I’m happy to announce that the Milwaukee Public Library has been nominated for a Peabody Award for the tremendous social media accounts. Here’s the story.
And here is the Central Library in downtown Milwaukee, just gorgeous! I love this place.
Book Marks
The best movie adaptations of famous books according to the Stylist.
Oscar-nominated director Darren Aronofsky’s list of his best books on film making.
Essential reading on the movie industry according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The Vulture’s list on the 100 best screenwriters.
Good Reads’ list of essential biographies, autobiographies and memoirs written by old school movie stars.
Good Reads’ list on film reviewing that movie buffs should read.
Great movie scenes that took place in libraries.
Great movies scenes that took place in book stores.
Writer Digest’s guide on writing adaptations for film.
The late Ursula K Le Guin’s list on the books that meant the most to her.
Book Marks: National Library Week 2017
How much do you know about librarians?
Libraries report wait lists for copies of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.
Libraries do so much more than we think.
Library code: The language of libraries.
How the wealthy could help our libraries.
Signs that show why libraries rock!
The world’s most stunning libraries.
Bookmobiles: Libraries on wheels.
Mental Floss on why libraries mean so much.
Moranifesto by Caitlin Moran
It’s probably not a secret that I’m a fan of British pop culture critic, author, feminist and all-around cool British bird Caitlin Moran. Ms. Moran began writing about pop music when she was still a teenager growing up in a struggling family that lived in a council house and later hosted a TV show. Later Moran proved her feminist street cred via her funny, soul-searching, thought-provoking columns on everything from her budding sexuality as a teenager to her challenges combing marriage, child rearing and writing. She also writes about serious issues that affect women (and the men who love them) with the same aplomb she writes about pop culture. I’ve been a fan of hers ever since I picked up to of her earlier books Moranthology and How to Be a Woman. And her novel How to Build a Girl is a must read if you’ve ever been a teen-age girl (or, just human).
So when I found out Moran had released another book of essays, Moranifesto, I did a little jig in my leopard-spot flats and got myself a copy, which I can safely say is another feather in marvelous Ms. Moran’s chapeau! And it’s the perfect feminist elixir in a time of the Pussy-Grabber-in-Chief, #marketplacefeminism, Brexit, the sad loss of pop culture icons like Bowie, and a host of other issues that affect women across the big pond and women who live in your neighborhood.
Moranifesto is divided into four distinct parts:
- The Twenty-first Century—Where We Live
- The Feminisms
- The Future
- Epilogue
In The Twenty-first Century—Where We Live, Moran examines why her utter disdain for the late Margaret Thatcher to her despair over the death of David Bowie. She muses the hatred of her printer (always a letdown for writers on a strict deadline), famous people she has annoyed and taking a rather unpleasant ride through the streets of New York City. Her chapter on her love of bacon will resonate with anyone who thinks bacon is the food of the Gods. And I adored her essay on smells that remind us of childhood—our mother’s perfume, pencil shavings, calamine lotion, puppies, lilac trees—scents that make us a wee bit nostalgic for perceived simpler times when anything and everything seemed possible.
In Feminisms Moran pokes fun at her face, which she describes part potato, part thumb and asks why we have to make everything “sexy?” She implores us to find another word for rape, her support of Hillary Clinton, giving up high heels, the most sexist TV show called “Blachman,” the type of show I hope never makes our shores, and speaking of TV, spends a day with Lena Dunham on the set of “Girls.”
And in part three, Moran looks into her crystal ball to figure out the future. In this batch of musings she claims reading is fierce yet she thinks it’s okay if her children aren’t big readers. She validates the importance of libraries. She also gets serious discussing Syria and refugees. And when she muses about women who mess things up things for the rest of us you might find yourself nodding your head in agreement.
The fourth part of Moranifesto, the epilogue, is brief, yet probably the most important part of the book. The epilogue is a letter to Moran’s daughter Lizzie. In this letter, Moran is dead (yes, a wee bit morbid). Lizzie is about the turn 13 and Moran want to share some advice Lizzie might find useful. Moran tells Lizzie “try to be nice.” Niceness will always shine and bring people to you. Also, keep in mind that when you think you are on the verge of a nervous breakdown have a cup of tea and a biscuit (British term for cookie).
Other sage wisdom, choose friends in which you can be your true self and avoid trying to fix someone or avoid someone who thinks you need fixing. Though it may difficult in our shallow culture with its fixation on women’s outer shell, make peace with your body. Make people think you are amazing conversationalist by asking them questions; what they say might prove useful one day.
And probably the most powerful piece of Moran’s letter to Lizzie can be summed up in the following sentence.
“…life divides into AMAZING ENJOYABLE TIMES and APPALLINGEXPERIENCES THAT WILL MAKE FUTURE AMAZING ANECDOTES.”
True…so true.
