Where on earth have I been?

Short answer: Apartment hunting, then simultaneously moving to a new apartment, visiting relatives (both mine and my partner's), and entertaining my mother-in-law for three weeks; also seeing some friends, trying to tidy up our new living quarters, reading, attempting to get some knitting done, spending time with my partner.

And on the work side - planning our ten-event, six-week Community Read program; trying to wrangle a current list of our volunteers and subsequently revamping our entire volunteer program to improve recordkeeping and bring us in line with Department of Labor guidelines, including writing a volunteer policy and creating a bunch of forms; trying to keep up with graphic novel ordering; fielding a bazillion calls/e-mails/in-person requests from people who want to do programs here (on this count I'm actually lucky, I think - I never have to scrounge for presenters/program ideas); running programs, including a book discussion for which I read The Age of Innocence three times; running most of the logistical stuff for an art show at the library; etc. etc. etc. ...

So, I've been busy, and thus not posting at all. Hopefully that will change as my life gets just a bit saner.

Read Something! _Black Hole_ (Charles Burns)

Black Hole
CHARLES BURNS
2005
Graphic Novel, Literary Fiction

Summary

The Seattle suburbs; the 1970s. A sexually transmitted disease called "the bug" is sweeping through the high school population. Those infected are physically transformed, in unique and often grotesque fashion. Chris is the girl that all the boys want. Keith is one of her admirers. When they each encounter "the bug" and the group of infected outcasts living in the woods, the resulting events will take them from home and profoundly alter their lives.

Appeal characteristics

• Plot: Positive ending (if not 100% happy)
• Plot: Open-ended conclusion; though the plot threads are wrapped up, the characters' stories don't feel totally finished
• Plot: At least three intersecting plot threads, one of which is not really obvious as a plot thread until its climax and conclusion
• Plot/Frame?: Coming of age story
• Frame?: Bizarre dream sequences (but outside of dreams, things feel "real" and logical)
• Frame?: Strong and frequent use of visual symbolism and repeated images
• Characterization: Teenage/high school characters
• Art: Grotesque imagery
• Art: Usually 4-6 regular-sized panels per page
• Art: Mostly black backgrounds with white figures; heavy shading

Other notes

• Moderately graphic depictions of sex and violence; male and female nudity; drug use.
• Rape is mentioned but not shown; the aftermath of rape is briefly depicted but not very explicitly.
• My Noting: Books entry for this book is here: http://notingbooks.com/users/hbackman/readings/6202-Black-Hole

Readalikes

• ???

Read Something! _The Secret Speech_ (Tom Rob Smith)

The Secret Speech
TOM ROB SMITH
2009
407 pp.
Thriller/Suspense, Historical Fiction
Sequel to Child 44

Summary

Having solved the serial murders of 44 children, Leo Demidov has been put in charge of a secret, newly created department to investigate homicides. But life is not easy. Leo struggles to win the affection of his two adopted daughters, in whose parents' death he played a role. Then a secret speech given by Khrushchev, Stalin's successor, is distributed to the entire nation. The speech portrays Stalin's regime as tyrannical, casts blame on those who supported it, and promises change.

At the same time, someone starts killing off former officers and collaborators from Stalin's regime. And the culprit has a particular interest in Leo, and in what he might be forced to do -- or to endure -- for the sake of a daughter who hates him.

Appeal characteristics

• Frame: Lots of historical/period detail; clearly thoroughly researched
• Characterization: Relationships between characters are very important/emphasized
• Characterization: Strong female characters
• Plot: Some subplots/parallel plots, but they tend to tie back in to the main plot somehow
• Plot: Elaborate plot with lots of twists and turns
  
• Pacing: Fast-paced; short chapters/sections

Other notes

• There is violence, but it is not extremely graphic
• My Noting: Books entry on The Secret Speech: http://notingbooks.com/users/hbackman/readings/6199-The-Secret-Speech

Readalikes

• ???

