Reading Envy 043: Librarian Time Capsule

Jenny recently attended the South Carolina Library Association conference in Columbia, SC. It was our 100th anniversary as an organization, so Jenny decided it would be fun to try to interview 100 attendees about books they've read recently (or are currently reading.) Librarians read everything, which you will experience as you listen to them talk about books. Also included: library science students, vendors, and speakers who were in attendance. There are more than 100 books because some people can't just pick one.

One hundred years from now, this recording could serve as a capture of a moment in time for the South Carolina Library Association. A huge thanks goes out to everyone who participated!

Most interviews were conducted in a conference facility with other people in the background. You could say the Reading Envy Pub was just having a busy day....

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 043: Librarian Time Capsule

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Books mentioned (in order, so there are a few duplicates of titles multiple people are reading):



(images displayed are just a selection of titles mentioned)

1. F*ck Feelings: One Shrink's Practical Advice for Managing All Life's Impossible Problems by Michael Bennett and Sarah Bennett
2. Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People by Nadia Bolz-Weber
3. Mrs. Duck's Lovely Day by Vivienne Blake
4. Finders Keepers by Stephen King
5. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
6. Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan
7. The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance---What Women Should Know by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman
8. The Martian by Andy Weir
9. Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin
10. The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope by Austen Ivereigh
11. Purity by Jonathan Franzen
12. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
13. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mendel
14. Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
15. The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh
16. "Marginalia" also available on The Best Cigarette by Billy Collins
17. Jambusters: The Remarkable Story Which Has Inspired the ITV Drama Home Fires by Julie Summer
18. The Gold Train: The Destruction of the Jews and the Second World War's Most Terrible Robbery by Ronald Zweig
19. I Crawl Through It by A.S. King
20. The Taming of the Queen by Philippa Gregory
21. The Strain by David Lapham
22. Under a Crescent Moon by Mercy Celeste
23. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
24. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
25. The Martian by Andy Weir
26. Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street by John Brooks
27. Rules for Ghosting by A. J. Paquette
28. Counting Crocodiles by Judy Sierra and Will Hillenbrand
29. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
30. Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie R. King
31. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
32. The Rook by Daniel O'Malley
33. Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson
34. The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload by Daniel Levitin
35. Not Gay: Sex between Straight White Men by Jane Ward
36. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
37. On Writing - A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
38. The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! by Mo Willems
39. Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson
40. Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
41. River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh
42. Flood of Fire by Amitav Ghosh
43. The Fortress of Solitude by Jonatahn Lethem
44. Instinct: The Power to Unleash Your Inborn Drive by T.D. Jakes
45. In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume
46. How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization by Franklin Foer
47. Under the Same Sky: From Starvation in North Korea to Salvation in America by Joseph Kim
48. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (could have been Girl on a Train by A.J. Waines!)
49. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
50. Gone by James Patterson
51. How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg
52. Perelandra by C.S. Lewis
53. Brown-Eyed Girl by Lisa Kleypas
54. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
55. The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel by Deborah Hopkinson
56. Daughter of Deep Silence by Carrie Ryan
57. Ideas Are Free: How the Idea Revolution Is Liberating People and Transforming Organizations by Alan Robinson
58. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey
59. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
60. Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall
61. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
62. The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore
63. This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash
64. Start a Revolution: Stop Acting Like a Library by Ben Bizzle and Maria Flora
65. The Marvels by Brian Selznick
66. Different Seasons by Stephen King
67. All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin
68. Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson
69. The Shining by Stephen King
70. The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon
71. Creating Magic: 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney by Lee Cockerell
72. The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra by Helen Rappaport
73. Descent by Tom Johnston
74. Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson
75. Infinite in Between by Carolyn Mackler
76. Come Rain or Come Shine by Jan Karon
77. The Escape by David Baldacci
78. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
79. The Giver by Lois Lowry
80. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brene Brown
81. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
82. 1882: Custer in Chains by Robert Conroy
83. Serpent in Paradise by Dea Birkett
84. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series by Louise Penny
85. Beacon Hill series by Cynthia Peale
86. The Selection by Kiera Cass
87. The Elite by Kiera Cass
88. The One by Kiera Cass
89. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
90. The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire by Jack Weatherford
91. White Cat by Holly Black
92. The Blue Moon Circus by Michael Raleigh
93. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
94. The Martian by Andy Weir
95. The Three Bears
96. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
97. Wind/Pinball: Two novels by Haruki Murakami
98. Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
99. Black Widow Forever Red by Margaret Stohl
100. The Rose Society by Marie Lu
101. The Princess Who Defied Kings by J. Kirsch
102. The Princess who Tamed Demons by J. Kirsch
103. I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore
104. Trail of Broken Wings by Sejal Badani
105. No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin
106. Petey by Ben Mikaelsen
107. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
108. HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes
109. Traveling Sprinkler by Nicholson Baker
110. The Martian by Andy Weir
111. Penn Center: A History Preserved by Orville Vernon Burton
112. George by Alex Gino
113. Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
114. Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham

Related podcast episodes:
Reading Envy Episode 008: Gone Rogue
Reading Envy Episode 027: A Conference of Librarians

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South Carolina Library Association 

New Zealand November: One Week In

   

Hot October: An autobiographical story by Lauris Dorothy Edmond
A Man Lay Dead: Inspector Roderick Alleyn #1 by Ngaio Marsh
One Whale, Singing (Stories From New Zealand) by various authors
Wulf by Hamish Clayton

It is one week in to New Zealand November and I am making slow progress. I'm still doing more research and requesting more books from other libraries, so I may spend Thanksgiving break reading everything that comes in between now and then!

