New Moon With the Old by Dodie Smith

I know some of those are HUGE books, but it's just a goal. I might start some and not be able to finish, but it's a list to begin from. I've got to dream big.

So many books, so little time.

Among Others - Jo Walton

OMG! I cannot even tell you how much I loved this book. It just hit that sweet spot with all the little things that make a book great to me. There was a crazy mother, an unknown father, boarding school, a mysterious death, and magic.
At first I was a little put off by reading the back cover and seeing that fairies were involved in the story. I am not a big fan of fairies, but it was done so well that the fairies were not even that big a part of the story. It's more like a faint tinge of fairies and magic.
I am a big believer in magic, but of the sort that is more mystical and realistic and twists in with fate and destiny vs. spells and potions.
The idea I got was that older, more used objects contain magic, which I agree with, while new things and places are devoid of magic. The older a thing is the more magical it can be.
There is a running theme of traveling while Mori goes back and forth to school, the library, her father's home and her aunt's home. She meets so many people and tries to figure out where she fits in without her twin sister.
Through out the whole book Mori devours books and keeps a running commentary on all the great and not so great ones. It's amazing to see a girl's love of reading intermingle with her life.
Loved it loved it loved. I will probably have to buy this one since I got it from the library.
READ THIS.

Ohhh A Kitten Reading!

It doesn't get any cuter than this.

Frustrated Reader

For a couple of weeks I was getting very frustrated with the books I was reading. It seemed like one after another I was throwing them down, unable to finish anything. I was disappointed with the author, the story, the characters, the tone, whatever and everything at once. When you desperately want to read something GOOD and can't find it, it can drive you crazy.
There is a strange ebb and flow to books. Sometimes my Amazon Cart is overflowing and sometimes desolate with crickets. I read all the blogs and nothing sounds appealing... nothing.
Then as if by magic I get the email that there are holds for me at the library. I get a lot of holds and not all of them are gems. I can tear through them too, but this week I have struck story gold.
Mr. Penumbra was amazing and now I'm onto Among Others and I am in heaven. The only problem is that once you find books like these they are gone and finished before you know it. They are warm and cozy and in reading them you find all the little nooks and crannies of your day into which to squeeze out a few minutes here and there.
Then you reluctantly and joyfully finish.
Then you're back in the bookstore and the library trying to find that next book, that next fix. Yes that is a drug reference because that is what it feels like.

Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

First of all let me say that the cover GLOWS-IN-THE-DARK!
Coolest thing ever and I didn't even notice until I turned off the light one night after reading in bed. All those little yellow books glow. For a book nerd this is beyond awesome, and it relates to the story. Whoever designed this cover is a genius and when I need cover art for my book they are the first person I will call.

Now to get to the nitty-gritty. This book has everything that a person who loves books needs in a riveting story. Not only does it have old books, old people, and a book store with ladders, but it has Google, complex data-visualization, and every type of new-fangled book technology. Ohh it gives me goose bumps.
Needless to say I loved it. I even read it slowly on purpose to savor it. Now that doesn't mean it's free of issues. The romance falls flat... really flat. If the relationship between Clat and Kat had been more, well romantic, this book would be unstoppable. But as written it will probably have a smaller audience of devoted book lovers only.
The climactic scene is good, but turns out to be anti-climactic which was a little disappointing. The story comes around in the end to a neat and tidy ending and I love a good epilogue where everyone's story is fully played out. It is a satisfying read and I recommend it highly.

Architecture on Books

Check this out!
Why didn't I think of this?.... combining my two favorite things.
Found on Travel Between the Pages.

Giving up on JK

So I can't do it. I can't finish Casual Vacancy. I was forcing myself to pick it up and then spending more than a minute on a page, getting easily distracted by House Hunters and any other show on TV. That's not a good sign.
That doesn't mean I'll never finish it, it just means I will have to come back to it later.
I went to the library on Friday and had 4 holds ready for pick-up.
After I started Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore,  the was no going back to The Casual Vacancy. 
It's really just that good of a book, but I'll post a full review when I finish later this week.
You know that feeling of pressure and guilt when you get a brand new book from the library and you just know someone else is waiting for you to finish it so that it can be their turn?  With 4 holds to get thru I had to put aside the book I own and start my library books.
So far they all look good.
I've got the 24 Hour Bookstore, I Hunt Killers, Among Others, and Drop Dead Healthy.

Book Mountain

Can I live here? There's plenty of space. Maybe in a few years you'll see this place on Extreme Homes when I turn it into my personal house.
Try out this website Travel Between the Pages. It combines my two favorite hobbies: travel and reading.