Read Something! _Rainbows End_ (Vernor Vinge)

Rainbows End
VERNOR VINGE
2006
381 pp.
Science Fiction

Summary

In the not-too-distant future, wearable computers enable people to be constantly hooked in to the Internet, even to overlay different "realities" upon the world around them. Alzheimer's, and many other maladies of old age, have been cured. And mass terrorism is a threat to civilization on a scale never before imagined.

When hints surface suggesting that someone in the United States may be on the verge of discovering a feasible method of mind control, the other world powers know that they must investigate - but covertly. With the help of a juvenile hacker of uncertain identity, they assemble a ring of unwitting accomplices to breach one of the most heavily secured biolabs in the United States.

But they cannot predict the chaotic effect of their independent-minded hired hacker on their operation. Nor do they know that one of their own is trying to sabotage the investigation...


Appeal characteristics

• Frame: Extensive worldbuilding
• Frame: Near-future setting that seems a plausible outgrowth of today's trends and technologies
• ??: World/plot focused (vs. character-focused)
• Plot: Elements of intrigue/spy thrillers
• Plot: Many loose ends are not tied up at the end; the book just sort of stops
• Pacing: Longish chapters
• Pacing: Slow through the first couple hundred pages, picks up when the major plot event occurs, then slows down again
• Characterization: Major character is (deliberately) distinctly unlikeable for the opening part of the story but undergoes a change
• Characterization: A variety of characters of different ages, races, stations in life, etc.

Other notes

• My Noting: Books entry for this book is here.

Readalikes

• ???

Read Something! _Mother, Come Home_ (Paul Hornschemeier)

Mother, Come Home
PAUL HORNSCHEMEIER
2009
unpaged
Graphic Novel / Literary Fiction

Summary

A boy and his father try to cope after the boy's mother dies. Mother, Come Home is a powerful exploration of how we can either overcome tragedy or be broken by it.

Appeal characteristics

• Frame: Told simply, from a child's perspective (although some comments are clearly those of an adult looking back) but nevertheless grapples with complex and difficult concepts
• Frame: Frequent and adept use of metaphor (usually visual)
• Plot: No happy ending
• Characterization: Main character is a child who has to deal with emotionally difficult situations
• ???: The art style is very clean; frames often just have a character or two in them and are not very "busy"

Other notes

• This book deals with death, mental illness, and suicide (though not in a particularly graphic fashion).
• My Noting: Books entry for this book: http://notingbooks.com/users/hbackman/readings/6062-Mother-Come-Home

Readalikes

• J. R. Ackerley, My Father and Myself? -- similar frame of a son looking back on a troubled relationship with his father, but honestly not much else that I can think of as similar; I don't know why this feels like a good readalike to me

Read Something! _The Hidden_ (Bill Pronzini)

The Hidden
BILL PRONZINI 
2010 
210 pp.
Suspense?/General Fiction

Summary

Jay Macklin and his wife, Shelby, are off on a Christmas getaway to a remote cabin on the northern California coast. Jay hopes for a last few days of happiness before he must reveal a secret that might mean the end of their already rocky marriage.

But the couple gets far more than they bargained for when they find themselves trapped by violent storms, their only neighbors a set of two couples whose relationships are ugly on the verge of becoming violent -- and in the heart of a stretch of coastline haunted by a serial killer.

Appeal characteristics

• ???: Basically no way to identify the killer before the very end of the book, but some red herrings that keep you guessing
• Characterization: All characters (except those immediately dispatched by the killer as soon as they are encountered) play at least a minimally important role; there aren't a lot of extraneous people walking around
• Plot vs. characterization: Heavy focus on characters for an ostensible suspense novel; much of the middle of the book is about Jay and Shelby's relationship, Jay's psychological state, etc.
• Plot: Characters have major problems that are often surmounted with relatively little effort when the plot requires them to be resolved
• Pacing: Fast-paced beginning with lots of mysteries, revelations, and suspense; a lull in the middle; an action-packed end where all of the surviving major characters are placed in mortal peril at least once
• Pacing: All plot threads are wrapped up very quickly at the end
• Pacing: Short chapters
• Frame: Atmospheric in tone, with a general mood/feeling/atmosphere built up through careful use of detail and allusion
• Frame: Third person limited point of view, alternating between Jay and Shelby's perspectives with an occasional chapter from the killer's point of view

