Book Review: For Russian History Buffs, The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges

I was probably not a normal teenager.  (Is there such a thing?) While my friends were reading Judy Blume, I was reading Robert K. Massie's page-turning nonfiction work, Nicholas and Alexandra, along with a lot of other history.  Monarchs were my focus, and if they had a connection to Queen Victoria, then so much the better.

Even I didn't have this historical reading background, I'm honestly not sure I would have been as involved with Robin Bridges' new work, The Gathering Storm.  The Russian monarchy and aristocracy, particularly as it intersects with other European royal families, is pretty complicated, to say nothing of mastering the naming nomenclature and understanding who is who.  Bridges doesn't shy away from describing multiple members of the Romanov family and the intricately related members of the aristocracy, and I definitely relied on my background knowledge to escape confusion.

That caution aside, I thought her depiction of late 19th century aristocratic Russia to be outstandingly accurate in reference to the nonfiction I've enjoyed about the period, but Bridges takes this interest a step further by adding in a paranormal element.  This addition works incredibly well since the mysticism that is such a part of Russian culture of this time lends a dark and sinister quality to reading about these historical figures (hello, Rasputin anyone?). 

 In 1888, Katerina Alexandrova, Duchess of Oldenberg, is a pretty debutante in one of the most exclusive finishing schools in St. Petersburg, but she has aspirations to become a doctor, a goal supported by her loving father and reviled by her mother who would like to see her married well.  Unknown to her family is a dark secret Katerina has kept since she was a child.  She can raise the dead.

Like so many paranormal protagonists, she decides to go the denial route for a little while, but naturally it backfires as her coming out to society exposes her to powerful figures with an understanding of magic.  To these individuals, Katerina's dark power is obvious and she finds herself first being judged by the handsome but critical Grand Duke George Alexandrovich, the tsar's son, no stranger to magic himself.  She also discovers that several prominent friends of the family also have magical alliances and vampires exist (although necromancers like Katerina are extremely rare) at the highest levels.  Despite evidence being stacked against her, it becomes apparent that Katerina loves her tsar and wants to help however she can, even if her power frightens her as much as the people who want to control her.

Having a leg up on the history and naming piece made me understand some of the subtleties of what was going on (like how Tsarevitch Nicholas will undoubtedly end up with Princess Alix).  There were a few pieces that bothered me in the reading.  At one point while in the hospital, the nurse comes in to hang another bag of plasma.  Um...really?  In 1888?  I know that transfusions would have been common but I can't find a lot of evidence which supports that the separation of plasma took place often in this time period, to say nothing of plasma transfusions being routinely given until World War I.  Maybe they were, but I can guarantee that if the M*A*S*H episodes I watch in reruns still are using glass bottles, I'm betting late 19th century Russia would be using a similar technology.  Because the book is written solely from Katerina's perspective, the romance between her and George feels a little uneven but I still think he is royally cute.  I'll be interested to see how far she sticks to his actual life.  Is he going to do the royal yacht tour with his brother the tsarevitch in 1890?  Will he still die mysteriously in a motorcycle accident in 1899 or will it be magic related?  The possibilities are endless.

The second book in the trilogy has a release date of October 9, 2012, and the cover for The Unfailing Light is even more beautiful than the first book.   Katerina is bound for medical school but must stay home and spend another year at finishing school because of a supernatural threat to the tsar that only she can help repel.  The dark forces battling for power want to not only topple him but also use her in their bid for supremacy.

Bridges' blog (also published to the front page of her website and to her Goodreads account) and she posts regularly on her Facebook account.  I'm looking forward to following her work and see how this trilogy lends a new perspective on Russian history.

Book Review: A Treatment of Faith or Small Town Sinners by Melissa Walker

I have been waiting to read this book for two years.  How can that be?  I heard Melissa Walker back in 2010 talk about the concept of basing a book around the evangelical Christian concept of Hell Houses and how that event could be a catalyst for a protagonist's personal growth.  Having just watched a documentary about Hell Houses at the time, I was reeling at just how the beliefs and passions of evangelical teens get channeled through this medium.

