Personal blog: All opinions are only my own, unless you want to borrow them. (he/him)
I make no bones of the fact that I harbor an intense dislike of buzzwords. The thing is, I have a hard time explaining why I dislike buzzwords so much.
There’s one in particular I’ve been hearing more often over the past few years which may be the worst one yet:
Teamness.
It’s such an egregiously nonsense word! However, it offers a perfect opportunity to clarify my position.
This review was first published by Booklist on January 18, 2019.
Terminal Uprising cements the reputation of the Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse as an exciting and rewarding series. The second entry (after Terminal Alliance, 2017) picks up four months after the end of the first. This time, Mops and crew are headed to Earth, the world of feral humans, and they’re accompanied by an unexpected ally. What they discover upends much of what they thought they knew about humanity’s downfall and could tip the balance in the war between Krakau and Prodryans. As always, their expertise in the custodial arts serves them well in unexpected ways. (Even better: librarians help save the day.) This book is plenty funny but less overtly jokey than the first one. The story is more interesting, and the character development is more multifaceted. Hines has grown confident in this world, and he continues to expand it in fascinating directions. The narrative takes a bit to establish momentum, but the latter half is quick and exciting. Overall, a strong edition to an excellent series that will appeal to fans of Becky Chambers.
This title has been recommended for young adult readers:
YA/General Interest: Humor and Hitchhiker’s Guide sensibilities make this series a good fit for sf-loving teens who aren’t put off by salty language.
All of the data that follows was collected by me throughout the year using a combination of Google Sheets and Google Calendar. All seasonal and monthly calculations are based on the date each title was begun. Average days to read titles are based on the number of days actually spent reading each title, and not necessarily the full span from begun date to completed date.
A complete list of all the books I read in 2018 is at the bottom of this post.
For a list of my favorite books I read this year, go here >
For a list of my least favorite books of the year, go here >
I participated in #LibFaves18 on Twitter. See my selections here >
The American Library Association recently tweeted an article about an outreach program the Chicago Public Library is doing.
“Literacy at the Laundromat” by Joseph P. Williams. Published by U.S. News & World Report, December 25, 2018.
CPL is offering story times in laundromats. I had two thoughts immediately upon reading this:
I’m not a creative person. I love ideas but I’m not someone who dreams them up very well. I’m not much of a visionary in that sense.
This offered a moment of clarity for me. It helps me articulate what I really want to accomplish in my career.
This review was first published by Booklist on January 1, 2019.
**STARRED REVIEW** Midnight in Chernobyl is a top-notch historical narrative: a tense, fast-paced, engrossing, and revelatory product of more than a decade of research. Higginbotham interviewed most of the surviving central participants in the disaster, examined volumes of newly declassified Soviet documents, and surveyed previous research and reportage. The result is a stunningly detailed account of the explosion of Reactor Four at the Chernobyl nuclear-power plant on April 26, 1986. It offers a brief history of the development of the Soviet nuclear-power program leading up to the construction of the plant at Chernobyl, a second-by-second account of the night of the accident, the confluence of causes, the evacuation of the surrounding countryside, the containment and cleanup efforts, and a deep dive into the aftermath: the medical and environmental consequences, the political machinations and missteps, the role Chernobyl played in the downfall of the USSR, and the effect it had on the pursuit of nuclear power worldwide. For all its wealth of information, the work never becomes overwhelming or difficult to follow. Higginbotham humanizes the tale, maintaining a focus on the people involved and the choices, both heroic and not, they made in unimaginable circumstances. This is an essential human tale with global consequences.
This review was first published by Booklist on December 15, 2018.
Arkad is the only human on a world populated by aliens, his past a mystery. When other humans arrive, he seeks them out, determined to find a way off the planet to rejoin his own kind. Cambias (A Darkling Sea, 2014) has achieved a feat of world building: an expansive, believable setting with fascinating aliens, compelling mysteries, and a rich sense of history. The novel is a classic quest story, a well-paced series of encounters with different folk along the way, building momentum toward a final confrontation with Arkad’s past. Though the book is not without flaws, it does boast a rare instance of a deus ex machina that actually works, adding a delicious twist to the end.
