Reading this with a work group, one part a month, so this will linger a while and I'll just add some bits I marked.
"To unlock the joy of being wrong, Reading this with a work group, one part a month, so this will linger a while and I'll just add some bits I marked.
"To unlock the joy of being wrong, we need to detach. I've learned that two kinds of detachment are especially useful: detaching your present from your past and detaching your opinions from your identity." (62) <-- particularly good since detach is my word for the year!
"Who you are should be a question of what you value, not what you believe... When [you] define [yourself] by values rather than opinions, [you] buy [yourself] the flexibility to update [your] practices in light of new evidence." (64)
Well I am not happy about the authorship of this one but it's good: "People who are right a lot listen a lot, and they change their mind a lot." -Jeff Bezos (72)
Disagreeable people, love this section, this is me.
"Disagreeable people tend to be more critical, skeptical, and challenging... They're not just comfortable with conflict; it energizes them." (82)
"There's evidence that disagreeable people speak up more frequently - especially when leaders aren't receptive - and foster more task conflict... They give the critical feedback we might not want to hear, but need to hear." (83)
"Don't agree to disagree... Tension is intellectual, not emotional... The tone is vigorous and feisty rather than combative or aggressive... They don't disagree just for the sake of it; they disagree because they care." (88)
"Disagreeable people don't just challenge us to think again. They also make agreeable people comfortable arguing, too. Instead of fleeing from friction, our grumpy colleagues engage it directly. By making it clear that they can handle a tussle, they create a norm for the rest of us to follow." (90)...more
The Cothran Center for Vocational Reflection where I work offered this as a summer group read for faculty and staff, and I'd meant to read it forever,The Cothran Center for Vocational Reflection where I work offered this as a summer group read for faculty and staff, and I'd meant to read it forever, so jumped in. Tomorrow we'll have a Zoom session with the author. There are a lot of good things to talk about and a lot of directions the discussions have led us in. I'm interested in hearing more....more
This is kind of about a library but it's more about how a small group of people tries to survive through years of ongoing siege in Daraya, Syria. ThroThis is kind of about a library but it's more about how a small group of people tries to survive through years of ongoing siege in Daraya, Syria. Throughout the bombing and blockade they rescue books from buildings and create a library underground. The book was written up in Elle Magazine just last month because it is written by a female journalist. She gets her information second-hand through however she can connect with the people in Daraya, sometimes it's up to WeChat. There is a accompanying documentary called "Daraya: A Library Under the Bombs." ...more
I feel like this is a standout read for this year and I hope I can explain why. Jenn Shapland explores her own life and identity through in-depth, mulI feel like this is a standout read for this year and I hope I can explain why. Jenn Shapland explores her own life and identity through in-depth, multi-faceted, largely archival research of Carson McCullers, from her wardrobe to love letters to recordings of therapy sessions. Shapland lives at her house in Columbus, Georgia while working in the archives there, and traces her steps at Yaddo. She discovers scholars past and present all too willing to explain away McCullers' love of women, and in connecting the pieces pointing in that direction comes to terms with it in herself as well. I've never seen a self-examination through the artifacts of another person quite like this and it was a compelling read. ...more
I read this for a work book club, and I'm glad I did, but some of it I find problematic. It falls prey to the usual non-fiction risks - the argument sI read this for a work book club, and I'm glad I did, but some of it I find problematic. It falls prey to the usual non-fiction risks - the argument stretched out to book length makes less sense than a shorter version in a blog post or article would have, at multiple points she adds content that is tangentially related but dilutes the primary objective, and since she'd written on this topic previously by the time this was published some of the issues she had raised were already sorted out. And the way the book ends - with omg Trump is president, fake news, everything will change... well we already need an updated edition!
If it's true that how information is organized and accessed is beholden to who organized it and wrote the algorithm code for it, which I think she argues pretty strongly, then it is important to understand the underlying white supremacy in those structures and understand the problems they cause. I think she argues this point best, but the solutions are harder to find. She also doesn't close the loop about what it is that Google actually *is* doing - we couldn't figure out in my book club if this is because she simply doesn't know or she doesn't want to be liable for lawsuits of some kind. It does take some of the punch of the argument away.
The longest chapter, the one I suspect was formerly an article, is about how a search in Google for "black girls" brought back primarily sexualized content. She also shows that the very fact that this is no longer true, largely due to the issue she raised in social media, shows that Google has control over what is displayed and how results come back. Many people think Google shows the best answers but it's a lot more complicated than that - they are trying to use what they know about you and your location to provide the answer most people similar to you are looking for (try looking for the "first woman astronaut" if you don't believe me, and let me know if you find Sally Ride or not... she isn't, by the way.)
She discusses the racism and sexism of the Library of Congress classification system as well as Dewey Decimal, but some of her examples are misleading and applied to be more universal than they were used. No need to exaggerate, the racism and sexism are clear enough. She also doesn't explain, other than white supremacy, why the system is the way it is in the first place. I'm not sure if I think the strategy is to tackle subject headings individually, perhaps a new system would be better.... I wonder whose job it is to keep track of subject headings that change, and if anything about the historical access to information changes if we cover it up with new lingo. (Cookery is now cooking; can I still find the books that were catalogued under cookery? I'm not quite clear... not a cataloger.)
