Opps Again

Well this is just embarrassing.

Review: Ashen Winter

Book: Ashen Winter
Author(s): Mike Mullin
Length: 576 pages
Publisher: Tanglewood PressPublication Date: October 14, 2012
Why I Picked It Up: I really enjoyed the first book in this new series, Ashfall, and was lucky enough to receive a digital ARC of Ashen Winter.

I got into a discussion with a colleague recently about fads in YA fiction and more specifically about how publishers seem to be latching onto a premise and beating it to death. We saw this with vampires in the wake of the Twilight craze, which extended to other paranormal creatures and romantic relationships with humans. And while there were plenty of YA vampire and other paranormal novels and series that I really enjoyed, at a certain point I would just have to roll my eyes at some of these books because obviously a werewolf showed up.

Dystopian/apocalyptic YA fiction is starting  to feel a bit like that for me. Again, not that there aren't plenty of titles that I enjoy, I just am finding it harder to be surprised by the unraveling of the fabric of society. Which is why I was so pleasantly surprised by Mullin's first book Ashfall and this sequel Ashen Winter.  Although there were elements of the story I felt I had seen in this genre previously I never had that 'of course' feeling I previously mentioned. It's incredibly exciting with excellent pacing, with enough tension and surprises to keep the reader interested, but not so over the top that it feels ridiculous (though it does skirt the line at times).Here is the Goodreads description:



It’s been over six months since the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano. Alex and Darla have been staying with Alex’s relatives, trying to cope with the new reality of the primitive world so vividly portrayed in Ashfall, the first book in this series. It’s also been six months of waiting for Alex’s parents to return from Iowa. Alex and Darla decide they can wait no longer and must retrace their journey into Iowa to find and bring back Alex’s parents to the tenuous safety of Illinois. But the landscape they cross is even more perilous than before, with life-and-death battles for food and power between the remaining communities. When the unthinkable happens, Alex must find new reserves of strength and determination to survive.
As I said I really enjoyed this book for several reasons. First of all the main character, Alex, is male, making this book appealing to both boys and girls, something eminently appealing to a librarian who at times struggles with recommending books for boys. In all honesty, male characters really tend to get the shaft in dystopian YA fiction, as they all seem to be a bit weak and completely dependent on the strong female main charaner for survival. What this is a function of, I couldn't really explain, but I did appreciate that I felt Alex was a powerful individual on his own, with or without his girlfriend Darla. At the same time Alex is shown as having a much softer side than is generally expected in a teenaged boy, making him much more 3 dimensional that male teenaged characters are generally portrayed.

What I appreciated most about Ashen Winter, was the addition of a couple new characters, not that I don't love Alex and Darla, but there were times when I was a little tired of reading how in love there were, how clever mechanically Darla was, and finally how they managed to figure out a way of yet another sticky situation, but more on that in a bit. The addition of Ben, an autistic teenager with an obsession for all things military was in particular very welcome in that it seemed like a plans and knowledge actually had a source rather than being just a lucky break for Alex and Darla. I also particularly like the portrayal of Ben as an autistic person, as his character and personality came out in bits and pieces, an enforced the reminder that although someone with autism may appear to not function as expected socially, there is a very real personality and point of view there, with definite value to the workings of society.

Another thing I would like to emphasis is that Ashen Winter does not seem to fall into the trap that second books in series so often do, in that at no point did I feel the entire purpose of the second book was to get between the first and third books. That's not to say that Ashen Winter could  completely stand on its own or that it isn't very obviously part of a series, but it is an excellent book in its own right and not just a piece of a series. I attribute this to the action and plot still being very much the forefront of the novel and not slipping into the pattern of letting the main character become to heavily introspective of the changing world and his or her place in that. That sort of introspection is not absent, not should it be, as it allows the character to grow and take a firmer place in the circumstance of the novel, but I didn't feel like I spent this whole book gazing at Alex's navel.

