Taps Mic... is this thing still on?

Hello? Still there?

It's been almost two years since I last posted here. In the last few months I've really missed this blog, both as a record of my reading life, but also creating it. I've been struggling with what this blog would look like ever since it turned 10 and I had some burnout and committee work and professional reviewing have changed the nature of what I can post. I don't have any good answers to that right now, so we'll see!

There's some new stuff going on since my last post.

A few weeks after my last post, I had a baby! (So now I have one in elementary school and a toddler. Life is not at all crazy!)

I transferred to a new position in my library system. I'm now in my dream job of collection development, which is super fun. (The super basic explanation of what I do is I buy the books for the library. There's a team of us, and I'm in charge of the titles for younger readers. I also do ao lot to promote the collection-- remember when I made all those booklists? I get to do that now as part of my day job.)

Committee work! I was on the Margaret A Edwards Award Committee-- be sure to read all of Angela Johnson's work--it's amazing. I also got to chair the Junior/Senior High Nonfiction Committee for the CYBILS again this year. I was also a 2nd round judge.

I also picked up some new reviewing things. So I am now regularly reviewing for School Library Journal, Library Journal, and Booklist. I love reviewing when someone assigns me books, as it has me discovering titles I might not have otherwise picked up.

Anyway, stay tuned for more book-related content!

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

2014 in Review

Well, it's a new year, so of course it's time to look back on the year that was. I hate doing my "best of" lists or my stats before the clock strikes midnight because I CAN STILL TOTALLY READ MOAR BOOKS!

But first, a look back and the highlights of this year (I'll save the lowlights for when we're sharing a bottle of wine face-to-face).

At the beginning of the year I finished up my work on Outstanding Books for the College Bound. Almost a full year later and I'm still really damn proud of that list.

Shortly after, I was able to drop the "Acting" from my job title of Acting Branch Manager. I also joined the adult collection development committee, which has been really great.

In May, I did my last storytime. I'm sure I'll do it again, maybe if it's just filling in, but it is no longer part of my regular job duties, and probably won't be again for quite some time. It's been bittersweet. (BUT! This fall, with the new storytime schedule, and me working a slightly different work schedule, there is now a storytime that I can take L to! So now I get to go to storytime, which is great.)

In June, I transferred to a much larger branch in my system, which was a big change, but one I'm really enjoying. After about a week there, I went off to Las Vegas for ALA. Angela and I got to present on tips and tricks for reader's advisory with nonfiction and I got to hang out with old friends and make new ones. We took the most epic group selfie to make Rachel jealous. But I got her twitter handle wrong when mocking her with it. And then, in the airport on the way home, I won $40 in the Dolly Parton slot machine.

In August, I started a tumblr documenting my attempts to explain pop songs to L. L now has more tumblr followers than I have on all my other social media accounts combined. And then multiplied.

This fall, I was asked to give my ALA presentation again at a staff day in a nearby library system, which was really nice. And now I'm working on updating it (highlighting new books) because I'm giving it again this May at the Maryland and Delaware Library Association Annual Conference, which is very exciting.

I also started a new project on the website, suggesting read-alikes for the books with the longest holds lists. That's been a really fun challenge that I (hope) is something our users are finding useful.

And, of course, I read a lot. After 2 years on YALSA committees, this was a bit of a recovery year. I read a lot less. I've also found I'm much more willing to drop a book part-way through if it's just not working for me at that moment. And, now that I'm no longer officially a youth services librarian and am doing more with adult collections, I read a lot more adult titles, which is a really big shift.

So... I read 147 books. 58 were YA, 7 were middle grade (?!) and a whopping 79 were adult. (yes, I know that math doesn't quite work.)

77 were by women, 67 were by men. 37 were titles I would consider diverse. 20 were translated works. 57 were comics and 11 were adult romances. 37 were nonfiction, which is a low percentage for me especially as many were 'required' but it makes sense after 2 years of nonfiction-heavy years because of my committee work. And only 43 books were required reading (so, for committee work [last minute OBCB reading and my pre-Cybils reading] and assigned reviews).

So... that's my year. Next year, I want to read more diverse titles and more works in translation and more romance.

How was your year? Oh, and here are some of my favorite books of the year:









Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Happy 10th Birthday, Biblio File!

Picture by Sam Howzit, used under Creative Commons license.

Biblio File is turning 10 years old today. Yes, 10. I know, it’s insane.

A lot has happened in the past decade--I moved to DC. I stopped being a database cataloger and started being a children’s librarian at the public library. I started grad school. I bought a house. I adopted a dog. I graduated from grad school. I became a parent. I went from children’s services to youth services to adult services to management. I served on the Cybils 4 times (and am currently doing so for the 5th time) and the Maryland Blue Crab and YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction and YALSA’S Outstanding Books for the College Bound. I started reviewing for School Library Journal and RT Book Reviews website. I’ve presented at conferences at the local, state, and national level. I blogged about storytime. I made a themed book list for every day in 2013.

And Biblio File has always been here, sometimes more active than others, but always here. It’s changed over the years. The first month or so, it was just me generally talking about what I was reading. Then it was very informal reviews and then more formal ones. And then I tried to review everything I read. I've reviewed over 1600 books here. As of this morning, my backlog is over 200 and I just don't want to deal with it. It’s time to change again.

