Monday, October 27, 2014

New Craft Books

Craft Fail, when homemade goes horribly wrong by Heather Mann (2014) is a laugh-out-loud collection of pieces from crafter and blogger, Heather Mann who has immortalized those moments when the nifty little craft you saw on Pinterest and attempted to reproduce just turns into a lumpy blob, making you join the legions of crafters who realize, "I'm no Martha Stewart!"
Ms. Mann tells us that failure is all part of the learning process, an important part and a pretty funny one too as the examples in her book Craft Fail clearly show.

For examples of funny fails, take a look at her blog 'Craft Fail, where crafters go to fail' http://craftfail.com/
and be sure to check out her book for more laughs.

Monday, October 13, 2014

Browsing the New Non-Fiction Shelf

Working in a library presents constant temptation when new books come in or when browsing through the stacks and happening upon books that look too good to pass up. Like everyone else though, librarians and library staff can't read everything even though we work surrounded by thousands of books. Here are some interesting finds from the new non-fiction shelf today. Check them out and let me know how you like them. Be sure to come in and browse the new books sections for more tempting titles.
'The Hungry Family Slow Cooker Cookbook' by Christina Dymock. Fall seems like a good time of year to dust of the old crock pot (now called a slow cooker) and create some yummy stews, soups and even desserts. 641.5884 DYM 

'The Mom Inventors Handbook, how to turn your great idea into the next big thing' by Tamara Monosoff. Do you wake up at night with nifty ideas that you just know would sell if you just knew how to market it, get the copyright and so on? This is the book for  you. 658.1 MON

'Treat Petites, tiny sweets and savory pleasures' by Fiona Pearce. Teeny, tiny desserts, so small they barely count calorie-wise, right? The pictures in this little cookbook will make you hungry enough to either run to a bakery or whip up a batch of cute little cupcakes or meringues. 641.86 PEA

'I Just Graduated... Now What? Honest answers from those who have been there' by Kathrerine Schwarzenegger. 646.7 SCH For the perennial problem of what to do with a liberal arts degree as well as for any college graduate, celebrities offer stories from their own career experiences. I think parents should hand this kind of book to kids before they pick their major, but this advice may be better late than never.

Thursday, October 2, 2014

'Gone Girl' is back in demand at the library

In 2012 the library acquired many copies of Gillian Flynn's 2012 mega-bestseller 'Gone Girl' to keep up with demand. Topping the 'New York Times' bestseller list for months, in demand by bookgroups and readers of mysteries, we could barely keep up with the lengthy reserve lists for the book. Then demand quieted down for a year or so - until this week. The movie starring Ben Affleck will open tomorrow, the reviews are pretty good and the advertising and p.r. for the film are ubiquitous, so we brought the books up out of storage and put them on display. (Thanks to library staffer A-M S. for that idea:-) Library  patrons instantly checked out every single copy we own and the book is probably checked out at most public libraries and trending on book sales this week.
Our library book group read and discussed 'Gone Girl' a year ago in September and our imaginary blog correspondents, Marian the Librarian and Fleur the Frog wrote 'Gone Girl, the definitive review' in alternating parts to mimic the conflicting points of view of married couple Amy and Nick Dunne that Ms. Flynn uses in her book. In the review, Marian the Librarian presents a dark, obsessive point of view teetering into madness. Fleur the Frog presents a cheerful facade masking a dark side. Both Fleur and Marian frankly seem a bit unhinged, possibly from reading this book and possibly from identifying with the characters in the book a bit too much. To say that this book takes the idea of the unreliable narrator to extremes is an understatement. The twist at the end is worthy of Alfred Hitchcock and Patricia Highsmith. The creepiness of the characters turns off a lot of readers, but the page-turning suspense will probably make you want to finish the book anyway.
Did the book group like 'Gone Girl?' Well, yes and no. The verdict: it is readable, entertaining, clever, and original, but the main characters are so loathsome that most book group readers found it all a bit unsettling. Still, I would recommend this book to most readers of fiction and mysteries. Just wait a few weeks until the movie is gone, and then the copies will all be back on the library shelves.
The 'Gone Girl' review from last year follows: thanks again to 'special' correspondents Marian and Fleur. We hope they are reading happier books and are recovering from their 'Gone Girl' experience.