Where she really lost me is in her library database examples. She used ARTstor to show how searches prioritize white artists but in reality her searches just display a lack of understanding of how the database searches. You can't search for the words [black history] without telling the database what to do; it isn't like Google where it makes guesses and assumptions - unless you use a phrase search ["black history"] it adds an OR in between the words, which was obvious from the millions of results she got back. All three ARTstor examples were bad searches, not necessarily skewed results. (She has a PhD in information science so is this an intentional oversight so as to have clear examples? Confirmation bias? Can she really be in this field and not know about such things as phrase searches and boolean operators?) I would think these clunky databases are the anti-Google - they value all information equally and go looking for it based on the information you give them - and you have to be specific! (A better examination might have been in which contents were selected in the first place, since the study of art in the USA is probably largely Euro-centric, but she doesn't really go there.) Our database world is clunky, but maybe it's more about the content than the algorithm?
I did get a lot out of the discussion, and most of it related to the original Google content and my brilliant co-workers. I know librarians have a reputation of being anti-Google whether or not we are, but it is also true that most people using Google don't really know what it's doing to provide the results you seek. I'm not sure you'll have any better idea after finishing this book, which is why I can't give it more than three stars, unfortunately. I'm going to seek out more on these topics for my own understanding - one librarian had read Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy and I know there are a few others that look at similar topics from a feminist lens as well. We discussed other ways we've seen Google taught and what might help students grow in their understanding (after we've also grown in our own.)...more
I read through this in preparation for a faculty discussion group at work. It has some good ideas in it but the reading experience is a bit bogged dowI read through this in preparation for a faculty discussion group at work. It has some good ideas in it but the reading experience is a bit bogged down to my tastes with too many fonts and student quotations cluttering up each page. I think the quotes are nice to read but in the middle of a narrative paragraph, not so much.
The ideas are simple, maybe too simple? I struggled to find a new idea or one we were not already intentionally implementing in our stepped up advising program, our pathways program, and so on. But for people who maybe are not so student focused or for faculty teaching at places without these programs, this will be a useful read, as it gives 33 ways an individual faculty member can reach out to students. And while the subtitle says first-year and first-gen students, we all know that pedagogy good for those groups tends to be good for everyone....more
JoJo Moyes writes a novel based around the WPA horseback librarians of Kentucky who delivered books in the mountains from the 1930s to 1943. Mountain JoJo Moyes writes a novel based around the WPA horseback librarians of Kentucky who delivered books in the mountains from the 1930s to 1943. Mountain culture, mining, family feuds - it's all in here! And this is a region of the world I know and love.
This came out October 8th and I'm shamefully just now reading it, but I'm glad I did. It's a nice backstory for my profession especially if they also played the additional roles Moyes includes in the novel (which I will leave the reader to discover.) ...more
I've been reading this book off and on at work, which I think I heard about on the Get Booked podcast. Helpful advice for dealing with emotions of othI've been reading this book off and on at work, which I think I heard about on the Get Booked podcast. Helpful advice for dealing with emotions of others, using your own emotions as a tool for decision making and more. The first idea I want to apply is "user manuals" where people get to share their perspective of how they think/work....more
A librarian and a poet! I was drawn in to these poems and the way they address the body, with some library and archival references, I mean can you blaA librarian and a poet! I was drawn in to these poems and the way they address the body, with some library and archival references, I mean can you blame me? I probably read each poem three times because they are nuanced and I couldn't always get it the first time (but they are not inaccessible, just well crafted.)
Thanks to the publisher for providing early access to this title via Edelweiss. I feel like I've barely scratched the surface. This comes out 23 April 2019, so it can be your late-in-poetry-month purchase....more
This is an amazing graphic treatment of information about Lynda Barry's classes, from exercises for noticing to actual syllabi. I stole a bunch of ideThis is an amazing graphic treatment of information about Lynda Barry's classes, from exercises for noticing to actual syllabi. I stole a bunch of ideas for various storytelling uses (giving her credit of course) and plan to pull some in to my storytelling class in May. This is one I need to buy....more
This is a book I read because it came in the #whodunitbymail postal book swap. I enjoyed it more than I would have expected - future librarian protagoThis is a book I read because it came in the #whodunitbymail postal book swap. I enjoyed it more than I would have expected - future librarian protagonists, romance in the archives, mysterious documents, and vampires that always have giant personal libraries.
I would decide to finish at the next chapter, and then inevitably something would happen that kept me reading. I hate/love that!...more
I am in the Reflection Fellows program where I work, and we are discussing this book next week. I thought it was good, focusing on various of reflectiI am in the Reflection Fellows program where I work, and we are discussing this book next week. I thought it was good, focusing on various of reflecting on your teaching, and then dealing with the ramifications of those reflections (which can lead to imposter syndrome, for instance.) I liked reading about how he dealt with confronting his own assumptions in particular. ...more
I loved this in the beginning, when it was about an awkward twenty-something working in a private library of a dusty club in New York CiA debut novel!
