books
20 Jul 2012

what my family is reading

I am nosy, so I ask everyone what they are reading. Also, at my parents’ house, you are apt to spot people reading “in the wild” of the living room or bedroom, or books found dog-eared or bookmarked on the kitchen table or in purses. It is easy to be a snoop.

My almost-17-year-old sister just finished…

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker, which she was speed-reading so she could also finish up…

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein so she could give me her copy.

She is obviously the most trendy reader in the household, and the sweetest.

My almost-nineteen-year-old-sister who is home from college is reading…

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith. Silly.

My twenty-four-year-old wannabe actuary sister is reading

Divergent by Veronica Roth. Again. After reading Insurgent. Because it’s the only book she has to read on her Kindle right now…

My librarian mama is reading

The Feast Nearby by Robin Mather, because she will be a visiting author for a community library program.

My historically ambitious papa has been reading biographies of the Presidents for an eon or so now. He has made it up to…

Rutherford B. Hayes: Warrior and President by Ari Hoogenboom. Which, I think, could be one of the better author’s names I have ever come across…

My future husband, aka, that boy I live with, finally finished

Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong by Terry Teachout. I may now return it to the library and never again pay a fine related to this particular title that has been checked out from various libraries since January of this year.

There are also seven or eight dogs & cats living in this house, currently.

None of them are reading. Nearly all of them are hissing.

 

 

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weekly
16 Jul 2012

2012: week twenty-eight

July 8 – July 14

After six months of writing these silly little monthly posts, I can see patterns in my life that I didn’t really know existed. First of all, apparently I am no longer quite the homebody I’ve always known myself to be. Some weeks, this means that I was far, far too busy and suffered for the lack of personal time. Some weeks, things were just normal. In retrospect? Just boring.

I am changing. Life is changing.

I’ve been busy and I’ve been busy and I’ve been busy, but this week took the cake. All sorts of crazy, big-decision stuff going on, general work/life, saying goodbye to friends, impromptu picnics, and culminating with a drive to Michigan.

(That took 18 hours and 2 new tires. And I forgot my wallet.)

This week, though, will certainly amount to a boring report. Michigan without the threat of homework or impending school is the type of lazy I’d forgotten about. Video games in your pajamas lazy. Too lazy to eat a proper meal. Didn’t leave the house to even buy a cup of coffee lazy. Being stupid with my sisters. Should be riveting. Stay tuned.

Reading:

Listening to:

  • Got to listen to the last few discs of Daughter of Smoke and Bone with Lance… what a great re-read!
  • WTF interview with Molly Shannon was so good. I love listening to smart, successful, hard-working women share their lives.
book lists
14 Jul 2012

roadtrip reading

This is not a list of books featuring road trips. If that is what you are looking for, direct yourself to Stacked’s almost annoyingly comprehensive list here.

This is a list of books that I am going to bring with me on the road. Tomorrow we leave for Michigan – just a day’s drive, and then a drive back.

 

On the Way There: See You at Harry’s by Jo Knowles, so I can leave it in Michigan when I am done.

While Lounging Around at My Parent’s House: The Art of Fielding by Chad Horbach, because it is supposedly very good and I probably can’t keep it out from the library for much longer.

On the Way Home: Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace, because I asked L to put on a Netflix documentary a few weeks ago and he chose this movie and I had to go “AHHH THIS IS NOT A DOCUMENTARY!” and I really just need to read this book and watch the movie already.

All three are from my Summer Reading List. I will try not to get distracted by the random books lying about my parents’ house and finish these so I can feel satisfied for crossing things off lists, as I have yet to check off a single title.

 

boston
12 Jul 2012

one last push

I have been visited by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and their names are:

1. Apartment Hunting

A painful dance, balancing what luxuries you’ve grown accustomed to, where you can live to accommodate your commute, what kind of lifestyle you believe you deserve, and oh, what you can afford.

Apartment hunting makes me want to live in a shoebox on the side of the road.

2. Moving

… and then there’s the whole “moving’ aspect of finding a new place. I hate moving. I consider myself to be a resilient person, not afraid to do a little manual labor. But I still shudder to remember how my last move sucked the life out of me. Many exhaustingly minute details, followed by weeks of putting your belongings in boxes and fretting over your consumerism, culminating with a few days of hard labor and then an apartment that is new, but also filled with garbage, reliably dirty, and devoid of food and other life comforts.