Small Town Sinners is a brilliantly written novel about the moment when a teenager begins to move away from their family, bonds with their peers and begins to undertake the important work of questioning what is important in their lives in order to understand what they, not their parents, believe.  Lacey Anne Byer lives as the dutiful daughter of a preacher and his wife, but at the age of 16 and on the cusp of her junior year, she is poised to find an opportunity to be in the limelight for once.  She believes that her church's upcoming Hell House is the opportunity she needs, by trying out for the most difficult part, "abortion girl."

A suicide scene from a Hell House

Hell Houses, for those of you who don't know, are many evangelical churches answer to traditional Halloween haunted houses.  While they originally took various incarnations, by the 1990s, many churches (and later the huge mega-churches or parachurches) particularly in the West began putting on complex, themed Hell Houses, which take visitors via a guide through a variety of staged vignettes depicting "sins" such as homosexuality, abortion, suicide, premarital sex, and occultism.  At the end of the tour, visitors are usually presented with a scene of hell and suffering and then taken into (or given the choice to enter) an all white serene environment in which church and youth leaders ask each individual if they are ready to accept Jesus Christ or consider learning more about fundamentalist Christianity.

Melissa Walker, who as a writer has shown a tremendous amount of diversity with the topics she has tackled (some light and fun and others deep), had pitched the concept of Hell Houses as a magazine article she wanted to write.  She interviewed dozens of various teenagers involved in this life and with various perspectives on their faith and felt that their voices and personalities resonated so much with her that she decided to write a book showing what it would be like to wrestle with faith in a modern world.

I think the reason that I was so wowed by this book was because Lacey Anne was a compelling voice.  Often quieter characters in YA literature are either painfully shy or about to undergo some huge personality change and unleash their inner extrovert, but Lacey was terrific just the way she was.  Yes, she was interested in showing what she was capable of in testing her limits with her acting for the Hell House but was essentially the same thoughtful, observant person she always was.

When Ty Davis moves into town, Lacey is drawn to him and he to her.  Ty was a FABULOUS love interest.  He belongs to the same church as Lacey (his aunt is the church librarian) but he has a mysterious past.  Ty models to Lacey that she can question the inconsistencies or hypocrisy of the people around them who all espouse the ideals of Christianity (but who often fall short of that goal) including Lacey's parents.  He's not disrespectful, nor is Lacey's having faith ever in question, but the message is more button Lacey's father takes up on the bulletin board "Love is the Answer...Now what is the question?"

Walker is a special author (and a great speaker, FYI) who has really mastered how an author can have a successful online presence.  Her Facebook page has regular posts (and not just about upcoming books) and her blog is well-written and often showcases other excellent authors.  She also contributes regularly to the Readergirlz blog, which is another great resource I have in my RSS reader which helps me keep up with the latest and greatest in books.  I'm sure most libraries have a copy of this book, but for kindle owners, keep in mind the Kindle edition is only $2.51!  Bargain!

Love Your Library: A Valentine's Day Library Event

The Information Bar of Kirby Library Post-Valentine's Day

I am a big proponent of catching people doing something right - I like it when my colleagues and supervisors do it to me and I love the blush of recognition students get when you let them know how much you admire them for something they are doing.  So why not have an event whose sole purpose is thanking your patrons?

For me, an obvious day was Valentine's Day.  February 14th is designated "Love Your Library" day at Wyoming Seminary's Upper School (yes, we wear pink or red at the desk).  If students, faculty or staff want to come over to the library and fill out a heart about what they love best, the library thanks them by giving them a fresh-baked cookie (mostly chocolate chip, but I do make a batch of oatmeal craisin for the people who don't like chocolate or are allergic). 

