Stained in a Human Way

So after a long hiatus of laziness, I come back blogging strong. Not only am I reading one book, gentle viewers, I'm reading two. Both are kind of for two different aspects for work, so let's go over the one I'm trying to finish before we go over the one I'm kind of reading for fun.

The book in question is The Human Stain by Philip Roth. I am, by all accounts, a Philip Roth expert because I read the Wikipedia article on him. He's written a lot of books. I think the word prolific was somewhere used to describe him, but I could be making that up. Maybe I'm spoiled because I've been reading a lot of YA fiction lately. Not really into books way overwritten. The Human Stain? Kind of fits those credentials. The story has gone off on so many tangents I'm not even sure we have well... a 'where are we going' feel. The first chapter is 75 pages. I mean, I rest my case. Anyway, I'm muddling through it. I'm almost past 100, and I have just 300 more pages to go after that. When I'm page counting you know I'm in trouble. I'm leading a book discussion on the title at a library that is not my library in three weeks. Whether it's finished or not, that will be the end of The Human Stain.

Before all that was sorted, I used some mega fastly earned Random Buzz points to score an ARC of Monster Variations by Daniel Kraus. I think I got past the first few chapters. If you're reading it, or read it, they've broken into the high school at the part I'm at. It's pretty good. I'm liking the bizarre friendship between the three boys all from different social classes. It's unlike any other YA book I read over the summer. Definitely doesn't talk down to teens, definitely a spooky book I think teen boys would enjoy. Probably going to be recommended for my book committee and become part of my cadre of books I bring on outreach visits. Random Buzzers had a few left, so if you want to join and earn mega quick points, do it now. Before they're gone. Can't wait to go back and finish it... as soon as the Stain of Human proportions is washed out of my brain.

Tried for some ARCs from LibraryThing this month for the first time in awhile... nada. That's sad. I got 4. AND REVIEWED THEM! One of them was about incest. One of them was the WORST VAMPIRE BOOK EVER! Please send me more, librarything. I miss you. And your free books.

Kind of in a Rut

I'm starting to run out of books to read. The SLJ review book came at the perfect time. That was a week ago. Now, I have about 5 or 6 books in my office. The two good looking ones have already been reviewed, and the others are either for kids younger than 12 (making them not YA officially) or ... they suck. I started trying to read this book that was authored by a Japanese manga scripter. It was translated. And I just don't like it. So you know what? I'm going to follow my own advice I give to teen readers and stop reading it. I didn't like the first two chapters. Even a little bit. Let it be noted; I gave Japan a chance.

For some techy updates, I did update the blogs in my list since really the list is for me and I've been reading blogs more. There's actually another one I'm adding this afternoon so the hits keep coming. I'm trying to remember to yelp more, but... I always try to be funny and witty in those, and it just doesn't always happen. That makes me, you know, not want to do them. But I'm trying. I also added links on the side to my deviantArt account (which has lain dormant for years) - I put up some scans of artwork I did in the library over the summer, so you can see what most of a semester as an art major got me (psssst... no talent). I also have a twitter account, which is like... not even really a twitter. I just linked it to my plurk account, which is the fake twitter I was using for a year since Kristin made me, and it updates the twitter automatically. My yelp does the same thing. None of these things are on my facebook, since this paragraph was highly annoying and it would be even more annoying if you read it on facebook CONSTANTLY. Right?

LibraryThing has a lot of cool updates, and I signed up for EarlyReviewers this month to get some books (hopefully! fingers crossed!). Check it out, because I am loving going back and editing lists of books- I'm going to finally be able to sort out my NYC books (the whole 30 in my apartment) from the hundreds I have at home. I'm also starting a graphic novel book club at my library, hopefully, so we'll see how that goes. It's all adult-themed graphic novels, but I'll finally read stuff like Persepolis that I always wanted to read. I'm also waiting for a Random Buzzer's book to come in called Monster Variation, but none of these are coming in this week. I need something to read NOW, dangit!