Lauris Dorothy Edmond is a well known New Zealand poet. I have some of her poetry on the way but as of right now I have not read any. She wrote a three volume autobiography, and Hot October is the first. It is the story of her childhood up through her college years, coinciding with the second world war. Because she wrote detailed and open letters to her mother, she was able to include many of them with her actual younger voice. She is a normal person but living inside a country I don't know much about, so I thought it was interesting.  When she gets to the training college, she discovers a love for the theater, and encounters Ngaio Marsh who comes through as a guest instructor. (You can read more in my review.)

Ngaio Marsh is a well-loved crime writer from New Zealand, but most of her books are set in London. Her Inspector Roderick Alleyn series seem (from the first one, A Man Lay Dead) to be a traditional whodunit along the lines of Agatha Christie. The one I read had quite a few over the top characters and hidden clues, but not a lot of New Zealand to it.

I read the first few stories from One Whale, Singing - the stories are good and I'm starting to see what New Zealand literature has as themes. I will wait to really weigh in until later, but the publisher is about putting out literature by women, so most of the stories (if not all) are by female authors.

I'm about 100 pages into Wulf. Here's the publisher's summary:

Early nineteenth century New Zealand the great chief Te Rauparaha has conquered tiny Kapiti Island, from where Ngati Toa launches brutal attacks on its southern enemies. Off the coast of Kapiti, English trader John Stewart seeks to trade with Te Rauparaha, setting off a train of events that forever change the course of New Zealand history. Narrated by two English sailors on board Stewart's ship, these events are also eerily resonant of a more distant memory, stretching back into mythology, of the charismatic leader Wulf and an ancient lament. History, it seems, may be repeating itself.

What the description does not say is that the novel is also an homage to Beowulf, and written in an incredibly lyric style. Despite reading Beowulf several times in school, I'm not sure I have it internalized enough to see all the parallels. It does seem to also capture a specific moment in time - the first English settlers/invaders of New Zealand, which is probably the farthest back of any of the New Zealand novels that I have. It will be interesting to see where the author takes it.

New Books in October 2015

Slade House  by David Mitchell
Terra Incognita by Adebe de Rango-Adem
The Liars' Club: A Memoir by Mary Karr
Gin and Gardenias: A Memoir of Desire, Love, and Loss: Poems by Scott Henderson
The Familiar, Volume 2 by Mark Z. Danielewski

Last month, I had Cherry by Mary Karr in my pile. I had been casually looking for her memoirs after reading her book on memoir, The Art of Memoir. After starting Cherry I decided I needed to read The Liars' Club first. I was diverted into the new location of a local used bookstore, and lo and behold, they had a copy of it. An upcoming episode of the podcast will include it, probably 44.

Some authors are in my top ten list, and I will buy anything new by them without reading reviews or knowing anything about it. Both David Mitchell and Adebe D.A. are on that list for me. David Mitchell is well known, best known for Cloud Atlas, and I was lucky to meet him at a reading last year before The Bone Clocks came out. Although I already read a review copy of Slade House, I pre-ordered this one as a first edition. It's a great ghost story with ties to his uber novel universe, particularly some of the story and characters in The Bone Clocks. Adebe D.A. is probably known to fewer readers. She is a Canadian-based poet who is currently in a PhD program, and I don't even know how I encountered her the first time. I love her work though so was excited for the new one!

Scott Henderson is a faculty member where I work, and I was excited to see his first book of poems come out. I went to the signing party the night all the storms were coming into town (the same that caused all the flooding) but haven't read any of the poems yet.

I read the first volume of The Familiar and some Facebook reading friends were all buying this the same day, so I went ahead and pre-ordered it too. I haven't started it but will soon. Danielewski is probably best known as the author of House of Leaves but The Familiar, this hybrid literary/graphic novel series, is supposed to number 27 volumes by the end.  

New Zealand November

With only two months left of my project to read books from and set in Oceania, I needed to make a few plans. A retired professor, who had spent considerable time in Australia, has loaned me a few books from her collection, and I had a few more on my shelf. Her contributions were almost all memoirs by female New Zealanders, and one of those stories has also been made into a movie!

Authors from New Zealand I have already read:
Eleanor Catton - I read The Rehearsal and started the Booker-Prize winning The Luminaries
Emily Perkins - I read The Forrests last year
Katherine Mansfield - I read The Aloe earlier this year (discussed on Episode 033 of the podcast)

I would really like to read more from Katherine Mansfield! My library has a bunch of volumes of her short stories, even her letters, so that is promising.

Books I have on hand that I plan to try:

One Whale, Singing by Marion McLeod and Lydia Wevers
The Bone People by Keri Hume (Booker Prize winner!)
Hot October by Lauris Edmond
Bonfires in the rain by Lauris Edmond
The quick world by Lauris Edmond
Once Were Warriors by Alan Duff
An Autobiography by Janet Frame

Despite the fact that I'd be lucky to get through the stack I already have, I have other ideas for what I would like to read during New Zealand November. I have never read anything from Maori authors, and feel like it only makes sense to do so, but I'm not sure where to begin. I've heard good things about Clayton Hamish, so I went ahead and requested Wulf from the library. I'd like to read some of Janet Frame's fiction, some of Lauris Edmond's poetry, and more from Katherine Mansfield. One of Rose Tremain's novels, The Colour, is historical fiction set in New Zealand but the author herself is not from NZ. Into The River by Ted Dawe has had a lot of press because it was banned throughout the entire country of New Zealand in a move that seemed to belong more in the 1910s, but I'm not sure if it's considered "good" or just "banned." 

One thing that really strikes me is that most of these authors are female! That is surprising but there are enough male authors around the world that I do not feel the need to balance this one out. Do you have any favorites from New Zealand? Anything I'm missing? What about food? I've made pavlova and have plans for a few more baked goods.