July Recap

Team Eleventh Stack has enjoyed another sunny month of summer Library adventures. Here’s a look back at the topics we blogged about in July 2015.

Ross finally got to see Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. He also looked forward to The Voices and read a book that made him want to gouge his eyes out. Elsewhere in movie madness, Tara explored some amusing taglines.

It’s a thin line between love and hate, and some of our bloggers explored that this month. Irene mused about unlikable characters and shared some of her secret talentsScott, for his part, gave voice to his love for Tumblr and paid tribute to one of his local TV heroes with a post in a similar delivery style.

Kayla shared how The Girl on the Train helped her with her summer reading goal. Suzy also wrote about her reading goals (feminist classics) for the Adult Summer Reading program. As of this writing, she has not freaked out.

Ginny recommended some books to go along with your favorite podcasts and asked for your input about what her book club should read next. Elsewhere in technological advances, Kelly rejoiced over Hoopla’s new digital comics content. We’re pretty sure she’s reading a digital comic right now, too.

"Woman Reading in a Forest," by Gyula Benczúr. Via Wikimedia Commons/Google Art project - click through for source page/details.

“Woman Reading in a Forest,” by Gyula Benczúr. Via Wikimedia Commons/Google Art project – click through for source page/details.

Many team members reviewed single titles this month. Melissa F. offered some thoughts on Pittsburgh native Gerald Stern’s new poetry collection, Divine NothingnessJoelle was moonstruck by Neal Stephenson’s new novel, SevenevesAbbey finished Go Set a Watchman before the rest of us, and wasn’t all that impressed. Meanwhile, Eric was completely blown away by the sci-fi anthology Mothership.

Jess celebrated a milestone birthday with some classic callbacks and spilled some book club secrets. She may or may not still be reading under an umbrella. Meanwhile, Leigh Anne ran around trying to convince you that exercise doesn’t have to be awful. She may or may not be exhausted.

Last, but certainly not least, Eleventh Stack featured two great guest posts this month. Whitney Z. confessed her affinity for robots, while Sheila explained how she’s stumbled across some of her favorite books and authors over the years.

Now that you’re all caught up on what you may have missed in July, we hope you’ll stick with us for bloggish adventures in August and beyond. Summer’s not over yet, and the wealth of Library-related goodness we have to share with you is just beginning.

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The First Rule of Book Club …

… is to apparently talk about Book Club. Apologies to Chuck Palahniuk.

I belong to the same extracurricular book club that Ginny discussed in her last post.  As you’ll recall, our goals are simple: read good YA books and charm waiters across the city. We’re doing okay on both accounts.

Here’s what we’ve read recently…

Everything Leads to You, Nina La Cour (book, ebook) – Emi, a recent high school graduate, is getting her start in the film industry as a set designer. During a visit to an estate sale with her boss, she finds a letter that leads to Ava – a bit of a manic pixie dream girl. Pros: LGBTQ characters, movie-making fun. Cons: Unrealistic expectations of post-high school job prospects

The Darkest Part of the Forest, Holly Black (book, ebook, audio) – Twins Hazel and Ben live in a small town where humans and faeries mostly co-exist without any issues. Deep in the forest, a boy has been sleeping in a glass coffin for as long as anyone can remember – until one day, he finally wakes up. Pros: Sword-wielding girls, LGBTQ characters. Cons: Static characters (we all agreed that the story would have worked better as a graphic novel)

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Benjamin Alire Saenz (book, ebook, audio) – Ari’s older brother is in prison and no one will talk about it. Dante lives in a house where they talk about everything. After meeting at a community pool, they begin an uneasy friendship that turns into the most important relationship in their lives. Pros: Beautiful writing, LGBTQ characters. Cons: Not many (this book has won ALL of the awards – Lambda Literary Award and Stonewall Book Award for LGBT fiction, an Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award honor, Pura Belpré Narrative Medal for Latino fiction, and Michael L. Printz Award honor for Young Adult fiction.)

And we went with Gabi, a Girl in Pieces for next time.

If you’re looking to get some book club action for yourself, check out our Events page to find one that works for you!

– Jess

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Secret Talents

Do you have any secret talents? I’m secretly kind of amazing at parallel parking. I’m all the more proud of this talent because when I learned how to drive parallel parking wasn’t required as part of the PA driver’s license test; it’s just something I picked up out of necessity. It’s not exactly a superhero talent, but I like to think that all of us have something kind of silly and mundane that we excel at- like being great at placing a phone order for take out, or remembering birthdays without relying on Facebook reminders.

What does any of this have to do with the library? Only that we’ve got resources on everything from, yes, how to parallel park, to anything else you might want to learn. Here are a few talents I’d like to develop:

Cleaning! Sure, I can handle the basics, but did you know that some people actually like to clean up, and have even written books about it? Despite the fact that this is my most hated chore, I often read books like this one to see if the skill and drive of the professionals will rub off on me.

Jumping rope: This is actually a talent I used to have and lost- I could double dutch with the best of them at recess, but I’ve totally lost all memory of how to do it. It’s something I might never have thought of again if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m currently teaching my 5-year old how to use a jump rope. I’d also like to one day master double unders.

