The Lanky Librarian

And they're off...

2012-01-17T08:51:00.003-05:00

The start of the Spring semester, and I have a hard time calling it the spring with frost on the roads, and we are off to a flying start. Aside from the norm of students having no clue about the classes they have, you know silly things like the name of the class and such, but now they can't even find out because the CMS (Course Management System) is down. Really, I can't make this stuff up.

So here is to what I am sure will be a fun filled day and swell semester, off to that flying start.= to find out how good you really are.

Will this get me into trouble?

2011-12-15T10:38:00.004-05:00

Today, it seems like the first time in a really long time, I am in an uber writing mode. I need to get some stuff out, on the page (screen), out of that cavernous black hole that is my ginormous cranium. What to get out? Well that is up to debate, I just need to write...something.

So, I start thinking of some topics to write about, some stuff at work like the committee meeting yesterday or the union meeting I attended. Then some paranoia started to set in. What if someone actually reads this blog? I mean, it is possible that someone could stumble upon this little corner of the interwebs and read what I have to say. Would that be like finding a needle in a haystack or a deposed ex-leader in a drain pipe? Could happen. And what if it was someone with someone who would take my idiotic ramblings to heart and may even be someone from work like that committee meeting or that union or even worse, administration. Dun-Dun-Dun! Or done-done-done, which is what I would be if the right people took the wrong thing away from this veritable cornucopia of bloggy goodess.

So should I worry? Will anyone read this? Is anyone out there? Will the 24 film ever get made?

Nah. Go about your business you wacky bibliophile. Oh, and make quick with those book reviews.

Right-O, getting on that now.

I Will Post More, I Will Not Fall Behind!

2011-12-10T15:49:00.002-05:00

I Promise, I promise.

I have about four entries that are in the works and they've been in the works for a while. I would finish them now but the battery on the MacBook is at 9%. I'll keep up to date, I will I will.

Ok, enough of that. Back to the writing....or the charging of the MacBook.

More to come from the LL!!!

(I like referring to myself as the LL, makes feel like The Rock.)

Teaching the Library, man.

2011-10-24T12:39:00.015-04:00

Image via Wikipedia"Teaching the Library" is, like, going to be my new mantra/catch phrase/battle cry or whatever they call these marketing lingo type promotion thingies. I am going to own it, man. Co-opt it, make it my own or any other FOTM phrase you would use. It's going to be near and dear to my heart because that's what I do, I teach the library, man.

So, what in the wide, wide world of sports does that mean? Well I'll tell ya pilgrim. It means teaching what a library does and what to do with the library. And it's not shine it up real nice, turn is sideways...I digress. That's what I get, and you now get, when I write while I'm at Starbucks getting all hopped up on latte train. Back to some semblance of normalcy, what I teach, essentially, is how to do research, more specifically , how to find the sources that you need for your research and how to pick and choose the right sources to use. That's how I view it, my job is to teach you to do your research without needing me.

That can't be too hard, right? Au contrair mon frere! It's not that the teaching part hard, for me anyway since I have a teaching background so other librarians might disagree. What the tricky part is, is getting through to the students, especially the younger ones, that what I am trying to teach them is important and that they really don't know how to do this stuff. I guess this is the lament of all educators, especially nowadays, impressing the importance of education in general to the students with educators under attack and the shift in educational thinking that the purpose of education is to get a good paying job. Now, I feel myself stepping up to the soapbox so I'll refrain and leave those musings for another post.

So back to issue at hand. Essentially I see what I do as important, and maybe a bit more if I do say so myself, as the content classes that the students take. They need to develop critical thinking skills and need to know how to find quality information. Not just information but information that is relevant to their needs, reputable and accurate, how to do this in an efficient manner and to use the information properly. Let's face it, with No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, these skills aren't being focused on and valued so I see students come to university totally unprepared in this area. It's not being covered and I doubt the university professor is going to cover it in class so this is where I come in. Hopefully, the professor will schedule with me some time for their class but professors are reluctant to take away class time from their content to teach this skills.

So what do we do? To quote from a fave movie of mine, "We're in a tight spot". At all levels we need to impress the importance of being information literate, or transliterate if you want to use that FOTM term. And of course on my end, we as librarian/educators need to continue to teach the library in whichever role the job asks of us.

More than just my two cents this time, you got a nickels worth.

Ed's Mini Book Review - Deadline by Mira Grant

2011-10-18T10:34:00.007-04:00

Deadline gets me back into the zombie swing of things though, like its predecessor, its a zombie book that is not really a zombie book but it has zombies....sort of.

The set up is, there was a zombie outbreak over a decade ago and life has normalized as much as it can in a world where zombies are real. The virus is still out there and outbreaks can happen if you "amplify" for whatever reason thus becoming a zombie. Blood tests are abound to make sure you won't amplify so we're talking about major paranoia. Add in the shift in news and media since the outbreak, as the established media poo-pooed stories of zombies so no one really trusts them anymore. Enter the blogger, your man on the street so to speak with a mic and a camera who is going to give the news to you as it really is, no filter.

That's the world of Deadline, and it's predecessor, Feed. This book shifts the narration to Shaun Mason from his sister Georgia Mason from the first but it still follows the Mason blogging crew as they investigate, more like get swept into, another conspiracy involving the Kellis-Amberlee virus, the virus that caused the zombie mayhem. I was eager to see this play out as Shaun is the risk taker of the two with Georgia being more practical. I thought we would get a more actiony story this time around but that really isn't the case. This was more of the conspiracy tale and there were points where the paranoia is ratcheted up and one point in particular stands out as the tension builds and you feel the paranoia the characters feel and then...well I'll leave that for you to find out. My one big disappointment with this book however is that Shaun turns into a bit of a whiner. All right, we get it already dude, no need to whine for the whole book. He was the tough, reckless action man in the first book, here he is just a whiney little bitch. I was hoping someone, anyone, me perhaps, would slap him and snap him out of it. Some character try but he goes back to whine central. That and the "cliffhanger" ending is pretty much telegraphed.

A solid entry but not as great as I hoped.

My Grade: B-

Lunch with the Prez and VP

2011-10-10T12:11:00.011-04:00

Image via WikipediaAs typical with how fate weaves her ironic web in my life, I attended a couple of faculty functions in the past two weeks and ended up with some prime seating. First was a new faculty shindig to introduce us newbies to the various power players in the university and to see what some of the faculty support departments have to offer. Now this was an all day event with the new faculty being introduced and faculty speakers and all that jazz. We had assigned tables like a wedding and were fed pretty nicely, which is why I am sure some people made it a case of being there, free eats.

It figures that the table I am assigned to is the table the president of the university is assigned to as well and not only that, he decides to sit next to me. To my credit, I only managed to embarrass myself once which is quite a surprise for anyone that knows me. He asked where I was coming from and I went on about how the traffic was pretty light coming from Babylon. Of course that is not what he meant and he was asking from what institution I was coming to LIU from. I fairly quickly recovered and continued to schmooze with the prez and hear all about his time as a faculty member at Michigan before I was born. Now he's my new bff. Ok, not really but I like to tell people that.

The next function/opportunity to embarrass myself was at a brown bag lunch that the VP of Academic Affairs held for non-tenured faculty to bring up with him any concerns, issues or questions we may have about pretty much anything. A couple of us junior faculty from the library went together which makes sense since the library got the shaft in the contract negotiations. And just like the function with the President, and Academic VP sits next to me for lunch. Now I have to be extra careful not to eat like an animal and have bits of food and spittle hit the VP in the face, though I am sure that would have scored all sorts of brownie points with some of the senior faculty but screw that, they have tenure already and I don't. Luckily with this pow wow I didn't embarrass myself at all, and I think I acquitted myself rather well. I went on and on about the library and the road blocks we face all without the spittle and stammering then I shut my trap when some of the others chimed in after I broke the ice a bit.

All in all (I like that term in case you hadn't guessed by now), I actually came away liking those poor sods. And I call them that because almost no one likes them. I get the spin that was going on and see through it, though maybe not through it a lot if I liked them, but I come in with a clean slate and I am going to afford them that courtesy.

My two cents.

Turn out the lights....

2011-09-11T19:00:00.009-04:00

And so it ends. The strike is over and it is back to work tomorrow but I don't think things will be back to normal for a while. The deal is a pretty crappy one but I think a lot of people were scared to the vote passed overwhelmingly. It's a pretty crappy deal especially for the librarians and I can't help but be a little bitter because it was transparent what was happening and everyone knew and acknowledged that the librarians were taking it on the chin and the vote still was what it was.

Now that I have had a night to sleep on it (I wrote the first paragraph yesterday right after the vote) I can honestly say that I am still feeling bitter. I tried to look at it that I am in a better place, career wise, than I was before I took this job but morally and ethically something still sticks in my craw. Regardless of the department or group that got the short end of the stick, and this time it happened to be us in the library, I still find it ethically impermissible to feed the beast this way, at someone else's expense. And that's what just happened. Maybe it's my naive idealistic ideals that I still cling to and maybe this is just the way things are and I just have to accept that this is par for the course. The thing is, I can't just shrug my shoulders and say c'est la vie and call it a day. That would be counter to who I am and those naive idealistic notions that make me who I am and are a part of me like my big nose.

It' s a tough pill to swallow and I guess I'll get over it soon enough but it still doesn't change what happened and what they accepted. Now it's time for me to be accepting.

Strike!

2011-09-08T18:12:00.005-04:00

Image by ...MurPHy-MRF... via FlickrYes, that's right, we are on strike. What a bummer.

Here I am, thinking I have my dream job, and it still may be, but to have this contention so early on is distasteful to say the least.

Now as one of the junior faculty that this strike is supposed to look out for, I can't help but still feel a little bit vulnerable. I am wholly appreciative of the senior faculty for taking this stance for us. It would have been easy for them to just take whatever was offered figuring they had made their money already or were going to retire soon anyway and leave us younger faculty holding the bag. We have to walk a fine line with showing our appreciation and supporting the union and the strike but also we must be mindful of the internal politics that could be a factor. In other words, we don't was to piss off the wrong people being so new and easily replaceable in a way.

It's not just ticking people off, it's being seen as a person that is not on board or not having the institution's best interests at the fore even though we want to place to succeed because that is good for us in the long ru if we plan on being there for the long run. And let's be perfectly clear and honest, I see a big step in the university being successful is its ability to keep good, younger faculty members that are going to grow and be the academic future of the place. If they can't keep us, with places very close getting much better deals, then the who does have the future of the institution as a priority?

As a colleague of mine so eloquently and appropriately said, "This sucks."

Gearing up for the start of the Academic Year (My fist at CW Post)

2011-08-30T19:07:00.004-04:00

Cover via AmazonThe time is almost here after a slow summer of trying to find stuff to keep me busy. I am prepping for the library section of the College 101 class that I am doing as well as prepping for covering the students that can't get into the library workshop hence they will need tutor or one-on-one time so they can eventually pass the library competency exam.

Add into those things that I have my first review in October/November and need to have my personal evaluation in by the beginning of October. Then there are the day-to-day duties such as covering the reference desk and the committee work that will be coming my way and the beginning of the term looks to be very busy and very stressful.

Tack on ongoing contract negotiations between the union and administration. Oy vey, what did I get myself in to?

Students: Ask a Librarian? Huh...wha...

2011-08-23T10:10:00.003-04:00

Image via WikipediaAll hail the Twitter-verse! "All Hail" is my new favorite term so I may start every blog post with that phrase from now on so don't be startled at the lack of creativity and repetition soon to follow.

Now the reason for the accolades to Twitter is the article in USA Today that was tweeted by a librarian that I follow about student tendencies when using the library. It seems that most students don't bother to ask a librarian for help. Now, this is probably not too big of a shock to librarians but what is interesting about the article is that it cites a study which aimed to look at what students, professors and librarians think of the library and each other. What I found interesting about the results of the study was the perception that librarians had of students and the study claims that librarians overestimate the research skills of students and call out the myth of the digital native. Maybe, as librarians we need to rethink our approach to students and focus a bit more on curtailing the nasty habit of students just to Google something. Now, I know you are going to say that is what you do and that is an uphill battle you face everyday in your library job but I think we need to focus a bit more on teaching the students why the databases are more powerful and efficient search options and how to evaluate sources and what constitutes a good source.

Just some food for though.

Ed's Mini Book Review - The A, B, C Murders by Agatha Christie

2011-07-22T11:14:00.013-04:00

Image by iknow-uk via FlickrIt's hard to believe that these mysteries were written almost a hundred years ago but let me tell, you, they do stand the test of time. If you've read my reviews or even just seen the types of books that I read, you can tell that I have a taste for the fantastic. Whether they be zombies, wizard detectives, or British exorcists, the stuff that's right up my alley tend to be a little out of the ordinary. The Agatha Christie mysteries are fairly ordinary mysteries on the surface. No zombies or wizards or vast governmental conspiracies but they are all out of the ordinary in how well done they are and how they keep you wanting to finish the mystery and see if you've had it pegged all along.

My first encounter with an Agatha Christie mystery was back in the 80's when my family just got cable and Evil Under the Sun was on HBO almost every day it seemed. That was where I was introduce to Hercule Poirot, played by Peter Ustinov, and has drawn me to read the Poirot mysteries almost thirty years later. Now the premise of The A, B, C Murders is one that you may be familiar with since it has been copied in some form ad nauseum. Poirot is taunted by a killer who sends him letters proclaiming Poirot cannot catch him as he murders people according to the alphabet. What I really liked about this Poirot mystery was the feeling that Poirot was a bit helpless and and was stumped. From the other Poirot books that I've read, and from some other mystery books, shows or movies, you can fall into the lull of knowing the good guy is going to prevail and in the end you know Poirot will figure it out but Christie does a masterful job of leading you along with Poirot wondering how long he will be stumped.

No spoilers here so read her books, I command you! Another excellent entry into the series and it has even gotten me to add some Miss Marple mysteries to my read pile.

My Grade: A-

Ed's Mini Book Review - Monster Nation by David Wellington

2011-07-07T09:08:00.008-04:00

Cover of Monster Nation: A Zombie NovelI finally made it Monster Nation on my read pile after reading a few other David Wellington books in rapid succession a while back, the books being Monster Island, Plague Zone and 13 Bullets. I have a soft spot for Wellington who got his start writing chapters and posting them online and then finally got a book deal to publish his online serials, so while I could have read Monster Nation online for free, I decided to show my support with my wallet and plunk down my twelve bucks and but the book.

