Gainfully Employed!

Okay, so I already have gainful employment, but now I'm extra-gainfully-employed since I am officially the new University House Librarian!

I was offered the position yesterday! I start training in June and then I'm on my own in July until June 2014 working 8 hours a week. It's going to be a seriously busy year -- I'm not quitting my job at Nordstrom -- but I think this is going to be such a great experience. The community itself is lovely and all the people that I've met so far who live there have great stories to tell (one eloped while she was in college!) but I'm really going to get to do everything to keep  library functioning. Acquisitions, cataloging, weeding, maintenance, readership advisory, publicity, library committee...

I am SO excited. I have to clean my whole apartment before I start! (I might not have a whole lot of extra time for cleaning with a second job...) Clean home, fresh start, and it's finally starting to really look like Summer in gloomy Seattle! Today is good.

Leave a comment

Post-Las Vegas Nap Needed

Just got home from my fantastic Las Vegas vacation! For now, I need a substantial nap, but be on the look out for gambling, con, and heist books!

Student Librarian Interview: Selections

Here are the four books that I decided to suggest for my student librarian interview on Thursday!

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

Equipped with more lives than a cat, Ursula uses her numerous resurrections to defy destiny and possibly save mankind as World War II looms ever closer.

Harvest by Jim Crace

The morning after the harvest, two ominous columns of smoke and the unexpected visitors that accompany them disrupt the superficially idyllic life on a small English hamlet.

The Entertainer: Movies, Magic, and My Father's Twentieth Century by Margaret Talbot

Actor Lyle Talbot's story as told by his daughter in this part-family memoir, part-social history vividly recreates the magic of cinema during the golden age of Hollywood.

Between Man and Beast: An Unlikely Explorer, the Evolution Debates, and the African Adventure That Took the Victorian World by Storm by Monte Reel

Scientist and adventurer Paul Du Chaillu hunts the legendary gorilla for three years in the African jungles to fast track his career and unintentionally fuels the raging evolution debates.

Leave a Comment

Student Librarian Interview!

I have an interview coming up next week! That's right, an interview to be a REAL LIVE LIBRARIAN! I'm ridiculously excited. If I get the position, I'll be working 8 hours per week at a retirement community near the University of Washington as their house librarian. I'll be responsible for acquisitions, cataloging, readership advisory, shelving, weeding, creating presentations, and leading the library committee -- generally managing the 2,500+ volume reading library. I really want to go check out their library in person, but I'm not sure how they would feel about visitors not visiting their residents...

For part of my interview, I need to select four books for the library to consider purchasing, two fiction and two nonfiction. The books need to have been published within the past six months (November 2012 forward). I was given some demographic information (average age 88, military service, college degrees, etc.) about the residents as well as the library's acquisitions focus (critical acclaim, best sellers, large print, popular or local authors, etc.). I've been doing some looking around and I've started building up a list. I'll spend tomorrow and probably Sunday refining it, but as of 9:26pm on April 26th, this is what I've got. Not knowing what their library is like now is sure making this tough!

Fiction:
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Middle C by William H. Gass
All That Is by James Salter
Harvest by Jim Crace
The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro (October 2012)
Snapper by Brian Kimberling (added to the list 4/28)
Daddy's Gone A Hunting by Mary Higgins Clark (added to the list 4/28)

Nonfiction:
The Entertainer by Margaret Talbot
Artful by Ali Smith
The Generals by Thomas E. Ricks (September 2012)
The Story of Ain't by David Skinner (October 2012! Augh!)
Between Man & Beast by Monte Reel (added to the list 4/27)

Maybe they'll even let me start/join a knitting circle. Books and knitting? All of my dreams fulfilled!

Leave a Comment

Tomato Red by Daniel Woodrell

Tomato Red by Daniel Woodrell

Angry and ambitious, Jamalee wants out of her Ozarks trailer park and teams up with her beautiful brother and a hardboiled drifter to escape in this alternately humorous and heartbreaking country noir novel.

Venus Holler – the trailer park on the wrong side of the tracks in the Missouri Ozarks – is the sort of place where people live real fast and learn real slow.

Sammy rolls into town with a once-clean shirt and a couple of cassette tapes looking for somewhere or someone to call home – or at least find some cold beer and womanly comforts for a time, but a warm beer will do too.