My kitchen prior to beginning - 200 cookies were made in 3 hours

I will admit, the cookie baking is not an insignificant undertaking.  Luckily, as a boarding school veteran I have developed an excellent system of cranking out large quantities of cookies in a relatively compressed period of time (so I can go to sleep before midnight).  My chocolate chip cookies are really popular, so I focus on those, with just one batch of oatmeal for the people with allergies.  I made about 200 cookies this time, and they were all gone by the end of school, so I probably could have made 240 and it would have been perfect for the after school crowd as well, but I ran out of chocolate chips! 

Publicity is important to any well-attended event and word of mouth among teenagers is total gold for publicizing library events.  I had one of my LAB seniors make an announcement the day before and I also emailed and hung up flyers (which you can view for yourself on my Google Docs).  Just using pale pink and lavender paper, I printed out simple hearts with a question: "Why do you love the library?" (Important note: be sure you only print as many hearts as there are cookies - that way the end of valentines directly correlates with no more cookies and you don't run out.)

This could seem like asking the kids to jump through a hoop to just get a cookie, but we actually collect these and use them as data to take an informal read on our program.  My golden retriever usually wins the most mentions, paws down (you can see one of our student's rendition of him looking up at me reading a book, something I never get to do in the library) but usually my fellow librarian and I are a close second (and we don't have big egos, so the dog being ahead of us is fine).

Points I noticed this year that seemed unusual from other years where the notice of the "ambiance" of the library or the "warmth" of the library and I'm thinking this was related to more adjectives to describe our professional staff ("helpful librarians" or "friendly librarians"). 

Our kids are wonderful at our school (really, I'm not making this up - I know that I am lucky, almost every one of the 200 kids who did a valentine thanked me so politely when they took their cookie, or they enthusiastically spoke about how much they were looking forward to eating it!).  You can see from this valentine (bullet points seemed another theme and we thought it was super that kids had so much to say they wanted to make a list!) that we were nicely listed first, followed by the books (our circulation has been up this year), then my dog, then the cookies (so impressed those weren't first), then "friends".

The "friends" part is of particular interest - this came up on a few valentine's or "the great people who hang out here" was listed as the reason the person loved the library.  And that begs a point I'd like to make about creating a welcoming library environment.  If a library space becomes identified with one group of students, it can become exclusionary as students who do not include themselves in that category decide the library isn't for them.  Several valentines mentioned the "ambiance" or "stress-free environment" of the library as the main reason why they loved.

The blizzard of valentines on our Center Classroom glass

We often say that the library has a "no-guilt" relationship with students - we don't charge fines, we don't believe in a quiet library, we don't block or forbid certain websites or games (just wear headphones if it's noisy), and we are happy to proofread papers or listen to a student vent about their romantic relationship gone awry.  Our theory is that students who are comfortable hanging out in the space to relax with friends and warmly banter with us when they get a laptop from the cart behind the desk, is going to understandably be more comfortable coming to us with an academic problem or question.  "We don't judge" would be a possible t-shirt logo for us.

Anyway, Love Your Library is always a huge success.  We gave out every one of the 200 cookies and had that equal number of valentines hanging up - all by 2 pm.  Reading the valentines became a spectator sport with faculty and students munching their cookie while they walked around to look at all of them.  

A few administrators stopped by (actually to schedule classes) so it was nice for them to see the reasons students gave for loving our program.  While it's a lot of work to crank out all those cookies, I think making our students feel great about using the library and having a recognition party where all participants are thinking about why the library is so terrific, makes the sweat and tears well worth it.

Every Reader's (Urban?) Fantasy: The Vampire Stalker by Allison Van Diepen

Sometimes I read books that I think are under the radar of other librarians or YA readers and it's so sad.  It's not that I mind reading yet another review of Daughter of Smoke and Bone, but I occasionally get the impression that there are only twenty top young adult novels and everyone is talking about them.  I appreciate having a short list of must-reads, but the aspect of young adult literature I enjoy the most is that it is a consistently good subset of the publishing industry.  So what about the quietly good books that are popping up less on the blogosphere?

