Ferri Tale Librarian

Ok so...like I said I’ve been feeling down and not reading as much lately. Here’s the stack of books I’ve started in the last month and not finished (there’s a few others that I am just not bothering with).

Now bring on Bout of Books! My first goal is to finish all of these books. After that my goal is to read something for Book Club for Masochists, which is tackling experimental fiction this month. Finally, if I have time left, I’ll finally get Ninefox Gambit read....maybe. We’ll see.

Sorry for the crappy picture. It’s late, and I’m tired.

I’ve been feeling a little bit down lately and not reading quite as much. I’m in need of some focus, so it seemed just perfect when I stumbled across another readathon I could join.

I’m going to join in on the 20th Bout of Books running from Monday-Sunday August 21-27. Here’s the gist of it from the source:

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 21st and runs through Sunday, August 27th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 20 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

This is only the second readathon I’ve done (and just a month since the previous one - I’m on a roll). I’m working on my list of books to tackle that week (which I will post here), but I think a lot of it is simply going to be me finishing things I’ve abandoned during this mini-reading slump the last couple weeks.

My evening book stack and book snack for the 24 in 48 readathon.

The book stack includes:

Bloodhound (finished) and Mastiff by Tamora Pierce, plus a preview of her next book, Tempest and Slaughter (pub. date Feb. 6, 2018 from Random House)

An ARC of From Here to Eternity: Travelling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty (pub. date Oct. 3 from W. W. Norton)

My Brother's Husband, Vol. 1 by Gengoroh Tagame

Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?: And Other Questions You Should Have Answers to When You Work in the White House by Alyssa Mastromonaco and Lauren Oyler.

At the last moment I decided to join the readathon for July 22-23, called the 24 in 48 (hours, not books) readathon. They ask readathoners (that’s a word....now) to answer questions and check in so here’s my thoughts on the question “if you could take a roadtrip to any three bookish locations, what would they be?“ I've done a lot of road tripping across the USA, but never in the American South. I'd like to road trip to New Orleans and read A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole and Nine Lives: Mystery, Magic, Death and Life in New Orleans by Dan Baum. I also want a mystery set there...but which one; there are so many!?

Then on to Mississippi so I can indulge in far too much Faulkner (probably starting with The Sound and the Fury cause I tried to read it when I wasn’t a patient enough reader and never went back, even after I learned to appreciate Faulkner), Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward, and Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin (for my mystery).

(I had to post this version of the cover cause while this book has great covers all around, I love this one so much!)

Finally over to South Carolina where I'd cry through my 7th re-reading of A Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison, read Beach Music by Pat Conroy (because boy that book is recommended a lot), and try the audiobook of Brown Girl Dreaming read by the author, Jacqueline Woodson.

For bonus 2017 new releases appropriate to roadtipping USA, I’d want The Long Haul: A Trucker's Tales of Life on the Road by Finn Murphy published this June and Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder which comes out this September. Both are from W. W. Norton, who are on an excellent long haul, road tripping, non-fiction spree!

American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land by Monica Hesse (Pub Jul. 2017, Liveright) 

 I was provided an ARC by publisher, Liveright, and was not compensated to provide an honest review.

Monica Hesse is a reporter who published a piece in 2014 that was on the very same story this book covers (it’s worth reading that article after / looking at it while reading this book because the pictures do add even more to the set-up of landscape, culture, and place that Hesse describes so well. EDIT: the publisher has informed me that the hardcover will include a photo insert, which is great! ). Read this book, though. I mean sometimes reading the Wikipedia article as good / all you really want about whatever topic some book is about. But not this time. This is a gorgeously written book, a short, powerful punch of reporting with heart and grace.

This is a book about a community and a way of life that is receding, about love as "an optimistic delusion," about how well we can possibly know the people in our communities and even those closest to us, and about human strengths and weaknesses in the face of the difficult challenges of an imperfect life. How do we prop ourselves up and keep going when life can be so cruel, or indifferent, or just dumb? That seems like a lot to ask of a story about a series of arson cases along the Eastern Shore of Virginia and the couple convicted of setting them. Through Hesse’s compassionate words and craft, it really isn’t too much to ask at all.

