Sunday, October 15, 2017

Staff Review: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

I was browsing YouTube a few weeks ago, as one does, and I stumbled upon a channel called Ask a Mortician. There were video titles like "American Mummies" and "ICONIC CORPSE: The Preservation of Eva Peron." I fell down the rabbit hole of videos, hosted by a woman who looks like someone I would be friends with. Caitlin Doughty, with her Bettie Page bangs and bold lipstick, doesn't look like the stereotypical mortician. However, she is the face of the alternative death industry. Her memoir, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory, reveals how she got started in the industry and what she learned along the way.

This was a fascinating read. I definitely learned a lot about the death industry, and it made me confront my own mortality in a good way. This book and Caitlin's YouTube channel challenge you to think about your own after-death wishes and tell you about more than the American standard of embalming and being buried in a box. I recommend this to anyone who is interested in death or the death industry, anyone who watched Six Feet Under, and anyone who likes witty creative non-fiction essays. Fans of Mary Roach will particularly enjoy this.

Be sure to check out Ask a Mortician and Caitlin's website. Her new book, From Here to Eternity, was just released and I can't wait to read more.

-Libby, Youth Services

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

#ComicsWednesday: All's Faire in Middle School by Victoria Jamieson


Victoria Jamieson is one of my favorite middle grade graphic novelists. She wrote the Newbery Honor Book Roller Girl, and I've been waiting for another book from her since I first read it. Jamieson is back in the middle grade world with a new graphic novel: All's Faire in Middle SchoolI really enjoyed this book.

Imogene (Impy to her family) has been home-schooled her entire life. Her family works the local Renaissance Faire, and it's her favorite thing in the world. She can't wait to work as her father's squire and actually help in the show this year. First, she decides to prove her bravery by going to middle school! Public school is a lot different than she thought it would be, and Impy has a hard time fitting in. I won't tell you too much more, because that would give away the plot.

As in Roller Girl, Jamieson perfectly captures what it is like to be in middle school in All's Faire in Middle School. Puberty and cliques and hormones are all throughout this book, and the way it is portrayed rings true. I would recommend this book to any fan of Raina Telgemeier or Jennifer L. Holm.

- Libby, Youth Services


Sunday, October 8, 2017

Staff Review: Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen's not a rocker, he's a religion -- to my mind. I worship the guy and his music, having been baptized in the church of Bruce one night in Madison years ago at a concert on his Darkness tour. The evening was life-changing; I went home a believer.

That said, let me now proceed to an honest and objective review of Springsteen's 2016 memoir, Born to Run, named after his greatest album. Well, I have to say, Born to Run is a mighty fine book, which is hardly surprising because Springsteen is, above all, a storyteller and his life makes for quite a story. He's also a lyrical poet, so his words rest polished and powerful on the page.

His memoir traces the entire course of his life, focusing in particular on his troubled relationship with his father, an unhappy, hard-drinking, verbally-brutal factory worker and the model for many of the hopeless characters in Bruce's songs. Sorting this relationship has been an abiding struggle for Springsteen, especially given that he himself has been tormented by the black melancholy that so often consumed his pop. Bruce's battles with depression are probably the revelation of the book.

Front and center, however, is the music. Springsteen's life has been spent in active, if not obsessive, service to his music: his songwriting, his performing, and his fans. He's famously hardworking and exacting of his bands; no one would argue with the contention that he may be the hardest working performer ever to grace a turntable or stage. Now 68, Bruce is still putting on high-energy, high-intensity, no-breaks, nearly-four-hour shows -- and lots of them. For many readers, the memoir pages dedicated to his musical inspirations, his creative habits, and the arduous practice schedules to which he and his band adhere will be ample reward for reading the 500-page book.

But there's plenty of personal detail too. Who else but Bruce can provide the honest-to-God truth about the failure of his ill-advised and brief first marriage, his dovetail-joint of a bond with second wife Patti Scialfa, and his love for his three kids. Even when recounting the history his hardcore fans already know, Springsteen does so in such a heartfelt, humble, and often humorous way that we're happy to hear it all over again. An added bonus in these troubled times is that unlike with so many rocker bios, we're left not with an overwhelming sense of the guy's decadence and debauchery but rather his profound decency. The man's a testament to integrity.

I wish I could catch Bruce on Broadway, where he's currently doing a series of one-man shows, which include acoustic songs and readings from this book. Springsteen recently extended his Broadway run by another ten weeks after the initial run sold out in a day. Hail the Boss! May he live forever! Read this book and then catch one of his shows.

