Lincoln City Libraries in Lincoln, Nebraska http://www.lincolnlibraries.org en-us Sat, 20 Mar 2010 1:10:35 Central Daylight Time Sat, 20 Mar 2010 1:10:35 Central Daylight Time Copyright 2010, All rights reserved. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. QCRSS I was in the midst of reading Columbine by Dave Cullen as I read my way through this year's American Library Association Notable Books list. It's a good book, but intense. After a nightmare involving a Columbine-like incident at the Omaha Public Library (remember, just a dream!), I realized that I needed a break. So I took home Th... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/Another_from_the_Notables_ListThe_Vagrants.htm Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:58:00 Central Daylight Time Well, dang!I need to return The Happiness Project to the library because there are people waiting for it.I like this book, I really do, even though there's something about it...that part of me kept wanting to hate. I came across it through some Internet hopscotching.Our Assistant Library Director, Greg Mickells, chose... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/The_Happiness_Project.htm Thu, 4 Mar 2010 17:09:00 Central Standard Time I'm continuing my reading journey through the current American Library Association Notable Books List. You can also find it divvied up by fiction and nonfiction in the library's Books Movie and More website. One of this year's themes from the Notable List is revealing itself--the impact of multiple identities.They were crit... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/Another_Notable_about_MisIdentity_Provenance.htm Tue, 2 Mar 2010 16:59:00 Central Standard Time Just today, I returned a library copy of The Snakehead: an Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream by Patrick Radden Keefe. It's yet another of this year's American Library Association's Notable Books. I appreciate how the Notables list introduces me to a wide variety of nonfiction. The Snakehead is abo... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/From_the_Notables_ListThe_Snakehead.htm Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:25:00 Central Standard Time Last week I finished a novel from the 2010 American Library Association Notable Books list, Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon, an author with Nebraska ties. Identity, it's all about identity. Three strands of story eventually come together. One, a man looking for his missing twin from one state to another, following a tantalizing trail all... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/From_the_Notables_ListAwait_Your_Reply.htm Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:16:00 Central Standard Time A few days ago, I finished China Road by Rob Gifford. I chose it because Gifford will be in town this spring for one of the EN Thompson Forum speeches at the Lied Center, because Gifford's a reporter for NPR, which I love, and because I've had an ongoing interest in China. Gifford uses the device of traveling China's Route 312 from ea... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/China_Road_by_Rob_Gifford.htm Sun, 21 Feb 2010 13:19:00 Central Standard Time I LOVE the feature in the Books Movies and More! part of our website that allows you to look at award winners and bestsellers, and then go directly to our library catalog to see ifan item's checked in or available for a hold request. For me, it's all about the Notable Books list from the American Library Association. We've got th... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/Cool_Feature_on_our_Website.htm Wed, 17 Feb 2010 9:15:00 Central Standard Time What a great Presidents' Day! I read a whole book. The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker is my first fiction title from this year's American Library Association Notable Books list. I had to set aside for the moment that I didn't think much of Baker's earlier writing about the practices of libraries as they weed their collections. T... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/Yes_Another_Notable_BookThe_Anthologist_by_Nicholson_Baker.htm Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:48:00 Central Standard Time My second book in a year about explorers in the Amazon! I picked up The Lost City of Z by David Grann because it's on this year's American Library Association Notable Books List.As you may know, each year I read most of the books on this annual list, and then make presentations on them. DO contact me if you'd be interested in suc... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/A_Notable_BookThe_Lost_City_of_Z.htm Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:13:00 Central Standard Time Today and yesterday, I met with the people who supervise classified staff at Lincoln City Libraries.They came from all of our locations, including the Bookmobile.There's something about these mixed-up groups that creates good energy. Among our discussion points: motivation.I asked group members to review the Gallup Q12 informatio... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/Drive_The_Surprising_Truth_About_What_Motivates_Us.htm Wed, 3 Feb 2010 16:37:00 Central Standard Time I've been thinking lately about how we all make reading choices. In the library, we realize that a LOT of our circulation comes from the items that we have out on display. Those book jackets that are displayed face-out provide all kinds of enticement and advertisement. Several people have mentioned to me that they seldom get beyond the displays and... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/As_my_whimsy_takes_me.htm Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:09:00 Central Standard Time Just before the holidays, I enjoyed reading the novel,Bellwether by Connie Willis.This was published in 1996; I came across a recommendation for it in Library Journal's Dusty Books blog dated December 8.In the blog, it was described as adorable, smart, Gen X chick lit. In 1998, Connie Wil... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/Bellwether.htm Sat, 16 Jan 2010 15:31:00 Central Standard Time As a former children's librarian, I begin to feel excitement building this time of year because we're counting down to the announcements of the big awards in children's books, scheduled for Monday, January 18. Among the awards are the Newbery Medal, the Caldecott Medal, and many more. The Association of Library Services to Children will prov... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/And_the_winners_will_be.htm Tue, 12 Jan 2010 9:46:00 Central Standard Time Where do we get great ideas for what to read next? Lincoln City Libraries recently unveiled an update to some of our website information--take a look at Books Movies More!You'll be guided to a variety of lists and other information. I refer to this feature often for great ideas, and I love how the lists connect directly to... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/Ideas_for_What_to_Read_Next.htm Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:54:00 Central Standard Time In just one evening last week, I read Stitches, a Memoir by David Small. Readers of youth books will recognize his name as the winner of theCaldecott Medal (for the best illustrations in a children's book for a given year) a few years ago for So You Want to Be President? by Judith St. George. This memoir is written in &quo... