November Reading & Gratitude

I started the month by reading the entire series of books by Dorothy & Thomas Hoobler, a young adult series of novels about the famous Judge Ooka and his fictional adopted son, Seikei. Several of these were good, one not worth reading, the others okay. Ask me in the comments if you want to know which ones to read.

While looking for books on being grateful for my visiting children's classes, I found one for myself. I found 365 Thank Yous: The Year a Simple Act of Daily Gratitude Changed My Life inspiring. (Though not inspiring enough -yet! - to write the several thank yous I should!) John Kralik was an attorney whose firm was not doing well. He started by examining his life, deciding to be grateful and write a first note. This led him to write one to his own son - but when he realized he didn't have his address, he called him. They had lunch together, and his son handed him an envelope. It was repayment of a loan.

Unreal! Any parent of adult children will realize that you write off loans you make to your children as noncollectable! If this payment was not enough to save his business, it did something for his soul and morale.He was determined to write 365 for the year. It took him 15 months, but changed his life.

I told the class of 5th and 6th graders who came (who were FORCED to listen to me! LOL!) about the book. They were disappointed (yeah, right!) I wasn't requiring them to write 365 thank yous. I did indicate they should give thanks when appropriate, and that they might start a tradition at Thanksgiving, of each family member saying what they were especially thankful for.

Of course, they were more interested in hearing about the books on magic, ghost hunters, baseball, and 100 most amazing things than that book. The bee plight book didn't grab them, either. If you want to know the titles of any of those, tell me in the comments. I have a poor memory for song titles, names, and unfortunately, book titles!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and tell me what you are grateful for.

The Lady and the...What?

I was walking down my street the other week. My eyes were focused forward, and my thoughts were far away.

But I heard a voice in a tone usually reserved for babies and kittens, so I turned to my left.

And then I saw the woman talking to the duck.

It was a honking, BIG, OGLY duck - one of those with a red bill and stuff on its head, white with black patterning.

YIKES!

Thankfully, it was not talking back.

They were by the side of one of the many bridges in my neighborhood, constructed over culverts and streams which carry runoff and rain to the ocean. The woman was in a parking lot. The duck was on the wall fronting the stream.

You could not get me as close to something that looked like that critter!

In her best baby-talking voice, the woman was trying to coax the Big Duck to eat from a bowl.

And I thought the people across the stream from me were a bit odd to have two fat Rhode Island Red hens in their yard, as this is not really the 'burbs!

Come to think of it, I wonder if the hens survived the Veteran's Day weekend? I haven't heard them since Saturday!

Just two more examples of the fauna in my urban neighborhood!

More on Bad Neighbors

First, I am losing a GOOD neighbor. His landlady wants to move in, and after he leaves she is redoing the kitchen. Which means I sure hope it's not on Wednesday, my usual day off.

I don't know why, but another neighbor was in his unit when we passed his on the way to the elevator. She took my DH aside. He later told me all she did was complain about HER bad neighbor. There was talk of that neighbor "spying" on her.

When neither of them can say good things about the other, they are BOTH probably bad neighbors, and we are NOT going to be taking sides. Which is what they want! Wake up, smell the coffee, and grow up!

I am too old to stomach this type of drama!!!

Read here and here and here about my own bad neighbor experiences. And YES, the vomit cougher is back. But I think she had a talking-to, and was told to put a lid on it, or at least put her hand over her mouth!

Stop with The Hat!

When you see in his photos that your retired brother-in-law is wearing That Hat, you know the "trend" is DEAD, DEAD, DEAD!!!

You KNOW the hat I'm talking about - the one with the narrow brim, that wants to be a fedora, but EPIC FAIL!

Both genders are wearing this, but it looks best on teenagers.

And bro-in-law has TWO of them!

How Books End Up in the Library

Hahaha! I tell my friends stories about stuff that happens in the library.

They tell me I should write a book.

I ask if they would buy it.

They say they would borrow it from the library.
___

They do not know how things work in the library. They assume every book written will eventually be found in a library, the library, THEIR library.

If that's the case, why do we get calls every week from publishers and authors? (And by the way, shouldn't those publishers know librarians need to see review copies? Man up and send us the book!)

We have to decide if the books are fit for our patrons. Believe me, there are some that are not.

Why? Well, first of all, we do have a budget. For the fiscal year for our section, it's in the five figures.

The LOW five figures. So the books need to fit the budget.

They need to fit the clientele. We need to look at books the patrons request, too. We just can't buy them all.

Are all books well-written? No. We, the librarians decide that. We ask questions like: is it age-appropriate? If there are illustrations, are they of good quality and appealing to children or young adults or adults? Can we follow the story? Is the book well-made? Can it hold up to a dozen or two dozen checkouts? Do we have something already in our collection as good or better? Does it fill a need in the library?

I'm not even going to go into the details of buying ebooks!

This started out to be a post on what I'm reading. I'll get to that another time.

Do you even go to the library?

Two movies in one week

I'm usually not a fan of Hollywood movies.

I think they're too slick, the stories predictable, and the people too pretty.

I usually like small foreign films from which I can learn something about the culture, and indie films that are more realistic. I loved Winter's Bone and most anything the Coen brothers have done. Yes, I have a dark and quirky sense of humor.

I went to see 50/50 - despite the fact that Seth Rogen is in it. "Who was that gorilla?" asked my husband. Indeed! Rogen is actually quite good in this. But Joseph Gordon Levitt as Adam is terrific. And it's based on the real story of Will Reiser. Anna Kendrick, Anjelica Houston and Bryce Dallas Howard were good in this, too.

I'm not a fan of disease movies, either. But there is so much humor and warmth in this one. And a lot of it is about people feeling resentful of and put out by Adam's illness.

See it!

On Saturday, neither of us was very hungry at 5 pm. So, the choice of movies was between Moneyball - about baseball - or Ides of March. The showtimes for the latter worked out.

Since I don't like chick flicks, I'd never seen Ryan Gosling in a movie. He was not great, but he was very good in this Clooney-directed vehicle.

And let's just say George was very presidential.

The story had several twists. Oh, and Paul Giamatti was superb - such a great voice and excellent characterization! Philip Seymour Hoffman and Marisa Tomei were good, too.

October: Read

Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt.

Read it!

The fathers in his (YA) books are truly awful. Find out if there's redemption for this one.

Doug, the main kid, finds hope in art in a library, and becomes a guy who makes things happen.

What's not to love? Art, library, change and growth!