Read Harder: Vol. 4

This year, I plan on chronicling my adventures with Book Riot’s 2016 Read Harder Challenge.

Time for a graphic novel, friends. The charge is to find a non-superhero comic that debuted in the last three years and here are a few that fit the bill just fine…

 

In Lady Killer, written by Jamie S. Rich and illustrated by Joelle Jones, Josie is the picture perfect ’60s housewife. Or is she? The strain of caring for her husband and daughters while balancing her career as a trained assassin is starting to take a toll on her life. Can this lady really have it all?

Sydney Padua’s The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage is a fun bit of speculative fiction – Charles Babbage, inventor and machinist, was essentially the inventor of the computer; Ada, Countess of Lovelace, was a proto-programmer, who translated and added on to Babbage’s notes. Neither completed their work, but Padua wonders what if they had…

Jane, the Fox & Me was written by Fanny Britt, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault, and translated from French by Christelle Morelli and Susan Ouriou. Hélène is a lonely outcast at her school, with Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre as her only consolation. After a brief encounter with a fox on a school camping trip, she begins to come out of her shell to embrace life.

Written by Mariko Tamaki and illustrated by her cousin Jillian Tamaki, This One Summer is a coming of age story about Rose and Windy, neighbors at a summer rental community. Rose is trying to navigate her mother’s depression and her interest in the boys who hang out at the small store where they rent horror movies. Windy, a few years younger, is still a bit silly but understands more about adults than she lets on.

Any other suggestions?

— Jess

Read Harder: Vol. 3

This year, I plan on chronicling my adventures with Book Riot’s 2016 Read Harder Challenge.

It’s always tough to talk about the third book in a series without giving away anything important, but I’m going to do my best. I flailed a bit about Pierce Brown‘s Red Rising about two years ago and it ended up being one of my favorite books that year. The overly simplified recap?  The series is set on Mars. Our hero, Darrow, is pulled up from his slave existence and sent to infiltrate high-society to spark a revolution.

In Morning Star, the revolution has spread far beyond Darrow’s spy games to a complete uprising, with most of the low-colors in the caste system warily banding together to overthrow the ruling Golds. Brown has expanded his toying with Greek and Roman mythology to include Norse legends and mythology – including a valiant warrior named Ragnar, his shield-maiden sister Sefi, and a veritable army of Valkyries. The book is stuffed with rousing war speeches, space battles, and political maneuvers.  If Red Rising has shades of Ender’s Game and Golden Son is a bureaucratic chess game, Morning Star throws the two into a blender, and comes out with Battlestar Galactica (Starbuck and Darrow would definitely be friends).

If you are into this, then Morning Star is for you.

As for the reading challenge, this will cover you for:

• Read a book over 500 pages – it clocks in at 518
• Read a book about politics, in your country or another (fiction or non fiction) – a stretch, sure, but it works

— Jess

Read Harder: Vol. 2

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and Eleventh Stack are celebrating Black History Month by highlighting books, music and movies by African American Artists. We also have a ton of great events and programs for children, teens and adults. You can view all of our Black History Month posts here.

This year, I plan on chronicling my adventures with Book Riot’s 2016 Read Harder Challenge.

In Rita Williams-Garcia’s One Crazy Summer, Delphine and her younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, are heading to Oakland, California to spend a month with the mother they barely know. Cecile left them seven years ago for a new life as an artist and poet on the West Coast.

Oakland in 1968 is nothing like their California dreams of Disneyland, movie stars and days at the beach. Cecile has no interest in showing them the sights — her work with the printing press in the kitchen is far more important. Instead, every day Cecile sends the girls to a summer camp held at the community center run by the Black Panther Party. Delphine’s ordered world view is altered by the time spent learning about the fight for justice and her mother’s role in the Party.

This quick read sent me on a quest for more information about the Black Panther Party, and I can recommend Stanley Nelson‘s documentary The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution.

For those following along with the Read Harder challenge, One Crazy Summer will help you cover the “Read a middle grade novel” and “Read the first book in a series by a person of color.” You can follow more of Delphine’s adventures with P.S. Be Eleven and Gone Crazy in Alabama.

– Jess

Read Harder: Vol. 1

This year, I plan on chronicling my adventures with Book Riot’s 2016 Read Harder Challenge.

Read a play

I thought, for a hot second, about re-reading something from my high school English classes. But then I remembered that I hated Hedda Gabler, and while I love Shakespeare, I just didn’t have it in me. I wanted something short and funny. Arsenic and Old Lace, maybe?

Written in 1939 by Joseph Kesselring, it opened in 1941 and ran for 1,444 performances. This dark comedy is centered around the Brewster family — our hero Mortimer, his two brothers and their spinster aunts. And aside from Mortimer, they’re all insane.

