When the Child Becomes the Parent

Mothering Mother: A Daughter's Humorous and Heartbreaking Memoir by Carol D. O'Dell


My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Each experience with Alzheimer's (or other dementia) is individual and unique, but there are many connecting points for anyone who cares for the elderly. Both of my parents are now gone, but I had a little trouble relating to this book because my experience was so different. O'Dell's mother adopted her when she was a child. Her mother was a preacher who occasionally slapped her around. O'Dell was rebellious as a teen. When O'Dell's husband was transferred out of state and there was no one to care for her mother who already had Parkinson's, they took her along, building a MIL apartment on their new house. O'Dell had to do all the work of caring for her mother as she became more enfeebled. This is so far from what was my situation.
O'Dell's desire to be a good daughter at the expense of her own happiness and the comfort of her own husband and children makes my martyr-complex look subatomic. (I go around telling people how lucky I had it and I was lucky. I had a devoted husband who did all the work for me and my parents had enough money so that they could afford some in-home help until their medical conditions called for Medicare to take over for a brief period. Sure, I was miserable and had to resort to prescription happy pills because it's just so goddam sad to see your parents not recognize you anymore. But Mom's dementia lasted almost exactly one year and Dad was able to live on his own with minimal help until the last year.) One starts to wonder if she protests too much. Or perhaps she tried to make up for her rebellious phase.
The writing is not stellar, but this is a real person talking about real things that happened, not some manipulative poet trying to wring the last tear out of you. I recall one instance of "Block that metaphor!" as the New Yorker will have it. There is an extended period after her mother dies that I feel drags on. This is probably because the much-anticipated event (and I'm speaking from personal experience here, my dad was 101 when he died) is still a shock when it happens and you don't really get around to mourning until months later. Then the things that set you off are the oblique ones you didn't see coming and hadn't built up any defenses for. Still, you've gotcher Climax and then your Denouement and the latter is supposed to be either shorter than the one in this book or more piquant.

As a side-note, the jacket blurb said that O'Dell taught creative writing and was published in some Chicken Soup compilation about sisters. I know she has 3 daughters, but I thought that was a nice juxtaposition considering she grew up as an adopted "only child." Ha,ha, I said to myself, creative writing and only child writing about sisters. Ha. [As an even side-r note, I consider the perpetrators of the Chicken Soup books to be utterly depraved, devoid of any conscience or taste. Not the writers, who are only literary whores, but the pimps and shills that foist them on the public. Just my opinion! La la la!:]

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My parents while they still had all their marbles.

A Psychological Demi-Semi-Hemi-Thriller

Adam and Eve and Pinch Me by Ruth Rendell


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was a good read. Instead of figuring out whodunnit, we are taxed with whosolvzit. We have an omniscient view of the murder from soup to nuts. We see the situation forming, we see the murderer and the victim do their dance until they inevitably come together and the murderer spins away to get on with life. Then we wait while we wonder if the murderer will be discovered and we sort of hope not. Like most cozies, the victim seems to have deserved something, if not actual death. Rendell has manipulated our feelings and, in fact, one of the characters unwittingly discusses the the core at the center of the nub of the gist of this story: when is murder not murder? When is it not a sin? When does a murderer not deserve punishment? Is this even possible?
We also see how a murder investigation destroys the social fabric. Neighbors no longer trust each other. There's an amusing side-story of a closeted gay MP who tries to get himself a "beard" but the murder affects this as well. As in any good cozy, true tragedy is skirted, the gore is limited, and the world is righted in the end.

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Supersense Me!

SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable by Bruce Hood


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was an eminently readable book about a fascinating topic. Hood posits that supernatural thinking (which covers a wide range of beliefs from religion to the feeling that someone is looking at you) is one of the bag of tricks in all human brains that came to us thanks to evolution. Is it possible to be free from it? Probably not, and this Supersense has its use in creating a sense of community in people, in sorting, in categorizing. Religion, it seems, is just a bonus. I read a review about this book on The Friendly Atheist's blog and snagged a Kindle version immediately. I might have to get hard copy of it for reference, because flipping through a Kindle isn't the cakewalk I'd like it to be.
Hood's prose is clear enough for anyone to understand (unusual in an academic), and while he does tend to repeat himself, I did not find this annoying, especially in picking it up and reading it in short bursts. It helps to be reminded of what he talked about in previous chapters. So much of this book is meaty information that I highlighted most of it. I recommend it for atheists and theists alike.
For me, it was an eyeopener to realize that the rabblerousers decrying gay marriage, etc. were using a time-honored method of improving community cohesiveness by appealing to a visceral sense of disgust. Sure, you can also build community on positive beliefs, but it's so much easier to manipulate people using disgust. This opens a path for rebuttal, a chance to show you're taking the high road. Okay, maybe that's just me.

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Inseparable and Equal

Friendship For Today by Patricia C. McKissack

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Must stop sitting at Children's Room desk crying over books! Went to pieces totally upon discovery that the part about the cat was true.

Rosemary's got a lot going on in her life. Her best friend has polio, now she has to start in an integrated school without him and be the only black child in the class, her parents' marriage is crumbling, and the cat is dying! Can she survive?

McKissick's portrayal of a 6th grader is pretty authentic. She wants to lash back when she's harassed. She thinks unkind thoughts. She makes friends with some white children, but she recognizes that they're just "a friendship for today." There are no miraculous transformations, which as an adult I appreciate. People might grudgingly accept each other, tolerate them, but no one really changes totally from the inside out. And no fairy descends to hit people with the wand and make everything perfect again. [Blows nose.]

These people struggled with integration about 5 years before I started school. I had to have "negro" explained to me when I went to kindergarten (and there weren't any in my class) and didn't actually meet any personally until the third grade, when I sat next to Wesley and in front of Valerie and Carmelita, effectively surrounding me. They were in my ballet class (I simply must find that photo!) but not my church. And they were never actually my friends ... just friends for today. I played with my nearest neighbors, who were white, out of convenience, although I can't say they were actually nice to me, so I guess it was just as well we didn't stay in that neighborhood long.

I have known people who survived some of the most painful integration experiences ... in Boston. Some are still sickened by the demonstration of unbridled hatred and for some, their education was derailed with lasting consequences.

I was lucky to have been brought up in a family where racism was only tacit. My mother grew up having Italians denigrated (they were smelly ... something about garlic and permanent underwear). My father's mother was straight from Germany so her prejudices had been limited to Jews and dumme Polacken. If my father modeled his jokes on Archie Bunker, he also included Germans in his ridicule, so at least he gave everyone the needle. My mother's prejudice was more subtle and I took my cue from her. I don't want to hear anyone say they are not prejudiced. We are all still a long way from that. The very least we can do is own up to it and try to do better.


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All's Fair ...

Fair Weather by Richard Peck

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Richard Peck keeps writing the book that I want to write. While this is not my favorite of his books, it still reminds me that I have a book I want to write - unfortunately, Peck wrote it first.

A farm family goes to the Chicago Columbian Exhibition of 1893 at the invitation of the aunt who lives in the city. One is being sent to get her away from a boyfriend her mother doesn't approve of. Their grandfather slips into the group so that he can see Buffalo Bill Cody's show, which was not permitted to be in the fair, so he set up his show right next to it.

