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The Thin Red Line

The Thin Red Line
A library clerk writes about unusual, inteesting and noteworthy books

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Articles

Monday Muddling-- Easy Picture Books Roundup
2007-10-22 09:01:00
One of my duties at the library is to go around just before we close and gather up any stray books that have been left here, there or wherever. Just before closing time Sunday afternoon I came upon a small stack of books in the Children's area. I was about to check them in and put them on a cart to be re-shelved when I happened to take a look at them. And found that all three were
More About: Books , Roundup , Picture , Monday , Easy

My entry in the Eavesdrop Writer weekly contest
2007-10-20 13:57:00
Vienne, the Eavesdrop Writer , has started something a little different. Each week she posts the beginning of a story, based on a conversation she has witnessed (she is an incredible eavesdropper and hears the most extraordinary things) and invites other bloggers to complete the story. Click the button above to read the beginning of the tale in a new tab, then read my ending below.
More About: Contest , Weekly , Drop , Aves

The Thoughtful Blogger
2007-10-20 03:04:00
One of the biggest benefits of blogging for me has been in meeting people with different backgrounds and perspectives. More than once lately I've been forced by another blogger to recognize some of my own prejudices, preconceptions and unexamined value judgments. And that's a good thing. When I wrote my Blogging About Books About Blogging piece last month, I had on hand No One Cares
More About: Blogger

Guns, Friends and Fears
2007-10-19 06:39:00
I have to say, right off, that what follows is Not the post I had planned for today. I had intended to write about a book and an author whom I and some dearest friends have a personal history with. I had mentally composed a caustic and scathing diatribe castigating our former acquaintance. But as with another recent post, I found in the end that I could not write what I intended. And
More About: Friends , Guns , Fears

Biography: Sweet, Spicy and Saucy
2007-10-18 06:39:00
A question I have frequently been asked since starting this blog is "how do you read so many books?" or "do you really read all of those books you write about?". I have often answered that I read fairly quickly and that it's not always necessary to read the entire book before writing a useful and engaging blog post about it. But a sad truth that I am learning, as I become more committed to
More About: Biography , Sweet , Spicy

Black Belt Librarian's Alien Abduction Survival Guide
2007-10-16 09:01:00
Some days, I love my job. One of the really nice things about working at the library is that you work for librarians. Over the years, in other jobs I've inevitably asked about some aspect of the work that interested me, although beyond the scope of my own limited duties only to be told to 'get back to the work we pay you for; that's none of your concern.' Putting books back on the shelves
More About: Black , Belt , Guide , Alien , Survival

Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics and the Battle Over Global Warming
2007-10-15 09:01:00
Today, bloggers all over unite to raise awareness of enviornmental issues. It's a great cause and I was pleased to sign up, especially since I had what appeared to be the perfect book to feature for the event. Even though I have not lived in New Orleans in more than 20 years, I still consider myself in some essential way to be a New Orleanian. I have previously posted about two books by
More About: Politics , Global Warming , World , Hurricanes , Storm

Poop: A natural history of the unmentionable
2007-10-12 13:07:00
Just a short post today, before heading back to the library to work my Friday--Monday week and discover lots of new and interesting books and re-discover a few old favorites to share in this space. The cover illustration sadly does not do justice to the charming juvenile science book titled POOP: A Natura l History of the Unmentionable. Written by zoologist Nicola Davies with clever
More About: Poop , Natural History

The Turn of a Friendly Card
2007-10-11 21:16:00
Most people know Orson Scott Card as a science fiction writer. And now, I do as well. But my first experience reading Card came about in 1993. I was staying overnight with friends in Baltimore en route to that year's March On Washington for Gay & Lesbian Civil Rights and my friend Carla, who has since made a name for herself as a science fiction writer and comic artist and whom I've sadly
More About: Friendly , Turn

Revisiting Afghanistan: Kingdom of Ten Thousand Things
2007-10-11 05:33:00
In yet another excellent discussion over at Blog Catalog, techfun asked the question What Is A Valid Reason For War? And after some excellent back and forth the discussion came around to What Do You Do When War Comes To You? Which led me to the following post quoted directly from the discussion. The linked discussion of Gary Geddes' Kingdom of Ten Thousand Things was first published
More About: Afghanistan

