The View from the Leslie Library Windows: Iceberg!

Monday, February 2, 2015

Iceberg!

Came in to find our maintenance man trying to check the library doors to see if they would malfunction the way they did last week. They worked perfectly (of course!). We talked about the next time they did that, I'd call up to our office manager and she would call maintenance and tell his dispatcher and hopefully he'd be able to make it down to see for himself. Picked up another couple of aides today and wrote to our registrar that I really only want two a period. I had an aide tear down my old bulletin board and I managed to get the new one up! Even though I had no access to our color printer (we have a new one that isn't networked in yet), so since I was doing an iceberg theme, it would be fun to just do the bookcovers in black and white. We don't have quite the books the high schools do, so the pool was a bit less on what books we do have, so I included the books that will be out in films this year as well. One of the surplus books from the last drop, Worlds Apart, I hadn't packed up, so I went ahead and packed them up today. Six boxes. Pulled all the World Geography books and had them counted up, they will go on my new list. Need to put on all the High Point books and the Access History as well. We also got an email on the old math books that have been replaced, to sort through, the good and the bad to maybe keep some of the good ones, but get rid of the bad. Put two carts out for books. One from the day before (which was last Friday) and one for the new books that had come in today. So I was hoping the old cart would be all gone today and it was except for an aide that was gone today, and my last period aide who helped the staff prepare packets for the teacher meeting today. So, generally, a success. I still have a lot of kids that have overdue and now described as lost books. Every one of them has said "I turned that in." Ah, no. Worked with one of our technicians today on the library computer lab to see if we can get everything all set for the OAKS testing coming up. We did quite a bit of back and forth, ideas, what I've seen and done in there, what he sees, it was a good conversation. I worked on the book buying list for the last part of the year. I think I'm about half way there. Made some progress on the items I worried about all weekend! So, all is good!

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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.