I realize after I publish this post,
I will no longer get sympathy from you wonderful readers!
All of these were taken this morning,
and I had to immediately return to the hotel for a shower.
My hair is literally wringing wet with sweat!
Notice the red blotchy neck and chest;
plus, pasty pale face.
Oh, but don't tell the writers!
This first photo is handsome and young Brian Selznick,
Holding his 2008 Caldecott Medal Winner,
The Invention of Hugo Cabret!
Second up is the lovely Ellen Levine and handsome Kadir Nelson!
Their book Henry's Freedom Box is a 2008 Caldecott Honor! The book is right above Miss Levine's head on the poster.
What is missing is the photo of handsome Christopher Paul Curtis!
I'm not sure what happen, but the photo is no where in memory!
His book Elijah of Buxton won the Coretta Scott King Award
and the Newbery Honor for 2008!
All these books will be given to the Como Public Library
to be handed to the big readers of the summer of 2008.
This last photo I am being totally greedy!
I wanted Sherman Alexie's book all for myself!
I booktalked his The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
and fell in love with main character Junior.
Monday, June 30, 2008
The Stars in Anaheim are Big and Bright!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
California is the Place I have to Be!
Day two and I am still alive but barely. I'm extremely weak and finding it really hard to stand in lines. I blogged a conference meeting, but I didn't publish it thinking it a little unreadable. I'll clean it up when I clear up.
I attended the Outstanding Books for College Bound yesterday, too. I took a day quill sort of gel tab. I couldn't get the second one down, and after 5 minutes I was feeling almost human. Funny thing, my tongue stung. We did some great work and don't have to meet today! They both loved Devil's Teeth! It is such a fun book and I feel worthy to be included in the Science and Technology section.
I must tell you about my dreams last night. I'm sure it was my fever and the close proximity to Hollywood, but I dreamt about different sitcoms and their perfect endings. So, every dream was a different sitcom, and I would wake up with the perfect ending. After 12 of these I figured I had done the whole fall line-up and had nothing else to do. That was around 2:45, the rest of my dreams made no sense so I figure the fever must have gotten real high. I feel I may have lost 10 lbs in sweat. Oh, sweaty, delusional me!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Review Outside the Mainstream
Focus on Collection Management and Technical Services
Collection Development
Note: New York City hosts a comic convention and librarians can go for free the first day!
Kevin ends with this advice, "The best place to go [for buying suggestions] is the local comic store and chat with the book store guy or fangirls." It is better to flip through and see the boobies before you purchase from BroadArt and spend money on pre-ship processing.
All about Romance - This web site has over 8000 reviews that are searchable through a database. There have been 30 -40 reviewers over the years with a rating system. They no longer review books which generate four Ds or an F.
In Dr. Holley's research he has found that there are two different levels of quality in the gaming industry. Level one includes producers such as Blizzard, Capcom, Sierra, Sony, etc.. Level two includes clones of popular games in which reviews may be hard to find.
Live from Anaheim!
What do you do if you get sick away from home and by yourself? What about all the money you will lose if you have to return home? I left the house at 12:00 pm and got to the Disneyland Hotel and into my room at 8:00 pm Californie time which was 10:00 pm at home. Trust me, all the cute little mouse ear fixtures and piped "It's a Small World" elevator music got a piece of my mind last night!
Yea, yea! Buck it up!
Okay, my reporting may be fuzzy and on the hostile side, but I'm willing. Lord, if I drool, I'll short circuit my laptop! Can someone let me have a couple of aspirins?
Thursday, June 26, 2008
State of the Mule Contest!
This is all SFP's fault of Pages Turned! Last year during the challenge, she posted a Dead Mule Alert! I was rolling on the floor laughing because it was so true, but something I never thought about! Mules don't fair well in southern literature. According to Jerry Leath Mills' paper they can fall from cliffs, drown, suffocate, meet with bigger vehicles, freeze, hang, etc.