This is a prequel of sorts, taking place during the outbreak (if that's what you want to call it) and causes of people turning into zombies. It follows two main characters that are on a collision course (cliche, zing!), one a women who doesn't quite die, much like Gary of the first book, and a by the numbers military man, trying to figure out what is going on and how to stop it. That's pretty much it. Since you know where things head from the first book, the fun from the book comes from how we get there. There is some fun in there but it's at times slow going and the feeling of inevitability of getting to a world overrun takes over and I found myself at times just waiting to get there.

The end product is mixed for me. Like I said, there is some good stuff in there and is an interesting twist on the genre in that the cause is not the ever popular viral outbreak but something else which I won't spoil. To sum it up, solid but not as good as Monster Island.

My Grade: B-

Life in the Academic Library (after two months)

2011-06-28T13:09:00.009-04:00

Image via WikipediaTwo months in on the new job and I came up with the grand idea to jot down some thoughts on life as an Academic Librarian as I go along and eventually all this 'new' stuff will be old hat. So far, things may be a little misleading since I started at the end of the Spring semester and now I'm into the Summer sessions so things are slow in the library. I am told they will pick up in earnest once the Fall semester begins but as of now saying that it's slow is the understatement of the year.

Everyone here is super nice and I've been taken on tours of the various departments so I can get a feel of what everyone does and to better answer any reference questions that may arise about the other departments. The Dean really seems like she wants to help out the new/junior faculty with the publishing end of being an academic librarian. Since this a "publish or perish" position, technically, she is giving us the support system so we can be successful in that area.

So, lots of time getting used to what this library has to offer, locations of things on campus and in the confusing library stacks, getting familiar with our resources and just getting the skinny from my colleagues on what to expect here and what is expected of me.

So far so good and here's to hoping it stays good.

Ed's Mini Book Review - The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

2011-06-21T14:59:00.015-04:00

Image by elena-lu via FlickrAll hail Project Gutenberg! From them I was able to download a could of classics on my iPad and one in particular just happened to be the first mystery featuring the legendary Hercule Poirot. The only downside to the Project Gutenberg download was that no images come with it and there was one at one point but it's only a minor quibble.

Now, I've read some Poirot books before so I am going out of order in a series for a change but it was nice to get the first Poirot appearance under my belt to get a base for how the character changes, if he does at all, through the books. I've seen some of the Poirot movies, the American made movies, and the first thing that really stuck out about the literary Poirot was how quirky and OCD-ish he is. Now I wonder if that stands up through the books as I go through them.

On to the plot of this one. An elderly widow, who was left a nice sum of money from her late husband, is found dead one morning and foul play is suspected. In comes the renowned detective Poirot to have a look and see if the obvious is really that obvious or are there layers of intrigue and deception afoot. Of course there is and Christie does a masterful job of adding characters with not only a measure of depth to them without getting too bogged down in them all the while adding them as suspects and removing them as suspects only to add them and remove them time and again. Here we get our fist glimpse of Poirot in action and in reading Christie mysteries I cant help but compare them to the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, of which I've only read one and in that one, the key clue wasn't portrayed to the reader so I felt a little cheated as there was no possibility for the reader to figure out the mystery. With the Christie mysteries, the ones that I have read so far, all of the clues are presented and it's a matter of piecing them together with the motives of the characters to solve the mystery.

Reading this book hooked me and now I am going to read through the Poirot series. I've read some others from Christie and the ones that I have read, including this one are all tip-top and I constantly amazed how the mysteries hold up almost 100 years later. Rating this with the other Poirot mystery that I have read, I would rate this one on par, both so far excellent mysteries.

My Grade: A

Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles" | Video on TED.com

2011-06-07T10:28:00.004-04:00

Image via WikipediaEli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles" | Video on TED.com

Since I am on a bit of a TED kick, watching many of the videos and such, I figure I'd mention the TED talk on filter bubbles. Combined with a discussion on the ILI listserve made me want to post about it.

The concept is that much like can people live in social bubbles so to speak, only interacting and being exposed to certain people and certain types of thinking, that this phenomena can happen online as well. Companies like Google and Facebook tailor what you see and what comes up on your feed or search results based on what you click on so your results are personalized. Now that may be good for some people as they get what they normally seek out, this new bubble is being decided for you. Good or not? You decide for yourself but the ol' LL thinks this is a tricky road to go down. So much for the free flow of information in the web.

Ed's Mini Book Review - Apocalypse of the Dead by Joe McKinney

2011-05-27T16:08:00.009-04:00

Fresh off the heels of reading McKinney's Dead City, I decided to download Apocalypse of the Dead on my iPad and give that one a whirl. Now, this book is a loose sequel in that the setting and circumstances are pretty much the same (the setting changes a bit) but the characters are different.

Here we get McKinney pushing his boundaries and showing his writing chops a bit by moving the story around to various different characters and groups that will, inevitably, all come together at some point. The trick to doing that is not to be too confusing and not spreading things so thin that the reader can't keep track. Luckily, McKinney does a fine job in that department and keeps the story focused and a solid direction.

The take on this zombie tale is what sets it apart from other run of the mill zombie tales and is the story building around the creepy Koresh-like pastor. We've seen a lot of post-apocalyptic books go for the power abuse by the military but this take is a new one for me and a welcome departure from the standard zombie fare.

All in all, I can safely recommend this book for fans of zombie books rather easily. Some may have an issue with the jumping around a bit but I didn't find that to be a problem. It's interesting territory to go in and a solid direction at that.

My Grade: B+

Ed's Mini Book Review - The Naming of the Beasts by Mike Carey

2011-05-17T09:19:00.015-04:00

Felix "Fix" Castor is back!

And boy does it feel like a reunion with an old friend. That seems to be a popular feeling with me nowadays as I said the same thing about the latest Dexter book and felt the same way with the most recent adventure featuring Joe Ledger.

This entry in the series picks up basically where the last book's cliffhanger left us, Fix trying to find Asmodeus. Things have not gone well for Felix in the meantime with an alcohol binge fueled by the guilt of Asmodeus' escape and killing spree. Now he has to get his act together and figure out what Asmodeus is up to and he needs to do it right quick before Asmodeus can wreak any more havoc. This leads to all sorts of questionable decisions be Felix and some unlikely alliances and one "alliance" that I was particularly looking forward too.

I might have said this in past reviews of the Felix Castor books, but they do progress nicely and move and a better pace than the earlier books. Word is that there is one more book planned but I am not sure where else to go after this book but I look forward to what Carey has planned for Felix Castor.

My Grade: B

Ed's Mini Book Review - The King of Plagues (A Joe Ledger Novel)

2011-05-13T15:49:00.010-04:00

Book three from Jonathan Mayberry starring Counter-terrorism agent extraordinaire , Joe Ledger, brings the series back to the roots of the first book in the series, Patient Zero. I was having a discussion about Joe Ledger books with a friend of mine, who was the one that turned me onto Patient Zero, and she said that she wasn't going to pick up The King of Plagues because she couldn't stand The Dragon Factory. I liked The Dragon Factory as it was more of an actioner, but I agree with her that it didn't have the same feel as Patient Zero.

The King of Plagues recaptures that Patient Zero feel and I think a good part of recapturing that feel is the return of some characters from the first book that I won't give away but it made me cheer a bit inside to see them back. Another way this brings things back is the plot of of our dastardly villains this go around, we are back to bio-terror. Sure you could say that the last one was bio-terror in that there were bio-engineered thingies (a pure technical term) but this is the stuff that strikes a cord with people today, the viral threat.

To complete the feel of the first book, we get Joe Ledger kicking ass, which to be fair, he did a lot of in The Dragon Factory. My main gripe with the last book was that the DMS was sort of reactionary, basically stumbling in the right direction and here we get the DMS being pro-active in seeing through leads and solving some mysteries to drive them in the case. There was a little bit too much lamenting some of the things that happened in the last book for my liking as I like books that can stand on their own and not need the previous to know what's going on and that is the case in this book. Also the references to the first book with some of the background on returning characters may turn new readers off and they may feel that they don't know fully what is going on. If you are a dedicated reader of the series, though, you should be in good shape and I think that The King of Plagues will have you looking forward to more Joe Ledger books.

My Grade: B+

Ed's Mini Book Review - Dexter is Delicious

2011-05-11T13:17:00.010-04:00

Man, was it fun to read a Dexter book again, and a good Dexter book to boot (one of them wasn't that good). I find Dexter books to be like hearing from an old friend again and catching up on what he's been up to. I know that sounds cliche, the whole 'old friend' thing but Dexter books are like that. I think it's the voice of Dexter, the way he speaks to the reader and lets you in on what others aren't allowed to hear. You are privy to his Dark Passenger and what he really thinks and feels and I think that is part of appeal that makes the reader feel close to Dexter.

That connection to dear ol' Dex, is what keeps you around in Dexter in the Dark, which is by far the weakest of the series, but you won't have to worry about that with this installment. Upon hearing of the premise, I was afraid Dexter is Delicious would go that route though. Here is the setup, Dexter deals with cannibals, and not just that, vampire rip off cannibals to boot. Holy Twilight Batman! Fear not, Dexter is back and while not in prime form, it's good enough.

As we begin, Dex is settling in to family life with the birth of his daughter and is having very fatherly thoughts such as giving up his side 'job' to be there for his daughter and set a good example. Sprinkle in difficult Deb, blood thirsty children and a surprise visitor from Dexter's past and you've got a good mix for some fun and deliciously awkward moments that have come to signify the literary version of Dexter. My main gripe is that the mystery is not quite a mystery as, I think, it was telegraphed way in advanced but it was still fun to see it all play out. If you're a Dexter fan, I'd bet that you'd enjoy this entry and really sink your teeth into this one (ok, I just had to say it).

My Grade: B

Ed's Mini Book Review - Dead City by Joe McKinney

2011-05-06T12:37:00.004-04:00

Back in my zombie fiction kick, I picked up Dead City by Joe McKinney from the local B & N as I have seen it on the shelves and some reviews online for it. Now, being a seasoned vet of zombie lit, I set the bar fairly high for them. They should embody many of the aspects of what makes the genre so interesting to many people. They should be frightening, smart and portray a sense of the impending doom that you cannot stop like the creeping death that is crawling slowly towards its characters. That is to say that they have to be formulaic. On the contrary, many zombie books can be dull in that they've covered the same ideas that have come before it. But, it should still feel like a zombie book, and I have a particular book I've reviewed in mind when I say that. I want a zombie book with teeth, a little bite but with some new aspects to it. I want the survival aspect to is as well and here, to me, is where a lot of the smarts come in. I want to see characters doing smart things, being pushed to be creative and inventive in how they are going to make it through this catastrophe and that goes for any survivalist book like The Road and not just zombie books.

I am done with seeing people to dumb, silly and inane things. I know that story, where you show how people are fallible and fall apart in extreme situations, how they get greedy and self interested and short sighted. Been there, done that and in way too many stories. I am also done with the seedy side of post apocalyptic fiction. You know the ones, the 'people do horrible things when law and order is broken' sort of stories. Again, been there, done that. Let's get onto something different with the zombie genre so it doesn't get stale and become a parody of itself that so many other genres have become.

Where is this rant going? Well, it brings us the Dead City. Plain and simple, I liked this book. I didn't love it but I liked it. I liked it because it focused on the day of the disaster and the survival story of one person through the day of the outbreak. Plain and simple. His struggles to come to grip with what was happening and how the outbreak unfolded. I have some minor quibbles with some of the stuff in there such as him not making his family the priority when the outbreak occurred but overall this book hit the notes I want to see in a zombie book and did something that I haven't seen a lot of in zombie books and that is take us through the outbreak as it is happening. All too often we see the aftermath and the survival that ensues and I do like that stuff but I found this take a bit refreshing. Now I am working my way through the loose sequel, Apocalypse of the Dead.

My Grade: A-

The TED

2011-05-05T12:16:00.007-04:00

Image via Wikipedia

Now that I've started the new job at Long Island University, I've been looking at a lot of things to focus my research on. Since I have the background in education, it makes a lot of sense to combine that background/interest with the library/information science area for some research. In doing some preliminary digging, I came across a video on changing educational thinking and methods which talks about "Flipping the Classroom" which was a presentation done at TED 2011. Now, I'll get to my thoughts on that particular presentation in a later post but I wanted to mention the TED videos.

First, what is TED? I'll just list the quote from their site.

TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences -- the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh UK each summer -- TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.

From that first video, I began watch the other videos there and they are pretty amazing in the variety and scope of ideas, the level at which they engage and think outside the box on numerous topics, many of which I can bring into my budding research on education and information literacy (or shall I call it 'trans-literacy').

In any event, I urge you to take a look at some of the presentations on there if nothing else than to challenge yourself with some new and fresh ideas whether you buy in to what they say or not.

What is peer-review?

2011-04-25T11:52:00.003-04:00

Image via WikipediaI present an article that talks about that very topic. I've spent the last couple of years teaching information literacy and one of the big topics I cover with the classes I am invited it to speak to, is about peer review. Why is that? Because students by-in-large do not know what it is and I've found that instructors expect them to know what it is or explain it in a way that still leaves them a little confused about it.

So read up! Does it cover everything you wanted/need to know about peer review?

Meet Science: What is "peer-review"?

The End and the Beginning

2011-04-15T10:26:00.008-04:00

Image via WikipediaCutting out the overly dramatic nonsense, I just wanted to get down my thoughts/feelings on the moving on from my first library job at Berkeley College.

My time there was great and I am very appreciative for the opportunity they gave me to come in, basically, straight out of library school. They gave me the latitude to grow and explore the profession all the while teaching me the ins and outs of day-to-day operation of a small library. The fact that it was a small library let me get a broad range look at a lot of areas of librarianship that may get lost in bigger institutions. When serving on search committees at Berkeley, that is an area that I tell interviewees is a big plus, at least for me it was.

The people there were great as well. They even threw a surprise going away lunch for me my last week which warmed my heart (and filled my belly). My boss, Jim, is a cool cat and he gave me the latitude to be me so to speak and share in the responsibilities of making that library work day in and day out.

So, goodbye Berkeley College. My time with you was invaluable time well spent. Best of luck and I will keep in touch.