There were a few things I didn't like. First, the fact that so many different situations seemed to arise was a little distracting. Obviously I have not lived through a volcanic winter featuring cannibals, slavers, and corrupt government contractors, but towards the end I did really just want things to stop happening and just wrap it up, because really what could possibly happen now! Also, the relationship between Darla and Alex felt a little intense at points for people who have only know each other a few months. Yes, teenaged relationships are intense and I'm sure a life or death situation would exaggerate that, but for me it's not necessarily believable that a 16 year old who is not completely emotionally developed would be willing to put himself in so much danger. In addition, may I repeat these two are only 16 and 18 respectively, another point I feel is a bit far fetched of just how mature they often behaved as well as how much knowledge they seemed to possess about really random things.  Those few things were my only complaints and in comparison to how much I enjoyed the rest of the book, thy were really minor and honestly not even really distraction to the experience of reading Ashen Winter. 

My rating: Although I'm getting a bit tired of society falling apart in YA fiction this is still a great first series and definitely worth a look

Oops

I never claimed to be able to keep this updated consistently. I will, however, promise to try a bit harder in the future to update at least weekly, if only with book reviews. Watch for a book review tomorrow and a program review later in the week.

Book: Jeneration X
Author(s): Jen Lancaster
Length: 368 pages
Publisher: NAL Hardcover
Publication Date: May 2012
Why I Picked It Up: I love me some Jen Lancaster.


I'm a longtime Jen Lancaster fan. I first read Bitter is the New Black and quickly tore through Bright Lights, Big Ass which is the only other book she had out at the time. I have really enjoyed all her subsequent books, and have also become a regular reader of her blog. Before she was a writer of memoirs and one piece of fiction, she was a blogger, an endeavor she started during an extended period of unemployment. I have to say there is not one book that I think I like more than any other, though if I had to I pick one I liked least I would have to say I enjoyed her one work of fiction, If You Were Here, less than any of her memoirs. This has absolutely nothing to do with the novel,  and everything to do with that I just like her so much!


Jen Lancaster has the most valuable of skills for the memoir writer in that she is completely honest and absolutely fearless in the possibility of looking silly. Also, apart from her writing, which is tight, full of humor, and very intelligent, I can absolutely picture myself turning into her in that I too have very little patience for stupidity and being uncomfortable, have a deep attachment to wine, and am, at times, a little creepy about my pets. Basically, I'm a total fan girl, specifically have avoided her Washington, DC signings as I would make a super fool of myself, and possibly want her to adopt me. Before this turns into (more of) a love letter to Jen Lancaster lets turn to her newest book.


Lancaster's latest memoir is a collection of stories/essays which highlight different lessons she sees as essential to adulthood, as well as a pay homage to her own generation, which she feels is the one that is 'working' in today's world, with boomers sinking their money into nonsensical business ventures and the younger generation laying in their parent's darkened basements, playing Words with Friends on their iPods, and waiting for an employer to walk through the door and beg them to work. As a member of the younger working generation who may or may not be having a non-sexual affair with her various iProducts I feel I should possibly take offense at this description, but truly I get it. I would love to discount myself from this group and point to my 13 years of official work life (I'll be 28 at the end of May) or my current 2 jobs, but really can't as I too have found myself whining about what  to anyone older than me is just paying dues in the working world. And therein is the charm of Lancaster as such blunt honesty presented in such a humorous way forces the reader to not only accept their own flaws, but also to laugh at themselves. I also really enjoyed this book as someone who has recently landed in the first position that I consider a Career rather than just a job and because of that have begun to think about 'growing up'. This book reminds me that I don't have to figure it out immediately (Lancaster recounts several 'backslides'), nor do I have completely give up my antics (Lancaster gets hammered in her college stomping grounds), trashy television (Lancaster enjoys much of the same terrible reality TV and sitcoms I do), or childish loves (Lancaster collects Mad Men Barbies). It's actually pretty comforting.


My rating: Definitely pick it up sooner rather than later!


