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If I Stay
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.
reviewdate:
Jul 7 2009
isn:
978-0-525-42103-0
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July 7, 2009 Link Digest
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:
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Breathers: a Zombie's Lament
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.
reviewdate:
Jul 5 2009
isn:
978-0-7679-3061-1
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LCSH Week 22
This week on LCSH Watch
- Cranberry girdler (pictured below)
- Illegal buildings
- Smoking stands (Ashtrays)
- Student response systems
I Dreamed I Was Assertive, #12
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…
reviewdate:
Jun 28 2009
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Wild Ginger
Finally, I'm back to some literary fiction by a woman of color. I apologize if that sounds fetishistic, but seriously, other than vampire books, that's what I like to read best! This coming of age novel takes place in Shanghai during the good old days of the Cultural Revolution and is told by Maple, a poor girl from a suspect family. (Her schoolteacher father made some unfortunate comments about Mao that landed him in jail.) Maple makes friends with Wild Ginger, who is one quarter French and therefore also branded counterrevolutionary. But really, Wild Ginger is a hardcore Maoist whose devotion to the man and the cause first elevate and then destroy her.
Quotations:
"Be careful with that statue," she warned as he turned. Toward the entrance there stood a life-size glow-in-the-dark Mao sculpture, its right hand waving above the head in the air. p.106
POTENTIAL SPOILER
"Yes! Do that again Maple, yes!"
"Chairman Mao teaches us…"
"No."
"Come on, Evergreen!"
"'People…people of the world, unite and defeat the U.S. aggressors and all their running dogs! People of the world, be courageous, dare to fight, defy difficulties, and advance wave upon waves.'"
"'Keep pushing the cart,' Maple!"
"'Keep pushing the cart until…until we reach the Communist heaven!'"
"Oh Maple, the blind woman is picking the peaches."
"And the blind woman has caught a fat fish—this is a miracle."
"Do the quotations!"
"You armchair revolutionary!"
He groaned, "Oh! Chairman Mao!" p.151
reviewdate:
Jul 1 2009
isn:
0-618-06886-4
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Veteran Librarians in Academic Newswire
I wrote a four part article for Library Journal's Academic Newswire. The introduction and first part came out today. In the series, I interview several librarians who have been working in librarianship for 20+ years about the present and future of academic libraries.
LCSH Week 21: feminist response to bottles in literature
Library of Congress Subject Headings Weekly List 21 (May 27, 2009)
This week on LCSH Watch
- Bottles in literature
- College catalogs CANCEL
- Several UFs for Regulatory reform
- Hierarchies in literature
- Manx fiction (English)
- Naval pottery
- Rogue waves
- Spotted lady beetle
- Surrealism in mass media
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Love & Lies: Marisol's Story
Love & Lies is billed as a companion to Wittlinger's Hard Love, a YA novel with zine publishers as its main characters. Sadly this installment doesn't involve zines--and weirdly none of the characters seem to be vegetarian, much less vegan--but it is still a compelling read.
reviewdate:
Jun 27 2009
isn:
978-1-4169-1623-9