Ed's Mini Book Review - Nightlife by Rob Thurman

2011-04-13T17:22:00.010-04:00

Cover of Nightlife (Cal Leandros, Book 1)Another recommendation review, and this one gave me the book to read too. Nightlife is the first book featuring Cal Leandros who is half human and half something else. Fitting quite easily into the ever growing pantheon of Dark Fantasy (Urban Fantasy or whatever you want to call it), Nightlife has all the trimmings of a classic entry into the genre. You've got your emo main character in Cal, short for Caliban, along with his kick-ass half brother Niko as well as a menagerie supporting cast ranging from a teen psychic (and possible love interest for Cal) to the comedic relief character of Longfellow.

So, what's not to like from this book? Well, actually, quite a bit. Reading this book made me appreciate and look more at, pacing in books. The pacing in this book was terrible. There seemed to be no movement in the big mystery of what was going on. We ended up with a lot of faux-witty banter between Cal and Niko and while that did show, in-depth, the level of their love for one another as brothers, it got very tedious. I felt like the book was trying too hard to be witty and funny instead of the humor and camaraderie naturally flow from the characters.

Those two major flaws had me struggling to finish the book and finding out the plan of the big bad is what kept me going to the end. I will probably, at some point, read the follow-up book because that was given to me as well but will be in no rush to read it.

My Grade: C-

Updates and Reading Lists.

2011-03-17T12:44:00.011-04:00

Image via WikipediaAs you can gather from my last post and some of my tweets, I will be leaving my post (haha, pun intended) at the small college library that gave me my start in the world of librarianship, to take a tenure-track job at the university where I earned my library degree. With no doubt I am excited about the new position and a little nervous, wanting to do well and prove that I belong and all that stuff.

I am also very appreciative to the college library that gave me that start and was so very helpful and nurturing in giving me the opportunity to develop my skills and allowing me the freedom to experiment and try new and exciting things. So off I go but not for another month or so, and going from one place to another will not mean that the blog will end (in case anyone was wondering).

I've also been keeping busy with the reading but I am behind on the reviews. I have started reviews on the second Sandman Slim book and the fourth Felix Castor book. In the hopper for me to finish reading:

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

Nightlife by Rob Thurman

Naming of the Beasts by Mike Carey

The Information by James Gleick

The King of Plagues by Jonathan Maberry

"Survivor's Guilt". Yeah, I'm Feeling It.

2011-03-16T18:02:00.005-04:00

Image via WikipediaI came across this article in The Chronicle of Higher Education about the guilt one can feel by finally landing that tenure track position while there are so many very qualified and capable people still looking for that break, or that chance, at landing TT position.

As you may or may not know, or seen my Tweet about it over in the column to the left, I landed a tenure track librarian position at the university where I completed my library degree, and while I am *very* excited about the position, I did feel some of that guilt which this article talks about. That may seem a bit silly, for it to take away a little from the excitement of landing the much coveted job, but I've seen first hand, and been part of it a bit when I started teaching, the disappointment, despair, and feelings of thinking you are not good enough or talented enough just because others haven't seen that worth in you enough to offer you a job. It can be a very tough thing to deal with when you *know* you have the goods but can't seem to get that validation in the form of a job offer.

So, it was good read this timely, for me at least, article and see that I'm not the only one out there feeling a little guilty at a little success/recognition. And I hope that guilt doesn't come across as a little condescending or insulting anyone still out there struggling.

Ed's Mini Book Review - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by P.K. Dick

2011-03-14T12:00:00.011-04:00

Image via WikipediaI remember seeing Blade Runner as a kid and being totally blown away by the visuals. The draw was quite simple, and I think it was the draw the studio was going after as well, Harrison Ford in a sci-fi movie, obviously shades of Star Wars. As a kid, I don't think I 'got' the movie. I liked the way it looked but felt it was a little dull. I wanted to see Han Solo kicking some tail and shooting up replicants but I didn't get the subtlety and subtext of the film though it did resonate with me on a level I wasn't sure what that level was. Deckerd was cool and little did I know that this was my first real look into that noirish hero archetype that I really dig now that I am all grown up (on some level).

After seeing it again years later, I started to get some of the things that were going on and missed as a kid and I started getting into the writings of P.K. Dick, first with the short stories and eventually making my way to Blade Runner or Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep as the novel is called.

A funny thing happened when I started reading the novel, I didn't like it. I stopped a few chapters in and there it sat in the back of my bookshelf for almost ten years. I guess I was looking for it to be more like the film and as I should have guessed seeing some of the adaptations of his short stories turned to movies, Hollywood changes a lot around (I am looking at you Minority Report). In this case though I thought the changes were for the better in the film. It was tight, had focus and Deckerd had that noir vibe that he didn't have in the book.

So, spent on zombie books, I looked around there was Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep staring back at me so I gave it another shot. Deckerd still had that everyman thing going on and not the cool cat thing Harrison Ford had but there was something in that everyman-ish quality that I was finding intriguing that I hadn't felt with him before. He wasn't the seasoned, polished Blade Runner that Ford had going in the movie, he was just a guy finding his way, waiting for the big break in his career that this situation, hunting down the replicants in place of the injured senior Blade Runner, could provide him. This Deckerd is concerned with mundane things like getting a new pet, hopefully a real one and not a android pet, that makes him relateable on that on that everyman-ish level.

Now, as I said before, the book is different from the film though the main premise is the same, Deckerd the bounty hunter, tracking down escaped replicants. How it goes down is very different but many of the themes stay intact though I will admit that I was a little bit disappointed that the famous Roy Baty speech that Rutger Hauer gives in the film wasn't in the book. To me, that speech made the film because it showed the human-ness of the replicants that is missing from the book.

Conflicted as I am and not doing a very good job of separating the film from the book, I do recommend the book but if you've seen the film, I am not sure there is anything you'd get from the book that you wouldn't get from the film.

My Grade: B+

Know Your Role!

2011-03-04T10:15:00.006-05:00

Some food for thought on this topic of emerging technology that I more recently have been thinking about.

I am still formulating my opinions on the issue but looking at everything I can get my hands on.

Take a look at the picture/chart (click to enlarge).

Can Colleges (& Libraries) Catch the Mobile Wave?»Seeing the picture

2011-03-03T15:47:00.004-05:00

Image by judy_breck via FlickrCan Colleges (& Libraries) Catch the Mobile Wave?»Seeing the picture

Timely piece for me as our librarians have been discussing mobile tech and our library. How can we keep up? How can we do it? Challenging issues to say the least.

The 'Library Committee' or To Be (Faculty) or Not To Be (Faculty)

2011-02-28T11:55:00.015-05:00

Image by tiarescott via FlickrEvery quarter here at my college, we have a faculty meeting which is run by faculty, for faculty, to raise issues or talk about concerns that we have all free from the eyes of administration. Of course, these concerns, or at least the ones deemed worthy enough, will be brought to administration to see if we can get them addressed in some way. I serve on our Library Committee as the secretary so I am the keeper of the info on the committee concerned with the info (if that makes any sense).

Now to go off on a little bit of a tangent, something that gathering at faculty meetings, of which the Library Committee meeting is a sub-division of, is the view of librarians as faculty. You see, that way things are done here at the small college I work at is that we have a Faculty Day which brings together all of the faculty to discuss our concerns/issues and meet on various committees such as the curriculum committee and the library committee. Now, all of these committees have a mix of faculty from all departments and it is pretty much up to the individual as to what committee they want to serve on. Very informal and haphazard as you can imagine.

So, to continue to make a short story long, our library committee has a lot of librarians in it but also a sprinkling of faculty. Now they raise issues and concerns about the library and usually will wax poetic on how they expound the virtues of the library in their classes which is all well and good. So I sit there as the secretary of the committee as the chronicler of what goes on and what gets brought up and I have a sort of out of body experience where I view the proceedings through a lens of clarity (yes, I need an out of body experience to have a moment of clarity) and I see the faculty at large the the librarians as two separate bodies as the faculty at large see them. I can tell this from not only the words but also the tone and tenor coming from the faculty.

Hey now, we're all in this together and all are faculty together but they don't see it that way. Maybe it's because we aren't in the classroom running classes or something but it all comes flooding to me in this moment of clearheadedness. I start to think of some other interactions I've had with faculty and they seem to think of us as support staff like to tutors in the writing center. And recently I read an article about some colleges and universities stripping librarians of faculty status and designating the position as a professional position.

So the questions that I pose are, firstly and probably most importantly, why are librarian given faculty status. Then secondly, why do many people, not just faculty members, not consider librarians to be a position that is deserving of faculty status or recognition? I have my ideas on the answers to those questions so I'll spill and let you decided if I am off the mark or not.

In an effort to confuse you, I'll tackle the second part first, and because I think that one is an easier one to explain. I think that most people out there (and here I go generalizing that will probably get me in trouble) don't really know what an academic librarian does and how it differs from other areas of librarianship that they may be more familiar with such as the public librarian. Moreover (I always liked that word), there have been many rapid changes in technology and the way information is produced, stored and disseminated, that the old models of what a librarian "is" are grossly outdated and even the new definitions become outdated rather quickly. So the disconnect in what we do and what we essentially are is a big concern for me going forward in my career.

Now, back to the first question which is decidedly trickier. One answer as to why librarians are given faculty status is to keep them as equals to the in-class faculty. If you are doing information literacy instruction, whether it be in one-shot sessions, workshop style sessions or teaching a for credit information literacy course, then there is an imperative to be acknowledged as a peer with the traditional teaching faculty at large. Moreover (there is that word again), if you are looked at to publish as a requirement of gaining tenure or promotion, then what is there that really separates you from the general teaching faculty aside from perception?

I could go on and on about this and I was having an excellent discussion about this with a colleague just this morning. You do not want to create a situation where you have the haves and the have-nots, and if librarians are going to fall under the same requirements as teaching faculty, they the rules have to be the same for both.

Time warping back to where this all began, with me sitting in a library committee meeting, let's bring this back to the beginning. Some faculty in the meeting see themselves as different than the librarians because they are in the classroom teaching every day and that is true, they are different. But, we are the same in that we are faculty and that recognition needs to take place. Faculty does not have just one definition just like there are different types of librarians such catalogers, ILL librarians, reference librarians etc, but we are all librarians. Just like that, in the academic sphere, we are all faculty.

Ed's Mini Book Review - Kill the Dead by Robert Kadrey

2011-02-09T11:42:00.014-05:00

Image by Rrrrred via FlickrKill the Dead is the second Sandman Slim book by Robert Kadrey which piqued my curiosity in the series after seeing it on a number of Top 10 lists for Urban Fantasy in 2010. I decided to read the first Sandman Slim book, cleverly titled Sandman Slim, though the review for Kill the Dead that I read said I didn't really need to read the first book and it seems like they were lying a bit.

Kill the Dead picks up shortly after the end of Sandman Slim and if you didn't read the first book, there would a lot that you would not get right away or just go right over your head. Kadrey does a good job of getting you up to speed but I think there would be a little lost if you hadn't read Sandman Slim. Kadrey also doesn't waste any time getting back into things with an action piece right off the top and let's face it, that's why you would read something like this anyway, for some hard nosed action. I also like that Kadrey has no problems going for the brass ring and bringing in the heavy hitters. What does that mean? Read the book and find out.

I've read too many books that are looking to drag things out for the sequel or to continue the series that it sometimes feels that things aren't progressing or going anywhere anytime soon. Not this series (of two so far). Kadrey keeps the action moving and, in a departure from the first, the development of Stark (Sandman Slim) beyond the sociopath bent on revenge to....something else. He was fairly one dimensional in the first book but here, in amongst the action pieces, we get some growth with Stark that added a change a pace as the one tune Stark gets stale after a while.

I highly recommend the Sandman Slim books if you're into that sort of thing, fast paced action of the urban fantasy variety. I can't wait for book three!

My Grade: A

Ed's Mini Book Review - Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey

2011-02-03T17:09:00.012-05:00

Image by Chorazin via FlickrA few weeks ago, I catch this list of the top Urban Fantasy Books of 2010 on Geeks of Doom, and numero uno on the list is the second Sandman Slim book, Kill the Dead. So, if I'm going to check out the what they say is the number one book, then I should read book one of the series.

My impression was that Sandman Slim it a bit of a rip-off. He's Harry Dresden meets Joe Pitt. He's the guy who can wield some pretty bad mojo but unlike Dresden, he doesn't care who is in the way or who he has to go through to get what he needs. Before I go any further, here's the set-up. Stark (Sandman Slim) used to run with some bad boys who could all toss around some magic. Stark has potential but he's too busy playing the bad boy type, pissing everybody off, including some in his circle of magic users. So one day, they turn on him and banish him to hell where he spends the next eleven years enduring all types of torture and developing the rep of a demon killer from fighting in the arena and surviving, thus earning the nickname, Sandman Slim.

After escaping from the heat locker downstairs, Stark goes all out to get those that sent him there with, as I mentioned above, little regard for who or what gets in his way. Now, I've had some message board discussions with others that read Sandman Slim and Stark's one tone act turned them off. There was really no growth or change to the character and he spent basically all of the book being a bad ass with the fight first as ask questions later mentality. And those people were right about Stark....but damn if it wasn't a fun ride along with him.

For me, this was a fun little book. At times I thought, this is what Harry Dresden could do if he ever went off the deep end. Action galore, snappy dialog, and too-cool characters pepper Sandman Slim like Manny used to on the Green Monster. If action fiction with a little bit of supernatural is your thing, I recommend Sandman Slim. Plus, it gets you closer to Kill the Dead, which you don't need the this book necessarily to read, but it helps out.

My Grade: B+

RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms

2011-01-31T20:41:00.001-05:00

Some spot on ideas here and some that I have been talking about for years. I guess I just needed to be able to draw.

Ed's Mini Book Review - The Book of Fate by Brad Meltzer

2011-01-31T09:04:00.019-05:00

TheImage by cdrummbks via FlickrSo the trick worked on me. I saw a few episodes of Brad Meltzer's Decoded on TV ( I want to say the History Channel but I'm not 100%), and that got me to buy one of his books to see what he's about, writing-wise and such. I'm sure that was a goal of his with the show, if you like the show, go buy some of his books.

Going in to reading this, I couldn't help shake the obvious Dan Brown comparisons, especially after The Lost Symbol, Brown's long awaited pseudo-sequel to The Da Vinci Code featuring the return of the much beloved Robert Langdon. The Book of Fate promises much of the same as The Lost Symbol, secrets, symbols and the Freemasons.

