Gene Yang at Cal

Tonight I am going to go a book reading hosted by Cal Berkeley. The guest is Gene Yang. I am very excited. I will tell you all about it when I get back.

If you are in the area, check it out.

booksbooksbooksbooooookssssss

I have processed 230 books today. I am done.

Good Morning!

Just look and see what greeted me as I as prepared to leave for work this morning.
















Did you get a good look? No? Well here is another view just in case.

















Nope, nothing stolen.






















Just broken for the sheer fun of it.

And to think, I worried about not bringing out a towel in order to wipe off my frosted windows.

Library Humor

Since I am so busy and productive on Friday afternoons, I found this blog. Ah, me.
http://lovetheliberry.blogspot.com/

Changes

Maybe it is because it is fall. Maybe because I am approaching the next decade mark in age. Maybe it is just me. But change is in the air.
I like change. Which is strange, given the basic description of my personality. I have a lot of public and personal anxieties. Change, generally, is rather hard for me to embrace. I find it difficult to learn new things. Changes in location leave me feeling homesick for things I can't quite pinpoint.
And yet I crave change. I WANT to to learn and try new things. I even want to move to new places. So I find I am often jump into something new, reel from the shock and absolute, shattering terror of facing something I have not done before and making eye contact with people I have not met before. But over the last ten years I have been following whatever it is in me that promises that I need to keep trying.
So what does that mean for you, blog reader? Well on the cosmetic level it means that the books in my LibraryThing widget will be changing (when I can face tackling the challenge). Yes, unbelievably, I already have and will continue to whittle down my book collection. Independently and now together, my husband and I have been moving towards wanting less stuff. And that has translated to a lot of old paperbacks going to the used bookstore.
Never fear. We will probably always have a few too many books. And I still need to get and get rid of the ones left at my mother's house (I haven't forgotten them, Mom!). We have kept favorites, or ones I know I will read in the next year. But now I will have a shelf that is available for rotation. I will most likely still buy books from the local bookstores. But then they will go back out when I am done with them.
What I am hoping is that this fresh outlook will migrate to the rest of my apartment. That we will get rid of all sorts of junk that is nice, but not necessary. I doubt that I will ever reach this point. But having breathing room - or a coat closet with only coats - would be nice.
And maybe a little more time for more regular posts . . . We'll see.

Oh, how I have grown

Back in high school and early college I worked at a small used bookstore. I applied for the job on the recommendation of Emily and Jenny, my two best friends who already worked there. And yes, it was exactly as awesome as it sounds. Since I have a penchant for old 1970’s era science fiction, paperback mysteries, and the kind of Erma Bombeck books and even YA fiction that most people read once and then get rid of – this was an ideal job for me. Yes, it was a little like an alcoholic working at a bar. I cannot tell you how exponentially that job affected my personal book collection – even accounting for the owner’s “customer first” policies regarding newly acquired books. For the most part, I had access to all sorts of terrific used books.

But occasionally there were specific titles we did not have. As an almost entirely used book store that relied on trade-ins for most of its new inventory, our selection was limited. It was a small store and the owner liked it that way. But it meant that chance determined whether or not we had a specific title on a particular day.

So my friends Jenny and Emily and I would all pack into a car and spend a Saturday afternoon trolling the other used book stores in a 50 mile radius. This was also just as awesome as it sounds. (As you can tell, we were some of the most popular kids at our high school.) But whether or not any of these stores had a specific book I wanted also depended on chance.

Around that time I began to hear radio advertisements for an online used and out of print book retailer: Alibris. In the mid-to-late 1990’s online booksellers had began to move in on the market. When I first heard the ads, the company was still new (It started in 1998. Yes I was finishing high school. Do your own math.) I remember going online and looking for titles that I hadn’t been able to find anywhere else.

I was very excited to locate a copy of a (very indulgent, very silly) gothic called Storm House. This was a book I remembered reading with my sister Laura. We had found it in one of the boxes of books that would make their way to our house from my grandmother’s house in Santa Paula. (Because if someone loves you, they share your books with you. My large Agatha Christie collection also exists due to this same wonderful grandmother.) But over the years, somehow we had lost Storm House. Finding it again after all these years was wonderful. More wonderful than the actual storyline. But hey, I wasn’t picky at ten years old.

My bookstore-working days are now over. Lucky me though, the city I live in seems to be a book heaven. I can reach seven used bookstores (including one exclusively for comics) in just a short bike ride from my home. And this is leaving out the four new bookstores and seven other used bookstores within a ten mile drive. And I won’t even mention that my library has six branches – all in a three mile radius of my home. Am I bragging? Oops!

However, I still occasionally rely on Alibris. I am currently trying to collect every Dorrie the Witch book written by Patricia Coombs. And with all of Alibris’s vendors, I still have access to the widest selection. I love that I can set my preferences by price, condition, seller rating or even date published. I can keep a running wish list of what I am waiting to buy. Yes, you may say all this is available on Amazon. And a lot of it is. But Alibris has the credibility of being independently owned. And although many of the sellers use both theses two vendors, somehow Alibris manages to still have a better variety of choices for most titles. And believe me – I have searched on both.

