crimelibrarian

[crimelibrarian]

Naturally you’re out of book space. Everyone is always out of book space. If you’re not out of book space, you’re probably not worth knowing.

Anonymous

(via bookmania)

[crimelibrarian]

It also makes me sad when the book I liked most was at the end of the year, I didn't get enough time to enjoy.

TRYING TO PICK MY FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR

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Stand Up For Your Right to Read! Celebrate #BannedBooksWeek http://thndr.me/TdcMGS

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I was disproportionately amused by this.

[crimelibrarian]

Flood: Mississippi, 1927 (Survivors #5) by Kathleen Duey

Another battle-of-the-books read for my coworker. Pretty good story, and a quick read. Molly is a black girl and Garrett is a white boy living in Mississippi in 1927. Their parent’s know they are friends, but warn them to be careful because not everyone would be happy about this. Their only dream is to one day take their jar of saved pennies and go travel the world. Except it’s been raining forever. Everything is wet and damp, there’s mud everywhere, and no one knows if they’re even going to get a chance to plant crops. Plus that one tawny hen is still missing and the rest of the chickens are laying. Molly and Garrett are working on a raft to get back and forth from the little island where their jar of money is hiding, except one day while their using it to transport some cane rods home, the levee overflows and they get rushed out down the Mississippi River. The book follows them down the river from Mayersville all the way to Vicksburg, over one hundred miles down a flooded river. The ending is a semi-happy one.

I really enjoyed parts of this book, it had some real moments of excitement and anxiety for me. The part with the dog caused me to almost yell at the book. I also really appreciated this book bringing to my attention the fact that this flood even happened. It’s not something I remember learning about in my history class, so I was happy to check out some other books about the flooding. It’s a good book for fourth and fifth graders that enjoy learning about different events in history. Would recommend. 

[crimelibrarian]

Escape! The Story of the Great Houdini by Sid Fleischman

This is a fun biography about Harry Houdini and how his life was outside of the magic acts. A lot of what is told is about his different escape acts, but without giving away details and allowing the illusion of magic to exist. Fleischman has a lot of sass in this book, and adds a lot of his own personal opinion, but this is a biography for kids, so providing a question for them to consider is useful. Fleischman was fortunate that a lot of his knowledge of Houdini comes from meeting Harry’s wife, Bess, when he was a young teen. He was able to talk with her and review a lot of the artifacts that Houdini had collected in order to create this book. It’s a fun and quick read and gives a side of Houdini that is rarely seen outside of his straight jacket and handcuff escapes. It definitely provided me with a lot more information that I didn’t know about Houdini, and I had a lot of interest in him when I was younger. A good starter non-fiction for children. 

[crimelibrarian]

Book Dump

I’m bad at keeping up with this. I ended up reading a whole bunch of short things and didn’t write them up like I should.

To start out, the longer book I read was The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. I enjoyed it and found it entertaining. I was able to read it in a day but only because I had time to devote to it. I enjoyed trying to come up with reasons for why she was acting the way that she did, and it took about three-quarters of the way before I did figure it out. There was a lot of violence and drunken episodes, and for me that was intense. I am disappointed that we never find out about the clothes on the track, but then again this book is all about getting you to turn another direction. Good book, good read, do recommend. (All those people telling you to read it aren’t crazy.)

Next: The Gold-Threaded Dress by Carolyn Marsden. This was a book I read for fellow librarian for their battle of the books program. It’s a short and simple book for 3-5 graders about being a stranger in a new place. The main character Oy just wants to fit in, but between being made fun of for looking different (which makes no sense to me, because this is a city school with lots of foreign children and yet they all make fun of each other) and having to be more of an adult at home she doesn’t know what to do. She ends up making a poor choice, the girls at the school get her in trouble, but thankfully she has awesome parents that help her out. Would be a good read for children trying to figure out how to handle a bully.

Another battle of the books for fellow librarian: Joey Pigza Swallows the Key by Jack Gantos. I have to preface this that I read this as an adult, a child reading this, especially one that has ADD or some other form of mental troubles would probably love this book and feel a real connection to it. As an adult, it just made me angry. This book gives you a real perspective about what a child with ADD goes through, as Joey tells his story he doesn’t focus on one topic too long and jumps around in his story. He wants so hard to do the right thing and act the right way but he just can’t, and the adults in his life are not helping. Granted this was published in 1998, so some things have changed, medication is different, but there are still a lot of issues with the way children with “behavior disorders” are treated, and that’s what really frustrated me. 