Teddy believes he is Panama Canal-era Theordore Roosevelt, digging locks in the basement. Jonathan has just had surgery to conceal his identity (he now looks like Boris Karloff and was, in fact, played by Karloff on stage) and is on the run with his alcoholic doctor. The dear, sweet aunts have taken to murdering elderly gentlemen by offering them a bit of company and a glass of home-made elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine, and “just a pinch” of cyanide. Poor Mortimer just wants to get married.

If farce and dark comedy is your jam, I can’t recommend this enough. And check out the movie, directed by Frank Capra; it stars Cary Grant as Mortimer and Peter Lorre as the surgeon, Dr. Einstein. I saw it as a kid and I think it informed my sense of humor as much as any Muppets or Mel Brooks movie.

— Jess

 

 

Cookie Time

I like to bake. I’m pretty okay at it. I’m far better at everything tasting the way it should than it being pretty (I’ll never be a cake decorator); it’s a good thing that cookies are pretty forgiving.

I spent last Friday with the oven cranked to 350 and worked on my holiday cookie stash. Chocolate chip, snickerdoodles, those peanut butter guys with the Hershey’s Kiss smooshed in and I got my first lesson in nut roll.

This book is going on my to-buy list. Baker Ellen Jackson has a great collection of cookies we all know and love, with ‘twist’ options for each recipe. I tried the Snickerdoodles, and they are the best I’ve ever made. They didn’t go flat and still have a little bit of chew.

I know a lot of people swear by this one (our Melissa M. included). Betty is often my go-to when I need something reliable.

I haven’t used this one, but it comes recommended by one of the Woods Run patrons.  It’s filled with recipes that have won or earned honorable mentions in the Chicago Tribune’s annual contest. Our patron loved the apricot cookies!

Our family nut roll recipe? It’s from the June 2, 1988 issue of the Post-Gazette. We add a bit of honey and the filling is divided for the three rolls using the technical measurement system of Corelle teacups (the Spring Meadow set that many, like my mother, received for a wedding gift in 1979/1980, if we’re being precise).

— Jess

PS – Is anyone else obsessed with The Great British Baking Show? Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry are my new heroes.

Red Sweaters

We don’t feature Children’s stuff on here often (check out our friends at Story Pockets!) but every now and then, something comes along that we just can’t pass up.

As some of you may know, a few years ago the wonderful folks at the Fred Rogers Company developed a new show featuring the next generation of friends from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. I’ve seen a few episodes with my niece and nephew, and it is just as great as you’d expect.

In an upcoming episode of the adorable Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, one of the Red Sweater Kids pays a visit to the Carnegie Library to sign up for their first card. The Sweater Kids are featured at the end of each episode – exploring their Pittsburgh neighborhoods and interacting with neighbors in the same way that Fred Rogers did on the original Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.

source: fredrogers.org

Good news – a few of our branches will be screening a preview of this special episode and will have some crafts on hand to enjoy after.

Saturday, November 14 (tomorrow!) at 11:00 am – Beechview

Saturday, November 28 at 11:00 am – Woods Run

Thursday, December 3 at 11:00 am – Mt. Washington

Friday, December 4 at 9:30 am – Downtown & Business

Wednesday, December 16 at 6:30 pm – Lawrenceville 

Saturday, December 19 at 10:30 am – West End 

So pull out your best red sweater and join us for some fun!

— Jess

Turning in My Busy Merit Badge

I know that I’ve proudly claimed: “I’m one of those idiots who thrives on being busy!” We wear Being Busy and Stretched Thin like Girl Scout badges, almost defying friends and strangers to out-do our schedules (Work! School! Quality time with friends and family!). A recent piece from the Huffington Post — How Being Busy Makes You Unproductive — discusses how busyness and multi-tasking not only slows us down, but also how we use it to disguise fear of failure because doing something means we’re being productive. Not a great way to get through the day.

I wish there were an easy solution, but changing habits (or adding more hours to the day) is a tough task. Small things, though? Those help. Take a walk (attention fatigue is legit and a bit of nature is a great cure). Help us make flowers for the Pop des Fleurs project (Suzy will have more info soon!) or join any of our other awesome craft programs for a mental break. And of course, we have some great resources for figuring out how to slow it down and be a bit more mindful:

• Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World
• Inner Peace for Busy People: 52 Simple Strategies for Transforming Your Life
• Less: Accomplishing More by Doing Less
• Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book About a (Really) Big Problem
• Busy: How to thrive in a World of Too Much
• What to do When there’s Too Much to Do: Reduce Tasks, Increase Results, and Save 90 Minutes a Day
• Nurturing the Soul of Your Family: 10 Ways to Reconnect and Find Peace in Everyday Life
• From Hectic to Healthy: The Journey to a Balanced Life
• Tweak It: Small Changes, Big Impact Make What Matters to You Happen Every Day

And now, a moment of zen …

Click through for source and more zen…

– Jess

The Best Worst Witch

If you hop in your way-back machines, you’ll remember Natalie’s post last year about being a scary movie wimp and only wanting to watch Hocus Pocus. I, too, am a wimp. My choices this time of year are the fabulous Sanderson sisters and lots of Tim Burton stop–motion animation.

