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April 26, 2006
After a one week break, tonight I will be meeting with my Reader Advisory class to discuss our second to last genre: Multicultural Fiction.
For this week's class I read Dixieland Sushi by Cara Lockwood. Jen Nakamura Taylor is use to feeling like a stranger in a strange land. The product of a Japanese-American mother and good ol' Southern boy named Bubba, Jen was always a bit too exotic for her small hometown of Dixieland, Arkansas. Now a producer for a television morning show in Chicago, it has been five years since Jen has gone home. Career ambitions have prevented her from taking a vacation, but now a visit to Dixieland can no longer be avoided. Her beauty queen cousin is getting married (to Jen's girlhood crush no less), and Jen has no choice but to be a bridesmaid in the wedding. Thoughts of the groom lead Jen to reminisce about growing up in Dixieland. Jen has worked hard to overcome her past, but is it all about to catch up with her? Told in alternating chapters that take the reader back and forth between Jen's childhood and the present, this story is recommended to anyone who is interested in getting a better understanding of what it is like to be bi-racial in this country today, as well as anyone who made the journey through adolescence to adult in one piece.
This book had me from the very first page. I've got four words for you my friends: roller skating birthday party. Oh yes, the author was channeling a large part of my childhood when she wrote the flashback chapters. From her search for the perfect pair of L.A. Gear hightops to her families fascination with the television show Dallas, Jen was someone I knew. I borrowed this book from another library, but I think I'm going to have buy my own copy just so I can force my friends to read it. :-)
As far as tonight's class discussion goes, after the fiasco that was GLBTQ week I'm pretty sure that I am going to regret separating Multicultural into its own genre. Tune in tomorrow to see if a bloodbath ensued.
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April 25, 2006
You know how you can be in a really foul mood and nothing snaps you out of it? That's been me the past few days. But thanks to reading Once Upon Stilettos by Shanna Swendson last night (the sequel to Enchanted, Inc.), I am in a very good mood today. Here's the publisher's blurb about the book:
Katie Chandler's life is pure magic -- literally. As an executive assistant at Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Inc., she's seen more than her share of fantastical occurrences. A mere Manhattan mortal, Katie is no wizard, but she's a wiz at exposing "hokum" pocus, cloaked lies, and deceptive enchantments. And she's fallen under the all-too-human spell of attraction to Owen, a hunky wizard and coworker. Owen, however, is preoccupied. Someone has broken into his office and disrupted top-secret files, and it reeks of an inside job. CEO Merlin (yes, the Merlin) taps Katie and her special ability to uncover the magical mole.
Keeping her feelings in check while sleuthing alongside Owen, Katie is shocked to discover that her immunity to magic is waning, putting her in grave danger. Soon she's surrendering to the charms and enchantments of everyone and everything around her, including a killer pair of red stilettos. Katie must now conjure up her natural instincts to get to the bottom of the break-in, regain her power, and win the wizard of her dreams. Sigh. I so loved reading this book. A mix of Fantasy and Chick Lit, Once Upon Stilettos (and Enchanted, Inc. too for that matter) gets put into that special reader advisory folder in my brain marked For Almost Everyone. Unless you are a dude, this is one book I recommend to everyone (hence the almost). In Katie the author has created a character that readers can easily identify with. Although she lives and works in a magical world her problems are no different than yours or mine, nor can they be solved with the use of magic. Swendson continues to build on the world she created in Enchanted, Inc., giving readers a bit more insight into her cast of secondary characters with one rather surprising development. The ending is both sweet and satisfying, and definitely sets up some interesting possibilities for books three and four (to be published in 2007).
Today is the official release date of Once Upon Stilettos, and I can't recommend it enough. If you've already read Enchanted, Inc. this is one book you will want to run out and get right away. If you haven't read Shanna Swendson before, what the heck are you waiting for? Get your booty to a bookstore and buy Enchanted, Inc. and Once Upon Stilettos. You won't be disappointed.
Going back to my really good mood now... :-)
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April 14, 2006
You may have noticed that I was suspiciously absent from this blog yesterday. I really wanted to post about the GLBTQ discussion from Wednesday's class, but I was afraid if I didn't give myself some time to gain some perspective the chances of me sitting down and writing a blistering post would be quite high. So I've been mulling it over the past day or so, and I think I'm ready to tackle it now.
