I just wrote my first post for the AMACOM books blog.
Job Search Books For College Graduates: a roundup of AMACOM books full of job hunting advice for new grads, and any job seekers.
Cruising Attitude: Book Review
Cruising Attitude
Heather Poole
William Morrow Paperbacks
$14.99 262 pages
Thanks to William Morrow Paperbacks for sending a review copy
A flight attendant tells all, from crazy passengers, to sharing an apartment in Queens with a rotating cast of coworkers, to explaining the convoluted intricacies of a flight attendant’s schedule. Poole’s chatty prose makes it easy to imagine the realities of her career. Ill-fitting polyester uniforms, flying to three cities in one day, dealing with needy business class passengers. It’s easy to imagine how hard it is to cope with cramped galleys and narrow aisles. Harder to imagine pulling that off with a smile, and succeeding as a career.
As you might imagine, Poole’s work puts her in contact with any number of eccentrics and oddballs. Only some of whom are flying as passengers. Although she changes names, and is coy about the identity of celebrities, Poole’s character sketches paint a picture of the strange antics and circumstances people get up to in midair.
A fast, fun vacation read- although I might feel self-conscious about flight attendants seeing me reading this on a plane. Best to save it for the final destination.
Letters to a New Book Blogger
This afternoon, a friend asked me for advice about starting her own book blog. Because she loves books, reading, the literary world, and book reviews. Which is a great place to start.
She’s not as steeped in Internet and social media culture as I am, (I think I managed to explain Twitter correctly, though she may not be sold on the idea.) I did my best to explain book memes and the like.
So here’s a question:
What book blogs do you like to read?
What makes them great? The books they review? Book news? The design?
If you have a blog, give me a link to a post that you’re really proud of.
Booking Through Thursday: Introverts and Extroverts
This week, Booking Through Thursday asks:
Do you consider yourself an extrovert or an introvert?
Part of me wants to ask in return: how is this bookish question?
I will be interested in seeing how the replies align, mapping out book lovers and their social dynamics. (It has, I promise, been over a decade since I took an anthropology class.)
As for my own answer…
Most people take introvert and extrovert to mean something like… introverts are loners and shy people who don’t like crowds; while extroverts are the life of the party. A few close friends and that’s enough for you? Introvert. Meeting and greeting and seeking new people? Extrovert.
One of my favorite explanations of the distinction between introverts and extroverts is that it describes what situations leave you feeling the most energized. Introverts are the people who recharge their batteries by taking alone time, doing tasks and hobbies on their own, processing the day solo. Or retreat to think through something. Looking for peace and quiet. Feeling drained by big crowds.
Extroverts seek out people’s company- parties, crowds, bars, new people, leave extroverts feeling pleased, even jazzed by the energy. Being alone and solitary isn’t as happy, productive, or creative a prospect. Being around people nourishes them.
Where do I fall on that spectrum? It’s a mix. I live alone. Sometimes, that’s peaceful and lovely and great. I enjoy playing music when and how I want to, deciding that I want to eat cereal for dinner, and watching the junkiest crime dramas now and again. Especially after doing something that’s very learning intensive or people intensive.
But for me, a little alone time goes a long way, and being solo can get to be too much. Having someone else around means my sleeping patterns are sometimes more regular. It’s easier and more fun to cook if I’ve got someone else around. And of course, there’s that undefinable “stuck in my own head” feeling that comes from too much time churning over a problem or a source of stress in my mind. Someone else’s perspective, even if it’s just a chat over dinner, or even online, is absolutely essential to keep me on an even keel.
And as nice as it is to curl up with a good book, it’s even nicer to have company on the couch with me, or in the comfy chair nearby.
I guess that makes me some of both.
You Have No Idea: A Famous Daughter, her No-Nonsense Mother, and How They Survived Pageants, Hollywood, Love, Loss (and Each Other)
by Vanessa Williams and Helen Williams
Gotham Books $28.00 296 pages.
Sometimes, I love being a book reviewer. Because, if it hadn’t come up as a BlogHer Book Club pick, I’m pretty sure You Have No Idea wouldn’t have been a book on my radar. I have vague memories of Vanessa Williams being crowned the first black Miss America, and of her Miss America crown being mentioned when a few songs of hers were all over the radio. But celebrity biographies full of Miss America Pageants, acting careers, a scandal or two and really big houses, are not the sort of book I usually seek out.