Aunt Euterpe, the widow of a wealthy man, is bullied by her help and shunned by Chicago Society for being a young second wife. The actions of her nieces, nephew, and father (who actually calls her "Terpie" in public) only make her life worse ... at first.

The exhibition is taken in by the Fullers and no one dies (pity!). It's a nice introduction for children to the great fair and the innovations of the time period. There is only a slight amount of name dropping requiring suspension of disbelief and some interesting photos are included, disguised as postcards. Kids will also get a glimpse of farm life at the turn of the century ... and what my dad's early life was like. Grr!


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"I'm Not Dead Yet!"

The Thin Woman by Dorothy Cannell

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
Like most cozy reads, this one pulls up short from any graphic violence. The Thin Woman, belying the titular character in Hammett's book who actually was thin, has to lose over 60 lbs. in 6 months, among other things, to inherit "Uncle" Merlin's estate. Now, I don't mind telling you I get touchy about stories like this. I'd have an hourglass shape myself if I had a live-in Cordon Bleu chef (kinda like Oprah!) and the run-down house of an estate to put in order ...
Wait a minute ... Strike those last bits.
Anyway, if this book were actually about dieting, it would have been insufferable, but it's not. The mystery is also not in who killed whom, but in the past (or, in this case, the repast). Ellie and Ben must uncover the secret of Merlin's Court, having no idea where to start. And Ben must write a book both clean and fit for publishing. Falling down on any one of the three conditions will cost them the inheritance. There is enough cross-communication and auto-footshooting to satisfy readers fond of sexual tension, although that bit gets tiresome after a while and you start yelling at "Elizabeth" and "Mr. Darcy" to Just get it on for petessake! Despite increasingly goofy attempts, no one is killed, most people aren't even dead, and before Ellie and Ben can get too disgustingly lovey, they're pushed off a cliff. It's a light, entertaining read and I don't believe for 5 seconds that Ben would have liked her fat. So there.


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How to Murder Your Parents - the Passive-Aggressive Way

The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Oh, what hath Lemony Snicket wrought? True, authors are leaping on the bandwagon trying to capitalize on his popularity, but sometimes they come up with something good, some anti-treacle, a refreshing burst of acid for those tired of the usual children's fare.
This book, "nefariously written & ignominiously illustrated" by Lois Lowry is a very good story that disguises a vocabulary lesson. Like A Clockwork Orange the glossary is at the end and isn't discovered until too late when the reader has had to winkle out the meanings from context (at least that's what happened to me 30 years ago - I was quite annoyed to finish the book and then find the glossary after struggling through the first 5 pages). This makes it different from the Lemony Snicket books which define the more colorful words within the story.
The narrative runs counter to the usual derivative glurge written for children, but happily lists the classic originals at the end for further reading and comparison: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Anne of Green Gables, The Bobbsey Twins and Baby May, A Christmas Carol, Heidi, James and the Giant Peach, Jane Eyre, Little Women, Mary Poppins, Pollyanna, Ragged Dick, The Secret Garden and Toby Tyler.
In this book, parents and children conspire to get rid of each other. The Willoughby kids actually want to be orphaned. They hope their parents will be eaten by crocodiles - and in chunks, because we know what happens when crocodiles don't chew their food. They rescue a baby left on the doorstep by dropping it at the door of a reclusive millionaire, which leaves her much better off than if she'd remained with the Willoughby's egocentric and hostile parents. The impossible happens, thanks to the Odious Nanny and Lowry's pen, and the deserving live happily ever after.


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All Tied Up

The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next by Lee Smolin

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
OMG! Cosmological constants MIGHT NOT BE CONSTANT AFTER ALL!



Okay, this took me over a year to read and it was in, appearances to the contrary, English. I got stuck on the string theory part and more or less kept the book next to the bed for its soporific effects. Eventually the string theory went away and Smolin moved on to his loops (no better, is it?) and finally to his point, which is not that string theory is wrong (unlike that other book I bought at the same time, Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and the Search for Unity in Physical Law by Peter Woit - in case you're marveling at my intellect, I bought both of these for my husband), but that its proponents have a stranglehold on professional advancement to the point where if you don't work on string theory, you are lucky to be working at all.

This is not confined, Smolin says, to physics or science in general, but is endemic to academia. Important research is not being done if it doesn't reflect the status quo in the field. Applicants are not hired. Young academics are not advanced. Colleagues are sneered at. And when freedom is stifled in this way, good science is no longer done and no advancement is made. He points out that nothing new has come down the pike since the first exciting string "revelations."

Smolin makes a very good case that academia should take some lessons from the business world when it come to evaluating applicants. Professors are not trained to do this, he certainly wasn't, and ungodly amounts of his time are spent in evaluating applicants and preparing letters of recommendation for applicants.

Well, at least I could understand that part, having listened to a friend whose time is taken up with applicants for teaching positions and administrative positions in higher education.

This book is not meant as an indictment against string theory, and I think the title makes it plain. It's about how physics got stuck in a stalemate and why.


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The Architect and the Archvillain

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was a Kindle version - found one typo.

Larson has used the Simon Winchester trick of starting with the very end of the story and then suddenly starting over. Okay, maybe other people use that, I just associate it with Winchester. Larson chooses to tell two stories, one of the creation of the Columbian Exhibition in Chicago and the serial-killer-next-door (inevitably bringing to mind The Professor and the Madman). Both narratives, I suppose, could be called stories of obsession. The building of the White City is tacitly compared with the building of the serial killer's dreamhouse-of-death, also making the comparison between Burnham and Holmes.

Both stories are engrossing and I've rated this pretty highly considering how much I complained about it. Holmes's story reads more like fiction. I have, consequently, more notes on the notes themselves than for the narrative. How can we know what Holmes was thinking? And if he wrote a memoir or confession (which of course he did), how can we trust the word of a psychopath? How can we know the details of how one of his victims died and his reaction? I take issue with this. Oh, it's evocative and thrilling and all, but can it be called non-fiction?

In the notes, Larson gives his excuses, which I still find thin. He makes speculations based on other people's speculations or "improves" on other people's speculations. I would also complain about the ghoulishness of writing about this, but I can't because I read Caleb Carr ... and then scoff that characters like that don't exist in real life. Guess I can't do that anymore.

To round things out on this topic, I'm going to re-read the fictional materials: The White City by Alec Michod as well as Fair Weather by Richard Peck (just to get the taste out of my mouth).




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And Some People Are Just Too Noble

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
This was read in the Kindle edition.

I was totally unaware of the German occupation of the Channel Islands during WWII, so this served as a small and very interesting history lesson. Other than that, the story was not very original (most aren't) but it was told in an original and entertaining way. The romance part of the story is as predictable as Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy (and, come to think of it, I can make a case for parallels), you just wonder when they're going to get around to it.

Bits of it went beyond credulity - how can you paint a portrait of someone to make it look like an ancestor in such a short period of time? Have you any idea how long it takes oils to dry?! And then to age it? Anything inside a month would smell like new paint. And don't you love it how coincidence operates; that a couple might be on the point of a kiss and Exactly The Wrong Person shows up at that critical moment?