By and large the discussion was respectful. Since the Romance debacle I have taken several opportunities to speak with my class about showing respect to all genres/subgenres, regardless of what their personal feelings are about them. I'm not stupid enough to think that when they are at work or talking with friends that they are not possibly trashing whatever it is that we are reading for the week, but I don't want to hear it in my classroom. If you are comfortable enough to look like an ass and disrespect a genre to your instructor who is grading you, then you are going to feel free to do that to a reader who has come to you for a book recommendation.
Not to say that there wasn't the possibility for complete ugliness. One of my students who has enjoyed everything I had given her to read so far absolutely hated her book. We were talking about it before class, and she used words like smut and filth. Not one to let something like that go by I asked the student to show me an example of what she was talking about in the book. She found a section she was disturbed by and I read it. Afterward I told my student that while the scene was graphic in its description, it really wasn't all that different than what I've read in a lot of the mainstream, contemporary romances today. The only difference being that it was man on man action instead of a man and a woman. I was nice about it, but I did tell her that it was her problem and not the literature's. Although she was the only one to vocalize it to me, I'm sure more than one student in class would have been more than ready to jump on the this is gross and disgusting to me so it must be filth bandwagon. Thankfully the discussion did not deteriorate into that.
There were many little things that happened throughout the discussion that I found disturbing, but I'm only going to address two of them here. First and foremost, the majority of the class seemed to be in deep denial about our responsibilities as librarians in providing GLBTQ Fiction to our patrons. And when I say GLBTQ Fiction I'm not just talking about the more literary/message novels like Middlesex, Tipping the Velvet, or Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, which I heavily featured in our class readings (more on that in a bit). I'm also including more popular fiction like Hot Sauce, Someone Killed His Boyfriend, or A Habit for Death. The thoughts of my students were pretty much, "If GLBTQ readers want us to collect these books they need to let us know." To coincide with that was the even more disturbing (at least to me), "A library will have a selection of GLBTQ titles if there is a need for it in their individual community."
What you talking 'bout Willis?
My students were honest to God asking me to believe that the reason I had such a hard time tracking down certain titles for our discussion was because the libraries I have access to didn't see a need for GLBTQ Fiction in their communities (and please keep in mind that we are talking about the suburban Chicago area). Yeah, I'm not buying that. So I asked them to explain to me why nearly every public library YA collection will have a wide selection of GLBTQ titles from luminaries such as David Levithan, Julie Ann Peters, and Alex Sanchez, yet the adult collection will have bubkis. Are we saying that our patrons need these books as young adults but not as adults? Are they suddenly growing up straight? Needless to say no one had an answer for me.
The truth is that sometimes we librarians suck. Our patrons have needs that we choose to for whatever reason ignore or refuse to meet. And I'm not librarian bashing here, because I'm guilty of it too. When I'm ordering fiction I'm not necessarily thinking of my GLBTQ patrons reading wants, which is wrong of me. As one student so succinctly put it, even though she enjoyed her book it would be the only one she would read starring a gay character. She herself is straight so she only reads straight books. Jumping on that one dimensional (and somewhat scary) way of thinking, it's not outside the realm of possibility the someone who was gay would like to read books featuring gay lead characters. So why aren't libraries making a more concerted effort to collect GLBTQ Fiction the way we do books in Spanish or Polish (in my library's case)? To echo the thoughts of one student who fell on the other side of the discussion, having a copy of Angels in America in our collection isn't enough.
And this leads into my second topic of discussion, which isn't so much a class discussion problem as a Kelly fubarred the class up problem. I pulled out the GLBTQ books and treated them as a separate genre. At the time I thought that was a good decision, but now I thinking all I'm doing is perpetuating the problem. In my mind by looking at GLBTQ as a separate genre I was giving these authors, stories, character, etc. the full and proper attention they deserved. Instead, the message I gave my students was that these books should be treated as special and separated from everything else. When I'm wrong, I'm wrong and I need to take the hit on this one.
The bad news is that I have so fubarred this class that my students are probably past the DNR point and I will be sued for educational malpractice. The good news is that I can learn from this, and if I am ever coaxed out of the cave I am secluding myself in once this semester is over and asked to teach another Reader Advisory class I will make several significant changes to the curriculum. That's something at least.
For another perspective on Wednesday's class (which somewhat echo my own), check out Manogirl's thoughts.