Yeah, it's pretty much a cheap knock-off. I don't think I would have minded it that much if it actually had at least a little of the Freemason mystique going for it. It really was a let down from that stand point. The real mystery of the book is the mystery of any mystery book, who's in on it. Not much on the masons or the titular Book of Fate. It was just your standard thriller. Below standard if you expect, as the book is billed as, a mason mystery. I will give it this, the writing and the pacing is pretty popcorn like a Dan Brown book. That is the say it moves well and can be easily digestible by the masses. That may get me to give Meltzer another chance with another book but if that is more of the same, then I'll drop his books all together.

My Grade: C-

Information is Social: Information Literacy in Context

2011-01-25T10:55:00.001-05:00

Interesting food for thought. Let me think on this a bit more and I'll have some comment on it.

LL

Information is Social: Information Literacy in Context

View more presentations from jhoyer.

Ed's Mini Book Review - Thicker Than Water by Mike Carey

2011-01-10T12:55:00.012-05:00

Thicker Than Water is book four of the Felix Castor series by current X-Men scribe Mike Carey. Castor is a British exorcist, making his lining in modern day London and gaining a bit of a rep. As with many fictitious gumshoe characters, he's got his detractors with the local police as well as three books worth of enemies built up.

This latest outing has Castor in a bit of a 'fix' as he is called to a scene by to police to explain why 'F. Castor' is written in blood at a crime scene. Back are some old police friends that are not too keen on Mr. Castor and are looking to send him up the river on this one so Felix is against the clock a bit to solve the mystery before the cops get enough proverbial rope to hang Felix. Sprinkle in a generous portion of Rafi, Felix's best chum who happens to be possessed by a major demon, and Juliet, a demon in her own right trying to live among the humans and you get that supernatural ensemble cast that is such a staple of the Urban Fantasy genre.

I think that the series keeps getting better. I wasn't sold after the first book and picked up the second because I was short on reads but I am so glad I did. The biggest improvement for me in the series is the pacing which was like molasses in the first book and now moves at a good clip for a series which averages over 400 pages an installment.

Solid from beginning to end, Thicker Than Water, gets a thumbs up from the LL.

My Grade: B

Tragedy in Arizona

2011-01-10T12:44:00.003-05:00

Image by moultriecreek via FlickrThoughts and prayers to those affected by the shooting in Arizona.

I was glued to the T.V. for the better part of Saturday, wishing everything would turn out right.

From this incident, there has been a lot of talk about the political rhetoric in the U.S. and it's increasing violence and negativity. It seems that this guy was targeting Rep. Giffords for political reasons and while this may or may not be the case, at least the topic of the degeneration of American political discourse is coming to the forefront. Think. Debate. Be Nice. Doesn't seem to hard, does it?

LL

Happy Holidays!

2011-01-01T13:50:00.004-05:00

Image by [ Mooi ] via FlickrHappy Holidays out there!

Going to focus more on writing this upcoming year (then again I said that last year. Baby steps).

I am also putting together the reading list for this upcoming winter season and an article on LibGuides (finally!).

Hope you had a safe and happy holiday season.

Now, gearing up to get back to work for 2011.

LL

Ed's Mini Book Review - Death Troopers by Joe Schrieber

2010-12-09T17:50:00.004-05:00

Image by bbska via FlickrZombies in space? Oh yeah.

Zombies in the Star Wars universe? OMFG!!!!

That's right ladies and gents, a nerdly mash-up of epic proportions is what Death Troopers promises and, for the most part, it does deliver.

All aboard on a prison barge. What? You didn't say anything about prison. Yessiree Bob, and we get a prison ship, oh, and a surprise appearance of two *very* well known characters from the Star Wars universe but I won't spoil it.

The basic plot goes a little something like this. We have two brothers, wrongly accused they say, on a huge prison ship with all sorts of really dangerous criminals and the Imperial medic on board who is having second thoughts about working for the Imperial Army as your main characters. The engines on the ship go out but (un)luckily for them, they happen to come across a Star Destroyer which seems abandoned (i.e. no life forms the scanners can pick up). And I am sure you have guessed why, the zombie virus has spread through the Star Destroyer so when they dock up, zombie mayhem, Star Wars style, ensues.

This was a pretty fun book for the most part, hitting most of the notes you would expect from a zombie book. It was so generic that it was fairly bland considering it should have been so much more being set in the Star Wars universe. Paint by numbers comes to mind with this book and while that's not bad, it isn't quite great either. I enjoyed it, fairly quick pace once it got going, but I couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing or that there should have been more to it.

If you're curious about the mash-up here by all means check it out. I don't think you'll regret it, I just think that you won't be wowed by it either.

My Grade: B-

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Ed's Mini Book Review - Goldfinger by Ian Fleming

2010-12-08T18:00:00.010-05:00

Image via WikipediaMaking my way through the James Bond novels, which I am sure I don't have to tell you but they don't follow the same order as the films, Goldfinger is the seventh book in the series. One of the challenging things to do with reading a book that you've seen the movie version is to separate the two, especially if the movie in question is a classic which is the case with Goldfinger, widely held to be among, if not the, best James Bond film. I always picture Goldfinger as Gert Froebe instead of how he is depicted in the book but I would imagine many people fall to this no matter what book they are reading after seeing the film first.

Getting right down to it, this was one of the better Bond books but not the best that I have read. A part of me thinks that this particular Bond book ended up on the top 100 Thrillers list probably because the film version is held in high regard. Some of the things I really liked were the connections to other books which is something most of the Bond films don't do, refer to past films. Fleming keeps his Bond history in tact and the book series, unlike the film series until the most recent two, build the Bond character and we see him grow and progress in the role or in the life of a secret agent.

As for the 'thriller' part of the book and maybe my expectation from the NPR list, Goldfinger falls a little flat. I found it a little lacking in by the seat of your pants suspense and falls into the trap of just keeping us going to see how Bond is going to get out of this next seemingly inescapable dilemma. Still, some good old action sequences and some typical Bond drinks and meals and this all feels like a good Bond book, which it is but not to the level I was expecting.

My Grade: B

LL

Ed's Mini Book Review - Feed by Mira Grant

2010-11-16T14:43:00.007-05:00

Zombies, zombies, zombies, nomnomnom! Zombies are in the air and the monster du jour nowadays especially with the success of The Walking Dead TV show on AMC. With that in mind, and my lover for zombie fiction, we add another to growing litany of zombie books. This time out, the highly rated, Feed by Mira Grant. I plucked this little diddy from NPR's list of top 100 Thrillers and, I think, it was the most recently written book on the list.

The setup is a little different than many zombie books but a little reminiscent of World War Z. Set about thirty years in the future, after a zombie outbreak, the world is recovering and has found a new normal. Zombies exist and are a way of life and some parts of the country have been overrun and lost the the zombie hordes. Most of the country is safe however and life goes on. So does technology and the news. Major news outlets have lost much of their credibility due to their reluctance to report on the outlandish concept of a zombie outbreak when it all started. Emerging from this and greatly enhanced by advances in technology, are the freelance reporters that strap on cameras, report and write the news themselves and count the hits (or ratings) their sites get.

From this, the plot begins where we find a brother and sister team, along with their friend. Tackle the news from three distinct angles. Their lives changed when they are tapped to follow and report from the campaign trail of a presidential hopeful. But, strange things are afoot at the Circle K. They begin to uncover a fiendish plot and soon find themselves becoming part of the story instead of just reporting on it.

From this you can see the double meaning of Feed as a title. The zombie world is more of a back drop and this book is really a commentary on news and the media and politics and corruption than it is a zombie book. Initially, that was one of my gripes as well. I was all like "Where are the zombies?". But it's not that type of book. This is more of a political thriller and for that it works just fine.

It's a little long and drags a bit but there is a good shock/twist near the end that works well unlike the reveal of who/what is behind the goings on with the conspiracy. Overall, a solid read but not as great as I would have hoped being on NPR's list and all. There will be a sequel and I'll probably give that a read too so this one did the trick on that end and will get my to pick up the next installment.

My Grade: B-

Ed's Mini Book Review - Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton

2010-11-09T09:01:00.009-05:00

Cover of Pirate Latitudes: A NovelMy second recommended book is Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton. This one is one that a friend of mine was thinking pf picking up and suggested it to me to read/review. Incidentally enough, this is my first Crichton book, though I had The Andromeda Strain on my read pile before this suggestion came about. I'll probably get onto that one after the holidays.

For the most part, I didn't like this book. Maybe because I was picturing the characters from Pirates of the Caribbean all through the book but probably not. Perhaps knowing that this was found after Michael Crichton passed, but it did feel like a book that wasn't quite finished, wasn't quite polished enough especially for a writer of Crichton's stature. I was expecting a rollicking adventure to do the impossible against the most vile of villains. Swarthy characters and exotic scenery filled my mind as I readied the book and early on, the build up promised that as well. Arrr, talking like a pirate I was, preppin' for pirate booty and adventure on the high seas. Unfortunately, we don't really get it. What we get is really a travel story, the high seas part, more to do with the time to get to the objective and the time to get back. The characters are stale and fairly one dimensional. No real plot twists of note. Just downright flat. Oh, and just for good measure, let's throw in a sea monster. A what?!? Yeah, I was thinking the same thing too.

The main plus for the book is that it is a fairly quick read so the curious type my want to give it a whirl. I recommend you pass.

My Grade: C-

NYLA Conference 2010

2010-11-08T08:16:00.009-05:00

Image via WikipediaHi ho out there. Is it snowing? Eh, in any event, I just got back from the annual New York Library Association conference in Saratoga Springs and wanted to say a few things about this years' outing.

First , I'll get the shameless self promotion out of the way. I took part in the SMART division of NYLA session called Flash Talks. They put out for a call for people to do presentations on fun and exciting ways their library is using technology. Catch is that the presentation has to be in the 20x20 PechaKucha style which is 20 PowerPoint slides all set to 20 seconds each as to keep the presentations moving. I decided to give it a try and settled on the idea of doing a presentation on audience response devices (iClickers).

After the first presentation, which was a combo presentation award that someone won, which was on hardcore cataloging, creating a script to batch load multiple records for weeding and some other stuff that went way over my head, and hearing that a presentation after me was going to be on cloud computing, I started to get nervous that talking about iClickers was going to be a little low-tech for this crowd, of which I knew no one. Well, the presentation went well with some well timed jokes thrown in to lighten the mood, and from then on I was known as 'the clicker guy'. The crowd ended up being a mix of tech people and some instruction people interested in tech and they were able to relate to some of the points I raised with using the clickers to keep students into the lesson especially in one-shot sessions that we do here. I even got some people asking me for more information about the clickers after the session. And on top, someone raised the idea of me doing a full session on iClickers at next years' conference. (And thanks to those that helped me out with this)

A big thought that I came away from the conference with was that there were more than a few sessions that I went to where I thought either, any of us could have run that session I was just in and some of the sessions were just on how that library tackled a particular issue instead of, what I was expecting, a review of multiple ways that issue could be addressed. For instance, I went to a session on library programming on a budget. What the presenter did was really focus on how they ran a program there on a budget and not on multiple ways or programs that could be done on a budget. Maybe that was just my preconceived expectations getting in the way.

A big draw for me for this years' conference was that Michael Stevens, who I follow on Twitter (and more about that in a bit) was doing a double-session entitled The Hyperlinked Library. I'll link to the slides from his presentation but I will point out that it's a large file, something like 400 slides, but well worth going through. Instead of pigeonholing a 400+ slide presentation into a few sentences, I'll let you check it out and see what you take from it. I highly recommend you do so even if it takes a while. It was my favorite session of the conference. Visit Tame the Web for the presentation.

Throughout the conference I was Tweeting using the #NYLA10 hashtag so those not at the conference could follow, and I gained a few followers from that, including Michael Stevens who put up a screenshot of the NYLA follow screen during his session. Ah, the power of the Tweet.

Some other random thoughts:

there was a session on embedded librarians and how one small college decided to change their library orientation sessions to online videos using Camtasia and I thought, wow, that sounds familiar.
EBSCO has a new service called EBSCO Discovery Service or EBSCO Integrated Search which is similar to products like Summon.
For emerging tech trends check out Gartner's top 10 tech trends for 2011
Firesheep is a Firefox add-on that steals cookies over wi-fi
Search Flickr for awesome and horrible library signage
Cloud computing is the next big thing (or it might be the big thing already.

That's all for now. If I remember more or find more notes, I'll update.

Ed's Mini Book Review - Dead Men's Boots

2010-11-02T08:12:00.011-04:00

The third Felix Castor outing, Dead Men's Boots, keeps the momentum going on the series of which I was, quite honestly, ready to drop after the first book, The Devil You Know. Felix 'Fix' Castor is an exorcist who uses music, and more specifically a tin whistle, to perform his exorcisms and as we have learned through the series thus far, every exorcist has there "thing" when it comes to doing what they do. This is an important point which I will get too in just a bit.

The basic plot goes like this, Felix is tabbed by a friend of his to explore the death of her husband who was a fellow exorcist. She thinks things that strange things are afoot at the Circle K, and of course, they are. One thing that bothers me a smidge about this series is that plot lines always seem to be linked no matter how far removed them may seem. For instance, during the mess with his looking into the death of a fellow exorcist, he takes a case, and guess what? It's linked to his dead friend, who by chance also used music to bind and dismiss spirits, a drum which makes things convenient for Felix.

That being said, I liked the book even though, as typical with the series, it goes on for a little too long. There is enough action and enough of an intriguing mystery, to keep you interested, and in my case, wanting to see how the various story lines inevitably come into one. Add to it that Felix Castor is just one cool bloke. I still am at a bit of a loss that he hasn't become more of a cult character in the genre like Harry Dresden or Joe Pitt.

When I was done with this book, I was very much looking forward to the next Felix Castor outing, which to me, is in it's most basic form, a major component in liking a book.

My Grade: B

Fall Reading List

2010-10-14T10:47:00.014-04:00

Image via WikipediaHello bibliophiles! Time to update my reading list for the Fall. I have been slacking on the updating but not on the reading. On tap will be to finish reviews for the last three books I've read (coming shortly) and a word on LibGuides and attending professional development events. So for now, on to the reading list.

