From The Department Of Best Lines And Descriptions

Taken from The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Junior (the narrator) and his new friend Gordy have been talking and Gordy just explained the 3 level reading method. Oh, and they just went to the high school's library.

"What's your point?"
"The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don't know."
Wow. That was a huge idea.
Any town, even one as small as Reardon, was a place of mystery. And that meant Wellpinit, the smaller, Indian town, was also a place of mystery.
"Okay, so it's like each of these books is a mystery. Every book is a mystery. And if you read all of the books ever written, it's like you've read one giant mystery. And no matter how much you learn, you keep on learning so much more you need to learn."
"Yes, yes, yes, yes," Gordy said. "Now doesn't that give you a boner?"
"I am rock hard," I said.
Gordy blushed.
"Well, I don't mean boner in the sexual sense," Gordy said. "I don't think you should run through life with a real erect penis. But you should approach each book--you should approach life--with the real possibility that you might get a metaphorical boner at any point." (97)

Viktor Schreckengost, 1906-2008

Viktor Schreckengost died on Saturday. If you've never heard of him, he's the father of American industrial design and a Cleveland treasure. Take a look at his gallery. His designs blend form, function, efficiency and beauty. The man did flippin' everything. Amazing.

Stop It! Just Stop It!

For the love of god, please stop sucking your snot back!

No jury in the world would convict me...no wait, in Cleveland they would. I have no peers. Crap.

Books Read 2008

The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian--Sherman Alexie
To Marry An Heiress--Lorraine Heath
Forced To Be Family: A Guide for Living with Sinister Sisters, Drama Mamas, and Infuriating In-laws--Cheryl Dellasega

500 Great Books By Women--Erica Bauermeister, Jesse Larsen and Holly Smith

Published in 1994, this book is a great reader's advisory tool. It consists of short summaries of notable fiction and nonfiction by female authors, arranged by themes. The themes include Art, Growing Up, Violence, Power, Work and others. The best thing about this book is that it truly succeeds in bringing in non-Western writers and writers not of the current or modern period and the book descriptions are well-written and appeal to the adventuresome reader.

Definitely a book to keep an eye out for if you do reader's advisory or want to come up with a theme list, or if you are looking for good reads for yourself. It's still in print and available new or used online, and also available in at least 1 Clevnet library.

Dennis! Is Out

Note to self: Mail ballot request form to vote by mail against Kuchinich on March 4th.

Roll 4 Or Above, And You Evade The Cops

Due to my history, I shouldn't be laughing as hard as I am, but Big Theft Ends In Shackles For Goth Couple is amusing. And that the "mastermind" was a D&D dungeonmaster whose first words were along the lines of "Where did my plan go wrong?" is well, typical.

I speak from experience that people who spend roughly 50% of their non-sleeping time involved in fantasy roleplay tend to have a bit of trouble navigating the real world and often don't even realize it. When you spend a lot of time controlling outcomes and creating a world and story, you get a little drunk and delusional on the power. I used to know a lot of people like that, thanks to the ex.

Just Add It To The Hold List, Kerry

Remember how I liked Lisa Lutz's The Spellman Files? She's got a sequel coming out in March called The Curse of the Spellmans. I am excited! The plot looks good.

What I'll Miss

So there's a lot of bad shit going down in my life right now, and when that happens I like to curl up and stay in one place. Bad habit. So I find myself looking at the 4 jobs available in the area that might pay enough to support myself, I tell myself "oh this isn't so bad!" and thinking I could not go to Phoenix.

I need to stop this right now.

Look ahead, Kerry. New life in Phoenix.

What I'm going to miss here when I'm gone:

1) The West Side Market--I'm going to miss the whole thing, but especially City Roast, Reilly's (fern cakes! empire biscuits! bakewell tarts!), and Frank's bratwurst. And the great deals on fruit and veg and meat.

2) Bela Dubby--Second best vanilla latte in town, right behind City Roast's ambrosia kickstart. And it's just a nice place, not too hip for itself, and really succeeds at being a third place for people.

3) The architecture. Really, there is beautiful houses and buildings all around here. Even the decaying buildings are lovely and have faded elegance. You can see how in its prime Cleveland was a lovely city.

4) Having old Eastern Europeans ask me what flavor of Eastern European I am. It happens at wok and here in Lakewood. FYI, the coloring is black Irish bitch, the little doll features are Slovak.