I’m burned out on reviewing here. I’m reviewing for other sources and want to take on new projects and the thought of reviewing everything I’m reading and catching up on all my backlog... It’s not fun anymore. And I don't know why, because I'm not burned out on reviewing for other sources. Maybe it's because the books are assigned? That it's only a small percentage of the books I actually read?

I thought of a few directions--maybe only review the stuff I wanted to review or felt like it? Eh. In reality, right now, I don’t feel like reviewing anything for the blog, even stuff I love.

I could drop the blog, but I don’t want to. So much of my growth as a reader and my professional growth has been because of Biblio File. (I can actually connect the dots from the blog to some opportunities that turned into other opportunities, that turned into... etc) It taught me how to review. It's made me a better reader. It gave me exposure. It gave me a way to talk with other book people. I love this blog.

So, instead, I’m shifting focus a bit. I’ll still talk about what I read, but in a much more general, less review-y way. It's actually going to go back to the way I used to review 8-9 years ago. I’m also going to start posting more about general trends/issues I’m seeing in what I’m reading. Some bigger picture stuff. So, expect regular round-up posts of "what I read this week/month/lately" and some thoughts I've been having on deciding age range (sometimes the hardest part of an SLJ review!) or how authors show respect for their teen audience. And maybe there will still be some more formal reviews on here. Who knows. That's the great part about a blog--it can change and grow and can change and grow back.

(I find it's interesting that as I'm putting the finishing touches on this post I've been writing for a week, Kelly's tweeting about some of these same issues. If I could figure out how to link to a series of tweets, I would because you should read all of them.)

I am personally committed to reviewing the Cybils books I’m reading and I have a handful of reviews that I’ve already written, so I’ll go ahead and post those. But after that, we’ll see what happens and where it goes and how it develops.

Thank you so much for being with me these past 10 years. I hope you’ll stick around for the next 10.

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

On Safety, Kathleen Hale, and what to do next

A lot of bloggers are thinking about what the next steps are after this weekend. How do we react when negative status updates about a book can get you stalked? Is an author going to show up on my doorstep? Call me at work and harass me until I cry? Blogging isn't a job, it's a hobby. It's supposed to be fun, a way to connect with other book nerds.

It's not supposed to put you in danger.

Of the two big issues facing book bloggers right now, a major lawsuit looks like "lucking out."

That's fucked up.

And it's worse than authors showing up in your front yard and calling you at work. It's the people who automatically take her at her word that the reviewer was wrong and harassing her. She wasn't. I know. I'm shocked, too! A woman who thought that showing up on someone's doorstep was a rational response to bad status updates has a skewed version of the reality leading up to that point. Shocking! But there are a lot of people who are applauding her for "fighting back."

So, what's next? Do I seriously have to balance the safety of my family with my desire to talk about books? Is this a real live thought process I've been having the past few days? REALLY?

I blog and tweet with my real name. It's not that hard to figure out where I work. And part of this is on purpose--my blog is personal and mine and I do it on my own time, but to say it's 100% separate from work is hard. My day job (which includes regularly scheduled nights and weekends) affects the blog--it informs what I read, my library users inform my reactions to titles and my blog affects my day job-- it's opened up professional doors to me and given me opportunities I may not have had. Many of my blogging friends are also professional colleagues and part of my personal learning network. My blog is on my resume. Honestly, in the grand scheme, at this point, it doesn't make sense for me to change it to a pseudonym. But what am I leaving myself open to?

And here's another area-- I'm not just a book blogger. I'm also a professional reviewer. I regularly review for School Library Journal (paywalled) and the RT Book Reviews website. These are signed reviews and SLJ even includes my place of employment after my name. If anything, this is what makes the most sense to give up. The majority of my critical or negative reviews are professional (mostly because I'm not apt to finish a book I don't like unless it's assigned.) But, I really like reviewing professionally. It's made me a better reader and a better blogger. It has helped my career and sometimes I get paid. It's not something I'm willing to give up, and I don't think I should have to in order to protect my safety.

And then my thought process turns to the fact that the affected bloggers are much bigger than me, so it's not going to be an issue for me... except. I have had an author track me down at work about a review I wrote. This person used my library's "contact us" form to comment on my review of their book. Luckily, it was for one of the professional outlets, so I could just forward it to my editor and let them deal with it.

Who do I forward the scary lady on my front lawn too? What happens when someone defames me in an international newspaper? What happens if the it's the blog, where I'm the editor? Will my professional reputation be dragged through the mud and affect my ability to put food on the table?

Where do I go next? Do I give into my fear? Is that letting the terrorists win (in the parlance of our times?) Do I accept the risk, knowing there are more Kathleen Hales out there and if they can write well enough (and let's be honest, that article was fascinating and compelling. She can clearly write. She just can't recognize dangerous and probably illegal behavior) people will just take her word at it without even trying to hear the other side of the story?

In a month and a half, Biblio File will turn 10. Yes, a decade of book blogging. Posting has been spotty at times, and this is not the first time I've seriously considered stopping. But, every other time it was because of internal issues--do I really want to devote the time it requires or do I want to prioritize other things in my life? Do I still have the passion to make it worth the brain space? And I've always just taken a break or powered through. It's never because of something external before. And... I just don't know now.

