Rich As Kugel

The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Many years ago, when I was young and willing to read just about anything, I plowed through A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.  I knew nothing about the movie, although I may have seen posters.  I read ACO because I had read one of Burgess's other books and enjoyed it so I was working my way through his ouevre.  The first five pages were rough going because he had invented a futuristic cant and it was difficult to read at first.  Once I got the hang of it, though, I went back and started over.  It wasn't until I reached the end of the book (in paperback form) that I found the glossary that would have saved me so much time.  I'm glad, though, that I had the opportunity to stretch my linguistics muscles instead.
That said ... this book pushed my yiddish to the limit.  It was worth it though.  Chabon's book is rich in what I can only call wordplay and sly satire of the hard-boiled genre.  There is the main character who is an overworked policeman whose new boss is making his life miserable and his job impossible.  He has a partner who is his complete opposite.  The powers that be are on their case to get off the case.  As the story goes on, the main character no longer knows whom to trust.  Time is running out.  You know the stuff.
It might be difficult for the average goyim (say, ones outside of urban centers) to wade through.  I spent a lot of time on this book just savoring the the little twists of language.  As far as plot goes, it's the standard hard-boiled fare if you just substitute some species of hasidim for mafiosos, inuit for palestinians, and imagine an almost all-jewish cast.  Not having read anything before that was so steeped in the chosen folkways, I was amazed and delighted by little details such as guns being referred to as "sholems" [ha ha! peacemakers!] and phones as "shoyfers" [get on the horn to someone].  And if you are well-versed in yiddish, you might be a few paragraphs ahead in places.  Most of the characters are speaking yiddish to each other, but it's expressed as english.  "Woe is me!" says Landsman and the wisenheimer can retranslate it to "Vayz mir!"  There are many little treasures in this story.
The premise is that, post-holocaust, the jews were unable to take over Israel and instead were offered a temporary homeland in, of all places, Alaska.  The time is about to run out and there are some who have made other arrangements, some who listlessly do nothing, and others who have deep, dark plans.  Deeper and darker and sillier than you can imagine - but all of it drawn from contemporary headlines with parallels to history.  No, really. 



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SCLA Part 7 - What We Were All Waiting For: Music and Movement in Storytimes

Although I let Karen and LeVerne go to the Bouncing Babies session and I did something else, I had to go to this.  And we had so much fun, even though I was still yawning a lot.  LeVerne showed up with the pillows I'd "won" in the silent auction and the three of us cuddled together and prepared to have a good time.

Parachute for movement activities

It would be nice to be able to play the guitar for programming, but at my age I may have waited a tad too long to start.  So much for Strings and Stories.  But you can do the same stuff with just singing, which is what I do.  They use rhythm sticks (have plenty of those!), boomwhackers (OMG, don't have those!), shakers, scarves, and a parachute with beach balls on it.  They use some books we already have and I made note of a couple more I will try to use or acquire.

Boomwhackers (sorry, this picture seems to have disappeared)

This isn't the sort of thing you can describe, because there's not so much talking as there is doing.  We need lots more stuff like this going on to make it worth going.  Or maybe someone could upload inspirational storytime stuff to YouTube.

SCLA Part 6 - The Dreaded Poster Session

I got started late because I again had trouble sleeping on the giant marshmallow with no audiobook to listen to - poor planning on my part.  But the poster session is just an hour of walking around looking at displays and listening to the spiels of the earnest creators.  Not everything is relevant to what I do, but some of the irrelevant is at least interesting!

Amanda was there trying to reach even more people with her StudySC project that was so wonderful.

 My av on her plot o' land - she had to wear the bunny suit for a month to earn money for charity. 

There was some poor gal trying to promote Second Life (which I know everyone is tired of hearing about) as an educational tool.  Her "poster" was pretty darn fancy, unlike the cardboard triptychs most had.  Curtis was there thinking it might be worth looking back into the State Library presence in SL, which is running better and faster than it used to.  I still think it would be helpful in these days of limited budgets to have SCLA running concurrently in a virtual space that people could reach without the travel costs or the commitment of time (you go to a distant location for one or two sessions and feel you have to attend other stuff to make it worth the time and expense).  However, SL is becoming more expensive, especially for non-profits who used to have it easier, so it may or not be worth it.  ALA, though, is having virtual conferences there (and charging for them).

There was also an unnamed library that was using certain e-book products probably outside the permitted boundaries as delineated by the suppliers.  It was very interesting.  They loaded them with genres (romances, Christian fiction, etc.) and were checking them out in-house - and only to people with good library borrowing track records.  They held training sessions on the devices so that those less familiar with the technology wouldn't get lost.  They found their employees were taking the training and that patrons were taking them just to get a feel for what the devices were like prior to purchase.  They will continue to do this until the suppliers send them a cease-and-desist order.  Very brave!   Anyone interested in me naming the names can come by the Children's Room and I'll blab in person.  I have seen an article online about Amazon allowing borrowing between Kindles ... here.  This indicates that the ante has done been upped in the e-reader race and perhaps the circulation of the devices might be coming in the future.

There was also some stuff on Teen programming (using recycled stuff - if anyone wants to do stuff with bottle tops, let me know because I've been saving them up for just such an occasion) and then my brain shut down.

SCLA Part 5 - Job Search Products on Discus

I had already been through one job-search-related session, but I figured another one couldn't hurt.  Also, my only other reasonable choice was the one on selecting Christian fiction for children.  Well, first of all, I don't purchase books and, secondly, I'm not a Christian, so I'm unlikely to do any programming using this genre.  Also, what passes for Christian lit for one group doesn't necessarily work for another group.  For example, there's the Left Behind series which is eaten up by one segment of the Christian population and derided vociferously by another segment.  In the past we've solved this problem in our area by putting "Christian" stickers on books from the various publishing houses, such as Bethany, and then hiding under the desk.

This was an excellent presentation, and also just in time for my Homeschooler program!   I couldn't believe my little eyeballs!  The presenter went over the products that we have available on our library's Discus* links that I was totally unaware of.

Ferguson's Career Guidance Center is a Facts On File product.  This seems to be mostly useful for those incredibly boring school assignments on careers, which they used to make kids do all the time but I haven't had a request for recently.  There is a cool "Career Interest Assessment" test that I'm dying to take.  It's 180 questions to determine where your interests lie: are you artistic? nurturing? etc.  I can't wait to find out that I should have been an Investment Banker.  I'll have to wait until I get to the library because I can't seem to access this from home - it's requiring a username and password.  Rats.  There is also advice on job hunting skills.

LearningExpress Library requires you to set up an account, but that's so it can save information for you and where you stopped on the practice tests.  It was suggested that you could use your library card number for setting up an account if doing this from outside the library - but, dang!, that's a really long number.  There is a resume creator and mini-courses on all those things you might be tested on, like math, the GED, ASVAB, SAT, ACT, all those acronyms, and some courses in Spanish to serve that demographic.

The last bit was about the NetLibrary Career e-Book Collection which also requires signing up.  Each title only has eight spaces for readers ... so if eight people are trying to read the same book at the same time, the ninth person is out of luck and has to ask for a notice to be sent when a space is available.  That might seem to be an unlikely event, but I imagine that those eight spaces are available to the whole state.  We used to subscribe to NetLibrary and I had a username, but it got too expensive and the state later provided Overdrive.  Anyway, I imagine that username, whatever it was, isn't any good anymore.  It would be nice if these things were more dependable.

I think the Homeschoolers group will be very interested in LearningExpress Library and its courses and tests.  Okay, maybe the parents will be interested.

