Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Update on life, liberty and the pursuit of a new job...

It's been a while since I posted an update on my job search. Probably because there is NOTHING to report. Ha!

Well, that sounds a little discouraging, and truthfully, it is. I have put out several applications in and around the area where we want to live - public libraries, academic libraries, librarian positions, higher paying non-librarian positions, full time, part time, basically anything that I am qualified for and think that I have a possibility of getting.

But alas...

I did have a phone interview a couple of weeks ago, but I was sent an email the other day saying that I wasn't quite the candidate they needed, and they went another way. Boo. At least I got an interview, though. I applied for "the PERFECT job" a month or so ago (Full time, children's librarian, doing exactly what I have been doing for the past 5 years), and I didn't even get a call. Bastards. Do they not know what they are missing out on?!?! I'm FABULOUS!!!!

But, whatever. I am just pissy because my dear husband has already moved without me (we decided that both of us moving without a job/benefits is simply the stupidest thing ever). He transferred with his company, and is currently working and looking for a place for us to live. Which is not easy because 1) everything in our price range is CRAP, and 2) we have NO idea where I am going to be working, which makes choosing a place to live terribly difficult. **sigh**

Anyway, that's basically what's going on here in RealLibrarianLand. Boooooo-ring, right?

So, I'll leave you with a clip of something that totally cracked me up. But only because I love the Muppets.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

It's just ducky!

Yesterday, the cutest book jumped off the new book shelf at me, and so it was then decided that this week's story time would be about ducks!! Here are the books I chose this week:\

Ducks Don't Wear Socks by John Nedwidek


Giggle Giggle Quack by Doreen Cronin


It's Quacking Time! by Martin Waddell

**previous duck story time**

And, since it's Tuesday, it's FMRNS!!!!!!!!! Last week, we watched All the Mornings of the World (Tous les matins du monde), a foreign film from 1991 with Jean-Pierre Marielle and Gerard Depardieu.

This week, we are totally switching gears. We've decided to watch The Queens of Comedy from 2001 with Adele Givens, Laura Hayes, Mo'Nique, and Sommore. YAY!!!


And, hey, if you haven't already, you should totally enter my giveaway!!!

Saturday, August 23, 2008

My First Giveaway!!

I have posted a couple notices of book giveaways these past few weeks, and I decided that I want in on the fun!! Meaning, I am going to host my very first giveaway!! GO ME!!!! Gotta tell ya, this is pretty exciting!!!

An ARC (Advanced Readers Copy - unedited) of Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin!!!

From Publishers Weekly:

A chance encounter with an old flame in Giffin's bittersweet, sometimes mawkish fourth novel causes Ellen Dempsey to consider anew what could have been. Shortly after marrying Andy, Ellen runs into Leo, her intense first love. Leo, a moody writer, has secretly preoccupied Ellen ever since he broke her heart, so after seeing him again, Ellen wonders if her perfect life is truly what she wants or simply what she was expected to want. This scenario is complicated by Ellen's past: the early death of her mother and subsequent disintegration of her family have left Ellen insecure and saddled with unresolved feelings of guilt. These feelings intensify when Andy's career takes the newlyweds from Ellen's beloved New York City to suburban Atlanta. As Ellen's feelings of inadequacy and resentment grow, her marriage begins to crumble. The novel is sometimes bogged down by characters so rooted in type that they, and the story line, can only move in the most obvious trajectory. However, Giffin's self-aware narrator and focus on troubled relationships will satisfy those looking for a light women's lit fix.

I loved this book and thought it was a great read. If you have read and liked anything else by Emily Giffin (Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Baby Proof), then you will most likely enjoy this book!!

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post! That's it! Can you believe it? The contest will run until Tuesday, September 2nd, and I'll announce a winner on Wednesday, September 3rd. Be sure to leave a way for me to contact you (email address, blog link), or check back on Wednesday, Sept. 3 to see if you won!! Sorry - open to U.S. and Canadian residents only.

Good Luck!!!!!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Another cool giveaway!!

Bookroomreview's Weblog is having a Sweet Life Book and Chocolate Giveaway!!! Head on over to the site and leave a comment to enter!

