The Clueless Librarian

There's the knowledgeable librarian. There's the sexy librarian. There's the professionally trained librarian. And then there's me :: the clueless librarian.

[clueless-librarian]

How the N.Y. Public Library Fills Its Shelves (and Why Some Books Don’t Make the Cut)

Every book has to earn its spot in one of the world’s leading public library collections. Here’s what it takes.

[clueless-librarian]

2019 Reading Challenge

I always start the year with the intention of updating my reading challenge post, but I never seem to get past the first few months' worth of reading. That's not going to deter me from trying again! And this year I'm trying something new: I have a spreadsheet set up with all of the challenges, and as I list the books I read, I can check off if it meets the challenge. Hopefully that'll help ... 2019 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge:

An epistolary novel or collection of letters

An alternate history novel

A book by a woman and/or AOC (Author of Color) that won a literary award in 2018

A humor book

A book by a journalist or about journalism

A book by an AOC set in or about space

An #ownvoices book set in Mexico or Central America

An #ownvoices book set in Oceania

A book published prior to January 1, 2019, with fewer than 100 reviews on Goodreads

A translated book written by and/or translated by a woman

A book of manga

A book in which an animal or inanimate object is a point-of-view character

A book by or about someone that identifies as neurodiverse

A cozy mystery

A book of mythology or folklore

An historical romance by an AOC

A business book

A novel by a trans or nonbinary author

A book of nonviolent true crime

A book written in prison

A comic by an LGBTQIA creator

A children’s or middle grade book (not YA) that has won a diversity award since 2009

A self-published book

A collection of poetry published since 2014

from Blogger http://bit.ly/2ACKrax via IFTTT

[clueless-librarian]

Shang-Chi, Fu Manchu, and Marvel's Asian Problem | Book Riot

We're taking a hard look at Marvel's problematic history with Asian characters as Marvel Studios fast-tracks a Shang-Chi movie.

[clueless-librarian]

Check out our extremely unscientific quiz and find out which Dewey heading you fall under!

Awesomely, this category is actually listed in technology — rumor has it because back in Dewey’s day, farm animals WERE technology? It’s one of our favorite DD idiosyncrasies – just like you, dear reader, you idiosyncratic riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. Books in your category range from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron to All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot.

[clueless-librarian]

The Competitive Book Sorters Who Spread Knowledge Around New York

Inside an annual contest of brains, brawn, and library logistics.

I love libraries!

[clueless-librarian]

12 Authors Write About the Libraries They Love

The message here: A library is much more than its books.

[clueless-librarian]

For anyone who has ever been a reader, there’s much to sympathize with in Maryanne Wolf’s Reader, Come Home. The UCLA neuroscientist, a great lover of literature, tries to read Hermann Hesse’s Glass Bead Game, an old favorite, only to realize that she finds him boring and too complex. She wonders why he ever won a Nobel. And Wolf, who previously wrote Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain, is horrified that this is what has happened to her ability to concentrate. Reader, Come Home is about, as its subtitle states, “the reading brain in a digital world.” The Verge spoke to Wolf about how technology is changing the brain, what we lose when we lose deep attention, and what to do about it.

[yucaree]

Free posters by prominent illustrators to print and carry. Click on any post for the PDF of that image.

Prominent illustrators have donated images to display whenever we raise our voices to demand an end to the cruel administration policies of separating children from their parents and imprisoning refugees in detention facilities indefinitely.We are so grateful to the artists who have contributed.

[clueless-librarian]

DC revealed artists and covers for their first wave of graphic novels for young readers.

[clueless-librarian]

[yucaree]

Why Anthony Bourdain Matters

Anthony Bourdain's friend and former editor, Karen Rinaldi, on how the late chef and writer broke boundaries with his storytelling, honesty, and singular voice.

[clueless-librarian]

Comics Syllabus for Comics 101: A Quest to Dabble Deeper

Rioter Dana is a comics newbie, but she wants to learn more, read more, and even learn to draw them herself. So what did she do? She made a comics syllabus.

[clueless-librarian]

Poetry Reading in the United States Has Risen Dramatically Proven by New Research by the National Endowment for the Arts

New York, NY (June 7, 2018)—According to new NEA findings, in the past five years, the number of poetry readers in the United States has almost doubled to a total of 28 million adults. This is the highest number the NEA has seen since 2002. The largest increase in poetry readership in the past five years has come from young people ages 18–24 and African American, Asian American, and other non-white readers.

[jeremywhitley]

Raven the Pirate Princess is Sinking

I despise doing posts where I ask for help, but here we are.

About two years ago I started a new creator owned project.  It began as a spin-off of Princeless, but the reality is this - Raven The Pirate Princess is its own thing altogether.  I knew this from the first issue and if you’ve been reading, so have you.

Sure, the first few issues of Raven: Pirate Princess had that heroic lady feminist banter for which Princeless has become known both among its fans and detractors.  I mean, Raven had this scene:

and issue 1 had this scene:

But perhaps much more importantly, the first issue of Raven had this:

but that wasn’t where that ended.  This is a book about a community of diverse queer women actively claiming their place in the world and taking what’s theirs.  It’s about Raven, who is desperately in love with her childhood best friend Ximena

It’s about Ximena, a girl who was held captive for years by a pirate king who pretended to be her liberator.  Who fell in love with the pirate’s daughter, only to be left behind by that father when she outlived her value.

About Sunshine, the thief that chose the wrong target and ended up falling in love with a woman already hopelessly in love with somebody else.

It’s about Katie, the bisexual second in command who’s motivated by honor…and occasionally beating the snot out of a dude or two

Oh and in case I forgot to mention, Katie is also incredibly muscular:

And Jayla, the asexual science genius who’s tired of being treated like a little sister

and Cid, the deaf engineer who quietly keeps the ship running

and of course, these two:

The socially awkward poet and the angry sword fighter who couldn’t stand her who have somehow become these two:

But here’s the thing: this comic is failing.  It has a very dedicated and exuberant but at this point SMALL fanbase.  Today I had a hard conversation with Action Lab about the reality of the numbers on this book versus what it costs to produce this book and, suffice it to say, Action Lab isn’t ready to cancel the book, but they aren’t ready to greenlight year 3 either.  After Year 2 #13, Raven is set to go on the shelf until numbers can support continuing it.

This is where I need your help

If you care about this book full of queer pirate ladies and you want it to continue, we need to find a way to spread the word about it.  We don’t need to sell single issues (it would be nice) but ultimately we need the trades sales that back up the continuation of this big YA Pirate/Revenge/Adventure/Romance thing.

Digital copies can be bought instantly right on Comixology: https://www.comixology.com/Princeless-Raven-The-Pirate-Princess/comics-series/46971

You can buy the physical volumes on amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B01BF7U91Q

In fact, if you’ve already purchased volumes 1-4, volume 5 is available for preorder there right now! 

Maybe you’ve bought all the issues already.  Thank you!  If you still want to support Raven, you can review the books on Amazon or other retailers, you can share, reblog or retweet this post.  You can tell a friend about the book! 

If you have a comics review site or, say, a blog where you talk about LGBT media, contact me for review links or interviews.  Please, help us save our ship.

[clueless-librarian]

With ‘There There,’ Tommy Orange Has Written a New Kind of American Epic

Mr. Orange is part of a generation of young indigenous writers who are redefining the native canon.

[clueless-librarian]

[clueless-librarian]

Kundiman and the Asian American Writers Workshop are trying to chip away at the website’s blind spots, one page at a time.