*Now with the exciting new SmartSearch which searches all the websites in Discus at once!

SCLA Part 4 - Advocacy Because That Was the Theeeeme

There wasn't much choice during this set of concurrent sessions, so I picked one advocacy session and Karen picked a different one.  I think she did better.  There wasn't much here that I hadn't heard before, I hadn't had enough sleep, and the caffeine was wearing off.  I hope I didn't distress the presenter with all my yawning.

The usual stuff on partnerships: with mutual benefit comes mutual responsibility.  If you're a librarian, you're used to being the one giving service - it might be your turn to receive.  Both parties are in it for something, even if it is only to get their logo on an ad or a handout.  Partner for a discreet (and short) amount of time the first time.  Then check to see if your partner is willing to continue or do it again.  [Yeah, we used to get ice cream coupons from Chik-Fil-A for our library card campaign in the schools - but after a while we started getting stories about changes in management, etc. and we let it drop.]
You need to weed programs the way you weed books.  Maybe something near and dear to your heart is no longer justified.  [Wha-at?!]  Demographics are easy to get hold of to assess the current needs of your population (although the most recent are not quite available from the 2010 Census, they will be soon).  But also think about other kinds of underserved populations - the invisible ones, such as businesses or tourists.

All library employees should have an elevator speech prepared, a three minute or less spiel about the library, its collections, or programs.  Just in case,  you know, you've got someone trapped.  [Me, I've been feeling trapped lately, by people asking me questions about the new library.  For two years it was, "Aren't you excited about the new library?" and now it's "Don't you just love the new library?"  It's hard to say the same thing enthusiastically again and again.  "Ohh, it's so big and beautiful and (sniffing) it's got that New Library Smell!"]  Now I tell people that they have to come see it.  I can't believe we have this huge new building uptown and there are people who "just haven't found the time."  You just want to smack 'em.

Oh, and I have this note that doesn't read like what I thought it was.  That you can put a virtual sign/bookplate on digital materials so that if some group has contributed a collection of materials (a garden club, or, at our library, the Mothers of Twins), the catalog can be searched for those items or when someone is browsing the digital catalog, they can see who donated the material.  Way cool.

So, in retrospect, maybe it was a better session than I thought.  I was just tired at the time.

SCLA Part 3 - Anatomy of a Library Job Center

If you're from a small library system like me, you can get pretty darned annoyed by what's going on at the Richland County Library.  Just when you think you have a brand-spanking-new library to be proud of, you see another over-the-top presentation and slink from the session dragging your tail between your legs.
Well, they're at it again.
They decided they needed to help job seekers and so they went about it with the relentless planning and enthusiasm we have come to know and envy.  They plan, they partner, they collaborate, they write grants, they totally redesign their reference area, they hire.  Then they make you sit through a mind-boggling power-point presentation and sit and wonder at what on earth you could possibly adapt to your 834 square foot branch in the middle of a massive job shortage.
Well, let's look at some of the easy stuff, such as the self-paced stations.  You put out a desk, a chair, and a telephone book with a little tip sheet telling them to look up companies or with a sample work portfolio.  You make tip-sheets specific for area companies on filling out on-line applications, which are apparently all the rage.
No money?  Partner with area technical colleges, public and private agencies.  Have speakers come visit.  Hold weekly job club meetings for mutual support.
They have three dedicated job specialists who can sit down one-on-one with a person and help them: create an e-mail account, fill out an online application, create a résumé, practice their interview techniques.
In the end, we were each handed the power point presentation ... on a 2G flashdrive, the same flashdrives they apparently provide to their customers with a completed résumé (and one hard copy on résumé quality paper).  
They have job-search dedicated computers, they don't ask to see library cards.  And for some reason it was thought necessary to say that the job staff don't answer the phone (but the reference staff helps with job search).  They aren't trained.  
There was more (and the power point presentation is available on request - but I want the flashdrive back), but - it was just too much to take in.  

SCLA Part 2 - The New StudySC Website

This session came just in time for what could have been a dull Homeschool program next Friday.  This exciting new site, StudySC,  (up "just in time" - AKA, Just A Bit Late - for the third graders studying the regions of our state) has links to information on South Carolina based point by point on the state's curriculum standards, the best information being chosen and evaluated by teachers.  Well, dang!
The site is organized by elementary, middle school, and high school levels, so that each group has access to age-appropriate materials.  Within the age levels, the sections are thematic and time-period based.  The site is still in beta (and the section on Government is not up yet), but they thought it best to put out what they have and add to it.  It was very exciting to see.  South Carolina patrons can access this at home - unless, perhaps, they have AOL, which make the site think you live in Virginia and then, of course, you can always drop by your local library.
All of the current material is existing, stable sources, such as museums, ETV, and college sites.  There may be a small amount of advertising content.   They hope to add their own content at a later date, such as lesson plans, the ability to search the site by the curriculum standards, and maybe a glossary.
Also on the site is a link to information about the current and past SC Book Award winners - some of them with related activities!
I can't say how helpful this is going to be.  The first day after the assignment, all our South Carolina social studies materials were checked out except the older reference book.  They all needed pictures and information about the regions - and here it was all the time!  This is another example of your State Library doing great things!  Full marks, y'all!

SCLA Part 1 - Best Books Forward

The first session I attended was about the SC Center for Children's Books and Literacy at USC where I always knew we could go and preview children's books for purchase ... and then not have to put them away ourselves (Shocking!  However would we stop ourselves?!).  It does make you want to visit, but it seems so far away.

Ellen Hinrichs was not able to make it, but Nonie Price chatted about the Center and enlightened us about Cocky's Learning Express.  The USC mascot travels to elementary schools all over the state (even in the upstate, where he may or may not make an appearance with that Tiger) to encourage children to read.  This is a program for children from K4 to 3rd grade and each child is able to take home a book.  Must speak to Debbie about this.  At the moment the USC students have been doing this for free, but may soon have to ask for mileage and a Kiwanis sponsorship would not go amiss there.  They can certainly do a few elementary schools in one trip.  Apparently, it makes all the difference if Cocky hands you a book - but one would hope it would not cause any problems in households of the orange persuasion.

Not My Thing

Aunt Dimity's Death by Nancy Atherton

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This is totally a not-me sort of book. Although a fan of cozy mysteries, this type of magical fluff just makes me mad. It has several annoying points - the Cinderella factor and the ghost being the major ones.  But the invasion of Americans into my precious British landscape (and I am speaking AS an American), while smoothly handled, ... it's just wrong.  Other folks have done it, notably Martha Grimes and Laurie King, and have done it well enough to not annoy me.  This just rankles. 

I am not as annoyed about the part of the story that takes place in Boston - where I lived for six years and hung out with Harvard-educated lawyers.  I was also a temp employee and moved around, sharing apartments.  I think I would rather have read about that instead of the fairy tale/romance/ghost story.
That said, the story is quite touching and brought me to tears a few times, which only made me angrier.

The lead character has lost her marriage, her mother, her livelihood and then gets a letter from an attorney that will turn her life around.  There is, if not a Prince Charming, at least a Prince Tries-Too-Hard.  Lawyers are not only scrupulously honest, but they take you into their palatial home and squire you around in their Rolls.  England and Scotland seem to be populated with only the most helpful cast members and the mystery isn't much of one.  It is, however, the introduction to a series and the successive books (one of which I have read) get more to the mystery, which Dimity's ghost helps solve.  In fact, I will probably read more of them ... occasionally ... when I'm absolutely desperate.



