This Year at the Library (Or, Where I've Been, Part 2)

 I initially intended to write a post about things happening at the library every month. My last posts were in 2022, over a year ago, so you can tell how well that plan worked out. My job at said library has kept me busy for the past year, and I do have some updates about my various projects.

First, my main project since Fall 2022 has been making an index of cemeteries in the county. This project, when completed, will have a physical book for library patrons to reference, as well as a website, and will contain information about every cemetery and known burial site in the county. The website is about 75% finished and I'll make a full post announcing the launch of the project as soon as it's ready to be viewed by the public. 

Second, late in 2023 I was given the position of selector for manga for the adult collection. This is a perfect fit for me considering I've been a manga and anime enthusiast-- dare I say it, even, an otaku-- for years. This has introduced me to the realm of collection development, which is both intimidating and exciting. I'll also have a full post describing this experience soon.

Until then, take care of yourself.

This Month At The Library - August, 2022

As can be guessed from the title, I'm going to try to make this a monthly feature. This Month At The Library will be updates on life at my home library, sometimes in-depth, other times brief. Today, let's check in on our monarch butterflies in the Children's Department.

One of our caterpillars, which I've taken the liberty of naming Eric, has entered its chrysalis. The shell is still mostly opaque, but in some places it's starting to show through, so it still has a few days to go. You're doing great, Eric!

When a caterpillar goes into its chrysalis, it becomes literal goop before it reforms into a butterfly. So remember, you may be a pile of goop before you reach your goals, but that's just part of the process. You can do it.

Caterpillar 2, who I've named Carle, got a new leaf of milkweed while I was on desk yesterday. Carle has been a Very Hungry Caterpillar, which is its job, so well done Carle. It seemed to be slowing down, and wasn't very interested in the new leaves at first, and I had to help it along to a new leaf. We think that's a sign that it's getting ready to attach. Keep up the good work, Carle!

While on desk, I read to the future butterflies from an educational book, How To Be A Butterfly by Laura Knowles and Catell Ronca. 

It was very edifying.

This Month at the Library: July's Staff Picks

The last year has been incredibly busy for me, since I've been working at the local library in a number of positions. I haven't had much time to sit down and write the kind of long articles I would like to (and after that insanely long review of The Green Knight you're probably thankful. But don't get comfortable, I fully intend to subject you to a deep dive into Jurassic Park and the writing of Michael Crichton in the future). This month also experienced the bane of every librarian's existence: bad eyesight, which significantly cut down on my reading and writing. However, I have new glasses and what's more, July was my birthday month (was, since I'm finishing this up in August).

At our library, every month there is a staff birthday, the said birthday staffers get to take over one of the displays with their recommendations. I thought it'd be fun to discuss my recommendations and my reasoning behind them-- what appealed to me about them and what may appeal to you. As explained by NoveList, a book database from EBSCO, "Appeal is a way of determining why people enjoy the books they read."[1] So, why did I enjoy these books, and why might you enjoy them? This list is in no particular order, and I was obviously limited to only books at our library, so consider this a list of what I might recommend if you were to stop me at work and ask me for a random suggestion.

Note: while we were allowed a potential 10 items, only a few would be chosen by the person in charge of the display due to space available. I've included the books that got on the shelves. I was also informed that I could not, in fact, display the CPR dummy from the Library of Things as one of my staff recommendations, so consider this my endorsement of our vinyl and polyurethane friends dedicated to CPR education.

The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin, Jr.

This book is, most simply put, an animal fable starring a rooster and his barnyard fighting against evil. At the beginning of creation, God sealed an evil creature called the Wyrm underground, but now it's out and it's up to Chaunticleer and the other animals to defeat this literal hell breaking loose. The main character, Chaunticleer, as well as his wife Pertelot, and the fox Lord Russell, all come from Chaucer's "Nun's Priest's Tale," and the book draws inspiration from John Milton's epic Paradise Lost, Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, and the Bible. The title refers to the Dun Cow, a legendary creature from English folklore, as well as sharing its name with a real (though unrelated) medieval Irish manuscript, Lebor na hUidre. Wangerin weaves a unique cosmology and musings on the nature of God, good, evil, and leadership into what at first seems like a standard Redwall or Watership Down -style animal novel. While it is based in part on Christian scripture and tradition, it doesn't beat the reader over their head and it can be enjoyed regardless of religious interest.

I recommend it to readers who: like allegory, comparative literature, Early Modern poetry, and warrior chickens. Must be in the mood for a story more intense than Narnia since it gets dark. Also be ready to take notes. 