Good luck!!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Nighty-night Tuesday

Welcome to story time day!! I decided to read Bedtime Stories this morning. There are always so many great bedtime books to choose from, and I found three awesome ones!!!

The Napping House by Audrey Wood


Some Babies Sleep by Cynthia Cotten


Shhhhh! Everybody's Sleeping by Julie Markes


(A link to previous Bedtime story time)

And it's FMRNS!!!! WHOOOOT!!!! A and I have gotten together this past weekend, and are really getting close to the end of our list! We had a double feature on Saturday (after we went and had an amazing lunch at Red Lobster!), and watched Duck Soup, a Marx brothers film from 1933, and The Little Foxes, a drama from 1941 with Bette Davis and Herbert Marshall.

This week, we are going to watch All the Mornings of the World (Tous les matins du monde), a foreign film from 1991 with Jean-Pierre Marielle and Gerard Depardieu.



Sunday, August 17, 2008

Library question of the day

Lady Patron: Excuse me, the computer over there says "Out of Service." What does that mean?
Real Librarian: Um, it's out of service - meaning it's broken.
LP: (in a shocked tone) Oh, no way. Huh.

Friday, August 15, 2008

How many with your name?

A friend of mine posted this on a message board that I frequent, and I thought I would share it with you!! Find out how many people in the US share your name!!


HowManyOfMe.com
LogoThere are
47
people with my name in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

Thursday, August 14, 2008

A Book Giveaway!!

My friend Amanda over at Life and Times of a "New" New Yorker is having a Giveaway!!! She's giving away a hardback copy of Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on her blog - cool!!! The contest is open until August 22, but you should hurry over there to enter!!

More info via this link.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Fahrenheit what?

Teenage Girl: Do you have Fahrenheit 126?
Real Librarian: Do you mean Fahrenheit 451?
TG: Whatever.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Scrubba Tuesday!

Happy Tuesday, everyone!!! This morning, I decided to find some good stories about Bath Time! It's been a while since I've done this theme, and I found some really cute books!!!

Little Bunny's Bathtime! by Jane Johnson


To Bathe a Boa by C. Imbior Kudrna


Scrubba Dub by Nancy Van Laan


(Previous Bath Time Story Time)

And, of course, it's FMRNS!!! I think I caught you all up on all the movies we watched last week. We didn't manage to watch The Bells of St. Mary's, a drama from 1945, with Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. so I think that's what's on the schedule for tonight.

Our Weeds marathon on Sunday was freakin AWESOME!!!! I just love that show - and all of the characters are spot on. Everyone brings such a great air to the show!!! Anyway, now I am DYING to watch Season 4!!!

Sunday, August 10, 2008

A fabulous week!!

Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged. Things have just been going really smoothly, and I've been caught up in this fabulous week. I think we left things off on Tuesday, which is just fabulous in itself.

Well, for those who didn't know, it was my birthday on Wednesday!! I turned a lovely 29 years old - though I've been telling people that it was the first anniversary of my 28th birthday. haha (and not because I am afraid of turning 30, but just because I think it's funny!) Anyway, I took the day off work (because iI don't believe people should work on their birthday), and enjoyed the hell out of it. I spent most of my time sitting on my balcony and reading. I did get a couple errands run (like selling my old books to a bookstore), but mostly I just enjoyed relaxing.

Wednesday night, my friend A and I had Bonus Night of FMRNS. We were also stoked because it was the final dance show of Shoobie (aka So You Think You Can Dance). It was fabulous, of course! I would have been happy no matter which of the top four won. After Shoobie, we watched Awakenings, a drama from 1990 with Robert De Niro and Robin Williams.

Thursday, I decided to take half a day off because I have the time and felt like I should. So, once again, I spent much of the day sitting on my balcony and reading. I finished The Last Summer (of you and me) by Ann Brashares, and it was a great book!! She did a great job of telling the story and I really felt for the characters. Thanks to Amanda for the recommendation!!

Anyway, Thursday came and I couldn't not watch the finale of Shoobie without my friend A! So, I headed back over there for an extra FMRNS Bonus Night! We were excited to be able to watch the finale of Shoobie together, since we both thought I would be moved by now. But this is not the case, and we are taking advantage!

