Just so's you know, when I visited the Tompkins Square branch of NYPL last night, the hold books were no longer indicated by people's full names. So yay!
Now, if only they'd had the book Library Elf told me was ready for pick up! Granted, I'd hadn't been notified by NYPL itself, so I guess they still need to work out their syncing in the new catalog.
The following article was originally published in The U*N*A*B*A*S*H*E*D Librarian, a magazine for which I am a Contributing Editor, though I haven't contributed very much lately. Interested in writing for us? Pitch me something!
I was a reluctant Tweeter, but thought I would stick a toe in the microblogging pool by creating a Twitter account for the Barnard Library. I want to share that experience and give you just a small amount of background on Twitter and microblogging.
Just kidding about the "lady." Don't worry; it's WOMEN ETHNOBOTANISTS.
I also take up an old rant on FAT POWER.
Carla Olivares spends a year in Mexico City trying to engage with the Chicano side of her heritage. At first she spends time only with fellow expats, starting with her trustafarian (her description) ex-boyfriend with whom she lives with for the first few months. She knows very little Spanish in the beginning of the story, but as she works at immersing herself in Mexican culture, she also learns the language.
This was a quick and somewhat tearful read. The teenage narrator, a talented classical musician in a coma after a car accident, must decide whether to live or die. While this is an affecting book and an interesting premise, I think there could have been more complexity on the death side. But maybe that's just a middle-aged reader of YA lit talking. I think teens will appreciate the drama.
I had to close some Firefox tabs because my computer was breathing heavy trying to support them all. But as I've said before, I can't just close tabs without taking care of them in some way--tagging them to delicious, doing the task that they remain open until I've done (usually adding a new library to my zine libraries list), or blogging them here.
Click "read more" (or whatever it says) for annotations:
Dick-lit. If I had to write a two word review of this book, that would be it. It's amusing, shallow, the boy gets the girl, and there's a fair amount of gross-out violence along the way. Although frat boys don't do too well in this book, they're a good audience for it. The author reveals himself—or at least the narrator—to be something of a liberal by ragging on Fox News, but really, if your politics go much deeper than Fox's, you might find parts of this book offensive.
This week on LCSH Watch
As regular readers of my zine know, Celia Perez is one of my best friends and favorite zine writers. Therefore it shouldn't surprise you that hers is one of the rare zines I'm including in my reading log. Since I read so many zines for work, it's just not practical for me to review all of them here, so I just write up my very favorites, and I don't even get around to them half the time.
Anyway, this issue of I Dreamed I Was Assertive is one of those zines that make me wish I was a better writer. I'm kind of ashamed that my messy old zines were next to Celia's on our table at the NYC Zine Fest! Oops, I'm making this about me, so I'll get back to IDIWA…