Which leads me to the original reason why I started this post. Last year I started a new job buying books for a small college library. (Say it with me now – it is as awesome as it sounds). Mostly I rely on large vendors to supply our library with the academic titles we need. However I am regularly asked to purchase a title that is, for one reason or another, hard to find. My first place to look is always Alibris. And I even get to use their super-cool “Alibris for Libraries” site to do so. Because I am now awesome and work in a library. I don’t have to shop at the same site as the rest of the lowly peons.

I like buying from Alibris because it is hands off enough to allow you to get your work done without pestering you to buy more stuff that you are not interested in. But it is also hands on enough that I can say I am on first name basis with their library customer service contact. I choose to pretend that this is not because of an ordering fiasco last December that may or may not have had anything to do with my accidentally ordering three different books twice. In any case, their customer service rep saved my para-professional tuckus. And she did so with graciousness and even good-humor.

However I do have to admit that I am not their exclusive favorite customer. As much as I feel that I am. The truth is: they lavish this kind of attention on all their customers. Every one of their library customers is on first name with the customer service rep.

When I started working in this position the library had used Alibris in the past. But not very often. In fact, since I started doing the purchasing, our library's orders with Alibris went up so dramatically that we got their attention.

Yes folks, today I met with a sales rep from Alibris. A sales rep who came specifically to visit me in order to discuss my purchasing needs and show me exciting options on their website. It may not be quite like being cool enough to meet the Beatles. But it is like being cool enough that their tour manager makes a personal visit in order to book a show at your location.

My book-cool cache just increased.

Mouse Guard Volume One: Fall 1152

(image source: Goodreads)

Hurray for the development of the graphic novel! Again, I don’t know that I think Graphic Novel is the best term. But is all I have, so it is what I will use. And such a broad term has allowed for the development of a wide variety of different and amazing creations.

Sometimes a good story needs to be told both visually and verbally (well, not out loud. Linguistically?). Anyway – in words and in pictures. Together. Sometimes I am looking for a comic. So I buy comics. Sometimes I want a book-book, so I get one of those. But frankly sometimes what I am looking for is a story. I think that there are some stories that just need both formats to tell their tale properly. Mouse Guard Volume One: Fall 1152 by David Petersen is one of those stories.

Let’s start with the art. Amazingly, this book is color throughout, not just on the cover. And the drawing style itself was lovely. The depth of the color, the design of the layout and perspectives, even the type and width of the outlines are all carefully crafted to create a woodsy, earthy mood from the outset. Petersen has mastered the technique of creating images that “tell” the way words do in a typical prose novel.

What pushes his book beyond others is that he also can use words just as effectively. The narration and dialog simply combine with the images, rather than just being used to fill in missing information, the way so many other GN seem to do. And the real center of this story, the characters themselves, were each terrific medieval anthropomorphisms in mouse form. Their personalities and back stories fit neatly within the texture of the art.

The characters, the plotline, and each panel were so thoroughly thought out and seamlessly combined that I was utterly absorbed into the story. I felt like I was reading a retelling of an Arthurian-type legend. David Petersen is a story teller that has found his medium.

My kind of Hiro

(image source: Goodreads)

I have been underground reading for a while and have a backlog of books and comics and graphic novels to talk about. My anti-social behavior is your gain.
This third book on my list of recent reads is Johnny Hiro (vol. 1) by Fred Chao. It is a collection of issues 1 through 3, with two other issues tagging along as well. After reading it, I can see why it garnered four Eisner Awards
I am not an artist, so my impressions and opinions are that of a reader. But as such I thought Chao’s crisp, clean style was terrific. Because a lot of GN pages are black and white, if the images are too busy the art can look messy. My brother – the artist in the family – the first thing he said when I handed him this book was “Wow, it is so clean. This looks great.” That being said, please don’t think that the art was in anyway boring or plain. This story is full of action and each panel somehow manages to have a lot going one. The design of each panel in Johnny Hiro managed to not only maintain simplicity of line, but also express the energy of a fast-paced action adventure.
Speaking of adventure, let’s talk about the story. Or rather, stories. These are just damn good stories. Bad things happen to Johnny and sometimes his girlfriend, Mayumi, too. Then Johnny and sometimes Mayumi - and occasionally Mayor Blumberg - have to fix things. Straightforward and so much fun. Chao’s characters are as genuine and as engaging as is his art.
I really loved Johnny Hiro. Some GN and comics are meant to be pretty and end up pretty light on story. Others are all story and the art is a distant second. Don’t get me wrong, both of those options are fine. But when I pick up books like this, what I am really looking for is a good balance between art and story. Johnny Hiro rides this balance excellently. Go out and buy it. Now.