Back onto regular reading. Unstrung Heroes by Franz Lidz. This book is by the author that wrote the book Ghosty Men, and is about his crazy four uncles and life growing up around them. It was a struggle to read for me. I don’t know if it was because there was so much babbling, because all of them suffer from some mental disorder, or if because he just seemed to whine so much. This took a couple of days to read because I just couldn’t get into it, and I only really enjoyed his mother’s sanity, and then the fighting between him and his step-mother. I was contemplating watching the movie, but after reading it, I don’t see it happening. 

Finally, Locke & Key, Vol. 1 & 2 by Joe Hill. These two graphic novels are just fantastic. They are creepy and intense, and there’s just enough supernatural elements going on to make you question if you actually know what’s happening and if this is real. The artwork is amazing, and the characters are for the most part well done. There are a few that aren’t, but for the most part you can bypass them. These messed with my brain. I can’t wait to read the rest of the series, Joe Hill does this with all his books. 

[crimelibrarian]

Excavation by Wendy Ortiz

Excavation is a memoir by Ortiz about her time as a teenager in a hidden (abusive) relationship with her eight grade English teacher. From 13-18 Ortiz allows him to push the boundaries of what an adult, let alone her teacher, should be allowed to do. He constantly tells her that she needs to take care of herself, shows interest in her, encourages her writing and schoolwork, and then makes comments about fucking her against his bathroom sink. It was intense to read, but also frustrating that one, her parents were so absent that they didn’t notice this or the amount of alcohol/drugs she was consuming, and two, that in the end nothing happens to him for this abuse of trust and damage to her psyche as a teenager. She is convinced after five years together that she really does love him, but has come to the conclusion that they can’t be together because it just wouldn’t work out. It takes years later that she even realizes that this was a terrible thing and she shouldn’t have been involved with him, and now she has this great story of growing up to share. It was excellently written, I just hate how her life was handled. She’s doing great now, so I guess yay? But it bothers me that there seems to be no consequences for him. It’s a quick read with short chapters, just really upsetting. 

[crimelibrarian]

Driving with Dead People by Monica Holloway

This was an excellently written but sad memoir about a young girls life growing up in a small town of Elk Grove, Ohio. We learn early on that her father is abusive to the whole family, even going so far as to choke her mother at one point, and mother keeps forgiving him no matter what he does. To her mother, outward appearance is all that matters, so nothing negative is discussed, ever. This creates problems for young Monica. She has no way to let these emotions out, or an understanding that this isn’t how parents are supposed to act. She constantly tells lies in order to try to get someone to pay attention to her, and ends up spending most of her teenage life by herself in their empty home. Mother divorced father, father moved out, mother moved into apartment with new boyfriend an hour away. Her mother informs her one day that she was a mistake, she wasn’t a planned child and that she had only wanted three children. Monica is heartbroken over this, but not having any idea how to express these emotions she gets anxious and depressed instead. Her only refuge in her life is her best friend Julie, who lives in a nice house, with nice parents who own the funeral home that has piqued so much of Monica’s interest they often spend afternoons playing there. Monica has a fascination with death, and often wonders how alike she is with the dead person in order to try to understand the nothingness that is death. After high school and a few destructive relationships she heads to college and continually tries to become “normal.” As her struggle to become normal increases she takes on more and more projects and relationships, hoping that one will end up fixing her.

This book made me sad because I just want to read a memoir or a biography of someone that wasn’t abused as a child, but it seems to be that those are the ones that sell and are referred to me. It was still a good read and I stayed up late to finish it last night. 

[crimelibrarian]

Lots of Books

With the end of the year and holidays and other life events I have been a little behind, so here are the books I have finished reading in the last few weeks.

