furyofvissarion (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
furyofvissarion) wrote2007-02-10 10:42 pm
furyofvissarion) wrote2007-02-10 10:42 pm
Entry tags:
Hoffman, Baker, Farmer, Russell, & more libraries
Spirits That Walk in Shadow - Nina Kiriki Hoffman. Good, but not my favorite. I could do w/o the silly italicized faux-language that her families of witches use. Also, the book takes place over the course of just a few days. By the end of it, I felt like I didn't really know the characters all that well, but I wanted to know more about them. Especially how Jaimie used to be all evil using her powers--I must hunt down The Thread That Binds the Bones now.
Poor People and Library Services - Edited by Karen M. Venturella. My first reaction was to the title, thinking, "Shouldn't it be 'Lower Income People' or something like that?" but I think that saying "poor people" is more forthright & cuts through any euphemistic bullshit. What I liked a lot about this anthology was that it wasn't heavy on theory, but on practical examples of programs geared towards the poor that have worked. Although I really appreciated the Foreword by Sanford Berman, which displayed the classism of ALA & the Library of Congress Subject Headings.
Dark Mondays - Kage Baker. Baker is always so creepy! But thoughtfully, creatively so: no cheap tricks here. This collection of short stories has some real gems in it, including "Oh, False Young Man!," which is about a woman who creates automata & how she uses an exhibition of such to wreak revenge on a man who jilted her decades before. That one was probably my favorite, but I also liked "Calamari Curls," about an ill-fated restaurant in a rundown California beach town (however, I think Baker needs some clarification of what "transgender" means, as opposed to "transvestite"). "The Maid on the Shore," the novella which rounds out the collection, is about the privateer Henry Morgan & the colonial squabbles over the Caribbean. The milieu was fascinating, & I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop with regards to Morgan's infamously good luck. But when the end came, I felt a bit let down.
The Ear, the Eye and the Arm - Nancy Farmer. This was satisfying in several ways: it's a fun adventure story w/intelligent kid protagonists; there's also something deeper going on than just their abduction (the event that really kickstarts the plot); & it's not a tired generic white faux-Euro setting, but Zimbabwe of the 22nd century. I'm sorry it took me so long to read this one.
St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves - Karen Russell. Stunning. I had to read this collection of short stories in bits & pieces, usually just one at a time before taking a break. The fantastical settings of the stories are so bizarre, & so vividly rendered, that reading more than one or two in a gulp left me disoriented. Several of the stories take place in a swampy Florida island, where donning a pair of kids' swim goggles shows you an ocean of ghost fish, a nerdy Junior Astronomer turns to a summer of petty crime, & schoolchildren come to visit a theme park of gargantuan shells. "from Children's Reminiscences of the Westward Migration" asks the question: what if your dad was the Minotaur, & you & your family were pioneers heading out West in a covered wagon? That was my favorite, along with the title story, about children of werewolves who get rehabilitated by nuns to live in human society. All these stories are a bit grim, a bit tarnished--things are odd, but not in a sparkly-shimmery way. Highly recommended!
Popular Culture and Acquisitions - Edited by Allen Ellis. This anthology takes a look at several forms of popular culture that have traditionally been scorned by libraries, academic libraries in particular, & makes a case for them being worth studying & preserving. These include detective novels, romances, comic books, pop music, & supermarket tabloid newspapers. There's even a quirky article on the time capsule as a way to preserve artifacts of popular culture. Did you know that there's a time capsule at a university in Atlanta that's not supposed to be opened until 8113? Me neither. Anyway, I'm still enjoying reading nerdy librarian books, & this was a nice brief overview of a topic I've been thinking about lately ("trash" lit--or "trash" cultural products generally) & how that relates to collection development.
Poor People and Library Services - Edited by Karen M. Venturella. My first reaction was to the title, thinking, "Shouldn't it be 'Lower Income People' or something like that?" but I think that saying "poor people" is more forthright & cuts through any euphemistic bullshit. What I liked a lot about this anthology was that it wasn't heavy on theory, but on practical examples of programs geared towards the poor that have worked. Although I really appreciated the Foreword by Sanford Berman, which displayed the classism of ALA & the Library of Congress Subject Headings.
Dark Mondays - Kage Baker. Baker is always so creepy! But thoughtfully, creatively so: no cheap tricks here. This collection of short stories has some real gems in it, including "Oh, False Young Man!," which is about a woman who creates automata & how she uses an exhibition of such to wreak revenge on a man who jilted her decades before. That one was probably my favorite, but I also liked "Calamari Curls," about an ill-fated restaurant in a rundown California beach town (however, I think Baker needs some clarification of what "transgender" means, as opposed to "transvestite"). "The Maid on the Shore," the novella which rounds out the collection, is about the privateer Henry Morgan & the colonial squabbles over the Caribbean. The milieu was fascinating, & I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop with regards to Morgan's infamously good luck. But when the end came, I felt a bit let down.
The Ear, the Eye and the Arm - Nancy Farmer. This was satisfying in several ways: it's a fun adventure story w/intelligent kid protagonists; there's also something deeper going on than just their abduction (the event that really kickstarts the plot); & it's not a tired generic white faux-Euro setting, but Zimbabwe of the 22nd century. I'm sorry it took me so long to read this one.
St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves - Karen Russell. Stunning. I had to read this collection of short stories in bits & pieces, usually just one at a time before taking a break. The fantastical settings of the stories are so bizarre, & so vividly rendered, that reading more than one or two in a gulp left me disoriented. Several of the stories take place in a swampy Florida island, where donning a pair of kids' swim goggles shows you an ocean of ghost fish, a nerdy Junior Astronomer turns to a summer of petty crime, & schoolchildren come to visit a theme park of gargantuan shells. "from Children's Reminiscences of the Westward Migration" asks the question: what if your dad was the Minotaur, & you & your family were pioneers heading out West in a covered wagon? That was my favorite, along with the title story, about children of werewolves who get rehabilitated by nuns to live in human society. All these stories are a bit grim, a bit tarnished--things are odd, but not in a sparkly-shimmery way. Highly recommended!
Popular Culture and Acquisitions - Edited by Allen Ellis. This anthology takes a look at several forms of popular culture that have traditionally been scorned by libraries, academic libraries in particular, & makes a case for them being worth studying & preserving. These include detective novels, romances, comic books, pop music, & supermarket tabloid newspapers. There's even a quirky article on the time capsule as a way to preserve artifacts of popular culture. Did you know that there's a time capsule at a university in Atlanta that's not supposed to be opened until 8113? Me neither. Anyway, I'm still enjoying reading nerdy librarian books, & this was a nice brief overview of a topic I've been thinking about lately ("trash" lit--or "trash" cultural products generally) & how that relates to collection development.