Game Changers: Memoirs of People Who Turned Their Lives Upside-Down

You've read Wild: From Lost to Found On the Pacific Crest Trail. And Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy,
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search For Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, and maybe even Ivan Ramen: Love, Obsession, and Recipes From Tokyo's Most Unlikely Noodle Joint. People can change their lives - take the road less traveled, make a 180 degree turn, change the rules of the game - and many times, for the better. Sometimes the catalysts for change are unlikely - the quest for the perfect slice of pizza? An adventure playground in Japan? Baking? - and the lifestyle change itself surprising (choosing a simpler, more sustainable lifestyle is not uncommon, but we had not heard about choosing sheep-herding before - and yet there are two people on this list who did), and remember,"Life is a journey, not a destination."

Shepherd: A Memoir by Richard Gilbert 

Hammer Head: The Making of a Carpenter by Nina MacLaughlin

Chasing the Dragon: One Woman's Struggle Against the Darkness of Hong Kong's Drug Dens by Jackie Pullinger with Andrew Quicke

Phenomenal: A Hesitant Adventurer's Search For Wonder In the Natural World by Leigh Ann Henion

All the Wrong Places: A Life Lost and Found by Phillip Connors

Bootstrapper: From Broke to Badass on a Northern Michigan Farm by Mardi Jo Link

The Bucolic Plague: How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers - An Unconventional Memoir by Josh Kilmer-Purcell

The Good Shufu: Finding Love, Self, and Home On the Far Side of the World by Tracy Slater

I Taste Fire, Earth, Rain: Elements of a Life With a Sherpa by Caryl Sherpa

Slice Harvester: A Memoir in Pizza by Colin Atrophy Hagendorf

Savage Park: A Meditation on Play, Space, and Risk for Americans Who Are Nervous, Distracted, and Afraid to Die by Amy Fusselman

The Mystical Backpacker: How to Discover Your Destiny in the Modern World by Hannah Papp 

Wide-Open World: How Volunteering Around the Globe Changed One Family's Lives Forever by John Marshall

Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living by Doug Fine 

The Good Life Lab by Wendy Jehanara Tremayne

The Bee Cottage Story: How I Made a Muddle of Things and Decorated My Way Back to Happiness by Frances Schultz 

  
Out of the Woods: A Memoir of Wayfinding by Lynn Darling

Confections of a Closet Master Baker: One Woman's Sweet Journey From Unhappy Hollywood Executive to Contented Country Baker by Gesine Bullock-Prado

Claiming Ground by Laura Bell 

The Moment: Wild, Poignant, Life-Changing Stories From 125 Writers and Artists edited by Larry Smith  

This is Not a Cookbook

The reasons for this hadn't registered until recently, but I've noticed that I really only use cookbooks that have pictures of the dishes in them.  What I love about the pictures is how all you have to do is glance at the page and doing so allows you to take in enough information quickly enough that you get an idea of whether you'd like to make the dish.  It's very little work because you can a) see the ingredients, mostly, without bothering to read the list, b) tell whether it would appeal to your tastes or not, and c) even get an idea of how much work the dish involves.  It's much better than reading a block of text and trying to hold all of the information in your head as you evaluate whether you'd like it, have the ingredients and time for it, etc.  

I have also found that if I'm using a cookbook with only a few pictures, I tend to end up cooking the dishes that are featured visually.  I thought at first it may be a generational thing to be visually oriented this way, but I spoke to my Grandma (who has loved cooking since she was in high school) and she feels the same - as does almost anyone I have spoken to about it.  The exception to this rule for me would be the The Joy of Cooking, (which I really, really love) because I can refer to it for specific how-to information or information about a certain type of cooking, etc.  For example, how to roast pumpkin seeds, or what exactly a bain-marie is. 

The book that has me thinking about cookbooks and pictures is Salad Love, which has not only beautiful, uniform photographs of each of the 260 salads for all four seasons, but also has photographs of the tools, spices, dressings, and toppings that are used throughout the book.  The author states up front that, "This is not a cookbook," and that is reflected in that the recipes are just a simple list of ingredients for the salad and next to it, the dressing, with no instructions for preparation.  With the photo, that's all you need, because you can see the way the zucchini is sliced and what size and type of shrimp is used.