Lena Dunham Book Advance

Girls is an amazing show. I watched it religiously. Lena Dunham deserves all of her success.
I was very excited when I heard she had a book coming out and even more excited when I heard about her reported $3.5 million advance.
But...
Then I read this article on Book Riot.
And  I was like, damn, she's right.
That $3.5 million dollar advance will keep other authors from getting published since the money has been given to Ms. Dunham. There won't be room for their titles, or they will get low-ball advances.
I had never thought of it like that before. Money to one person comes out of the pocket of another.
It makes me depressed and frustrated.
Every time I think I want to go for it and submit things to publishers I read a story like this about how hard it can be to work with mainstream publishers if you don't have a platform in the form of an HBO show.
Good luck Lena. How ever your book sells (I willl def buy a copy) that money will already be in your bank account.

National Book Awards 2012

I thought I was a snooty reader, but apparently I'm not. I'm just one of those people who reads mainstream books that a lot of other people like.
I had no idea.
How I learned this was looking at the 2012 National Book Awards.
What a load of depressing junk. I mean I've heard of all these books. I get Publisher's Weekly.
I've read the synopsis of each and every one and politely said, "No thank you."
Who reads these books? Who's life is so boring that they would inflict these types of topics into their free time?
I thought maybe it was just this year's nominees, but nope. They are all that plain, boring and serious.

I don't read these types of books. There is no magic, not much imagination (I think), and no sex, drugs or rock-n-roll.
From now on I will not be impressed when I hear that a book won a National Book Award.
Even the children's book selections were bad. I don't know a single kid who has read those books. Those are books that adults write to win awards, not books that are written for kids.
Argh. It drives me crazy.
National Book Award my ass.

Casual Vacay

So I started The Casual Vacancy. I haven't gotten too far yet, but so far I like it. It's very British, which I love. Of course I'll read anything that comes from GB. I'm snobby like that. I prefer the old stuff, but new is good too. I'll devour some Ian McEwan. I loved Major Pettigrew's Last Stand.
I have read some early reviews of this book and they are not rave reviews. They are pretty tame.
It seems to be just a tale of a very small village and the social and political issues that come up when someone on the town council dies. I'm cool with that. I'm excited to finish it.

The only problem is time. Grad school is wrapping up soon for me, and the kids' school lives are in full swing, and my elem school is kicking my ass as well. I keep hoping that after Christmas I will have more time to keep up with all the new books. They always seem to come out faster than I can read them. And I still have all those classics on my shelves that need read too.

This book might take me all month to read. That is so frustrating. If it was a Harry Potter novel I would have probably finished it already by reading it on my lunch break, while sitting on the toilet, while making dinner, while my husband drives, while I'm watching TV, and while NOT doing my homework.

The Casual Vacancy will instead be relegated to my nightstand and that short 20 minutes it takes at night for my eyes to get heavy while watching Rick Steves.

On Writing Blogs

I've been doing a lot of research lately about blogging and what kind of blog I really want to write. I am not a serious person, nor do I have the time to peruse all the latest and greatest in education and book reviews.
 I am not here to educate, I am more here to entertain.
That is where I get confused.
If content is king do I HAVE to create content? Can I just spread links to other interesting content? Do I have to know exactly what I an talking about? I don't really want to.
I just want to write and hopefully make you smile.
I don't like blogs where people don't talk about themselves. I can find information myself, so I don't need anyone to just repost existing information.
I want to talk about books and point you to interesting things, but I don't want to be an expert, just a guide and an interpreter.
So keep coming here for tidbits of entertaining info. I will write all that I can to keep you coming back. Just stay with me.

Casual Vacancy and Winter of the World

When Oh when will I have the time? 

They are mocking me while sitting on the coffee table.

 I feel guilty watching the Amazing Race and Tuesday night on Fox.

I feel guilty reading anything else but these two.

Can't I just take a week off work and knock them out?

Main Street

Somewhere in the past few weeks I came across a list of books that should be read during an election year.
It was probably on BookRiot, one of my favorite new book blogs.
One on the list, that was on my to-be-read shelf was Main Street by Sinclair Lewis.
I had absolutely no idea what it was about when I picked it up.
A big city girl moves to the small town of Gopher Prairie after she weds the local doctor.
OMG it's awesome. It fits right into that category of book I love, the frustrated housewife. It's right up there with The Yellow Wallpaper and Madame Bovary, two of my favorite books.
While talking about how frustrated she is in her new life, Carol Kennicott touches on all the social problems of the day, problems that still resonate today.
Sometimes it's even more fun to read a book when you know nothing about the story, but you know it's going to be good.

Library Shelving

I am almost a librarian, so you would think that all the books in my house are immaculately shelved. But they're not.
They might be on or near a shelf, but are they organized? Nope.
Books I've already read are usually upstairs. Books about architecture are usually in the living room. Books in the 'to be read' pile are in the office. Writing and design books are in my studio in the garage. In my bedroom are 4 glass enclosed cases that are doubled up with fiction. That means you can't see all the books because inside the cases are two rows of books one in front of the other.