I just don't know.

Edited on 10/21/14 to add Please also read this post by Beth Revis. It has links to the story of a an author who showed up at a GoodRead's reviewer's place of employer and hit her in the head with a wine bottle hard enough that she went into shock and had to be hospitalized. Because of a bad review.


Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Hypothetical Box Curator: Summer Reading

If I had a subscription box service, this month's theme would be Summer Reading, and here's what you would get:



Personal Library Kit so you can lend your favorites to your friends in style (and know who to bug to get them back!)



This Superfudge shirt from Out of Print Clothing to wear your reading pride, even when you aren't actually reading.



This "Feeling Austentatious" tote bag from the awesome people at Forever Young Adult so you can tote your books to your favorite summer reading spot.



Moleskine Book Journal to help keep track of everything you read.



Two Moons in August by Martha Brooks-- a perfect summer book that I reread every summer.

Check out the Pinterest board for more Summer Reading Goodness!

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Hypothetical Box Curator: Garden Party

I love subscription boxes. The Kung Fu Princess's birthday was this week (3!) and my parents signed her up for Kiwi Crate. I'm a user of Birchbox and Ipsy (let me know if you want invites) and am currently lusting after a For the Makers subscription. I'm also part of WORDs of Love club and BookRiot's Riot Read (and lusting after their Quarterly box). I love getting monthly packages in the mail and opening them up to see the surprises inside.

So, just for fun, I thought it would be fun to put together a hypothetical monthly box. SO, if I had a monthly box, here's what you'd be getting in June...

I love a good garden party--something fancier than a normal cookout, with a cute dress or suit jacket and wine and cocktails and heavy h'ordeuvres. So, this box will help you with all your garden party needs...



Tanto Tempo by Bebel Gilberto is the perfect soundtrack to set the mood.

Slurp: Drinks and Light Fare, All Day, All Night by Nina Dreyer Hensley covers all your drink and food options from morning to night.

Hinterland Trading Air Plant Tillandsia Bromeliads Kit Teardrop Terrarium with Pebbles and Moss Great Little Houseplant to bring the garden party inside

And of course, you need something to wear. I love all of Frosted Willow's bangle sets, but think this honey bee bangle set is perfect for a garden party. I also think t this ombre polka-dot pocket square from J. Z. Richards is a must for your coat pocket.

Thanks for indulging me. What do you think of the box? Would you subscribe? What would you put in your box if you got to curate one?

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

We Need Diverse Books

There's been a lot of talk for years about lack of diversity in children's and teen publishing. Lately, as mainstream media picks it up, it seems to have reached a critical head. As part of this groundswell, there is the We Need Diverse Books Campaign. It's supposed to start on Thursday, but the hashtag is already all over Twitter.

A lot of people are sharing stories and feelings about not being able to see themselves in the books they read. Or talking about the youth they work with who can't see themselves. I used to work in an area where the vast majority of my users were African or African American. I was always told they wanted a book about kids "like them" (read: black) that "wasn't old, or sad" (read: not historical fiction about slavery or civil rights). And I had books to give them! But not enough to get them through a school year, even if they could/would read every age/reading level. And they need diverse books.

But you know what? White kids do, too. And not just in a feel good "diversity is good for everyone" way (even though I firmly believe that.)

I grew up in NorthEast Wisconsin. When I was growing up, the largest group of non-white people were Hmong immigrants (or, at my age level, children of Hmong immigrants.) Name a book with Hmong people.

There's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures, which came out in 1998 (the year I graduated from high school) with is nonfiction and for adults.

There's Pa Lia's First Day: A Jackson Friends Book. There are 4 books in the Jackson Friends series. I read the last one first--Stinky Stern Forever: A Jackson Friends Book, so I didn't know Pa Lia's name from the title, but she appears on the first page.

Pa Lia. I read it and stopped. Really? I read it again. And again. Pa Lia? REALLY?! It couldn't really be... no... PA LIA? And I read on and there were other cultural clues and OMFG YES THERE WAS A HMONG KID IN THIS CLASSROOM.

Finally, there was a book with a classroom that looked like mine looked for 12 years. I didn't realize how much that was lacking, and how much I needed a classroom to look like mine, until I saw that name in that book. I literally cried with relief. I was in my late 20s, crying with relief and joy that an early chapter book had a classroom that looked like my classroom.

If I need a Hmong character in books so badly, because I need my world reflected, even as an adult, how the hell did my Hmong classmates feel, never seeing themselves anywhere? What kind of disservice have we done to children, when the page denies their very existence? The 3 books I mention here, plus the other 2 in the Jackson Friends series are the ONLY books I know of with Hmong characters. So, 1 series. 1 adult nonfiction. That's it.

Seriously. All I want are books that reflect the world I live in. I'm a white girl with a middle class background. The books we have on our shelves are supposed to be reflecting me, but their all-white pages aren't even doing that. My experiences are more than me. They are the people around me. I'm white, but my world isn't. Why are my books?


Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Sunday Salon: Where I've Been and Where I'm Going

Thank you for bearing with me on this unscheduled blog break.