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April 12, 2006
Tonight we will be discussing GLBTQ Fiction in my Reader Advisory class. Only two more discussions after this (Multicultural Fiction and Literary Fiction) and then we are done. I don't know what I'm going to fill my Wednesday's with once it is over. :-)
For tonight's class I originally sat down to read My Lucky Star by Joe Keenan, but about five pages in I realized it was part of a series. After confirming that it was the most recent book in the series, I promptly switched to my back-up book. So, the book I finally ended up reading for tonight's class was Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson. Adopted by a fanatically religious mother who intends to raise her to become a missionary, Jeanette knows that her life was not meant to be ordinary. Early on she tells readers, "I cannot recall a time when I did not know that I was special." Growing up in a bleak, repressive household, surrounded by her mother's Evangelical friends, Jeanette thinks her life is normal. It isn't until she gets to be a teenager and falls in love with Melanie that she begins to question what she has been taught. Her mother says that what the girls feel for each other are "Unnatural Passions," but Jeanette disagrees. Why can't she love both God and Melanie? Insightful and at times unexpectedly funny, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is recommend to any reader who has felt stymied by parental expectations, as well as anyone who is still trying to define who they are.
While I liked the book and thought it was very well written (it should be since in won the Whitbread Award for Best First Novel in 1985), I felt sort of ehh about the ending. I expected there to be some sort of resolution/understanding to develop between Jeanette and her mother, and there wasn't one. I can see why the author ended the book the way she did, but I think it was a real disservice to the reader to leave the characters on such a weird note. Note: spoilers ahead. After an absence of several years, Jeanette decides to visit her mother for Christmas. The last time Jeanette saw her mother she was in her teens, and their parting was quite acrimonious. Flash forward several years and Jeanette lets herself into her childhood home to find her mother playing an electronic organ in the parlour. Her mother's reaction? She acts like Jeanette had been visiting the corner grocery store and has just returned. They don't have a big discussion about the last time the saw one another. The don't talk about how unaccepting Jeanette's mother is of her lifestyle. In short, they don't have the come to Jesus meeting that I was expecting. What they do have is lots and lots of chit chat, and they generally behave as if the last few years had not happened. That was just weird to me as a reader, and a bit frustrating.
Right now I have absolutely no idea what tonight's discussion is going to be like, which has me a bit nervous. Any suggestions for questions for the class? I've got a couple in my head, but I know a couple of students in the class are bound to make me regret asking them.
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April 11, 2006
I'm super crabby right now waiting for someone from one the other taxing bodies in town to do their freaking job and send me their information for our community's newsletter. And when I say super crabby I mean super crabby. It's a good thing my director was presenting at a conference today or I probably would have walked into her office and quit, that's how pissed I am.
So I finally took five minutes to upload a new look to my blog and possibly cheer myself up. I've had the green look for a year now, so I'm way overdue. It's plainer than before, but I like the brightness of the all white background. It looks cleaner to me. Let me know what you think! :-)
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April 10, 2006
The following is a special message for the students who where in the Winter 2004 quarter of my Basic Information Tools class. Not that I don't love every student who came before or after, but this message really won't mean anything to the rest of you.
