To Read Lists

How do you do it? 

How do you keep track of the myriad fascinating sounding books that cross your desk every day as part of working in a library?  How do you remember the name of that novel that your coworker just raved about for fifteen minutes in the break room?  How about that intriguing book on the shelf which caught your attention while you were supposed to be looking for a title for a patron?

You can’t check everything out–you just can’t.  And if you request it, everything seems to come at once, and if it’s popular at all, you need to give it up after two weeks.

So how do you handle it?  Have you figured out a great way to use Library Thing for this, or Amazon Wishlist, or even our own MyList function on Horizon?

If you’ve got a great way of managing your To Read Lists, please do share with this overwhelmed reader.  Thanks!  (Carol J.)

Readalikes – Your Help is Requested!

Are you frequently asked for readalikes in your readers advisory interactions?  Which authors are you asked for most frequently?  Please leave a comment and let me know.  I’m working on some readalike bookmarks, and would like to know which would be most helpful.  Thanks!!  (Carol J.)

Fun Home – Amazing Read

Cartoonist Alison Bechdel’s illustrated tragicomic memoir Fun Home received a starred review in PW and has appeared on many Best of lists.  The title refers to the funeral home her family ran (she compares them to the Addams Family) and explores her relationships with her family, particularly her English teacher/funeral director/closeted gay man/historic restorationist father, with dark humor.  If you like the cartoons of Lynda Barry, memoirists like Augusten Burroughs or the essays of David Sedaris, you may also enjoy this book.

One of the most amazing and unusual aspects of this memoir, though, is the sheer scope of literary references.  (I love when a book comes with its own reading list.)  Both of her parents were English teachers, her mother was an amateur actress, and Alison herself turns to books when exploring her own sexuality. 

Here are just SOME of the books referenced in Fun Home:  Stones of Venice – Ruskin, Just So Stories - Kipling, Happy Death – Camus, Myth of Sisyphus – Camus, Sappho Was a Right-On Woman – Abbott, Sun Also Rises – Hemingway, The Great Gatsby – Fitzgerald, Far Side of Paradise – Mizener, Washington Square – James, Taming of the Shrew – Shakespear, Word is Out – Adair, Well of Loneliness – Hall, Delta of Venus – Nin, Dream of a Common Language – Rich, World of Pooh – Milne, James and the Giant Peach – Dahl, the poetry of Wallace Stevens, Zelda – Milford, Remembrance of Things Past – Proust, The Nude – Clark, The Worm Ouroboros – Eddison, American Dream – Albee, Mornings at Seven - Osborn, Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care – Spock, The Trumpet of the Swan – White, Johnny Tremain – Forbes, The Wind in the Willows – Grahame, The Importance of being Earnest – Wilde, Waterfall – Drabble, And the Band Played On – Shilts, The Fellowship of the Ring – Tolkien, The Catcher in the Rye – Salinger, The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – Joyce, Earthly Paradise – Colette, and, finally, Ulysses by James Joyce. 

WHEW!  And it’s not even a very long book.  (Carol J.)

So You Want to Write a Memoir

This week’s Entertainment Weekly included a great article by Kate Ward called So You Want to Write a Memoir, which provides a selective (but extensive) list of the memoirs published since 1995 (with the exception of celebrity memoirs). 

Divided into subjects (childhood, family history, loved ones, struggles, addictions, traumas, racial identity, religion, employment, foodstuff, travel, death, etc.) and with a capsule description of each, this is not only helpful if you want to write your own story (and want to make sure someone hasn’t trodden the same ground already) or read a new memoir, but it’s also helpful from a readers advisory standpoint, for those patrons who say, do you have that memoir?  You know the one?  With the woman?  Who did that thing?   Check it out.  It’s a great list! (Carol J.)

Sydney Pollack (1934-2008)

This week, Sydney Pollack passed away at 73.  A.O. Scott, in the New York Times, thoughtfully considers Pollack’s place in American film.  An L.A. Times article includes a guide to Pollack’s most memorable movies, such as The Way We Were, Three Days of the Condor, and Out of Africa.  And finally, Entertainment Weekly magazine did a nice tribute to him, which includes a hilarious YouTube clip of him as the agent in Tootsie.  Request your copy of Tootsie today–it’s hilarious and sweet and definitely well worth watching again and again. (Carol J.)