The Vampire Stalker by Allison Van Diepen is definitely one of these little gems.  I know, I know.  You are thinking, "NO, Sassy Librarian, I cannot handle ONE MORE BOOK about vampires!"  Fear not, because despite the title vampires barely factor into this novel.  No elaborate world building, creation backstory, or sparkling, I promise.

The protagonist is incredibly easy for any reader to identify with.  Amy lives in Chicago in a small apartment with her mother and her bitchy younger sister who is acting out since their dad left them for a younger woman.  With her two best friends, Amy is a huge fan of the Otherworld series, which takes place in a dark, alternate Chicago populated by vampires preying on humans.  One of the heroes of the series, Alexander Banks, is a brooding but honorable vampire hunter who is bent on destroying the vampire Vigo, who slaughtered his family when Alex was a child.

While her friends are jonesing for Alexander's good friend James, the non-violent peacemaker bent on healing rifts between humans and vampires, Amy's heart belongs to Alexander.  She understands that he's a character in a book series but can't believe how well-drawn he is.  When she is attacked on her way home, a handsome young man rescues her and after some initial disbelief, she realizes he is her Alexander.  Unfortunately, the incredibly strong, fast blond guy who attacked her is Vigo and both of them came through a portal between their worlds under a Chicago bridge.

As he realizes that this Chicago is different from his own, Alexander grows closer to Amy who does a good job hiding how dazzled she is and just focuses on helping him find Vigo.  Ms. P, Amy's school librarian, plays a prominent role in both believing and helping Alexander, and I loved seeing the way Alexander begins to express his attraction for Amy using the code of his more proper and restrictive world.

Author Allison Van Diepen

I've been buying Allison Van Diepen's books for the library for years - Street Pharm, Snitch, and Raven, among others - but hadn't read any of them (I've since checked out Raven).  I can understand why The Vampire Stalker ended up on so many urban fantasy lists.  First, a definition of urban fantasy.  Urban fantasy is often confused with paranormal romance and while a romance might be part of the subplot (or even a rather largeish part of the main plot), the main point of an urban fantasy is that a healthy part of the story happens in an urban (city) environment and that paranormal elements are present in the story.  Protagonists find themselves possessing special skills which prove useful as they find themselves involved in some type of battle/war between paranormal elements.  Urban fantasy doesn't necessarily mean the present day - it can also include books set in the past (Victorian London, for example).  I have noticed that it's almost a requirement that urban fantasy be written in the first person.  Usually this is a conceit which makes me CRAZY, but in this genre it really works.

Familiar young adult examples include Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments series or P. C. and Kristen Cast's House of Night books (which people consider YA but has enough sexual content that libraries need to know their audience before putting them in a teen section).  Adult urban fantasy standouts would be Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely series (which people say are YA, but I think they are so dark and delicious that they are totally adult section-worthy) and the ever wonderful Night Huntress series by Jeaniene Frost (yay, Cat and Bones!).

It makes sense that with Van Diepen being known for the gritty realism of troubled teens lives in Street Pharm and Snitch, that she would be able to rock the urban fantasy vibe.  The Vampire Stalker is an excellent gentle introduction into this genre since our protagonist doesn't have special powers but instead aids her literary hero in their battle against the escaped vampire. I like Van Diepen's writing style - her voice for Amy is sympathetic and her writing efficient since she paints strong supplemental characters with just a few strokes.  Amy was bookish, but not a geek and she had friends with varying interests.  It's obvious Van Diepen is a real teacher since she doesn't fall into the trope of having every kid be part of a defined clique.

If there is any criticism I can have of the author, it's that she seems very busy - unlike other YA authors who have published as much as she has, Allison Van Diepen appears to have spend less time on promoting The Vampire Stalker, with the blog tours and accompanying information on her website a little on the skimpy side.  I was intrigued to see her inspiration for this book in a brief interview.  She was watching the A-ha video "Take on Me" which (amidst its delicious 80s cheese) features the band members having a book character come to life, and wondered what that would look like in a novel.  Watch more videos, Allison!!