School Library Journal

Several weeks ago, or so long ago I pretty much had already forgotten about it, I sent in an application to do reviews for a little magazine called School Library Journal. As my two 'sample reviews' I actually sent in two recent reviews I had done for my blog at the time. I never received a letter or anything stating that I was accepted, but last Friday they decided to send me a book. So I guess I'm in.

The book they sent me, Out of the Blue by S.L. Rottman, was not something I normally would have picked up. But after really reading it today, I could hardly put it down. It was good. So I just typed up my 250 words (that's right. I used all 250 of 'em!) and sent it off to SLJ. I think I also need to submit a contract for my "Unpaid License". I think part of the fine print, sadly, is that I can't post the review in my blog (or anywhere else for that matter). I can tell you that Out of the Blue comes out in October and you should read it. If you purchase YA stuff or general fiction for your library, I would also recommend buying it. I don't usually say that in my blog, but here... I mean it. This, and Sophomore Switch, are probably the two best out of the dozen or so I've read so far. So those would be your top picks, people.

My review was mostly summary, but hopefully it gets published. I would really love to see my name in print, I am that shallow. I was noticing that my other boss who scheduled me for overtime in the "big house" (as Jay called it) is in SLJ, and I'm guessing I'll find a bunch more people I work with in there as well. It would be nice for them to see me and maybe smirk a little. Anyway, just thought I would share. I'm glad I at least have the chance to do this. And if they don't like this review, hey... maybe they'll send me another. Someone reviewed a Green Lantern graphic novel and I, for the record, could have done a better job... probably :-)

In Review: Viola in Reel Life

Very rarely will I ever gush about a book. This is one of those rare times. I love "Viola in Reel Life" by Adiana Trigiani. I actually finished about half this book in less than an hour (something I haven't done in a very, very long time) and put it down for a few days just to savor the thought of the ending. This book had a lot I could relate to- I picked it up as my "vacation" book while I was traveling, so I too was leaving New York City behind, just Viola. I can also relate to her experiences going to a school she wasn't super excited about; in my case, it was a NH prep school in the good part of town. For Viola, it's in Indiana. Hers was worse.

Viola has a cutting, witty personality that I think many girls (and even none girls) can relate to. She manages to be hip and cool without being overly whiny. That is always on the plus side. With her and her roommates, it gets a little too much like a certain sisterhood involving pants a little too fast, but I do like that she befriends one of them, Marisol, a little better than the rest- especially when they are both stuck at the school for Christmas. I would have liked it a little more if Viola had some more conflict within her perfect room, maybe with Romy the sports star, but alas. Viola is not even really given a proper nemesis; but since this is the start of a possible multi-book series, that can totally be something that develops down the line. I also like how Viola handles her men; she doesn't seem to care that much on the outside, but internally she's not thinking about a lot else. Her documentary filmmaker parents are cool, and I like her strained relationship with them, but the emotions they stir in Viola definitely made me see her as a little less cool, a little more vulnerable. This is worth the read for people of any age, especially is you like your protagonist sassy and cool, which I always do.

Concerts & People: A Bad Mix

While this will break from my usual, "What am I reading?" blog entries (it's Viola in Reel Life right now- coming October 2009- and it's GOOD, girl!) I just came back from a concert and feel compelled to write. Who did I see? Well, Jay Brannan in NYC... but that hardly matters. What matters is the people who were at the show. Someone decided to shove right next to me after Mr. Brannan took the stage, and it was in an area that was not okay. He was violating my personal space. I also took a seat, which meant I had to BUY things at this show. He didn't. His view was as good as mine. And that's just not right. Plus PLUS!!- He decided to whip out his cell phone for 2 minutes during every song, then proceeded to get drunk and sing along badly. I paid $15 for the tickets, but ended up spending over $100 over the course of the night on a 2nd unused ticket, merch, and the food I was forced to buy. For what? For this guy to try and ruin the show for me? I still had fun, but geez. This is why concerts are a bad idea. People seriously don't give a flying ::expletive:: as to whether they ruin their fellow concert-goers time. At. All.