In the meantime, I've been to ALA, which was awesome. I got to connect and hang out with a lot of great people, met some new friends, and got a ton of ideas for programming and better ways to serve my customers. (Before ALA I started having some pretty interesting conversations and THOUGHTS about customer service in the library setting, and so some of these sessions timed perfectly for me that way. But that's a whole 'nother blog post.)

Plus, my committee meetings went really well. I'm so excited about the work we're doing. It's a great year for Nonfiction.

The big news though is...

I have a new job. I start week after next. It's still youth services, but in a different system in the DC area. I don't have any time off between jobs either, so there's been a lot going on as I try to tie up all my loose ends and prepare to start someplace new.

AND! While all that was going on, there was the dreaded DERECHO. Or land hurricane.*

It was pretty awesome when it hit. We screened in the porch last summer, so we had a drink and watched the storm. I'm surprised we kept our trees-- that wind was crazy. Half the time I couldn't tell if the rumbling was thunder or just the wind in the trees. And the lightning! As one of our friends said, "It looked like there were huge strobe lights behind the clouds."

We lost power for about a day. Friends of ours kept power, so there was a big party at theirs. Of course, shortly after we all arrived, THEY lost power for a few hours. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. The library was out for a few days, too. The craziest was the day we had power back and then lost it again. The circ department kept checking books out (old skool-- BY HAND) and we stayed open until the AC started to wear off. I was super-impressed with many of the library systems in the area that stayed open late (some were even open on July 4th) to serve as cooling stations for their communities.

I lost internet in the Derecho. While I legitimately lost if for a few days, it was out even longer because I forgot that I had unplugged the FIOS box shortly after the power blew because that was the only way to make it stop beeping. There's nothing worse than BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP that won't end at 4 am when it's 90 degrees in your bedroom. Luckily the KungFu Princess dropped a toy behind the couch a few days ago and when I was fishing it out, I noticed that the internet was unplugged. D'oh.

But, no internet = limited TV (most of our TV is via iTunes and Netflix) which means LOTS of reading.

But, it's really, really, really hot. And with everything else going on, I'm more whiny and lazy than productive. I should have some reviews up this week though.

*Land Hurricanes bring Land Sharks. FYI.

Personal Musings

This week I survived an earthquake (lots of downed books) and an hurricane (lots of downed small branches.)

My next challenge? I go back to work on Monday. If the library system has regained power.

The earthquake also closed my library branch all last week. They've determined the damage isn't structural (yay!) so they're reopening on Monday, just in time for me to return and help reshelve all the books that fell.

Biblio Baby is here!

Hello All!

Just a post to say that Biblio Baby arrived at 2:18 on Saturday morning. 6lbs, 14 oz and a whopping 20 3/4 inches long. (She's almost tall enough to ride the roller coaster!) We're home now and both doing really well, even if I am a bit bleary-eyed.

As this was slightly earlier than expected (she's just making sure we understand who's boss!) I didn't get my posts pre-scheduled.

Please bear with me as I try to figure everything out. I have lots of books to review, lots of reviews written, and lots of books to read.

Posting will resume on as regular of a schedule as we get around here as soon as it can, but who knows when that will be.

Personal Blather

A few things:

1. People have been asking and no, I don't have a baby yet. Next week.

2. I am so super-jealous of everyone who did the 48 Hour Reading Challenge this weekend. SO JEALOUS! This is the first year in, well, YEARS that I didn't participate. It made me sad. I did, however, clean out the China cabinet and linen closet (and no, that's not extreme nesting, they've been on my to-do list for MONTHS, they've just be super low-priority and it was finally their turn.)

3. I have no idea what this blog is going to look like this summer. I know enough about babies to not make firm plans. I'm trying to pre-write and pre-schedule a bunch of stuff, but WHO KNOWS.

4. That WSJ article was whack. I don't have anything to add to the responses. I actually can't speak coherently about it. The best I get is 'JENNIE MAD! JENNIE SMASH!' Luckily, other people can see through the veil of red better than I can. I especially love Salon's and Roger's responses.

Hi There

No review today, but rather a post of news and the like.

Things in my real life have been cray-cray lately. We had the holidays! Then ALA Midwinter! Then my parents came to visit and rearrange my entire house as we bought new furniture and got rid of furniture and started converting the guest room/office into a nursery (wait, I'm sorry-- it's now called Multipurpose Room 1). Then I went to China for a few weeks.

Hopefully things should settle out here soon. I am really behind in writing reviews and the ones I have written lately are for books that aren't coming out for a few months, so I'm not going to post them yet. (Although I'll tell you know that I loved Withering Tights and Where She Went blew me away even more than If I Stay. And you will all need to read Back When You Were Easier to Love when it comes out.)

I will update my YALSA election page soon. I'm really excited about the opportunity to run for the Excellence in Nonfiction Award Committee and I hope my regular readers know my passion for nonfiction and I hope that new readers will be able to see it.

I'm also working on a big presentation on multi-cultural and international literature for teens for this spring's Maryland Library Association Conference. When I have notes and slides and a book list, I'll post them here. Also, that should give you a hint for what types of reviews you'll be seeing from me this spring.