*Image from Goodreads.

Book Club Love

I love book clubs. A venue whose entire reason for existence is to sit around and discuss a book that everyone in the group has read. Sign. Me. Up. Bonus points if snacks are provided and please be prepared to have to ask me to leave your house if there is wine provided. Now the book club model is pretty simple and something that doesn't require a whole lot of explanation. I, however, do love to complicate things and dream of themed book clubs. Here are some of them:

1. A Non-Book Discussion Book Club: This is weird one and honestly, I'm not even sure I would be able to figure out how to make it work in a sustainable way. The basic idea is that everyone reads the same book, but instead of talking about the book: characters, writing style, story, etc. and, they can talk about things that might be related to the book.  For instance, if the book was The Paris Wife, you can talk about high school and college romances  featuring horrible partners that were endless fascinating at 16 and now sort of make you want to smack your younger self.

2. A Young Adult Book Club for Adults: I have previously said that I love me some young adult literature. I have also very lightly touched on the fact that it is, at times, not as highly respected as I feel it should be. I feel like a book club for adults would give adults a venue to seriously discuss pieces of literature that are ignored as 'literature' simply because their genre contains the word 'young'. Despite the word 'young' these are works with incredible depth and emotional range, with a focus on a time in life that most people remember as transformative and meaningful, whether they were great or sort of miserable. Discussing these titles from a perspective of adult experience inspires a completely different discussion of what the story means than it may from the perspective of a teenager. I think teens should absolutely have their own book clubs as well, but I think adults who enjoy the young adult genre should also be have an opportunity to discuss their reactions.

3. A Wine Tasting Book Club: Enough said. If this requires explanation, either for format or why it would be amazing, I have to doubt your creativity, commitment to being awesome, and general intelligence.

4. A Read Anything Book Club: This is my dream. No really. DREAM. Basically, it's an opportunity to hang out and discuss what you've read lately. I particularly like this idea, especially for a library setting, as it would not require any type of preparation on the part of patrons, which I think would be an attraction for people who think they're too busy to commit to a book club (a claim I take issue with and will no doubt address at some point). I also love this idea as it would work for any age group and could be formalized and made more relaxed as would work in your library. For example, in a book club for children the theme could be siblings, and all kids had to do was find a book whose main character had a sibling. This would allow children to become comfortable talking about books and stories, something I think that increases pleasure in reading, as well give then an opportunity to find something new to read from their peers.

I myself am part of two book clubs currently and could definitely see myself joining more in the future.

Review: Lucky Fools

Book: Lucky Fools
Author(s): Coert Voorhees
Length: 292 pages
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Publication Date: July 2012
Why I Picked It Up: I received an ARC copy via NetGalley.com and had been in no rush to read it until I noticed a blogger I really like had read it on Goodreads.com

There's not much to say about Lucky Fools by Coert Voorhees other than it was fine. The characters were not particularly likable, but never gave me any real reason to dislike them wither. The main point in the book- that of the struggle and the nerves a high school senior experiences while waiting for college acceptance was relatable only in that I have lived through this myself. The book is set in a very wealthy community, were children drive their own BMWs and have no concern as to how they'll pay for college, two things I absolutely cannot relate to in the slightest, still having never owned a new car and sitting on a moutain of debt from bother undergraduate and graduate school as I am at the age of 27. I think my inability to not relate to this part of the novel is much more the standard reaction. I do also feel the characters (and I'm dating myself in this description) were a little "Dawson's Creek", in that they just sounded a little too much like sitcom characters in their late 20s and not real teenagers for me.

Here is the Goodreads description:

David Ellison dreams of acting at Juilliard, but he's expected to attend nearby Stanford University, just like all of his classmates at hard-driving Oak Fields Prep. As if wasting his private school education weren't enough, David is also on track to destroy his relationship with his girlfriend, Ellen, when he finds himself falling for his new co-star, Vanessa.