Dead Men's Boots by Mike Carey
Feed by Mira Grant

Goldfinger by Ian Fleming
The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
Side Jobs by Jim Butcher
Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (if the professor ever returns it to the library)

Lamb by Christopher Moore (requested)

The Game by Neil Strauss (requested)

Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton (requested)

I am sure I will add/update some titles.

Ed's Mini Book Review - Dexter by Design

2010-10-12T13:18:00.013-04:00

Image via Wikipedia

Now this is what I am talking about! talk about getting back on track and in a big way. Dexter by Design does not disappoint......son! After the last installment, I was starting to wonder if Dearly Doting Dexter was going to grow into a bore. All that nonsense with the Dark Passenger going on a little hiatus took a lot out of our Dashing Debonaire Dexter and left him rather lacking.

This time out, we have Dear ol' Dex and his new bride, Rita honeymooning in gay Paris with Dexter starting to settle into married life. Upon returning to Miami, Dexter is called on to a case of dead bodies being left out in public in very strange art poses and decorations. Immediately, Dexter feels a little stirrings from the Dark Passanger and away we go, Dexter's interest is piqued and we have ourselves a case.

Along the way we get some more development into Deb and Chutsky and their relationship as well as some more with Rita's kids, Astor and Cody, whose own storyline and development is quickly becoming a favorite of mine in the series. This installment also brings back a key aspect of what was missing in the last book, Dexter doing things and figuring things. Part of what makes Dexter work is what he is, in the situation he's in. He's a killer, a predator, a thing with no soul (according to him though feel free to disagree) and having him put into the middle of police work, as the son of a respected police officer, with a sister who is an officer and the coup de gras, that he is a crime scene expert, puts him in the unique position to not only comment on the gruesome scenes he's called to, but to add some insight from that dark perspective.

My biggest gripe with the books is that it seems to lose a little focus towards the end, taking us on a ride that seems pointless and more like wasting time, and pages, until the pay-off. That aside, this is a solid entry, and good comeback from the last outing, into the Dexter series.

My Grade: B

Ed's Mini Book Review - A Dangerous Man

2010-10-08T15:53:00.015-04:00

Cover of A Dangerous Man: A NovelA Dangerous Man is the third and final book of Charlie Huston's Henry Thompson trilogy. To make a short story long, Henry Thompson starts out the trilogy as a former baseball prospect who doesn't make it to the bigs because of a broken leg. He then finds himself involved with Russian mobsters, crooked cops and notorious bank robbers who all claim he is in possession of something he has no clue about. The first book resolves those issues while the second book has him on the run and brings up new issues which all come to a head here, in the final installment.

Henry, through events I don't want to spoil in case you'd like to read the trilogy, is now a leg breaker for a Russian mobster. He's not happy with how things have turned out and looking to pills to dull life for him. That's until his boss tells him to watch over a young hot-shot baseball prospect with a wicked gambling habit. Oh, and did I mention this prospect was drafted by the Mets which brings Henry back to NYC, where his troubles all started?

I just eat this crime stuff up and Charlie Huston is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors but this installment felt a little flat to me. What makes me like Henry Thompson, that he is flawed and makes shaky decisions, wore on me as the series, and this book, went on. How long can he go with making the bad move and not have something planned out that goes a little right? I was also a little disappointed that some issues from the first book weren't addressed as he does end up back in New York after all. I am not sure of the planning of the series, but it seemed that the first book was written, originally, as a stand alone and the this book feels more like a sequel to the second book. Good stuff here but not great stuff.

My Grade: B-

Ed's Mini Book Review - The Murder or Roger Ackroyd

2010-10-04T08:07:00.010-04:00

Image via Wikipedia
The second Agatha Christie book, and first Hercule Poirot book for me is this highly rated, but not well known, thriller with a twist that will rattle your knickers. This one had it all from red herrings to dubious characters to head scratching clues that don't seem to add up (to me anyway).

Now the setup is a little convoluted but it's worth it. Roger Ackroyd is a wealthy widower who has a step-son who burns money a little too quickly. Roger is also taking up a relationship with a widow who has just killed herself but not before leaving a letter to Roger. The narrator of the story is the town's doctor and good friend of Roger Ackroyd and before he can discuss the substance of the letter with his good friend the doctor, Roger is murdered and the letter mysteriously vanishes. Enter Hercule Poirot, who has recently retired and moved to town, next door to the good doctor no less, to take the case and conscript the doctor as his assistant.

Since this is my first Poirot novel, it was interesting to read him on the page as Christie wrote him as opposed to the versions of him that I have seen on screen by Albert Finney in Murder on the Orient Express and by Peter Ustinov in Evil Under the Sun, and now I am very curious to see how he is portrayed by David Suchet (pictured above) on the BBC series. I found him to be more like the Ustinov version and not like the quirky Finney version though I have heard in many of the books he is more like the oddball Finney version. Eh, you see for yourself and that I suggest you do. I don't want to give away any more of the book as I encourage you to read you some Christie. I totally, in a non valley girl way, loved this book. The twists, turns, false leads, and second guesses, all of it had my hooked. Much like my feelings on And Then There Were None, this is what a good old fashioned mystery novel should be.

My Grade: A

Fall is Here! (It's getting colder, why am I all excited?)

2010-09-27T11:14:00.005-04:00

Image via WikipediaHappy Fall...er, Autumn everyone. Not that I am wishing a fall on your part just that the seasons are changing ya know and...eh, fugeddabout it.

Anywho's, I am back after some vacation time which was spent relaxing at home with my better half and recharging the old LL batteries for the cold weather ahead, and if you know anything about yours truly, you know I can't stand cold weather. Hopefully that also means getting some more reading done and some more posts about librarian-stuff. I have a couple of reviews to post for The Murder of Roger Ackrody and the last book in Charlie Huston's Henry Thompson trilogy, A Dangerous Man. I also plan on chiming in with my two cents on LibGuides since we just went live with them here at our little ol' college library.

So fun things ahead, at least I think they're fun, especially my Fall Reading List which I'll post shortly. So sit back, enjoy the leaves changing color and some good fall reads....I command you!

LL

Happy Anniversary!

2010-08-31T18:28:00.004-04:00

Image via WikipediaWow, a year has gone by fast in the world of the Lanky Librarian. Can't believe it's been a year already since I started this crazy thing.

Anyway, happy reading and hope for more years to come!

Ed's Mini Book Review - And Then There Were None

2010-08-27T09:03:00.013-04:00

Cover of And Then There Were NoneContinuing on my little kick of reading some of the Thrillers listed on NPR's top thrillers of all-time, I decided to give an Agatha Christie book a run and the highest rated of her works on the list was And Then There Were None (though I have heard that The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is rather highly rated, but not as well known). Now I think I was supposed to read this in High School but like many high school students, I didn't really read it and just skimmed what I needed to to pass (Hey, I'm being honest!).

Boy, I am glad I gave this a try all these years later. This is what I was expecting with The Hound of the Baskervilles. A tight, suspenseful whodunnit that doesn't disappoint. The set-up is something that I think most people are familiar with as it has been copied, spoofed and ripped-off for decades. We have ten people, all called to a remote island with differing letters, expecting something far from what they find. Soon after they arrive, they are called to dinner where a record plays, accusing each and every one of them of murder. Placed in each of their rooms is a variation of the nursery rhyme, Ten Little Indians and in the living room is a chess board with ten pieces on it. As our story progresses and the ten start to die off in ways depicted in the rhyme, pieces are removed from the chess board. Who has called them to the island and is he or she amongst them?

I think you can probably guessed that I loved this book. I was a bit worried that it would seem dated being written over seventy years ago but that was not the case at all, adding to the genius of the work. It keeps you guessing all the way through and just when you thought you know who is behind it all, they meet an untimely end and you have to start from square one again. I am being as cryptic as possible because I don't want to give any hints or give anything away. Just go out and pick up a copy from your local library. You'll that me for it.

My Grade: A+

Ed's Mini Book Review - The Hound of the Baskervilles

2010-08-23T11:31:00.011-04:00

I posted a few weeks ago a list of the Top Thrillers of all time according to NRP, so that got me looking up and down the list to see which ones I have read. The verdict was, not that many. So I decided to knock a couple off that list and start with some classic Sherlock Holmes and The Hound of the Baskervilles.

I've never read any of the Holmes mysteries before and after giving it a start, I remembered reading somewhere that the mysteries are told from the perspective of Dr. Watson, Holmes' sidekick/companion. Add to this my envisioning of the character as they looked in the recent Guy Ritchie adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, and I have a very rich setting in my mind of Jude Law as the primary and Iron Man himself, RDJ as Sherlock Homes.

On to this mystery and it pains me to say, that I was rather disappointed. Now I am getting that feeling as I did with Neuromancer about reviewing a classic but hear me out on this one. First of all, I loved the atmosphere of the book, with the creepy old Baskerville Hall and the seemingy haunted bog. That really took me in and kept my interest.

What bothered me most about the book was the lack of mystery. Holmes has it solved with a quarter of the book left. The rest is the laying of the trap and the explianation of how he solved it. I was expecting something a little more climactic or another plot twist that never came. Maybe I was expecting a tale with more complexity, fed by my generation growing up with mysteries trying 'out twist' the next and didn't enjoy the weaving of the yarn so to speak. The bottom line, however, is that I was a bit underwhelmed.

My Grade: C+

LL

Late Summer Reading List

2010-08-20T08:18:00.006-04:00

Image by cmcgough via FlickrHi ho library nerds. I have been able to get a good amount of reading done this Summer and have updated my reading list a few times.

So, instead of updating that one over and over again, I will add a new list (even though the summer is almost over), so here goes.

Dead Men's Boots by Mike Carey

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Lamb by Christopher Moore (another requested read).

Ed's Mini Book Review - Monster Island

2010-08-13T08:13:00.008-04:00

Image via WikipediaMonster Island is the second book I've read from David Wellington, the first being 13 Bullets. This one had me back in to the zombie book realm which has been a while for me. Basic premise is that of a lot of zombie books, outbreak has ravaged the world and zombies have taken over most places. The first twist we get here to the basic zombie paradigm is that we have our group of heroes purposefully journey to an area that they know is overrun in order to procure some medical supples. That place that is overrun is none other than Manhattan.

This piqued my interest right away because many zombie books don't deal with the big city. They instead focus on the person living in a small town or in the sticks so to speak because that's easy. It's easy to have a survivor from a place where there aren't that many people around to turn into zombies or an area where getting to an isolated or relatively safe location is feasible. This book, sadly, skips that but we do get Manhattan after the outbreak and see what's left.

The next major twist in the rote zombie paradigm is with the character of Gary and how he progresses/comes to understand what happened to make the dead rise. Gary is a med student who throws his lot in with the superior numbers, the zombies. Wait, what? How does he do that, you say? That I will leave alone in case you decide to read the book, but in any event this goes along to explain what is happening. For my tastes, while appreciate it being a little different from the typical zombie fare, I wasn't a big fan of the revelation. Reminded me a bit of The Rising by Brian Keene, but it's not exactly like that explanation, and if you've followed my reviews, you know I wasn't a fan of that book.

To sum this bad boy up, Monster Island is an overall solid addition to the zombie genre. A little less of a survival horror book and a bit more into the 'whys' of what has caused the outbreak, though I am not sure the reasons given by certain dubious characters are the correct ones. Certainly entertaining but nothing groundbreaking. Enough to get me to read the next book in the trilogy, Monster Nation.

My Grade: B-

Top 100 Thrillers of All Time

2010-08-04T19:01:00.002-04:00

Image by istolethetv via Flickr

Sadly I have only read six of the top 100. I need to get crackin' on this.

Top 100 Thrillers: NPR

Students Plagiarize? Mercy Me!

2010-08-02T15:08:00.004-04:00

Image via Wikipedia

From way back in my teaching days, students really didn't get this whole plagiarism thing. Well, now comes this article form the New York Times basically saying as much adding in some theories on this as well. Take a gander.

Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age

Brad Pitt to Star in Big Screen Adaptation of World War Z

2010-07-30T09:15:00.006-04:00

Cover via Amazon

The zombie book as far as I am concerned, is coming the the big screen. Max Brooks' World War Z, inspired by both George Romero and Studs Turkel, will star Brad Pitt, when it swarms a theater near you.

For those unfamiliar, WWZ, is the journal of an unnamed man charged by the U.N. with telling the story of the 10 year long battle against a virus/disease which causes the dead to rise. After the writer is told that the U.N. is only concerned with statistics, he puts together this journal, full of the first hand stories of those that witnessed and survived the pandemic.

Even if you are not a fan of horror, and this is not a horror book per se, in my opinion, this is a must read as it is really on commentary on modern life and society and how a global disaster makes these seemingly obvious observations, come into focus.

Ed's Mini Book Review - Day by Day Armageddon: Beyond Exile

2010-07-26T10:57:00.009-04:00

Cover of Day by Day Armageddon

The first Day by Day Armageddon book put an interesting spin on the zombie/survival horror motif, a journal of the events of a zombie pandemic. Our unnamed survivor is a soldier who, when the pandemic hits, decides it's better to hunker down in his place rather that report back to base. A wise choice for him, at least for now, as the base soon is overrun and he is hidden quite well in his survivalist house near San Antonio.

Eventually he must leave his home and he meets up with other survivors, all who eventually end up holed up in a fairly secure place. The first book ends rather abruptly and that leaves you with the feeling that either the book is over or something happened to our protagonist that leaves him unable to continue writing.

Fear not for our intrepid hero, the sequel picks up his journal from whence it left off. This time around we have our survivors dealing with a military unit of uncertain intentions, irradiated undead stemming from cities that were nuked by the government in an attempted to stop the spread of the living dead, and eventually being stranded away from his secure base which he must make his way back to.

My problem with this go around is that the writing seems to go back and forth from prose to journal writing. His description of accounts is good, but a little too good for someone writing in a journal. It seems as there were just major plot points or incidents that Bourne wanted to get to in the book and what was lost from the first outing is that 'Day-by-Day' feel of the journal. My only other major gripe is, again, the ending which is in league with how the first one ended.

A quick read, I devoured it in no time at all, and a solid read for fans of the genre. Just don't go in expecting the freshness (is that a word?) of the first book.

My Grade: B

Ed's Mini Book Review - The Road

2010-07-21T18:25:00.010-04:00

Image via Wikipedia

The Road is my first review upon request. A friend of mine asked me to read and review it so I thought I'd give it a shot and not see the movie first. Coincidentally, a fellow librarian saw the film and Tweeted that it was one of the most depressing films he'd ever seen, so I tried to keep that sentiment out of mind while I read the book.