This title has been recommended for young adult readers:
YA/Mature Readers: With a young adult protagonist, this will appeal to older teen readers who can handle the explicit references to sexual anatomy.
The traditional definition of library neutrality holds that the library is a space where everyone is welcome, where all views are represented, and where everyone has the freedom to explore ideas and make their voices heard.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: This definition doesn’t describe a neutral space. It describes a space where everyone is equal.
Equality is a direct concern of libraries—especially public libraries. We pledge to serve all members of our community equally, without bias or judgement. We commit to making space for all voices, perspectives, and cultural traditions of the communities we serve. Equality is built into our professional values.
Let’s say you have two lines that are unequal in length:
Continue reading “What We Really Talk about When We Talk about Library Neutrality”
This review was first published by Booklist on December 1, 2018.
Spacecraft profiles 100 craft that are significant in the history of space exploration: rockets, orbiters, spaceplanes, landers, space stations, satellites, and exploratory craft from the U.S., Russia, Europe, China, and more recent private, corporate ventures into space flight. The articles offer thorough physical and technical descriptions of each craft, along with a history of its development and use. The book is organized into 3 main sections, each covering a 20-year span from 1957 through 2017. Articles are further organized by the type of craft, with each country’s being grouped together. It’s not a strictly chronological narrative, but it provides an overall understanding of the history of the development and deployment of spacecraft. Readers can also use the table of contents to flip to any specific article that interests them. The articles are accompanied by numerous full-color drawings by illustrator Giuseppe De Chiara that show the details even better than the photographs do. This work is high quality; an effective hybrid of reference volume and coffee-table book. A solid choice for any public library.
I got really into the TV show American Chopper some years back. I don’t have any interest in motorcycles and I couldn’t care less about the family drama between the stars of that show. But I loved watching it. I loved watching genuinely skilled people create their visions.
I love watching master craftspeople at work.
There’s joy in witnessing that level of skill. This is why I love shows about carpentry, home renovation, car mods, tattooing. It’s one of the many reasons why I love music, dance, theater, and athletics. It doesn’t matter if any of these interest me personally, I’m fascinated watching people who love doing them. Any human endeavor which requires skill to do well, is worth witnessing.
Reading Nighttime Is My Time by Mary Higgins Clark reminds me of watching American Chopper. She crafts her stories. Her control of plot and pacing and structure, how she manipulates the reader to place suspicion on different characters at different times, her myriad misdirections, how she builds the tension. She shows her work and gives us a ring-side seat to her creative process.
I enjoy witnessing her craft.
That being said, Nighttime Is My Time isn’t a very good book. I listened to the audiobook and the narration by Jan Maxwell is excellent. But the book itself drove me a bit nuts.
Continue reading “Book Review: Nighttime Is My Time by Mary Higgins Clark”
This review was first published by Booklist on November 2, 2018.
Brake (Different Engines, 2007, with Neil Hook) is a scholar and authority on how science fiction can influence the course of science and define our popular perceptions. The short essays—none longer than half a dozen pages—collected here are grouped into four main themes: “Space,” “Time,” “Machine,” and “Monster.” Some essays fit more than one theme, but they give the work a useful structure. Each essay is a quick read, but none go into much depth. Anyone looking for a robust scholarly treatment of the subject might be disappointed. Brake takes a valuable historical view, citing several stories from the earliest days of the genre, dating back to the 1600s and earlier, as well as classic and modern movies. However, the examples he chooses seem somewhat random and lack modern literary selections. He examines the history of science from Galileo and Newton to Einstein and the atomic bomb and on to the invention of computers and the internet. The book comes across as almost a random selection of short works; nonetheless, it is insightful, fascinating, and an easy read.