With David's Juilliard audition approaching, and his relationship teetering on the brink of disaster, Oak Fields is thrown into chaos as a mysterious prankster begins attacking the school's highest achievers, determined to sabotage their college aspirations. Anyone who excels is a potential target, and David, the star of every play, could be next.

From the author of the highly praised The Brothers Torres comes a dangerously insightful book about enduring the pressures of high school, surviving the ins and outs of love, and fighting for your dreams, no matter what.

 Minor complaints aside, I'm certainly not sorry I read this book. It did make me remember with fondness the absurdity of high school love/lust, as well as the completely warped and positively the most fun you'll ever have environment that is high school theater. Additionally, for as much as the characters did not sound like teenagers they were very witty and I laughed several times throughout reading this book. Related to the characters sounding too old was the fact that although their phrasing and vocabulary was too sophisticated, their reactions, motivations, ideas, plans, and emotions were delightfully sophomoric and everything an adult could want in a novel set in high school


My rating: If you come across it, there are worse ways to spend a Saturday afternoon.


*Image from Goodreads.

Program Anxiety

I haven't been working in library very long. Just over 6 months in fact and although there are parts of my job I feel fairly comfortable with and confident that my response will be the right one, I am still struggling with nerves in regards to other responsibilities. The number one part of my job that is causing me stress is program planning.

Now for anyone familiar with current library philosophy you know that the library is no longer the temple of scholarship and silence it once was. In fact the library of today is downright noisy with singing from story time, questions from patrons about job searches and computers, and applause from lecture series. Part of my job is to provide the impetus for this noise in the form of programming. The nice thing is that a program can be almost anything and that my direct manager is all for trying new things. The point being that you never know what will work and will thus bring people to the library as a community center, but also that the worst you can do is fail.

And there's where I get caught- the possibility of failure. I really can think of nothing I fear more than the possibility of failure. I've done a few programs so far and most have been ok. At least one has been great (A Hunger Games Trivia Tournament). But my most recent one can be described as nothing but as failure, as no one came. Not one. single. person. It seemed like such a slam dunk too! It was Wii! For teens! I had chips and dip! Honestly, I would have gone, you know if it wasn't my program and further more deeply creepy for an adult woman to attend a library program aimed at teens. There were reasons the normal crowd of kids I get at my programs weren't there, including choir practice, first week back from spring break attributed lethargy, and a heavier than normal homework load,  but the fact remains not one kid played.

Now I feel shaky. I have another program this week that I know won't be popular (book spine poetry). I've questioned whether I should cancel or just do something like Wii, that I think will be more popular.  Maybe that's the smart thing to do. Truthfully, I've never been accused of being smart all the time, so I'm going to stick with my book spine poetry. In part because I think it will be so much fun to do, but further because although the library is a community  center, and a place for lectures, and games, and even the occasional game of Wii with some chips and dip on the side, at its core I do believe the library is still a place of scholarship and even more important than that a place where literacy and awareness of the larger world can be fostered. Even if my book spine poetry goes over like a lead balloon and if the book clubs for teens and college age students I'm thinking of starting have similar fate in the future, I'll keep trying the literacy based programs, because one is bound to work sometime. Until then I have trivia tournaments, Wii, and crafts to sustain me.

Review: Same Sun Here

Book: Same Sun Here
Author(s): Silas House & Neela Vaswani
Length: 288 pages
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Publication Date: February 2012
Why I Picked It Up: Given to me by the Children's Librarian at the library where I work and I also knew one of the author's would be coming to speak at my library.

You know those books you read and just a few pages in you realize that you're immersing yourself in a story that is just something special. Same Sun Here by Silas House and Neela Vaswani was one of those books for me. Generally a very fast reader, it took me three days to finish this (for me) tiny little book.  I kept picking up other books, magazines, newspapers and even watched much more television than I normally do. I just didn't want me experience with Meena and River (the two main characters) to end.