Tough Cookie Scones Sweet Revenge
2007-10-10 04:17:00
La Grande, Oregon is not a very exciting place. I don't remember just why my late partner, Joel, and I were in town that night, although we visited it many times in the course of exploring every corner of Oregon for pleasure and to research a guide book we never got around to writing. But I vividly remember La Grande as the place where I first encountered Diane Mott Davidson's series of
More About: Sweet , Scones , Tough , Revenge , Sweet Revenge

On Blog Catalog All (Political) Roads Lead To Canada
2007-10-08 09:01:00
As I have mentioned in passing, I have been using Blog Catalog more and more, and primarily to meet and socialize with the kinds of thoughtful, logical people who can make an online argument fun, for those of us who like that sort of thing. I lead two discussion groups over there, Skilled Political Debate (moderated) and Ron Paul For President. Don't faint, Mom. I am not supporting or
More About: Canada , Roads

TANSTAAFL!
2007-10-06 08:15:00
Robert A. Heinlein There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Usually spoken as the acronym TANSTAAFL (pronounced Tan-staffle) it is the national motto of Luna, the Earth's moon, which in the 2100's is thriving as an independent nation-state. Dr. Richard Ames (aka Colonel Colin Campbell) is a resident of Golden Rule, a luxury space habitat orbiting Luna. While dining late one

Only An Egg
2007-10-04 12:57:00
Just a short post today about a short book, over easy. Terry Golson is a professional chef who keeps a flock of 11 hens in her backyard in suburban Boston. The Farmstead Egg Cookbook is a tiny gem. Golson begins by telling you everything you ever did or didn't want to know about eggs, such as why organic eggs taste better than commercially produced eggs, and why what she calls farmstead

Get out of the blog with your hands UP!
2007-10-03 09:01:00
This post should make you afraid. Very afraid. Although if you are middle-aged or elderly AND white AND rich AND do not have children, you might be able to safely ignore it. Dale C. Carson is a former Miami police officer, former FBI agent and currently a criminal defense attorney. In Arrest-Proof Yourself he paints a very frightening picture of the current state of the criminal justice
More About: Blog , Hands , With You

A Post That Would Not Be Written
2007-10-02 09:01:00
Today's post was supposed to be a discussion of the reasons Why books are banned. Having written two days in a row about Banned Books Week and having enjoyed the most visitors, page views and comments I've yet had in this blog's short history, I figured it would be a slam dunk to continue the Banned Books theme and keep reeling them in. Unspoken (or perhaps un-thought-of) in this plan was
More About: Post , Written

Banned Books Chosen By Readers Of This Blog
2007-10-01 09:01:00
A huge Thank You to everyone who offered a suggestion. I was very pleased with all the responses I received. Many people seemed shocked to learn that books they've read as school assignments have been the target of censorship campaigns. Others expressed incredulity upon learning that a particular book they've read and know to be inoffensive has been targeted. As techfun pointed
More About: Books , Readers , Blog , Banned

Free People Read Freely
2007-09-28 09:01:00
In observance of the American Library Association's Banned Books Week, I am today featuring ten of my favorites from a list of the 100 most frequently challenged books in the decade 1990-2000. My selections are arbitrary and reflect only my own tastes. Observed since 1982, this annual event serves to remind Americans not to take for granted their precious freedom to express one's opinions,
More About: People , Free , Read , Free People

My Life As A Furry Red Monster
2007-09-27 13:01:00
Kevin Clash and ElmoMost of the time a book's genre dictates its format. Mysteries typically begin with murder followed by investigation and then solution. Cookbooks start with appetizers and end with dessert. And biographies usually take a birth to death (or birth to present) approach. But Kevin Clash, the man behind (or more accurately when performing on Sesame Street beneath) my favorite Muppet is different. The chapters in his biography, My Life As A Furry Red Mons ter , are arranged by emotional virtues: Love, Joy, Creativity, Tolerance, Courage, Friendship, Cooperation, Learning and Optimism.More often than not when books step outside the established format, they fall flat on their faces. But this one works. Largely ignoring chronology, Clash relates anecdotes of growing up in a small house in Baltimore filled with kids, love and laughter as a shy child obsessed from a very early age with creating puppets and performing with them for the neighborhood kids, the...
More About: My Life