Were you a student in my Basic Information Tools class during the Winter 2004 quarter? Did you talk me into taking the class on a field trip to Anderson's to see Jennifer Crusie during our reader advisory week? This message is for you! On Thursday, April 27, Jennifer Crusie (along with Bob Mayer) will be appearing at Anderson's in Naperville to discuss her newest release, Don't Look Down. I plan on attending and thought it would be fun to turn it into a group outing. If you are interested in meeting up over at Anderson's for a class reunion of sorts (and perhaps an early dinner at Lou Malnati's), send me an email and I'll see what I can arrange. :-)
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April 07, 2006
This past week has been a fan-freaking-tabulous week for reading. First I read both Larger Than Life and Deep Breath (both by Alison Kent) as part of my SG-5 Weekend. Then I read the excellent Imaginary Men by Anjali Banerjee for my RA class. Finally, I wrapped up the reading week with Don't Look Down by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. Here's the publisher's blurb:
Lucy Armstrong has come to Savannah to finish the last four days of filming on a romantic action movie called Don't Look Down. What should be an easy shoot is made a lot more difficult by the stunt coordinator (Lucy's ex-husband, Connor Nash), the script supervisor (Lucy's very unhappy sister, Daisy), an inquisitive five-year-old (Lucy's niece, Pepper), the backer (a sinister Irishman named Finnegan), and one strong and silent stunt man (J. T. Wilder, the stuff Lucy's dreams are made of). Then she starts to look beneath the surface and realizes that, unless she finds out what's going on fast, the movie isn't going to be the only thing that's finished in four days. J. T. Wilder has come to Savannah to make some quick money as a stunt double while on leave from the Army (he's a Green Beret). What should be an easy job is made a lot more difficult by the star he's doubling for (goofball Bryce McKay), the starlet who's intent on seducing him (Althea Bergdorf, not that he's putting up much of a fight), his skirt-chasing best friend (gonzo-pilot Rene LaFavre), an eagle-eyed five-year-old (binocular-toting Pepper Armstrong), and a tough, exasperated director (Lucy Armstrong, the stuff Wilder's dreams are starting to be made of). Then the CIA calls and Wilder realizes that somebody is taking "shooting a movie" much too literally. I looooved this book, and felt that it was the perfect reading companion to the SG-5 books this week (I can already picture a library display in my head). The pairing of a contemporary romance author with a former Green Beret who normally writes military adventure may at first seem odd, but it actually works very well. With two interesting and very likeable main characters, a pallet of interesting secondary characters (including a kid who doesn't make me want to hurl), great dialogue with just enough humor, lightning quick pacing, and a plot that had me from the very first chapter and didn't let me go, Don't Look Down was a book I could not put down.
Sounds fantabulous, right? It was. But the book itself leaves bookpimps like me in a bit of a pickle. Crusie and Mayer call Don't Look Down romantic adventure, and I would even go so far to say that it is straight Adventure with some romantic elements thrown in. However, this book is in no way, shape, or form a Romance novel. And that's where I feel like I've been screwed in trying to pimp this to readers. All of the Crusie readers who have been waiting for what seems like forever for the follow-up to 2004's Bet Me who go into Don't Look Down expecting a classic Crusie romance will be disappointed as this is not one of those books. Then again, to be fair to the authors, that expectation really shouldn't exist as Don't Look Down isn't a Jennifer Cruise book. It's a Jennifer Crusie/Bob Mayer book, and it shouldn't have the Romance label slapped on it just because Crusie is involved. Is it a great book? Yes. Will many readers enjoy it? Probably. But if they go in expecting one thing and are given another they will end up being disappointed. Forewarn your readers people, that's all I'm saying.
Diatribe over now, sorry about that. So, what have you been reading this week?
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April 06, 2006
Last night I asked my students the same ugly question I posted on this blog yesterday:
Which genre do you think has the worst reputation: Chick Lit or Romance? I expected the class to fall on the side of Romance having the worst reputation since the majority of them seem to have a pretty healthy disgust for it, and they didn't disappoint me. What truly surprised me, however, was their reasoning. Of all the explanations for how Romance got its bad reputation that I expected (sex, cheesetastic covers, outrageous storylines, etc.), my students pointed to only one reason for Romance's bad reputation, and it was a reason that was completely unexpected: the Happily Ever After.
Huh?
By definition, any book that is classified as a Romance must have a HEA. A book could have every other defining characteristic of a Romance novel, but if it doesn't have a HEA it isn't a Romance (and if you to try to sell it to a Romance reader as a Romance they may come back and beat you over the head with it, that's how mad they'll be). So how is it that my students designate the one thing that is the be all, end all defining characteristic of Romance as being the same thing that is giving it a craptacular reputation?
They actually made a pretty compelling argument. What it boiled down to for all but one person in class (that is how overwhelming the hatred of the HEA was), was the believability of a HEA. As readers they don't buy into a HEA. For them it's too unrealistic. A majority of them then went on to say they thought the lack of a traditional HEA in Chick Lit was very appealing to them. Overall, my kids prefer happy for right now instead of happily ever after.
What do you all think? Are my students right? Is it the HEA that is keeping Romance down in the genre ghetto?
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April 05, 2006
Tonight is Reader Advisory class night (a.k.a. the class that is not sucking my soul away in bits and pieces), and from some of the emails I've received from my students I can tell that there is the potential for it to be a wacky night. Woo hoo!
