Banned Book Week

Today I'm grumpy because... I bet you thought I forgot banned book week!

As a reference librarian I don't actually get to do much for Banned Books Week (not that we do all that much to begin with anyway, but), but I try to remember it!  We have a display up, so if I see an empty space I try to grab a book to put there.  And of course I have my own mental list of banned books to recommend should anyone ask.  I get... excited when people ask for book recommendations.

Fun Fact: I'm like a rabid wolverine when it comes to reader's advisory, but instead of killing prey much bigger than myself I recommend books from genres I don't often read.  Sadly, my excitement does sometimes lead to excessive salivation.

So what is banned books week? (Asked no one.  Shh, dear reader, just listen to the librarian.)  Banned books are books that have been targeted as unfit to appear in libraries and schools.  The week - which began in the early 80s - celebrates these books, as well as freedom of ideas more generally.  ALA has more info here, as well as a list of frequently challenged books.  Most of the challenges come to school libraries and classrooms (though public libraries will have books challenged, as well) and the most common reason for a challenge is because of sexual content.  Like...  a lot of books are challenged because of sexual content.  If you're interested, here is a graphic from ALA about the top ten most challenged books from 2017.  Challenged does not mean the book was removed - it only means someone wanted the book to be removed.  (If it's actually removed, then it's a "banned" book.)

If you've never read any of these, why not pick one up!  Be a rebel - read something that somebody somewhere thought you shouldn't.  (The Hate U Give, for instance, which is being made into a movie.)   I had planned a very lengthy rant on There is a lot of talk around censorship, what constitutes censorship, and what's harmful enough to warrant some sort of action - but the week is already over, and so many other - wiser - voices have already chimed in.  There was a recent article in the Washington Post asking do we need banned books week anymore?  And I've made a lot of the same arguments as the librarian interviewed.  I mean, it's definitely about the books, but what might be useful is to shift focus from books specifically to intellectual freedom more generally. 

How to Make Friends at Work

A new feature of the blog called "My Life!  Starring: Social Anxiety"

HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS AT WORK

• Step One: See everyone else having conversations together.
  This step is very important because to really feel like an outsider, excluded from your workplace's culture, you need to first observe everyone else participating in it.  If you can accidentally overhear a conversation about a shared interest that you don't feel comfortable participating in, even better!
• Step Two: Envy them.  Decide you want to join.
  After successful completion of step one, the seeds for envy should already be there, so this step should be simple: just let the anxiety do its work!  A little courage helps, as well, to make up your mind that you finally want to take the plunge to join in.
• Step Three: Fail.
  This step can be accomplished in one of three ways.  One: just don't try at all.  If your anxiety is too bad, or if you only tell yourself your anxiety is too bad, or if you intend to try but keep putting it off - whatever the cause, whether because of yourself or some outside force stopping you from trying, it all counts.  Two: try a little, whether that be pushing yourself or staying in your comfort zone, but don't get many positive results from your efforts.  Three: really push yourself and try hard, making a concerted effort to be friendly with everyone and try to contribute more to small talk and casual conversation, maybe even initiating a few conversations, but still fail and possibly be mocked or ignored.  (At which point, congratulations!  You have possibly found one of the most anxiety-inducing workplaces ever for someone with social anxiety and a desire to interact with other humans.  What a great place for a real strain on your mental health!)
• Step Four: Retreat. 
  Make sure to replay every conversation you ever have wondering if you said enough, or if people don't like, or if you tried too hard and it showed.  A successful step four will probably include a dip in self-esteem and several weeks wondering what went wrong, and possibly increasing the desire to fit in and make friends.
• OPTIONAL Step Five: Read even more than you already do, so you can pretend you have friends in your books.

First Finish of the Week

So I had a lot of down time at work Tuesday.  Like... a lot for the first half of the day, because I was fighting with the homework computers down in the children's department, which meant I was either waiting for something to install/restart/update, or later on the phone with a technician trying to figure out why this software wasn't installing on one specific computer.  Which meant that, while maybe not the most professional use of my time, I did get some reading done.

I hesitate to say that simply because, well.  I don't get to read just because I work in a library.  That is very frowned upon, and it's not like there's time in the day anyway.  It's actually become sort of a default preface for librarians when people talk about or ask us about our jobs - no, we don't get to read all day, yep it's great to be around all those books!  (Which is very true and very much not at the same time, because some people are not the most careful with library books.  Don't love being around the books that come back smelling strongly of smoke.)  So much so, in fact, that's it's coming back around the other side with some librarians afraid to even talk about their love of books and reading, and others outspoken about loving books and having that be a reason they became a librarian.  Which is a long way to say that no, we don't read all day because it's a job and we're working, but yeah, a lot of us in the public sector probably wanted to work in libraries because we love books so much.

But!  All of that to say!  I had a special case today when I had to be in front of the computer but there was nothing to do other than wait, so I did get to read a little.  I also have to take two breaks every day because I'm still breast feeding and I have to pump, so I read then, too.  (Have to do something to take my mind off what I am subjecting myself to.  For the love of my child, but still!  It ain't fun.)  So why is this relevant?

Because I finished Turtles All the Way Down!

I actually went and ate lunch in my car so I could listen to my audiobook (on a disc, in my CD player, I'm very hip to the times) but I wound up being unable to stop thinking about Turtles so I read a good chunk of it, and then managed to finish the last bit of it on my last break.