Gone Girl: the definitive review

MARIAN THE LIBRARIAN
THE DAY OF THE BOOK GROUP MEETING

When I think of my book group, I always think about how many people will come to the meeting, how many will have read the book, did they like the book, should I have questions ready to ask about the book? The book group starts in 45 minutes. Where to start? I finally read the mega-bestselling thriller/mystery Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (2012) and I did not go into the reading with an open mind. People either love this book or hate it. The opinions I heard from patrons at the library and from friends and family and the reviews I read had already made me dread reading it. I don't like to read bestsellers; they sell themselves; I like to read literary orphans. I don't like dark books with twisted characters; I like sunny distractions, the book equivalent of a situation comedy on television.

FLEUR THE FROG
AUGUST 26, 2013
JOURNAL ENTRY

Tra and la! I am a happy frog blogger reading the nifty bestseller for the library book group. I am so happy I finally got my book from the holds list so I can see what all the excitement is about this huge bestseller. I put the book in my perfect little froggy book bag and went home to make a cup of green tea and sat down with great anticipation to read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Even though she's not a frog, I hear she's a really good writer. My parents are the famous authors of the 'Fantastic Fleur the Frog' series about the perfect little frog who always does the right thing. They based the books on me because I'm perfect and always cheerful and also I like to make up puzzles just like Fantastic Fleur does.
1. Do I pretend to like this book even if I don't?
2. Do I just read reviews and get back to my fun books that I want to read.
3. Do I read the book, take notes, write a review and ask questions from a list at the book group meeting?
Answer: I think you know that Fantastic Fleur will do #3, don't you? Don't you? You don't? Oh, I might have to punish you, dear reader.

MARIAN THE LIBRARIAN
THE EVENING OF THE BOOK GROUP DISCUSSION OF GONE GIRL

The clock on my computer says 6:56 PM so I have to finish my review before the group meets. I have read the book. I'm not sure I liked the book. The book was compulsively readable, but nasty. Oh, I feel so dirty. It drew me in, and I ate it up, but I hated the characters and the plot was so contrived and unbelievable at the end, but I kept reading anyway. I felt like putting it down and reading something fun like Alexander McCall Smith, something light and sunny and uncomplicated, not dark and twisted like Amy and Nick Dunne's story. But that would be cheating. On the book, turning my back on the book group. So I read it. I couldn't help myself. I loved this book, but I hate it too, I just don't know how to tell the truth about this book.

FLEUR THE FROG
AUGUST 29, 2013
JOURNAL ENTRY

I'm so fantastic. I finished the book in less than three days! Here's a quiz I made up about the book:
1. Do you hate Amy or Nick more?
2. Did you guess what the plot twist was?
3. Did you want to kill Amy more than Nick does?
4. Did you want to make as much money as that lawyer of Nicks?
Answer: all of the above!!! Duh.

MARIAN THE LIBRARIAN
ONE MONTH GONE SINCE I CHECKED OUT THIS BOOK

You can "Google" the title and find reviews and, as the vernacular saying goes, unless you've been living under a rock,  you know that this book is the story of a marriage, a failed marriage, between two really twisted people. On their fifth wedding anniversary Amy, the wife, disappears and soon after, Nick the husband is suspected of her murder. The book is told from the point of view of Nick alternating with Amy's journal entries chronicling the story of their marriage up until the day of her disappearance. The second part of the book, and here's the spoiler, is told from Amy in the present tense and continues with Nick's narration too.
Quiz:
1.Did you see the spoiler there?
2. Did you see it coming? I did.
3.Do you feel cheated, manipulated as a reader or
4. Do you just not care anymore.
Oh, wait, I'm Marian, not Fleur. Fleur's the character who makes up quizzes.  I think our characters are merging. Help I hate that frog, I love that frog, I am a frog.

Posted by Fleur: Fleur's other contributions to the blog
Posted by Marian the Librarian: Ms. Librarian's previous posts