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Major Project

Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version by Anonymous
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I've been working on this for a few months - a little bit each night, absorbing it as I go. I remember being really annoyed at parts I read as a teen and a proto-feminist.  This time I started with the NewT and went back for the Old Testament.  I was delighted to find a typo in my edition, someone's son who became king at 49 when his father died at 42 or some such.  It was easy to check because the histories are duplicative (and I can't express what a pain it was to read the same info over and over).  The son was actually 29.  It doesn't ruin the whole book, but it does show I was paying attention.  My next project is to mark the sections by author.  I have a big box of highlighters.  The pages are so thin, though, and I'm afraid the highlighters will bleed through. Fortunately, I have two copies of this edition.  Dang, we have so many bibles in this house, most of them in German.
My advice to people: read it all the way through - don't just cherry-pick the good parts, and there are good parts.
My review: The Iliad is better.  I'm not saying the philosophy is better, it's just a better and more cohesive story.  Babies brains are dashed out in both, so I think it's a fair comparison.  They were both written a long time ago and as a window into their times they are very interesting - but I'm not going to live my life based on the philosophy of either of them.  All I need to know about life I learned from my mom: Forgive and forget; Never say never; You always worry about the wrong thing; Be nice; All men are creeps in one way or another, you just have to find the least creepy one; and Don't worry, we'll be dead soon and our ideas will go with us.  Wish she had been right about that last one - I get the uncomfortable feeling that our greed, pettiness, and hatred just get perpetuated generation after generation and books like this one add to the vitriol.


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It Was 20 Years Ago Today ...

No, wait. It was only about four years ago and it was 20 things, or something.  I've been noodling on the interweb now since 1995 (remember Mirsky's Worst of the Web?), reading articles in PC magazines, trying to find relevant sites.  I was navigating Yahoo! on a dumb terminal with ascii characters.  But I was determined!  I signed up for listservs, bulletin boards, you name it.  So, when our whole library attended that Drag You Kicking and Screaming Into Web 2.0 seminar (and, seeing the size of the conference room, headed right for the front and center table), I was all excited.  We were lucky (and still are) to have a director who encouraged us to do the 23 thangs that this blog was originally set up to chronicle.

And I may have gone a bit farther.  There was nothing on that list about Second Life, but I was so excited to see there was a library there (Thank a lot, Michael Stephens, for introducing me to that time-sucker) and, possibly, librarians, that I logged on 15 September of 2006.

Things are different now.  I'm still spread as thin as a 'possum on I-95, but slowly some of my regular sites have dried up.  Just recently Ning, where I hosted a ... ning on library programs for children went for the monetized model on me.  This was at a time when I no longer had the disposable income to support it as I did when I had to go pay on Flickr to support my burgeoning screen-shot habit.  And, besides, that pissed me off.  Then Vox collapsed - but offered to transfer hosting to TypePad.  Right after that, I received the message that Bloglines was quitting.

Bloglines was a mainstay of my Web 2.0 experience.  My daily cartoons were there, and all my blog subscriptions.  Bloglines was my Daily.  I am very, very sorry to see it close, but I guess "free" is a business model a tad ahead of its time. 

I am curious that this is happening at this particular point in time.  It's as if some loans have come due at about the same time and Ning opted to try to stay afloat while Vox and Bloglines threw in the towel. Vox was apparently under pressure from WordPress and Bloglines was done in by the ubiquitous and evil Google with the Google Reader.  I hate Google Reader.  Yes, Bloglines was often down, but I went there so often that I'd catch everything eventually.  And it was familiar, like a comfy old shoe.  That needed to be thrown away.  Oh well.

This is the End of an Era - and who will be next? Hmmmm?

It's Not About Making It Fun

Educating the Net Generation: How to Engage Students in the 21st Century by Bob Pletka

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


The NetGen are even harder to engage than their predecessors, but, aside from adding technology to the mix, what's needed to engage them is less "teaching to the test" and more complex, relevant projects that challenges different skills (language, a subject such as math or history, technology) at the same time.  They need to go at their own pace and I know from experience even as an adult that classes only go as fast as the slowest student.  Technology can actually help in those instances, because a student can get instant feedback in how they are doing and then get one-on-one tutoring either from the program or the teacher.

I wasn't terribly impressed with the writings of the students themselves - maybe I need to go back and read some of my scribblings (GAH! NOOOOO!!!).



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Cross Posting

Grizzy has issued a statement on how she plans to commemorate 9/11 this year in SL, and I thought I would go along with it - I have put this picture and the following statement on my profile:

"To show solidarity with my Islamic brothers and sisters who have had their faith vilified as a result of the actions of extremists, I will be dressing my avatar in the traditional Islamic hijab for Tues - Sat this week."

A Lesson In Understatement

They Were Strong and Good by Robert Lawson

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Lawson's illustrations sometimes undermine the reverential tone of this book.  When he says that his mother's mother did not like sailing on the sea, he provides a drawing of her very expressive backside as she hangs forlornly over the side of the ship. 

Despite the stereotypical representations of mammies and indians, this book would make an excellent model for kids to do their own family biographies in the same simple declarative style.  I know I was bored by my parents' old time-y stories.  Surely, today's youth can recall some of the stories they themselves have endured.



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Suspect Sympathy

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


People's imaginations never cease to amaze me.  Perhaps "amaze" isn't the exact word.  Terrify? Stun? Disgust? Repel?  I'm sure there are really bad people out there, even without Larsson providing statistics.  But, you know, I don't have to read about what they do.  The book was well-crafted (although the series of photos showing the girl's change of expression was pretty hokey) and kept you interested.  I liked the lead characters - they were fully conceptualized and realistic.  Larsson manipulated the reader beautifully, alternating between plot lines to build dramatic tension that really got my blood pressure up and me to want to read on and on and on into the night (but I didn't - I set it down right at a most critical point, the sentence ending in "hell," and let Malcolm Gladwell lull me to sleep reading from one of his books). 

But I don't think I'll be reading another one of these. 

The nice thing about mysteries, in general, is that there is a rent in the universe and someone repairs it, somehow, by the end.  All is restored to normal.  It's a safe thrill.  I just don't want to get my thrills from stories about the abuse/torture of women, children, or pets - especially when it gets graphic (I guess I must think abusing men is fair).  This is where I start worrying about people's imaginations. 
I just think people enjoy writing or reading about abuse too much.  Even when they add retribution - especially retribution in kind.  I can't blame those long, dark, Swedish winter nights for Larsson's imagination when the real life tortures of the "Disappeared" in Argentina are thrown in the balance.  What does it take to imagine torture or abuse and then write about it?  I don't have an answer.  I guess I just don't have the imagination.



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And I Thank Hitch For This Book ...

  Hitch 22: Confessions and Contradictions by Christopher Hitchens

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was an e-book from Jasmine Overdrive.
Why I had not heard of Christopher Hitchens before being introduced to god Is Not Great is beyond me.  I read gING in a day (staying up all night with my heart in my mouth because he was not pulling any punches) and suddenly Hitchens is on my radar.  In this memoir, Hitchens exposes his life, owns up warts and all, with more modesty than apology.  In fact, he takes as much pride in his communist/socialist past, it seems, as in his newly minted American citizenship, which required a Bosnian Muslim cabdriver in the US to knock him off the fence. 
Hitchen's life makes one (by that I mean specifically me) feel like they have gone nowhere, seen nothing, met no one, and accomplished buggerall.  And I moved to Manhattan and tried to break into theatre.
 