I know some people don't care for the epistolary style, but I enjoy it and I thought that was well done. It also enabled the story to be told in something other than chronological order and to kill off a main character in the middle of the book yet have that character remain a force throughout the rest of the book. You have to admit that that is a clever piece of work. So maybe I should give this two and a half stars.


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Fortunately, His Writing Got Better ... I Think

Desperate Remedies by Thomas Hardy

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
Whatta potboiler this was! And as lame his use of mystery conventions (I was fairly groaning at the creakiness of it all) was, the heavy-handed manipulations had my heart rate up and drove me on to the end of it.

As for the characters, the main ones weren't very round or realistic (the young Cytherea was as wet a crustacean that ever got herself stuck in a pot and transferred to boiling water), but that was probably indicative of the time it was written. The heroine, assigned to do some research to help her case threw up her hands after one session of looking through newspapers and went palpitatin' to a chair, leaving her brother and lover to do all the legwork.

Who really believes that you can actually catch your death of cold out at night following a miscreant or that you can take to your bed, have what sounds like a stroke at bad news, be told you will recover, but because you've had them before know for certain that you won't?! What sense does that make?!

Read it for the laughable situations (keep that table between you and the Bad Man!) and dramatic hyperbole which have to be seen to believed, but there are some nice descriptions and amusing rude mechanicals. Oh, and a punchline at the end!


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Go to Bed, Mrs. Merz!

This is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness by Joyce Sidman

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I'm using this for a poetry/poultry workshop for kids this summer. This book is sooo good. This is a book of apology poems as written by 6th graders based on the William Carlos Williams poem of the same title. I mean, kids know all about apologies, right? They're made to apologize all the time whether they mean it or not.

The poems are funny, touching, and then are followed up by responses by the putative recipients of the apologies.

(Like this one:

Roses are red

Violets are blue

I'm still really

pissed off at you.)



I have to admit that I was a sopping, snotty mess by the end of a 48 page book. Things are eaten, pets are put to sleep (boo hoo hoo hooooo!), parents walk out, hamsters bite the hand that feeds them - and there's a little morsel of brilliance in each one of these. But wait, there's more! One last joke in the name of the teacher ... Mrs. Merz. Fans of Vivian Vance salute you!


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If You Have Lemons ...

The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Evan can't do math, his younger sister (the math wiz) can't do emotions. Evan's angry because Jessie will be in his fourth grade class and will probably show him up. Instead of them doing a lemonade stand together, they set up competing stands. The capitalism is sandwiched between bouts of drama and junior angst. The children learn valuable family dynamics lessons at the end, except for Scott, who really needs to be in Juvenile Detention.
There's more story to this one than in Gary Paulsen's Lawn Boy. and it's slightly less of a fairy tale. Yes, forgiveness is achieved (what, between siblings? you must be kidding!), but it isn't all totally working out. Evan learns hard lessons about permits and sanitation. Lawn Boy only runs up against a Hostile Takeover, which is handled when he fortunately acquired a prize fighter. I like this book better because it was more realistic, keeping in mind that it is a kid's book.


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The Color of Lawns

Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
If only it were this easy. A 12 year old boy's scatty grandmother gives him an old riding lawnmower and he ends up with 15 employees, a broker, and an Enforcer (in the form of a prize-fighter he sponsors). I hope any kid who reads this also has been aware of the current state of the financial markets.
This is a short, light read about being a capitalist.


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Stop the Handwringing Already! Wherein I Show That I Am Smarter Than Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
This was a Kindle read.
It was only the zombies that got me to pick this up (that is, the absence of them in this version). I wanted to see what the original material was. At first it was interesting to read and compare, but I think I lost interest as Elizabeth's respect for Mr. Darcy grew. By the end I was almost vomiting. Actual violence was a nice counterpoint to the barbed speech, sorta augmenting the idea of the the sentiment behind the speech. Elizabeth's rejection of Mr. Darcy's offer of marriage is the equivalent of throwing him against the fireplace. It made it easier for me to see the parallel in the original novel. Once Elizabeth realizes that Mr. Darcy is "worthy" of her affections and that she's really blown it and goes all icky about it, I lost interest. You've screwed that up? Move on, babe. Stop the hand-wringing already. Or at least don't make me read about it.

It all wraps up too tidily in the end as well. Her slutty sister did not merely make a mistake out of love, but she's a real piece of work who will never learn her lesson and will feel entitled to mooch off her relations forever. Someone needs to experience some Tough Love. Not the "put her out in the snow to fend on her own" sort, but the "show me you can manage the money you've got before I throw any more down the drain" kind.




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No. 1 Series

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
A re-read. This was originally published almost 20 years ago, so I have an excuse for having forgotten all the cases. I was utterly surprised by all the solutions. Love the little homages to Agatha Christie (Mma Christie - hahaha!), which must be where Mma Ramotswe got her idea to become a detective to begin with. McCall Smith writes with tenderness as well as humor and with great love for Africa, which he tries to project on Mma Ramotswe.

I can really appreciate the way the author slows us down to the African pace of life, to a slow and respectful speech. I really worried when I heard they were making a television series out of it, but a co-worker showed me some of the footage on the internet and tears rose in my eyes as I realized that they have probably done a really good job of it.


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Augh! The Toes! The Tooooes!

Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
Stephanie is still dithering between Ranger and Morelli, as always. She claims to want to be the perfect housewife, which is what Morelli wants (well, he just wants her to stop getting involved in dangerous stuff) and even though she's not that good at it, she persists in the bounty-hunting. She wants to be a Sadie, and Ranger has ruled that out, so she just works for him occasionally. I did notice that sleeping with him has not spoiled her taste for anyone else, so that was a mistake. Again with the sexual tension. Is not Evanovich married?! Doesn't she know that it still goes on?

Anyway, the book contains the usual loony characters: Grandma, Stoner Mooner, with the addition of possible Morelli-spawn teenager "Zook." The book introduces what may be a recurring nemesis in the "press" - aging cosmetic-surgery addict and failing pop star, "Brenda" (think of an unstable Dolly Parton). While her complicated personal life just drags on, dead people show up, fortune-hunters try digging up Joe's lawn, and a minimum amount of property damage (for one of these books) occurs.

However, just when you think Evanovich is going to go hard-boiled on you, she pulls the punch. I finished this late at night, so I may have missed something, but [spoiler:] Where did the toes come from?! Actual damage to important characters used to happen (poor Lula!). Explain the tooooooes!


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This Review Is Longer Than the Book

Death of a Charming Man by M.C. Beaton

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
No village in the Highlands is too isolated or too full of fat, old ratbags that it won't pull a handsome, well-educated Londoner in to purchase a dilapidated croft and then get himself murdered.