For tonight's class I read Imaginary Men by Anjali Banerjee. While attending her sister's wedding professional matchmaker Lina Ray feels the stigma of being the oldest, unmarried daughter. Everyone in Lina’s family seems to be conspiring to marry her off, regardless of how Lina feels about her single state. When her Auntie Kiki introduces her to yet another undesirable suitor Lina tells her family, "I'm engaged." Now Lina needs to find someone to be her fiancé or she risks disappointing her family once again. Going on one bad date after another, Lina's imaginary man begins to take on a life of his own in her mind. To further complicate things her imaginary man begins to look a lot like Raja, a client who has hired her to find a wife for his brother. Will Lina be able to find a fiancé before her family finds out she lied? Or will her attraction to the traditional Raja get in her way? This book is recommended to all fans of Chick Lit, particularly those who have ever felt that they cannot live up to their family's expectations. This is also a great read for those who enjoy reading about other cultures.
I think tonight's discussion of Chick Lit has the potential to be almost as volatile as the night we discussed Romance. One of the students who was quite vocal about her distaste for Romance (so vocal I expected Manogirl to jump over the desk and have her in a choke hold at any given moment) emailed me a few days ago to say that she was all prepared to dislike Chick Lit, but was surprised to find herself actually liking it. If I had to guess I would say that she erroneously associated Chick Lit with Romance, and carried her opinions over from there.
And that leads me to ask an ugly question that is sure to lead to a really bad place, but I can't resist asking. Which genre do you think has the worst reputation? Chick Lit or Romance?
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April 04, 2006
It's been a great week so far for reading, and I don't want to wait until Friday to share what I've been reading with you. :-)
After two busy weekends I decided to hibernate this past weekend with the boys of SG-5 (which was a great way to spend the weekend). So I read Deep Breath, the newest book in Alison Kent's SG-5 series (I also re-read the book that comes right before it in the series, Larger Than Life, just to help get me back into the SG-5 world). Because I'm a lazy girl this morning, I'm using the publisher's blurb for Deep Breath:
Deep Breath
When a guy stops at a roadside diner, he expects bad chili, not a hostage situation. But that’s where SG-5 operative Harry van Zandt finds himself when an armed cartel blows through the door. They’re not after him but the woman in the next booth, and their message is clear: she’s got seventy-two hours to locate and deliver a valuable historical document or her brother dies. And if Harry wants to live, he’d better go with her. Harry has his own undercover mission to finish, but with a trigger-happy band on their tails, it’ll have to wait. Not that he minds helping Georgia McLain. The tough treasure hunter is as smart as she is sexy. She’s also desperate. That artifact could finally clear her late father’s name. She needs Harry if she’s going to double-cross these thugs and keep it for herself, and her gratitude is the kind that could turn a guy’s head. Too bad that document is also of vital importance to the Smithson Group, and Harry’s top-secret mission is to get it before it falls into the wrong hands. Now, the beautiful, infuriating woman he’s starting to fall for could lead him right to what he needs—and what she so desperately wants. Out on the open road with a price on their heads, two unlikely lovers are caught in a game of secrets, lies, betrayals, and desire, where trust is risky and love is no time to catch your breath... Kent does not disappoint with her latest addition to the SG-5 series. With its compelling characters and complex storyline that peels away yet another layer of intrigue surrounding Spectra IT (the bad guys for those not familiar with the series), Deep Breath is a book readers won't want to miss. I would recommend Deep Breath (actually the whole SG-5 series) to anyone who reads romance, particularly those who enjoy contemporary or romantic suspense. I would also recommend this book to any reader who is just looking for a really well written book. I think Deep Breath (along with the other books in the series) is also one of the few books in the romance genre that I would feel confident giving to a non-romance reader, regardless of whether they are male or female. When my copy of Deep Breath arrived at the library a male co-worker was pop quizzing me about it, and after giving him a brief intro in the SG-5 world he said it sounded like something he wanted to read. And this guy is soooo not a romance reader. I'll be curious to hear his thoughts on the series once he has given it a try.
The rest of the books in the series (in reading order) are:
The Bane Affair
The Shaughnessey Accord
The Samms Agenda
The Beach Alibi
The McKenzie Artifact
Large Than Life
This is one series you will definitely want to read in order. I'm already looking forward to the next book in the series, Beyond A Shadow, which marks the end of the series. And yes, I'm already sad about that.
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