Hitchens was a journalist who actually used English and I'm sorry I was not exposed to it soon enough.  I don't totally agree with him in the gING book - although I am a fellow atheist, but I could have used that sort of writing on other topics to put some besom in me at a younger age. 

Now suffering from the same cancer that killed his father, Hitchens is a figure of quiet and, if not steely, perhaps platinum composure.  I wish him the best.

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When Is a Curtain Not a Curtain?

  The Lion and the Stoat by Paul O. Zelinsky

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



 Now that the poetry thing is over, I can start back putting my reviews here. I'm sure you all missed them.
Zelinsky has put together (having adapted some of it from Pliny the Elder's Natural History) a fine story about competition, ego, and art.  The lion and stoat are artists who compete with each other on three separate occasions.  In the end they decide to not compete with each other any more ... at least not in art.  The illustrations are charming as well - especially the "nude" tigers.

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Vengeance Is Mine

  Verdi With a Vengeance: An Energetic Guide to the Life and Complete Works of the King of Opera by William Berger

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


An entertaining book - both light-hearted and serious by turns, this book shows a real love for the "King of Opera."  I have to admit that I read this whole thing just to get to the material on one of my favorite operas, Falstaff, which would be his last one.  The historical information on Verdi himself was an easy read, but the in-depth review of each and every opera dragged out, especially over operas I was not familiar with.  Although I am familiar with quite a few Verdi works and can picture them in my mind's eye or ear when reading about them, there are still plenty I've never heard, much less seen.  This, therefore, is not a book for sitting and reading through the whole thing as I tried to do.  I recommend reading Verdi's background and then dipping into the operas as needed.  This would require purchasing the book to have on hand.

Berger also recommends some recordings and has some pointed (but amusing) remarks to make about how some opera singers perform or, perhaps, how fast some conductors move it along, but I'm afraid that regardless of what anyone else says, the first version of any opera you see or listen to will almost always be your gold standard and rarely will you find any to surpass it.  [And I will grant you that Maria Callas was an outstanding actress and a great singer - but she still sounds like she's singing with a mouthful of fruit which, to me, means she is singing for herself and not us.  She did not sound like that on her earliest recordings, so I can only imagine that she developed that muffled, fruity sound later when she was an undisputed diva and no one had the nerve to tell her what it sounded like because she was beautiful and talented.  Then, of course, she also proceeds to do what she likes with her roles.  Thus endeth the rant.:] 

I love operas the way I love cats: with a passion that allows me also to laugh at them.  This, I am sure, has caused some not slight consternation from Baltimore, MD (Where I was the only one laughing at Bardolpho - I suppose everyone else was reading the damn supertitles) to Newberry, SC (where my husband and I almost hurt ourselves when don José polished his rifle and then his sword to Carmen's Habanera).  Books like this key into my need to study and laugh.  Perhaps I should just buy the damn thing.

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Elizabeth Bishop

"In the Waiting Room" - something I can relate to again, with just a long succession of unsettling imagery: a dentist office, the dead man in the National Geographic ("long pig" being a euphemism for a cannibal's treat), pain, war, and the painful recognition of the conflict of your individuality with womanhood or even general humanity.  We are not just ourselves, but we are everyone else as well - for good or bad. 
A dentist office is just the worst setting I can imagine for a poem, putting anyone's "teeth on edge."  The familiarity and adventure in National Geographic are made eerie with the dead man - and then the yelp creates a confusion of Self with Other.  It was very unsettling ... but in a good way!

Rex Libris

I, Librarian
This is just soooo much fun!

Langston Hughes

Oh, what pleasure! Simple and comprehensible! Moving because there is something deeply emotional to say. Six line verse blues poems. Music from the heart's blood. Thank you, thank you, Langston Hughes. Where do I start? I loved all of them. Some are funny (Morning After) and some are brutal (Song for a Dark Girl), but they're good and they're plain-spoken and meaningful.

iPads 'Stead of Libraries

This was an interesting idea ... close down the public libraries and give the library card holders a free iPad. The contributor says that all the books are then free. Perhaps that's not quite accurate, but even if they were, is it a good idea?

It was from the UK, but I thought about it for our library here in the US. We have about 30,000 users in our county (times $499 for an iPad) which would run us almost $15 million ... for a one-time purchase? That's more than the new library would cost, but perhaps Apple would give us a deal on the massive order. And I imagine a huge run on library cards if holders got a free iPad.

Now, what about on-going costs? The iPad runs on $15/mo. The public library ... oh, that's tougher. We used to get $2 per capita/yr, but now it's about half that. I don't have the figures in front of me, but my 1300 sq ft house contributed $13/yr to the library. It said so on the bill.

And the library comes with human beings you can talk to (if you haven't annoyed us too much) in real time about what book or information you really need. We don't run on batteries or the mains (but cookies help). And we have printers and a fax machine. Try to run that off your iPad.

Nice try, but until these devices and their support get cheaper, the good ole fashioned library is still a better deal.

Hart Crane

I chose the Rip Van Winkle section from The Bridge for no real good reason. It's sad when a poet has to write copious notes about his own work to make it understandable. I found Walt Whitman's description of America much easier to follow. Rip Van Winkle carries happy childhood memories for me, so I risked having it ruined. But the mention of hurrying off to school with Pizarro and Cortes reminded me of my sister's favorite school poem: "Where we walk to school each day/Indian children used to play." And we are off on a time travel into Crane's past where lilacs provide a switch for his father to whip him and he recalls a fleeting smile from his mother that was never shared with him. Yikes! The Catskill daisy chain in May that is now Broadway was nice. Bits of this make you think Crane has potential, but wading through the whole of The Bridge is just too much of it.

Note of shameless self-promotion: My husband's last cd, Back In the Day, used Rip van Winkle as a theme. Buy it here!

T. S. Eliot

Oh great, the footnotes for this contain more material than the verses! Sheesh, and I thought Moore was annoying. Needs more cats. The Waste Land seems a pastiche of ... of ... well, I was going to say of other poems, but it seems to be a hodge-podge of imagery, memories, conversations, etc. that cry out for the sort of "close reading" that they now claim turns young people off from the enjoyment of literature entirely. It put me in mind of the aftermath of the Great War. That might not have been his intention (although I gather death was the inspiration), but that's what pops up in my little mind (probably the reference to the arch-duke and the expectation of the man returning from the army - Poor Albert!).

Marianne Moore

Gosh, how I wish we were back to Walt Whitman. What the introduction of the editor calls "wide-ranging diction" I call academic esoterica - I was particularly annoyed by the reference to "Bach's Solfegietto," although I liked the sound of the poem. The meter of "To a Prize Bird" was nice as well. I think I like the sounds of her poetry better than the imagery. I was all prepared to really like "A Jelly-fish" and in the end I was disappointed it didn't sting the author's arm ... good and hard.

I marked a few as being of relative interest for content. "The Past Is the Present" was marked for the description of unrhymed Biblical verse, which I will try to keep in mind as I traverse the Old Testament. "Hebrew poetry," I quote her quoting someone else, "is prose with a sort of heightened consciousness." I try to be aware of the aspects of verse in a foreign language that have been translated and may have lost their original beauty in the interests of accuracy. Translation is a tightrope walk.