Other notes

• This book is not suspenseful in the gripping, heart pounding way I would expect from something marketed as "a novel of suspense." Perhaps it is literary suspense, but honestly I don't really find it suspenseful at all (which is not to say that it was not engaging or did not keep me interested).
• My Noting: Books entry for this book: http://notingbooks.com/users/hbackman/readings/6057-The-Hidden-A-Novel-of

Readalikes

• ???

Read Something! _Swift Justice_ (Laura DiSilverio)

Swift Justice
LAURA DISILVERIO
2010
290 pp.
Mystery/Chick Lit

Summary

Charlotte "Charlie" Swift's private investigation business is finally breaking even. Her life is self-contained and self-sufficient, save for the occasional drink with her neighbor or romantic overtures from cop Connor Montgomery.

Then her silent partner flees the country, and Charlie learns that his abandoned wife, Gigi, wants to hold on to the half-share of the business left by her husband and to be a partner -- but decidedly not a silent one. As Charlie tries to track down the mother of an abandoned baby, she sends Gigi on assignments that will hopefully put her off of PI work forever.

But then the baby's mother turns up dead, and multiple different people claim that the infant belongs with them. As Charlie works to untangle the mess, she finds that she may need all the help she can get.

Appeal characteristics

• Frame?: Humor generously interspersed (often "slapstick" or goofy humor)
• Frame: Mostly written in first person with a few third person limited passages
• Frame: Lots of details are given about clothing, decor, etc.
• Frame?: Charlie is threatened but never is placed in really serious danger; the book is generally to light to bear that
• Plot: The case is not 100% resolved but the important facts are revealed
• Plot: Female main character's love life is a fairly minor subplot, but regularly comes up as she periodically dates/flirts with/feels attracted to various male characters
• Plot: Multiple subplots going on at once
• Characterization: There are multiple minor characters, each with a defining characteristic or quirk (e.g. sexy cop, priest with a mysterious past, chauvinistic fundamentalist kook, ...)
• Characterization: Strong female main character who can take care of herself, including physically - but who also has a more feminine romantic side brought out by men she's attracted to
• Plot vs. Characterization: Unraveling the case is one focus of the book, but the development of Charlie and Gigi's relationship is another
• Pacing: Suspense increases toward the end

Other notes

• My Noting: Books entry for this book: http://notingbooks.com/users/hbackman/readings/6056-Swift-Justice-A-Mystery-Thomas

Readalikes

• ???

Read Something! _The Story of a Marriage_ (Andrew Sean Greer)

The Story of a Marriage
ANDREW SEAN GREER
2008
195 pp.
Literary Fiction

Summary

"We think we know the ones we love," says Pearlie Cook. But when a stranger appears on her doorstep, Pearlie discovers that her husband has secrets she never could have guessed. Given an offer of freedom as yet unknown to her, for six months Pearlie struggles to understand who her husband really is, and what her own deepest desires might be.

Set in California in 1953 -- a world just out of one war and already engulfed in another, where the slightest hint of nonconformity is severely repressed, The Story of a Marriage is a novel about coming to know ourselves and the people we love, about the damage war does even to those who do not fight, and about the battles we fight to gain and keep our heart's desire.