My other Halloween favorite? The Worst Witch.

source: showbizgeek

This 1986 TV movie was adapted from the book series by Jill Murphy (who started writing the series when she was 16 and had the first book published at 24!). If you’re unfamiliar with the story, young Mildred Hubble is a student at Miss Cackle’s Academy for Witches. She’s a goodhearted but clumsy student, sort of the Neville Longbottom of Miss Cackle’s. She and her best friend Maud seem to do nothing but attract trouble, qualifying them for the title of worst witches in the school. But from playing games of Terror Tag, learning to fly on broomsticks, and putting bully Ethel Hallow in her place, you can’t help but root for Mildred.

As we can see from the photo above, it had an all-star cast: Charlotte Rae in dual roles as headmistress Miss Cackle and the delightfully evil Agatha, Diana Rigg and her cheekbones as Miss Hardbroom, Fairuza Balk as Mildred and Tim Curry as the Grand High Wizard, a dreamboat with a penchant for capes and tambourines.

source: The Worst Witch Wiki

It’s campy, sweet and perfect for my fellow anti-horror wimps.

— Jess

Modern Romance

source: Time Magazine

Every one of us engages on a journey to find love and companionship. We meet people, date, get into and out of relationships, all with hope of finding someone with whom we share a deep connection and truly love. This journey seems fairly standard now, but it’s wildly different from what people did even just decades ago…. Some of our problems are unique to our time. ‘Why did this guy just text me an emoji of a pizza?’ ‘Should I go out with this girl even though she listed Combos as one of her favorite snack foods? Combos!!?’

I think most of us know Aziz Ansari from either his role as Tom Haverford on the brilliant Parks and Recreation or for his stand-up comedy. However, it is his latest project, Modern Romance, that brings us here today.

Much of his last comedy special (sadly only available on Netflix) focused on how technology has changed dating, for better or worse. During the show, he invites a brave audience member to the stage in order to share the text messages they were exchanging with someone they were interested in dating. Often, those exchanges started as flirting, fun messages but most quickly fizzled out to nothing. These interactions plus his own dating ups and downs led to this book.

He smartly paired with sociologist Eric Klinenberg, a professor at NYU, and dove into a year-long research expedition. They interviewed people around the world – New York City, Los Angeles, Wichita, Monroe (NY), Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Paris, and Doha. The participants, from young singles to residents in an assisted living apartment building, are incredibly honest about their experiences and offered glimpses into their text messages, online dating profiles, and e-mails. They also developed essentially a massive online focus groups with forums on reddit. Beyond all of these primary sources, they worked with a number of sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, and journalists (whew!) who have spent their careers studying dating and relationships.

It’s legit research. And beyond that, incredibly interesting to explore how the culture of dating has changed so much over the past forty or so years. We’ve moved from marrying the guy from across the street to hoping someone normal answers our newspaper ad to swiping left or right on phone apps. Ansari makes the information easy to digest and entirely relatable, as he offers his own experiences dating through his twenties and meeting his current girlfriend.

— Jess, modern romantic

Bonus Aziz: His interview with Freakanomics Radio about the book.

Back at It

source: Library of Congress

Yesterday marked the start of my third semester of grad school. In January, nearly ten years after I finished my undergrad degree, I dove headfirst into a professional writing program. I’m learning lots of cool stuff – developing grants, web design (I made a website, guys!), technical writing, and managing digital media. It’s been an interesting adventure to step back into that student role, doubly so with an online program.

If you’re thinking about going back or are in the middle of it like me, here are some of our many resources to help you along the way…

Get Started 

• Managing the Graduate School Experience: From Acceptance to Graduation and Beyond
• Should I Go to Grad School?: 41 Answers to an Impossible Question
• Peterson’s Graduate and Professional Programs: An Overview, 2014

Get Through It 

• Mastering Mobile Learning: Tips and Techniques for Success
• Power Up: A Practical Student’s Guide to Online Learning
• Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning
• College Success Strategies
• Make the Grade: Everything You Need to Study Better, Stress Less, and Succeed in School

Get that Money

• 501 Ways for Adult Students to Pay for College: Going Back to School Without Going Broke
• Earn a Debt-Free College Degree!: No Scholarship? No Problem
• The Graduate School Funding Handbook

Good luck, fellow learners!

– Jess