Contest Rules:
1.) Find the Mule!
2.) At the bottom of your review type, State of the Mule - Death by (choose from Mills' list) - Page #. These reviews may have been written a month ago i.e. Mudbound. That is okay, just attach the above note to the bottom of your review. If mule is mentioned, but befalls no harm, just say Fine and add page number.
3.) Book must contain a mule to enter!
4.) You may enter as many times as you find said mule, but only one entry per book!
5.) You need not be a Southern Reading Challenger to participate!
6.) Link back to Contest!
7.) Enter Mister Linky with review specific URL, but don't say title or page number just your name. We want everyone to do a little work!
8.) Contest ends 12 am Central time August 15th!
So, Maggie! What are we playing for?
A first edition Dirty Work by the late great Mississippian Larry Brown worth 100 dollars! Autographed copies are worth $500, but I would be a fool to give one of those away! Actually, I'm probably a fool for giving this one away, but it was a donation from my boss!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
The Botany of Desire (copy)
For the past few late nights, I have awakened to the sound of my own gnashing of teeth. I throw the covers off, grab my book, and head for the kitchen. Within the crisper are Fuji apples with my name written all over one of the light golden-pink orbs. A few minutes of slicing into halves and carving out the core, and I am seconds away from relief.
Michael Pollan, author of The Botany of Desire, is less interested in the health benefits from apples, but rather the sweetness in which they have evolved. He could care less that I choose the apple to ease my ache, and more that I choose it for its firmness. In his writing he points out “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” was a marketing ploy growers dreamt up to keep the temperance movement at bay.
Ah, but I am getting ahead of the story. Pollan starts with the adventures of John Chapman (aka Johnny Appleseed) and his quest to bring apples to America. Even during pioneer times, John was seen as an oddity. He did not like the company of others and preferred to be in the wilds, bedding down under the stars. Instead of a scow to transport his seeds, he lashed two dug-out logs together and filled one with heaping amounts of apple seeds then sat on the other side to balance. The contraption, resembling a catamaran, was seen often afloat with its napping captain.
Mr. Chapman was essentially an early-American land speculator. He bought land on the many tributaries of the Ohio River, and commenced to establishing apple orchards. The land had to meet his specifications first. It had to be flat, clear of brush, approximately two acres, and near the water’s edge. By the time settlers moved into the area his orchards were 2 years old, and he sold the seedlings for six and a half cents each.
Here is the story most children’s books omit. Apples were not to be eaten, they were for drinking! Sugar did not exist in frontier America. It was hard cider the pioneers made; although, hard is a term coined in the twentieth-century. Before refrigeration, all cider was hard because pioneers did not have a way to keep sweet cider sweet.
This is just one of the many stories in The Botany of Desire by Pollan. His main point being our relationship with plants determines their survival. Through four different examples (apple, tulip, marijuana, and potato) he proves mankind is swayed by sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control. At three a.m., I am swayed by relief and a good book.
Note: Third book for Joy's Non-Fiction Five Challenge!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
B + R = 1PSP2!
Maggie Moran presents "Blogging + Reading = One Perfect Summer Program"
Originally uploaded by msulibrary1
Blogging + Reading = 1 Summer Program!
Maggie Moran presents "Blogging + Reading = One Perfect Summer Program"
Originally uploaded by msulibrary1
No need to comment. I'm just venting and will hang my head and Press On!
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Sunday Delta Drive!
I'm on a little Sunday drive with Miss Maggie today.
We are visiting a Mississippi Catfish Farm around Tunica in the Delta.
Behind us is a catfish pond, I'm guessing around five acres.
The pond is grouped with three others of the same shape and size
and remind me of football fields filled with fish.
The photo displays an open sided barn with screens on both sides.
Inside are tables with sinks, running water, and waste buckets.
The fish are beheaded (like me), skinned, and cleaned.
The remains are gathered and sprayed onto the surrounding fields.