I chose this for my "orange" challenge, mostly because I was a bit desperate for something orange (yeah, yeah, The Martian, but I needed a full seven books for my TBR, okay?), I had had it in the back of my mind for awhile that I wanted to read it, and it was available to check out as an e-book through the library.  (I might not get to read at work, but I take every advantage of finding books to read later, that's for sure.)  It was a quick read, and pretty enjoyable.  I definitely didn't love it.  It was the kind of book that even while I only kind of liked it, it did stick with me.  I found it to be a vivid, compelling portrait of a young woman struggling with anxiety and intrusive, spiralling thoughts, but I was disappointed by it and would rate it 3 out of 5 stars.

The plot was nonexistent other than a very forced side story about a missing billionaire.  Which is how the whole thing starts and it's what brings the characters together (the main character Aza and the love interest, Davis), but it goes nowhere and feels almost pointless.  And I hate to say this - I mean I genuinely feel kind of guilty saying this - but it just... wasn't a good story because of Aza.  If it had just been a long, introspective ramble about her, and what she was going through, without any additional trappings I think I would have liked it more, but because there was the frame of a story there I started looking for a story to be told, for the parts of a story, and they weren't really there.  Aza didn't have motivation to do anything, really, and she didn't really experience a lot of character growth¹.  That in and of itself isn't bad, obviously, and it's not even that it's something I wouldn't want to read.  The problem is the plot isn't strong enough to combine with the whole introspective ramblings on consciousness - it feels almost like an after thought.

One thing I did like - that the negative reviews on goodreads were pretty vocally against - was Davis and his astronomy and his poetry and all the quotations.  Look.  Just look, everybody.  Is it pretentious?  Are the teens over articulate?  (Frequent complaints I see lobbied against, like.  Every John Green book, to be honest.)  A better question is: does that matter?  The people I see complaining about that are adults - and the books aren't written for you (or me, I know).  They're for teens, and - just using an example pulled out of the blue here - teen me?  Sensitive, shy, nose-always-in-a-book me?  Who thought she wasn't smart enough for poetry, who doubted herself, who wasn't sure when it was okay to like "adult" things like Shakespeare and Keats beyond the context of school, who wasn't sure if she had the life experience to understand those lovely words and wasn't sure she ever would?  I would have loved it, I imagine.  I mean, I think it's okay to romanticize teen dialog of all things, I'm sure there are lots of young people who eat this up.  Because it is lovely in a lot of places, even if it isn't realistic.  So ends my daily "get off my lawn" rant.  It is pretentious, sure, but I honestly don't mind.

So meh.  My overall impression was: it was okay.  I liked it.

¹Okay you could probably fight me on this one because of that confrontation with Daisy, but still.  That is incidental to the larger plot, really.

Contemporary-a-Thon TBR!

So!  At the very last minute I decided to participate in the Contemporary-A-Thon!  Which is a readathon for contemporary books.  Find the hosts on YouTube - their announcement videos for the challenge are here, here, and here.  Can I do it?  Probably not!  Is that going to stop me?  No!

A readathon, for those who don't know, is exactly what it says on the tin: an excuse to read - a lot - over a set period of time.  This readathon lasts from September 17 (today) through September 23.  There are seven challenges.  This is a chance for many to read 7 in 7 days, though of course you can double up on the challenges and use one book for more than one.  I'm going to try to read seven, though with a full time job, and a five month old baby, and with the Spider-Man game burning a hole in our PS4, well, uh.  Let's just say I don't have a lot of confidence I'll get it done!  Luckily a lot of my books cover more than one category, so I'm fairly confident I can still complete the challenge.

So what will I be reading?

1. Orange on the cover  -  Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
I've actually wanted to read this one for awhile, so I figured now was a perfect excuse.

2. Dark/Taboo/Spooky - Lethal White by Robert Galbraith
This is only coming out the 18th and I was going to read it anyway, so of course I had to put it on my list!  I'm pretty sure I'll finish this one in a day.  (It can also count as my 5-star prediction read as well.)  It counts as dark because it's a mystery - according to a synopsis, someone reports a murder he witnessed as a child.  I don't know anything else about it, but I enjoyed the rest of the series so I'm excited!

3. Diverse - Pride by Ibi Zoboi
This is also coming out the 18th so whether or not I get to read it depends on if anyone else puts a hold on it at the library.

4. Non-traditional format - The Martian by Andy Weir (on audiobook)
I've been sort of intending to read this one for awhile, as well, and since I decided to read an audiobook for my "non-traditional format" (I almost never read audiobooks), I figured I'd read something I might not normally pick up as well.  This also counts as orange if I need it to, as well.

5. Initials on the Cover - Hope Never Dies by Andrew Shaffer
H D M: Hope Never Dies: an Obama-Biden Mystery

6. New to You Author - The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory
I had tried to start this before - got it from work - but I had to return it before I could read it.  I believe this is Guillory's first novel, so definitely new!

7. 5-Star Prediction - Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli
This one looks cute and I've heard good things about it.  This one is my last to read, so I'm not sure I'll get to it.  I think I'll enjoy it if I do, though!

If you're also doing contemporaryathon let me know!  And let me know what you thought if you read any of these.  Wish me luck!  My goal is all seven, but if I read three I'll still feel pretty good about it.  I'll be posting my progress here and on goodreads when I get the chance!