Good Reads Updates

Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream: A Day in the Life of Your Body by Jennifer Ackerman

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book chronicles a "Day in the life" of your body, outlining the specific functions from dawn til night. I particularly enjoyed this because it perfectly combined the art of the human condition with the science and chemsitry behind why-we-do/feel-what-we-do. I particularly enjoyed various quotes from famous writers, thinkers and philosophers from history throughout, which evoke a sense of commonality from hundreds of years ago to present. Recommended for adults.


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This Is What I Did: by Ann Dee Ellis

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book moves fast- short sentences and quick pace makes it a nice read that can easily be done in a day. I would recommend this to late middle-early high school, people who like trying to "figure out what happened".



The content is a bit icky towards the end, not a particularly "happy" story, so I would recommend this for reluctant readers in 8th-9th grade, people who have read other realistic fiction books that have gritty happenings within them.


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The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Ted's different, his mind works in different ways from the "normal" kids. When he, his sister and his cousins Salim go to visit the London Eye ferris wheel, Salim gets on the ride, and never comes back off. While their parents reel with grief and worry, Kat and Ted create their own theories on how Salim disappeared, and much of the book involves them "testing" their theories to track down their missing cousin. I liked this one, and I think people who enjoyed the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime might also appreciate Ted's personality and logic.




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shocking

This afternoon, in the quiet pre-schoolage-kids-infestation at the library, a woman came in with her preschooler and toddler, needing to pay a tiny fine. As I proceeded with the transaction, I noticed the preschooler, head-to-toe in pink everything- stocking cap, coat, dress, tights, boots and shoes, is quivering. Her face is blotchy and eyes are red. She looks literally terrified, as if she's just seen a ghost or had some terrific meltdown that exhausted her. She was literally shaken, and I looked at her and asked (cautiously), "Is there anything I can help you find today?"
Her mother looks at me and then at her terrified daughter. She says, "Well, we've just found out something- something not bad, but certainly shocking while at preschool. Honey, do you want to tell her what happened?"

Silence. The girl has lost the ability to speak, and she is now panting. Her eyes well-up with the thought of the shocking news she just learned.

The mother looks at me and says, "Well she's just found her first loose tooth. We thought maybe we could get the Junie B. Jones book..."

"Oh how exciting! Congratulations! Of course I'll find the book for you..."

and we sent her off with a story to hopefully calm the terror in her eyes.

It is time.

It is time for me to update my electronic "portfolio"- something that I should've done a year ago, but couldn't bring myself to re-write the HTML and move all the files over. It used to be hosted on my LIS grad school server, and I'm coming upon it's demise since I've graduated.

So, if anyone who reads this (I see I have a FEW dots on the map now- hooray!) has an idea of a FREE place to host my portfolio, that'd be super fantastic. I'll take any and all suggestions, as I'm clueless and have only found ones that cost money. I don't really make much of that so I'm looking for cheap and effective.

About half of the webpages I created I made in Notepad, the other half in SeaMonkey, if that makes a difference.

This is the kind of thing I link to for my portfolio.

And this one....(not incredibly proud of this one)

and other things like this.

I also had a portion with a resume, coursework, biographical information, etc.

Ideas anyone?

exhausted

Is anyone else totally exhausted? I mean, the past three days have just sucked the life out of me. I imagine part of it is the weather- snow snow snow and cold cold cold. Other contributing factors may include: stressful holiday and work obligations, not having much physical activity, absorbing weight-of-the-world that shouldn't necessarily be shouldered by me, etc. I'm just tired.

On days I don't have to work, I wake up thinking about work, I'm dreaming about work. So it really feels like I am working all the time. This isn't necessarily a bad thing- seeing as much (if not all) of the anxiety around work is created and maintained by my own psyche, however- there are days I wake up completely panicked that I'm forgetting something...which might be why my stomach, skin and head are all acty funny and revolting against the stress.

I'm reading this book: Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream, by Jennifer Ackerman. It is neither helping nor hurting my exhaustion. Basically I'm understanding more about the constant flow of cortisol throughout my body and wondering why I don't have a fatter stomach. The book moves through the body as someone wakes up and goes throughout their entire day- lending insight into why you "hit the wall" at 3:00pm and can't keep your eyes open, or why some people get up to the initial ring of the alarm clock while others slap at it 4-5 times before rousing in the morning. It's giving me lots of ideas as to WHY my body reacts the way it does to stress- and it's definitely giving me the feeling that (as I've known all along): I need to exercise more- particularly when it's cold and I'm stressed, because it's cheaper and more effective than antidepressants (not a fan) and caffiene (my BFF). I really like the book, you should read it.

That being said, a couple extra hours of sleeping withOUT dreaming about work would also be a welcome release from some anxiety I'm feeling. That, or perhaps falling onto a mountain of cash.