For our Bonus Night movie, we watched Silk Stockings, a musical from 1957 with Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse. Oh, the music! Oh, the dancing! It seemed like the perfect movie to go along with the finale of Shoobie!!!

Friday was my normal day off. In the morning, I started doing some packing (getting ready for the move, ugh. I HATE packing!) After I felt I got a nice chunk done, I decided to, once again, spend a lot of time on the balcony just reading. I got my copy of Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer from a friend for my birthday and was finally able to get started on it.

Saturday was another lazy day, though I did do more than read. I had lunch with a good friend (Thanks again for lunch, M!!! We'll have to do it again soon!!!) at the Olive Garden and got to see some pictures from her wedding (beautiful!). After more reading (and finishing Breaking Dawn!), I went over to another friends house for a barbecue with my closest friends in Nashville. It was exactly what I wanted in a birthday party. Very chill, with kabobs on the grill and corn on the cob, and a Bloody Mary bar!!! It felt so good to be just hanging out with them. Thanks to all of you for making it so awesome!!!!!! You guys TOTALLY rock my face off!!!

Today is going to be another fabulous day, to be sure! My friend A and I are going to have a Weeds Season 3 Marathon!!!! We are so excited - we have been dying to find out what happens since our last Weeds Marathon (which would have been a LOOOOONG time ago - when season 2 came out)!!

As you can see - its been an awesome week. I don't know how I am going to go back to work tomorrow!! Yuck.




Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Story time socks

I hate socks. Even in the winter. Well, that's not completely true, because they do keep my feet warm. But, in the summer? Never!!! I'm not even really a big fan of shoes to tell you the truth. When I was growing up on the farm in po-dunk, North Dakota, I never wore shoes in the summer. I would run around barefoot EVERYWHERE, and I loved it. I learned to drive barefoot, and I wish I never had to wear shoes ever.

But I digress...

Today, because I found a TOTALLY cute book about Socks, I decided that it would be a good story time idea. So, even though I am not a fan, I am sure the kids will be!!

Where's my Sock? by Joyce Dunbar


Lucky Socks by Carrie Weston


New Socks by Bob Shea


WHOOOOT for Tuesday!! Of course, it's FMRNS!! YAY!!! A and I were able to get together last week for a Bonus Night Double Feature, and we watched a couple of fabulous movies (as if you had any doubt!). Friday night's double feature included The Littlest Rebel, a Shirley Temple movie from 1935, and Aliens, a horror from 1986 with Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn.

I'm not 100% sure what we are going to watch tonight - there are quite a few options. We have SO many to choose from!! A couple of possible choices are The Bells of St. Mary's, a drama from 1945, with Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. Another possible choice is All the Mornings of the World (Tous les matins du monde), a foreign film from 1991 with Jean-Pierre Marielle and Gerard Depardieu. But there are quite a few others... I'll be sure to let you know which one we pick!!



Monday, August 4, 2008

I want you to hush.

So a very patient and calm sounding mom and her very whiny son (about 4 years old) just walked past my desk.

Whiny Son: Mooooooooooooooooooom...
Mom: I want you to hush.
WS: Whhhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyyyy?
Mom: Because I don't want to listen to you anymore.

Well, there's a good answer, huh?

Sunday, August 3, 2008

That time of year again

Ah, the joys of summer. The long days hanging out with friends, the vacations and beach trips, the lazy afternoons devoted to Guitar Hero and Wii...

And then, before you know it, the first day of school is looming right around the corner. And to make matters worse... you just realized that you haven't even started your summer reading list for school!!!!

Yup, it's a mad rush to get those popular summer reading titles that hundreds of other students all around the city are rushing to read. Now, we at the library have plenty of these titles by normal standards. But the mad rush for these books takes everything to a whole 'notha level.

Anyway, we don't have enough of each title for every student in the city to read at the same time, so the kids are freaking out. No, that's not true...the kids still don't really care. The PARENTS are freaking out. "I NEED this book for my son" shouts a mother with a bored looking 13 year old by her side. "What do you MEAN you don't have a copy!?" Exclaims a dad who hasn't even bothered to bring his daughter. And my favorite, "I can't believe you are so unprepared for students and their summer reading lists!" says a perfectly coiffed mom with perfectly manicured nails and the perfect summery outfit (complete with spiky heeled sandals and sparkle-y diamond jewelry).