Sexual tension is a great dramatic device, but can it go too far? After 9 of these, Beaton finally gets Priscilla and Hamish together, only to undo it all in this book.
They make a good investigating team, mostly because Priscilla doesn't have to play the stupid Watson for Hamish to explain it all to. She's smart and she's full of moxie. She goes right to people who are threatening her man and makes them back down. But she still thinks she should make him into something other than what he is. She should keep her dainty mitts off of him ... and his cook stove.
And that cheap, trashy Sophy comes along trying to bust a move on Hamish, who isn't stupid himself. He knows what she's doing and will put up with it. But will she put up with being left by the side of the road? She's not meant for him either, but at least Beaton should give Hamish a leg-over. Poor guy.
Could there really be a block of flats called “Winnie Mandela Court” that would be full of skinheads, or is this some of the famous Scottish humor? Revenge on skinheads?
Are there any in-jokes I’m missing because I’m from the wrong side of the pond?
Oh right, the "mystery." Do we really care? We're not reading them for that are we?
It isn’t much of a mystery whether Peter is dead if the title of the book is Death of a Charming Man, is it? There are alternative titles, because he's not the only one who dies. But they're all titled "Death of ..." and he's the prime fly in the Drim ointment. It's all his fault that the village goes to pieces. He's someone who needed to be killed. Whoop! Hope I didn't give too much away.
I like this series so much better than the Agatha Raisin one.





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I'll be facilitatin' a discussion on this in Second Life at the Bookstacks in Awen, Monday, May 18, if anyone is interested. We'll see if anyone shows up. It's at 11am SLT (aka:PST). The general theme is Cozy Mysteries and next month I'm planning to read and discuss (if only with myself, which is typical because I'm the most interesting person I know) Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, the first book in that series. I'd have done the first book in the Hamish Macbeth series, but copies are hard to come by and expensive (even the paperbacks!) when you do, so in keeping with the Scottish theme, I went for cheap and chose a more recent title that should still be in libraries and already in paperback.

The Library Computer User's Pledge

Today I was going through some files at my desk looking for some "thingies" - you know, those - those things. You put them in binders and ... oh, nevermind. There was a file on computer miscellany and in it I found this "poem" I wrote as long as 10 years ago when we still had the Gates computers with internet in the Children's Room. Yeah. Think about it. We had to police fifth graders on the MTV site, adults from looking at what was literally a photo of a sucking chest wound (in the children's room! And looking at me completely mystified when I said, "Think of where you are!"), and kids endlessly clicking the print button. That was what really got to me, the endless clicking.

The Library Computer User's Pledge

I do promise
On my honor
That I will not
Be a speed mouse clicker.
I will point
And click one time.
Then I will wait
For the computer
To do its thing.
Only then
Will I click again.
Double-clicking
Is only for icons.
And I know enough
About computers
To know what an icon is.
I know so much,
In fact,
That I will never
Bother Miss Marf
Or Miss Nicole
Or Miss Abby
by saying:
"This won't work!"
I promise.

Here are some notes I made on children using computers from Jane M. Healy's Failure to Connect:

The learning gained (on the computer) will never replace that gained by caring for a pet or playing outdoors. (Warren Buckleitner, p 51)
Simple parent-child activities such as hobbies, games, and reading together have a solid research track record for improving academic skills. Using computers for these activities is both more expensive and less effective.
The key to positive use of any medium is the quality of the adult-child interaction. (p 73)
A youngster who spends a lot of early learning time on a computer is being programmed to prefer that type of presentation to reading a book, engaging in a discussion, or hearing a lecture about the same topic.(p 143)
Starting children on computers too early is far worse than starting them too late.
Don't let screen time substitute for lap time and don't expect books on CD-ROM to substitute for interactive reading with loving adults. (p 239)
And .. children below age 7 should not have unsupervised computer time. (p 250, italics mine, but could prolly use some boldface as well)

I might make a sign out of that last one.

All that said, I would like to add that a kid also needs time to be a kid without the adult interaction. It's up to y'all to balance that on your own. Me, I'd give 'em more play alone time as they age. They'll probably tell you when they want you to start butting out.

And I Don't Even LIKE Zombies!

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! by Jane Austen

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This has improved Jane Austen beyond all knowing! Just before you get bogged down in the manners, zombies attack or they debate the relative qualities of Shaolin Chinese vs. Japanese martial arts. Of course, every now and then it steps over the line into being silly (taking the bite out of the heart of an enemy, for example - I mean, you're fighting zombies! You shouldn't be stooping to their level!).

I think one of the best things about the book are the discussion questions. Bwah-hahahahaaaa!

This was read on the Kindle2 - the last few chapters read by the computer generated voice that pronounced "Lady" as "laddie," "lame" as "lamé," and mangled other words beyond recognition.


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Now Serving the Twitterverse

Hey, y'all! The Sumter County Library is now on Twitter! Woo-hoooooooo!

Getting in Touch With My Inner Fish

Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body by Neil Shubin

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Shubin uses his simplest prose to point out what science has shown to be glaringly obvious: you have an inner fish ... AND an inner worm (well, let's just say we've all noticed the worm). I adored this book. Mine was the Kindle edition. I only wish the illustrations were a bit more legible (putting on the old reading glasses helped the majority of the time).

What did I learn? That the anatomy found on earth uses the same old pieces of the pie over and over again, just reshapes them to new use. Gill slits become inner ear bits, etc. ... The convolutions in our abdomens are millions of years of reorienting other bits.

Our evolution is written in our very bodies and footnoted by all the other species that went their separate ways.

Bah! I put it badly. Read the book!


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Just like a fish, I have a top, a bottom (hee, I said "bottom"), two sides, two eyes, a mouth ... etc.

Fat Girl Reviews Fat Kid Book

Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
There was a brief article about the author in School Library Journal and we had two of her books in. I chose the one that seemed the least depressing. Our library copy had all the "cuss words" underlined in the beginning by some enthusiast - until there were just too many to bother with, I guess - heh! But this book is about kids in New York City and leaving that out wouldn't be an accurate portrayal of these kids. The NYer in me laughs when Troy takes taxis everywhere. NYC is the walkin'est, public transportationist place I've ever lived. The only time he seems to have use for the subway is to attempt suicide (okay, and once he takes the subway with Curt to show how Curt can leap over the gates and ride for free).
That aside, I can't tell how accurate any of the other bits are as a) I am not a teen and b) I know nothing at all about the popular music scene. I do, however, know about being fat. I can't say I found the fatness totally convincing, but the story was pretty good. Parents might be appalled by this book, but it's a light read and teens will go for the angst.
Troy, or Big T, is a big guy: he's over 6' tall and almost 300 lbs. Rather than being shunned, one would think he'd be feared, but instead he is too good-natured to be a bully and so turns in on himself. For no good reason at all, he's conscripted by a homeless prescription drug addict to be in a band. Troy's younger brother has no respect for him and his father, retired Marine Corps, despairs of getting the boy in fighting trim. (Now, how can that be? How can a kid totally cowed by his father like Troy is, not be sent out to run laps?) The HPDA is apparently a guitar genius and magically recognizes something punk in Troy's soul and tries to develop it. Troy tries to sabotage himself every step of the way. Now, that rings true.



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What On Earth Is a "Freak" Dinner?!

The Coming of Bill by P.G. Wodehouse

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
Wodehouse apparently dabbled in domestic romance in the early days. You can almost see him wrestling with his sense of humor in this, trying to keep it straight. The ubiquitous prize fighter is there, the foolish rich folk and the fearsome middle-aged female are all there. The typical Wodehouse way of describing a baby (beautiful to the parents but generally giving the appearance of a boiled egg to others) is there. He's found the elements of his voice, but hasn't polished him the way he does later. I read once that Wodehouse would type up his stories and tape them up on the wall around his office. When he wasn't typing, he'd walk from one page to another trying to find a way to improve on what he'd written. When the pages were perfect, they came down. I mean, does any writer bother with that now? They probably figure that's what editors are for.