Once packed the fish commute to a plant, half-mile down the road,
where they are further subjected to batters and spices then frozen.
This gaped tooth machine turns the waterso all the little fishys get fresh oxygen.
This is the Battle Farms "Pride of the Pond" Facility.
The farm is family owned and operated.
We purchase naked pieces for good ole southern fishfrys here!
Way 2 Go - Amanda!
Amanda - the newbie challenger and voice of Scarlett in the Bell Jar - is the winner of the autographed copy of Mudbound!
Congrats Gurl!
I'm still not sure why that man is hugging the buoy! Is he trying not to blow away or pulling the boat back to the dock?!? What's up with his madness!?!
It's funny, but there are people finishing the challenge while others such as Amanda are just getting started. There are also all kinds of levels going on within participants' readings such as only Christian, pure Literature, just mysteries, or sticking strictly to modern voices. I Am Having A Blast!
On a house cleaning note, those of you just joining can get back to 1st review, 2nd review, etc. through the link underneath the SRC 2008 button in the sidebar. The challenge doesn't end until Aug 15, so do not panic! Just remember Pretty Pecan Easy!
Author Jon Clinch offers two signed paperbacks of Finn for more contest! Those of you finishing early might want to keep checking back for chances to win these and a couple more Mudbounds. The Dead Mule Contest will feature Larry Brown's first edition of Dirty Work worth $100. Mr. Brown died early in his career and his works are creating a stir in the collecting world. A signed first edition of Dirty Work is currently selling at $500! This copy was donated by my wonderful boss at NWCC.
Guys, you do realize I am a librarian. I do not accept money to promote any books I talk-up! I purchased Mudbound after reading a Jackson, MS bookstore's blog reviewing an ARC. It sounded so good I ordered it off Amazon.com that day and read my own copy - I have the receipt - when it arrived around the first week of May. Hillary Jordan contacted me through LibraryThing after reading my booktalk. I then had the brass to ask for an autographed copy to give as a prize for the SRC. Not only did she say yes, she donated five! That's a nice lady! Please, I'm not hyping a book. It deserves every word of mouth praise or not it generates. The BIGGEST social problem in the South is racism, and any story that gets the discussion started in such an honest manor is number one in my book!
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Sense of Place Ends Today!
That's
Right Folks!
12am
the Contest is officially Over!
It wouldn't be fair to those who have finished to extend the time. If you don't get a chance to enter, do visit those who participated. There's some good stuff out there!
Congrats,
SusiQ at
Blogging My Books!
You are this weeks winner of the Pecans!
The Artwork is by Ouida Touchon and is titled Fourplay - Pecan.
Click here for more of her work.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (copy)
Junior Spirit has problems. He was born with water on the brain or hydrocephalus. He almost died as an infant when they drained his brain. The resulting side effects are many with the most distinct being seizures. Thankfully, they occur less often as he ages.
Other problems are minor, but still major to a kid who would like to be invisible to bullies. Let’s see. He stutters and lisps plenty of times in the same sentence. His eyes are different sizes with one being far-sighted and the other near. Plus, he has 42 teeth, 10 more than regular kids, which gives him a distinct (talking with his mouth full) appearance.
To add to his health problems, Junior’s circumstances are bleak. His mother is an ex alcoholic, but his father still goes on benders. At least he is a happy drunk, his best friend Rowdy isn’t that lucky. Rowdy’s father is the mean kind who likes to take it out on the family. Junior and Rowdy happen to be founders of the exclusive Black-Eye-of-the-Month Club for various reasons.
Possibly the most debilitating problem for Junior is money. The family is poor. His father’s mother, his mother’s mother, and on and on from the time the white man settled America, have been poor. Not only his family, but Rowdy’s too. For that matter, the whole reservation is poor.
It is during Junior’s first day in Reservation High School that the water in his head boils over. See, he has looked forward to Geometry class for years. The idea of drawing shapes and deciphering problems is intriguing to his cartoonist mind. It is while receiving his textbook for the class it happens. He opens the book to see his mother’s name, her maiden name, on the inside cover. A name she has not used in 30 years!
