Skip to main content

Friday Reads - the hyperlinked edition

I happened to finish several books this week, and they were all worth mentioning.

The New York Regional Mormon Single's Halloween Dance by Elna Baker, is a memoir of a 20-something Mormon in New York City. The two big themes to her story are that she used to be fat and she's still a virgin even in her late twenties. This isn't a perfect memoir, but anyone who's struggled with trying to live by the rules you grew up with even after you leave the place you grew up will appreciate Elna's dilemmas. Plus, she's pretty funny.

Runaway Bride Returns! by Christie Ridgeway is a Silhouette Special Edition about a firefighter and a librarian who marry in Vegas, only to have the librarian run out on him the next morning. I picked this one up for the librarian heroine, and while I enjoyed it, there wasn't anything extra special about it.

Everything I Need To Know About Love I Learned From Romance Novels by Sarah Wendell - If you haven't gone to Smart Bitches Trashy Books, you must check it out now. Before going there, I felt like I couldn't share my love of romance novels with just anybody, lest they judge me, but Sarah and Candy made it clear that plenty of intelligent women enjoy romance novels, and this is yet another book celebrating what makes romances so great.

After by Amy Efaw - I could not put down this emotionally gripping story of a successful high schooler who's now in jail awaiting trial for throwing her baby out with the trash. The whole debate lays around how responsible she is for her actions because it's clear from the beginning that she may not have even realized she was pregnant or remember giving birth. I was totally sucked into the mystery of figuring out just how Devon's mind was working during her pregnancy and how she could have blocked out all the signs that she was pregnant. Very disturbing, but in a good way. If you like difficult situations, you should check this one out.

Currently I'm working on a few good ones as well ...

 A Very Short Introduction: Modern Japan by Christopher Goto-Jones - I LOVE the Very Short Introduction series, and I picked up this one on modern Japan because my husband is obsessed with anime and really into most things Japanese, so I originally thought about getting this one for him to read, but I got sucked in by the introduction and now I'm reading it instead. Unfortunately, I've been distracted by other things and haven't really had a chance to focus on it until this week. So far the history nerd in me is loving all the recent history lessons on Japan.

Peak by Roland Smith - This is about another trouble teen who finds himself in juvie, only this one got there because he likes climbing skyscrapers and tag them. Eventually it looks like he goes on to climb Everest, but I'm really not very far in this one yet, so I'm interested to see where it goes.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ebooks & Libraries

For a long time I've been frustrated with the way ebook publishers have been approaching library lending, but my rage has been overruling my sense and I haven't been able to get many coherent thoughts into print. Luckily Bobbi Newman pretty much hit the nail on the head with her " 9 Reasons Why Publishers Should Stop Acting Like Libraries Are the Enemy and Start Thanking Them ". I could go through each of her reasons and expound on why each one makes so much sense and explains a piece of where my frustration is coming from, but I'm going to focus on the points that have been bugging me the most. First from the consumer side, I know I'm not alone in the group of people who don't like to buy books until they're pretty sure they're going to love them. I simply read too much for buying every book I read to make any sort of financial sense. Often that means borrowing the first book in a series or by a new author to see if I want to spend money on th...
1 comment
Read more

Reflections of a New Community College Librarian

After months of searching I finally found found a job and I have to say that I'm really surprised with both where I landed and how much I'm loving it. After focusing primarily on the public library reference jobs that were similar to my most recent position, I stumbled onto a couple openings at nearby community colleges. When I'd first graduated from library school I heard somewhere that people who worked in community college libraries claimed they were this magical land where public meets academic, where you don't have to deal with spoiled rich kids and people are looking for things more stimulating than the latest James Patterson novel. But I went to library school so I could become a public librarian and I loved the public library job I eventually got, so I never really thought about that statement. While I loved my public library job, one of things I discovered I loved most about it was teaching public computer classes. Eventually it clicked with me that academi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dystopian Series for Teens

Talking about dystopian novels last time, this week I'm back with more, this time with teenage protagonists. It's interesting how the adult novels tend to focus on the society at large and then you start to identify with the main character. These novels for teens start with the hero's story and then progress to illuminate how their story affects the larger world. Also because I happened to find so many, I'm sticking with only series. The Giver Trilogy by Lois Lowry - a loose trilogy following three teens through a world where each community limits the lives of their people in different ways. The Giver (1993) - 12-year-old Jonas is assigned the occupation of "Receiver of Memory". It is his job to take on the memories of their community before it was wiped clean of the strong emotions of love and hate and things like colors. As he begins to learn more about the way life used to be, he finds it harder to stay in the community. My seventh grade English teacher ...
Post a Comment
Read more