The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson (2015, Graywolf Press)

David Bowie Made Me Gay: 100 Years of LGBT Music by Darryl W. Bullock (Pub Nov. 2017, Overlook)

This is an ARC I was kindly given by the publisher, Overlook, while at BookExpo at the beginning of June. This is not a final review...just my reading progress relevant to my podcast.

I’m having a lovely moment of reveling in the delights of reading. I’m enjoying different styles and genres and formats all at the same time. And it’s all just really, really satisfying.

Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horowitz (print)

I had a goal this year to read some nonfiction that would situate and address the race relations in the United States today. Of course, it can be hard to get yourself to do the necessary, tough reading this requires. I’ve done better at reading some articles on the subject, but haven’t yet got myself into a book.

However, I have a simultaneous goal to read books off my own shelf this year (too much purchasing and never quite getting around to reading). So this book came off my shelf to get read without me even thinking too much about how it related to race relations today....it most certainly does (especially if you come from the Northwest US like me and don’t live in the emotionally intense history of the Civil War in the same immediate way as in other parts of this country). It’s very readable, and I’m rushing through it.

I just got notice from the library that my hold on Negroland: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson having arrived, and I am thinking that it will make a perfect follow up.

The Others series by Anne Bishop (print & ebooks)

I’ve been rereading this series since book five, Etched in Bone, dropped on March 7th. I got a copy a few days early at the Penguin Random House booth at Emerald City Comicon and tore through it. It’s apparently the last in the arc of that series that is going to be based on the lives of Meg and Simon in the Lakeside Courtyard, though the series will continue via other characters and locations.

I didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d hoped. I read an article about jumping into series midway that used this book as a touchstone. They enjoyed the book (I think more than I did), so I decided that maybe I was in the wrong place as a reader to enjoy this book - I knew just enough to be constantly nagged by all the characters and events from earlier books that I couldn’t quite remember. I’ve started at the beginning of the series for a reread. It’s different (less thrilling) on reread, but still satisfying.

I think a lot of romance readers enjoy this series, and though I read a romance now and again (see below), I enjoy worldbuilding in various types of fantasy more. This series has some weird inconsistencies and illogical bits in it’s worldbuilding, but I think it’s still very interesting stuff. And I like the decision to keep the pov close to the non-humans in the series (see this series review, which is also where I got the image).

Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster by T.J. English (audiobook)

I just started this audiobook last night, so I haven’t much to say about it yet (other than that the narrator, David Colacci, is quite good). What I will say is that I am not an audiobook listener generally, because I really struggle to pay attention. Yet this one got me hooked right away, and I think I will be loath to do anything too distracting while I listen. This book really makes me want to pay attention!

Do You Want to Start a Scandal by Tessa Dare (print)

Expression by Daniel Friedman CC Attribution 2.0 Generic

I have listened to three nonfiction audiobooks so far. I mean I have “listened” to three nonfiction audiobooks. I’m not paying much attention.

I listen while exercising, while playing Stardew Valley, while cleaning the kitchen, while working on a 2000 piece puzzle (my puzzle rules are that I cannot look at the image on the box once I’ve started, and I cannot do the borders first)...but I’m often paying only scant attention. I catch interesting tidbits of facts and situations.

Which is probably why the three I have listened to so far have worked out well....they aren’t the kind of thing I would bother to read. I don’t exactly care if I pay really close attention, but the subject matter is of at least passing interest.

The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor by Mark Schatzker

This one is a bit repetitive, though I did learn some very interesting things. The arguments around the basic ingredients of food (plants and animals) having become less and less flavorful due to mass production are compelling. The last section on putting together a stellar, flavorful meal for carefully sourced ingredients is obnoxious, and I would have shut it off if it hadn’t been right at the end.

Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies: The Straight Scoop on Freemasons, The Illuminati, Skull and Bones, Black Helicopters, The New World Order, and many, many more by Arthur Goldwag

The sections where the author is giving an overview of what a cult or a conspiracy is and how it fits into human cultures are fairly interesting, but the long lists of cults and conspiracy theorists with short descriptors all start to blend and blurr. The first half on cults is stronger than the second half on conspiracies.