At Midwinter, I was talking to some fellow librarian bloggers about the possibility of a story time blog. Would you read it? Basically, once or twice a week (depending on my story time schedule that week) I would post what I did for story time-- which rhymes I read, which books I read and any notes on how it went. I do a weekly story time for infants (newborn-12months) and every few weeks do one for 3-5 year olds (it happens 3 times a week at our library, I'm just person doing it every few weeks.) I also envision occasionally posting videos demonstrating how I act out various rhymes. (My Hickory Dickory Dock is not to be missed.) I have to prep all the material anyway, so if people are interested, I might as well share it, right?

AND! As we rearrange the house (and our lives) to make room for the upcoming birth of our daughter (yes! it's a girl!) this June, I've had to do some serious weeding of my books. Starting this weekend I'm starting a HUGE! GIVEAWAY! SERIES! titled "My baby needs a place to sleep" it will hopefully happen every week and let me find a new home for my books.

So that is the news from here. I should be back on schedule soon. Thanks for bearing with me!



Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

The 30 Most Influential Books...

I turned 30 last week. To celebrate, I ate a lot of cake. I also came up with a list of the 30 most influential books in my life so far. It was a fun exercise that surprised me in some ways. Some books were easy to pinpoint. For some, I thought about phases in my life and various obsessions through the years and tracked them back to the book that was responsible (a book is almost always responsible.)

These aren't my 30 favorite books, or the 30 best books I've ever read, but these 30 books fundamentally changed my life in some way, large or small. They changed the way I look at the broader world, the way I look at storytelling, or just had a heavy influence on my later reading tastes.

The list is roughly in chronological order.

Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever Richard Scarry

According to my parents, this was the book I demanded they read to me every night. No story, just words and pictures. Then again, when I look up a word in a print dictionary, I often get distracted by the other words and it ends up taking me 30 minutes.

Hop on Pop Dr. Seuss

I demanded the book be read to me so many times that I memorized it. Being 4, I thought I could read it. I was so proud of myself. I have very strong memories of me declaring I knew how to read and reading this book out loud. It's only with hindsight that I realize now that no, I didn't teach myself how to read that book. But, don't tell my inner 4-year-old. She's pitching a major fit right now just because I typed out the cold, hard truth of my memorization skills.

The Chronicles of Narnia C. S. Lewis

Yeah, when it comes to series, I'm cheating. My parents read the first few books out loud to us, a chapter or two a night, when my sister and I were young. In later elementary school, I finished the series on my own. I walked around in a funk for a week after finishing The Last Battle because it was over. There were no more Narnia books and I wasn't entirely sure what to do with myself. I revisited the series in college for my final paper and project in my Jesus class, which showed me how much more to these books there was than what I got out of them the first time around.

Meet Samantha: An American Girl Susan S. Adler

I know the arguments against American Girl and I understand them, I really do. But...

I was one of the girls that received the very first American Girl catalog ever. Back when there were only 3 dolls and 3 outfits for each. And for some messed up reason, I remember the day I got that catalog. (Seriously, I had just come home from Melissa Paiser's birthday party across the street. I tell myself it wasn't the marketing, but just the unbridled joy of getting a piece of mail JUST FOR ME when it wasn't my birthday.) My obsession with Samantha over the next few years spilled into a general obsession with American Victorian fashion and times, and all things lacy and frilly. Samantha taught me about child labor, how hard societal change is (yes, there was the subplot about women's voting rights, but I'm mainly thinking of how controversial her uncle's car was) that too much salt will ruin ice cream, taking care of nice toys, and the meaning of "rustic" and "taffeta."

The Secret Garden France Hodgson Burnett

I've been watching a lot of Bones lately. In an episode I saw this weekend, it ended with Brennan reading to her niece in the hospital. You can't see what book she's holding. All you hear is "Why was I forgotten?" Mary said, stamping her foot. "Why does no one come?" The young man whose name was Barney looked at her very sadly. Mary even thought she saw him wink his eyes as if you wink tears away.

As soon as Mary stamped her foot, I knew the book. I have no idea how many times I've read this over the years. My romantic notions of Yorkshire's moors have nothing to do with Wuthering Heights. No, I knew their mystery and magic and desolation back when the only Heathcliff I knew was a cartoon cat who was up to no good, making trouble in the neighborhood.

This is the book that makes me want to garden.

After reading this and A Little Princess, I wondered why all these British people were in India in the first place, which lead to a lot of research on India and British Imperialism and Gandhi and partition... this book is also one of the reasons I love to explore the changing notions of British identity, but we'll get into that a bit later.

Also, the musical based on this is AWESOME and gave me a very useful lyric that I repeat to myself on a fairly regular basis:

It's this day, not me, that's bound to go away

Drina Jean Estoril

While I love Drina to bits and pieces, as silly and old school British as it is, that's not what makes this an influential series. When Dan and I moved to Michigan, I finally moved the vast majority of my stuff out of my parents house, including most of my childhood books (they have since found a few boxes that are still in their basement.) As we were finally combining book collections, I did a major weed of my books-- we really didn't need two copies of Argument Without End In Search Of Answers To The Vietnam Tragedy (we were in the same history seminar) or our Calc textbook. I got rid of many of my childhood books because, when the time came to have our own children, I'd buy them new shiny copies. If I wanted to read them before then, well, I'd just get them from the library.

