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.

Jane Austen meets Pirates of the Carribean

Quirk Books (those lovable scamps with the bitchy marketing team that brought you the fantabulous Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) is back, this time with Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.

Entertainment Weekly had a nice interview with the non-Austen member of the author team that revealed the following:

Well, our monster-to-Austen ratio is higher than in the last book, about 60-40 (that’s 60 Austen, 40 me). That’s proportionally more monsters, swordfights, and submarines.

So, less Austen, more mutant lobsters. This could awesome, or craptacular. It also loses a lot of the gimmick/hilarity/shock value of their first offering, but I'm still interested in reading it. Just not as obsessed as I was to see the first one.

h/t to fellow librarian David who passed this on to me!

Pride and Prejudice 4-Evah

Currently Reading: The Opposite of Fate Amy Tan

So, according to the listeners of Women's Hour, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is the book that has most transformed women's lives.

Hmmmm. Now, I love P&P, even to the point where I pretentiosly abbriviate it as such, because doesn't everyone know what I'm talking about? But it didn't really transform my life. No more than Bridget Jones's Diary did. (We all know it's the same story, right?) Except for making me feel slightly more normal than I did before reading it.

Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, however, did. I read it last winter and it scared me because it just feels so immenantly possible. It made me start acting up.