I wondered, of course, why I'm bothering to read something that just isn't funny (although the humor cracks through here and there) and then I started looking on this as a period piece and, finally, as a satire of our own times. Here is a story of how money ruins happiness. We get stories like this all the time, we have maxims like "Money doesn't buy happiness" but in this story, too much money actually kills happiness. Ruth and Kirk are happy in their relationship and with their (plainly average) child until a windfall inheritance changes Ruth back into the socialite. Kirk is forced to endure dinner parties with boring people whose only distinguishing feature is the amount of money they are worth. Ruth's sister-in-law gets caught up in the fever of wealth and splurges beyond her husband's capacity to keep up on "freak" dinners and baubles. No one is content with "just enough."

This reminds me of the $2,000 shower curtain mentality of today's (well, back a bit farther than today) nouveau riche. "Just enough" is just plainly not enough.

And that's where people get into trouble. Fortunately, we have lovely fiction stories to show us the way, eh? Riiiiight. One wonders if Wodehouse was seeing this in his day, if he had friends or acquaintances whose lives were blighted by too much of the ready too fast. At some point, the grievous rift between Kirk and Ruth seemed so real (despite the grotesque exaggerations) and so deftly described, that it seemed Wodehouse had personal knowledge of this as well.

Still, I'm glad he learned to polish each page until they gleamed with a laugh or a delightful turn-of-phrase.


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Death In the Family

A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Rather a thick book for Moore, I thought. I picked this up because I like Pratchett's character of Death and wondered what Moore would do with it. What he does is totally different, in some ways, but when you get down to it, it's still someone who separates souls from the bodies of the dead. Charlie Asher is just more a recycler. Despite the portents of the Doom of the Age of Mankind, the underworld creatures are wonderful characters and delightfully dim. Their dimness takes much of the scariness away, and that's fine with me. I was drawn quickly into the story and stayed up a couple of nights reading.

As for the Luminatus - well, I don't think that was very surprising, if indeed it was supposed to be.


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Royal Revolution

The Prince And Betty by P.G. Wodehouse

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars

Kindle Edition
Wow! What a little socialist Wodehouse was! And how much more violent his books were in the early days! Of course, because it's Wodehouse, the actual violence against the lead characters is kept to a minimum, but OMG! he almost killed one off! And his characters are trying to clean up what can only be described as a section of Hell's Kitchen on the east side!

After becoming Prince For a Day, our Mr. Maude rejects la vie royale once it's pointed out by the woman he loves that he's being a patsy. Then the story switches back to being about her (she started the book). Wodehouse gets you interested in one story and then jerks you out of it to another, leaving you wondering and wondering. But I thought this story was about ...

One thing I have to say about these early books is that Wodehouse appeared to be a big fan of boxing. Hardly a book goes by without a match or a retired boxer cropping up.


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Oops, forgot this one

Piccadilly Jim by P.G. Wodehouse

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Premises don't get much more convoluted than this. It took 20 minutes just to set up the explanation to my husband. Then it all unravels at once, to the consternation of the private investigator and, perhaps, the reader, who would like it to go on a bit longer.

Jim has to adopt a false name to prevent the typical Wodehousian redhead he's fallen in love with from finding out what a rotter he is (rather, was). Then he has to adopt his true identity as a false one at her urging. Women! Honestly.


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Where's School Bully?

The Pothunters and Other School Stories by P.G. Wodehouse

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Reading this just takes me back to Palin/Jones and "Tomkinson's Schooldays." Oh, and "If" - of course. What with all the sports (boxing, track) and the vocab, it's hard to picture these characters as kids. They sound more like college (oh, sorry, it is "college") - I mean, university students. I don't think it was adequately explained why Plunkett felt obliged to enjoy his crafty pipe-smoke not only out-of-bounds, but on the property of the crankiest anti-trespasser in town. Lovely period piece!
The sports reminded me of my dad, who ran track in high school and wrestled in college. Although his experiences came 20 years later, it was probably pretty similar (making weight, winning favor from the parental units by competing, etc.).
I upgraded the stars from 2 to 3 when I realized that I was so absorbed in the story, I didn't want to stop reading even to drive home for lunch. It occurred to me after I reluctantly mounted my trusty Corolla that I could turn the speech function on and listen to the Kindle mangle the prose. Ha ha! You should hear the program try to render a drawled "We-e-e-e-ell." And where a section was separated by a string of asterixes, it read each one separately! And the Writers' Guild is worried this will supplant a performed audiobook?!



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Looking at the Penguin cover I wonder why they're picturing a game of rugger when none occurs in the story ... ("dot dot dot")

What I Read on My Vacation (on the Kindle)

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
After consulting with the Visiting Professor of Florin Studies here at Lander University, I feel I will have to read S. Morgenstern's original papers before I can make any definitive statements about Goldman's rewrite.
I just hope his son recovered from the description in the book. I'm not at all surprised his marriage dissolved, considering the autobiographical scenes. As far as the Kindle went, although all other books worked fine, this one gave me problems. The Kindle simply refused to remember where I had left off reading after some point. It was difficult to find my last location, unless I memorized the location at the bottom, which is not that much different from how I handle books if I haven't got a bookmark.
This reminds me, one thing that makes library books an improvement on the Kindle: I can slip my room key into the date due pocket when I go to the pool! I was at a total loss of where to keep my room key this week! At last, I put it in the pocket of my cosmetic bag which I later used to tote the 50 SPF sunscreen when I went to lay out while housekeeping tidied the room. I didn't want to carry that much, but there you are. If I'm just going for a swim, the key and a paperback is all I need. The paperback keeps me company (and hides the key) until I've dried off enough to go back to the room.




A Damsel in Distress by P.G. Wodehouse

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
Early Wodehouse. Not sure why he thought a 48 year old man would be a total dodderer (along the lines of the third earl of Emsworth).




Adventures of Sally by P.G. Wodehouse

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
What a period piece! Sally is a dance hostess who finally comes into her fortune. Dance hostessing/taxi dancing has fallen by the wayside as careers go. I met a woman in NYC who went undercover as a taxi dancer to write an expose. Wodehouse also gives us a view of putting together a theatrical venture in the 1920s, what with the talentless beauties who get lead roles by sleeping with the producer - that doesn't happen anymore! Imagine that it only took $5,000 to put on a show!




Three Men and a Maid by P.G. Wodehouse

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
I liked that it didn't have a pat solution. In later years I think Wodehouse made everything very, very tidy and while it was always very satisfying, this ending is more realistic. The heroine discovers that the man she thought was heroic, wasn't. She went from liking him and then didn't like him and in the end his only recourse is to wear her down. I've had this tried on me, in fact.