I loved this in the beginning, when it was about an awkward twenty-something working in a private library of a dusty club in New York City. When her "best friend" returns and causes havoc, the entire book shifts to focus on everything about that situation, masking the underlying story of identity and discovery that really felt like the heart of the novel. Ultimately I was left feeling the pacing was off, and I would have preferred a longer ending, and a lot less Stephanie.
Thanks to the publisher for allowing me to view this title early through Edelweiss. It comes out April 17, 2018....more
I got a lot out of this book. It speaks to managing creative teams but I would say most groups need space for creativity and this had practical adviceI got a lot out of this book. It speaks to managing creative teams but I would say most groups need space for creativity and this had practical advice for how to back off, stop doing, and create the right kind of environment for others to create and produce. Also a really great chapter on transitioning from being a Doer to a Leader that I really needed to read.
I read this book in a day then had to spend two more days in an attempt to understand it. I knew something was up when I, innocent reader, bought a boI read this book in a day then had to spend two more days in an attempt to understand it. I knew something was up when I, innocent reader, bought a book on the recommendation of a reader friend who is Canadian and knows what is UP about Canadian lit. I read the description, about the mousy librarian and her assignment to a tiny island to catalog an estate that has been donated, and thought it sounded like something I would really love. I noted that it won the Governor General's Literary Prize, which is the top prize for literature in Canada.
So I wasn't expecting the book to take the turn it did. I was warned, by a private message in Instagram with all sorts of weird emoticons... I knew I was headed into a potentially strange territory. But still I didn't notice the arm on the bear on the cover. I only noticed that later.
Everything else I say will be a huge spoiler so if you prefer to read without knowing, don't click.
(view spoiler)[So in this very short novel, the librarian, Lou has repeated intimate relations with a bear who is also part of the estate. They are specific and explicit. This and several funny internet sites that regularly point out strange book covers are probably the sole reasons for a surge in interest in the book, although it has continued to be a part of the Canadian literary cannon for students, apparently. The imgur post called What the actual fuck, Canada? shows a cover or two and screenshots a few of the most explicit bear sex parts without providing the context of the novel. Many jokes are made, about Canada, about animal sex, etc. Indeed as soon as I mentioned reading this someone wanted to know if I was reading the T-Rex book next, which apparently has had its own 15 minutes of internet fame. (No, I will not be reading that one.)
There are several people explaining how the book and the sex are about more than that. "There's More to Bear than Bear Sex" is probably the best, pointing out that the novel was published in 1976, that Lou as a character is subverting female pleasure by finding it on her own (kind of) and without man (clearly) and is, shall we say, sexually awakened through these events.
An article in The Globe and Mail points to the previous article and also discusses how the entire novel is a parody of Canadian literature in general. This was most interesting to me because of my new project of focusing on Canadian lit. I will keep an eye out for the rural vs. urban, the wilderness, the unapologetic humor. In fact I was allowed to see some of the strange parts of the book as just funny because this author says they are, and that helped.
I also read another long review in Goodreads, which the reader can track down, that takes great issue and calls this a rape novel. Not of the woman but of the bear, which has surely been trained and possibly threatened to provide this ... service... but lives in servility and cannot give consent. She makes a pretty good argument and only really got one comment in response, to ask if she were joking. It is a hard read in an age of informed consent.
For me, reading it was uncomfortable for sure. Marian Engel demonstrates a remarkable way to build to these events and make them seem almost logical, or at least I can see how Lou sees them as logical. She chooses to remain on the island for the entire summer, rejecting the casual relationship she had with her boss, and even her more serious relationship with her job. She is feeling powerful and strong, her body changes, she stands up to the bully who she has to interact with to get her supplies. I can see that she probably feels empowered in a way she may not have before.
But also, it's just not something that can be unread. This may not be the book for you, but I'm still glad I read it if it's such a central piece of feminist (?) Canadian literature. In a short bio I read of her, it looks like she had friendships and influence with Canadian writers who are still alive today, so she really is part of the group known as Canadian writers!
My cover compared to other editions seems mild, but I only noticed after reading it that there is a human arm around the bear. It's subtle. (hide spoiler)]...more
I am a huge fan of books on books. I even have a shelf for them in Goodreads! This was a great one, completely without the pretentiousness that can soI am a huge fan of books on books. I even have a shelf for them in Goodreads! This was a great one, completely without the pretentiousness that can sometimes be a problem from well-intentioned readers, but that is little surprise - Annie Spence is a librarian! The first two thirds of the book are letters to her favorites (or break-up letters to books she can't see anymore), in different formats and approaches so the reader doesn't get bored. The last third, my favorite, are annotated book recommendation lists with fun themes. I added a bunch of books to my to-read list, and you will too. It's Book Lust TNG, with a more casual tone.
Thanks to the publisher for providing an early copy through Edelweiss. The expected publication date is 26 September 2017.
Jenny (Reading Envy)
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