Lari's Bookshelf

Just like my writerly friend Annie can combine anything (give her something to combine!), so can Hollywood. They've combined two pretty sweet things for their latest, action-orgy movie: Cowboys & Aliens I want to watch it because I really dig stuff like this. Not since Firefly  (miss you Mal) have I been so intrigued by a combination of space and cowboys. Not to mention, Indy and Bond are in it. Which should be enough right? Are you looking forward to watching it?

Clean By Amy Reed Released: July 19, 2011 Publisher: Simon Pulse (Imprint of Simon & Schuster ) Pages: 288 ISBN-13: 978-1442413443 Genre: YA Fiction GoodReads Blurb : "Olivia, Kelly, Christopher, Jason, and Eva have one thing in common: They’re addicts. Addicts who have hit rock bottom and been stuck together in rehab to face their problems, face sobriety, and face themselves. None of them wants to be there. None of them wants to confront the truths about their pasts. But they’ll all have to deal with themselves and one another if they want to learn how to live. Because when you get that high, there’s nowhere to go but down, down, down." This book is one of the best teen books I've read in a long while. It takes an unapologetic look at the ugly face of teen drug addiction. The five different characters in the book are addicted to different drugs for different reasons, and all come from different backgrounds. (Except the fact that they are all white, some...

Q. Let's step away from books for a second and get personal. What T-Shirt slogan best describes you? A.   Something with the following illustration on it: Q. Highlight one book you have received this week (for review, from the library, purchased at the store, etc.) that you can’t wait to dig into! A.  I just download Fury by Elizabeth Miles from the Simon and Schuster Galley Grab and I am so excited to read it! Mainly because the cover looks freaking awesome. Q. Character Envy: If you could be one character from a book,  who would you choose & why? A. Well, as per the theme of my blog, I already connect a lot with Alice. But since I already feel like her at times, if I could be anyone, it would be Kahlan Amnell from the Sword of Truth series. She's hot. She's powerful. And she kicks ass. To my new followers, please stop by my "About" page to learn a little more about me and this blog. Please leave a comment, so I can learn who you are!

Here is a great article to read if your considering purchasing an e-reader. My favorite part of it were these helpful videos that show how to get library books on your digital devices! Get Library E-Books for Your Digital Devices Getting Library E-Books on Your Nook (or other compatible e-reader)! (You can read my step by step process here .)

1. Ask a Patron What They Plan on Doing with Their Checkout If you are a librarian or library para-professional, and someone asks you to find something for them, don't ask them what they are doing with the information. Even if it seems harmless. For example, let's say someone asks you for a book on flower arrangements, and you say, "Oh! Are you planning a wedding? Because I used an awesome book for my wedding blah blah blah." Then they look at you solemnly, and says it's for the funeral of a loved one. I'm not saying don't perform a reference interview. Just don't ask personal questions or get personal yourself. It's just better not to go there. 2. Engage in Conversation with a Person Who Is Telling You Too Much This problem arises from an opposite situation to the one mentioned above. You get an overly eager patron, who is chatty and starts to tell you every little detail about their event/party/book club/study group/project., their person...

It took me a while to figure out what topic I wanted to highlight for today. I scrolled through Google news, trying to see if there was some kind of current event that could inform my book choices. It was depressing. I definitely didn't want to put something together about the debt ceiling, or the tragedies here and around the world. Death, cataclysm, and mayhem were the highlights of every popular news story. So I decided to do a display about death, sort of. Specifically: undead. More specifically: zombies. Let's start with the music video highlighting zombie love, before we move on to the books. Shall we? Watch it. It's got a catchy tune: OM NOM NOM. Plump up your brain with these adult and YA books: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War "The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across...

I recently ordered some covers for my nook and I absolutely love them! They were so cheap too (but kind of smelly when I first opened them). The buttons work great with the gel cover, and it's a better tactile experience and fun to hold. I'm not as paranoid about dropping it or scuffing it. I also got tired of using my same old  screen savers and wallpaper. I just found this website called  nook-Look . And here is what my nook looks like now: My Guide to the Galaxy I am sharing just in case any other peeps have a nook and want to make it look awesome.

As a librarian, normally I'd be appalled to someone taking sharp objects to books and cutting up precious pages of text and illustrations. However, when I see the work of artists like Brian Dettmer , I see something stunning and beautiful. Far from a vulgar desecration of the written word, these repurposed books have gained new life as visual art: Music of the World Altered Vintage Encyclopedias Altered Copy of Brave New World New Books of Knowledge ROTC Manual Science in the 20th Century Then there is this video which was produced for the New Zealand Book Council . The animation used to bring this book to life is amazing. And, yes, it looks like they had to cut up a book to make it. But isn't it beautiful?