Um, I'm sorry, what? *I'm* unprepared?!?! Say nothing of your child who has waited to the last minute (school starts in exactly one week from tomorrow) to start reading their required titles. Say nothing about the fact that you obviously didn't think it necessary to prompt your child to read said titles until a week before school starts.

Well, whatever. Not my problem. I do what I can, and I am as helpful as I can be.

Obviously, this was a problem last year, too...

Saturday, August 2, 2008

What I've been reading

Well, it's been a while since my last "what are you reading" post, so I thought I would share a little about what I have been reading lately.

First up is Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner. This is the sequel to Good in Bed. It was pretty good as far as sequels go!! I really enjoyed it! Here's a review from Publishers Weekly:

Following the story collection The Guy Not Taken, Weiner turns in a hilarious sequel to her 2001 bestselling first novel, Good in Bed, revisiting the memorable and feisty Candace Cannie Shapiro. Flashing forward 13 years, the novel follows Cannie as she navigates the adolescent rebellion of her about-to-be bat mitzvahed daughter, Joy, and juggles her writing career; her relationship with her physician husband, Peter Krushelevansky; her ongoing weight struggles; and the occasional impasse with Joy's biological father, Bruce Guberman. Joy, whose premature birth resulted in her wearing hearing aids, has her own amusing take on her mother's overinvolvement in her life as the novel, with some contrivance, alternates perspectives. As her bat mitzvah approaches, Joy tries to make contact with her long absent maternal grandfather and seeks more time with Bruce. In addition, unbeknownst to Joy, Peter has expressed a desire to have a baby with Cannie, which means looking for a surrogate mother. Throughout, Weiner offers her signature snappy observations: (good looks function as a get-out-of-everything-free card) and spot-on insights into human nature, with a few twists thrown in for good measure. She expends some energy getting readers up to speed on Good, but readers already involved with Cannie will enjoy this, despite Joy's equally strong voice. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The next one I read is Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. I have been told by several people that I really need to read some of his stuff, and I finally picked this book up. I am SO glad I did - HILARIOUS!!! Like laugh out loud funny. Laugh out loud in random places so that the other people around you stop and stare funny. Seriously. My favorite chapter - Jesus Shaves. You'll understand why. Anyway, here's a review from Amazon:

David Sedaris became a star autobiographer on public radio, onstage in New York, and on bestseller lists, mostly on the strength of "SantaLand Diaries," a scathing, hilarious account of his stint as a Christmas elf at Macy's. (It's in two separate collections, both worth owning, Barrel Fever and the Christmas-themed Holidays on Ice.) Sedaris's caustic gift has not deserted him in his fourth book, which mines poignant comedy from his peculiar childhood in North Carolina, his bizarre career path, and his move with his lover to France. Though his anarchic inclination to digress is his glory, Sedaris does have a theme in these reminiscences: the inability of humans to communicate. The title is his rendition in transliterated English of how he and his fellow students of French in Paris mangle the Gallic language. In the essay "Jesus Shaves," he and his classmates from many nations try to convey the concept of Easter to a Moroccan Muslim. "It is a party for the little boy of God," says one. "Then he be die one day on two... morsels of... lumber," says another. Sedaris muses on the disputes between his Protestant mother and his father, a Greek Orthodox guy whose Easter fell on a different day. Other essays explicate his deep kinship with his eccentric mom and absurd alienation from his IBM-exec dad: "To me, the greatest mystery of science continues to be that a man could father six children who shared absolutely none of his interests."

Every glimpse we get of Sedaris's family and acquaintances delivers laughs and insights. He thwarts his North Carolina speech therapist ("for whom the word pen had two syllables") by cleverly avoiding all words with s sounds, which reveal the lisp she sought to correct. His midget guitar teacher, Mister Mancini, is unaware that Sedaris doesn't share his obsession with breasts, and sings "Light My Fire" all wrong--"as if he were a Webelo scout demanding a match." As a remarkably unqualified teacher at the Art Institute of Chicago, Sedaris had his class watch soap operas and assign "guessays" on what would happen in the next day's episode.