I think Allison Van Diepen is an author to promote and to watch.  She clearly offers consist writing, good romance subplots, and sympathetic characters that any reader would enjoy.  For more information, take a look at her Goodreads page, her Facebook page or follow her Twitter feed.

2011: 334 Books or A Reader's Year in Review

As a reader, 2011 was the year I totally rocked Goodreads.  A social network comprised of readers, Goodreads provides one stop shopping for customized lists based on my tastes (their suggestion algorithm is better than Amazon.com for me), for reliable reader reviews, and for accurate lists of series, including the prequels and interbook novellas that need to be read in the right order.  Yes, you can have friends and network just like any other social network, but for me it's more important to have the above key needs met when I'm choosing what to read next.  Oh.  One other thing.  Did I mention the data?

*Cue Hallelujah chorus here!!*

That's right - DATA.  Librarians live for data.  Did you know know that?  Did you think we were all cat's eyeglasses-wearing, shushy frowners in cardigans?  You are sadly mistaken.  Librarians are information professionals and we heart data in all its forms, particularly when it informs us of our patron's needs and helps us understand our libraries better. 

I find my love affair with data is part of my personal life as well.  Because of my profession, I follow numerous blogs, read several professional journals a week, and get alerts to the new publications of authors I trust.  This results in a continual bombardment of books that I need to read just to keep up with my profession, to say nothing of those books that I simply WANT to read (a list overwhelming on its own).  Then I want to keep track of the books after I've read them, either by remembering my rating or review and maybe keeping an overall idea of my statistics.  I'm curious about the numbers!

Goodreads not only helps me keep track of the long, long list of books I want to read, but also allows me to organize that information in a valuable way.  One of my biggest issues has always been when I think of a book, where do I find it?  Is it on my shelf waiting for me?  In electronic form on my iPad? Did I buy it for the library, so I'd find it there?  Was a friend talking to me about it and she has a copy I can borrow? 

The screenshot here shows the "shelves" available on my Goodreads account.  The first three, Read, Currently Reading, and To-read are default settings for everyone's Goodreads account, but you can add your own customized shelves.  You can see that my shelves are mainly about location and mirror the questions I ask myself in the previous paragraph about where I can locate the book.  The-latest is a shelf that mirrors my widget for this Blogger account which displays the titles I've read recently.  Now when I want to choose a book from the to-read pile, I can easily skim my shelf and see at a glance where to find the book as well as the summary and the reviews I need to remind myself what it was that drew me to this book in the first place.

Once I've read them, I change the main shelf from to-read to read and add in the date I finished the book. (This date read piece is actually my major pet peeve with the iPad Goodreads application - you can change the shelf easily on any book but it doesn't have a place for you to put in the date read.  So frustrating for me to have to log on to the site on Monday and change all my weekend reading to the right date.)

Here you can see how Goodreads displays your year's statistics.  Your total books displayed across the bar at the top with your longest book highlighted in a box on the side. (Outlander by Diana Gabaldon for me, although with deference to those people who love that series, I really didn't like it.)  I do like the little book covers displayed and love that my books are all separated out by my star rating.  This has actually made it much easier for me in choosing blog-worthy books or series to write about.

Things I would wish for?  I would love to be able to pull reports from my shelves - customizing the year, star levels, etc.  Sorting by genre (paranormal, romance, mystery, historical fiction, etc.) would be a great help for when I want to recommend something to a reader or look for themed lists for my library website.  Being able to see how many books I've read by month would also be nice (and not have to use Goodreads app in Facebook to put my titles in the Facebook Timeline feature).  I suspect I'm more productive over the summer, but then there are weeks where I think that's not true.  Customized numbers by shelf would be a help, too.  A woman can dream, right?

