Lari's Bookshelf

Habibi by Craig Thompson Release Date: September 20th, 2011 Publisher: Pantheon Pages: 672 ISBN13: 9780375424144 Craig Thompson doesn't fail to impress with yet another beautifully crafted graphic novel. Habibi is the story of Dodola, who at the age of 9 is sold as a child bride into a marriage with a scribe. While the tragic circumstances that came with this marriage were difficult for the reader to come to terms with, Dodola is able to learn how to read and write from her husband. At the age of 12, her husband is murdered and she is taken captive into a slave ring. This is where she meets Zam, whom she  calls "habibi." He is three years old when they meet, and she is able to escape with him and they live in a boat in the desert. This story doesn't take place in any one era, and the settings vary between medieval and modern eras. As Dodola and Zam face a harsh world, the magic of stories and cultural mythologies is what keeps them together, and give

Existentialism One of the main themes of early to mid 20th century, is this theme of the existential crisis of the individual. While planes and cars and the radio connected societies, individuals who went off to war were stripped of their humanity. World War I and II offered technological horrors never before seen, and men and women were trained to live as cogs in a military machine that was indifferent to human interests. This caused a huge internal conflict within many. There is a fabulous speech by Charlie Chaplin in the film, "The Great Dictator." Someone uploaded this and matched it with a song from the Inception soundtrack, take a few minutes to watch this: The part of the speech I want to highlight, is the part where Chaplin depicts the general sentiments that I'm trying to illustrate regarding technological advancements vs. the isolation and brutality of humanity in the first half of the 20th century: "We have developed speed, but we have shut

NaNo Zombie So I'm one of those crazy people who decided it would be a good idea to write a novel in November. Well, at least 50,000 words, and they may not all be necessarily good words, but nothing like a crash course in hurried novel writing to get the creative flow going! At the end of Day 6, I totaled  9,881 words. Just shy of where I need to be to finish on time if I keep going at a steady rate. If you are interested, here is my posted synopsis for my story. It's still pretty accurate, but may change: Twenty-three year old Melvina Finnson embraces fantasy and escapism to ignore the fact that she works a low wage job at one of the few remaining SuperRents in Small Town, USA. She is more than satisfied with a life filled with movies and video games she gets for free from work, and she's jaded about opportunities for her in the "real" world. As she begins to accept the fact that she is a college dropout and content with a life of perpetual distracti

This is seriously my favorite holiday of the year. I have some pretty awesome vampire teeth I'll use to scare any unsuspecting children that come knocking tonight, and I'm painting my three year old daughter's face like a skeleton . Screw that princess shit. Speaking of Halloween, I love Halloween songs. We started the day by watching The Nightmare Before Christmas , which is arguably the best Halloween/Christmas movie ever. One of my favorite songs is "Jack's Lament," where Jack has an existential crisis, and realizes that while he has everything he has ever wanted, he still feels like he's missing something in his life: Then, after watching Nostalgia Chick's review of The Worst Witch , I learned of a music scene which sadly has escaped my radar my entire life. Until now: I can't figure out if Tim Curry singing this 80s music vomit was making me happy, sad, confused, etc. What is going on there? All I know is that my jaw dropped early

This post is my entry in the Book Nerd Out giveaway hosted by Book Riot: Reviews, Recommendations, and Commentary about books and reading (but, you know, fun). When I was studying my undergrad, I experienced the beginnings of what would become an existential experience. Many times I was confused and lost as I wandered around campus, since I was constantly deep in my thoughts.  Then one day I discovered a copy of  Meditations  by Marcus Aurelius in the library. This book was instrumental in pulling me out of a dark place and my introduction to stoic philosophy. I wrote a poem this morning about that experience: In the labyrinth of a library, Sanctuary is a small hardbound work, A dead emperor gives comfort, Words sweet like the plumeria, Musings echoed through millennia, Brittle pages redolent of weathered wood, Learning to live as bees that make honey, My own place in the universe,  Accepting what I cannot change, White steps cradle and c

My Nooky-Nook I was pleased to find the article Free E-books for Happy Patrons  in Booklist Online's The Corner Shelf. In it, author Rebecca Vnuk shares some great online resources librarians and library patrons can use to access free ebooks. The great thing about it is that you don't have to be a library patron or librarian to appreciate the following list: InkMesh  is a search engine that searches over 30 online sources for free e-books. You can search by title or author. Project Gutenberg , the original site for free text online, offers more than 33,000 free books that play nicely with any e-reader platform. You’ll find mostly classics and public-domain works here. No registration is required, and the site is easy to use. A nice feature is their “bookshelves”—collections grouped by topic. Baen Books , publisher of science fiction and fantasy, offers a number of their titles as free downloads. Established authors such as Eric Flint, Lois McMaster Bujold, Mercede