Quiet Junior, gentle Junior, smart Junior has had it! The offending book is sent arcing to the front of the class where it meets Mr. P’s face. Junior Spirit has lost his.
Junior’s spirit quest begins the following week 22 miles away from his home. He has been accepted into the mostly white Reardan High School. Unfortunately, this places him at odds with the tribe. They begin referring to him as Apple—red on the outside, but white within.
Junior is going “off the rez” in this heart-wrenchingly delightful book by Sherman Alexie. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian will have teenage boys all over the country clamoring for more.
Note: Just a (Reading) Fool's point of view!
Monday, June 16, 2008
Brief Encounter!
Dam Club's dock and jonboat.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Um, Staurday Night Pecan Winner!
Friday Farm Tour!
Time for a trip to the Delta!The Morans want to show me off to the local planters.
furrow between rows is called middles. Every year the planter uses the same rows so that new plants can benefit from past nutrients.
Friends, this is an historic year.
All over the Delta cotton fields are changing.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Classic Crews (copy)
When you read, do you see family members in the characters? For example, in reading a boy’s coming-of-age story, I might substitute my brother for the boy. The character and my brother may not share mannerisms, voices, and thoughts; but, if they have one common trait, I relate to the character and thus the book.
My father, the best living character I know, has eluded me when reading. There are times when I catch a glimpse of him in books. The calm sage-like quality when riled as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, and the controlled strictness over my brother and me as Lt. Colonel Bull Meechum in The Great Santini, are a few hints into his psyche.
This weekend I came closer to reading my father than ever before. Through a copy of Classic 
Crews: A Harry Crews Reader by the title’s author, I face my father over and over again. I know what you are thinking. Father’s Day has prompted my thoughts. Well, yes and no. Dad is on my mind, but it is a coincidence I find an author who writes like he knows him.
The book, a mixture of fiction and nonfiction, is a sampler of the author’s tremendous talent. The first story read was originally published in Playboy. “Fathers, Sons, Blood,” opens with the death of Crews’ four-year-old son, Patrick. The toddler was afloat in a neighbor’s swimming pool. Crews ran three doors down, scooped him from the water, and began mouth-to-mouth. His little boy’s body would not take in the breath. It was later found Patrick had thrown up in an attempt to breathe and his wind pipe was obstructed.
Crews admits to spiraling into a pit from which he saw only two options: die or go crazy. Sleepless nights, zombie days he writes, “I must have caused it. I must have been too strict or too unresponsive or too unloving or….”
Enter Uncle Alton. Upon hearing the news, walks straight out of his tobacco field during harvest to be with his sister’s son. Crews’ father had died when Harry was not yet two and Uncle Alton raised him as his own. After the funeral with most mourners gone, Crews joins Uncle Alton under the oak tree. Uncle Alton drops to his heels, lights up a smoke, as Crews follows.
It is in their manly conversation squatting under a shade tree smoking, I see my Dad. Both men, Crews and Uncle Alton, demonstrate the same mannerisms, voices, and thoughts my father would surely use.
My friend Paul says, “Crews is a helluva writer,” from which I add, my Dad is a helluva man.
Note: Second book for Joy's Non-Fiction Five Challenge!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Sense of Place Contest
The rules:
Pick out a passage from your southern reading which depicts sense of place
Either take a picture to match the passage or find one on the internet
Paintings are also eligible, see this example
Post quote and picture and Link it to Mister Linky by June 21 to qualify
You don't have to be a participant in the Southern Reading Challenge to play
One lucky winner will receive an autographed copy of
Hillary Jordan's Mudbound!
Monday, June 09, 2008
Father of the "Rough South" Genre
As far back as I could remember, I had longed and lusted for an unlimited supply of books . . . When I got to my first duty station and walked into the base library, it was like throwing a starving man a turkey. I did my time in the Corps with a book always at hand.