Vampire Hunter D by Hideyuki Kikuchi

The source for the 1985 OVA Vampire Hunter D, which has become a cult classic of both anime and horror in general, is the long-running novel series of the same name. The series is a mixture of horror, science fiction, and western-- taking place in the far future of our world, after the rise and fall of our vampire overlords. The eponymous D is a mysterious, miraculously powerful and handsome dhampir (half vampire, half human) who occasionally lends his vampire hunting services to the people of the Frontier. The worldbuilding is endlessly fascinating and expanded upon throughout the series-- and has plenty of Easter eggs for fans of horror, like "Summers Montague" and "T. Fisher" being authors of books on vampires (based on the real-life folklorist and apparent vampire believer Montague Summers, and Terence Fisher, the Hammer Horror film director). D himself is a great protagonist -- stoic, steadfast, and equipped with a deadly blade and a wise-cracking second face in his left hand. He's a gunslinger (or swordslinger?) who hunts monsters rather than outlaws.

I recommend it to readers who: enjoy vampire media like Dracula, Hellsing, and Castlevania, like sci-fi elements and futuristic westerns. Liking cool, stoic male protagonists is a plus. Must be looking for a fast-paced ride through the weird and the wonderful.

How to Bake an American Pie by Karma Wilson

It certainly has been... a few years here in my home country of the United States. While I won't discuss politics or current events, suffice it to say it can sometimes take some work to remember the things we're promised about America when we're young -- liberty, equality, unity. Wilson's picture book is a rhyming set of instructions for the baking process, guided by an adorable dog and cat team. Raúl Colón's soft, colored pencil-style artwork perfectly accompanies the text, with such ingredients as a "crust of fruited plains" and "spacious skies" (like in the song "America the Beautiful," get it?), as well as more intangible things like meekness and might. Perhaps we should review this recipe and adjust our baking as needed.

I recommend it to readers who: like baking, American history, and children's books, especially those with intricate rhymes and complex ideas. It will probably appeal to you if you have a likewise complex view of patriotism, or would just like to see a cat and dog baking.

Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

Midnight In the Garden is a nonfiction-novel that not only is a cult classic for fans of true crime and Southern Gothic, it's been so influential in Savannah, Georgia, that it's known simply as The Book. The setup is simple: Berendt travels to Savannah to write a magazine feature on the work of historical preservationist Jim Williams – who, partway through the book, is accused of murder. This introduces the outsider narrator, and the audience, to the world of Southern Gothic – the houses are old, the characters are eccentric, everyone has secrets, Spanish moss hangs from the trees, and there’s hoodoo to be done. Savannah is portrayed vividly, so much that the Book is often attributed with more than doubling tourism to the city[2]. It’s the perfect mix of literary true crime and American regionalism and is a quick read (I read it in one sitting) that never the less will leave an impression.

I recommend it to readers who: like true crime that centers on one event, Southern Gothic and Southern Regional literature, and stories with unusual characters where the narrator is the straight man. Also recommended as a relatively short book that won't take too long to read.

Japanese Ghost Stories by Lafcadio Hearn

Finally, we return to horror and myth with an anthology of Lafcadio Hearn's work on the kaidan, or strange stories. Hearn was an unusual character -- born on a Greek island, raised in Ireland, and spending time in the French East Indies and United States as a journalist before finally settling in Japan, he had a deep interest in folklore and ghost stories. This collection is a crash-course in the best of Japanese weird tales, including Hoichi the Earless; yuki-onna, the snow woman; and Botan-Doro, the Peony Lantern. These will be familiar to readers interested in Japanese culture, especially Hoichi the Earless, which is the basis for the 1965 film Kwaidan. Hearn's strengths lie in his eye for detail and his interest in the very nature of fear-- he takes a whole chapter to reflect on his own childhood experiences of the sensation. However, there is no explanation for why the cover of this book appears to have a decapitated Bobby Hill.

I recommend it to readers who: enjoy folklore, Japanese culture, and good old-fashioned ghost stories. The chapters can be read on their own, so it's good for when you just want a quick read.

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[1] “Appeal Terms,” EBSCO Help, accessed July 30, 2022, http://support.ebsco.com/help/?int=novp&ver=live&lang=en&feature_id=Appeal.

[2] W.C Wertz, “20 Years After Midnight: A Look Back,” South Magazine, October 7, 2017, https://www.southmag.com/20-years-after-midnight-a-look-back/.