The first thing that struck me about The Road, was that it was a lot like much of the zombie books I read. They are all essentially survival books, or as many call it in the zombie fiction world, survival horror. At the essence of survival horror is that there is some sort of global phenomenon and wipes out much of the world's population and we follow along survivors who try to make due in a lawless land with the original phenomena, and the horrors it brings, hanging overhead. Though we quickly find out, in most of these books, that the original threat is not the biggest threat out there, and that threat is other survivors.

With The Road, we follow along an unnamed man and his young son, after some unnamed global catastrophe, as they make their way along the road, heading toward the sea in hopes of finding....something. The global disaster happened some years ago and resources are scarce so many of the surviving humans have resorted to some horrible acts to stay alive. The unnamed father continues to hold on to his morals and teaches his son to be one of the "good-guys" in this mad world as he also tries to protect his young child from the horrors that men do.

Filled with sub textual religious overtones, The Road paints a bleak picture of a world without order and a world in which people will do almost anything to survive. Haunting in parts but ultimately uplifting (in my opinion) without going for the "Hollywood ending", I can see why The Road is a multi-award winning work of fiction. I particularly liked that while it seemed that there wasn't much action happening as they traveled along the road, a lot was happening, if you catch my drift.

The Road is a quick read and a good read. I am interested to hear other opinions on the book. Did you find it depressing or ultimately positive as I did?

My Grade: A-

Ed's Mini Book Review - Neuromancer

2010-07-20T11:07:00.019-04:00

Image via Wikipedia

Reviewing a classic can be a tricky proposition. If you agree with the general consensus, that the book is a bona fide classic, then you might seem like a band wagoner, just agreeing with the masses. If you don't agree with everyone else, you may not look like you are your own person with your own views, you may just seem like someone who doesn't know what they are talking about or doesn't know a great book when you read it.

So, where do I fit in with Neuromancer? I am on the side that would consider it a classic. My enthusiasm and zest is tempered a bit by reading it so many years after it was written. In the almost thirty years since it was originally published, let's face it, it has been ripped off a lot. Though, as an aside, I wouldn't consider the Keanu Reeves film, Johnny Mneumonic, a rip off since William Gibson wrote that, but I think you get the picture. From role playing games like Shadowrun, which I used to play, and the inevitable video game and novels that the RPG spawned, to films like The Matrix, which borrow heavily from Neuromancer. The ground breaking ideas, visuals and funky lingo that was used in Neuromancer, and was so fresh and new, has been all seen and heard.

All that being said, does it take away from the experience of reading Neuromancer for the first time? A little but not much. This is a book that is a visionary piece of work, not from the whole genre that spawned from it, but from a literary aspect in that is leaves indelible visuals imprinted in your mind as you read the description of Gibson's dystopian future. I also love that it is written as if the reader is familiar with this world, with the lingo, the places and its history. Because of this, the book can be difficult to follow at points and you may have to re-read some sections over to follow. Only as you delve further into the book, do you delve further into Gibson's world and you peel away the layers of this future and come to some understanding of it.

So, for those not familiar with (and I've held off using the word for as long as I could) Cyberpunk, think The Matrix meets Blade Runner. So jack in and go for an exciting ride. It's not always a smooth one but one well worth taking.

My Grade: A

Summer Reading List

2010-07-13T09:51:00.007-04:00

Image by ruminatrix via Flickr

Not sure how much reading I'll get done over the summer but here is what I have on tap so far.

Neuromancer by William Gibson

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Dexter By Design by Jeff Lindsay

Day by Day Armageddon: Beyond Exile by J.L. Bourne
Monster Island by David Wellington
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Edit: I keep adding new titles. Just added Catcher as I am determined to finish it this time.

Ed's Mini Book Review - Dexter in the Dark

2010-07-11T12:59:00.010-04:00

Image via Wikipedia

Next up is the third book featuring one of todays' favorite anti-heroes, Dexter Morgan. Now, I've been debating whether to consider Dexter a 'hero' because, well, you know, he is a serial killer. Especially now that I've started watching the TV show, just finished the first season, and the final scene of the first season really struck me with Dexter seeing himself as a hero of sorts. Maybe I'll delve more into the hero notion later before I get too sidetracked.

This go around we have Dexter looking into ritual killings that has his homicidal inner voice, the Dark Passenger as he calls it, spooked. So much so that the Dark Passenger disappears, which is a first for Dear Ol' Dexter and that has him, as you would guess, a bit perturbed. Add in his pending wedding to Rita and the 'blossoming' of her two children and our Dexter has his plate full, though not full in the way he (or the readers) would like it.

This installment read rather flat to me, with Dexter being more or less led around and not doing a whole hell of a lot with regard to the ritual killing case. I found the stuff with the kids and his dealing with the wedding more interesting. What? Yeah, I know. More kids and less ritual killing? Yes, please. The Dexter we all know and love is sharp, witty, and on top of things. Being without the Dark Passenger threw him into a funk that just didn't work for me.

My Grade: C+

Summer Schedule

2010-07-06T08:27:00.003-04:00

Image by Lin Pernille ♥ Photography via Flickr

Greeting and salutations from library land. Hope your July4th weekend was a good one. I was off for the week before the holiday, hence the lack of posting and we are on a bit of a reduced schedule here at the library for July and August. That means the postings may be a little slow, or they may pick up if there is more free time here as a lot of students take the summer quarter off so we'll see.

On tap for the next few days is to post my current reading list as well as my review of the third Dexter book, Dexter in the Dark.

So, in the meantime, keep frosty (we are in the midst of a heatwave here in the NY), keep your fingers crossed for LeBron, and keep posted for more musings from the LL.

Textbooks on Reserve

2010-06-22T09:11:00.013-04:00

Image by opensourceway via Flickr

Buying textbooks is a drag, lets be honest. I am sure you all found this chore as pleasant as getting your teeth pulled, but for the sake of a higher education, it had to be done (the book buying not the teeth pulling).

Maybe I wasn't that good of a planner back in my early 20's but I remember scrambling to get my finances in order to pay for my classes, then get hit with the dread of coming up with more scratch to pay for my books. I distinctly remember going to the first session of my classes to see if could get away with not buying the book so I could save some dough and put that towards next semesters' classes.

Now that I am on the other end of the spectrum, so to speak, working in a college, dealing with books no less, I see things, well....the same. I mean, honestly, I know the professors and writers that write the textbooks need to make money as well, but this is getting ridiculous. How often are revisions of a textbook really needed? Updates need to be made, I get that, but many of the updated versions of textbooks are almost identical to the previous version with only a very few changes of which many seem unnecessary. Add to that the skyrocketing costs of some textbooks, some cost an upwards of two hundred bones each, and the squeeze is on our college students.

One way to alleviate this cost on our students is to do what my school and many others have done and have a 'textbook on reserve' program. The way we handle that here in the library is we have a textbook budget line and we buy, just like the students, textbooks (with a minor discount, something like 10%). Since I am basically am in charge of the textbook purchases, I see how much the books are going for an how quick the publishers are to crank out new editions of the books. I also hear the complaints of students who can't sell their books back to the bookstore because a new edition is being put out so the store won't buy them back. So those looking to sell them back are, many times, out of luck, though when you think about it, is being "stuck" with a book that you studied from really being out of luck?

So the question is, what to do about the rising costs of textbooks? We offer the textbook on reserve program but we always end up with students who feel 'entitled' to have the textbook they need available when they need it. Ah, yes, the lament of many elders when referring to this generation, that they have a sense to entitlement. That's a rant I'll go into some other time. Getting back to it, a selling point of the school here is that the library has the textbook on reserve program but students rely on it too much, feeling that no one else will be using the book they want at the specific time they need it. Suckers! We always tell them to do their work early as there will be a rush around test time for students clamoring for textbooks to study from. As I sit here now, there are a few students in here that are waiting for books to be available.

I wish we had the budget dollars to accommodate the students in this regard but then I am sure that the publishing companies would be on us in a finger snap. Maybe ebooks are the way to go, I am sure they would be cheaper but there would be no selling back the book. I don't know, maybe if more students, and their parents who foot the tuition bill much of the time, were to complain to school administrators and they in turn could raise a stink with the publishers, maybe then something could be done to help the students.

Ed's Mini Book Review - 13 Bullets

2010-06-21T11:27:00.015-04:00

Cover of 13 Bullets

More vampires, that's what I always say. Ok, maybe I don't always say that and I probably shouldn't. Vampire books are an overcrowded genre to begin with (and that may the understatement of the millennium).

So, added to this almost beaten to death genre, is 13 Bullets which introduces us to Laura Caxton, reluctant vampire hunter. A Pennsylvania state trooper, who happens to stumble upon a vampire hireling, called half-deads, attempting to dispose of his masters' leftovers, Caxton is then teamed up with grizzled and cantankerous semi-famous FBI vampire hunter, Arkeley, to try and track down the lead vampire in the area.

Something that I really liked about this vampire tale is that the vampire here are monsters. They are vicious, vile, uber-deadly and have the looks of the Nosferatu-like vampires we've seen all too infrequently in recent years. The are dangerous predators, the top of the food chain and they know it. Kill a recently fed vampire? No chance, more likely he'll rip your arms off and drain from what's left of your arm stumps.

Beyond that, 13 Bullets takes some predicable twists and turns and in too many instances, you are waiting for someone, mainly Caxton, to do something intelligent instead of falling head first into the next dilemma. The writing is solid and the sections of the book are broken down nicely (if you read it, you'll see what I mean). Combined with some interesting plot elements that are hinted at but not fully resolved will make me want to pick up the next book in the series.

My Grade: B

Writing on the Interwebs

2010-06-18T08:43:00.011-04:00

Image by Nesster via Flickr

So no sh&t, there I was, reading a bunch of blogs and such on the interwebs. Trying to spice up my own rarely seen blog, looking to glean (ok steal) some ideas from other places and jazz this joint up.

It was then I realized that a lot of people that write blogs and do review and the like, on the interwebs are a bunch of, and pardon my French, douchebags. I mean, the net is littered with the smarmy writings of a bunch of tools who think they are clever and hip with their sarcastic ramblings and esoteric references. Engaging in mean spirited "debates" and using excessive off color comments to make them look cool. Please.

Where are all the writers? Is blogging just a persons public journal, the "look at me" space on the internet where people try to show "the real you". C'mon, grow up already. If you are going to invest the time to write, then write for real. Who cares if it's not good writing, heck my writing is not good writing, but it is *me*. It's not some front that I want to put out to seem a lot cooler than I really am like all too many people do on the web.

I am sick and tired of reading blog after blog, review after review, post after post of people trying to show off. If I want to read someone showing off their writing skill then I'll read some Joyce again. Be yourself. Write for yourself. Blog for yourself.

Unless you really are just a douchebag then smarm away.

My (probably not well thought out) two cents.

Ed's Mini Book Review - The Dragon Factory

2010-06-14T10:48:00.010-04:00

Action. Check.

Kick assery. Check.

Science mumbo jumbo. Check.

Decent but not great follow-up. Check.

The second book featuring ass kicker extraordinaire, Joe Ledger, surprisingly picks up shortly after the events of our first encounter with Joe and the DMS (Department of Military Science), Patient Zero. The fist book was a fast paced, zombie-esque thrill ride that was a breath of fresh air to the zombie book genre. Away from the 'survival horror' themed zombie books, the first Joe Ledger book are like a mash-up of Splinter Cell and World War Z (perhaps called it a 'viral thriller'). Shortly after dealing with the zombie virus in the first book, we have Joe and his team facing off against competing genetic manipulators, one faction making super soldiers while the other is making gene based bio-weapons.

A lot of this book feels the same, villains backstabbing each other, the cloak and dagger of Mr. Church and the DMS, and, of course, lots of action. Another problem with this Ledger adventure, is that a lot of time is spent not knowing what is going on and our heroes do very little to figure things out, the machinations of the bad guys are literally just handed over to them which makes the end game seem like a bit of a cop out. Also, I had a real problem with the actions of the main villain at the end.

Did all this mean I didn't enjoy it? Hell no! Joe Ledger kicks major a$$ in a Jack Bauer sort of way (Legder is actually compare to Bauer at one point). Bad Jack stories are still good stories and bad Ledger stories are good ones as well. This one even isn't a bad story, it's just a flawed one and not up to par with Patient Zero.

My Grade: B

I'm sorry I pimp slapped you into that china cabinet.

2010-06-07T09:58:00.006-04:00

Cover of Black Dynamite [Blu-ray]

How the hell did I miss this?

And by 'this' I mean to pure awesomeness that is Black Dynamite.

Now, I grew up on the blaxploitation films of the 70's and this flick does the trick, ya dig? It manages to catch the essence of those films while keeping the parody edge without becoming too chessey or over the top, you follow?

With destined to be classic lines like 'And when you pop the top, the panties drop' and 'Kung-Fu treachery', Black Dynamite hits the spot solid.

So, go out and see this now or else I will not hesitate to lay the hammer down on any clown that comes around!

I said can you dig it!

Reading List - June

2010-06-01T14:16:00.008-04:00

Image via Wikipedia

Summer is upon us so the reading may be a little light with time spent on the beach and maybe a vacation or a stay-cation. Still there are some things I want to get to, just a matter if I do get to them.

The Dragon Factory by Jonathan Mayberry

Dexter in the Dark by Jeff Lindsay
13 Bullets by David Wellington

Fables Vol. 5 by Bill Winningham

Ed's Mini Book Review - Flash Forward by Robert Sawyer

2010-05-27T15:40:00.010-04:00

Flash Forward, as you may or may not know, is a TV show on ABC (soon-to-be former TV show) that has a great set-up. Everyone in the world blacks out for two minutes and while you are out, you get a glimpse, two minutes worth, of your future.

The TV show, to fit it into a TV season sets the Flash Forward to eight months in the future whereas the book sets it to twenty years in the future. Basically, the TV show has almost nothing in common with the book, just that there was a Flash Forward so if you read the book hoping for more insight into characters and stories that intrigued you from the show, then you'll be disappointed. And that's not a bad thing since the show ended up doing poorly in the ratings and got canned after one season.

