Lower East Side librarian |
I Love Bad Movies #2, Love, Sex, & Friendship
I don't always love compilation zines, and I don't often read zines by cisgender men, but I do love romantic comedies, so chances were 2 to 1 against my being a fan of I Love Bad Movies: Love, Sex, & Friendship. Since I'm writing about it, you can guess that I did, in fact, become enamored of the zine.
reviewdate: Apr 26 2013Wedding in Haiti: the Story of a Friendship, a
I have long enjoyed Julia Alvarez's reality inspired political fiction, I gobble up autobiographies, and because of my spouse's work with two nonprofits there, I have an interest in Haiti, so of course her Haiti memoir was appealing to me. Unfortunately...
Quotations:"We ride into the downtown area [of Port-au-Prince], full of ambivalence. To watch or not to watch. What is the respectful way to move through these scenes of devastation? We came to see, and according to Junior, Haiti needs to be seen. But something feels unsavory about visiting sites where people have suffered and are still suffering. You tell yourself you are here in solidarity. But at the end of the day, you add it up, and you still feel ashamed--at least I do. You haven't improved a damn thing. Natural disaster tourism--that's what it feels like."
reviewdate: Apr 24 2013 isn: 978-1-61620-274-3Between Sisters
When Gloria, a 16-year-old Ghanaian, more or less flunks junior high school a friend of the family arranges for her to become a nanny for a doctor with a two-year-old son. Stuff does happen in this novel--good things and fair amount of bad things, but it mostly feels like a character development story.
reviewdate: Apr 19 2013 isn: 978-0-88899-997-9Opposite of Hallelujah, the
My sister Danna recommended this book to my parents, brother and me. If you read her review, you'll see why. The titled "opposite of hallelujah" refers to the protagonist Caro's sister Hannah returning home after spending eight years as a nun in a contemplative order. (Kate, you're going to want to read this one!) The girls' parents are excited to have their dark-secreted daughter back, but 16-year-old Caro...less so.
reviewdate: Apr 15 2013 isn: 978-0-385-73836-1Anya's Ghost
Russian 1.5 generation immigrant teenager Anya Borzakovskaya falls down a well and meets a ghost. The ghost is scary at first, then helpful, then scary again and in the end helps Anya learn valuable lessons and quit smoking.
reviewdate: Apr 13 2013 isn: 978-1-59643-713-5Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee, the
"At first glance you might find the above [diary entry] interesting but that's because it's me, and you obviously find me interesting enough to read this book."
"Another nice thing about the Jews is that their rabbis don't make a habit of sexually violating their youngest and most vulnerable congregants. Of course, there are obvious reasons for this. For one thing, Jewish clergy are allowed to fuck and masturbate and marry. The first two of these activities work amazingly well for relieving sexual tension. … Oh, also, the Jewish clergy are allowed to have vaginas. As a general rule for any large organization, if you're looking to reduce the rape-iness of it, try hiring more women."
"I have comic friends who are gay. Some remain in the closet, and I don't blame them. It's not just out of fear of prejudice--it's fear of the gay community taking ownership of them. Suddenly, they are a gay comic, saddled with responsibility to represent."
"Please make this book be finished. I'll be honest: I kind of blew it off." from the Afterword, by God, quoting Silverman.
reviewdate: Apr 11 2013 isn: 978-0061987076Girl Walks Into a Bar Comedy Calamities, Dating Disasters, and a Midlife Miracle
Rachel Dratch's compelling memoir is compelling. She tells the story of her fifteen-years-in-the-making overnight success, some failures (that she often managed to turn around on her second try), her friendships, getting knocked up in her mid-forties, and other stuff.
reviewdate: Apr 7 2013 isn: 978-1-10-157990-9Liberate LCSH: Empowering Non-Catalogers to Improve Catalog Access Points
Questioning Authority: Standard Three and the Critical Classroom, ACRL 2013
Abstract:Activists and the Archives: Expanding the Permanent Record to Include Radical Women and Girls
Janice Radway, moderator
Event:Archivo-Punk: on the Politics of Preserving Riot Grrrl & Girl Zines
Abstract:When the Stars Go Blue
Soledad is an 18-year-old Cuban-American dancer from Miami making plans to go to NYC and audition for ballet companies when she's presented with the opportunity to go pro with a drum and bugle corps. (Right? But it sounds like a really cool thing, and a great way to spend the summer after graduating from high school, not to mention with the hottie who suggested her for the gig.)
reviewdate: Apr 5 2013 isn: 978-0-312-65004-9Calling Dr. Laura: a Graphic Memoir
That queer feminist Nicole Georges would call regressive right-wing meanie Dr. Laura Schlessinger for advice about how to navigate a family secret is what makes Nicole and her story so interesting and surprising. Maybe it's just me, but I had the idea that Nicole, a long-time maker of zines and minicomics, was tough and a little scary. (There's a good chance I have her minicomics collaborator Clutch McBastard to blame for that impression.) The Nicole I met in this graphic memoir is not scary; she's scared. Dr. Laura makes her cry, her mom makes her go silent, and she's easily hurt by her girlfriend, Radar.
reviewdate: Apr 1 2013 isn: 978-0-547-61559-2Tale for the Time Being, a
There's a lot to love, literarily, in Ruth Ozeki's metafictive split narrative novel, but it's not the fastest read. I was completely engaged in the parts of the book that are the diary of a bullied, out-of-place Japanese teenager, but found the second person story about the characters Ruth and Oliver (the author and her husband's real names) and their cat Schrödinger (not their cat's real name) less compelling. I didn't dislike it, but it was a struggle, like Ruth's life.
reviewdate: Mar 30 2013 isn: 978-0-670-02663-0LCSH & SACO Month 2: LC welcomes Trans-women, at least as a cross-reference
Here's a twofer: highlights from the SACO editorial meeting and new LCSH from February 2013...
Requiem
I think I've read too many YA dystopias lately, because I can barely keep them straight. This one is the end of the trilogy that started with Delirium. The concept, that love is regarded as a disease, and that people are surgically cured upon turning eighteen, is pretty cool. In Requiem we find our heroine wondering if she'd prefer to be happy (cured) or free (starving in the Wilds). Frankly I often wonder the same thing, regarding how medicated we modern folk are.
reviewdate: Mar 21 2013 isn: 978-0-06-201453-5Calling Invisible Women
If it's not bad enough that menopausal women feel invisible, in Ray's world, a pharmaceutical cocktail of antidepressant, bone density, and hormone pills with a one-time spritz of Botox causes some women to actually go invisible.
Quotations:I'm a librarian. I have good research skills. I didn't lose my job because nobody cares whether or not librarians are invisible.
reviewdate: Mar 17 2013 isn: 978-0-307-95551-7Pinko Vs Punk: a Generational Comparison of Alternative Press Publications and Zines
On the Ground: an Illustrated History of the Sixties Underground Press in the U.S.
I probably shouldn't take full credit for reading this one. Basically I looked at the pictures and read only the stuff from the 3 women (vs. 22 men) with interviews in this oral history.
reviewdate: Mar 14 2013 isn: 978-1-60486-455-7Prodigy
Following Legend, Prodigy is a tale of a divided, dystopic America, from the perspective of the commie side's two most notorious outlaws, both fifteen. They discover that the corporate side is no heaven either, nor is the resistance of the former that they've been drawn into supporting.
reviewdate: Mar 13 2013 isn: 978-0-399-25675-9