3. Taking a Vacation

I am one of those annoying Type A folks who have trouble enjoying time off because the logistics put me on edge. We are going to Michigan for a week and a few days. Going HOME. This should be easy, right? No, no, no. Never. Who will go where and who will we see and who will see who and who will drive where and as;lkejr;oij234arsdaklsf.

I just want to play Mario Party and drink Diet Coke and sleep until noon, okay?

4. Planning a Wedding

May I please be married in a shoebox on the side of the road?

So bear with me as I try to figure out my life from now until September 1st, after which I will have finished 1, 2, 3 and made progress on 4.

Life after grad school? Not particularly glamorous.

P.S. I pretty much wrote this post already, 2 years ago. I even tried to give it the same subject. My life.

 

books
11 Jul 2012

50 Shades of Who Knows

Friends and readers,

I read Fifty Shades of Grey.

And I enjoyed it.

Don’t get me wrong; the writing was deplorable. I’m sure there are better sexy-books out there, for sure. There was rampant phrase repetition, sentences that made no grammatical sense, and the description was simply over the top. Basically, the book was a case in point for the questionable nature of self-publishing and the power of a decent editor.

But I liked it. During last week’s bad mood, I put the second one on hold to cheer me up.

This is a blog about children’s and YA lit, mostly, so am I allowed to talk about this? Is it okay if a book exists for reasons that are not “literary”? Are people who champion “great” literature, literature for children, also allowed to admit to liking books that are poorly written and exist for uh… non-literary reasons?

I have no idea, but I do know that right now, I have an insatiable taste for books that are heavy on the tension, light on the complex-sentence-structure. I like my pages to fly by like there aren’t any words there at all. Plots that are so unsubstantial, the only reason you keep reading is because you’ve already read 200+ pages (because they flew by) and the subject matter is so sensational that you feel like you have no idea what will happen, so you have to finish, even though it doesn’t really matter what happens.

If you catch me reading Eclipse on the subway, have mercy on me. It’s been a hell of a year – my brain needs a break.

If you catch me reading Fifty Shades Darker  on the subway, kick me in the face. I retain the tiniest bit of modesty, thankssomuch.

boston
10 Jul 2012

2012: week twenty-seven

July 1 – July 7

I would say this was a “roll with the punches” kind of week, but I don’t know how much rolling I did. It was more like a “get punched in the stomach” week. Nothing job-related, this time, but everything else was not going so well this week… which was kind of comforting, because at least I could say to myself “Well, maybe you will get a shiny new job and then this will all will feel like small change.

(Or I will get rejected and start to cave in on myself. Either or)

It’s not all doom and gloom, however. There was a Wet Hot American Summer party on Monday, Fourth of July shenanigans on Wednesday, and I made two kinds of delicious cupcakes – Brown sugar poundcake with brown butter glaze and Champagne. We got caught on the roof during a flash rainstorm, during the fireworks show – a soggy, fun memory that I think I will have for life.

Also, I woke up the next morning with awesome looking curly hair. Fourth of July miracle.

And once I make it through this week, I get a week in Michigan.

I think I can handle that.

Reading:

boston
04 Jul 2012

go fourth

I have always been a sucker for holidays, for traditions, for rituals.

Consequently, I have always been a whiny baby when traditions get spoiled. And not just because it took me longer than usual to develop coping skills: usually, I would decide something was a tradition without letting anyone else in on the secret and then leave them to deal with my seemingly irrational antics over a holiday weekend.

One such example: I was a kid, so I loved fireworks. I grew up in one of those states where fireworks were so illegal, I’ve actually only held a sparkler on one occasion (I got scared and threw it on the ground) – so pyrotechnics were quite the thrill. We went a few times to the city fairgrounds and sat in stadium bleacher seats and watch, but one year we went to some crazy fireworks show that involved a long-ish drive, a shuttle bus to a large clearing, some kind of emcee with what I recall to be a religious message, and scads and scads of people.

It was basically my first rock concert. Of course I thought we’d go every year.

365 days later, I sulked in my backyard in the dark, angry and offended that my parents didn’t understand my deep, cyclical need to watch some exploding gunpowder in Lambertville, PA. Much to my surprise, my neighbors ended up setting off some illegal something-or-others later on, but where was the drama? The roadtrip? The throng of people?

Yes, I was an incorrigible child. Likely an incorrigible adult as well.

But luckily enough, I have moved to the fireworks capital of the country.

After two years of watching the show from the waterfront, I have a new understanding for my parents’ choice to Just Stay Home. But lucky enough for me, Boston has a tradition of 4th of July celebration – I will be attending not one but two parties today, one of which involves a rooftop view of the show.