Although, the book does mention how laughter truly helps human beings in a myriad of ways, so maybe I'll just surf fail blog or some other such funny nonsense on the web to keep my sanity?

I hope you all are not caving under the stress that is wintertime, wherever you are.

It's progress report time!

Here's to proper self-evaluation and performance appraisal!

books teachers books

I'm doing a booktalk in January. For those of you who aren't familiar with the librarian-jargon, a "booktalk" is where you hype up good books really quickly for an audience. Most of the time, in my albeit limited experience, this is done either one-on-one with a patron, or for a group of young adults or children. The upcoming january booktalk's audience is: teachers.

Teachers have always amazed me. From the ones I had as a child- Miss. Horvath & Mrs. Paxson, Mrs. O'Brian and others- their dedication and ways of thoughtfully uplifting a child while concurrently teaching them academically is astounding. Everyone, and I mean everyone, has a teacher that made a profound effect on them in one way or another- and I've been blessed enough to have several of these teachers. Now I'm a grown up, and I deal with teachers again- not as often as I'd like. I wish teachers wanted to partner-up more with public libraries and librarians. I wish they'd remember us as a resource as often as they should. Sadly, many do not- but some do.

I also have the pleasure of working with a former teacher (former as in a 3 years ago or so) who handles our Homework Help Center. Younger than me, she's single-handedly supplied the HHC with the textbooks, rulers, protractors, T82 calculators, building blocks and colorful posters. She helps students ranging in age from 4 years old to high schoolers, on things like Algebra and basic introduction to reading. It is amazing to watch her remember such things, and witness how quickly she can recall algebraic equations and scientific terms. I'm in awe of her dedication. Like me, she's got a Masters degree and she (like any teacher) is not paid nearly what she is worth to these kids, their parents, their teachers at school, or to the library. But she loves her job. And it's really cool to watch her in action.

All of that being said, working so closely with a teacher has made me terrified of this booktalk. I would much prefer to be hyping up books to 13 year olds than to adults who work as hard as teachers do. My main concerns are that the books I will pick will be obvious ones, and the teachers will take nothing away from the conversation. I do not want to waste their time. My other (and probably more rational) fear is that I will freeze up, forget the book entirely, and just stare.

So in the process of readying myself for this talk, I've started frantically reserving a TON of middle-school age books. I brought home seven of them last night. I also brought home an adult nonfiction book and a Teen book that is NOT appropriate for middle grades- but both of these items are much more intriguing to me right now. So what am I doing? Of course: reading them instead.

HEre's to speed-reading over the next month or so, and let's hope that I can find some stuff that is age-appropriate. My own taste apparently doesn't linger around the middle grades much. Le sigh.

I will try to remember to post the books on here, so the two dots from my previous posting's map will have these books as resources. haha!

Who Reads my Blog?

Apparently these are the people who read my blog...wait a second, nobody's on here. Hmmmm....a hint perhaps?

time for a quickie

Yesterday at the library I was on desk doing my checking-in, checking-out thing when a regular of ours, a beautiful little 4-5 year old girl comes up to the desk, decked out in her stocking cap and winter clothes. Her mother is handing her books they've checked out (from their last visit) so she can put them in the bookdrop located in the desk, which is conveniently eye-level for this little girl.

I've heard this little girl talk before, and she's a riot. So I began the small talk, asking if she enjoyed her books. She started going ON and ON about each one, as she would put it in the slot:

"And Pete doesn't get any toys from Santa Claus because he'd been a bad boy..."THUNK

"And a monkey TOOK A BANANA WITHOUT PAYING FOR IT, and there are no words in this book, only pictures"....THUNK

"And this *laughing hysterically* is about a Dragon on the Doorstep...it was so funny!"...THUNK...

She had about 10 books. As I checked them in, I looked and she told the proper synopsis of each picture book she tossed in there.

I looked at her mom and said, "She doesn't miss a beat, does she? She's a riot!"

Her mom just laughed and listened the whole time.

If I ever have kids, I hope I can listen to them and allow them to tell me exactly what they think, just as she did...

Cop-Out Posting

I haven't written anything on here of substance lately, so I'm doing a survey. It's the easy way out to inform you all of my mindset (whoever reads this.)

1. What's your name?
Mandy, that's it. Not Amanda, just Mandy, like the stupid song.

2. What is your favorite thing to wear?
men's Hanes tank tops and pajama pants

3. Last thing you ate?
brownie from Loralie's brownies. Oh. My. God. Delicious.

4. One place you will NEVER eat at?
Long John Silvers

5. I say Shotgun, you say:
Jerk.

6. Last person you hugged?
Gabe

7. Does anyone you know wanna date you?
hm, doubt it.

8. Would you date anyone you met online?
I've done that before, and had a bad experience. So for myself, No. For others- have at it and good luck.