Jamalee, a firecracker with hair to match, wants out of the trailer park, out of Missouri, out of the Midwest.

Jamalee’s brother, well, let’s just say if your ex had his lips, he wouldn’t be your ex.

All Jamalee needs to do is raise the cash to get clear of Venus Holler and she has a plan on how to do it. She just needs her brother to seduce the wealthy women in the town and those women have practically already done that for him. Then they’ll just collect the hush money and they’re set. There are just a few bumps in the road: getting paid is harder than Jamalee thought and her brother might rather prefer the company of men.

For the trio, there’s only one thing more dangerous than being ambitious and a loudmouth and that’s being gay in the Ozarks. 

Also by Daniel Woodrell:

   

Winter's Bone | The Death of Sweet Mister | Give Us a Kiss

Suggestions for further reading:

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

25 years after testifying that her brother slaughtered her mother and two sisters in a Satanic sacrifice, Libby Day finds herself reluctantly working with a group of fanatics to potentially prove his innocence.

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

Trekking across the unruly western frontier, two guns for hire bound by blood and possibly misguided loyalties hunt their next mark and their next paycheck.

Murder on Rouse Hill by Alan Terry Wright

This riveting Law and Order-paced historical reconstruction of 1915 Soutland, Missouri and the brutal, unsolved murder that took place there twines small town politics with a brilliant cast of characters ranging from busy bodies to defense attorneys to would-be lynch mobs.

Readership Advisory Session: Sally

About Sally:
Sally is a mid-twenties female library page in the Pacific Northwest, MLIS candidate, and self-described "book snob". She has an academic background in English literature and creative writing. Sally's boyfriend reads primarily memoirs and nonfiction, but she typically doesn't read nonfiction unless it's academic in nature.

Sally's Likes:
- Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
       - Has read all of J.D. Salinger
- Short stories by Karen Russell
       - Has read all of Karen Russell
       - Elastic realism used to illustrate a point rather than a literary gimmick
- Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
- Coming of age stories, especially about boys
- Graphic novels
- French Milk by Lucy Knisley
- Fiction

Sally's Dislikes:
- Nonfiction
- Genre fiction
       - Particularly romances and serial mysteries

Reading Suggestions:

1. Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart

This quirky and poignant love story of a middle-aged, old-fashioned immigrant and a young materialistic Korean-American is superimposed on a dystopian backdrop of a not-so-distant future America teetering on the precipice of economic disaster. Sally may appreciate this critically-acclaimed novel for its unusual characters, multi-layered plot, and satirical, offbeat humor.

2. Blankets by Craig Thompson

Faith and first love motivate the introspective male protagonist in this critically-acclaimed, autobiographical graphic novel. Beautifully drawn and emotionally charged, Sally may enjoy reading this multidimensional coming of age story because of the male protagonist and depth of narration.

3. Dandelion Wine  by Ray Bradbury

The summer of 1928 marks the last season of innocence for twelve-year-old Douglas. The simple pleasures and routines of small town life illicit nostalgia for the past and hints at the beginnings of disillusionment. This pre-coming-of-age story is suggested for Sally because of the young male protagonist and mythical elements that are used to support the metaphors in the stories.

4. White Teeth by Zadie Smith

Unlikely friends, first and second chances at life, and kids growing up in an ethnically-diverse London neighborhood fill this multi-family, multi-generation award winning novel. The multiple coming-of-age stories and topical issues may appeal to Sally.









What would you have picked for Sally and why?

*This readership advisory transaction was a classroom exercise.

The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff

The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff

Alysha Gale -- born into a family of witches consumed by power and lust and dominated by a horde of not-so-subtle aunties -- finds more than yo-yos in her recently inherited junkshop in Calgary.
  






Suggestions for further reading:

A Discover of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Attempting to escape her magical family by engrossing herself in academia, Diana unintentionally ignites the interest of the magical underworld and draws the attention of a remarkably handsome vampire.

Faking It by Jennifer Crusie

A family of high-spirited women have more than a few secrets locked away in the basement of their art gallery. When Tilda encounters a dashing conman with overlapping goals, they form an exhilarating partnership.

A Field Guide to Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels and Other Subversive Spirits by Carol K. Mack

An upbeat and well-researched look at the mythical, mystical, and unusually devious inhabitants of what Tanya Huff calls the Under Realm.