Our next books is The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. I know, I know - how in the hell can I be a children's librarian and have NEVER read The Little Prince?!?! Well, that has all been remedied, I assure you. Adorable little book!! I am sure I am the last person ever to read it, but I'll post a review anyway. From Amazon:

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry first published The Little Prince in 1943, only a year before his Lockheed P-38 vanished over the Mediterranean during a reconnaissance mission. More than a half century later, this fable of love and loneliness has lost none of its power. The narrator is a downed pilot in the Sahara Desert, frantically trying to repair his wrecked plane. His efforts are interrupted one day by the apparition of a little, well, prince, who asks him to draw a sheep. "In the face of an overpowering mystery, you don't dare disobey," the narrator recalls. "Absurd as it seemed, a thousand miles from all inhabited regions and in danger of death, I took a scrap of paper and a pen out of my pocket." And so begins their dialogue, which stretches the narrator's imagination in all sorts of surprising, childlike directions.

The Little Prince describes his journey from planet to planet, each tiny world populated by a single adult. It's a wonderfully inventive sequence, which evokes not only the great fairy tales but also such monuments of postmodern whimsy as Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. And despite his tone of gentle bemusement, Saint-Exupéry pulls off some fine satiric touches, too. There's the king, for example, who commands the Little Prince to function as a one-man (or one-boy) judiciary:

I have good reason to believe that there is an old rat living somewhere on my planet. I hear him at night. You could judge that old rat. From time to time you will condemn him to death. That way his life will depend on your justice. But you'll pardon him each time for economy's sake. There's only one rat.
The author pokes similar fun at a businessman, a geographer, and a lamplighter, all of whom signify some futile aspect of adult existence. Yet his tale is ultimately a tender one--a heartfelt exposition of sadness and solitude, which never turns into Peter Pan-style treacle. Such delicacy of tone can present real headaches for a translator, and in her 1943 translation, Katherine Woods sometimes wandered off the mark, giving the text a slightly wooden or didactic accent. Happily, Richard Howard (who did a fine nip-and-tuck job on Stendhal's The Charterhouse of Parma in 1999) has streamlined and simplified to wonderful effect. The result is a new and improved version of an indestructible classic, which also restores the original artwork to full color. "Trying to be witty," we're told at one point, "leads to lying, more or less." But Saint-Exupéry's drawings offer a handy rebuttal: they're fresh, funny, and like the book itself, rigorously truthful. --James Marcus

Wow - I think the review might be longer than the book!!

Anyway, the last book is Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch. I LOVED her writing style, and I really felt for the main character. Here's a review from Publishers Weekly:

An unenthusiastic Southern debutante copes with the cruelties of postcollege New York life in Crouch's amusing debut. Sarah Walters is neither a misfit nor the queen of the Camellia Society cotillion scene growing up in Charleston, S.C. But when she and her fellow Camellias try to make a life in New York City, they find themselves coping in unexpectedly dangerous ways—from standard substance addictions to Sarah's fixation on preppy ex-boyfriend Max, a smooth and sadistic child of wealth. While the formula of young women in the big city seems destined for cliché, Crouch subverts most expectations; Sarah almost purposely misses an opportunity for happiness and stability with the gentle lover she met in Europe, and her ploy to ignite sparks with a college friend goes painfully awry. When Sarah goes back to Charleston and faces a perhaps too over-the-top family crisis (it involves suicide and lesbianism), the reader's left with the hope that the worst is over. Though this feels almost like a collection—each chapter its own story with its own narrative technique—Crouch's portrayal of a young woman's self-sabotage and the pitfalls facing young women in a cold world is wise, wry and heartbreaking. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Right now, I am in the middle of The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart. It's the follow-up the The Mysterious Benedict Society, which was a really cute Juvenile Fiction book. So far, the sequel is just as entertaining!!






Some other books I have on my TBR pile include:

1) Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
2) The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
3) The Seneca Falls Inheritance by Miriam Grace Monfredo (recommended by brainella the librarian)
4) The Last Summer (of you and me) by Ann Brashares (recommended by Amanda at Life and Times of a "New" New Yorker)

(Updated 2008 Book List)

So, what are YOU reading?!?!