Fast forward 2 years and I'm starting my job as a children's librarian. I decided to reread my childhood favorites. This is when I discovered that DRINA IS OUT OF PRINT. As I searched eBay and used book sets to replace my beloved books, I discovered that there were 6 books in the series that never came out in the US. Those took years to track down and save up for.

Totally worth it.

And now, when someone suggests that I weed my books, I just scream, "DRINA! OUT OF PRINT!" at them.

I also use this to justify my hoarding of books. If I like a book, I better acquire it. The library might not have it! ACK!

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler E. L. Konigsburg

This book is the reason why I really like Dan Brown. I know that's heresy, but ever since reading this book, I've enjoyed mysteries and thrillers that are based on art. That includes mass market fun like Dan Brown, or more serious fare like Chasing Vermeer (which I like better than The Mixed-Up Files.)

Sadly, when I reread this as an adult, it had lost a little something, which broke my heart in a huge way.

But, seriously, art-based mysteries? I love them, and it's all because of this book.

Charlotte Sometimes Penelope Farmer

This is the book that initially sparked my interest in WWI. An interest that has never died down.

This was also a lost book for me. I remember reading it in the car when we drove to Indiana to visit my grandmother at some point. I remember being happy we were caught in traffic, because I was almost to the end and didn't want to get to grandma's apartment when I only had 10 pages left, because I wouldn't be allowed to finish it until bedtime. There was a Steak and Shake out my window. (Why the @#$^ do I remember that?)

Then, as I was reintroduced to the world of children's books 5 years ago, this book niggled somewhere on the fringes of my brain. I remembered parts of the plot, but couldn't figure out what the book was. A few months of searching and I found it.

When I first read it, I read the revised edition that came out in the 80s. When I reread it, I read the original 1969 edition. DIFFERENT ENDINGS. The re-release has the original ending. I now own the 80s version and the most recent edition. I'm trying to track down an affordable copy of the 1969 edition. I keep getting burned by people promising me it's the 1969 edition and then sending me the 80s one. Grrrrrrrr.

Anne of Green Gables L. M. Montgomery

Growing up in the 80s, all my dresses had puffed sleeves. I totally knew why Anne also wanted puffed sleeves. Puffed sleeves is where it was at.

Gilbert was my first fictional crush. (And he's still one of my main ones!)

Also, her name was Anne. WITH AN E. Just like my middle name, which always got spelled incorrectly.

This is another that I've read multiple times. I get something new out of it every time. And when I saw that Lauren Child had illustrated a new cover and written an introduction? I had to buy it.

Someday, I will go to Prince Edward's Island.

Remember Me Christopher Pike

This list is in roughly chronological order.

When I was in 5th grade, this was my favorite book. My other favorite book was Matilda. I try to remind myself of this every time I see kids leave the children's room for the teen section when I think they're too young.

I don't know how my mother did it.

This was my first Christopher Pike book. I spent the next four years devouring everything he wrote.

Seriously, my biggest SQUEE fan-girl moment at ALA was when I saw the ARC for his new book, The Secret of Ka. Also, I love it at work when kids come up to me and say "Do you have books like Goosebumps, but you know... scary?" And I always say "Let me introduce you to a very old friend of mine..."

Betty Crockers Cookbook

It was bright orange and a lot of the pages were falling out, but this book was the first one that got me cooking and experimenting in the kitchen. I have the 2005 edition, but it's not the same as the 1969 orange one. I inherited a 1969 one from my great-aunt and TOTALLY FORGOT to get it from my parent's house when I was there a few weeks ago.

After leaving home, I went through my Mrs. Rombauer phase and now pretty much rely on How To Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food by Bittman.

But, it all comes back to the bright orange Betty Crocker. Yum!

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret Judy Blume

This was the very first book by Blume I read. I got this book from a former youth minister for my birthday. I'm sure she gave it to me because of it's exploration of faiths, but I was pretty focused on the puberty section, which was more relevant at the time.

I have since read everything Blume's written. Her work taught me a lot about growing up-- physically and emotionally. Looking back, she also was my first introduction to people living a Jewish life. In her works, almost everyone was Jewish, but the books weren't about being Jewish (although Margaret is about being forced to choose between Judaism and Catholicism.)

Although Judy Blume isn't the reason I'm becoming Jewish, I'm not about to deny her influence!

Two Moons in August Martha Brooks

I was just thinking of this book on Sunday, when watching the Mad Men Season Premeire because Jantzen bathing suits play a big role in the book. This book is also the reason I bought A Night in Tunisia.

No other book captures so well the scariness that comes with opening yourself up to emotional attachment, the pain of loss, family dynamics, and the importance of living your life fully... Also, it perfectly captures the wondrous beauty of the small, everyday things, like plums.

AND! Just to give it push in relation to recent discussions on literature and race, although it's historical fiction from the late 50s, the main character's older sister's boyfriend is a super-hottt Chinese guy and the inter-racial aspect of the relationship is touched on in a few passing comments, but not a big deal at all.

On the Road Jack Kerouac

This is a book I haven't read more than once, and I'm not about to. This book would annoy me today. But, summer before sophomore year of high school, when I took the train out to San Fransisco, listening to that Art Blakey CD?