Whistling like this: To be honest, I’m not a great whistler even without my fingers, but I’ve always wanted to learn how to whistle with my fingers. Fortunately, we’ve got books on that!

As I’ve been writing this post, I can’t help but think of this scene from The Breakfast Club when they share their secret talents:

What are you great at?

-Irene

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Mothership – Get On.

I recently stumbled across an absolutely cracking good sci-fi collection called Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond. I say “stumbled” because it showed up one day in something I was working on here at the library and I thought to myself “Self, you should probably look into that.” I did. I was not let down.

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This collection features an amazing range of writers, some of whom have been awarded some of the most prestigious prizes in fiction (including winners of the James Tiptree Jr Award, The Richard Yates Short Story Prize, Pushcart Prize nominees, The Hugo, The Nebula and the Prometheus Awards). One (George Tate) teaches at the Yale Graduate Art Program. Another (Charles Saunders) is even from Elizabeth, PA! Others are less well known, but still produce knockout stories that are thought-provoking as well as gripping.

Over the last year or two it has become very popular (and I feel justifiably so) in the book blog-o-sphere to talk about being cognizant of reading a wider range of writers. (For example…HERE, HERE, and HERE.) Discussions about not limiting your reading to white, male authors have been eloquently made (certainly much more-so than I am able). If you are a fan of sci-fi and interested in looking at a more diverse group of writers in that genre, take a look at this collection. Even if you are schooled in discovering diverse voices within the genre, look this one up. But perhaps most importantly, get this book and read it because it is excellent. The stories are fantastic and the introductions by editors Bill Campbell and Edward Austin Hall are cogent and thought provoking…and all of it is well written. I can’t stop thinking about Carmen Maria Machado’s “The Hungry Earth.” Earnst Hogan’s “Skin Dragons Talk” is also taking up space in my head!

Whatever your reasons are, go get a copy of this, post-haste. You won’t be sorry.

Eric

who is currently reading a bunch of sci-fi and (gulp) getting ready to go back to school for the first time in years this fall!

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Watching the Watchman

This post is mostly spoiler-free discussion of Go Set a Watchman. If you plan on reading the book and do not want to see minor thematic spoilers for it, you may want to skip today’s essay.go set a watchman

There has been a lot of talk about Harper Lee’s new book. I do mean a  lot, but it’s not all bad, and it’s not all good.

This is my take on the story. I think it reads like a first book. There are a lot of flashbacks in the novel, and they don’t always add to the story. The flashbacks felt like rambling thought, and this made it difficult for me to read.

Before the book even hit the shelves, there were a few articles about how Atticus is racist. Many people were upset and distraught by this. They had grown up with the Atticus from To Kill a Mockingbirdthe one that most readers felt had fought injustice and racism. I feel, most readers wanted to believe in the Atticus from To Kill a Mockingbird. However, if you read both of the novels together, Atticus doesn’t really change. Most readers’ eyes have been opened to the idea that Atticus was ALWAYS racist. Just like Scout, we saw Atticus go from a good decent man in our eyes, to realizing that he has faults and isn’t all that we dreamed of.

This book is a good book to see comparisons, to be able to grow and learn about the characters much as Jean did. However, even if Atticus had remained a good person in the eyes of the reader, the book and its writing are just not good. Harper Lee seems to struggle with maintaining a plot and rhythm; it’s all over the place.

For those of you that have read it, did you enjoy it? Did you think it was better than I did? I’d love to hear others’ thoughts about the book.

-Abbey

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Pick An Author, Any Author!

Summer is a time for publishing industry doldrums. Most of the spring titles have come and gone and there is that long 6 weeks to wait till your favorite authors’ fall releases start to populate the online catalog. What’s a person who loves to read to do? Well, with all the books from all the public libraries in Allegheny County at your fingertips, try my method: choose a new-to-you author and read as many of their books as you can locate.

My reading taste runs to romances and suspense/thrillers, so if you like those genres here are some of my “read-em-all” suggestions, along with the stories of how I stumbled across the authors.

Vintage German playing cards, posted by Flickr user Valeriana Solaris. Some rights reserved. Click through for source page.

Vintage German playing cards, posted by Flickr user Valeriana Solaris. Some rights reserved. Click through for source page.

Julia QuinnThe Bridgerton series started in the early 2000s. My mom was in the hospital in 2003 having tests and I forgot to take something to read! Shame on me. So I found Julia Quinn’s To Sir Phillip with Love, book five in an eight book series, in the AGH gift store. What a lucky break. These warm, poignant, funny Regency romances kept me charmed that summer as Mummy declined. The British manners and customs of the ton, meddling siblings and a simple bee sting changed everything for this aristocratic family.

Stephanie LaurensBar Cynster series – There are 23 books in this series! I’ve read them all. When I read In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner in 2004, one of the characters was reading Captain Jack’s Woman, one of Laurens’ earliest stories. The Cynster series represents just a fraction of the romances written by Ms. Laurens.