SEX AID FOR COMPLETE IDIOT DUMMIES
2007-09-26 13:01:00
So there I was, shelving in the 610's, all the wild animals of the 500's at my back, the words of Chris Webb ringing in my ears (...we're ALL dummies about Something....) and I turned to slide the gazzilionth book into it's proper place and there, staring me in the face from the spine of a bright yellow Dummies book was that grandmotherly sexpert, Dr. Ruth Westheimer.I would have expected Dr. Ruth to be looking out from the front cover of her book. I suspect she slipped around onto the spine in order to observe the intimate habits of the 500's fauna across the aisle, having tired of reading her neighbor's back cover. I picked up Dr. Ruth and put her on the lower shelf of my cart and then grabbed the next two intelligence-impaired titles extant, which proved to be The Complete Idiot 's Guide to Amazing Sex and First Aid & Safety for Dummies.***It reminded me why I don't like hanging out in bars. I pontificated pithily, Ron returned with a self-de...

Green Eggs And Alexander
2007-09-25 13:01:00
For me, one of the great things about working at the library is getting to enjoy children's books in the course of the day. As a non-parent, I would never have occasion to be exposed to what we call Easy Books at the library. So today I decided to feature four of my all time favorites, and invite you to remember along with me that very special time in your earliest life when you were first exposed to the magic of books. I hope you enjoy it.Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst was written back in 1972, when I was eight years old and had moved on to reading Juvenile fiction but I was lucky enough to discover Alexander when I worked as a book store clerk in New Orleans in the late 1980's and it has been my all time favorite children's book ever since. Poor Alexander wakes up with gum in his hair, and the day just goes downhill from there. From the breakfast table to the carpool, from school to the doctor's office, nothing goe...
More About: Eggs , Green

Your Blog As A Book?
2007-09-24 16:17:00
With a big thanks to Nina Munteanu, whose blog post last week brought it to my attention, I want to talk about a new Blog ger widget that allows visitors to your blog to purchase your entire archived posts as a bound book. Please note that for reasons I will make clear the button below is only an image and has no active link.From the information in Nina's post and other information gathered at the web site, I first learned that the retail price for the book is $19.95 soft cover/ $24.95 hardcover of which the blog owner receives a flat 20% royalty on all sales, regardless of volume. In mainstream book retailing, $20 would be High for a trade paperback, and at that price point readers would expect a pretty substantial volume to feel they have gotten their money's worth. While it is not exactly buried in fine print, the much less publicized fact is that the theoretical book used in the example is only 20 pages in length, and each 2 additional pages add an additional $ ...
More About: Book

Blogging About Books About Blogging
2007-09-24 14:00:00
I have never been a fan of the "dummies" books and honestly never understood how a publisher that unequivocally calls its audience Stoopid on the cover of every book could possibly become popular, yet the bright yellow tomes on a huge range of topics have become ubiquitous. And sometimes, though certainly not always, the books themselves are quite good.Blogging For Dummies is a comprehensive reference that begins by defining the term blog and proceeds methodically to tell you most everything you need to know about them. Brad Hill takes a very humorous and self-deprecating tone which somewhat makes up for the very hand-holding, step-by-step 'software manual' style these books inevitably adopt.I particularly enjoyed the discussion of the various options for starting a blog: from the social networks on MSN Spaces and Yahoo 360 and Google's less sociable and slightly geekier Blogger (all free) to paid Type Pad accounts, to using Movable Type or Word Press pre-installed...
More About: Books

A Few By Fannie Flagg
2007-09-21 13:01:00
A rainbow can be glimpsed through the Seattle Center fountainas the Space Needle stands sentinel behind Summer 2002 photo by Joel FarmerThe summer I was seven or eight years old my mother's appendix burst and while she was in the hospital I was sent to Baton Rouge to stay for a few weeks with my Aunt Katherine and Uncle Bob. While most of the country was engrossed it the Watergate hearings that summer, my two passions were soaking in the kiddie pool my aunt set up on the patio and watching the new tv show Match Game every afternoon. And I've been a fan of Fannie Flagg ever since.Most everyone is familiar with Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistlestop Cafe, which is wonderful and I was titillated to read of her affair with Rita Mae Brown in Brown's memoir Rita Will, but it wasn't until I started working for the library that I discovered some of her later books, which have become my favorites. Yesterday I happened to shelve Standing In The Rainbow , which is the story of...

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