5) May through September is usually very nice weather-wise.

6) I have some very good friends here. You know who you are.

But honestly--I need to remember that that's not enough to sustain me.

Note To Self: Stay On Your Own Side of Town

Dear Yahoo! Maps:

I don't know what alternate reality you were mapping, but to get from ECPL Caledonia to Euclid one does not take Ravine to a right on Noble to a right on E.152nd. I can attest after yesterday's experiment that does not get you where you want to go in 16 minutes.

Note to Self: The East Side is fucked up. Stay to the 4 roads and highway that you know. (Euclid, Cedar, Lee, Mayfield and I-90) Or leave town and never come back.

Books Read 2008

The Dangers of Deceiving A Viscount--Julia London

Have I Shrugged Off The Mantle of Procrastination?

Not entirely. But that article for Info Career Trends that I have been mentally working on since September? I planted my heinie down today and wrote it. It's pretty good, and not due until February 1st. Which is 17 days from now.

Anyone want to read it and give me feedback? Let me know.

More Jane Austen Read A Likes

The Kansas City Public Libraryhas a great reading guide of Austen associated materials. Just in case you want to go on a literary bender. Enjoy!

Books Read 2008

A Dark Devotion--Clare Francis
Stotan!--Chris Crutcher
Young Avengers & Runaways: Civil War--Zeb Wells & Stefano Caselli
Austenland--Shannon Hale
The Single Sister Experiment--Mimi Jefferson
The Rake--Suzanne Enoch
The Jazz Kid--James Lincoln Collier

Let's Do A Janus

I feel like I should post a 2007 Year In Review, because it was a weird but good year. On the one hand, it bore a resemblance to a country song--starting in September 2006, I had fleas, my dad died, I got fired, my grandmother got sick and did a 9 month downward spiral to her death, my aunt got sick, Mencken ran away, the car blew up, my love life started to pattern itself after Persuasion, the economy collapsed, and I decided to move to Phoenix.

I mean, horrible tragedies abounded. But in some ways, it has been the best year of my life--I finished my MLIS, I took a class that gave me some of my confidence in my own intellectual abilities back, my part time jobs gave my professional self a new lease on life and sealed the deal librarianship-wise (as in, even if no one will hire me, I love it and it loves me back and together we rock), after years of not knowing her my cousin cousin MFA Jane and I met and had a convergence of the minds, Genevieve is expecting(!), I made some great new friends, and I feel oddly free and like things are finally clicking into place. And happy, damn it. And those of you who have known me a long time, know that happy is a weird state for me.

I was reading something the other day in which the author said that if you want things to happen, you have to make a public commitment to the dream, especially if it's something that's not 100% under your control. So here's what's going to happen in 2008--my house will sell quickly, I'll get a great job in Phoenix and meet some nice men and flirt lots and fall in love with one of them. My spiffy single gal apartment will leave me with enough spare cash to take voice lessons, along with saving money. My sick aunt will stabilize. Genevieve's gonna have a cute and healthy bebe.* I'll keep writing. Life will be good. And I'll still be the most fucking cheerful and happy girl out there.

*There is nothing wrong with Genevieve's bebe and no suspicion that anything will go wrong. I am just superstitious on the subject of bebes, and if I were lucky enough to have one I would have to be hiding from witches and the evil eye by denying I was expecting one or even wanted one, up until the point I gave birth. Yes, I would be so drastic. And I would spit on the sidewalk should the subject come up.


In terms of reading--I'm going to post 1 book review a week. At least. And unlike last year, I'm going to count and list out my books finished. Looking back, the 3 best reads of 2007 were The Shadow and The Star, Fat Kid Rules The World, and King Dork. Honorable mentions go to The Spellman Files, The Re-Gifters, and the works of Judith Ivory.

Don't Give This To The Kidlets

Swiss Miss Pick-Me-Up Hot Cocoa.

Cocoa with as much caffeine as a cup of coffee.

Oh, yum! I haven't bought it yet, but I think it is a masterful concept.