First: Invisible Chains: Shawn Hornbeck and the Kidnapping Case that Shook the Nation by Kristina Sauerwein. This book is about the horrible kidnapping case in Missouri where Shawn was abducted and held for four years while being abused physically, mentally, and sexually. Sauerwein does a decent job pulling from sources to provide the evidence for why this case was so traumatic and why it took so long for Shawn to be found even though it seemed he had numerous opportunities to escape. There was a lot of different psychological explanations, but those tended to be long winded and dragged the book out. It was enjoyable, but could have been edited down to more significant points.

Second: Ghostly Men: The Strange but True Story of the Collyer Brothers, New York’s Greatest Hoarders by Franz Lidz. Short and entertaining. Lidz spends a lot of time talking about his uncles, who are also hoarders, but that’s because for as much excitement as the Collyer Brothers created there isn’t a lot of information about them. A few newspaper articles and some personal accounts were really all that has been written. It did make me go look at photos of their house and created a desire to clean more clutter out of my house. I enjoy Lidz way of writing so I borrowed his other book (My Four Uncles or something like that) and plan to read that soon.

Third: Grace’s Guide: The Art of Pretending to Be a Grown-Up by Grace Helbig. I am so not the audience that this book was intended for, and so I didn’t really enjoy it. I also had trouble getting Grace’s personality through print as it seems more harsh and off-putting on paper than on YouTube. A lot of her advice annoyed me and felt like it was bad advice to give to teens and young adults. Such as drinking when hung-over, you’re just going to end up being hung-over later in the day. I did appreciate the personal stories that were in the book, because Grace is a very private person on-line, so seeing that side of her was nice. I don’t plan to read her other book though, I don’t think I can handle any more of her in print.

Fourth: My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family’s Nazi Past by Jennifer Teege and Nikola Sellmar. This book was fascinating. Jennifer Teege discovers that her birth mother is actually the daughter of Amon Goeth, terrible SS Leader of Plaszow concentration camp. The novel follows her discovery and reaction as she attempts to put this horrific discovery in her understanding of history and of herself and family. Sellmar interjects throughout the book to provide more information about the Holocaust and Goeth and Schindler’s participation. I knew a lot about this point in history, but I learned a lot too. Teege also discusses her travels before this knowledge and her understanding of Jewish culture from her time in Tel Aviv. Teege suffers from anxiety and depression, so there were times in her writing that I felt annoyed because she couldn’t get past a topic. (I understand mental health, I realize telling someone to get over it doesn’t work, that they can get trapped, and by writing this way the reader can also experience it, but as someone that was struggling with similar issues while reading, it became very difficult to keep reading about someone else’s mental problem.) I do encourage others to read this book, it was a great look at culture and history.

That’s all for now. Hopefully I’ll be better about updating this in 2016.

[crimelibrarian]

Master Thieves by Stephen Kurkjian

It's been a while since I've had the chance to read a book, and I was excited to read this one. About the Gardner Museum at heist in 1990, this books has a lot of interesting bits of the Boston underworld in it, but the whole book fell flat. Probably because Kurkjian is used to writing newspaper articles where information is repeated in order to update the reader, in his book he forgets that the reader just finished the previous chapters. So often are parts of the story repeated, sometimes using the same paragraph and just copying and pasting it in the new chapter. There is also a lot of stuff about different Boston mobsters that just doesn't really seem necessary. Sure they pulled off this bank heist, but I don't need the details of it, just why they went to jail toys time. Kurkjian also jumps all over the place, at one point he's in 1980s, then 2000s, back to 1990s, and all over. It would help if it was all for the same storyline, but half the time he was explaining someone else's story before jumping back to his main point. It's all disappointing too because the heist is still unsolved to this day, so after reading about all these possible criminals and FBI incompetence, you still don't know who actually did it or where the art work is now. I really wanted to like this book as I have gone to the museum when I was younger and have seen the great artworks that are there, but his jumpy writing really prevented me from doing that. He's a good writer, it is entertaining in short amounts, but trying to sit down and read this all at once proved difficult. Read it if you don't know about the heist or would like some personal stories by Boston mobsters in the 80s, but be prepared for repetition.