Saying [Hello] in RoBot

I finallyFinallyFINALLY finished The Doom Machine. An outer space epic is hard to get through sometimes, even if it is pretty good. And I did love me some gigantic alien spiders, but the descriptions in the book were often so brief I went back and read them over again many times. It became time consuming. All in all, a good book- I recommend it, especially if you're one of those My Teacher is an Alien! fans.

I should be re-reading A Wrinkle in Time for my teen book club, but decided to take a chance with a Scholatic ARC coming out in October titled How to Say Goodbye in Robot. Robot it very, very good. References to everything I love; late night radio, Female Trouble, and Beverly Cleary books. You know you love it. I kind of don't love the busted subplot about her friend's brother, but I figured they had to have some secret thing that ties them together. I have a hundred pages left, and I picked it as my vacation book so... kind of savoring the end. I have a feeling I will do it in one shot. Kind of wish I brought 'Wrinkle' along for the ride.

I have an Oscar Wilde play to read (always forget the name of it) for a Book Discussion Training at work, so I guess I'll read that next. All in all, my trip to NH is really good. No better place to catch up on all your reading.

We Built this [Geo]city

This is a little off topic as far as books are concerned, but while I was looking up an old romantic poem I wrote in high school for a random buzzers contest, I logged in to one of my old Geocities sites. I'm sort of dating myself here, but I was a computer nerd before it became trendy or cool. And Geocities was my jam. That's where I had many, many homepages back when I spoke HTML when I should been learning Spanish. My best website, The Coven of Amy, a tribute for the Buffy character Amy Madison, was even recognized and published in the now defunct Sci-Fi Teen. When you're 16 and have no friends, that's pretty awesome.

Well, when I logged in to retrieve this poem, a little message pops up saying that Geocities is officially shutting down in October of this year. I knew (and sort of stopped using G-cities) when it got bought out by Yahoo! and the ads went all wonky all the time. But to close all the geocities sites on the internet!? That's just plain bananas!

I'm going to try moving the Coven over to an old angelfire site I have set up, but... angelfire has deleted many a site from me more than one time with no cause or reason. Hopefully it's not like that if I put some work into moving everything over (and work it will be, since I largely forgot how to do all this stuff), but... geez. I wish there was a way to stop this from happening. It's sad. I'm inconsolable.

Reading Updates... and More!

So I just got a promotion at the library. It was no big deal though. They basically had to give it to me. Scott called them "loyalty raises" because you automatically get them at a certain point. My review actually made me mad. I didn't exceed the 'satisfactory' base at any point (even though there was a box higher to check) and in things like taking care of the building when I'm in charge and programming ideas, I definitely feel I do more than I should. I would have liked them to at least acknowledge that. I guess I should be happy I make slightly more money than before. And ya know, hang on to that.

FINALLY finished the first in "The Waking" series. I read it fast for me, but not as fast as I usually read Chris Golden's books (for instance, read 'Baltimore' A LOT faster last year). Finally moved on to "The Doom Machine" (isn't that just the best name?), followed possibly by "Happyface" or "How to Say Goodbye in Robot" or, possibly, both. In that order I think, because "Happyface" sounds slightly more interesting when I read the summery descriptions just now.

All in all, still kind of difficult to get back into the reading. "The Doom Machine" has been a good book so far, since it's very much like a modern day "My Teacher is an Alien" - with space travel and whatnot. It's bringing me back to those 3rd grade, 4th grade days when I actually picked up a book and read it for fun. They story is involving, too. I'm now officially shooting for one book a month, since I might actually be able to accomplish that.

Other random notes-

-Went to go see Transformers 2 tonight. Not as bad as everyone says it is. I mean, what were you expecting, people? A film worthy of an Oscar? I was entertained.
-I love Blick. There's one in NYC- near Bleecker St. They gave me a discount on my bulk glue order today. And future discounts for being a librarian. Love you guys.
-There's something called "Doctor Swatch" day where I guess you can go to a Swatch store and get yours fixed for free. Must. Go. to. That.
-Bought Jay Brannan tickets today. Hopefully, he'll want to go with me.

The End.