The CNF Librarian

Carrier: Untangling the Danger in my DNA by Bonnie J. Rough Publication Date: 2010 - Berkeley, Counterpoint Page Count:  316 pages Geographic Setting: American West (Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska), Minnesota, Seattle Time Period: 1930s-1970s, 2005-2008 Subject Headings: Ectodermal dysplasia - Patients - Biography; Bonnie Rough - Health; Pregnancy - Diseases and Complications of Pregnancy Type: Biography - Memoir Summary: Bonnie Rough has a family legacy, but she never asked for it to be passed down to her. Bonnie is a carrier of Hypohidrotic Ectodermal Dysplasia (HED), a genetic disorder that affects a person's hair and tooth growth, facial bone structure, and an inability to sweat. While the symptoms don't manifest for Bonnie herself, they did for her grandfather, Earl. Carrier  explores the struggles Earl faced in his life as Rough alternates narratives between herself and her grandfather, presenting his life's obstacles in tandem with her own as she an...

The Readers' Advisory Matrix for Making Toast  by Roger Rosenblatt Where is the book on the narrative continuum? Highly narrative (reads like fiction) What is the subject of the book? Roger Rosenblatt's daughter Amy dies suddenly, and Roger and his wife move in with their son-in-law and young grandchildren in order to help themselves and the young family cope with the sudden loss. What type of book is it? Memoir Articulate appeal What is the pacing of the book? The book has a leisurely pace, but the stylistic choices of breaking the story into small vignettes allows it to be read quickly. Describe the characters of the book. Roger is the grieving father to Amy, the brilliant daughter. Roger's wife, Ginny, is the grandmother to Amy's children, and she feels strange trying to care for them in the role of their mother when she believed her mothering years were behind her. Harris, the husband and father left behind, is quiet in his grief, taking care of his fam...

At the beginning, when ebooks were becoming readily available and everyone touted the power of their Kindle or Nook or Kobo reader--I stayed with the physical, printed page. I told people it was because I liked the feel of the book, liked the aesthetic of a physical bookshelf--but honestly? I couldn't afford an ereader, so I made up excuses for why I didn't want one. So, when my sister gave me a Kindle for my birthday one year, I was still holding onto those ideas in my mind and barely used it. I started using it for college classes when the ebook was cheaper than the physical copy of some required reading. It was nice to be able to control the font size and the background color, although this was just the basic Kindle so there were only two options (black or white). This didn't really affect the pacing for me, though, as it was really just to prevent eye strain occasionally. Pacing, for me, doesn't have anything to do with font size. Is that a thing? I didn't kno...

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire Synopsis: Have you ever wondered what happens to the children who come back  from their adventures in Wonderland? Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children houses children from just such situations--and not just Wonderland. From every alternate reality, different dimension, every door through which they've gone and returned, Eleanor rescues these children whose stories might never be believed otherwise. Nancy went through to the Halls of the Dead, where pomegranate trees blossomed and she learned to be still as a statue for hours--even days--at a time. Kade was taken as a young child to Prism, a land of fairies, when they mistook him for a young girl and, upon discovering his identification as a young boy, exiled him back to reality. Jack (short for Jacqueline) and Jill (short for Jillian), the twins of perfectionist parents, adventured down a mysterious staircase which appeared in an old trunk in their basement to the Moors, wh...

Last night I visited a book club at one of the branches of my library system, co-hosted by our classmate, Lindsay Cory! This group meets once per month and is open to anyone over the age of 18 The group reads Young Adult titles, and this month's selection was Kiss of Deception  by Mary E. Pearson. I let Lindsay know I was going to observe her book club for our class, and she graciously sent me a copy of the book so I could be up to speed on the discussion. Now, I've admitted in the past that I used to heavily read YA titles, but I'd fallen off the wagon lately due to some disinterest and disconnect between myself and the characters/situations of the books. So when I decided I wanted to come to the YA Book Club, I wasn't sure I'd have a good experience reading the book and talking about it. I showed up early for the meeting and talked with Lindsay and her co-host, Tammy, for a moment. I know both of them from being coworkers (albeit at different branches, but sti...

Here's the first bit of my Special Topics assignment, to give everyone an idea of what I'm working on. Almost everyone has heard the age-old idiom, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Yet publishers continue to work with artists and designers to craft and create covers to market their books, so this idea comes under scrutiny—especially by those choosing to purchase a title by the cover alone. According to Elizabeth Story, Lead Designer at Tachyon Publications, “For a print book, you want nice covers, because books aren’t just for reading, they are for display. It’s a larger canvas, with room for detail. An e-book cover doesn’t get the same visibility after the purchase, but you still need something eye-catching to get to that purchase”   (Obeso, 2013, p. 41) . Marketers and publishers, in this case, are relying on a consumer to judge a book by its cover to purchase a title. Librarians, however, are often trying to lead their patrons past the covers and into the text of a w...