Appeal characteristics

• Plot: Love triangle
• Characterization: Characters' histories are slowly revealed over the course of the whole book, gradually deepening our understanding of them as we learn new secrets
• Plot/Characterization: Character-focused book; the point is the development of each major character and the relationships between them -- not much actually "happens", plotwise
• Pacing: Fairly slow pacing
• Frame: Meditative/introspective tone
• Frame: First person narration
• Frame: Some plot events and character backgrounds are integrated with real historical events of World War II and the early 1950s
• Frame: The historical setting, while important, is not overemphasized; it is significant that the book is set in 1953 but more for atmospheric/thematic reasons than for the use of period detail (of which there is relatively little)

Readalikes

• The Hours (Michael Cunningham)? Similar time setting (for one of the plots), focus on characters, literary writing... but honestly it has been several years since I read this and I do not have a solid idea as to why my brain is coming up with this as a suggestion

Read Something! _Ender's Game_ (Orson Scott Card)

Ender's Game

ORSON SCOTT CARD
1977
324 pp.
Science Fiction

Summary 

Decades ago, the buggers attacked. Then they attacked again. The next wave may spell the end of humanity's existence. Ender, a genius child, is in training to become the leader of the human forces in the next war with the buggers. But will the training itself break him -- or his enemies kill him -- before he graduates? And is even Ender enough of a leader and strategist to beat the buggers once and for all?

Appeal characteristics

• Plot: One major plot, with one distinct subplot occasionally developed (and one semi-subplot, not really a plot but a trajectory followed by other characters that we see unfolding as well)
• Characterization: Character-focused -- emphasis is on Ender's thoughts, emotions, and experience
• Characterization: All major characters are genius children
• Characterization: Most characters other than Ender (and Valentine?) seem a bit sketched out -- they feel like real people and yet we do not know a whole lot about them; Ender is very clearly the center of this book
• Frame: Some ethical questions are raised (e.g. relating to destroying other species, the ethics of profoundly damaging one person to save the human race, etc.) but are not very deeply explored -- although the text is open enough to allow the reader to do that thinking/exploration on his/her own
• Pacing: Card gives us several scenes from around the same time period, then skips forward by months to years at a time; as the book goes on the gaps in time are greater

Other notes

• My Noting: Books entry on Ender's Game: (not available currently; at the time of this posting notingbooks.com was down)

Readalikes

• ???

Tiny ponies

(Note to folks reading this on Facebook: If you could come to the actual post on my blog to reply to this one, I'd be grateful. It would be nice to have a discussion visible to people other than my Facebook friends. ;)  )

If you have not recently had cause to Google "tiny pony apple", then you may not have seen this amusing blog post about a small horse the author encountered in an Apple store that no one else in the store seemed to notice.

The post itself is very funny, but I'm not highlighting it here because of its humor. After telling his story, the author makes a broader point:

Since then, John and I have a term called a “tiny pony.” It is a thing that is exceptional that no one, for whatever reason, notices. Or, conversely, it is an exceptional thing that everyone notices, but quickly grows acclimated to despite the brilliance of it all.

Cell phones and the ability to make a phone call to anyone from anywhere is a tiny pony. The instant gratification provided by being able to have almost any question answered immediately is a tiny pony. Airplanes are tiny ponies. A black president, whose father is from Kenya and mother is from Kansas, being elected President of the United States is a tiny pony.

When does the magic of a situation fade? When do we get acclimated to the exceptional?Is this how we get by? Would anything get done if we were constantly gobsmacked? Is this how we survive, how we stay sane? We define a pattern, no matter how exceptional, and acclimate ourselves to it?

In the library world, I think we spend a lot of time talking about how to better market ourselves and the services we provide to our patrons. A lot of the time, the problem is that people aren't really aware of what we do. But I think that some of the problem is also that people know what we do but don't stop to think about how great it is that we can do these things for them.

What are the tiny ponies in libraries? How can we encourage the public to be consciously aware of these things? Is there a way to keep our clientele from getting "acclimated to the exceptional" when they interact with libraries, to maintain a high level of awareness and appreciation of the things we can do?

It seems to me that if we can answer these questions, we can start finding some really good ways to develop a deep sense of attachment and engagement in more of our patrons. We provide potentially memorable experiences to patrons every day. How can we help our patrons to view them as really memorable/exceptional/impressive?