That’s more than enough to please me.

Happy fourth, everyone!

1
grad school
03 Jul 2012

notes from the job hunt, vol. 3

It is July. I have applied for 43 jobs. Since March, have been considered for 10 positions.

I am no longer being considered for 4 positions. Two decided on other candidates and one had last minute budget challenges and was not able to fill the position at all.

I am still in the running for 4 positions: two I would love to accept, two would require some tough decisions.

 

Time is running out for optimal decision-making.

September 1 is the day I am kicked out of my apartment. It would be lovely to either have a job sometime before this date, or to know for sure about any pending jobs so I can choose an abode appropriately.

It is also the day my health insurance expires… so… there’s that.

I am still feeling hopeful.

I’m applying for fewer and fewer jobs – 20 in May, only 11 in June, and only two currently on my “to apply for” docket. This is natural, because as time ticks by, my geographic range shrinks significantly. But there are still jobs coming up, jobs that I feel qualified for. And maybe the early fall is a good time to find a library job in the Boston area – the new grads have already found jobs or got the heck out of town?

There is the blind panic, yes, but I still have options. I still, miraculously, have two jobs. I have supportive friends and family and professional relationships. The jobs I am applying for, I think, would be challenging and great for starting my career. I am learning a lot about myself from this process.

I am so happy to watch all of my friends get all sorts of exciting jobs all over the place.

My fellow grad school colleagues are an exceedingly fun, bright, talented group of people and they are, one by one, landing really exciting jobs. I now have librarian & literature friends working all over Massachusetts – Newburyport, Worcester, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Westfield, Boston, Plymouth – and in Missouri, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, Florida and elsewhere. Every time I get together with friends, someone else in the group has something new to celebrate.

I am glad that I have spent the last three years hanging out with them, and their successes give me hope.

 

2
goals
02 Jul 2012

2012: week twenty-six

June 24 – June 30

This week, I struggled a lot with this whole “self motivation” thing. My life no longer has a lot of those helpful supports that enable productivity – jobs where I sit in front of a computer, regularly scheduled work shifts, time by myself at home. But life is life, and now it’s time to work on discipline, habits, and other skills that keep me from feeling like a useless, underemployed lump.

On Friday, I went to a job interview in a beach town in Eastern Connecticut. Afterwards, we paid 5 dollars to park in someone’s front lawn and spent a few hours in the sun & sand on the Long Island sound.

First of all, I think I should start going to the beach after every interview. Packing a nice bag with snacks and sunscreen and a book counteracts some of that pre-interview dread.

Second of all, the above home is available for year-round rent in the area, for the same price as my current two bedroom apartment, and includes:

  • Three bedrooms
  • Large kitchen
  • Basement with washer & dryer hook up
  • Two car garage
  • Access to a private beach

I’ve been applying for a lot of jobs in the Boston metro area, but I think I might be doing it wrong…

Reading:

Watching:

  • LOST Season Four, you are ridiculous.
  • Watching This Emotional Life, a three-part PBS special on happiness. Very interesting and engaging – definitely recommend!

 

book reviews
01 Jul 2012

Drama by Raina Telgemeier

After reading her debut graphic novel, Smile, I decided that she and fellow comic artist, Hope Larson, were probably Co-Patron Saints of Middle School Girls. Well, maybe Judy Blume retains some of that sainthood – who can forget Margaret Simon and crew? – but I think these two artist ladies are certainly picking up where Blume left off.

Telgemeier’s latest – Drama, available in September – gives us Callie, a purple-haired, excitable theater techie who juggles 7th-grade-caliber boy troubles with the upcoming spring musical – she’s painting the sets. The book spans the length of the show’s preparations, from auditions to closing night, and chronicles the many small dramas and social intricacies that inevitably arise during high pressure situations.

But all drama aside (ha), what I really liked about Callie is that although she was unabashedly and refreshingly young – her worries, her exuberance, her boy-craziness – she is also a bright, driven female character with interests and skills. She’s obsessed with theater in a way that only seventh grade girls can be (and I know of what I speak), and it’s this energy – energy  to learn, to do, to study old movies and collect soundtracks- that drives her decisions and her character growth, not what boys think of her.

Basically, Callie gets to run around and be a well-adujusted 12 or 13-year-old, hang out with her friends, and also kiss some boys. Awesome. If only my own 7th grade self could have been so self-actualized. I think I liked Callie and liked this book so much because after years of reading about the pain and misery and angst of middle school, Telegemeier has given us a book that makes junior high seem like fun. What a novelty!