It made a huge impact and lead to multiple readings of The Portable Beat Reader throughout high school. "Song for Baby-O, Unborn" by Diane DiPrima is still one of my favorite poems.

Also, it claims that the prettiest girls live in Iowa and it does have one of the best last sentences ever (it's half a page long.) I haven't reread the book, but I have reread that sentence a million times. In college, we frequently used to exclaim "Des Moines! That's almost to Denver!"

...and in Iowa I know by now the children must be crying in the land where they let the children cry, and tonight the stars'll be out, and don't you know that God is Pooh Bear?

Trainspotting Irvine Welsh

I read this book because my British penpal told me to. Summer before junior year of high school, and I'm standing in my bedroom, reading out loud to get through the dialect and learning about a different side to Britain than Shakespeare and Drina.

That year in school, we had to read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. My teacher suggested that when we go to Jim's bits, we read out loud until we get used to the dialect. Ha! After a summer of deciphering Begby and Spud? Jim was a breeze.

One of my biggest complaints about people obsessed with the UK is that they think that all of England is like living the upper class life of a Jane Austen novel. I like things that show the varied facets of modern England.

Also, an entire novel told mostly in dialogue and monologue blew my mind on a craft level. And I learned a lot of new curse words.

(at some point, listen to a Kindle (which sounds like a Speak-and-Spell) read an Irvine Welsh novel out loud.)

Irvine Welsh is also one of the few authors Dan and I both really like.

Oh, and the movie is also really, really good.

The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald

I had to read this one for school a few times... it was a classic, but not only did I not mind it, I loved it. Classics could be wonderful, I could read them in an afternoon because they'd suck me in and hold me and make me forget that I had to write an essay about it as soon as I was done.

I loved the glamor and the subtlety and the heartbreak. I love how my friend Heather compared Gatsby parties to the ones in Sabrina which gave us all a frame of reference. (Yes, that's the remake. It's really good and was in the theater at the time.)

Most of all though, I loved that it made me not afraid to seek out the classic book on my own, not because they were important and I should read them, but because they might be really, really good.

As I Lay Dying William Faulkner

Now, this is one of my favorite books. I was taught this three times in school-- twice in high school and once in college. This is one of the books that taught me that people have differing ideas on books-- even if they're classics, even if they're professionals. (I had very good English teachers in high school and college.) So, depending on the teacher, this was either a tragedy or a very dark comedy. (Personally, I find it hilarious.) I loved that multiple narrators could happen in a book that wasn't a Baby-Sitters Club Super Special. I love the mixing of the heartbreak and the humor and the sheer absurdity of everything.

"My mother is a fish" remains one of my favorite lines in all of literature.

Bridget Jones's Diary Helen Fielding

I read this for the first time the summer before I started college. It was extremely reassuring that, as an adult, Bridget didn't have her act together at all, so it was completely ok that I had no idea what I was doing.

Plus, this book led me to Pride and Prejudice, and it also introduced me to Colin Firth.

All while making me laugh.

The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II Iris Chang

The very first book of Chinese history I read, so right there, that's a big one. It gave me a context for what I saw in Nanjing, 60-some years after the events. It gave me a stronger idea than anything else the role that history continues to play in our modern world and international relations.

It was also one of the first books I read that delved deeper into something that doesn't make the history books-- history isn't just names and dates and battles, but people trying to figure out what to do in their daily lives, and how their decisions play out through the weeks and months and years. And sometimes, the truth is more gripping and exciting and terrifying than any novel out there.

Harry Potter J. K. Rowling

I read the first three books in three days about a month before Goblet of Fire came out. It was the summer before junior year and I was working in ILL in my college library and my boss was horrified to learn that I hadn't read them yet. She loaned me the first one and I read it in one night. In the middle of my college career, full of reading SERIOUS BOOKS OF LITERATURE and history tomes, finding a book that sucked me in on page one and wouldn't let me go (even to the bathroom!) until I turned the last page was a refreshing reminder of the power of story.

You can't deny that Harry changed a lot of things about publishing-- children's books became ok for adults to read and got longer. The entire world was caught up in the mania and people of all ages and nationalities lined up for a midnight release of a BOOK. So many libraries try to do a one community/one book program, and they never come close to what it was like in the weeks following a Harry Potter release. I remember the week after Deathly Hallows came out-- my bank teller was reading it (I've never seen her read a book before or since), everyone on the metro was reading it, no matter where I went, everyone had a copy in their hands.

Being part of that phenomenon was an amazing thing to be caught up in. Nerding out about a book with the rest of the world was awesome.

e Matt Beaumont

This hilarious tale is one of the few books that Dan and I both really, really like. It's given us many phrases that has worked their way into our daily conversations.

But, this book also taught me a lot about craft. The entire book is told in the email being sent back and forth among all the staff members of an ad agency-- you have to pay close attention to the date stamps on the messages. I love books told in "stuff" and this was the first one I remember reading using this format. The format was a perfect way to tell the story (especially as one of my favorite plot lines involves the fact that the boss's email keeps getting CC'd to all the other branch heads.