Before I Get On To

... Marianne Moore, I'd like to quote some Billy Collins. Can't help it. I just enjoy his stuff so much:

Introduction to Poetry
by Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to water-ski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin by beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

This reminds me of when I was teaching Spanish and the beginning students were still stumbling through the idea of conjugation (of which there is precious little in English). "Just keep stumbling around in the dark room," I told them, "soon your eyes will be accustomed to the dark and you will see a crack of light around the door. Grope around and find the handle! Then you can open that door and step out into the light and it will become clear to you!" And they laughed at me.
One day, one girl said, "Oh, Profesora! I think I see the light! I think I see the light!" and started getting all excited. Or maybe she was just kidding.

The World's Most Dangerous Job

If there is any way to judge the value of a poem, it's probably the reaction it provokes, by imagery or emotion. It would be easy to find a poem by Robert Frost that reinforces the idea of the idyllic life of a farmer. Even easier is finding a poem outlining the horrors of rural life. Small wonder he gave it up and moved to England.

I can't even read this again, it was so powerful. It's called "Out, Out -" [on page 247] of the Major Voices and Visions anthology] and I wasn't even able to finish it, but the imagery clung to my thoughts and disturbed me the rest of the day.

It makes no sense, however, to mention a poem affected you profoundly and then not talk about it because it's just too painful to think about, so I'll add some tiny bits I gleaned from other Frost poems.

Frost seems to like the phrase, "the long scythe whispering to the ground" - which he used twice, just in this book. I have to say, I like it too. It has a nice cadence that calls to mind the swinging action and sound of the scythe (my dad used used one and the scythe does make this shushhhhh-shushhhhhing when it swings through the grass, very much like a whisper - a nice change from the gas-powered machinery prevalent today).

Another phrase was final line from "The Wood Pile," "the slow smokeless burning of decay" - which I also found evocative. It called to mind piles of wood chips that "cook" even in winter and give off steam. Something that I like about Frost is that he often has a story to tell, and I like a good story. In the case of "The Wood Pile" it's a conundrum. Why was this neatly stacked pile of wood left behind? Even better, it's a mystery story! Why does the farmer's wife just run off in The Hill Wife? Boredom? Is it related to a poem printed earlier (but not from that group) about the couple breaking up over the difference between how they handled the death of an infant? What was Frost's married life like? Inquiring minds want to know!

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening - this photo always reminds me of that title:

Okay, that poem wasn't in this collection, but every time I see this photo I think of it. Anyway, that's all for Frost. I have lots to do and miles to go before I sleep.

A Narrow Fellow

It's all I can do to not mention That Song in reference to Emily Dickinson's poetry. I read an article in Vanity Fair decades ago and shortly afterward got into an argument with a roommate who said all of Dickinson's poetry could not be sung to That Song. Then I proceeded to sing all the examples she dug out to That Song. Consequently, I have happy memories of Ms. Dickinson and go around singing "Because I would not stop for Death he kindly stopped for meeeeee!" But the same might be said about Edna St. Vincent Millay ... or José Martí, and about as accurately. In other words, not terribly.

Still, I have trouble relating to the content of Dickinson. I did see a lovely one that resonated with me immediately:

986

A narrow Fellow in the Grass
Occasionally rides -
You may have met Him - did you not
His notice sudden is -

The Grass divides as with a Comb-
A spotted shaft is seen -
And then it closes at your feet [Yipes!]
And opens further on -

He likes a Boggy Acre
A floor too cool for Corn -
Yet when a Boy, and Barefoot -
I more than once at Noon
Have passed, I though a Whip lash
Unbraiding in the Sun
When stooping to secure it
It wrinkled, and was gone -

Several of Nature's People
I know, and they know me -
I feel for them a transport
Of cordiality -

But never met this Fellow
Attended, or alone
Without a tighter breathing
And Zero at the Bone.


I think that concludes rather nicely - with that flash of iciness at the ribs (in my case, anyway) that suddenly coming upon such a "narrow Fellow" brings. The meter is irregular and takes some fudging to sing to That Song, stretching that final "Aaaaaand" to it's chilling climax. Great fun!

Song of ME ME ME!

Walt Whitman was slow going. As much as I understand that his use of the first person was to represent America, the "Song of Myself" still reeks of a towering ego (and he does refer to himself in it as "Walt" so I think the "It's Really About America" dodge doesn't hold water). You'd need a towering ego to think you are speaking for an entire country, even in reference to its diversity.
I also needed a dictionary to read this, as he seems to mix esoteric language with childishly made-up terms ("omnific" versus "foofoos"). His spelling is bad ("extatic") and he has a tendency to exaggerate, especially with numbers ("decillions" "sextillions" "quintillions"). So the words egocentric, hyperbolic, and epigrammatic spring to mind. "Song of Myself" is an onslaught, but I was still able to tease out little bits that I liked.

I guess the grass is itself a child .... the produced babe of
the vegetation.
Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones,
Growing among black folks as among white,
Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the
same, I receive them the same.
And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.

...

Whoever degrades another degrades me .... and whatever is
done or said returns at last to me.
And whatever I do or say I also return.

...

I hear the trained soprano .... she convulses me like the
climax of my love-grip;
The orchestra whirls me wider than Uranus flies,
It wrenches unnamable [sic] ardors from my breast,
It throbs me to gulps of the farthest down horror,
It sails me .... I dab with bare feet .... they are licked
by the indolent waves ...
[Hmmm, they're starting to pall on me now. I like the euphemism of the "love grip," which I find funny while it probably horrified his audience, but I totally agree about the trained soprano.]

...

And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of
heaven...
[The blackberry is the rose that bears fruit. It lives on the fringes and brings sweetness to life, as well as a touch of bitter. There's no bitterness, though, that a touch of salt can't assuage.]

...

I think I could turn and live awhile with the animals ....
they are so placid and self-contained.
I stand and look at them sometimes half the day long,
They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied .... not one is demented with the
mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to another nor to his kind that lived
thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or industrious over the whole earth.

Yeah, I must have dropped my tokens, too, Walt, speaking as one who is demented with the mania of owning things - and not even real things anymore. I don't have room for real things. Now I own virtual things and fritter hours of my time searching for more.

I would enjoy this more if it weren't so ponderous. I'll continue to read Whitman, but I'm relieved to be able to get on with Dickinson and sing all her poems to "The Yellow Rose of Texas."

They Call Me "MISS Coraline"!

Coraline by Neil Gaiman


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Nicely drawn. Good story. I was just reading some graphic novels today and saw it hiding behind Beowulf Glad I saved it for last! Heh, I have some button eyes in Second Life that I think are cute (see above picture), but now they seem a bit more sinister. Good thing I read this in the daytime! I've been acquainted with Russell's artwork (in collaboration with Gaiman) in Neil Gaiman's Murder Mysteries, a very very very creepy book, especially the framework story! This story brought all that horror back to me.

Coraline is bored with her parents and her life, but when presented the opportunity of a life of endless amusement and devoted and doting parents, she chooses the chance to be bored on occasion. The mirror existence turns nightmarish and she embarks on a mini-quest to escape her "other mother," the Beldam. She will submit to having the button eyes sewn on if she can't locate her parents (in a rather obvious place, I thought) and the souls of three other children who were duped before her. All she has to help her are her courage, the cat, and a talisman: a rock with a hole in it. Oh, and those three kids.

And I wonder if that well is deep enough ...

