The CNF Librarian

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...

Pardon my language here, but James Frey is the biggest bullshit artist. My undergraduate degree was in English with a focus on creative writing. My previous graduate degree is a Masters of Fine Arts in Nonfiction Writing. James Frey sullied nonfiction writing and memoirs. There are elements of fiction enlisted when writing literary or creative nonfiction, essays, and memoirs. These elements are supposed to be what is used to tell the story, what is used to build the narrative. At its very core, however, it is still supposed to be true. Frey's idea of embellishment for the sake of the narrative (The Smoking Gun, 2006) is an idea that is rooted in the "creative" of creative nonfiction, but the truth is still supposed to be there. In my MFA classes, we had to discuss Frey and the biggest scam of nonfiction. Frey shopped his story around to different publishers under the idea that it was fiction, but it was rejected (debated on the premise that it was, simply put, jus...

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe By Charles Yu Synopsis:  Charles Yu is a time machine technician. He lives in his one-person TM-31 Recreational Time Travel Device with his dog, Ed (who may or may not exist) and TAMMY, his computer, who has low self-esteem and is completely in love with him (and, when Charles is honest with himself, he reciprocates). Charles's life is, put succinctly, non-existent. He travels through time, space, and dimensions, fixing the problems of time travelers who have broken their worlds through paradoxes and bad choices, but when it comes to Charles's own life--he remains inside the TM-31, never really connecting. Until he does exit, one day, to visit his mother in her sad, digitally time-looped existence. On his return, he witnesses the TM-31 opening, and he sees himself, future Charles, stepping out. Panicked, Charles shoots himself, because he has to fix the paradox. The now-dying version of Charles hands his shooter a book...

I'm sure you've noticed--but our Horror titles aren't exactly flying off the shelves. I've been thinking about how we might be able to promote this collection, and I've come up with a way we might be able to get some of our other circ stats up as well. While our Horror books  aren't moving, our survival horror video games  are. These games are extremely popular right now, and with Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding  getting ready to come out, they're only going to increase in popularity. So, what I'm thinking we could do is a combined display, where we pair up horror book titles with similarly-themed horror video games. For example, we could pair up the popular PS4 title Until Dawn  (a slasher-style game about teens trying to survive, a la Cabin in the Woods, Friday the 13th, etc.) with Riley Sager's Final Girls (about the survivors of slasher-style attacks) . These both play off the idea of surviving a slasher-style horror event. I wouldn't ne...

The Hideaway by Lauren K. Denton Synopsis: Sara's life is perfect. She owns a thriving restoration business in New Orleans, and everything in her life is in order. However, when her grandmother, Mags, passes away, Sara must return home to Sweet Bay, Alabama, to take care of her grandmother's estate: a past-its-prime Bed & Breakfast called The Hideaway. She's been given instructions to fix the place up, and then she can sell it if she wishes. With every intention of settling affairs quickly, Sara comes home--but what she doesn't expect to find are her grandmother's secrets, of a love story long gone, and her own love story, just beginning. Told from the perspectives of Sara's present journey with the Hideaway and love interest Crawford, and Mags's past with lost love William, two stories unfold, with secrets revealed and long-held romances finally coming home. Romance Characteristics­¹: Emotional tone to draw readers in toward happy endi...