Fossil Hunter: How Mary Anning Changed the Science of Prehistoric Life: A Review

I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

Title: Fossil Hunter: How Mary Anning Changed the Science of Prehistoric Life
Author: Cheryl Blackford
Illustrators: Cover by Stephanie Son, interior illustrations and paleoart by Ellen Duda
Rating: 4/5

Mary Anning is the single most important paleontologist you’ve never heard of. She discovered the first Plesiosaurus, the body of the first Ichthyosaur, and the first pterosaur outside of Germany. She first identified the “bezoar” stones in the stomachs of fossils to be coprolites (fossilized feces) and figured out that Belemnoids, an extinct cephalopod, had ink sacs like its modern relatives. Her specimens are among the most prized possessions of the Natural History Museum in London. And she barely received any credit in her time and today is barely known.

Cheryl Blackford, herself a geologist, sets out to address this in her middle grade biography of Anning. The book begins with a prehistoric interlude with the doomed ichthyosaur that would someday be discovered by the Anning siblings, Joseph and Mary, followed by a chapter introducing Anning and her excavations-- from there, the biography is chronological. The biographical style is somewhat inconsistent. The introduction with the ichthyosaur and the first chapter, "Crocodile or Sea Monster?" show signs of wanting to be a narrative biography: "Thirteen-year-old Mary Anning had been hunting for an elusive treasure for months.”[1] This stands out because the rest of the book is a typical facts-only biography with no other narrative sections. This may be because the copy I read is an uncorrected proof, so this may change between now and its forthcoming publication in January, 2022. Despite this uneven opening, the rest of the book is well-organized by general era of Mary's life, and it's not cluttered by sidebars or unrelated images. 

Duria Antiquior, a more ancient Dorset, by Henry De la Beche, based on specimens discovered by Mary Anning[2]

Part of the fun for me is the inclusion of historical images. While I love paleontology in general, I find the early years of the science especially interesting. I'm fascinated with how people viewed prehistory before our modern understanding-- for example, when the Annings found their first ichthyosaur (a process that took a year, between 1811 and 1812), the only point of reference people had for the strange discovery was the crocodile. Because there were only limited specimens and research into these creatures was in its infancy, artistic reconstructions look a little goofy today, but I find them charming. Even more useful for the young reader learning about Anning are the exquisite sketches she made of her finds. It really gives the reader an impression of Anning’s dedication to her job. One thing I didn’t know was that, since she couldn’t afford books or journal subscriptions (an issue independent scholars still face to this day), she would painstakingly copy out whole articles by hand on whatever material available. Something about this particularly struck me. The paleoart by Ellen Duda in this book is very nice and serves to contextualize the fossils as living creatures well, but I was disappointed there were no illustrations of Anning’s era like on the cover. This I think is a similar issue to the inconsistent writing—the book feels like it doesn’t know what it wants to be.

These style issues aside, Fossil Hunter is a good, accessible introduction to the life and work of Mary Anning, and will hopefully influence young readers to learn more about the early years of paleontology, as well as about the woman who so often has been forgotten in discussions of this history.

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[1]Blackford, Cheryl. “Chapter 1: Crocodile or Sea Monster.” In Fossil Hunter: How Mary Anning Changed the Science of Prehistoric Life, 3. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, forthcoming. 

[2] Henry De la Beche. Duria Antiquior, a More Ancient Dorset. 1830. Watercolor. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Duria_Antiquior.jpg.

Having Fun Isn't Hard When You've Got a Library Card! Or, What I Did This Summer

 Hello everyone, time for an update.

At the beginning of the year, I intended to write more articles. That obviously didn't happen, and so far I've only written two, both reviews. However, I have a (hopefully) good reason for neglecting this blog. 

I spent most of this year searching for a more steady job, being a freelancer can be fun but so is having money and steady experience in my field. After some false starts, I finally landed a position at my local library. It's great to be back at my home library, where I not only volunteered for years, but had my first paying job ten years ago. I also get to have, for the first time ever, a free library card (since I live in an unserved area). 

Hopefully I'll be back on soon with another ridiculously wordy article about some random topic, but until then I just wanted to post an update.

Anne and Louis: Forever Bound Review

Before I begin this review, I need to apologize for its lateness. I fully intended to have this book finished and reviewed in May, but family health issues and my own employment situation took up so much of my time this summer that I'm yet again late with my writing schedule.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. I was also personally asked for a review by the author, Rozsa Gaston.