Information Doesn't Want to Be Free: Laws for the Internet Age by Cory Doctorow

Sometimes I’m surprised at how much I enjoyed a book. Not in that I actually thought it would be bad, but in that I had no real strong expectations for the book and then either had a lot of fun or was moved by it. It also may not turn out to be the most fantastic things I’ve ever read, but it was just ... satisfying. Satisfying is a really good descriptor of these kinds of reading experiences for me, actually. I‘m not awed or blown away, but I am unexpectedly really satiated. So here’s a few from the last year or so that did this for me:

Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey

Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf

Lucky Penny by Ananth Hirsh, art by Yuko Ota

The Anatomist's Wife by Anna Lee Huber

I almost never listen to audiobooks. Probably the only reason I have ever listened to an audiobook start to finish in my life is because of a data entry job I worked years and years ago. I’ve tried, but I’m not sure I’ve actually ever finished, an audiobook since then.

But at least I caught one break - if I am going to listen to an audiobook, I prefer it to be non-fiction. Phew. Thank goodness for small mercies from the great and terrible bookclub4m genre box!

You see, I really like the reading voice in my head. I’m a slow reader, partially because I really *hear* what I read. And I like it that way. Most of the time, when I have to listen to someone else read, all I can think is, “I wish I were reading this in my own head.”

So I asked the experts on the Readers’ Advisory for Library Staff Facebook page to give me some advice. Here’s what I asked:

“I'm looking for a Non-Fiction audiobook with a really great narrator. I'm listening to Thunderstruck by Erik Larson right now and just not getting into it. I don't usually listen to audiobooks, so I need some help from experts. ;)

Pop-science, history, cultural studies/social sciences, micro-histories preferred. I am NOT feeling like listening to a memoir or biography right now. I enjoy Mary Roach, Chuck Klosterman, Sarah Vowell, and Alain de Botton.”

And here are some of the great recommendations I got:

Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss, read by Scott Brick.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain, read by Kathe Mazur.

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Olympics by Daniel James Brown, read by Edward Herrman.

Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott, read by Karen White.

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond, read by Dion Graham.

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson, read by Scott Brick.

True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa by Michael Finkel, read by Rich Orlow.

Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard, read by Simon Vance. (The recommender promised, “Yes, it's a biography but it 'reads' like an adventure story!”),

Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach/ Narrated by Abby Eldvidge (I have no idea how the audiobook is myself, but I can personally say this is a fascinating read).

In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the U.S.S. Jeannette by Hampton Sides, read by Arthur Morey.

The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge by David McCullogh, read by Nelson Runger.

This isn’t even all the awesome recommendations I got. Library people are great!

I’ve been collecting readings and citations for my #WhatWeRead project for the last few weeks and organizing them in Zotero. But I’ve remained uncertain about where exactly to start at, other than just picking up the thing closest to me at the moment. Until I realized exactly what the closest thing to me was: my own work.

Several years ago, while I was still working on my Master of Library and Information Studies degree at the University of British Columbia, I wrote a paper called “Book Appeal, Literacy, and the Reader: Readers’ advisory in practice and theory” for my Public Libraries course (full text link is in the middle of the page - I had trouble finding it). The paper was mostly an opportunity for me to spend some time delving into the research behind readers’ advisory (RA) services in public libraries. It appeared to me that RA was a library service where best practices came largely from “what-do-you-do?” hearsay (into which I include many of the articles on RA in professional publications), trail-and-error, a few well regarded and well published practitioners, and enthusiasm. I wanted to find what solid research there was to back up RA practice (which I guess is essentially what I am doing right now, too).

Later I submitted the paper to our program’s inaugural edition of See Also, which a number of my friends were spearheading as “a student-run, open access journal devoted to showcasing high quality original research and scholarship created by students at UBC’s iSchool/School of Library, Archival and Information Studies.” It was submitted mostly because my friends were organizing the journal and mentioned that they had very low submissions for their inaugural edition . . . not because I thought my scholarship was in need of sharing with the wider world. To be honest, it’s mostly a very short literature review with an argument that I really hadn’t enough depth of experience with the research to fully back up. (It’s also very apparent at the end of the article that I was about to exceed the assignment page limit if I didn’t wrap this thing up quick).