The Cynsters are a noble British family and the time frame stretches from the early 1800s to the 1850s, as generations and branches of the family find love, kinship, mystery and renown. Book one is Devil’s Bride. That got me started with Laurens and with the Cynsters and their lush, sexy, romantic tales. I alternated reading or listening to this series and British actor Simon Prebble really puts his heart and soul into describing those passionate relationships in the audio versions.

Patricia Cornwell – In 2006, I was heading out on a road trip and had to grab something quickly to listen to. I grabbed an audio tape of Point of Origin that was sitting on a display shelf. I’d read and heard that Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta Series were great, award-winning mysteries. This title focused on several connected gruesome deaths by fire. Or are they connected? The forensic details had me hooked.

So from book nine in the series I retreated and began listening to the series from the beginning, book one – Postmortem through Predator. Actually this marathon took me well into 2007. And, I continue reading today, despite Cornwell’s inconsistencies in voice (first person, to third person, to first person), terrible reviews (most not really deserved) and characters’ personalities changing on a dime or sudden aging (niece Lucy is a kid, then seemingly an FBI recruit overnight). Kay Scarpetta is a forensic pathologist par excellence, and her cases, her relationships and her criminal adversaries are worth the time. Suspend that disbelief!

Vintage playing cards of uncertain origin, posted by Flickr user William Creswell. Some rights reserved. Click through for source page.

Vintage playing cards of uncertain origin, posted by Flickr user William Creswell. Some rights reserved. Click through for source page.

Harlan Coben – In 2007, I fell upon Coben’s mystery series about professional sports agent Myron Bolitar. The manager of Main Library’s New and Featured department recommended Coben to me. A talented basketball star with a degree from Harvard Law who flamed out quickly in the NBA, main character, Myron, dedicates himself to seeing to the best interests of his athlete clients, both professionally and personally. His best friend, elitist Win, not only serves as financial consultant to Myron’s clients, but back-up to Myron when he gets into binds with the criminal underworld, unhappy relatives and disgruntled spouses of the sports stars. Coben’s standalone novels often have minor characters in common with each other and with the Bolitar series. Myron makes a brief appearance in The Stranger, published in 2015.

William LashnerThe Victor Carl series. Schlubby Philadelphia defense lawyer Victor Carl takes all of the cases no one else would touch with a ten foot pole. I glommed onto this series when looking at a display of Pennsylvania authors in 2008. Lashner’s writing is spare and beautifully evocative at the same time. When he describes a character (and believe me, the people Victor Carl encounters in his cases are “characters”) you can see, smell and hear them as well as get inside their heads – whether you want to or not! Try Falls the Shadow and meet the strange dentist, Bob. You will see what I mean.

I love Lashner. His recent standalone, The Barkeep, (on order – keep an eye on the catalog) is an Edgar Award nominee. It is also one of my favorite books of 2015.

Janet EvanovichStephanie Plum/By the Numbers Series – books 1 -10. I started these books during the summer of 2010. The Library was fighting for its financial life and closing some CLP branches seemed possible. The senior staff spent the summer in a series of discussions across Pittsburgh to engage the community and discuss the future path for the library. This was a very intense time for us and I really needed a few laughs.

My cousin Kathy recommended Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum stories. These fast-moving, delightful and often hysterically funny stories pit tough bail bondswoman Plum against the low life criminals of Trenton, NJ. After about book ten, Ten Big Ones, the series formula has been firmly entrenched, and while there are still some laugh aloud scenes, Janet is phoning it in … i.e. there’s nothing new under the Trenton sun. But the early stories are fresh and funny and hold the promise that maybe, someday … Stephanie will do something, anything, new.

Kristan Higgins – Higgins writes funny, thoughtful, contemporary romances, distinguished by quirky, relatable characters, a dog or two and small town America. I kept seeing her books appear on the annual “best romances of the year lists.” I tried The Next Best Thing, about a young widow who is trying to get on with her life. So she was my 2014 choice and has only ten titles published. I burned through them last summer, they were that enjoyable. I am anxious to read her next book, If You Only Knew, which comes out in September (also coming soon to the Library catalog).

So, choose an author, any author, and end the summer by devoting your reading just to them. It’s very satisfying!

–Sheila

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Nobody Asked Me, But…

Borrowing this rhetorical device from my all-time favorite sports columnist, Bob Smizik, I will use my blog slot this time around hit on a few unrelated points. A bit of this, and a bit of that. So here goes!

* Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh offers a Book A Librarian service! Do you need a one-on-one, one hour consultation with a skilled information professional? Just fill out the form the link takes you to and await our reply!

* Haiku writing / A discipline for all time / Inch worm

Ant-Man is out and you’ve seen it! Now what? Read some classic Avengers tales involving the original Ant Man, Hank Pym! I recommend this amazing collection!

* Our Overdrive eBook collection now features roughly 17,000 titles available in the epub and Kindle formats! They make ideal summer vacation reading solutions!

* A colleague and I were talking sci-fi and she recommended James S. A. Corey’s Leviathon Wakes to me. Fair warning–this could spawn another Dune post!

–Scott

Lev-wake-covAvengers-Epic-4-cov

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