So, the book takes a different road than the show. Instead of focusing on the 'who-dunnit' aspect of teh Flash Forward, the book looks at it from the point of view of the scientists who believe they unwittingly caused it to happen. The guilt and grief about those that died while the blacked out and those that see a future not to their liking. Then we get the scientific analyses of having foreknowledge, which now everyone has, and the possibility of changing the future. Can you do it? Will time correct itself? Will you just end up ensuring that your future will happen no matter what you do?

The books tends to, at points, get bogged down with all of the scientific theory and sometimes feels as though it is just wasting time to get to the payoff of what happens when that magical Flash Forward time of twenty years down the road comes up. Does it come true? Can you change it? All questions that you are wondering throughout the book, building to that payoff, but the payoff comes off fairly flat.

My Grade: B-

The end of an era....

2010-05-25T09:06:00.012-04:00

Image via Wikipedia

No, I am not talking about Lost, I am talking about 24 and the end of Jack Bauer on TV.

BELOW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!

One of my favorite shows of all time bowed out with a solid but unspectacular series finale. When last we left dear old Jack, he was on a murderous killing spree, taking out whoever was *really* involved in Day 8's sinister plot. He found out that it was really the Russians behind the scenes, pulling the strings and not a separatist faction called the IRK as the world was lead to believe. Having turned this information over the the President and then having her ignore it so she can bring the Russians to the table to sign a Middle East peace accord, Jack becomes the only one who can set things right (in his mind) and avenge the death of fellow agent/love interest, Renee Walker.

Needless to say, defying the sitting Presidents orders, killing Russian agents and diplomats as well as kidnapping a former President, have left our Jack on the lam. It looks like Jack is off the deep end as is going to assassinate the Russian President but alas, good old Chloe talks Jack off the ledge so to speak and saves him from himself. Unfortunately for Jack, this leads to him being arrested and set up to have an 'accident' so the truth can never come out.

I am sure the tension of whether the show would kill of Jack in its series finale would have been a tad more palpable if it not had already been announced that 24 will continue on in moves. That alone made the series finale anti-climactic but what I did like is the show ended without the creators going for some gimmicky or flashy ending. It left Jack in a dark place, possibly coming out of it but in more trouble than we've probably ever seen him (being on the lam from the US and Russian governments).

Besides, I think the die hard Jack fans got what they wanted. A happy ending would have seemed a cop out and Jack is still out there. Waiting to kick some ass when the need arises and that's good enough for me.

Director of 'Splice' wants to do an Alpha Flight film!

2010-05-20T15:37:00.003-04:00

Image via Wikipedia

Anyone who knows anything about me knows that I am a HUGE fan of the Marvel comic, Alpha Flight. Or should I say, former Marvel comic as it has been cancelled and botched retries three times after an initially successful run in the 80's of over a hundred and twenty issues.

Well, in any event, recent years have seen various Alpha Flight members either killed off in other comics or used as a punch line. But they're not a punch line to Splice director Vincenzo Natali who would like to direct an Alpha Flight film.

Read all about it HERE.

Ed's Mini Book Review - The Rising by Brian Keene

2010-05-14T10:47:00.016-04:00

Another recommended book in my search for more Survival Horror, or Zombie Books if you'd rather refer to them as that. And this one comes highly recommended at that from a friend that has read an insane amount of survival horror.

My take is that I don't know what my friend was thinking. He's turned me on to some excellent survival horror stuff but this book doesn't fall into that category. Some others he put me on to, Day by Day Armageddon for instance, were very good but this one, which as little different bend to the zombies and how they come into being, falls flat with repetitive and gratuitous scenes and a real let down of an ending.

It goes a little something like this. Typical survival horror with zombies rising and noshing on whoever is around. Trick is that these undead are actually possessed by demons who want to nibble a bit on you, just until you die but damage the whole body so that another demon can swoop in and posses the newly dead, and partially eaten corpse.

Follow so far? Good.

The story follows a few characters but the main one is Jim, traveling from Virginia to New Jersey to rescue his son. From that most noble of causes we get to see the dark side of humanity, when society breaks down and we are left to fend for ourselves. Now, this is nothing new in the survival horror genre and I think that is a big problem with this book. There is so much time devoted to the evils that are done, by humans to other humans, and repetitive at that, the story seems to spin its tires for long stretches. Add to it that if you've read any other survival stories, this theme has been done over and over again and after the fourth or fifth rape scene or the umpteenth soldier smashing someones face with a rifle butt, you are bored out of your skull. Many times reading this book I wanted to shout "All right already, we get it already, people are just as dangerous as the monsters!".

I actually put this book down for about six months and picked it up again when I was in the mood for some zombie stuff and fought my way to finish it. I thought of picking up the sequel, City of the Dead, but read some reviews that said that this book was better so I'll skip it, which it my recommendation for this book, skip it.

My Grade: C-

LL

Ed's Mini Book Review - Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

2010-05-12T16:18:00.017-04:00

After not being too enthralled with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, I was little on the fence with the next piece from Seth Grahame-Smith, Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. Having a degree in History, however, had me intrigued on how Grahame-Smith would weave the actually accounts of the life of one of our greatest Presidents, with a story about vampires.

Overall, not a bad mash-up, actually it is very good. Bored as I was with P&P&Z, I was completely taken with the story of good ol' Abe, from his birth to his assassination at the hand of John Wilkes Booth. Along the way, Grahame-Smith weaves into the journal writings of Abraham Lincoln (some genuine and some not), an interesting story involving vampires and the roots of America.

I found the best parts of the book were early on and in to the middle of the book, dealing with Abe's childhood and coming of age as well as his introduction to vampires. Towards the end, it feels a little rushed with there not being much meat, so to speak, during his political career and his presidency.

I am purposefully being vague here and not trying to give out too much as to the role vampires play in Abe's upbringing and into his adult life. The weaving of them into what is known and unknown of Lincoln is fantastic and the best parts of the book. Figuring out who is a vampire and who isn't a vampire, maybe just manipulated by them, is part of the fun though I am sure you can make a good guess at one historical figure that Grahame-Smith has being one of the undead in this book.

Good stuff here, just a little short of being great but still a recommended read.

My Grade: B+

This old argument.....again.

2010-05-10T13:18:00.005-04:00

Image via Wikipedia

Every so often, and a little too often I might add, I came across an article like this one.

LINK

The heart of the matter is the librarianship profession and, in this case, librarians being considered as "professionals". To me, this all seems to come down to being challenged at your job (and I can't help thinking of the movie 'Office Space' when I think of being challenged at work). Over and over, I hear librarians talk of how library school was a waste and they could have learned the job just by working in the job.

There are two issues here I'd like to address. first is people saying that library school was a waste for them. The cold hard truth of the matter is that if you feel that library school was a waste, then that is your own fault. You get what you give. If you didn't get all you wanted out of library school then you weren't trying. Talk to your advisers, take the classes that interest you and in the area of librarianship you want to enter into, go to conferences and workshops. It's all there if you want it and goes for anything you study in higher education.

The second thing I wanted to comment on was my assertion of being challenged on the job. That is up to institution that you work for and also up to you. It is up to you in that you can always choose to look for a position that will challenge you and give you the opportunity for professional growth (and I know in this job market I can say that easier than it can be done but you can always look). If your place of work doesn't stimulate you professionally, then maybe you aren't a professional. You can always choose to change that by looking for a place that does.

That's just my two cents on it. Read the article and replies for some other thoughts.

LL

Reading List - May

2010-05-07T08:45:00.007-04:00

Image by brewbooks via Flickr

I am sure you noticed that there have been a few books on my reading list for the past few months, and to be perfectly honest, they just haven't grabbed me yet. I suppose that has to be some sort of indictment on them and that will come out in my review, if I ever get to finish them. Anyway, on the my list for this month.

Flash Forward by Robert Sawyer

The Rising by Brian Keene

Fables vol. 5 by Bill Winningham

Scott Pilgrim Vol 1. by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Dark Half by Stephen King

Weeding or De-selection, if you prefer.

2010-04-28T17:32:00.011-04:00

Image by eworm via Flickr

Lately, I have been seeing a lot on the interwebs about libraries weeding books, or de-selection as I have heard it called. Much to the horror and revulsion of some, libraries have been throwing out books. Mercy me!

A lot of the responses are, and I do dare to say it, knee-jerk reactions to the thought of a library throwing out books. The truth is, in most cases, the space is more valuable and that is the cold hard reality of the situation. Do libraries want to throw out books? Of course not, and they do go to great lengths to not get to that point.

I can give you a little insight as to what we do to try and not to throw out books. First and foremost is the weeding process, the process of determining of a piece of material is still appropriate for our collection. The book may be outdated or be damaged in some way or we may have duplicate information in some other book or part of the collection. In any event, we carefully look over any piece of material before deciding to weed it. Since we have multiple libraries as part of our college, we will ask if any of the other campus libraries would want the book, assuming it isn't in the outdated or damaged category.

Next, we look to donate the books, Better World Books being our primary donation organization. The downside of BWB is that they don't take everything so you are still left with some leftovers.

Now, here is where I try and get a little creative. Some books I hold on to in the back room and I hold a Book Event for students where I give them away. That's right folks, free books. In all honesty it's not that remarkable. I keep a cart in the library with a 'Free Books' sign throughout the year anyway so there are free books available to the students year round. Then, as a last resort, its to the recycle bin los restos go. Some times it is unavoidable but throwing out books is a necessary step.

Sad but true, but some books are destined for the trash heap. Space is a major issue but even then, there are some books that even charitable organizations or cash strapped college students won't take.

Oddball (and I mean 'Odd') Librarian Stats

2010-04-19T12:59:00.003-04:00

Image by Dumio_Momio via Flickr

I'll post this since a few people have sent this to me, even though it might get me in trouble.

From Gawker.

Ed's Mini Book Review - Changes by Jim Butcher

2010-04-19T11:02:00.007-04:00

Cover of Changes (Dresden Files, Book 12)

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge fan of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series so this review my ba a bit on the biased side.

Risking to sound none too professional like I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!!

This is what an action/dark fantasy book should be like, if you dig those genres. Even if you don't, this one has it all, especially if you are a follower of the series. The one slight knock on the series so far was the lack of resolution of many of the hanging threads so to speak. There were too many plot points that were not getting resolved and just passed on and on where I can see many readers not remembering the particulars original plot point when they did finally get resolved and I did find that happening at times in this book. The good thing however was that they were finally getting addressed.

Now if you aren't a fan of The Dresden Files already, go out and start becoming one. I'll give you the basic storyline of the series. Harry Dresden is a Chicago P.I. who advertises in the Yellow Pages as a 'wizard'. Most people think this a gimmick to get work but Harry is the bona fide thing. Patterned a bit after Spider-Man, Harry finds himself dealing with all sorts of threats from the supernatural and mundane world alike. Now, there are more fantasy books like the Dresden Files than I can shake a stick at but what separates Dresden from the rest is the writing. In the first few books, you get a feel of a writer that is growing and grow and improves he does as the series progresses. You get a great menagerie of characters and what I think really drives this series, good mysteries.

Changes is the first Dresden Files book with a one word title, all other books having two word titles, and that goes to the theme of the book, which of course is the title. There are lots of changes in store for Harry in this book and here is where we get to many of the long standing pot points getting resolved. A good many get resolved or at least forwarded to the next step, all of which, combined with some shocking developments, all lead to drastic changes in the Dresden-verse.

Obviously this is a must read for fans of the series and a true game changer (I always hated that term but felt compelled to use it). For the casual reader, you may need some background reading before you get to this one but Butcher does do a serviceable job of making the book readable if you've read none of the other books.

My Biased Grade: A

LL

Reading List - April

2010-04-12T13:49:00.011-04:00

Image by Ian Wilson via Flickr

Some stuff I keep pushing back but some highly anticipated new ones as well including the new book in the Dresden Files series.

Changes by Jim Butcher
Fables vol. 5 by Bill Winningham

Scott Pilgrim Vol. 1 by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Dark Half by Stephen King
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

Ed's Mini Book Review - Sleepless by Charlie Huston

2010-04-07T19:08:00.009-04:00

Cover of Sleepless: A Novel

I'll start by saying that Charlie Huston is one of my favorite writers so I may be a little biased in this review. Having long been a fan of the Joe Pitt casebooks as well as his Henry Thompson books, needless to say I was rather stoked at a new Huston book and this time a stand alone like The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death.

While reading Sleepless, I couldn't help but feel like I was reading something with just a ton if different influences, many of which I have an interest in as well. We have a look into the online MMO gamer world (i.e. World of Warcraft and the like) and I am sure the research for that must have been a lot of fun. Just plug yourself down in front of the computer and game til your eyeballs dry out, get some more Mountatin Dew and get right back at it. Huston also treats the reader to something that has been a bit on our minds, in a collective sub-conscious and that is the whole 'viral thriller' trope with the spread of a disease that has no cure. As an aside, this has been something that I have been reading a lot of lately though more into the zombie virus theme but I think that this is something that our collective society has had on the brain (mmmm, more brains!!!) with the fear of chemical weapons and such. This might explain the popularity of zombies again with best sellers such as World War Z. Eh, just my two cents.

We also get some typical Huston good ol' crime fiction as the story centers around an idealistic undercover narcotics officer as he investigates the possible underground distribution of a drug that can possibly cure the Sleepless virus that has spread around the world. And what a world Huston paints for us. We get a dystopian future not unlike the Escape from New York film or even yet, Strange Days, where private security protects the rich from a world with little order due to the spread of the Sleepless virus.

Weaving all of these elements may seem a bit ambitious but more and more, with every book, Huston is proving himself a master of his craft. Tight, suspenseful and ultimately heart wrenching, Sleepless is a book I can't recommend enough and it will leave you just that, sleepless, as you won't want to put it down.

A+

LL

Happy Easter!

2010-04-05T18:47:00.005-04:00

Image by StSaling via Flickr

Happy Easter to all you Christians out there. I just got back from Spring Break and some time with the family in the Tampa/St. Pete area.

Finished up a couple of books and I am stoked for the new Dresden Files book coming out tomorrow.

Will post some reviews shortly.

Ed's Mini Book Review - The Morningstar Strain: Thunder and Ashes

2010-03-24T16:56:00.012-04:00

Continuing with my zombie-fest mood of late, I decided to read book two of The Morningstar Strain series, Thunder and Ashes.