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POST Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book has all the elements of the usual mystery story, but somehow seems to surprise. I didn't yell at this book once. The only quibble I have is that, unless someone in the de Luce family was an insane horticulturist that brought a sprig back as a specimen from a trip to North America, plants that produce urushiol don't grow in Britain. Okay, maybe it was a mango tree, but it sounded very much to me like it was poison ivy.
Aside from that, it was great fun! Flavia, the 11 year old chemist, is confronted with a mystery when she finds a man dying in the cucumber patch. [Note: I thought that type of poisoning was supposed to be instantaneous.] She must solve the mystery because her father has been detained, helping police with their inquiries and being fitted up. He, in turn, is covering for someone else.
Can Flavia exonerate her father before either the real murderer or one of her sadistic older sisters gets her? Read on!

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What's the Point?

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell


My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I am in the position of having two interests that need marketing, my job and my husband's business. When I started doing programming at the library, we couldn't do enough. Storytimes were increasing to satisfy demand. Now, there are times when no one shows up. There are a number of reasons for this, one of which is, unbelievably, that there are still people out there who don't know what the library does despite newspaper, radio, and posters. All this talk of viral marketing seems like the last hope - but none of it seems to work. And Gladwell's book seems to explain why.
There are just three factors to tip something over the edge: the influential few, stickiness, and context. There was some context we had no control over. The rules for transporting children changed and became much more stringent. Home Child Care people were no longer able to bring their charges to a storytime. We still had a few of the larger corporate facilities that could transport, but fewer came. If the smaller ones can't afford it or aren't able, you cut out a huge audience. And if the kids can't say they went to the library that day, the parents stop thinking about it. We are doing outreach to the bigger groups, but it isn't the same.
We finally have someone in our department who is a connector. This can help. I'm not sure what could be sticky about library programming.
This book started off being exciting, but I lost that interest as I went on (and it's not that long of a book). Eventually, I was only vaguely interested on how demonizing cigarettes and other drugs has absolutely, positively not worked and just glanced over the rest.

Thinking further about marketing needs here, while a new library will raise our profile, that's a factor that will lose its sheen after a while. [I'm still annoyed by the patron who said, "No offense, but this is the most depressing library I've ever been in." I've been in lots more depressing libraries than this. I thought our children's room was pretty colorful and had lots of interesting features!] If the general public is anything like me, they go home and stay there. It's just too exhausting to go out again. If their kids aren't lobbying to go to the library, very few will venture out of the cocoon. While we have an annual library card drive for the youngest kids in school, how many of those actually come in once they've received their card? We have anecdotal stories of parents being dragged in by a kid that's just gotten a card, but if all the kids who received library cards since I've been typing them up have come in, why are there any books on these shelves at all?
It's stickiness. We need to work on that.

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Early Literacy Re-Training!

When I signed up for this, I was sure it included some Mother Goose On the Loose training, which I hadn't had, but was glad to have some of the Every Child Ready To Read re-training in any case. MGOTL was not in evidence, but a worthwhile day was spent on ECRTR. This is at least the third time that I have been trained in this and I think it's great stuff. It's nice to have it refreshed and because you have new people with you, you get more ideas on how to use it than just a presenter can provide.

The class was presented by Susan Bard who was very energetic. I'd have been more energetic myself if some of the songs and movement things we did weren't making me dizzy. I had dinged my forehead on the bathroom stall door (something another librarian also did shortly after I was settled down with my feet up and a bag of ice on my head) which served mostly to keep me awake all day.

ECRTR is designed to make it easy and palatable to share early literacy tips with parents and caregivers during storytimes. Bite-size, manageable pieces of information are coupled with modeling during the storytime so that parents are "indoctrinated" in best practices practically without realizing it. The resources are also available online (also in Spanish) for those who didn't have a throbbing forehead to keep them awake - but, honestly, these classes are so much fun you don't want to miss any of it.

Recommendations of great storytime picture books and audio abound. Those I particularly noted were:

Cha Cha Chimps by Judy Durango
Shark in the park by Nick Sharratt
Dinosaur Roar by Paul Strickland
Pío Peep by Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy
Flower Garden by Eve Bunting
Bark George by Jules Feiffer

Audio
Diaper Gym
Whaddaya Think Of That by Laurie Berkner
Toddlers Sing Playtime (actually, recordings of toddlers singing creeps me out)

Babies have 100 billion little brain cells to work with when they are born. They develop connections (synapses) primarily through sensory experiences. They will make more of these connections with higher seratonin levels, which come about from pleasurable experiences. Connections are inhibited by cortisol, which is released under stress, such as neglect and abuse, but they can also be stressed by the unreasonable expectations of the parent, childcare provider, or even the crabby librarian with the big lump on her head. Little kids have short attention spans and are apt to try to get up and walk around. It doesn't mean they aren't still listening. We need to let parents/caregivers know at the start that a little wiggle is okay. If a child gets bored, he can be removed, but he can also come back if he's settled down.

Kids get all these sensory experiences and then the ones that aren't experienced over and over are eventually pruned, which helps organize the brain. Those paths revisited can be early literacy skills that the child will need to learn to read and read with ease later. Before you can read, you need to know the words; the more words the child hears, the more will be recognized when seen printed, so talking to the child is important. Before you can read, you need to recognize shapes, because letters come in shapes. Shape recognition is good for babies. Letter recognition can begin with toddlers. And all this needs to be fun, not drills with flashcards. You don't need to be able to read to provide these early literacy skills to your child. You don't need to speak English - because all that knowledge is commutative from one language to another: hearing separate sounds/phonemes, connecting sounds with the shapes of letters, how a book works, etc.

The parents are the first and best teachers. They spend the most time with the children and the children model their behavior based on the adults they see the most - for good or ill.

None of this synapse connecting can wait for school. These are skills a kid needs to know before she gets to school:

Print Motivation - enjoying books and reading
Phonological Awareness - hearing the distinct sounds in words and being able to play with them
Vocabulary - hearing the words so when they are seen in print, there is recognition
Narrative Skills - knowing stories have a beginning, middle, and end; following sequences; describing an activity
Print Awareness - recognizing print in the environment, being familiar with books
Letter Knowledge - recognizing one letter as distinct from another and knowing it can have more than one form (upper/lower cases, for instance).

Alphabet knowledge at entry into Kindergarten is a strong predictor of reading ability in 10th grade. Children from lower income groups have 25 hours of contact with picture book reading compared to over 1,200 hours for middle income children. 60% of kids are going to find learning to read difficult. As librarians we are in a position to make that process more fun by providing great materials and modeling best practices for the benefit of the caregivers. Encourage the parents to allow the children to pick out their own books and be sure to let them choose some non-fiction books as well as story picture books.

Now, that's all the general stuff. Let's get down to specifics that I needed reminding on!

Remember, only one early literacy skill per storytime! And just mention it briefly, paraphrased from the "What Can I Say" list in your own words, about three times during the storytime. That's all you have to do. It helps to write it out ahead and practice it.

Talking uses four parts of the brain and in a small child this can take some time because the neural pathways are still being built. Be sure to give 5 seconds response time to a young child. If there are older siblings, they might want to butt in, but let the young one finally get the answer out.

Use dialogic questions - you know, the ones that don't have yes or no answers. This isn't the best idea during a story if you have a group, but works well one on one. With a group you can ask that kind of question at the beginning or the end of the story, as in Bark, George - you can ask What happened, Why is George saying hello instead of barking, Where's the vet?!

Read to kids the books you like. Read books the kids like. Read books with movements. Be a Fierce Dinosaur! Be a meek dinosaur.

Never substitute an easy word. Use the "rare words" - and define them as you go along. If it's an object, point to a picture of it. If it's an action, act it out. Give a synonym: That's another word for _____. Let parents know, "You may have noticed there were some rare words in that story ..."