Before I go, I thought I would toss in a few of the "recipes" that I really like the look of:  Purple Potatoes, Peas and Carrot with a creamy dressing; Shrimp, Zucchini, Carrot & Pine Nuts (and I see arugula in the picture!); and Brown Rice, Mozzarella and Mushrooms.  Are you getting hungry yet?  I am!  Please share any thoughts you have with us about cookbooks of all sorts - we'd love to hear your favorites or how you feel about the photograph issue.

Behind the Scenes of Children's Literature

The first children's picture book is said to have appeared in 1658 - Orbis Sensualium Pictus, or The World of Things Obvious to the Senses Drawn in Pictures. Children's books were pretty utilitarian for a long time after that, consisting primarily of hornbooks, alphabet books, and school primers to learn their letters from, and of course the Bible.  But by John Locke's time, he was already recommending "in his Thoughts on Education (1691)...that when a child begins to read, some easy, pleasant book, like AEsop's Fables or Reynard the Fox, with pictures if possible, should be put into his hands," and by the 18th century, publishing was flourishing and an interest in children's literature was on the rise.  Children's literature has only gone from strength to strength since - from early moral, fairy, and adventure tales to an exponential rise in "relatively inexpensive high-quality illustrated books" published during the twentieth century to today.

Maybe you never thought you wanted to know some of the backstories of children's literature, but trust us, you do! Why do children read what they read? Are there books children should be reading? How has children's literature changed over time? What are the stories behind the classics of the genre? The books listed below attempt to answer these questions, and more.


Wild Things!: Acts of Mischief in Children's Literature by Betsy Bird, Julie Danielson and Peter D. Sieruta

Did Laura Ingalls cross paths with a band of mass murderers? Why was a Garth Williams bunny tale dubbed "integrationist propaganda"? For adults who are curious about children's books and their creators, here are the little-known stories behind the stories. A treasure trove of information for a student, librarian, new parent, or anyone wondering about the post-Harry Potter book biz, Wild Things! draws on the combined knowledge and research of three respected and popular librarian-bloggers. Told in affectionate and lively prose, with numerous never-before-collected anecdotes, this book chronicles some of the feuds and fights, errors and secret messages found in children's books and brings contemporary illumination to the warm-and-fuzzy bunny world we think we know. Secret lives, scandalous turns, and some very funny surprises -- these essays by leading kids' lit bloggers take us behind the scenes of many much-loved children's books.

Children's Literature: A Reader's History, from Aesop to Harry Potter by Seth Lerer

Children's Literature charts the makings of the Western literary imagination from Aesop's Fables to Mother Goose, from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to Peter Pan, from Where the Wild Things Are to Harry Potter. Seth Lerer here explores the iconic books, ancient and contemporary alike, that have forged a lifelong love of literature in young readers during their formative years. Along the way, Lerer also looks at the changing environments of family life and human growth, schooling and scholarship, and publishing and politics in which children found themselves changed by the books they read. This ambitious work appraises a broad trajectory of influences--including Shakespeare's plays, John Locke's theories of education, Darwin's On the Origin of Species, and the Puritan tradition--which have each shaped children's literature through the ages as well.

100 Best Books for Children by Anita Silvey

Because children are young for such a short time, we need to give them their literary heritage during these brief years. Just as every literate adult knows certain books, every child should know specific children's books. If we fail to present these books to children, they reach adulthood without a basic literary heritage. [from the introduction]

Minders of Make-Believe: Idealists, Entrepreneurs, and the Shaping of American Children's Literature by Leonard S. Marcus

An animated first-time history of the visionaries--editors, authors, librarians, booksellers, and others--whose passion for books has transformed American childhood and American culture. What should children read? As the preeminent children’s literature authority, Leonard S. Marcus shows incisively [that] that’s the three-hundred-year-old question that sparked the creation of a rambunctious children’s book publishing scene in Colonial times. And it’s the urgent issue that went on to fuel the transformation of twentieth-century children’s book publishing from a genteel backwater to big business. [from Amazon]

Artist to Artist: 23 Major Illustrators Talk to Children About Their Art

Unique anthology of twenty three artists have shared the story of their work, their art and their lives as creative people and were among the first to exhibit their work at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.


*descriptions can be found in the library catalog unless otherwise noted

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a safe and happy holiday!  And now, relax with some festive, rights-cleared images for educational and noncommercial use from our Brittanica ImageQuest eResource.

