The View from the Leslie Library Windows: Lots of Things

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Lots of Things

Can I just say I love my job? Just everything about it, and even the drive in. On my way I get to pass Crossler Middle School and they have these amazingly beautiful trees all turning color. Spectacular! Today I came in and put away 6 boxes of paper for the big copier in the workroom and loaded up the mega tray. Had one of our aides dust all the shelves in the back, especially around the bottoms. Checked out a student leaving us. Checked out a second set of books to another student that is on crutches. We got in college writing books, Longman Readers, so I redid the workbook price sheet that we have each year. Sent an e-mail on old german workbooks that we no longer need to Follett to see if they want them. Checked out some books to a teacher. Checked out another book to a staff member for a student (the student already had a book out to her, but it was at home). Processed in our replacement Biology book. Shifted some math shelves. Need to do more! Mrs. A came and walked me through the freshmen agenda for next Wednesday. My book repair supply box was a mess, so I revamped it. We got in a delivery of books that I don't know what to do with! So I will see what Mrs. H knows when we all come back on Monday. Went around the computer labs to see if the keyboard keys were in the right spots. Some of the students have been flipping them off, losing them, turning them around. It's a problem. Mr. B showed me how to get the last student off the computers, so I wrote down their names and sent an e-mail to Mrs. H on them. Worked on repairing an old humungous dictionary and also repaired the three Realidades books that had some very minor damage. Better than sending them back. Some students were freaking out about a dead spider on the bottom of the 300's shelves, so I got some wet tissue and picked it up and threw it away for them. Worked on my fantasy list for books to read. Turned off monitors for the weekend. Stayed another 20 minutes so a student could finish an assignment from watching a DVD. She was grateful and got it all taken care of. And of course, the usuals.

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What I'm Reading

The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris was a great non-fiction read! Love a good non-fiction! Joseph Lister worked hard, studied hard, never gave up on his ideas that something outside was causing untold numbers of people to die after surgery. His quest to find the answer was long overdue and he was the one to craft it and make it a medical standard. Brilliant!
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy by Emmanuel Acho was so good. I liked it even better than Stamped. His honest and open look at what is was like for him growing up really brings the issues into focus. Highly recommended!
Verify by Joelle Charbonneau - what if everything went digital which gave the government and people in power a way to change history, past and current. What happened to some words, like the word 'verify' that is no longer in the digital dictionary. Meri has lost her mom and her dad drowns sorrow in liquor. Meri is entranced by her mom's last art pieces and is given a slip of paper (the horror! what about the trees? recycling?) and on it is the word 'verify'. Atlas gives her a dictionary, a paper one and an old history textbook. Meri jumps on the train with him so they can change the world.
Kalahari by Jessica Khoury - what a ride! I even took this home one night to finish! Sarah lives with her dad doing research deep in the Kalahari. A group of students are sent to see if they can qualify for a grant and when her dad goes missing when he heads off after poachers, she is left to take care of them. Her dad doesn't return and the poachers are after them. They come across a white lion stalking them, but wait? It isn't white it's something else. They come across a lab and realize there is a virus, that has been let loose on the Kalahari that could destroy the whole world. So exciting!! Great ending as well!
The Year of the Buttered Cat by Susan Haas with Lexi Haas - Okay. I have to admit that I got this book because of the title. Buttered cats, what an intriguing thought! But the real intrigue is the persistence, the optimism of Lexi. Because of jaundice, she was disabled and this story is about her decision to take a chance on ground breaking surgery to try and get some mobility, speech and live her gifts. She has five she had to find. Read it for Lexi (and maybe to find out about that buttered cat).
Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram. There are spaces only you can fill, and Darius learns this as his family travels to Iran to see his grandfather who is dying. Along the way he deals with his depression, makes a friend, has innumerable Star Trek references and also learns that it's okay, to not be okay. I must admit, I had to look up some of the places he got to visit. What a rich heritage. I thought Zoroastrians were long gone, but no, they are still practicing today in Iran. Great book, totally okay.
The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin - perfect book lover tale of a woman captivated by a man and a bookstore and how she made more impact on her fellow book lovers and the man who got her to read than any bomb that fell during the Blitz. Very lovely!
The Girl From the Channel Islands by Jenny Lecoat - Lovely WW2 story by Jenny who actually grew up on one of the Channel Islands. Hedy fled Austria only to find her island haven invaded by the Germans. And though she is wary, she falls in love with a German officer. The twists and turns of German occupation test them both as each find a way to help the allied forces win.
Ancestor Approved edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith. I loved these short stories that all center around a modern day Native American Powwow. My fave was Rez Dog and they were all a great window into culture that I have rarely seen. I watched some videos on Fancy Dancing because of this and I would love to attend one, but feel a bit like a looky loo if I did. Fun, eye opening and full of information. Loved it!
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams Loved this fictionalized tale of the daughter of one of the lexicographers of the first ever Oxford Dictionary. As Esme goes from hiding under the sorting table, to one day being a lexicographer herself, we see her story unfold along with the people attached to the dictionary. It was really wonderful as we glimpsed her life and how the words she found and rescued formed the backbone of this novel. Really well done. It will stay on my shelves.