The early literacy skill of the week could be put on a handout that they take home after the storytime (the one, maybe, that you have the song lyrics and fingerplays on so that the caregivers can sing along) and/or that sits out for the general public all week. Remember to invite the caregivers to take part at the beginning of storytime so that the shyer children will feel secure in participating (and so they won't sit gossiping in the back, which is sometimes a problem in my storytimes).

Here's a nice way to start: hold up a picture of a clock and say, "Thank you for coming on time!" And remind them to turn their cellphones off. Do this each time to be consistent.
I have a little song I sing:
I went to the storytime [can substitute "puppet show"] with my mom
But she left her cellphone on.
The cellphone rang and she took the call.
Now we're not allowed back in at all!
Then I have the kids pretend to turn off their "cellphones" and put them away in their pockets. They actually enjoy doing this and there's usually an adult who goes "OH!" and scrambles for the cellphone. There is hardly anything more annoying than someone whose phone rings, she answers it, and says, "Oh, we're at storytime at the library!" and keeps talking.

There was a nice sheet on Challenges and Problem Solving, but there was nothing in there about the distraction of a child throwing up and then a clean-up committee coming in to take care of that. I decided that I didn't have anything more interesting than that prepared so we watched them until they were done and then went on with the storytime.

If anyone has a chance to attend one of these workshops, I highly recommend it. I even recommend going again and again.

Top 100 Children's Books

The Top 100 Children's Books list from the School Library Journal poll. I tried linking, but my HTML was not accepted.

I've bolded (hee, is that a real verb now?) the ones I have read. I've only read half of them! There may be a couple more that I missed. I may have read Pippi Longstocking as a child, but have forgotten. I thought I'd read all the Roald Dahl children's books, but the plot to Matilda escapes me. Some of these I'm interested in reading and some I have absolutely no interest in (like the Laura Ingalls Wilder stories). In any event, what I great job I have that I can sit around and read fun books with impunity! Wheeee! Take that, Wall Street!

100. The Egypt Game - Snyder (1967)
99. The Indian in the Cupboard - Banks (1980)
98. Children of Green Knowe - Boston (1954)
97. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane - DiCamillo (2006)
96. The Witches - Dahl (1983)
95. Pippi Longstocking - Lindgren (1950) may have read ... got the idea anyway.
94. Swallows and Amazons - Ransome (1930)
93. Caddie Woodlawn - Brink (1935) Planning on reading at some point.
92. Ella Enchanted - Levine (1997)
91. Sideways Stories from Wayside School - Sachar (1978)
90. Sarah, Plain and Tall - MacLachlan (1985)89. Ramona and Her Father - Cleary (1977) I've read 2 or 3 Cleary books. They all slur together.
88. The High King - Alexander (1968) Read The Book of Three and Lost Interest.
87. The View from Saturday - Konigsburg (1996)
86. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Rowling (1999)85. On the Banks of Plum Creek - Wilder (1937) Bleagh, no thanks.
84. The Little White Horse - Goudge (1946)
83. The Thief - Turner (1997)
82. The Book of Three - Alexander (1964) Ho hum. Don't need to read any more of them.
81. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon - Lin (2009)
80. The Graveyard Book - Gaiman (2008) Literally broke down and cried when I heard this won the Newbery. Not sure why. I hadn't even read it. Just happy for Gaiman, I guess.
79. All-of-a-Kind-Family - Taylor (1951)
78. Johnny Tremain - Forbes (1943) I keep looking at this thinking I should read it.
77. The City of Ember - DuPrau (2003)
76. Out of the Dust - Hesse (1997) A novel in verse? I thought this was going to be ghastly, so I started 1/3 of the way in (the way I handle books I think I won't like - get the exposition out of the way. I can always go back and start over) and immediately realized I would have to ... go back and start over.
75. Love That Dog - Creech (2001) Hmm, may read.
74. The Borrowers - Norton (1953) Will put on To Read list.
73. My Side of the Mountain - George (1959)
72. My Father's Dragon - Gannett (1948) Grew up with these books.
71. The Bad Beginning - Snicket (1999) Read a few of these, that was enough.70. Betsy-Tacy - Lovelae (1940)
69. The Mysterious Benedict Society - Stewart ( 2007)
68. Walk Two Moons - Creech (1994)
67. Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher - Coville (1991) Read some of his other books ... will think about it.
66. Henry Huggins - Cleary (1950)
65. Ballet Shoes - Stratfeild (1936)
64. A Long Way from Chicago - Peck (1998) Can't recommend highly enough. Wish I could grow up to be Grandma Dowdel.
63. Gone-Away Lake - Enright (1957)
62. The Secret of the Old Clock - Keene (1959) Of course!
61. Stargirl - Spinelli (2000)
60. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle - Avi (1990)
59. Inkheart - Funke (2003) Mmnnnrrrr, I don't know. Read The Thief Lord and wasn't that impressed.
58. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase - Aiken (1962) Love, love, LOVE Joan Aiken's stuff! Must read. The library didn't have it back 14 years ago when I was reading The Stolen Lake.
57. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 - Cleary (1981)
56. Number the Stars - Lowry (1989) Can't read Holocaust stories - they give me nightmares.
55. The Great Gilly Hopkins - Paterson (1978) Looks harmless enough.
54. The BFG - Dahl (1982)
53. Wind in the Willows - Grahame (1908)
52. The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007) Very imaginative and able to spark more imagination.
51. The Saturdays - Enright (1941)
50. Island of the Blue Dolphins - O'Dell (1960)
49. Frindle - Clements (1996)
48. The Penderwicks - Birdsall (2005) Listened to the audiobook and nearly vomited through the whole thing.
47. Bud, Not Buddy - Curtis (1999) Nothing can hold a candle to TWGTB-1963. It was okay.
46. Where the Red Fern Grows - Rawls (1961)
45. The Golden Compass - Pullman (1995) Read the whole series. Phew!
44. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing - Blume (1972) Might have read this.
43. Ramona the Pest - Cleary (1968) Might have read this as well.
42. Little House on the Prairie - Wilder (1935) Forget. It.
41. The Witch of Blackbird Pond - Speare (1958)
40. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Baum (1900)39. When You Reach Me - Stead (2009)
38. HP and the Order of the Phoenix - Rowling (2003)37. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - Taylor (1976) Should read.
36. Are You there, God? It's Me, Margaret - Blume (1970)
35. HP and the Goblet of Fire - Rowling (2000)
34. The Watson's Go to Birmingham - Curtis (1995) After reading this I thought it was a crime that it didn't get the Newbery ... until I realized it was up against Holes. That must've been a hard, hard decision.
33. James and the Giant Peach - Dahl (1961) The first book a librarian ever recommended to me that I liked. In fact, I loved this book.
32. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - O'Brian (1971)31. Half Magic - Eager (1954)
30. Winnie-the-Pooh - Milne (1926)
29. The Dark Is Rising - Cooper (1973) I had to listen to the audio of this because reading it was too intense an experience!
28. A Little Princess - Burnett (1905) Read this every month for years and cried my little heart out. Prefer The Secret Garden now. Don't need any help crying. 27. Alice I and II - Carroll (1865/72)26. Hatchet - Paulsen (1989) Read Paulsen's accounts of his real life experiences and it made me terrified of moose attacks. Think I'll pass.
25. Little Women - Alcott (1868/9)
24. HP and the Deathly Hallows - Rowling (2007) Too long. Too much wandering around in the woods.
23. Little House in the Big Woods - Wilder (1932)
22. The Tale of Despereaux - DiCamillo (2003) Mnyeh.
21. The Lightening Thief - Riordan (2005) Update: Tried to read this. Gave up. And I was a big fan of Greek mythology. Oh well.
20. Tuck Everlasting - Babbitt (1975)
19. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Dahl (1964)18. Matilda - Dahl (1988) Thought I'd read all of these.
17. Maniac Magee - Spinelli (1990)
16. Harriet the Spy - Fitzhugh (1964) Not sure what the point of this book is.
15. Because of Winn-Dixie - DiCamillo (2000)
14. HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban - Rowling (1999) My favorite of these.
13. Bridge to Terabithia - Paterson (1977)
12. The Hobbit - Tolkien (1938)11. The Westing Game - Raskin (1978)
10. The Phantom Tollbooth - Juster (1961)9. Anne of Green Gables - Montgomery (1908) My sister's favorite book. Also an Anne with an "E."
8. The Secret Garden - Burnett (1911)7. The Giver -Lowry (1993)
6. Holes - Sachar (1998) Excellent story. Movie didn't ruin it either (helps for the author to write the screenplay).
5. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - Koningsburg (1967)
4. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - Lewis (1950) Not much value as a story and a bit hit-you-over-the-head as allegory.
3. Harry Potter #1 - Rowling (1997)
2. A Wrinkle in Time - L'Engle (1962)
1. Charlotte's Web - White (1952)