Thanksgiving Parade. Photographer. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 8 Oct 2015.
http://quest.eb.com/search/115_2843537/1/115_2843537/cite

Autumn leaves may indicate the year is dying but they make sure it goes out in a blaze of glory. Next weekend, Thanksgiving, should find the forests of the Muskoka area at their best but it will be another week after that before the trees of Southern Ontario his their peak. So let's go for a drive then.. Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 8 Oct 2015.
http://quest.eb.com/search/182_728715/1/182_728715/cite

American Football. Photographer. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 8 Oct 2015.
http://quest.eb.com/search/115_2660208/1/115_2660208/cite

Lemurs Enjoy Thanksgiving Feast At San Francisco Zoo. Photography. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 8 Oct 2015.
http://quest.eb.com/search/115_3903032/1/115_3903032/cite

Thanksgiving Greetings. Fine Art. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 8 Oct 2015.
http://quest.eb.com/search/107_3353564/1/107_3353564/cite

All branch libraries are closed today and tomorrow but our website offers resources like downloads & databases 24/7! Regular hours resume Saturday, November 28th.

The Sketchbook Project

My fascination with community art projects has found a new object!  It is called the Sketchbook Project.  The book that introduced me, The Sketchbook Project World Tour, was recommended to me by a customer who loved it.  I always love hearing what my customers have enjoyed reading, and even better when I have the chance to look into their favorites, as I did with this one.  

The project this book is based on is a really neat thing.  I don't know how to not understate it.  And although it reminds me of other community cultivating projects I've posted about, such as Storycorps, Humans of New York, and PostSecret (links are to my posts), I'll try not to do it disservice by just repeating the super cool similarities. The book is a sampling of sketches from the crowd-sourced Brooklyn Art Library, which houses 33,868 sketchbooks by people from 135 countries who paid an entry fee to participate in the project and received blank Sketchbook Project notebooks (currently priced at $28 for non-digitized or $63 for digitized) to fill with their art and send back to become permanent pieces in the library.  Each piece of art featured in the book is only one spread from the sketchbook that it came from, but if you visit the library in Brooklyn, you can browse all of the sketchbooks!  You can also search for and check out sketchbooks online, and when you do, the artist whose work you are viewing is notified.

In reading about the Sketchbook Project, I discovered that the founders started it because they did not like the way that normal art places were so exclusive.  Therefore, anybody of any age or experience can join in on the project - it is not just for professional artists.  That being said, most of the art in The Sketchbook Project World Tour could've fooled me.  The creative capacity that we've been endowed with and how much breadth and depth there is in the variety of art that we can create, even as novices, takes my breath away. 

Just in case anybody decides they are going to enter the Sketchbook Project and needs some inspiration or instruction, I'm tacking on to this post another fascinating book that I found - Zendoodle: Oodles of Doodles.  (By the way, please let me know if you do enter, I would be so excited to hear about it!)  This book offers unique approaches to Zentangle® and it, too, includes examples of artwork in many types of media and with lots of unique approaches.  Even if you don't pick up pen (colored pencil, paint, or chalk) and paper to try it out, this book is beautiful and great fun to browse through. 


Links

10 Incredible Journals From the Brooklyn Art Library

A Home for Sketchbooks of the World

Inside the Brooklyn Art Library and the Sketchbook Project 2012

Inside a Stranger's Sketchbook

Poetry in the Digital Age

I know I said I was going to post a guide to YA fantasy novels, and I still am, but today, I have to talk about something new (to me) in the poetry world.

Recently, the New York Times published an article about young poets publishing their poetry on social media sites such as Instagram and Tumblr, and the success those poets have seen as a result. For example, according to the New York Times article, poet Tyler Knott Gregson has 560,000 followers on Tumblr and Instagram, and his first book, Chasers of the Light, has more than 120,000 copies in print. A post on Gregson's website states that his book All The Words Are Yours is a semifinalist for the 2015 Goodreads Choice Award for Poetry Book of the Year, an award that Goodreads members vote on.

The New York Times article has dubbed poets like Gregson "Instapoets," a term I find fascinating. Much like vloggers on YouTube and musicians on Myspace, Instapoets are becoming online celebrities, and I'm curious about what this means for poetry.

I've had several conversations with colleagues about this, and the general consensus is that these Instapoets will not be a gateway for readers who might search out other poets, like Louise Gluck, Ted Kooser, and Mary Oliver. It's also been the general consensus that the quality of poems written by Instapoets might not be that good--and after reading Chasers of Light, I have found that Gregson's poetry does lack depth, and that much of it is cliched.