Here is the Goodreads description:

Meena and River have a lot in common: fathers forced to work away from home to make ends meet, grandmothers who mean the world to them, and faithful dogs. But Meena is an Indian immigrant girl living in New York City’s Chinatown, while River is a Kentucky coal miner’s son. As Meena’s family studies for citizenship exams and River's town faces devastating mountaintop removal, this unlikely pair become pen pals, sharing thoughts and, as their camaraderie deepens, discovering common ground in their disparate experiences. With honesty and humor, Meena and River bridge the miles between them, creating a friendship that inspires bravery and defeats cultural misconceptions. Narrated in two voices, each voice distinctly articulated by a separate gifted author, this chronicle of two lives powerfully conveys the great value of being and having a friend and the joys of opening our lives to others who live beneath the same sun.

This is spot on and I truly couldn't do this books anymore justice than this did. The decision by the authors to each write a separate character was a great one, giving them both a distinctive voice and very clear world view. The related decision to write the book in a series of letters between two characters gave the reader an added dimension of intimacy and camaraderie with the characters that I think is especially important in a children's book. I have sometimes found that books written in letters can a times feel a bit stiff and self-conscious, but Mr. House and Ms. Vaswani completely avoided this and both characters felt real and very natural.

I was doubly lucky that after reading this book I was able to meet Ms. Vaswani in person as she addressed a group of children from a local elementary school and even take a very small part in her presentation and do an introduction to my library and its program prior to her speaking. I was completely star struck and clearly behaved like a huge nerd, but I'm happy to say that both she and her husband (who I also met and whose name I can't remember for the life of me due to all the book fangirl action described here) are incredibly nice and gracious in person and I actually had a hard time not calling her Meena and asking if she wanted to be best friends. Despite my obvious inability to behave like a normal person in social situations, as I said she was incredibly gracious and actually complimented and took a picture of a small display of books I had arranged.

My rating: READ IT ASAP!

*Image from Goodreads.

Guilty Pleasures

As a library school graduate and a lover of books, I'm sure I should be advising people to elevate their lives, morals, minds, and whatever else with educational nonfiction and literary novels, but the fact is I just can't. As interesting as those types of literature can be and as important as those books are, sometimes you're just in the mood for something not that challenging. Everyone's reading related guilty pleasures are different but here are mine:

1. Children's Books: I'm 27, so I have not been the target audience for children's authors for quite some time. This has not stopped me thoroughly enjoying their efforts. It should come as no surprise that there is something inherently soothing about rereading one's favorites from childhood, for me mimicking the kind of comfort that generally comes from being with my parents or sleeping in my childhood bed. For most of my adult life this meant occasional forays into the children's section for specific or pulling out my own well-worn copies of books with which I'd had a long relationship. Since beginning work in a public library setting I have branched out to newer children's titles and have also rediscovered a love of several forgotten favorites. I also cannot minimize the impact of children's nonfiction as the more sophisticated items are many times very engaging and informative. Some of my picks: Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, Ramona, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, and Harriet the Spy

2. Young Adult Ficiton: OH YA LIT! HOW I LOVE YOU! While YA has been around for years it is only within the last 5-10 that it has become the phenomena it now is. Beginning with the Harry Potter craze, titles for young adult readers are more prolific than ever, and a welcome change from my own teen years when I jumped right for Newbery Medal Winners and lighthearted series directly into deeply inappropriate for a 13 year old, but still entertaining romance novels.  There is currently some debate as  to whether adults should be reading young adult novels which I truly don't understand. If the point is the situations are not relevant to adult lives, well I also don't plan on hiding my crazed spouse in the attic, but no one would judge me for reading Jane Eyre. If the concern is the quality of the writing, first I question why are we allowing our children to read something sub-par and second I challenge someone to read a John Green novel and to question the quality of his prose. Finally, if its a question of literary merit, there are plenty of extraordinarily literary YA novels and even if I'm not reading one of them I am not going to read just one novel for the rest of my life and probably not even for the rest of this week.
Some of my picks: The Hunger Games, Graceling series, Ashfall, Vampire Academy, and anything by John Green