~Ann, Adult Services

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

#ComicsWednesday: Tetris: The Games People Play by Box Brown


There is no shortage of acclaim for the perfection of Tetris*. Its cultural impact cannot be overstated. Tetris has wormed its way into the life of anyone who’s been in proximity to a computer, Gameboy, Nintendo, arcade, etc. Despite its influence, the Tetris story has not been properly canonized. Box Brown succeeds in doing so with Tetris: The Games People Play. He begins with Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov and his friend Vladimir Pokhitko musing on the origin of games and puzzles, their connection to art, and their capacity to enhance our humanity. He then goes through an in-depth history of the politics, business, and controversy of Tetris. The story is surprisingly deep and convoluted for a game so simple in design. The tale, warmly colored in yellows and blues, is constructed fluidly with mixed styles that fit together like squares. The book succeeds alongside other great graphic novels in that the arrangement of the story seems like it could not have existed in another medium.

Outside the historical narrative, Brown discusses the purpose and role games have. They exist not just to escape, entertain, or pass time. Brown poses that the experiences and strategies used extend to our higher-order thinking (namely the prefrontal cortex); we assess a task, accomplish it, and feel good from it. He further argues that games are about connection and the depiction of human drama, all in the pursuit of fun. Tetris: The Games People Play pushes in the much-needed direction of games as art and culture. As Box Brown says, games “define our human identity.”

~Garrett, Circulation

* see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tnztj1UlkQs if you need convincing

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

#ComicWednesdays: CatStronauts Mission Moon by Drew Brockington


Do you love cats? How do you feel about outer space? I love cats and I also love space, so CatStronauts Mission Moon by Drew Brockington was perfect for me.

The world is in an energy crisis! Worldwide blackouts have alerted the President that the world is running out of power. Since switching to battery-use only is not a long-term solution, he consults the World's Best Scientist who comes up with a plan. Build a solar plant on the moon! Sending the CatStronauts to the moon is their best bet for clean, renewable energy. (I wish it worked like this in the real world.) Our CatStronauts are the commander Major Meowser, pilot Waffles, inventor Blanket, and science officer Pom Pom. We follow them as they train for their mission and blast off to save cat-kind!

Cat. Astronauts. CatStronauts. I feel like I don't even need to say anything else, because that sounds so awesome on its own. This comic is perfect for all ages.There's a lot of puns and funny imagery to keep younger kids interested, but there are some jokes for older folks too. (The Neil Armstrong cat cameo comes to mind.) Basically, if you like cats, space, or both cats and space, check out CatStronauts Mission Moon. And then check out CatStronauts Race to Mars. Be on the lookout for CatStronauts Space Station Situation in October.

- Libby, Youth Services


Sunday, September 24, 2017

I Read Banned Books, 2017

“A truly great library contains something in it to offend everyone” - Mary Jo Godwin

It is once again Banned Books Week, a time of year when we celebrate our freedom to read. Some years I set out to read a controversial book with the idea that exposure to new ideas and life experiences will help me to grow as a human being. Other years I am surprised to learn that a book I read and loved is considered controversial. This year, I've found myself frequently considering Mary Jo Godwin's quote about how it is likely that each of us will be offended by something on the library's shelves.

As a librarian, I consider myself a champion of intellectual freedom, but even so I can admit that there are books and movies in our library that I don't like. If I am asked for a personal opinion, I will likely say that X or Y isn't for me, but if I'm doing my job right no one will feel shame for liking something I don't. Because, in the end, this job is about helping you to find the information and entertainment that you want and need.

I recently read a middle grade novel that explores the idea that some books contain things that are not just offensive, but outright dangerous to readers. Specifically, children. The protagonist of Ban This Book by Alan Gratz is a fourth grader who loves the escape of reading more than anything, and then her favorite book ever (From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg) is removed from her school's library.

Gratz does an excellent job of exploring book challenges and their impacts.* I think Ban This Book has the potential to spark some interesting discussions, and I wish that I'd had it to read when The Giver by Lois Lowry was removed from my fifth grade classroom. My parents handled the situation well, working with the parents of some of my friends to create a mother/daughter book discussion group so that we could read The Giver outside of school. It dealt with some challenging issues and I was glad to be able to talk about it with my mom, but it was still strange to have a book that I was forbidden from mentioning at school.

Based on ALA's Top Ten Most Challenged Books List for 2016, if I were in middle school today, it's possible that the controversial book would be George by Alex Gino. George is a story written for middle-grade readers about a child who wants more than anything to play the part of Charlotte in the school production of Charlotte's Web, but everyone knows that a boy can't play a girl's part. George, however, knows that she isn't a boy, and a transgender child is too controversial for some. It was, in my opinion, an incredibly sweet book and a great choice for any parents who might want to start their own controversial-books book discussion group, or who just want to share a good book with their child.

~Sarah, Adult Services


*Americus by M.K. Reed is a graphic novel aimed at teen readers that explores the impacts of a book challenge over a fictional series that features witches and magic, and it is also worth checking out.