Reviewing a memoir is really strange. For a book reviewer accustomed to critiquing plot and character development, to read a memoir recounting things that actually happened… focusing on character actions means I’m judging someone’s life choices! And that feels exceedingly awkward! (I’ve said this before.) Also, is there such thing as a spoiler alert for a memoir, when the writer is someone famous, and you can learn some of the details of the story on Vanessa Williams’ IMDb page?
I really like that this was a joint project between Vanessa Williams and her mother. I was most interested in the kinds of ordinary details: Vanessa growing up in a small town with somewhat strict parents (doing chores, taking two instruments in music lessons.) She nourished dreams of singing and dancing on Broadway, and her parents encouraged her. She sounds like she was especially close to her father, growing up. That made me smile. Her closeness to her parents made me smile, as did some of the emphasis on being down to earth and connected to family while music and acting happened. Treating the Miss America pageant as a way to get scholarship money sounds perfectly sensible.
I don’t know what to make of the actual celebrity happenings that are part of the story. The things Vanessa Williams got famous for don’t interest me (though the description of the photograph scandal that cost her crown sounds tame compared to the age of TMZ and Lindsay Lohan) and I’ve caught the odd episode of Ugly Betty now and again. Moving into a larger-than-life LA house, multiple marriages… eh. I might care more if I were reading as a fan. But I also had a really cynical thought that the ingredients had been compiled like a Celebrity Memoir Checklist: rise to fame, scandal, multiple marriages, comeback, juggling family and work, artistic process. Having her mother’s input as part of the book tempered that, and made reading this better.
Disclaimer: I am reviewing this book for the BlogHer Book Club and am being compensated, for expressing my honest opinion.
Books I Will Write… someday
A history of The Daily News because it will give me a fun chance to interview Dad, and the other journalists I grew up with and love dearly. Also, explore the archives some more with the wonderful Vinny.
A volume of poetry.
A collection of family stories, with recipes, from my extended family.
A collection of essays about African American rock musicians, and race and rock and roll. I think I want to edit this collection, though I also want to do entirely too much research about Sun Records. This last may subside as the final paper for reference wears off.
A short story collection. I think I’ve always wanted to edit an anthology.
What a week! What a semester!
My first semester at Pratt ended last night.
I handed in my final paper for reference, and did a presentation about it.
The final papers I did for my classes each deserve their own post(s) because they were so interesting to dig into.
I did my final paper for one class about social media and public libraries, and kept finding things I wanted to include, because of course, the news just keeps happening. I am also excited by reading about social media and library service in the context of giving really good customer service that makes people happy. Because, honestly, it boils down to getting other people to love the public library as much as I do. And it was also interesting to dig into the ways social media gets analyzed in these intensely academic journal articles. There was this one, beautiful article
For my reference class, I had an insanely cool assignment. Take an obituary from the New York Times and use it for a series of research topics. I picked Clarence Clemons.
I kept having to remind myself that the paper was about how I found my research answers, not what the answers actually were.
I have done research about:
- Bruce Springsteen
- Fidel Castro, including a side trip into Fidel Castro’s connection to baseball
- King Curtis, the Coasters, and the song “Yakety Yak,” which promptly got stuck in my head.
- The average height of an American man
- the saxophone
- Martin Scorsese’s rock and roll films
- Interracial rock music- this was a tough one, until Dad and David Hinckley (both very close to rock and jazz subject librarians, in terms of all the great stuff they’ve read!) nudged me toward specific info about Sun Records. Now I want to read all about Sun Records and doo wop history. Dad will be so proud!
- football history and knee injuries. From which I learned that there is an entire database about sports business at SIBL, and I’m probably not cut out to be a medical librarian. Even reading journal abstracts gave me shivers.
Also, on Monday, I started a new job. I’m working as a part-time publicist for AMACOM books, which will include social media tasks and updating their blog. I’m really excited. Everyone I’ve met is terrific. And I keep finding interesting business books I want to read. Upcoming books, backlisted books, books about social media. I had to laugh during a meeting on Wednesday- one of the books was about stress management, including sleep tips. A grad student at the end of the semester starting a new job? Yep, there was some stress going around.
Next week, I start a class about YA Genre fiction… I have been looking forward to this summer class for weeks! I’ll get to read historical fiction and science fiction and fantasy and mystery YA novels, and think about ways to recommend them to teens in a library. How cool is that? The trick there won’t be keeping up with the reading (two novels a week, plus the textbook) but keeping myself from reading ALL of the books on each class’s list.
Then again, “finding new books I want to read,” amounts to pretty much the same thing as “being awake.”
I have a ton of book reviews to catch up on!
