Lower East Side librarian |
Freshman: Tales of 9th Grade Obsessions, Revelations, and Other Nonsense
It's always neat to see a zinester or minicomics artist publish a book.
reviewdate: Feb 9 2012 isn: 978-0-9819733-6-4I know LCSH are *so* 20th century, but while they persist, I persist being pissed about them
The Lower East Side Librarian Library of Congress Subject Headings of the month for Month 1, January 16, 2012 are (the stuff I'm pissed about is at the bottom, so scroll down if you're impatient)...
Mockingbirds, the
I almost put The Mockingbirds down after the first clumsy page or two, but I stuck with it, and am glad I did. It's the story of date rape and students taking the law into their own hands because the school administration is too impressed with itself to acknowledge and address the school's imperfections. The rapist is a water polo player, for dog's sake!
reviewdate: Feb 8 2012 isn: 978-0-316-09053-7Liar
Even though I don't generally like them, I can handle an unreliable narrator. What I don't like is a manipulative author. Liar is an enjoyable read, but you end up irritated with it in the end. Therefore, I don't know whether to recommend it or not.
reviewdate: Feb 6 2012 isn: 978-1-59990-519-8Black Dreams
The Southern California psychic from Shattered Moon is working with the post-Rodney King beating LAPD to find a missing child. Published in 1993, this installment isn't quite as New Agey as the first in the series. There are still a lot of protective white lights being imagined around people's hearts, and Theresa Fortunato is still attracted to boorish men, so things haven't changed too much.
reviewdate: Feb 3 2012 isn: 0-06-017984-8Basil Is Dying, or: Muffin Bones #20
If you remember my gushing review of Emily's Parfait zine, you know I'm a fan. Basil Is Dying, about the passing of her beloved tabby will not disappoint you, but it will probably make you cry.
reviewdate: Jan 25 2012Encyclopedia of Doris: Stories, Essays and Interviews, the
The Encyclopedia of Doris is more than the sum of its Dorises. I'm often not crazy about zine collections because zines read better individually. They're complete unto themselves and are particular to the moment they're published. With the Encyclopedia Cindy edited together nine years of Doris content, plus articles and interviews from other zines and magazines, and so it reads like a complete work, rather than awkwardly connected episodes.
reviewdate: Jan 26 2012 isn: 978-0-9831255-1-8Across the Universe
Future dystopia space teen love story. Reasonably compelling. Some surprises. Just the kind of thing I like to read these days.
Quotations:One of the first lessons Eldest gave me when I moved to the Keeper Level was about Sol-Earth's religions. They were magic stories, fairy tales, and I remember laughing myself silly when Eldest told me how people on Sol-Earth were willing to die or kill for these fictional characters.
reviewdate: Jan 17 2012 isn: 978-1-59514-397-6Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: a Tale of Love and Fallout
Marie Curie--what a smarty, except for the sleeping with a bottle of radium by her bed. This 28cm tall art biography might just rock your world.
reviewdate: Jan 14 2012 isn: 978-0-06-135132-7LC rejects Butch/Femme (Gender identity) and other queer headings but establishes thirteen different Turkish roads
The Lower East Side Librarian Library of Congress Subject Headings of the month for Month 27, December 19, 2011 are...
Shattered Moon
Psychic vs. tarot serial killer. This 1984 novel couldn't be more early 1980s Southern California.
reviewdate: Jan 12 2012 isn: 0-440-17593-3Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the
This is one of those popular books that is so popular you don't want to read it, and then it turns out to be as good as the hype. It's a sort of biography/history/science story about the cancer cells of a poor, black mother-of-five who got cancer in a time when medical ethics were more highly evolved for animals than for humans.
reviewdate: Jan 5 2012 isn: 978-1-4000-5218-9Legend
Hello, Hunger Games readalike! I can't believe the female co-protagonist wasn't originally imagined as a girl. Ugh. But at least she is now, she, being 15-year-old aristocratic orphan military prodigy June Isparis, who is charged with hunting down her brother's accused killer, an underground hero, also 15, who goes by the name of Day.
reviewdate: Jan 2 2012 isn: 978-0-399-25675-2Out Behind the Desk: Workplace Issues for LGBTQ Librarians
One always has to get out of the way that most collections of essays, poems, stories etc. by different authors are uneven in quality and style. I think in this case, more than some others, one's preferences will vary widely. The chapters range from personal diaries to conference presentations, so readers will love some pieces and dislike others, depending on their literary tastes. As a perzine and fiction girl I expected the confessional stories to grab me the most, and some of them did, but I found that the most appealing pieces to me were those that rode the line between scholarly and personal.
reviewdate: Jan 2 2012 isn: 978-1-936117-03-1Tiger's Wife, the
I suspect that The Tiger's Wife is a Great Book. I say "suspect" because despite the deft writing and skilled unfolding of the layered stories, I wasn't drawn in. I'm pretty sure it's not the book, it's me. My attention span isn't what it could be right now. Or TW might not be a Good book.
reviewdate: Dec 29 2011 isn: 978-0-385-34383-1In Each Other We Trust
For those who enjoyed the last Sandy Berman letter I posted (re: the destruction of the People's Library at Occupy Wall Street), here are two more, originally sent to his representative, Erik Paulsen...
30 Days of Thanks 2011
Last year, inspired by Kisha's Facebook posts, I participated in the 30 Days of Thanks project. I did it again this year, along with a bunch of my Facebook friends. Here are all of my posts...
Donatery 2011
It's end-of-the-year donations time. Here's who I'm giving money to, with their mission statement or info from their about page...
City of Ashes
Pretty much the same review as for City of Bones.
reviewdate: Dec 25 2011 isn: 978-1-4169-7224-2Lambrusco
I'm counting this as read because I got through most of it. The premise is cool, and the first 100+ pages. It's about a bunch of partisans in Occupied Italy. Down with Mussolini and down with the Nazis! But, the rest of it is a little muddy. Juicy subject heading: World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--Fiction.
reviewdate: Dec 22 2011 isn: 978-0-375-42496-0