[crimelibrarian]

Murder Buys a T-Shirt by Christy Fifield

This is book one of Haunted Souvenir Shop mysteries. As you might recall I accidentally read book two first, so I knew the plot of this book before I started. Thankfully it didn't detract from the story. I love cozy mysteries. They are quick and light, and bad stuff might happen but it doesn't make you turn away from the book. In this book Glory first realizes that her Uncle Louis's spirit is coming through her parrot Bluebeard. She also discovers that there's something fishy going on with the vehicular death of the town's star quarterback. Oh, and this handsome man moved into the shop next door and it might be beneficial to get to know him. The character development in this book was a little intense, I think Fifield wanted the reader to know everything right away, so you end up learning a lot that isn't all that necessary right away. I do appreciate the southern manners and the food descriptions though. Well worth picking up for a fun mystery.

[crimelibrarian]

Some Things Your Local Librarians Would Like You To Know

It is not a stupid question. Even if it is a stupid question, we have been thoroughly trained to answer your question without judgement or second-guessing. Besides, we’re mostly just glad you’re not asking us about the noise the printer is making again.

There are probably (at least) two desks in the library. One is where you check out books and is mostly staffed by people wearing nametags that say “Circulation Clerk.” These people can answer your questions about damaged or missing books, fines, and how many forms of identification we’ll need if you want to get a library card but your mailing address is in Taiwan. The other one is closer to the books and computers and is mostly staffed by people wearing nametags that say “Librarian.” These people can answer your questions about spider extermination, how to rent property to the United States Postal Service, and the number of tropical island nations in which you could theoretically establish the first United States Embassy. We would love to answer these questions for you. It would be a nice change from the printer.

We probably own a 3D printer by now. 3D printers, are cool, right? Please, please come use our 3D printer, it’s so lonely.

We spent a lot of money to hire this woodworker to come and teach a class at the library which you can attend for free. You will probably be the only person between the ages of ten and fifty in attendance, but your presence will fill the librarian with an unnameable joy. They will float back to their manager in a daze. “A young person came to my program,” they will say. You will have made their entire job worthwhile.

Every time you ask us for a book, movie, or music recommendation, a baby librarian gets their first cardigan.

Somewhere in the library, there is a form. If you fill out this form with your name and library card number and the details of the thing you are looking for, we will find you the thing. Sometimes the answer is “the thing is in Great Britain and they will not send it to us,” but more often the thing will just appear on hold for you, and one day you will pick up a copy of that out-of-print book you never thought you would read and maybe you will say, “Wow, the library is amazing,” and the librarian’s heart will glow. 

Please bring back book #2. The rest of its series misses it very much.

Five dollars is not a large library fine. Believe me, before I started working in libraries, I too wondered how someone could sleep at night, knowing they owed money to the library. When we laugh as you sheepishly apologize for your $2.50 in overdue fees, we are not mocking you, we are thinking of the ten people we sent to debt collection already today.

We really don’t care why you’re checking out Fifty Shades of Grey. Maybe you have a specifically-themed ironic bachelorette party to plan. Maybe you’re working on a thesis paper about mainstream media’s depiction of female sexuality. Maybe you just got curious. We will give you the benefit of the doubt. 

Whatever you’re smoking in the family restroom, please stop.

Somewhere on the library’s website, buried under “Links” or “Research” or “On-line Resources,” is a page that a librarian spent a month’s worth of work on. It contains many links to websites you thought everyone knew about, and one to a page that you could never have imagined existed that perfectly solves a problem you never expected to be resolved. 

Imagine the kind of person who would think to themselves, “Library school sounds like a thing I should do.” For the most part, you are imagining the kind of person who is now a librarian. We want very much to help you, but we’re not entirely sure how to do that unless you ask. You are not bothering us. Please, come and say hi.

[crimelibrarian]

I am always amazed with rare book collections, and always feel special when I’m allowed to touch ones and look at the craftsmanship. It’s part of why I went into archives.

“I’m a rare book librarian. I get to touch books every single day. My colleague and I have a joke that we are Defenders of Wonder. A physical book assigns a sense of reverence to the content inside. It’s the same feeling you get when you look at a painting or hear a piece of music. And I think that’s something worth defending. And just like a book gives reverence to it’s content, I think the library gives reverence to books. The building itself is a masterpiece. So many famous thinkers have come here to study and write. Just being here connects you to that lineage.”