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

(image source: Goodreads)

I admit it, I read Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane. I know what you are thinking: how on earth could I read another made-in-to-movie book? Ah, gentle reader; never underestimate my penchant for the lure of a book set in or around an insane asylum.

A sucker for this type of premise, I have read or watched quite a few stories that circle around these ideas. Most seem to exploit the subject matter by making the institutional patients into either supernatural villains or pathetic victims. Both options are irritating for their own reasons. But this book managed to focus on the plot line that, while dependent on the institutional setting, was able to expand beyond the institutional walls.

What made this book fun to read was its tight story-line and consistent character voice. The characters in this book follow some standard patterns found in many post-war suspense novels. Even the “just who are the real good guys” feel of the mystery is not entirely new. But how this book was written allows it to retain its own originality. The writer’s stylistic choices of an imperfect protagonist, an unusual setting, and the minor blending of historical politics within the fiction of the story-line create a fresh take on familiar ideas. Although I guessed some of the mystery, there were still enough surprises to keep the book interesting.

This book is for entertainment. But it is good entertainment. A good psychological thriller. It is a fast read perfect for a rainy weekend.

Push by Sapphire

(image source: Goodreads)

If you have been living under a rock for the last year, you may not have heard about a movie called Precious. Believe it or not, there was a book first (as there so often is). The book is titled Push and is written by Sapphire. As any commercial for the movie will tell you, the plot centers on the abuse of a young woman and her growth into an independent woman.

Trust me that I am not giving a spoiler, as you learn this information pretty quickly when starting the story. Instead, consider it a friendly warning regarding content. Don’t read it if you don’t think you can handle reading about strong sexual abuse.

Now that I have that warning out of the way, let me tell you why this is such an excellent book. Two things raise this book above others with similar subject matter: both how the content is handled as well as the voice of the main character, Precious. The abuse is graphic and painful to read. But miraculously, it never feels as if it is over the top or aiming for shock value. The abuse is simple and it is awful. And the honest, straightforward manner of the delivery is shattering. This is due in large part to the sincerity of the story-teller. The voice of Precious is dynamic core of this book. She is written clearly, consistently, and honestly. On a side note, this is an excellent example of dialect done well and of dialect as an essential tool of telling the story properly. Additionally, Precious was such a whole and vivid character that her voice never felt gimmicky.

I came to like Precious very much and to care about her future as if I knew her personally. As painful as her experiences were, as much as I wanted to make them stop, she was such an engaging character that I had to keep reading. For such a brief book this was one of the most compelling and thorough examples of a well written character that I have read in a long time.

Book review #1

Yeah - I am finally posting. Deal with it.

The first book to launch my reviews will be "Gamer Girl" by Mari Mancusi. I received a copy of this book as a Christmas gift from my lovely mother. She is pretty great at picking out fun ones, and found this one for me at her most recent book fair at her school.

I had a lot of fun reading this book. It was a quick read, but not completely fluff. It is about a manga-loving high school girl. She has to face not only the divorce of her parents, but also the subsequent move to a new school of "Aberzombies" and a bully who targets her specifically. Feeling friendless, she finds relief in both an online RPG called "Fields of Fantasy," as well as an online friendship that may turn into more.

A lot of these alterna-kid, high school stories can be a bit formulaic. This one does follow the basic format of kid is new, kid gets picked on, kid finds outlet, kid turns outlet into triumphant new idea/activity to share with this school, kid now has friends and happiness. But Mancusi saves this story from feeling formulaic. Mancusi is self-aware in her writing, acknowledging the familiar plot line within her book: "This day was getting more and more like a bad after-school special every minute. After the commercial break, I'd probably start drinking and doing drugs, just to fit in, only to have my best friend die and my mother convince me to head to rehab and restart my life, friendless, sober, and alone, but strangely happy and peaceful about it all," (15). This sense of humor of her main charcter Maddy is a good example of her charcters' personalities. The characters in this book may have some familiar roles. But each are well developed and instead of feeling like recycled regulars, are whole, new people the reader meets for the first time.

I liked also how Mancusi addressed the whole online relationship idea. Kids are naturally going to make friendships online if they spend a lot of time there. When her main character, Maddy faces this, she does so intelligently and realistically. She pays attention to her father's warnings and does not give out personal information. But we see her squirm when asked. She feels uncomfortable and pressured to share her info. But she moves past it well without giving up her safety.
As far as structure goes, there are a lot of other media formats discussed in this book: manga, drawings, and online games that involve whole worlds. Mancusi deftly gave enough information about each of these so that they were visible to the reader as the important parts of the story that they are, without being so detailed as to be distracting. A well-handled detail that I think will have to be increasingly addressed and considered by writers for teens and modern subjects. Maybe not everyone has to write convincing battles or dialogue in an RPG to be modern. But texting and online communication are becoming common enough that other forms of written communication (like books) will start to feel dated if they ignore the changes made my the more modern influences.

This book was engaging, well-written, and had a mature enough theme to feel significant without loosing any of its fun.
Image of cover art by Elise Trinh