East of Eden John Steinbeck

I had to have some Steinbeck on this list. I read this one on a train back to Nanjing after spending the weekend in Shanghai. Reading Steinbeck on that trip was like running into an old friend and falling right back into an old conversation that had never ended.

I then forced my parents to mail me their Steinbeck collection (and the Vonnegut) which was then passed among all of my classmates. They always flocked to my room when a new box of books came, hungry for English-language reading materials. Even then, I was a book-pusher...

White Teeth: A Novel Zadie Smith

As I said when discussing The Secret Garden, it gave me the first taste of my interest in exploring the changing notions of British identity. White Teeth is the book that helped solidify this interest and fuel it. While I think Small Island was a better exploration of these ideas, I read White Teeth while I was living in Manchester, in a Pakistani neighborhood, in the middle of this debate.

I've read scholarly works and news articles about the issues facing Britain as it deals with its colonial past, but what it really means, for people in their daily lives, and how it's changing the face to England, comes most alive in the works of fiction that I've read.

How Far Can You Go? David Lodge

This is a book that Dan loaned me. I got so engrossed in it that I missed my bus stop.

But, this is an influential book because it introduced me to my love of books that explore issues of faith but aren't faith-based fiction. I love explorations of faith and religion and how they affect our lives. This is the book that made me realize how much I love that.

And, in this case in particular, the exploration of the changes associated with Vatican II.

The Garlic Ballads: A Novel Mo Yan

Mo Yan is my favorite author. I had to have one of his books on this list. His work tends to be more visceral and have more description than most other Chinese fiction (at least that we see in translated into English.)

This book is the first one of his that I picked up after college. I loved the look at the frustration of Chinese peasants with their government and officials. It's a great look at the other side of the Chinese miracle. There is more to China and the Chinese population than the booming factories, newly rich, upwardly mobile young people, and the coastal cities.

This book also marks an interesting shift in Mo Yan's style to longer works with more symbolism and extended metaphor. I don't like his newer stuff as much I love his older books, but this book is the bridge between the two.

I also don't entirely get it, which doesn't happen that often. It's a nice reminder to always be looking deeper at books.

The Eyre Affair Jasper Fforde

Not only did this book introduce me to one of my favorite authors (Fforde) it introduced me to a million other books.

Everyone told me I should read this one, but I had never read Jane Eyre, so I had to do that first.

After falling in love with Thursday Next and her alternate version of Swindon, running amok with various fictional characters.

Because of Thursday Next, I revisited Wuthering Heights. Because Thursday, I read Great Expectations and The Wind in the Willows.

Thursday entertains me and makes me laugh, but she also makes me reach for one of those books that I know I should have read by now, but haven't. I've often bemoaned the fact that my English-language education focused heavily on the American cannon and, with the exception of Shakespeare, left out most of the Brits. Thursday's helping fix that. Plus! Dodos!

Feeling Sorry for Celia: A Novel Jaclyn Moriarty

I never wanted to be a children's librarian. It was something I feel into by chance that I then fell head-over-heels in love with. One of the happiest accidents of my life! After catching my eye on book cart I was supposed to be shelving, this was the first teen book (with the exception of Harry Potter and occasional re-readings of old favorites) that I had read since my own teenage years. It was 5 years ago this month and I had no idea how behind I was when it came to teen books.

Yes boys and girls, this is the book that created the monster you all know and love today. I used to only read adult books-- now they're a luxury!

From Cover to Cover (revised edition): Evaluating and Reviewing Children's Books Kathleen T. Horning

Ok, I read the original edition, but I hear the revised version is even better. I had no background in children's books when I started at this job, except that I had read a lot of them when I was a kid. This book was super easy to read and understand and gave me a crash course in the the knowledge and tools and language I needed in order to do my job really well.

I even bought my own copy and refer to it on a regular basis. Her information on book design (such as why there needs to be a lot of white space in easy readers), especially, is invaluable.

Fables Bill Willingham

This is the comic book series that got me over my snobbishness about comic books. I used to draw a distinction between Graphic Novels (one-offs that were much more serious, such as Maus and comic books, which were the small magazines of super heroes that you got at the comic store and were occasionally bound together in nice omnibus editions.

Not that there was anything wrong with comics, but they were more fun fare (the graphic version of a beach read) and in general, not for me.

But, there are a lot of rules I'll break for a twisted fairy tale. I'm not ashamed to admit that I was WRONG. The level of storytelling and art that goes into this series is amazing, as is Willingham's imagining of classic characters in our modern world. And, because of this, I was much more willing to pick up such things as Sandman.

I still don't read a lot of comics that aren't one-offs, but that's more because I'm afraid that I'll get sucked in and won't be able to wait for the library to get the next volume and I'll have to buy it and I can't afford that! especially for a serial! than any past snobbishness on my part.


Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China Peter Hessler

I knew a lot about China before I discovered Hessler. But, the way he talks of China, the way he tells the stories of his own life and travels, and the people he meets, the way he explains the country, people, and culture, while all the time being aware of his own limitations as a foreigner trying to understand... damn.

This book, and his work in general, raise the bar on what good reporting out of China is (and there's so much bad reporting out there-- those links all go to stories about bad reporting, not actual bad reporting.)

This book set my standards on what I want books to look like, not just on China, but current events in general.

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