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Not for the Faint-Hearted

Guts : The True Stories Behind Hatchet and the Brian Books by Gary Paulsen

My review

rating: 1 of 5 stars
Just not my type of book. Everyone wanted to know what Paulsen's true-life experiences were that gave him grist for his adventure story mill and this is the result. Whatever you do, don't read the first chapter if you're about to take a plane trip.
His story about the blizzard during the Iditarod makes me want to eradicate the concept. Fortunately, toward the end he tried to eat turtle eggs and got what was coming to him.
This is an excellent companion to his adventure stories, such as Hatchet, but precisely the sort of thing I don't enjoy. Strange, because he can also write stories as funny as Patrick McManus (see Harris and Me) and there's a terrific opportunity to inject humor in the scene where as a 16 year old he tries to get a 200 lb. buck home.
Definitely a guy read. Also, it seems to be just thrown together because it's just one anecdote after another.


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[Insert epithet here]

The Franchise Babe: A Novel by Dan Jenkins

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
It looked to me from the cover (as pictured) that they were trying to appeal to the sort of readers that like Carl Hiaasen or Tom/Tim/Jim Whatsis* - the Florida mystery guys. And who would that be, marfita? Oh, you know - Guys.

There isn't much of a mystery - that's more of an aside really. The story (and real mystery) is about how Dan Jenkins can get away with being deliberately politically incorrect by having his First Person spouting as much Republican WASP Country Club rhetoric passing as humor while the love interest winces, but still loves him.

I recommend this to anyone WITH a six-figure income, a three-car garage, and a country club membership or for someone who is HOPING for that life. You'll be absofrickinlootly delighted.

You know what I thought the best part was? The final golf tournament. And, you know what? I hate golf. It was genuinely exciting and I was really pulling for the vapid teenager.




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* I meant Tim Dorsey, just actually forgot his name. Usually enjoy his books as well as Hiaasen's, although I might like Hiaasen's a teensy bit better.

Write About It!/Ga Children's Lit Conference

Miriam ("Mimi") Rutland is a published author of a series of books about Miss Pistachio. Her session on teaching writing realistic fiction to kids using their own experiences interested me because of the Be Creative theme of this summer's reading program. I was already thinking about a poetry workshop. Maybe I could do this also or instead - maybe I should just go lie down.

Rutland uses a storyboard approach in her 3rd-5th grade writing clubs. She has them think of three people that are important to them, then three events: vacation, birthday, lost tooth. They have to pick one of the people (who doesn't have to be connected with the event) and describe the person: what they look like, what sort of personality. Then you put the person together with one of the events ... and embellish. Add little bits, like spices.

She says that the hardest thing to do is to start. Sometimes they need to have realistic explained to them (no flying cars or talking animals). Sometimes they need to brainstorm a special event: going to the beach, visiting a friend's house, making a new friend.

And she made us go through the process. She read some of the paragraphs we wrote "anonymously." She was careful to praise what she thought was good or interesting about the paragraphs, which of course reminded me of Mrs. Smith in Kindergarten and how she squashed a classmate's clay cat and told her she had done it all wrong and to "Start Over!" I had been looking at her method of dividing the clay into pieces and making the cat (we all had to make a cat that day - no creativity in that class!) out of them the same way you'd assemble a snowman: ball with smaller ball on top, tiny balls pinched into ears, another piece rolled into a long tail, etc. I looked at my cat, all pinched here and there and messy looking and then at her neatly assembled one and had been at the point redoing mine when Mrs. Smith waddled over in her grey wool suit, ruffled blouse, and black orthopedic shoes and squashed the snowcat flat. It's a lesson for all of us who work with kids. [Not to put too fine a point on it, the lesson is: Don't Do That!]

Rutland's presentation was simple and organized and fit exactly in the time allotted. So maybe there should be short sessions and longer sessions.

Reading Illustration/GA Children's Lit Conference

Art project done in conjunction with the book Flotsam by David Wiesner.

Shane Rayburn and Megan Reeves collaborated on a project to help first graders relate to reading through the illustrations in a terrific picture book. Flotsam is a wordless picture book that can't possibly be daunting to a struggling reader. I've used Flotsam in a storytime before (and I could have sworn I blogged about that, but I can't find it now), showing the pictures and talking about the story. Wiesner himself talked about the making of this Caldecott Award winner at the conference last year.

These children made art. They had disposable cameras to take home to take pictures of people and things important to them. Then each one had a Polaroid picture taken, holding the previous photo (if there was one), just like in the story. They painted a picture of themselves (enjoined to "use the whole page" and to leave the hands and arms where they could hold the pictures. One of the pictures they took at home was added to the painting as well as the picture of the child holding one of the Polaroid photos.

Okay, now I want to do something like this during the summer reading program ...

Storytime Goodies/GA Children's Lit Conference

One of the concurrent sessions was given by Kaleema Abdurrahman, who simply did not have enough time to share all she knew about fun ways to share books with children. This session was packed. They had to bring in more chairs.

Abdurrahman makes her own feltboards (to change the shape, size, color, make them more portable) and uses sandpaper for the backing, which is an interesting alternative to, say, velcro.
She works with stick puppets in something she calls Box Theatre, a medium sized box from which the top, back, and a bit from the sides has been removed. Inside, at the top of the front she has put the foam double-sided tape to hold the stick puppets still, when necessary. She replaces the protective paper on the exposed side to keep it fresh. OMG, what one cannot learn from this woman!

I had never heard of a magnetboard. Maybe that's what that white thing is on the back of our store-bought (I feel so wasteful now!) flannelboards. Does Abdurrahman buy some expensive magnetboard? No way! She brings in a cookie sheet and uses the back. She showed us the front side to prove it was actually used for baking cookies as well. Now you can put sandpaper and magnet tape on your shapes!

Here's an idea, before putting up posters, put some booktape in the corners (where you plan to use other tapes or adhesives) to protect the poster.

She also makes her own story aprons, tree trunks out of Pringle's cans for the squirrel puppet, a toilet paper tube for a candle to do "Jack Be Nimble" - and demonstrated for us jumping over it. You can just picture a whole roomful of kids jumping over the paper and cardboard candle. She hangs scenery around her neck and

She decorated a peanut can to look like a dog and then wrote the titles of stories about dogs on paper "bones" she put inside the can. Children could draw out a bone to determine what story would be told next. She made story cards out of discarded books (we have a couple of these).

And her Humpty-Dumpty egg with a fake "yoke" inside was a hilarious idea. Oh, and I laughed out loud when she did "Ten in the Bed" with the Little One (babydoll) in a homemade bed who was overcrowded with toys and she just tossed a toy out for each verse.

Some of these sessions should be a bit longer.

Georgia Children's Literature Conference, March 2009

Bryan Collier briefly at the podium to attach his lavalier mike. HA! Got 'im!

The photos this year are only slightly better than those last year, but there was one huge problem. For the most part, the presenters did not stand behind the podium where there was a spotlight to make them seen. They were given cordless mikes so they could roam all over the stage - except, of course, somewhere in the light. My supervisor and I sat up fairly close, and they were still fuzzy. Photos were just about impossible.

This was a lean year for the Conference. We heard from other librarians that some people could not get the funding to attend. There was no money for a storyteller at the final "Storyteller's Luncheon," so someone volunteered and did an excellent job. The conference itself had to ask the speakers if they could adjust their fees. The Buehners came all the way from Utah to accept the picture book award. I note that the winner of the children's book award did not attend. Perhaps there was a schedule conflict - we'll give that person the benefit of the doubt. [Raises eyebrow and pinches lips like Church Lady.] Other speakers were Paul Janeczko, Peter Sis (looking oh, so european with his jacket casually over his shoulders), Bryan Collier, and Gail Carson Levine. I remember last year that I wasn't so sure what the authors could do for me, but I was very impressed. It was the same this year.