The Gospel Singer (1968)
Naked in Garden Hills (1969)
This Thing Don't Lead To Heaven (1970)
Karate is a Thing of the Spirit (1971)
Car (1972)
The Hawk is Dying (1973)
The Gypsy's Curse (1974)
A Feast of Snakes (1976)
The Enthusiast (1981)
All We Need of Hell (1987)
The Knockout Artist (1988)
Body (1990)
Scar Lover (1992)
Classic Crews: A Harry Crews Reader (1993) Mixture of fiction/nonfiction
The Mulching of America (1995)
Celebration (1998)
Where Does One Go When There's No Place Left To Go? (1998)
An American Family: The Baby With the Curious Markings (2006)
Non-Fiction
A Childhood: The Biography of a Place (1978)
Blood and Grits (1979)
Florida Frenzy (1982)
2 By Crews (1984)
Madonna at Ringside (1991)
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Friday, June 06, 2008
This Pecan Harvest Ale's For You!
Stop and Smell the Second Reviews!
Don't panic if you haven't finished your first book!Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Lookee-Here!
While reading The Mississippi Story by Patti Carr Black last night, I ran across a familiar photograph. It was the cover of The Known World by Edward P. Jones seen here to your left.
I absolutely love the cover art! What stories one could make of the straw-hat covered girl looking back!
Well it just so happens, this photo is by Eudora Welty! The title is Home by Dark, Yalobusha County (page 29), and it was taken prior to 1935 while Welty was employed by the Works Progress Administration. This photograph was taken on her own initiative as the book explains.
Author Black stated,
Welty said, "a good snapshot stops a moment from running away"; but her photographs do more than that. Welty was an intense observer and worked "to catch something as I came upon it, something that spoke of the life going on aound me." She was the most prolific and sensitive recorder of Mississippi in the 1930s. ~p. 28Nymeth at Things Mean A Lot just finished The Known World for our challenge. She had this to say,
The Known World is a stunning book. It’s beautifully written, it’s subtle, it’s very moving, and it’s complex. It’s a book in which several tragic things happen, but it moves beyond being a parade of tragedies. It deals with race and gender, but it also goes beyond that. I’d say it’s the best book about slavery I’ve read so far, except it’s not so much a book about slavery as it is a book about several people caught up in a system whose full consequences are not easy to grasp.
The Mississippi Story (copy)
Mississippi Museum of Art moved into a new facility on South Lamar in Jackson last year. June marks a full year of displaying artwork by and for Mississippians in this location. Fully intending to visit, I bide my time with The Mississippi Story: Mississippi Museum of Art edited by Robin C. Dietrick and written by Patti Carr Black.
Like a catalog one might receive at the opening of an exhibition, this book gives full illustration to over 100 items in the museum’s collection. Displayed under the art work, one gets typical descriptive information such as name of artist, title of piece, date of completion, media used (oil, watercolor, clay, bronze, etc.), and size of piece. Each illustration is in color and the sizes vary, but remain easily visible to readers.
As with all great ideas, the museum began with a group of interested artists and community leaders in the Jackson area. The Art Study Club first exhibition of Mississippi art appeared at the state’s fair in 1903. By 1911, they incorporated to become the Mississippi Art Association (MAA), the forerunner to today’s museum. Within the history section is a lovely portrait of the first MAA President, Bessie Cary Lemly, by Karl Wolfe.
The main body of the book is truly Mississippi history through art. Author Black defines Mississippians’ “sense of place” with quotes from local writers. Beginning with Eudora Welty’s, “It seems plain that the art that speaks most clearly, explicitly, directly and passionately from its place or origin will remain the longest understood.” These places are the Delta, the Hill Country, Jackson’s central area, the River Country, the Piney Woods, and the Gulf Coast.