So 334 books later, I'm happy that I met my goal of reading 300 books for 2011, particularly because I only committed to that number in March and felt REALLY pressured during December vacation to read, read, read!  Probably about 15 of those books are short stories or novellas read in ebook form, but the number does NOT include my rereads (which would bring the number to over 400 but I was only counting new books read).  My romance novel kick made reaching this number easy since fiction has always been quicker for me to read than nonfiction (which I also love).  I would really love to set goals for myself in different genres, but without the ability to easily access the data (ahem, Goodreads!) I think that's creating a lot of work for myself.

My goal for next year?  To read 366 books - essentially one for each day during our leap year - which I don't think should be a problem.  With Goodreads at my side, heavyweight reading is practically effortless.

Book Review: The Queen of the Love Triangles, or Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

I checked my Goodreads account for verification, and my instincts were right that I've had Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare on my "to-read" shelf since the cover debuted back in September.  I've been teetering on a razor's edge since then in anticipation, since I am head over heels in love with the Infernal Devices series (I love it much more than Mortal Instruments, but more on that later).

My December 2nd (my half-birthday, FYI) was characterized by my driving home, leaping out of the car before it came to a full stop, grabbing the Amazon box insouciantly leaning against the door with its smile/arrow, and racing inside for a full-fledged cardboard frenzy.  My husband looked on indulgently, wisely not trying to talk to me during this episode, only to perk up as I was squealing at the cover (it is even more AWESOME in person than what you see on screen).  His response was along the lines of "Wait, isn't that the next one in that series?  When do I get to read...." *voice fading as I run upstairs to hide book from him*.  Sorry, sweetheart.  Librarians first.

I decided to reread Clockwork Angel first, since I remembered that, as with all Cassandra Clare novels, it was an intricately plotted work with a decent amount of characters (nothing a reader can't handle) and lots of Victorian England references.  I wanted it all fresh in my mind for when I tackled the next book in the series.

It was a good thing I did (husband is re-reading it as we speak in preparation for Clockwork Prince).  Not only did I enjoy it tremendously, but it reminded me how much I liked and admired Tessa as a protagonist who is trying to find out - literally - who and what she is.  Kidnapped in a nefarious plan involving her brother who has moved from New York to London ahead of her, Tessa finds herself in the custody of two horrifying women and forced to regularly shape-shift, a talent she didn't know she possessed.

Saved by Shadowhunters, Tessa is brought to their home, known as the London Institute, quickly becoming a part of their lives because she is a Downworlder, or supernatural creature, although what kind of Downworlder no one really knows.  At first she is kept with them out of kindness and the fact that she obviously holds the key to understanding a potential threat, but relationships begin to form.  While searching for her missing brother, Nathaniel, she finds herself having feelings of friendship toward the gentle and handsome James Carstairs while his best friend William Herondale stirs up more tumultuous emotions.  Diving deep into the parts of London where the occult overlaps the mundane world, Tessa is faced with the forbidding knowledge that someone knows more about her than she does about herself - and that they want her at any price.

In Clockwork Prince, Tessa is still a hot property, pursued by the "Magister" who continues to develop frightening clockwork automatons to serve his evil intentions.  Her brother continues to be at large and seems to have an insider from the Institute working with him.  Will is possessed by the desperate need to push Tessa away while secretly enlisting the help of warlock Magnus Bane (who is a fabulous character that only gets better with a better acquaintance) to determine the origins of his "curse." Will's family situation is revealed with startling results, but his alienation of Tessa has unforseen consequences as she and Jem (James) become closer, igniting feelings in Tessa which begin to compete with her turbulent feelings for Will.  Political machinations in the Shadowhunter world add dimension and layers to a fabulous story. 