Peter Janeczko made me want to do a series of workshops this summer on poetry writing.


Sis and his children - who don't appreciate his stories of the bad old days!
Peter Sis described his life and the development of his art.

Bryan Collier told how he made the decision between a possible career in sports or one in art. We think he made the right choice! He led us through the process of making the illustrations for Rosa by Nikki Giovanni. He made the effort to travel to Montgomery and experience the heat, which came out in the yellow of the illustrations. Everyone had heard the story of Rosa Parks who wouldn't give up her seat that day because she was tired - well, of course she was tired! Who wouldn't be in that heat? He interviews people as well, all for illustration.


Levine is not only in the dark, she doesn't stop moving for a second!

Gail Carson Levine was almost not an author at all. She had taken a creative writing course and her teacher had written "Your trouble is you're pedestrian" on one of her stories. It created the negative voice in her that took decades to overcome. She gave up writing entirely and went into art. Now she dedicates some time each summer to help kids find their own positive inner voice, creating more writers. She described the research that went into her latest book, Ever.


Mark and Caralyn Buehner express their gratitude for the award and describe the making of the book, Dex, the Heart of a Hero.

Cholera in the Time of Love

The Anatomy of Deception by Lawrence Goldstone

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
As a period mystery, this was a good one. I had one small problem with the plot - and maybe it's from recently reading about cholera in Ghost Map - but it was an impossibility that a doctor of that time would not treat what he believed to be cholera with the proven treatment of drinking untainted water to rehydrate. The author even referenced the discovery of the cause. I found myself screaming at the book things like, "No, no, nooo! You don't understand cholera at allllll!"

Oh, and the plot was about icky things, just to remind us that Victorian times were not some pure and halcyon days we've lost forever. The resolution was a bit clunky although nicely "shocking." I had made the mistake of turning to the back to see if there was some historical info and got hit in the face with a spoiler. So, Don't do that!


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Love That Crazy Eddie Muldoon!

Real Ponies Don't Go Oink! by Patrick F. McManus

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
There are two gut-wrenchingly funny stories in this book: "A Good Deed Gone Wrong," which I can't even think about without laughing, so I'm not going into it now, and "Zumbo and the Misty Mountain Ghosts." I love McManus's stuff. Some of the stories are funnier than others, but most of them make me laugh out loud. McManus, like Wodehouse, will set up a slapstick scene and then turn it around, or turn it inside out, and then walk you through each angle of the pratfall or of the flying pie, milking it for all it's worth.

I had people coming out to look at me to find out why I was laughing so uncontrollably. My husband has walked through the house and come out to the porch to see what was so damn funny.

And I don't even like huntin' and fishin' stories! I hope this man's a millionaire. He deserves it.


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Plum with a Wand*

Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
That some things (like that mystery that started with the woman who was killed by ... nevermind) are a bit too intense for me. I had to stop this fairly frequently to calm down. The dangers and threats just a little bit too relentless. Rachel is a witch - but one who just seems to attract trouble. Outside of home, they're out to kill her; inside, her roommate can barely contain her vamplust. PICK ONNNNNE! Give the reader some respiiiiiite! After some time, I've decided I like the bad guy and the demon. I hope to see more of both of them - if I decide to continue with this series. First, I think I will need to read some fluffy stuff for a while.

Say, Anatomy of Deception.

*The heroine reminds me of Stephanie Plum, caught between a rock and a hard- ... [fill in the rest yourownself]. She's less silly, the comedy relief is less evident, and she's more capable, both as a witch and in law enforcement.


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Having Too Much Fun

Here I am having too much fun.

Hello, my name is Marf and I work in the children's room of a public library. The photo above is me with some puppets. I wish I had video, but I just don't have time for putting something like that together. But I bet people would watch it. I have had requests to go to other libraries and demonstrate how I use puppets, but I can't get away because of scheduling.

This is my job: buying puppets with taxpayer's money and playing with puppets during worktime. One half hour every other month or so, kids get to watch me play with them. We spend this money on puppets and my time because free puppet shows like this bring parents and children into the library.

Long about fifth grade, coming to a puppet show at the library starts to seem uncool. This is patently ridiculous thinking because I put in sly bits that appeal to the adults in the room and go right over a younger child's head. Adults tell me how much they enjoy our puppet shows. I have to appeal to them because they're the ones that drive the children to the library. But there is always the older kid who thinks this stuff is beneath him and starts digging in his heels about going to the library. The pre-teens and teens get their hormones on and the next thing you know, nothing an adult says is right.

Librarians have been casting around for decades for a way to entice these kids back into the library and one of the the ways they hit upon was video games. Some librarians (married to someone with a better income, no doubt) already had some cool video games at home that they could bring to work and share one night with the kids. The rest of us had no idea what these things were. Let's face it, most of the librarians are girls and most of us tend to think of girlie activities. Gaming does not always rise to the top of our fluffy little brains. I've been to demos at state library sponsored functions where a librarian talks about bring her son's Dance Dance Revolution pad and game to the library and how popular that was. But funding being what it is, some of the more rural libraries can't afford to invest in expensive games we don't even know how to play, much less set up.

Here's where our state library helps us out. They buy the games that are most popular for this sort of thing and then loan them out to their public libraries. But that still leaves us sort of in the dark as to how to use them or set them up. Most of us here need an IT guy just to take a new PC out of a box and set it up. Who ya gonna ask about how this goes together? The state library in Nebraska came up with an elegant solution. They made a promotional video showing how they set up the games (Rock Band right out of a new box) and how they are played and posted them on YouTube, a social site that hosts videos, so that the librarians in their state could preview the new acquisition and decide if it looked like something they were brave enough to try, because these gaming night things really work. They certainly made it look easy! And they sure look like they'll know what they're talking about if someone calls them and asks how it hooks up.

Pure genius! Unfortunately, someone mistook this for librarians having too much fun. The state auditor in Nebraska decided that buying, videoing, and distributing these games was inappropriate use of public funds. Further, use of social sites by librarians was also a waste of tax money. I can understand that in these difficult times, people are looking for ways to save money, but this was very little money and you have to look at the bigger picture.

The internet is a place where our customers spend more and more of their time. We buy bookmobiles to go to our patrons. We set up branches to put our libraries closer to our patrons. Our presence in blogs, on Flickr, and elsewhere on social sites (even Second Life, a virtual world I've bored people about elsewhere)is another way to make us accessible to our customers.

Social networking, by the way, can be used to save money. What wastes more time and money: librarians from all over the state driving to the state library for a class on how to use some new technology or each librarian sitting at a computer and watching a 10 minute video of the important stuff? Which leaves a smaller carbon footprint? The librarian would have to watch that video a whole lot of times to even come close to the expenses of driving, parking, having lunch (because there's no point in having someone drive for over an hour just to demonstrate something for 20 minutes - they have to work up a whole half day's worth of instruction), and the compensation for the hours wasted in travel time.