Title: Anne and Louis Forever Bound: The Final Years of Anne of Brittany's Marriage to Louis XII of France
Series: Anne of Brittany, book 4
Author: Rozsa Gaston
Rating: 3.5/5

Rozsa Gaston's series following the life of Anne of Brittany reaches its conclusion in Forever Bound, beginning in 1508 and ending in 1514 with Anne's untimely death at 36. I've reviewed its predecessor, Rulers and Lovers, in a post last year. 

The easiest way to begin is to look at what I liked. There are more narrative scenes and Anne has a much stronger personality than in the previous book and the ones before it. Claude has a whole chapter to herself, which will win me over any day. The eponymous Anne and Louis have a nuanced marriage -- loving and supportive, though often strained by their roles as politicians with contradicting goals. I loved the references to Louis's family, including his grandmother Valentina Visconti (appearing here as a painting Louis talks to for advice) and his father Charles d'Orleans, who I've written about my love for on this blog before. This ties in with the increased emphasis on family bonds, which is explored through Anne's fight for her daughters' inheritances, the loss of Louis's nephew Gaston of Foix, and Louise of Savoy's scheming for her own children.

Anne herself has some excellent moments-- especially with other characters. Her confrontation with Louis over his fight with the pope stands out, especially when she snaps and says she's not going to risk the souls of their subjects (France was facing the possibility of being placed under interdict, which would bar all subjects from taking part in the sacraments), and that Louis only cares about the Chruch when it's on his side. Her interrogation of a suspected spy in the household is also done well and has some great tension, and her finally meeting with her rival Louise of Savoy is also a delight. I also very much do enjoy the inclusion of historical images as illustrations and to give the reader a bit more context for the era and people.

This brings me to some issues I had with Anne and Louis.

My major issue with this book is one I have with most historical fiction, including my own attempts-- it is overwhelmingly exposition, with very little action. Most of the major events are related to us by the narrator, rather than through scenes of a story, and what events are deemed important enough to actually show is uneven. Hete we have scenes of the cook and kitchen maid discussing Anne's matchmaking, but the Battle of Saint-Mathieu and the loss of the Marie-la-Cordelière, one of the great tragedies of the era, as well as the reactions of Anne and Louis, are only briefly mentioned. I got the feeling I was reading a textbook rather than historical fiction and that the book wanted to be both. There is a bibliography at the back, but several books cited are completely unrelated, fiction, or both (like Anya Seton's Katherine). I noticed this with the previous books and I still do not understand why this is included. The dialog was decent but stilted-- Anne's habit of addressing Louis as "husband" was especially grating and made me glad when most of their conversations were over.

My second issue is with the portrayal of Louise of Savoy. Louise is Anne's main rival, now that Anne of Bejeau is no longer the major player she was in French politics. I don't object to portraying them as rivals, they obviously were, but I would liked to have seen a more nuanced take on Louise. She's the designated villain in this story, and I would accept that as just being from Anne's perspective except the book is from multiple third-person points of view. Louise was a rival to Anne, yes, and she was dedicated to her son (to the point of overprotective) but I think she had reason to be-- she was widowed at a young age with two small children, in a precarious political situation.

There's a lot you could do to compare her with Anne of Brittany, and nearing the end, Anne does realize that she also would do anything for her son had he lived, and she's already doing whatever she can for her daughters. A major issue that I found Anne and Louis XII dealing with was that they wanted what was best for their countries and those goals put them at odds, especially over their children, even though they want what's best for Claude and Renée. Louise is the same, we just don't get to sympathize with her.

Anne and Louis is a good read for nonspecialist readers interested in the era and the people, especially those who want a general overview given in a narrative format. Thanks again to NetGalley for the ARC and thanks to Rozsa for being interested in my feedback!

Bliss and Blunder: A Review of The Green Knight (2021)

Arthurian literature is a tricky thing. While the general image of King Arthur, Merlin, and Camelot have been ingrained in the minds of most anglophone people, there is no real "canon" of authoritative versions of the legends in the way there is a Shakespearian canon. While the most familiar version of Arthur began with England's Geoffrey of Monmouth in the 12th century, Welsh and Breton sources date even further back. After Geoffrey, French and English-language authors wrote their own adaptations, including Chrétien de Troyes, who introduced the Grail Quest, and most pertinent to this discussion, the anonymous author of the Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Each new version adds something to the legend, resulting in hundreds of different plots and variations on them, often contradictory characterizations, and no "correct" version of whatever story a modern bard will present. Even I, a certified The Book Was Better Than The Movie Snob, must admit that any adaptation of the Matter of Britain will be both its own thing and an addition to the ever-evolving state of Arthurian fiction.

Enter The Green Knight.