For some background on the story, Morningstar is the name of a uber-fast spreading virus that turns you into a feral, ultra-violent, disease carrier along the lines of those infected by The Rage Virus in the 28 Days Later film. The added twist here is that after you die, you rise from the dead like your run-of-the-mill zombie from the Romero flicks.

This book picks up where the last one left off, following two groups trying to meet at a research facility in Omaha. The first group contains Dr. Ana Demillio who was studying the virus at the time of the outbreak and subsequent pandemic. The other group is a group of Army soldiers who are headed by a friend of the doctor, General Sherman. Sherman is travelling from the West Coast and Dr. Demillio is travelling from the East Coast all the while total chaos is all around them.

This book is more of a survival horror book than a zombie book. The main threats are not the undead, but the survivors of the initial pandemic and to what depths have they stooped to survive in a law-less, dangerous world. What I liked about this installment of the series is that it could have easily focused on the horrible things that people do to survive and I have read too many survival horror books that went down that road but this one didn't. It kept it classy so to speak and focused on the story and driving it forward. On the flip side, I felt that some of the character development was weak and even at points, I would struggle to remember who was who, especially with the Army group.

All-in-all, a good entry in the series and I look forward to the next book.

B+

Ed's Mini Book Review - Dearly Devoted Dexter

2010-03-17T18:31:00.006-04:00

Image by xploitme via Flickr

On the heels of reading and thoroughly enjoying the first Dexter book, I quickly nabbed myself a copy of the second in the series, Dearly Devoted Dexter. For those that are fans of the cable series, and I haven't seen any of the series, here is where, from what I have read, the series diverges from the books.

Dexter now finds himself the target of someones attention, a Miami PD officer who knows something is amiss with poor demented Dexter. Since the closing events of the last book Dexter is being followed so he keeps up his facade by spending time with Rita and her kids more and Dexter finds himself settling into domestic bliss, his urges from the Dark Passenger being held at bay but totally gone.

Complicating things further is his sister, eager to prove herself as a new homicide detective. Oh, and the serial killer who dices up his victims with such surgical precision as to keep them alive after he's done his work. What is poor domesticated Dexter to do? He would like to help his sister, and have a sit down with this new serial killer to compare notes. He would also like to satisfy the Dark Passenger and he has just the child killing chap in mind for this. And what about his new de-facto family, who has members that seem to have inklings just like Dexter?

This all makes for some fun reading, if dark humor and dismemberment is your bag, and another good entry in the series. Not as good as the first but a good time nonetheless.

B+

Reading List - March

2010-03-09T08:15:00.008-05:00

Image by ~ Phil Moore via Flickr

My updated reading list though I got off track from last months' list but I think that'll be a normal thing for me.

Sleepless by Charlie Huston

Thunder and Ashes by Z. A. Recht

Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

Scott Pilgrim Vol. 1 by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Dark Half by Stephen King

And just around the corner, Changes, the new book in the Dresden Files.

Ed's Mini Book Review - Darkly Dreaming Dexter

2010-03-02T14:42:00.015-05:00

For my second book review, I'll tackle the book that has spawned a wildly popular cable TV show, Dexter. Now, I haven't seen the TV show but anyone I ask that has, absolutely loves it so that enticed me to read the book and boy was I not disappointed.

For those that don't know the basic premise of Dexter, he is a blood splatter expert for the Miami CSI department who helps out the Miami PD, including his police officer foster-sister, as an amateur serial killer profiler. His acumen in this area comes from the fact that he himself is a serial killer, obviously unbeknown to anyone else. He knows how serial killers think as we get to see how he thinks. Of course, to make sure we root or feel for Dexter he has a code instilled in him by his foster-father, Harry, an ex-cop, who saw what Dexter was from when Dexter was a young age. Dexter only kills people who deserve it and he also must be absolutely sure of their guilt.

I am going on too much and don't want to give too much away like some reviews do, but I can't recommend Darkly Dreaming Dexter enough. It is dark comedy at its finest with fun characters and, what makes all crime books worth their salt, a good mystery to boot.

A+

Ed's Mini Book Review - Vicious Circle

2010-02-24T12:40:00.012-05:00

Something I want to get in the habit of doing is write a little review when I finish a book. I did this for a couple of movies on Facebook but didn't keep up with it but no I am determined with the books.

First on tap is Vicious Circle by Mike Carey and is the second of his books featuring Brit exorcist Felix Castor. Fans of the film Constantine will probably like the Felix Castor books as the two are similar in concept. Heck, Mike Carey even wrote the comic Hellblazer that the Constantine film was based on.

Felix, or Fix as his friends call him, is an exorcist who uses music to work his mojo, in particular he plays the flute to bind spirits and dispatch of them. In this go around, Felix is brought in to track a ghost, one of a child that has been kidnapped by another exorcist. Of course with all good mysteries, nothing is what it seems and a number of good twists and turns are abound.

Compared to the first Felix Castor book, The Devil You Know, this outing moves at more of a crisp pace and has the energy and feel of a good old mystery just with a bit of the supernatural kicked in for good measure. Carey does an excellent job of tying in the supernatural world of Felix Castor with the storytelling progression that may bog down lesser books and keeps up the action even while delving into the minds of the various characters in the book.

All-in-all, Vicious Circle, was right up my alley. I like my mysteries with a bit of the macabre or the supernatural and this one is a good one. Well written, moves at a brisk pace, has great dialog, and Fix is a protagonist that shines. I look forward to the next case taken by Felix Castor.

A-

Aw, c'mon. We're beating Librarians now?

2010-02-23T12:02:00.008-05:00

Image by hans.gerwitz via Flickr

Horrible story out of Houston.

http://www.khou.com/news/crime/79675377.html#

Reading List

2010-02-02T10:05:00.007-05:00

Image by Vicki's Pics via Flickr

Something I've been meaning to do for some time is post my current reading list. I hope I can figure out a way to make some sort of box or bar on the side that I can constantly update.

Well, here is my current reading list.

Vicious Circle by Mike Carey

The Dark Half by Stephen King

Incognito Vol.1 TPB by Ed Brubaker

Scott Pilgrim Vol. 1 TPB by Bryan Lee O'Malley

RIP Howard Zinn

2010-01-28T10:40:00.009-05:00

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I remember reading People's History in grad school and being blown away by the shift in perspective from what is usually presented about US History.

That's what affected me most from the book. I know it's said and taught to us to think about who is telling the story, or in this case writing history, and know that there are always three sides to every story as the old adage goes.

But to see this story, the American story, played out from a perspective at odds with the way we've been told this story since we were in primary school, was stark and eye opening. For that final slap in the face I need to wake and finally see what had been told over and over to me but hadn't totally sunk in, I am eternally grateful.

Link

EBSCO's exclusive content

2010-01-22T11:57:00.001-05:00

EBSCO's exclusive content

(Update: GaleCengage's Open Letter response.)

For me it was shocking news.

At two of the luncheons I attended, EBSCO revealed they now have ...

The Return of the Jack Bauer Power Hour!

2010-01-20T17:15:00.008-05:00

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Hello again! January is upon us that has me excited because January means the new season of 24 is gearing up. This time around we find Jack Bauer living in New York City, settling into his role as a grand-father and, seemingly, leaving all the bad crud that goes with being Jack Bauer behind. But just like in the Godfather part III, once you think you're out, they pull you right back in.

Unfortunately for Jack, an old contact of his comes to him with information on a possible hit on someone negotiating a Mid East peace accord. Jack being Jack, he just can't let it slide and go back to L.A. with his family so he takes it upon himself to see to it that this hit does not go off.

Along the ride we get some twists, turns and one seemingly bad plot line but it is 24 and all of the tension, action, great villains and thrills are back. So after the first four hours, shown this past Sunday and Monday nights, I am hooked and you will be too so sit back and grab hold of the Jack Bauer Power Hour. You won't regret it.

LL

Ghetto Fiction

2010-01-13T19:15:00.008-05:00

Ghetto Fiction, or called Urban Fiction, is a hot commodity in my library. I can't keep them on the shelves and the requests to add more to the collection are through the roof. So for some of you that have similar requests here are some links for your collection development needs.

Enjoy,

LL

http://aalbc.com/

http://libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Urban_Fiction/Street_Lit/Hip_Hop_Fiction_Resources_for_Librarians

http://www.inetmgrs.com/onepeoples/HIP%20HOP%20BOOKS.htm

http://mosaicbooks.com/whatshot.html

http://www.blackexpressions.com/Fiction-books.html

ACRL-ing

2010-01-07T11:54:00.007-05:00

Image by acrlla via Flickr

So, I went to the ACRL/NY Symposium last month and have been remiss in posting about it since then.

The theme this year dealt with Leadership in Libraries and all of the presenters were very good and really had some substantive things to say. I am sure many of you have been to Symposiums/Conferences where you were bored or the speaker seemed out of touch and the like. No so in this case and that was a pleasant surprise as there is usually one on the schedule that serves up a stinker.

Conference material aside, I like going to conferences to talk with other librarians. This really isn't a network thing that I am talking about, building contacts and the like though that is never a bad thing. What I am talking about is just conversing with others on your field/profession and learning from them and sharing with them your experiences in the field, on the front-lines so to speak. Maybe it's just because I am fairly new in the profession but I think there is a great value to gathering with others in your field just talking about....well, anything.

That's just me, but what do I know, I am just a rookie librarian.

LL

New Year 2010!

2010-01-05T13:17:00.003-05:00

Image by taivasalla via Flickr

Well the new decade is upon us and my New Years' Resolution is to post more stuff.

So, without further delay, I will write a new post.....tomorrow.

See you then!

LL

Just a tad overdue....

2009-12-16T17:31:00.003-05:00

Image by crazytales562 via Flickr

How long is long overdue?

Try 100 YEARS!!!!

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-16T17:25:00.002-05:00

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Wow, the holidays are already upon us and they, as well as the various painting jobs around the house, have taken me away from you all for a bit :(

Anywho, I promise to post more of my musings of life in the so called information age.

LL

Project Information Literacy Report

2009-12-02T17:46:00.006-05:00

Image by superkimbo in BKK via Flickr

The new Project Information Literacy Report just came out yesterday and it sheds some light on where students turn for information when it comes to class assignments.

Take a gander, ingest and see what you think and how you can best reach your students. I know I'll take some time to mull this over and maybe rethink the way I come at some things.

LL

Happy Turkey Day!

2009-11-25T08:14:00.001-05:00

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From mine to yours.

LL

The 'C' Word Rears its Head Again! No not that 'C' word.

2009-11-19T16:09:00.005-05:00

Image by Manchester Library via Flickr

Censorship!

This is the story that won't go away about the library staff, not librarians, that wouldn't check out a book that they deemed to be obscene, even though the book in question violates no obscenity law.

Read the article and judge for yourself. I happen to agree with the library director on this one (big shock) and his decision to fire these women. Read up and what they did and why and you decide for yourself.

LL

The Lanky Librarian

And they're off...

Will this get me into trouble?

I Will Post More, I Will Not Fall Behind!

Teaching the Library, man.

Ed's Mini Book Review - Deadline by Mira Grant

Lunch with the Prez and VP

Turn out the lights....

Strike!

Gearing up for the start of the Academic Year (My fist at CW Post)

Students: Ask a Librarian? Huh...wha...

Ed's Mini Book Review - The A, B, C Murders by Agatha Christie

Ed's Mini Book Review - Monster Nation by David Wellington

Life in the Academic Library (after two months)

Ed's Mini Book Review - The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles" | Video on TED.com

Ed's Mini Book Review - Apocalypse of the Dead by Joe McKinney

Ed's Mini Book Review - The Naming of the Beasts by Mike Carey

Ed's Mini Book Review - The King of Plagues (A Joe Ledger Novel)

Ed's Mini Book Review - Dexter is Delicious

Ed's Mini Book Review - Dead City by Joe McKinney

The TED

What is peer-review?

The End and the Beginning

Ed's Mini Book Review - Nightlife by Rob Thurman

Updates and Reading Lists.

"Survivor's Guilt". Yeah, I'm Feeling It.

Ed's Mini Book Review - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by P.K. Dick

Know Your Role!

Can Colleges (& Libraries) Catch the Mobile Wave?»Seeing the picture

The 'Library Committee' or To Be (Faculty) or Not To Be (Faculty)

Ed's Mini Book Review - Kill the Dead by Robert Kadrey

Ed's Mini Book Review - Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey

RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms

Ed's Mini Book Review - The Book of Fate by Brad Meltzer

Information is Social: Information Literacy in Context

Ed's Mini Book Review - Thicker Than Water by Mike Carey

Tragedy in Arizona

Happy Holidays!

Ed's Mini Book Review - Death Troopers by Joe Schrieber

Ed's Mini Book Review - Goldfinger by Ian Fleming

Ed's Mini Book Review - Feed by Mira Grant

Ed's Mini Book Review - Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton

NYLA Conference 2010

Ed's Mini Book Review - Dead Men's Boots

Fall Reading List

Ed's Mini Book Review - Dexter by Design

Ed's Mini Book Review - A Dangerous Man

Ed's Mini Book Review - The Murder or Roger Ackroyd

Fall is Here! (It's getting colder, why am I all excited?)

Happy Anniversary!

Ed's Mini Book Review - And Then There Were None

Ed's Mini Book Review - The Hound of the Baskervilles

Late Summer Reading List

Ed's Mini Book Review - Monster Island

Top 100 Thrillers of All Time

Students Plagiarize? Mercy Me!

Brad Pitt to Star in Big Screen Adaptation of World War Z

Related articles by Zemanta

Ed's Mini Book Review - Day by Day Armageddon: Beyond Exile

Ed's Mini Book Review - The Road

Ed's Mini Book Review - Neuromancer

Summer Reading List

Ed's Mini Book Review - Dexter in the Dark

Summer Schedule

Textbooks on Reserve

Ed's Mini Book Review - 13 Bullets

Writing on the Interwebs

Ed's Mini Book Review - The Dragon Factory

I'm sorry I pimp slapped you into that china cabinet.

Reading List - June

Ed's Mini Book Review - Flash Forward by Robert Sawyer

The end of an era....

Director of 'Splice' wants to do an Alpha Flight film!

Ed's Mini Book Review - The Rising by Brian Keene

Ed's Mini Book Review - Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

This old argument.....again.

Reading List - May

Weeding or De-selection, if you prefer.

Oddball (and I mean 'Odd') Librarian Stats

The 'C' Word Rears its Head Again! No not that 'C' word.