From The Department Of Best Lines And Descriptions

I was thinking about this whole Kerry Talk Story! thing that I do and recalled this quotation from Nora Ephron's Heartburn:

Vera said: "Why do you feel you have to turn everything into a story?"
So I told her why:
Because if I tell the story, I control the version.
Because if I tell the story, I can make you laugh, and I would rather have you laugh at me than feel sorry for me.
Because if I tell the story, it doesn't hurt as much.
Because if I tell the story, I can get on with it. (176-177)

I think I first picked up this book when I was 11 or 12--totally did not get much of it, but I did take that passage to heart. I turn everything into a story. I think sometimes it seems as if I don't take things seriously or feel deeply, but I do. Telling stories is a defense mechanism. There's not much I can control in life, but by telling stories I control others by amusing them and perhaps keeping them from taking too close a look at me.

From The Department Of Best Lines And Descriptions

Taken from Lillian Hellman's introduction to the 1964 collection of Dashiell Hammet's short stories and shorter novels, The Big Knockover:

"I know as little about the nature of romantic love as I did at eighteen, but I do know about the deep pleasure of continuing interest, the excitement of wanting to know what somebody else thinks, will do, will not do, the tricks played and unplayed, the short cord that the years make into rope and, in my case, is there, hanging loose, long after death." (xx-xxi)

God, that's so beautiful. I have had that kicking around for a while waiting for a wedding to make a speech using that, but I had to write it down in case I forget it or can't get a copy of the book.

King Dork--Frank Portman

This book is one of my top 3 reads for 2007 based on enjoyment and marveling at the writer's skill.

Tom Henderson starts his sophomore year at Hillmont High School with no expectations of education or enjoyment. He's as low socially as you can get, the "King Dork," adopting a heavy black coat and copies of Today's Mercenary to at least keep the other students' hands off him if he can't get them to stop calling him by the nickname of "Chi-Mo." "Chi-Mo" is short for "child molester" which comes from the unfortunate results of the 7th grade professional aptitude test that marked Tom for the clergy. School administration is almost as bad as the students--while the teachers don't hit you, they encourage other students to hit you. It's hell being small, introspective and unathletic and male in high school. He's got one friend, Sam Hellerman, with whom he plans out their bands despite the fact that neither really plays an instrument. His mom's just absent, his stepdad's an annoying ex-hippie, and his sister's okay but young. Tom's got nothing going for him but endurance, wit, and cleverness.

A bright spot appears when Tom stumbles onto his late father's library. Dad died in a mysterious accident/possible murder several years before, and Tom starts reading his books as a way to get to know him in retrospect. However, a mystery develops around his dad's copy of The Catcher in the Rye, which has numerous notes, a mass card for the funeral of Timothy J. Anderson, a note written in code, and one underlined passage. Tom starts trying to put together a 35 year old mystery as he struggles to get through school, figure out the identity of the mysterious Fiona with whom he made out at a party, and get the band into shape.

So it's a book about the hell of adolescence, longing for connection and sex, the redemptive power and connection of reading, snark on The Catcher In the Rye , and bands. And all that would be great, but Portman's created a smart, likable character in Tom and the whole book is a 344 page exercise in wit. I was pulled in and could not put it down, and laughing publicly. It's hard to find a quote to give you, because the book is so well constructed that it draws you in and you'd take things out of context, but I like this. It's from a scene between Tom and his parents after his mom flips when she finds the lyrics to the song "Thinking of Suicide?":

"My poor inept parental units. Once again, their opening line wasn't the topic sentence, and everyone ended up confused. They were trying to have the suicide talk and somehow it got mixed up with the drug talk....When my mom is in crazy mode, it's just not possible to talk to her reasonably. Still I gave it a shot, trying to make it as simple as possible.

'I'm not on drugs and I'm not going to kill myself,' I said. And it was true. I really wasn't. Though I couldn't tell you why not.

No one knew what to say. Then Little Big Tom cleared his throat and filled in some of the background.

My own cleverness had tripped me up. Way back, I had needed an excuse for why I never spent much time at home, particularly after school. The real reason was that LBT kind of freaked me out back then, and I felt so uncomfortable with the whole vibe of the Henderson-Tucci household that even the ghastly pall of Hellerman Manor seemed preferable to it. So I invented a series of clubs I was supposed to be in. plausible ones, like the Chess Club, Rocketry Club, Monty Python Club, The Middle-earthlings, or the Trekster Gods, an sometimes crazy ones that I would make up for my own amusement, like the Caulking and Stripping Club or the Doorknob Appreciation Society, otherwise known as the Knob-heads. Not that they ever paid attention to what the clubs were called. My brilliant humor, once again wasted.