Throughout Moranifesto, there are essays that really got under my skin, but I can’t really share why because they are way too personal; and at times, I need to keep certain experiences close to my vest. But to give you a sneak peak, these chapters include:
- The Rich are Blithe
- Poor People are Clever
- Two Things Men Need to Understand About Women
- How I Learned About Sex
- Let Us Find Another Find Another Word For Rape
And some other interesting chapters I think a lot of women will find fascinating include:
- The Real Equality Checklist
- What Really Gives Me Confidence
- All the Lists of My Life
So my lads and lasses, grab a cuppa (cup of tea), enjoy some fish and chips (or as we call it here in Wisconsin a Friday night fish fry with French fries), ring up your mates (call your besties), and keep calm and carry on (Netflix and chill). Caitlin Moran is back and better than ever!
P.S. Moran’s sister works at a perfume shop and she let Moran smell the fragrance David Bowie wore and Moran claimed it smelled of pineapple and platinum. Well, I know what pineapple smells like, but what about platinum? What does platinum smell like? I suppose it smells cool and metallic. But this Bowie were talking about. I bet it smells warm and ever ch, ch, ch, changing to whatever we desire. For me this would smell of a special amber oil in my possession, vanilla as I pour it into some cookie batter, a match after I blow it out, the lavender growing in a mug on my window sill, freshly made bread, the pages within a book, my mother’s chicken soup, and yes, bacon.
Reading to Reels: Desk Set (Special Libraries Week Post)
Librarians of all kinds aren’t just found in public libraries; they are also found in schools, universities, corporations and other organizations. This post is in honor of reference librarians-the human versions of Google. Enjoy!
Human beings being replaced by high tech is something many American workers worry about, and it’s not a recent phenomenon as Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn show us in the 1957 comedy Desk Set.
Desk Set takes place at the Federal Broadcasting Company, a fictional television network. Katharine Hepburn plays Bunny Watson, the head of FBC’s huge reference library. Bunny can recite facts faster than you can say, “Google it!” She and her brainy staff, played by Joan Blondell, Dina Merrill and Sue Randall, are kept quite busy with staffers calling up looking for the 411 on a multitude of topics, both the mundane and the serious.
However, there seems to be trouble on the horizon. The network is in talks to merge with another company, but at the moment it seems to be on the down low. FBC brings in an efficiency expert named Richard Sumner played by Spencer Tracy. Richard has also invented a computer system called EMERAC, an “electronic brain” that is supposed to help the workers with the merger. However, many of the workers think these computers will replace them, and they wonder when they’ll get fired.
Richard and Bunny soon meet when he comes into her department taking measurements for the computers. Richard begins to question Bunny, wondering if she can answer as quickly as a computer. One smart cookie, Bunny has no problem answering the questions and proves to quite the foil to Richard’s efficiency expertise.
Instead of being turned off by Bunny’s brains, Richard is actually quite charmed. And despite her hesitation, Bunny can’t help but be drawn towards Richard. She’s been with her boyfriend, Mike (Gig Young), for seven years with no promise of marriage in sight. Hey, Bunny isn’t getting any younger. Bunny and Richard spar and flirt the way only Hepburn and Tracy can.
Towards the end of the film, a giant computer is placed in Bunny’s department to help everyone field questions more efficiently. However, despite the “advanced” technology, the computer is no match for Bunny and her fearless staff. The computer has a near “meltdown” but Bunny and her crew proves to be up to the task. And another computer messes up and mistakenly fires everyone via pink slips placed in their paychecks.
Desk Set is the eighth film Hepburn and Tracy did together (their final film was Who’s Coming to Dinner?), and it’s effortlessly charming. Based on William Marchant’s play with a script by Phoebe and Harry Ephron (yep, the late Nora’s parents), Desk Set is directed with a light touch by Walter Lang. Sure, there are parts that look dated. I had to laugh when I saw the huge computer that took up half of Bunny’s department, and how the answers were spit out on old-school perforated paper.
But despite being made in 1957, Desk Set’s premise looks quite modern.These days, everyone seems to be addicted their tablets, smart phones Googling, Tweeting and updating their Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram pages. But there is truly no replacing our human brains and our need to connect with one another without the use of technology. Desk Set shows this in a fun and entertaining way.
Books Marks: Let’s Celebrate National Library Week
“To me, getting my library card as a child meant more to me than getting my driver’s license as a teenager. Sure, with my driver’s license I could go to my high school, the mall, and yes, the library. But with my library card I could go everywhere.”
– Bookish Jen
The American Library Association is using National Library Week to tell us our “Libraries Transform.”
Blogger describes how being a bartender and being a librarian are quite similar.
Celebrate library workers this April 12th!
Podcasts and staff picks from the New York Public Library.
Wonderful children’s books about libraries and librarians.
The most beautiful libraries in the world according to Travel + Leisure magazine.
Wonderful quotes about libraries and librarians.
Author Neil Gaiman discusses why libraries are vital to our future.
Ann Waldman’s “Ode to a Library Card.”
Book Marks (Special Halloween Edition)
Creative and clever Halloween costumes based on literary characters.
Halloween costumes for writers, some fun, some frightening.
Books in books that will give you a good fright this Halloween night!
For your viewing pleasure author Jonathan Franzen reads a frightening story about book stores to Stephen Colbert.
Now this is my idea of a pumpkin!
Seventeen very scary short stories.
The top 10 authors of the horror genre.
Frightening flicks that are based on books.
Seventeen tips on how to write scary stories.
And last but not least, the scariest book released this year according to Bookish Jen.
thebookselfblog 