I'm a librarian. All fiction should be organized alphabetically. I don't think I would ever recreate the Dewey Decimal system in my house, but I would definitely organize my non-fiction into categories and then alphabitize from there, but I don't.

It frustrates me to no end. I buy duplicate copies of books because I can't find them. I have a number of different cataloging software, but I can't keep up with it. I just buy too many books. I also don't have long linear lengths of uniterrupted wall to organize everything.

What does one do? Weed? Heaven's no! Take over the children's bedrooms? Not yet. Take over the children's playroom? Maybe. Buy more bookcases? Always the best solution.

The Studio

 

 

The Bedroom

 

The Nightstand

 

Kids Room

 

Kids Room

 

Living Room

 

The Office

 

The Desk

 

Thank You Anne Rice

I just wanted to take some time to gush about Anne Rice. I've been a fan for years and years and was first in line when the Wolf Gift came out earlier this year, but I have to say I became an even bigger fan when I found Anne on Facebook.

I had always limited myself to a very small circle of FB friends, but this year I stepped in to the future and finally started to become a fan of other FB pages. I joined the New York Public Library, Publisher's Weekly, some local businesses and news feeds, but buy far the most amazing page I found was Anne Rice's.

Now I have to state that I'm not big on current events. I tend to stay away from world news and politics. It's just not my thing. If it's not book related or big enough news to make a post on Perez Hilton, I don't usually know about it. But, Anne's FB posts have opened up a whole new world for me. I've always been passionate about women's issues, but never knew where to find out the latest and greatest. I have found a place where things are discussed intelligently and fairly. My mind is challenged. I feel like I've found a place to learn new things. Her posts on archaeology, the separation of church and state, abortion, and authors get me riled up and excited. She recently even highlighted an incident that happened here in Flagstaff when a local female judge chastised a women for being out late at night and getting fondled by an off-duty police officer.

It's just so great to see an author really reach out to her fans and be a part of a productive community. She is a genuine role model for me and I don't have many of those.
Thank you Anne Rice!

Fahrenheit 451

    It wasn't until recently that I re-found a story that I remember vividly from my childhood, All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury. You can find it here. I don't want to give you a synopsis because the story is so short and I don't want to give anything away. This story has stuck with me for the last 20 years and I have thought of it often and never knew where to look for it. I googled it a couple of weeks ago and found it again and it started in me a thirst to read more Ray Bradbury. As an avid reader I was astonished that I hadn't read more of his work. I then turned to his Zen in the Art of Writing'which was fantastic. Finally I picked up Fahrenheit 451.
     Now it's a no-brainer that every librarian needs to read this book, but I didn't even know this book was about book burning. When I read the summary I was totally on board, but after I got started I was really disappointed. Yes it's a dystopian future without books, but it just didn't give me enough to be totally convinced. I think it might have been more controversial in 1951 when it was published, but I was not the least bit moved or astonished. This was groundbreaking stuff then, but now, not so much.
Even though I didn't love it, I am going to go ahead and read Something Wicked This Way Comes, and  Dandelion Wine. That's the way I look at literature.... there are somethings you just need to be familiar with in order to have a rounded education. Ray Bradbury is a great storyteller and his imagination cannot be beaten. Fahrenheit 451 did not push any of my buttons, but that single short story from my 9th grade English class has been burned into my mind forever as one of the scariest stories I've ever read. So I will keep reading Bradbury until I find another one that speaks to me.

New Aquisitions September

These are from the past couple of weeks, and I am itching to dive into a few of them.

• Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury
• Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury
• Road Trip USA - MOON
• Lost City of the Incas - Hiram Bingham
• A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America - Ronald Takaki
• The $100 Startup - Chris Guillebeau
• Click Millionaires - Scott Fox
• Winter of the World - Ken Follett
• The Domestic World - Time Life Books

Merchants of Culture

Of all the books I've read on how to write, how to publish, how to find an agent, nothing has ever been as educational as this book.
I cannot even describe how much I have learned about the publishing industry from this one book. It is absolutley amazing.
Want to know how much it costs to have a book displayed at Barnes and Noble? Want to know how quickly Oprah can make a book a bestseller? Want to know what editors are really looking for? Wnat to know how to find an agent? This book is a treasure trove of information. I cannot recommend it enough.
Yes it's dense, but it's also fascinating. There are charts and graphs enough to break up all the text, but there is so much information and if you're even a little curious about how the publishing machine works this book will keep you interested.
 The paperback is now only $11 on Amazon. Buy it, read it, and educate yourself before you stumble blindly into writing.