Oy! It's Raining Mrs. Danvers!

First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was hard to follow. I think the Nursery Crimes stories are more linear. Well, you get into time travel and everything goes arse over bristols, dunnit? There are so many minor plots going on, just like one of them tv shows with all the interweaving plots that are supposed to be making us smarter. I guess I just haven't been watching them.
Thursday's troubles are legion in this book: a teenage son who resolutely behaves like a teenage son and not the chronoguard genius he grew up to be that she met in other stories; she's mentoring both of her fictional selves at Jurisfiction, book reading is declining fast and the fictional world only has crackpot ideas for reviving it; apparently history is going to fold up on itself and time as we know it will end because they've neglected to invent time travel and have been merely accomplishing it on the strength of it having been invented at some point; and, Where's Jenny? Also, everyone's trying to kill her as usual.
It's just so nice to see a 50+ female character with a family and a nice job laying carpet (ha!) so active!
Am still listening to the audiobook, which is okay, but doesn't have the characterization to it that, say, Nigel Planer brings to things.

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Lovejoy Is For Real!

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The jury is still out as to whether this book is not about what it says it's about or it's not about what the reader interpreted from the cover that it was going to be about. Phew! Say that five times fast! Sorry about that, been reading too many Pauline letters.
The title might mislead one into thinking it's some sort of self-help book: the power of thinking without thinking. Hmmmm. What it shows is that there is a difference between expert opinion developed over years of study that sums up a new situation in a blink and what is patently just stereotyping out of ignorance. Black person [blink!:] baaad! Lovejoy (fictional antiques "divvie" and crime solver) looks at something from someone's basement [blink!:] genuine treasure!
The lesson here is that you can override your best instincts if you want something to be true or you can overcome your worst instincts and make the world a better place. You choice is being gulled into buying hugely expensive but worthless stuff and killing innocent people. It's all up to you! Take your pick.
The author also discovered that, despite his black heritage, he carries the baggage of negative associations with being black. You can't help it when you are immersed in what is predominantly white culture. (I pulled a quote on this when I was reading that should show up.)

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Confessions of a PDR

The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Fforde again injects silliness for its own sake into what this time is a typical Ken Follett tale. DCI Jack Spratt is taken off a case before it even starts, which queers his bid to enter the Guild of Detectives. He is on forced medical leave until it is determined he's sane enough to continue ... in a job where a little insanity helps. The case is the escape of the same serial killer he captured previously - who will certainly want his revenge, right? But there's much more than that - National Security is involved and, worse yet, his wife doesn't know he's a PDR, a person of dubious reality. What if she finds out? Who is killing champion cucumberistas? How are those bears getting their paws on controlled substances, such as ... porridge? Where's that Dorian Gray guy who sold Spratt his car?
There were so many characters that actually appeared (as opposed to mentioned or referred to or already deceased) in this book that I filled a whole 8 1/2 x 11" sheet of paper trying to keep track of them! I'm wavering between 3 and 4 stars, but hey! The piece about Pippa's pregnancy is just so precious!
Fforde sends up so many thriller/detective story conventions in this story that you wonder what's left to skewer in the sequels!

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Virtually Good Read!

Virtually Dead by Peter May


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
My heart is still hammering! Stayed up to 1 am to finish and then couldn't sleep. I like this book so much because I'm familiar with Second Life and I can relate to a lot of it on that level (by alternately going, "Oh, yeah - that's sooo SL!" and "You Can't Do That!" It's as exciting as seeing your home town featured in a book. It's like going to see "Ghostbusters" while living in Manhattan and watching some of the filming. My SL quibbles are all minor. There's not enough bad spelling in the chat dialogue (which I always think adds to the fun if not the realism - but I can see why you don't want to put out a book full of typos), if any. There was some lipservice paid to the abominable English perpetrated by otherwise very clever builders and scripters, but it just doesn't give the savor of the Real SL experience - "LOL" - that I find so delightful and that I, too, mine for humor.
So now I have to pull myself back and look at it as a "thriller" (because apparently women write mysteries but men write thrillers). It certainly has all the elements:
betrayal - check!
false identities - check!
switchbacks -check!
"dead herrings" [personal in-joke:] - ... umm, check!
transgenders - check!
and cybersex - wowza!
(okay, that last one wasn't typical thriller material). The protagonist definitely has his share of agony: emotional, personal, financial, and professional. (On top of it all, his co-workers have a sick, sick, sick sense of humor.)
May was also forced to use the rather hackneyed Villain Monologizes To Explain What Happened, but that's a tough one to get around. The chase scenes inside SL and Michael's struggles outside were exciting, the Villain's Master Plan was needlessly but delightfully convoluted, and the ending was sweet.
In short, it was good enough that I wish there was more of it, and, good thing my therapist doesn't make me walk through pools of blood!

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The Cat Sat on the Mat ... And Took Notes.

Cat Breaking Free: A Joe Grey Mystery by Shirley Rousseau Murphy


My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Once I get past the problem of talking cats: talking, crime-fighting housecats ... come to think of it, maybe I can't get past that. This is definitely a series for cat lovers: soppy, anthropomorphizing cat lovers. Okay, I pretend my cats talk, but I don't go much beyond "Why don't you feed me?" and "Pet me, damn you, pet me!" and "I. Hate. You." I don't imagine some rich, inner life wherein they can reason, read (how does a cat learn to read when human children take years to learn and develop fluidity?), discuss clues, or call each other on cell phones.
I mean, try to imagine a cat manipulating a cell phone. I can hardly punch those buttons and I have opposable thumbs!
But once you get past that ...
And I also had trouble with the names of characters. Murphy has a tendency to give lead female characters masculine names: Ryan and Charlie. I'm still not sure about Scotty. Might be a woman, might not. This makes keeping track of people very confusing, even with the list I made of people and the names of their pets. It's a rather extensive list.
But once you get past that - no, really. It was an interesting mystery about, gosh, real crime! Real crime like burglary! Oh, and some murder. It might have been interesting as well if some humans were actually involved in detection! More than, say, informing the cats. Let's just be glad that these cats don't have opposable thumbs or they'd be running southern California.
I think now I'll read something more sensible, like Fforde's The Big Over Easy.

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