[crimelibrarian]

Murder Hooks a Mermaid by Christy Fifield

This is a new author for me, but I wanted a new cozy mystery author to read and this series seems perfect. Book two in A Haunted Souvenir Shop Mystery series, because I made the mistake of picking the second one off my shelf instead of the first one, thankfully provides enough background to the characters so it doesn't matter what book you start with. Which is one of the things I like best about cozy mysteries, it doesn't matter where you start you don't need to know anything about the characters. Unlike some mysteries where if you haven't read the previous ones you've missed some important character development. In Murder Hooks a Mermaid, Glory is struggling to get the money to buy out her cousin Peter from the souvenir shop, increase sales over the spring break rush, and figure out what her ghost uncle is really trying to communicate through his pet parrot Bluebeard. Her friend Karen is struggling to figure out what to do for their weekly dinners, except she suddenly gets a phone call from her ex-husband as his brother has just been arrested after getting caught in a possible smuggling ring. Eventually he is released on bond, only to be arrested the next day for the murder of an undercover agent. Glory, Karen, and the rest of the cast work the small town for clues to prove his innocence. I really enjoy cozy mysteries, but I'm always amused at people's need to jump into danger instead of letting the police deal with it. This series provides a unique twist having a ghost supply vague clues through a parrot, and also has a small romantic interest going on. The other fun aspect of this novel is that it provides recipes at the back of the book for the wonderful food that's often talked about, which is another amazing fact about cozy mysteries. Now I have to go read book one.

[crimelibrarian]

This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper

This book is just a wonderful look into humanity and how we treat and view each other, and how intense that can be when you look at your family. Judd Foxman's father dies and his mother demands them all home. Four siblings that haven't really spoken to each other since they were teenagers are "forced" to spend a week holding shiva for their father as it was his dying wish. Judd is dealing with the issue of his failed marriage having caught his wife sleeping with his boss a few months ago. He's also currently unemployed and living in a basement rental trying to figure out what to do with his life. His older brother Paul is trying to take care of their father's dying sporting good business, and struggling to get his wife pregnant after years of fertility treatments and tests. His younger sister Wendy has a husband that is only focused on his business, and three young kids that don't always get why dad isn't around and why no one is paying attention to them. The youngest sibling Phillip, who is the major screw up in the family, is trying to turn his life around and brings his 45 year old life coach/almost fiancée to the funeral to try and prove he's doing better. What follows is a week of intense emotions, shocking reveals, and an in depth look into Judd's life as he tries to move forward and maybe fix his broken relationships. This novel was one I picked up and hated putting down unless I had to. Others might find it boring or too intense, but I really love these human relations books. For me, it provides a backboard for my own life to see where I am in terms of relationships with siblings, and determining where I need to mend bridges. Sadly real life isn't like a novel, and you have to have give and take from all parties. In the novel Judd is able to connect with each of his siblings and realize he needs to make changes moving forward and his siblings will also. This novel had just a range of emotions going through it, and left me feeling worn but satisfied in the end. They've also made this into a movie, so now I want to go find it and see if it was able to convey everything that was expressed in the novel. Probably not, but I hope it's worth watching anyways.

[crimelibrarian]

Museum of Thieves by Lian Tanner

This is an excellently written children's book that kept me very entertained through out the whole book. The plot was very easy to figure out by chapter three, but was still entertaining to see how it resolved itself. Goldie is a twelve year old girl, who is about to be Seperated. In this world, all the evils have been removed and banished and children are kept on guard leashes held by either their parents or the Blessed Guardians. At the Separation they discover that there was an explosion and a young child died, leading the city to decide that separation should not occur. Goldie has to escape (though this is never really discussed why other than the voices in her head encouraging her to do so) and she pick pockets a scissors and cuts her leash escaping into the city. After running all day she ends up escaping to the city's museum. There she discovers strange room and people, and even stranger creatures. Learning the secrets of the museum causes her to realize that the evil isn't gone from the world, and now that the Blessed Guardians are trying to take over it's up to her and the rest of the museum crew to protect the world from evil. This is book one in the series, and as much as I enjoyed the book, I don't think I'll be reading the other book. Nothing against the author, but the plot is just too juvenile for me and it can get dull reading a book when you can see where the plot is going from the start. This is an excellent book for third or fourth graders though, and I encourage anyone with kids in that age range to pick it up.