I use YouTube (well, not very often, but I know how and I have an account), I blog (look around you, this is a blog) which I use to share information, I created a social network on Ning for sharing ideas about programming for children in libraries, and I follow other librarians on Twitter (where I learned about this idiotic auditor in Nebraska). In a previous post I blogged all my notes from a conference I attended so that not only my co-workers but anyone else could learn what I learned. In another post I blogged about a conference I attended virtually in Second Life from my home that I would not have been able to attend at all. As far as I'm concerned, our state library should be using social networking more, especially Second Life which could save loads on travel costs to the annual conference. At least they had the good sense to introduce us all to the concepts. They probably don't use the social tools more because every year they have to cut back on their budget and everyone there is wearing so many hats they can't see straight anymore.

So, Marf, what's your point?

My point is, there is hardly any difference between my puppets and the video games. They are both used to entice a certain age group to the library and not everyone knows how to use them. A quick demonstration of how easy it is encourages the neophyte. And my final point? Well, that the Nebraska auditor is an ass, of course, and now I expect our state auditor to come after me and my puppets. Thank you so much, Nebraska taxpayer, for making our jobs just a little bit more horrible.

Climbing K2

My Kindle2 came in the mail yesterday (27 Feb.), just one day after Daniel's Amazon Prime account got his delivered. Not too bad!
I was shaking in delight and the mailman teasingly almost didn't hand it to me because he could see how anxious I was (I was on my way back to work when I saw that the mailboxes on the opposite side of the street had their flags down) and we all know what bastards the Post Office turns people into. The nice FedEx lady delivered one of my Harry Potter books on a Saturday morning and just beamed because she was making so many people happy that day.
In my excitement, I am pinning people down and showing it to them. It's not like the cell phone I'm ashamed to admit I have, this is cool. I tell people I got it for my husband who I believe doesn't read as much as he used to because his vision has gotten very poor. He'll be lucky to even smell it.
Anyway, I'm still all crazy about this gizmo and then I read Roy Blount Jr.'s op/ed in the New York Times about how the audio function of the K2 is ripping off authors ... or has the potential for same.
I have yet to listen to a book read by the K2 because I didn't buy it to listen to it. I'm here for the e-paper. The audio function may be yards better than the computer-generated reading done on the Gutenberg Project books, but when you get down to it, you don't buy the audiobooks just to hear someone drone through the book. You (or rather, I) buy them for the performance. Jim Dale brought Harry Potter to life for millions. Stephen Briggs is currently making Terry Pratchett's Discworld come to life. When I went to the Kindle Store, I looked at the Discworld books that I love so much ... and eventually rejected them because I already own both book and audiobook forms of most of them. And if I want to hear them read, I want Nigel Planer or Briggs (or even Tony Robinson who does a brilliant job with the unfortunately abridged versions) read them, not some computer. I want a performance, and that's what an audio-book is.
Where else can I listen to these Kindle-reads? Plug them into the car audio system for long trips? With one of those droning voices? I don't think so. On an airplane? What? Do I look like I have noise-cancellation headphones?!
No, the audio function on the K2 is a toy, a gadget. I bought the K2 for the e-paper. I enjoy reading. I can see using the audio function only if my eyes wear plum-out.
I'm glad that (the ordinarily cuddly) Mr. Blount is looking after his fellow authors and he's right to bring this to our attention, but it's just a sales gimmick, not a threat to audio rights. It can't be sold separately from the text. It's ephemeral and, let's face it, not that great. You should have heard the Gutenberg audio try to come to grips with the broad Yorkshire accents in The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Any human could have done a better job with one lip tied behind their back. Of course, after a while even I managed to get into the story and ignore the hideous struggles with apostrophes.
Before I could finish this post (currently 28 February), Amazon.com seems to have balked. Sigh, just when I think I'm finally ahead of the curve! They will apparently leave it up to the author to allow or disallow this function on each book. Boy, that was fast! I would have thought that the lawyers would have worked all that out in advance, but apparently not - or else one side did not think far enough ahead while the other cagily did. Hmmmm.
A friend has pointed out that this audio function is no different that the book's purchaser reading it aloud. Good gravy, I hope I can read better than that!
I have since listened to the audio on the Kindle ... and it's no better than the Gutenberg reader. My favorite bit was rendering the Ms. (as in Ms. Smith) as "Millisecond Smith." This was from a book currently in print.
I now listen to the text-to-speech partly for the hilarity of these mistakes and partly because I get so into the material that when the time comes to drive somewhere, an appointment or something, I can't give up reading and I don't have to! I just turn on the text-to-read while I'm driving! You know, Mr. Blount, I'd never have discovered the joy of this function if you hadn't brought it to my attention.

Aww, Just SHOOT him, fer cryin' out loud!

Stalin's Ghost by Martin Cruz Smith

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
audiobook version

I should have checked out the hardcopy as well, because I got partway through and then just wanted to get it over with.

There is a lot that's good about this book. It's not often we get to see a Moscow police procedural, or at least I don't. I'm hoping this has given me insights into the Russian character and the current conditions in Russia, but I don't have enough information on the author to vet his depictions.

Again, the only problem I have is that it's not my sort of "thing."

The characters, while more than two dimensional are drawn with a heavy pen. The reporter is not only Jewish ... but hunchbacked as well. The love interest is a doctor AND has Chernobyl scars. The filmmaker doesn't just make porn, he documents his own gang-rapes (in other words, he's not just pathetic, he's stupid). All this serves to make the narrative more "gritty," I suppose.

Setting the mystery in Russia gives the author a chance to explore all those hard-boiled 1950s-type scenes, but with a fresh coat of paint: cell phones, exotic locales, etc. Still, it boils down to people trying to kill the detective, the detective being misunderstood, losing the girl, getting the girl back, losing the girl, the obligatory hellacious family life that made him completely different from both parents (which seems so unlikely). All in all, it was good -

but setting up the gun assembling scene? That just killed it. The gun is now on the stage and I was just waiting for it to pay off. Hurry up, Smith, let's just get the gun put together and get it over with. It was pure torture waiting for that.

And, bad guy has a gun, why suddenly decided to use a shovel? Why bury someone to come BACK and kill them? I just wanted to bang my head on the dashboard. And he'd been doing so well up to then. (In my mind I drift back to that great scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Jones rolls his eyes and just shoots someone. The story goes that the scene was changed from a whip-duel because Ford was ill, but this was just sooo much better. Shoot them! You have a gun! USE IIIIIIT!)

Otherwise, it was pretty good. Reader was okay, but should probably lay off the whiskey and cigarettes.


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And That's the Truth! (phhhhbbblllllt!)

Truer Than True Romance: Classic Love Comics Retold! by Jeanne Martinet

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Whatta great scam! Take the old True Romance comics you read as a child that ruined your prospects for happiness by setting up unrealistic expectations in the romance department and, using the same artwork, totally rewrite them! This merited some actual guffaws! And that was just from the original material that was provided for the contrast! I mean, it took me several minutes to get it through my thick head that "NY Restaurant Menu Typist" was a career in the original, not the parody!
Ahhh, this really took the bad taste out of my mouth from the previous graphic graphic novels!


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