Tessa vs. Clary.  I think a big reason I love Tessa as a protagonist (versus Clary who really gets on my nerves - a lot, see mini-rant below*) is not only due to her love of literature and poetry, a love she shares with Will, but the fact that she wants to find answers to her questions - questions about herself, her family, about Jem's addiction and Will's family problems, about what the Magister is really up to and about what the Shadowhunter world is doing to the people she cares about at the Institute.  Tessa is curious, in the best possible way because she wants to use her knowledge to help the people she cares about.  She makes Clary seem like an intellectual lightweight.  I'd love to see a Clary/Tessa cage match.  Clary might be a Shadowhunter, but Tessa has real grit and the shape-changing thing.

It's Gaslight not Steampunk.  Here's an interesting tidbit.  The unbelievably talented Meljean Brook, author of The Iron Duke (a favorite steampunk reread of mine) and Heart of Steel as well as some great novellas, has an equally as arresting blog and she published the following image which blew my mind.  In past blog posts, I had categorized the Infernal Devices series as steampunk because of the clockwork automatons.  Was I wrong!  It turns out that steampunk with acknowledged supernatural elements (like the vampires, werewolves, and warlocks of Clare's Shadowhunter world) make the book fall into the gaslight genre.  I love this name (it sounds so much more romantic, doesn't it?) and I would say that with my love of paranormal, I would probably rank my love of gaslight above my love of steampunk. 

Queen of Love Triangles...and Love Scenes.  I honestly wish that Clare wrote adult books because her ability to write love scenes that sizzle is BAR NONE.  Clare even says, "All my books are, in some sense or another, love stories. And complicated, passionate, maybe-it-will-work-out-maybe-it-won't romance is my favorite kind." I read plenty of adult romance and the ability to truly capture yearning and sexual tension is actually very hard to do.  Passion, yes.  The physicality of who is touching what when, you bet - plenty of authors do a terrific job of doing just that.  But yearning, aching, heart-stopping, breath-stealing yearning is very rare and extremely special. 

A big piece of why she is so good at this is her concept of who romantic characters should be.

There is little sexier than watching someone excel at something they do extraordinarily well — the difference between a bad boy is that they know they do it really well and that it’s turning you on; the good boys don’t. And there should be a dash of vulnerability. Your boy doesn’t have to be tormented but the girl or boy who he loves has to be able to get under his skin and pierce that armor, or it’s no fun. (Cassandra Clare from Malinda Lo's interview with her.)

Combine this piece with her propensity for compelling gay/bi characters and Clare becomes an author who understands love and passion in all its forms.  I adored Magnus Bane in the Mortal Instruments series (its wonderful to watch the progression of his relationship with Alec and his patient understanding waiting for Alec to come out to his parents has my total devotion) and the friendship and assistance he offers to Will in this series continues to develop his complex character.

*Mini-rant* After rereading the first three of the Mortal Instruments series in preparation for reading the fourth book, City of Fallen Angels, I had to actually put the book down and not finish it.  I want to go on record as saying I unequivocally admire Cassandra Clare and love her writing, but she does something that really bothers me as a reader.  She tortures her characters.

I'm totally serious about this.  It often feels like no one is allowed to just be happy and this makes me crazy.  I'm not saying anyone would enjoy reading about happy people, but I think it's perfectly reasonable to have characters who can actually be happy in a relationship while tumultuous, horrifying things (like armies of scary clockwork automatons after you, for example) are happening to you and the person you love.  I am not trying to infer that I don't enjoy a juicy love triangle with the best of them, but I find myself emotionally wrung out after reading them.  Mortal Instruments gave me nightmares and I ended up really getting cranky with Clary, although I know it's not her fault the poor thing isn't given a moment's peace.  I'm absolutely going to pick up the book again and read it, but now I'm annoyed that I have to be in a more patient mood to do it. *end mini-rant*

Cassandra Clare is a fantastic author who ranks high on my list of all-time fantasy/action/gaslight greats.   A wonderful bonus to those who admire her is the fact that she is also an author who regularly reflects on the writing process and her craft (in addition to feeding us terrific tidbits about upcoming books and ideas).  Her blog is one I always enjoy reading in my Google Reader as a result of this outlook.  Other great sources of information about Clare's work is her Twitter account since she posts regularly, and her Facebook page.  Pick the source of information that best fits your fandom.