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/Stitches_a_Memoir_by_David_Small.htm Mon, 21 Dec 2009 8:54:00 Central Standard Time I chose Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely because it was included on a list of recent good management-related titles. Ariely has done a variety of research about how we believe ourselves to be making choices rationally, when research such as his shows that we follow patterns that aren't rational at all. For instance, when dec... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/Predictably_Irrational.htm Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:15:00 Central Standard Time Somehow my reading's gotten ahead of my blogging, so here are brief descriptions of recent recreational reading, all courtesy of the public library. I finished The Likeness by Tana French this morning. It's the sequel to In the Woods which was a focus of an earlier blog entry. Both stories are set in contemporary Ireland, t... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/Recent_Reading.htm Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:06:00 Central Standard Time In my reading life, I'm in the blissfully open season after I've read the current year's American Library Association Notable Books list, and before the next list is announced in January. I've got a pretty substantial mental list of titles, but found myself foundering for a title. So I took a look at a list from Amazon of the Best... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/I_Loved_In_the_Woods_6.htm Wed, 4 Nov 2009 14:57:00 Central Standard Time Last week I spent an intense four-and-a-half days in Seattle at a Public Library Association Strategic Planning Boot Camp.More on that later--for now I'll tell about the reading that I took along for my flights there and back, My Life in France by Julia Child. I haven't seen the movie, Julie and Julia yet,... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/Julia_Childs_My_Life_in_France.htm Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:19:00 Central Daylight Time A few weeks ago I actually had some time at home to read! I had picked up two books (from Lincoln City Libraries, of course) to keep me in good reading, Seeking Peace: Chronicles of the Worst Buddhist in the World by Mary Pipher, and DV by Diana Vreeland. I don't think that I could have chosen two more different memoirs by... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/A_Tale_of_Two_Memoirs.htm Fri, 9 Oct 2009 16:04:00 Central Daylight Time I'm coming to the end of my annual exercise to read most of the books on the American Library Association Notable Books list (for adults). I'm disappointed in The Dark Side: the Inside Story of how the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals by Jane Mayer. I knew that this book was about torture, U.S. participation in tortur... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/Not_sure_this_ones_NotableThe_Dark_Side_by_Jane_Mayer.htm Tue, 6 Oct 2009 17:05:00 Central Daylight Time Now THIS was the kind of book I'd been seeking, one that had me scheming about how to get back to it, even when I really should have been doing other stuff. Unaccustomed Earth is on this year's American Library Association Notable Books list.It's a collection of short stories, setin contemporary America, about young people... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/What_a_Notable_Unaccustomed_Earth_by_Jhumpa_Lahiri.htm Tue, 8 Sep 2009 17:43:00 Central Daylight Time I'm continuing with my reading of this year's Notable Books List from the American Library Association. This morning, I finished The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine. It's fiction, set in contemporary Lebanon as well as the ancient Middle East of storytellers. Alameddine stirs up a stew of story here, moving between two ancient stories an... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/Another_Notable_BookThe_Hakawati.htm Sun, 16 Aug 2009 14:54:00 Central Daylight Time Over the weekend, I finished Atmospheric Disturbances a first novel by Rivka Galchen, one of theselections on this year's American Library Association Notable Books List. This onetypifies many Notable Books fiction choices. Unusual characters. Fabulous prose. Unlikely plot. Suspension of disbelief. Lack of a tidy ending. Le... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/Another_NotableAtmospheric_Disturbances.htm Mon, 3 Aug 2009 8:53:00 Central Daylight Time I'm completing apersonal project of reading all--or at least some of all--of the One Book One Lincoln nominees. As I've stated before, I'm enjoying the reading immensely. These are excellent books. They tell fascinating stories. I find it very interesting that all five of the titles, fiction as well as nonfiction, are based on actual ev... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/Why_Write.htm Thu, 30 Jul 2009 9:23:00 Central Daylight Time A few months ago, I read In Defense of Food: an Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan, one of the titles on this year's American Library Association Notable Books list. Pollan explains how decades of nutrition science, as covered in the media especially, have confused us about how to eat healthfully.Pollan wants people to eat food,... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/Another_NotableIn_Defense_of_Food.htm Wed, 22 Jul 2009 16:08:00 Central Daylight Time A library promotional campaign is underway--Geek the Library. It celebrates that streak of nerdiness-curiousity-obsession in who-knows-what that many of us harbor.Of course, your public library is the place to indulge this inner Geek. I had a Geek spell just the other night when I was researching some authors.For a talk I'm preparing,... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/I_Geek_Books_and_Authors.htm Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:40:00 Central Daylight Time My Facebook status today states that I don't feel compelled to finish books that I don't find compelling. Many people seem to agree with me on that. The book that inspired my status is American Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA: When FDR Put the Nation to Work by Nick Taylor. I was reading it because it's on this y... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/Do_I_HAVE_to_finish_it.htm Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:10:00 Central Daylight Time I've been out of state, celebrating my father's 80th birthday at a family reunion. I was away when the Mayor's office announced that the budget he's presenting to the City Council includes both Bethany and South Branch Libraries. I'm tickled that it looks as if we'll continue to provide the distinct services that make neighborhood libraries so pop... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/Good_Budget_News.htm Tue, 7 Jul 2009 8:38:00 Central Daylight Time I'm just returning a copy of The River of Doubt by Candice Millard, subtitled, Theodore Roosevel's Darkest Journey. It's one of the nominees for this year's One Book One Lincoln (OBOL) program. Theodore Roosevelt lived this adventure down a river of the Amazon Basin in 1913 and 1914, shortly after his defeat as a third-part... http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/Firefly/Great_OBOL_nomineeThe_River_of_Doubt.htm Wed, 1 Jul 2009 16:54:00 Central Daylight Time