The first thing I learned from reading my own work (other than that this is a deeply nerve wracking thing to do right before I publicly re-post my own student work for the world to see), is that I have apparently misnamed the #WhatWeRead project: “In order to better understand the book selection process, the focus on what we read could be exchanged for a richer exploration of why we read” (3).

Well sorry, past self. We’re stuck with #WhatWeRead. We’ll just have to live with that.

Second, I was reminded of exactly what gave me the interest in books selection as a literacy skill. In a short section of researcher Catherine Sheldrick Ross’s paper  “Making choices: What readers say about choosing books to read for pleasure” (2000), she suggests (to quote pg 8 of my own paper - I haven’t reread her article yet) “that successful choices are ‘a part of a self-reinforcing system that sustains the pleasure of reading itself, while disappointing choices kill the desire to read’ (Ross, 2000, p. 12).”

In other words, if you have developed the skills needed to select books most likely to interest and appeal to you and to meet your own current reading needs (mood, energy, time, etc.), then you are more likely to enjoy the reading experience, building trust in your own selection process (as well as furthering your skills in that arena) and thus making you more likely to keep reading. And vice versa. If you haven’t develop the ability to judge how trustworthy a recommendation is, how your own mood an life events will impact a reading experience, how to judge a book by it’s cover and determine, before investing in a longer reading experience, whether or not the writing is appealing and approachable for you, then you are less likely to have an enjoyable reading experience, less likely to trust yourself and other sources of information you used to select that material, and less likely to read.

Now as I suggest in my paper, I’m not entirely certain from reading Ross’s work that she had the depth of data necessary to back up this idea (nor from my memory of this article, do I think she claimed she did). But I am fascinated. This in particular is something I would like to find more research on. It seems closely related to the information literacy skill of being able to select the material most useful for your information need, but this is not an arena of research I have delved deeply into outside of my coursework.

Can you help me out? Anyone know of anything out there about book/reading selection as a literacy skill?

Ferri, A. (2015).  “Book Appeal, Literacy, and the Reader: Readers’ advisory in practice and theory. See Also, 1.

I’ve long been fascinated by how and why people select particular books to read (or to try to read, at least). What influences from our younger reading lives apply? To what degree is successful book selection a literacy skill? What cues do we use to help us select one item versus another item (and how do we weight these cues)? In what contexts do we make selections based on recommendations? And how does trust impact the recommendation process? What about serendipity? Or satisficing? These kinds of questions fascinate me (and also constitute one of the few reasons I might go back to school one day...maybe).

With a little spare time on my hands right now, I thought I’d go back over some of the previous research I have read on this subject and also look for research and materials I’ve missed. To make it more interesting (and to keep me accountable), I’m going to make this process public by posting my thoughts, reactions, and more here on my Tumblr blog and through my Twitter account. I’ll be using the hashtag / tag #WhatWeRead.

I’ve been slowly pulling together a wealth of reading materials over the last couple weeks. In the next few days I’ll be making an initial reading plan and announcing what my first few selected articles and texts will be.

I’m not a huge reader of detective fiction, but I’ve read enough to have realized that one thing I really care about is the detective. Specifically, I like a detective who is mentally healthy, not addicted to anything, reasonably competent, and not misogynistic (I mean as much as possible *sigh*).

These preferences turn out to be a bit limiting - like this pretty much excludes Scandinavian Noir type detective fiction. I fudge my preferences sometimes, of course, especially when the overall characterization of the cast (detectives and suspects alike) is really well done. With detective fiction, characterization matters a lot to me. Maybe more than plot.

So the three authors/series I have read and enjoyed so far include:

P. D. James/Adam Dalgleish

Louise Penny/Chief Inspector Armand Gamache

Donna Leon/Commissario Guido Brunetti

BTW I read the Adam Dalgleish series all out of order and it really didn’t matter. The series slowly begins to add some reoccurring side characters whose stories get a little muddled if you read out of order. It’s still doesn’t much matter. But the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series should be read in order. Just forgive the first book in the series, Still Life. It’s by far the weakest book in the series, as far as I have read at least. I’ve been reading Commissario Guido Brunetti out of order, but not enough of them and read too far apart to tell if that matters or not.