There are plenty of great future books we can look forward to:

May 2012 - City of Lost Souls (Mortal Instruments series)
September 2013 - City of Heavenly Fire (last in the Mortal Instruments series) and Clockwork Princess (the last in the Infernal Devices series)

Clare has spoken of a future series, The Dark Artifices, set five years after the last Mortal Instruments book  (so around 2018) which would be set in the Los Angeles Institute (Clare lived in L.A. when she was an entertainment writer).  Since Mortal Instruments characters would presumably be in their twenties, she has said she could envision them doing cameo appearances so we can see how they are doing. 

Suffice it to say, my Goodreads account is always going to include Clare's books on my to-read list, subsequent cardboard frenzy guaranteed. 

Related articles

• An exclusive interview with author Cassandra Clare (examiner.com)
• Meet 'Clockwork Prince' book teaser trailer Tessa (examiner.com)
• First edition 'Clockwork Prince' to contain special letter (examiner.com)
• Mortal Instruments fans should sit through 'Breaking Dawn' credits (examiner.com)

Create Great Library Usage Reports from Google Calendar

Every librarian should love data.  LOVE it.  Data is our life's blood because it allows us to keep track of what direction (intentional or unintentional) our program takes.  Not only is data beneficial for us, but is the unfortunate case that many an administrator responds better to seeing actual numbers associated with key talking points as we go over programmatic highlights.

In my library, a big piece of our data tracking is our shared Google calendar which records all our classroom usage (we have three classrooms in our space and we also sometimes schedule classes on the library floor).  We moved away from our shared Outlook calendar because we kept getting frustrated that if our computer crashed, the formatting and some of the data would be lost, which made us crazy.  As early Google adopters, Google calendar (which my fellow Upper School librarian and I were using personally) seemed like an obvious substitute.

We can see each other's personal calendar (to remember doctor's appointments, etc.) and decided that we would set up each classroom with its own calendar, largely because we can control the color coding and see usage at a glance when teachers want to set up an appointment to come to the library.

But there has always been one annoying part when it comes time to collate the data.  We have had to input the data from each class (teacher, class name, number of students, collaboration level, skills taught, laptop usage) into a Filemaker database in order to generate usage reports.  Gah!  So tedious to do, especially since we do it at the end of each semester, when we are usually exhausted.

We started off our day this morning kvetching about needing to crunch the data and wondering if there was an easy way to get the reports in Google Docs rather than using the class by class input technique.  Now, I'm sure there are plenty of librarians reading this going "duh," but in my end of trimester haze, I had the brainwave of doing a search on extracting data from Google calendar and discovered (for FREE!!!) GTimeReport.com.  

It couldn't be simpler to use.  You just have your calendar/Google docs open and give GTimeReport permission to access your Google account.  You get this snazzy window (you can see all my various calendars in each different colors) and you can simply choose the time/date parameters for your report.  Here's what you get:

Give it a few seconds and POP!  It opens up Google Docs and we get the above beautiful report.  You can see how we can sort by date, time, duration, the bell, and you can even see our occasional listing of skills taught. Now that I realize how it formats the report, I think we will use the "where" field (which we can ignore since our "where" is taken care of by the calendar name) for indicating the number of students or our collaboration levels (L1 = students are in library without teacher and no joint instruction, L2 = teacher is with student but no collaborative instruction is taking place, and L3 = teacher and librarian instruct students together and assess lesson's efficacy throughout project).

Anything that gives quick and easy (and FREE!!!) data is a boon to any librarian's heart and if you are already using Google calendar, then this might be a helpful addition to your repertoire.  Next up for us - enabling the appointment feature so teachers can book themselves. :-)