Tidbits

A Quidditch documentary?  Welcome to my Netflix queue!

If David Levithan actually makes my dream of seeing Tiny Cooper's over the top musical live in more than just my imagination, I would vigorously high five him and then shimmy with joy.

Middle aged Harry Potter.

This compilation of beautiful photographs of places in Prague mentioned in Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone series has me very excited that it is now getting cold enough for me to make goulash, which also means it is nearly time to read Dreams of Gods and Monsters!

This Game of Thrones gone 1980's mashup could not be more spot on.

Have you ever needed a cute way to ask a John Green book lover out? Here it is.

In fabulous news, the Vista Public Library of San Diego county sucessfully challenged their patrons to check out one million items.  If they did, some of the librarians would get mohawks.  I'm slightly alarmed by the challenge at one minute.  Cool it, buddy!  

Everyone's favorite goalie (except maybe Portugal) Tim Howard has a book deal for a memoir!

As does Bruce Springsteen, but wait for it...for a children's book about a bank-robbin' baby.  Sign me up!  

You know what I love?  Summer.  And mobile libraries.  So a floating mobile library? Had me at hello.
I didn't read of this list of 13 Books We Hated in High School until I was an adult, but I can safely say that I will always hate Wuthering Heights (read it as an adult), and probably Ethan Frome (read it as a kid).  Still have to read #'s 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, and 13.  Only actually want to read 8 though...

On a more serious note, the D.C. Public Library has added a social worker to their team to help the homeless population.  I give them huge accolades for taking this step; public librarians see a lot of poverty and homelessness (libraries are free, open to the public, warm, have bathrooms, things to do, and are safe), but they aren't social workers.  It's truly heartening to see that the D.C. Public Library is being  more than technologically progressive!  

Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor: A blue ribbon for this blue-haired book

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

by Laini Taylor

Little Brown and Company: New York, 2011.

ISBN: 978-0-316-13402-6

     Karou knows she is no simple art school student.  With blue hair, fluency in more than a dozen human and non-human languages, and an unusual adoptive family whose business dealings include sending her abroad through portals to collect teeth, she knows her life is unique.  What she little does know far outweighs that which she doesn’t know – like how she is the only human in her family, who her family is, and more importantly, who she is – and this soon comes to matter when doors into her family’s workshop around the world are sealed with a handprint burned onto the door.  Karou finds herself cut-off from the only individuals who know who she is, unsure if they are even safe, being pursued by what appears to be a vengeful and violent angel.   Good and evil are thrown into contrast as Karou finds herself caught in the middle of a centuries old war in this gorgeously descriptive novel.   This fantasy novel is recommended for all high-school and public libraries, and for grades 10 and up. 

I’m not sure this review does Daughter of Smoke and Bone justice.  Does it really make you want to read it?  Probably not.  I’m sorry.  I wrote this with a migraine, mostly so the lady on the cover would stop staring me down from my desk, judging me for not writing reviews of things I read more quickly.  Her laser-eyed judgment hurts my brain! This National Book award finalist has been on my to-read list since I insisted we needed it at work in nigh-on-March or something.  I’m not going to lie, the cover made me think it would be incredibly girly, and made me question the whole national book award finalist thing.  I was wrong, friends.