9. Name something you like physically about yourself:
I have nice hair.

10. The last place you went out to dinner to?
well we got carryout from Champp's last night, but had Sweet Henri's for breakfast in Wadsworth, OH over the weekend. (Sweet Henri's does not have a website- which I probably should've guessed from the outdated decor)

11. Who is your best friend?
if we're not counting gabe, then my siblings, equally share that status.

12. What time of the day is it?
7:35 pm

13. Who/What made you angry today?
Not much really, except I really hate being on desk and having to check in reserves at 9am or 1pm -- I was on desk both times today.

14. Baseball or Football?
football, hands down.

15. Ever gone skinny dipping?
affirmative

16. Favorite type of Food?
i really like greek food.

17. Favorite holiday:
thanksgiving, as it permits unlimited caloric intake

18. Do you download music:
I do, but mostly legally

19. Do you care if your socks are dirty?
absolutely.

20. Opinion of Chinese symbol tattoos?
i think it's a sweet way for people to think they're cultured.

21. Would you date the person who posted this?
well, John Green posted it first. Though I find his work amazing, and have met him in person and think he's a pretty sweel human being, I am currently in love with someone and he is married. Maybe in another time/universe/etc.

22. Has anyone ever sang or played for you personally?
Yes.

23. Do you love anyone?
I love a lot of people

24. Are colored contact lenses sexy?
no, appreciate your own color.

25. Have you ever bungee jumped?
never, that is stupid.

26. Have you ever gone white-water rafting?
no, but i would like to

27. Has anyone ten years older than you ever hit on you
yes, it happens frequently, as I have an old-timey look about me, and old men tend to prefer redheads- contrary to the "gentlemen prefer blondes" belief

28. How many pets do you have?
none. But I have two dog-nephews.

29. Have you met a real redneck?
I fairly certain I have redneck in my DNA

30. How is the weather right now?
bone-numbing cold.

31. What are you listening to right now?
Drop Kick Murphys- Gabe's music is on satellite radio

32. What is your current favorite song?
Winter Song on Hotel Cafe winter cd.

33. What was the last movie you watched?
Fracture

34. Do you wear contacts?
No.

35. Where was the last place you went besides your house?
the library. where I work.

36. What are you afraid of?
cancer. legit fear.

37. How many piercings have you had?
ears only, never again.

38. What piercings do you want?
see above

39. What's one thing you've learned this year?
i need to chillax.

40. What do you usually order from Starbucks?
used to be lattes, but now I'm watching my milk intake so now it's a mixture of whateverIneedatthat moment

41. What Magazines are you reading?
I regularly read Publishers Weekly, VOYA, American Libraries and Library Journal. Occasionally I peruse People, India Today, Newsweek, Real Simple, Women's Fitness, etc.

42. Have you ever fired a gun:
No thank you.

43. Are you missing someone?
if you say no to this, you are mentally ill.

44. Favorite TV show?
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

45. Do you have an obession with WoW?
no. it is not my thing.

46. Has anyone ever said you looked like a celeb?
in england people stopped me and told me i "look like that girl from the telly". I had no idea what they were talking about but said thank you.

47. What celeb do you look like?
I don't look like anyone.

48. Who would you like to see right now?
If you could raise the dead I would say Grandma Simon, then probably shakespeare. Maybe Einstein or Lincoln, too. Let's have a party!

49. Favorite movie of all time?
I can't really answer this since I don't really watch movies all that much, and the ones I watch aren't interesting to most people.

50. Do you find yourself loved?
I do, yes.

51. Have you ever been caught doing something you weren't suppose to?
Good times.

52. Favorite smell?
home, meaning- my parents' house.

53. Butter, plain, or salted popcorn?
a little of each please

54. What's something that really bugs you?
uninformed, narrowminded racist and otherwise ignorant people.

55. Do you like Michael Jackson?
I feel sorry for Michael Jackson.

56. Taco Bell or Burger King?
Taco Bell

57. What's your favorite perfume?
Angel.

58. Favorite baseball team?
I don't care about baseball.

59. Ever call a 1-900 phone number?
only 800 for me.

60. What's the longest time you've gone without sleep?
probably 30+ hours back in college

61. Last time you went bowling?
Too long ago. Bowling is so fun!

62. Where is the weirdest place you have slept?
Probably on the floor of a strangers house, again in college.

63. Who was your last phone call?
um, Kim, the sister

64. Last time you were at work?
until 6pm, that glorious hour that comes ohsolateintheday

65. What's the closest orange object to you?
the label on the mod podge I need to use for christmas gifts.

OH- ANOTHER NEAT SURVEY:
* Grab the book closest to you. Now.
* Go to page 56.
* Find the 5th sentence.
* Copy these instructions.
* Don't go looking for your favourite book, or the coolest one you have -- just grab the closest one.

Mandy quotes: "And between the screaming kids and the car horns, the whole scene is just crazy." ~Kendra by Coe Booth.