Ironically, part of the reason I started hanging out at home more, in addition to the fact that we couldn't do band activities at Sam Hellerman's, was that I had started to warm up to Little Big Tom, even actually almost kind of liked being around him sometimes. But to them it looked like I had suddenly lost interest in all the clubs and afterschool activities. That was a Danger Sign. Then they found the lyrics and pamphlet and that had tipped the whole thing over. I screwed up. And now I was looking at a vast stretch of inept suicide-watch activity from the parental units for some time to come." (159, 161-162)

Arriba! Hombre, Hombre, Hija!

So I figured out that the reason that my new coffeemaker wasn't making my coffee at 5:45AM was because it was set for 5:45PM. Whoops. So I poured myself another cup (3rd coffee drink of the day) and mixed in some of Genevieve's hot cocoa mix for a mocha flair.

Speedy Gonzalez ain't got nuthin' on me.

Nice Waistcoat, Dude!

Like you needed a reason to be in front of PBS next Sunday, but I will give you one: Anthony Stewart Head (yes, he of "Buffy" fame) is playing Sir Walter Elliot, aka Big Idiot Weasel Dad, in Persuasion. Plus Rupert Henry-Jones of MI-5 plays Wentworth. Be still my heart.

Books Read 2008

Major Crush--Jennifer Echolls

My Cranky--Let Me Tell You

I've been holding on to this crank for MONTHS, people!

From the Kent State SLIS listserv:

"The School of Library and Information Science has 23 scholarships available!

Funded through the IMLS Laura Bush Librarians for the 21st Century program, two categories of scholarships are available. Both provide full tuition for an MLIS degree."

Great, huh? Oh wait, no. The scholarships are for school media specialists and children's librarians. Now, I know the strength of Ken's program is children's and public librarianship but (soapbox, please!) adults use the library too! There's a scarcity of librarians willing and able to serve inner city and rural populations, and the ability to graduate without student loans would help fill those positions. There's also the whole field of special librarianship, which Kent ignores like a redheaded stepchild.

I'm disappointed. Spread the cash out a little, please.

Sexy Librarian--A Novel, A Stereotype, A Faint Hope?

Oh, I am so torn--it sounds like something I'd like to read, but also something I'd be disappointed in because I would hold it to a high standard, and if it wasn't accurate I'd throw it against the wall. Plus we've got primo librarian stereotyping here. Hipster librarian? Check! Retreat to the Midwest from New York? Check! The "sexy" library? Bwaaaahhh! Check!


From PubLib:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Sexy Librarian, a novel, published by Ellen Lupton/Slush Editions

Sexy Librarian, available for the first time this January, is Julia Weist's first novel about the life of Audrey Reed--a beautiful, sophisticated, New York Arts librarian who moves to the Midwest to work in a public library. With its witty and honest perspective on the tribulations of modern librarianship--its ideals and realities-- Sexy Librarian is an essential read for all those who think life long learning is as important as long nights of ecstasy. While Audrey struggles with an impossible romance with the library director's ex-husband and a mountain of steamy New York memories, she remembers why she fell in love with the library in the first place and why she still finds it so damn sexy.

The volume includes a critical essay by Jennifer Tobias, Reader Services Librarian at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, called, "In Search of the Sexy Librarian," and a new publisher's afterword.

for more information please visit:
www.sexylibrariannovel.com

to order please visit:
http://www.lulu.com/content/1400577

Sloth Has Its Rewards

We got about 6 inches of snow last night. I measured it with my hand at 10am when I went out to shovel--I still subscribe to that old wives' tale "The West Side doesn't get snow!" until faced with evidence. I did one lane and was reflecting that Genevieve was so right when she said that she used to like snow until she moved to Cleveland, when a guy pulled up in a minivan.

"Hey, I got a snowblower. For 10 bucks I'l do from your car out to the street."

Best $10 I could have spent, truly. He did from my car to the street, cleared out the plow buildup, did the walkway steps and porch. I have his flyer for next time.

There Were Two Sisters, Side By Side...

You will all be happy to know that I start 2008 with only 2 cats in the house. Molly and Belle, the adorable, affectionate, smart friendly tabby girls went to the Garfield Heights Petsmart last night. Honeybelle is my last foster.

Winter 2008 is an excellent time to adopt an animal friend...