3. Romance: And I'm not referring to something like Ian McEwan's Atonement or Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I'm talking trashier the better bodice rippers, bonus points if it includes the words pirate, rouge, or rake in the title. I can't help it, I just love to turn off my mind sometimes and enjoy absurd situations. In all honesty, I usually skip the sex scenes as they generally distract me too much the patently obvious fact that it's actually nothing like the writer's imagination.
Some of my picks: Johanna Lindsay, Nora Roberts, Beatrice Small and Mary Jo Putney are some favorite authors

4. Graphic Novels: Working with children I frequently find that many parents are reluctant to let their children check out too many graphic novels as they identify them too much with comic books. Even in the cases where that's true I am of the mind that no matter what a child is reading, it's just important that they're reading. Besides you never know what someone's "gateway drug" book will be that causes a love of books to all of a sudden click. Beyond that concern there are some wonderfully written and beautifully illustrated graphic novels that can be considered nothing but classics, due to their long lasting effect on the reader. Honestly, this is a genre that I am still discovering, as I myself held comic book prejudice. As a teen I read, and thoroughly enjoyed Maus, which I view as one of the first of the modern graphic novels.  recetly rediscovered the genre through the Walking Dead series and am excited to learn more.
Some of my picks: As I said I'm new to this but right now I have Persepolis, Fables, and Sin City on my reading list.
 
5. Humorous Memoirs: I don't care if it's one person's opinion and if generally it's an actor or comedian with their own agenda. They're engaging and viewing the world through someone else's much funnier  viewpoint often allows me to laugh at myself, an absolutely invaluable skill.
Some of my picks: Tina Fey's Bossypant and Mindy Kalings's Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Well that went on much longer than I thought! Please keep in mind that most of my picks are generally what I have read recently and will probably change by the end of the month.

Why I'm Here

I've always been the girl who loved the library. Always had my nose buried in a book. Knew all the librarians by name and had my card number memorized. Spent evenings quietly in the last study carrel rushing through homework and then devouring books until my parents came to get me for dinner. Even when I went on to college I was one of the few people I knew to bring a stack of books for "fun"reading, when I wasn't otherwise engaged in friends, boys, the occasional bad decision, and, what now feels like, even less occasional studying or class attending.

Eventually I graduated (notice I didn't say grew up) and during my first week in my first ever apartment I made my way to the library for a card. It made me feel like an adult and at home in a city where I had just spent 4 years of college but had never really belonged to until that moment.

As they say, life happened and I worked crappy jobs and racked up huge fines when I got to busy with being young and in my twenties. Unlike many of my friends, coworkers, and peers I loved using public transportation for commuting as it gave me time for reading when I didn't feel I should be doing something else. Public transportation is actually what brought me to where I am right now.

I had been working as an assistant for a trade association for just under a year and wasn't happy. In fairness, I wasn't unhappy either, but writing thank you notes, taking minutes, and answering phones in an industry I found basically boring is just not what I envisioned at 24. I was on the metro one day, on my way to work, and, while I usually immersed myself in whatever I happened to be reading to the point where it was not unknown for me to miss my stop, that day I just couldn't focus. I didn't want to go to work and was, in fact, actively dreading taking minutes for a policy meeting later that afternoon. I thought "Dude, you just have to figure something out" and while I probably meant taking a weekend a way to recharge, it was at that moment I noticed the poster in front of me.

It was an ad for the School of Library and Information Science at my alma mater. "Huh" my mind said "Wouldn't working in a library be awesome?". I didn't admit it to myself yet, but that was the moment I decided to go to library school. I gave my parents, boyfriend, and myself a show of researching for a week, but by the end of the week was registered for the GREs and considering whether to stay in DC or move a bit closer to home with a school in Philadelphia or New Jersey. I eventually ended up in the school that started it all.

The rest as they say is history.