As the New York Times article mentions, the chances of Instapoets impressing literary critics is small, but perhaps this is beside the point. The amount of online followers Instapoets like Gregson have, and the amount of books Instapoets are selling both indicate that these poets are filling some kind of need for their readers. Presumably, writing poetry also fulfills a need for Instapoets, because otherwise, why would they be writing? For me, it becomes problematic when those writers then share their poems without first revising them at least once.

The key to poetry, and to any writing, is knowing when to revise, and knowing when to let something go (or, as many writers may call it, knowing when to kill your darlings). I have to wonder about Instapoets: How often do they revise their poetry, if they revise it at all? If they don't revise their poetry, why? Is it because they think they have written something that is perfect, which rarely happens in first drafts of anything? Is it because they simply don't know how to? There are so many possibilities, and I have my opinion about why Instapoets might not revise their work (assuming, of course that they don't).

At the end of the day, Instapoetry doesn't work for me. Despite how it's shaping poetry in the digital age, and despite the positive response Instapoets are getting, I just can't get behind it. When I read poetry, I want to read about ideas I haven't read before. When I read Instapoetry (or, as one of my coworkers calls it, pop poetry), I feel like I'm reading the same poems over and over again.

I'm also curious: What would happen if traditionally published poets like Ted Kooser and Mary Oliver tried what Gregson does, and posted their poems on social media? Would they get the same following, or would they not get much attention (or, perhaps they would get attention solely for doing what the Instapoets have done, and not get attention for their poetry)?

What are your thoughts? Do poets like Tyler Knott Gregson, Lang Leav, and Robert M. Drake appeal to you, or do you think Instapoets are just a fad that will soon disappear? Let me know in the comments!

NaNoWriMo

It's National Novel Writing Month!  Have you taken up the challenge to write a 50,000 novel in 30 days? The folks at the NaNoWriMo website make it so easy - sign up for free, track your word count, get pep talks from famous authors, attend write-ins locally, and, for those who find it hard to commit, you can even print out and sign a Month-Long Novelist Agreement and Statement of Understanding, acknowledging that "the the month-long, 50,000 word deadline [you] set for [yourself] is absolute and unchangeable."

Why NaNoWriMo?  You love writing.  You love the challenge (or could use a motivator).  Also, according to the website: "Over 250 NaNoWriMo novels have been traditionally published. They include Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants, Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, Hugh Howey’s Wool, Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, Jason Hough’s The Darwin Elevator, and Marissa Meyer’s Cinder."

If you have been participating your word count should be just past the halfway mark, around 28,000 words as of November 17th. Just two weeks left to go! We are participating this year, and we are running way, way behind at around 14,000 words.  One of our writing buddies, in Alaska, just did an 11-hour lock-in writing marathon.  It might come to that for us! Our region (USA: New Mexico: Albuquerque) has many helpful events scheduled, including Write-Ins at a variety of locations. There are also Word Sprints on Twitter, Virtual Write-Ins, and more - check the Official NaNoWriMo calendar.

If you are feeling like you could use some inspiration, there's a Get Inspired page on the NaNoWriMo site, or, consider checking a writing guide from the library catalog!  Some standouts include:


No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days by Chris Baty [eBook]

The Writer's Portable Mentor: A Guide to Art, Craft, and the Writing Life by Priscilla Long

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott [eBook]

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King [eBook + eAudio]

Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life by Natalie Goldberg

How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead: Your Words in Print and Your Name in Lights by Ariel Gore 

Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story by Ursula K. Le Guin [eBook] 

Making a Literary Life: Advice for Writers and Other Dreamers by Carolyn See 

Still Writing: The Pleasures and Perils of a Creative Life by Dani Shapiro  

On Writing by Eudora Welty 

Plotto: The Master Book of All Plots by William Wallace Cook [eBook]

A Kite in the Wind: Fiction Writers on Their Craft edited by Andrea Barrett and Peter Turchi [eBook]

Why We Write: 20 Acclaimed Authors on How and Why They Do What They Do edited by Meredith Maran 

  

For more writing guides, try a subject search of "Authorship - Handbooks, manuals, etc." or "Authorship".

If you haven't been participating, there's always next year, or there are other NaNoWriMo-style events during the year - Playwriting Month, Gothic Novel Writing Month, 24 Hour Comics Day, Script Frenzy. 

Links

The NaNoWriMo Blog

Best Books for Writers [Poets & Writers]