This group read discussion is hosted over at Stainless Steel Droppings  and it is filled with spoilers, so please don't read this post if you are intending to read the book. If you would like a spoiler-free review, please check out Grace's review, on Books Without Any Pictures, here .  1. Now that it’s all said and done; what did you think of the book? Did you see the ending coming? I didn't see Rachel's dark side coming. I thought that was well done. The reader also was let on that Dom killed Rachel early on, and he actually did kill her (though not in a way the reader expected). I also didn't expect Benedicte's whole episode with aborting her baby. That was rather shocking, and must have been traumatic. 2. What do you think of the characters? Lawrenson took us on a twisty little ride there, I had trouble deciding who was good and who wasn’t for a while there! What do you think of Dom? Of Sabine? Rachel? Dom - I love this character. I fully underst

Scrivener is an acclaimed writing software for writers of all kinds. Now that they are offering a free trial for NaNoWriMo , I couldn't help but download and install it on my computer. If you are interested in participating in NaNoWriMo this year, I highly recommend you try Scrivener for yourself. They even have a preset template for your NaNoWriMo novel that you can access when you start a new project. This is the first year I'm doing NaNoWriMo. I'm a little nervous about the challenge, but am glad I have a tool like this that can help me out. Have you done NaNoWriMo before? Are you doing it this year? Are you going to use Scrivener?

I just enjoyed watching this Victorian-era, action orgy. It has a lot of the look and feel of the first SH adaptation with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law: I shared the first trailer in a previous post . That post also contains links to free sources of where you can get the original works by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle .

I just made myself a zombie here:  http://makemezombie.com/ .....brains.....

Disclaimer: I haven't finished the reading for the first part, but I'm nearly finished.  This book discussion is hosted by Carl V. Over at Stainless Steel Droppings . 1. This may seem like an obvious opening question, but what do you think of The Lantern thus far? I like it, but so far it is just "meh" to me. My husband and I read the beginning together, and I think he put it best when he described it as thus: Description of scenery, doing things, French words. Repeat The book is frankly, a little monotonous and the pace is nearly too slow for me to stay interested. . . . . . except when they hinted at the buried treasure thing. The pirate in me always gets excited when she hears of buried treasure! Yarrr. 2. The book appears to be following the experiences of two different women, alternating back and forth between their stories. Are you more fond of our main protagonist’s story or of Benedicte’s or are you enjoying them both equally? I like both eq

There's a new 2012 calendar and it features information professionals or librarians. It's called Men of the Stacks  (FYI: some of the pics may be considered risqué) and it breaks the stereotype of what people typically consider a librarian to be: "We know what people think: Dewey, glasses, shushing, books, hairbuns, Party Girl and card catalogs.  Yes, we know what people think.  We know that the American library profession is approximately 80% White and 72% female; and we know that tens of thousands of librarians are expected to reach age 65 in the next 5 years.  We also know that this is not us." - MOS: The Calendar The thing that pleased me about this calendar, is that all of its proceeds are going to the It Gets Better Project , a movement designed to help struggling LGBTQ youth who are coming out in their communities. By the way, if you haven't seen George Takei's video contribution to a related organization, called The Trevor Project (which work

If you're a neurotically indecisive reader like me, you probably need some help when trying to figure out what to read next. Here are some websites that go above and beyond generic recommendations. These tend to offer a dynamic and user friendly interface for someone solely seeking book or author recommendations. 1. YourNextRead.com Simply search for a book you like, and a little map of related titles will pop up. It saves a history of the books you browse during your session, and provides easy access to websites where you can purchase the book or find more reviews. You can even create an account, make your own maps, and share them. If you like this you may also want to check out YourNextFilm.com and, if you're a gamer, YourNextGame.com . 2. Whichbook.net I'm a huge fan of this website's user interface. It allows you to browse books based on what you "feel" like reading at any given moment. You can choose if you want something long or short, v

I just got a gorgeous book delivered to my door today. I've mentioned how awesome Craig Thompson's Blankets was in a post about graphic novels , well today, I got his latest work, Habibi published by Pantheon Publishing this month. I'm so stoked. Can't wait to read this sucker and review it for you all.

Banned Books Week started yesterday. I always love this time of year because it reminds everyone that it is always important to be vigilant against censorship, and strive to maintain access to all information within a free society. Here is some information on the most frequently challenged books in the 21st century. That's right folks, in a so called "free society" there are people who think that they have the right to deny other people access to materials they don't like reading. The following is the top ten list for 2010 : And Tango Makes Three , by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson  Reasons: homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian , by Sherman Alexie  Reasons: offensive language, racism, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and violence Brave New World , by Aldous Huxley  Reasons: insensitivity, offensive language, racism, and sexually explicit Crank , by El

Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry Release Date: October 5th, 2010 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Pages: 458 ISBN-13:  9781442402324 Wow. This book. Wow. I don't even know where to begin. At first, I didn't know what to expect. Sure. I read the publisher's description. Benny Imura, just another teen coming of age in a post apocalyptic world. Right? Kind of. Yes. But this is not just some cliche YA thriller/horror. This has some real substance to it. The book doesn't rely on the icky-zombie-gross-factor to keep the reader invested in finishing the story, not that there is anything wrong with that, but there was more to this novel than a horde of zombies and a collection of desperate survivors trying to figure out how to get by in a crazy new world. This book is about relationships between people. Especially the relationship between Benny and his brother Tom. See, Benny hates Tom. He thinks he's a coward. He remembers Firs

The following books are some on my "to-read" list that I'm particularly excited to read. The Sleepwalkers   by J. Gabriel Gates "A chilling and masterfully crafted teen horror novel guaranteed to keep the pages turning, the mind reeling, and the lamp on any reader's bedside table on long after midnight. Privileged and popular Caleb Mason is celebrating his high school graduation when he receives a mysterious, disturbing letter from his long-lost childhood playmate, Christine. Caleb and his jokester friend Bean decide to travel to his tiny hometown of Hudsonville, Florida, to find her. Upon arrival, they discover the town has taken a horrifying turn for the worse. Caleb's childhood home is abandoned and his father has disappeared. Children are going missing. The old insane asylum has reopened, and Christine is locked inside. Her mother, a witch, is consumed with madness, and Christine's long-dead twin sister whispers clues to Caleb through the static

Okay, so a lot of people say that e-readers never will replace print because they just, well, love paper books so much. I get it. When I get a new hardbound book and crack open the cover for the first time, the smell is intoxicating. I swear publishers put some kind of drug in the book binding glue to make it so addictive. But I also love my e-reader, and have been using it more and more... and in some cases, I'm preferring it over some paper books (because it isn't as heavy). Also, in June 2011, adult paperback books plunged 64% from last year, while e-book sales went up 161 percent . This suggests that while many hardcover books are still being purchased (though it dropped 25 % in the same month), people who just want to read a book for the sake of the words, and not the format (i.e. paperback readers), are starting to gravitate towards e-books. Libraries have growing digital collections, and some libraries have already started lending e-readers . I think in the future,

This week, I wrote about some techie stuff and had a typical censorship rant and shared some books about girls in captivity. Here is the rundown of this week's posts: Rating Systems, Censorship, and I CAN'T SHUT UP Google Chrome Goodreads Button Young Girls in Captivity | Wednesday Reads Mango is Now Mobile New Symphony of Science Vid and "The Grand Design" If you are a new follower, please visit my " About " page to learn more about me and the blog. Q. Have you ever wanted a villain to win at the end of a story? If so, which one? I know some may hate me for saying this, but Bella. Hands down. I couldn't even get through New Moon . The inane whining over Edward drove me nuts, and I was just rooting for some vamp to come tear her throat out and do a favor to all humanity. I'm sorry but she is probably the worst protagonist to become a household name in the history of writing. Vacant, and without any motivation other than being some dude-

Those of you, who know me, know that I am a sucker for science-y things. I'm even more of a sucker for science-y, auto-tuned things. So when I found out there was a new Symphony of Science video, I nearly squeed myself to death. If you haven't seen the other Symphony of Science Vids, I'm so sorry for you. Get up to speed right now. Some of my favorites include: We Are All Connected , Poetry of Reality , The Unbroken Thread , and  A Glorious Dawn . But really, they all are pretty much brilliant. I probably account for half of all the YouTube view hits. The thing I liked about the latest one is that it reminded me of what I learned about in one of my fairly recent reads, The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow. In it, the authors write a lot about particle wave duality , and how the structure of the universe on a grand scale seems to operate under different laws than the cosmos on a quantum scale. It was amazing. They talked a lot about Richard

Libraries and library users love  Mango . I'm not talking about the fruit, but the awesome learning program that allows English speakers to learn a foreign language, and gives non-native English speakers access to valuable ESL courses. These services aren't free and libraries invest a lot of money to give their patrons access to these online courses. That is why many will be pleased to know that you can now download and install a free app on your smartphone that will allow you to use and access Mango, well, pretty much anywhere. Mango Mobile Before you'll be able to use this app, you will first have to set up a Mango Language account through your library's website using your library card number. If you've already done this, great! Once you have done that, do the following to get Mango on your mobile device: 1. Go to your app store, and search for "Mango Languages". 2. Select, download, and install "Mango Languages Library Edition."

Today, I'm highlighting books about girls meeting the challenge of having everything, even their rights as a human, stripped from them. These books are about girls in captivity or slavery of some kind or another. The thing I appreciate about all of the following books, is that they are based on real experiences girls have faced in the past, and even today. While the African slave trade among European and American colonists is history, and World War II concentration camps are over, there are countless girls still caught in international sex trafficking rings  around the world , as well as girls being brainwashed to be plural wives to men much older than themselves in the United States. Each of these books has a protagonist with a unique background, but they all battle the challenge of oppression. Copper Sun by Sharon M. Draper "Amari's life was once perfect. Engaged to the handsomest man in her tribe, adored by her family, and living in a beautiful village, she