Within each section, one gets a brief history of the area followed by artists in chronological order from earliest to latest. Unfortunately, some of the biographies sound like a resume than personal. Works with bios include: Marie Hull, Wyatt Waters, David Rae Morris, Eudora Welty, Obie Clark, John McCrady, William Hollingsworth, William Dunlap, Theora Hamblett, and so forth.
More than a catalog of museum works, this nine by nine inch book strives to relate the importance Mississippi art has on the world. Too often our state’s creative artists have taken a backseat to the extraordinary talents of other Mississippians in literature, music, and memoir; significantly, they have fled to the appreciative cities of Seattle, Tampa, and New York.
Now the tide has turned, and the art world is looking to the South for inspiration. If one is unable to travel to Jackson—grab this book—take the tour from the comfort of your own rocking chair.
Note: First book for Joy's Non-Fiction Five Challenge!
Monday, June 02, 2008
Southern Author Meme!
Medbie of Medb’s Montage & Andi of Andilt tagged me for this fun author meme. I morphed it to Southern Authors for the challenge.
1. Name your all-time favorite southern author. Why?
An easy answer would be Harper Lee and her ultimate southern book To Kill a Mockingbird. But, I’m more complicated; especially since Miss Lee only wrote one book. In my under-educated opinion, Eudora Welty is my all time favorite. I like her southern ladies, her comical situations, her use of symbols, and her distinguishable southern voice. Although, Richard Wright blew me away with Native Son, the story of Bigger Thomas written in 1940. Wright wrote a stereotypical anti-hero whom happened to be black, poor, and ignorant. Bigger’s life follows the white “what-if” scenario to the letter. (Pretty tough stuff for 1940, folks)
2. Name your first favorite southern author. Why? Do you still consider him or her among your favorites?
I first came to southern literature through ghost stories. I remember being entranced by haunted house stories the most! My memories include a smokey Appalachian mountain where a cabin sits on the dark side (east, cause it gets darker sooner) with one lone lantern light blowing back and forth on the porch. EEERRRIIEE! I’m sure I sought these books out because of campfire stories and wanting to be the kid with the fresh take.
Have you ever heard of the Bell Witch? She is a popular campfire story in Tennessee, and I was a little creep(ed)-out when I found the family moved to Batesville, MS, our current county seat.
Mark Twain would be the first author since I absolutely loved anything about the Mississippi River. Funny thing, I had no trouble with the colloquialisms. I already spoke that way! Um, and still do!
I still like Mark Twain, and visit with him on snowy nights. Finn by Jon Clinch is more to my grown-up taste. :)
3. Name the most recent addition to your list of favorite southern authors. Why?
Hillary Jordan and her ultimate southern tale, Mudbound, excites my “you gotta read this” button!
It has been a joy to present this book to local book clubs and hear the different conversations which spurt up afterwards. I had mentioned the fact that the Jacksons were share tenants and not sharecroppers which was a new term to me. One of the black audience members shook her head vigorously in agreement. After I finished, she told the group how her family was one of the first share tenants in Tate County. And, this only happens in small towns, her family farm and agreement was with another white woman in the audience. Then the white woman gave a testimony on behalf of the black woman’s hard-working family. How Awesome!?!
Miss Jordan doesn’t know the extent of her service by writing this book. We, as in Southerners, need more books like this to spark conversation and get the humanity train a rollin’!
4. If Someone asked you who your favorite southern authors were right now, which authors would first pop out of your mouth? Are there any you’d add on a moment of further reflection?
First Thoughts: Hillary Jordan, Clyde Eggerton, Lee Smith, Jon Clinch, Eudora Welty, Carl Hiaasen, Wilma Dykeman, Harper Lee, John Kennedy Toole, Larry Brown, Zora Neale Hurston, Willie Morris, Charlaine Harris, and Tony Earley
Further Reflections: Mark Twain, William Faulkner, Anne Moody, Anne George, Flannery O’Connor, Ricky Bragg, Michael Lee West, Mildred Taylor, and the short stories of Katherine Anne Porter.
5. Tag Your It!
