Books read April 2024

 Still a few days in the month; I am in the midst of reading two nonfiction books that I do not intend to finish this month because, wow, was I a reader this month! (I mean, for me--a person who works full time and has also been tending cats while Josie was in Europe. Although, to be fair, most of my epic reading was done before she left. Seriously, I finished a book every day for the first four days of the month, and finished another two by April 8. Six books in 8 days!! Crazy!!)

1. Same Kind of Different as Me (2006) by Ron Hall and Denver Moore (and Lynn Vincent as a collaborator, because the other two guys are not writers. Denver was actually illiterate at the time this book was written, though he did learn to read and write after this.). My friend Diana read this book and commented positively about it on FaceBook, challenging others to read it because she wanted to have people to talk about it with. So I read it. And it was indeed a wonderful book, which after its inocuous beginning became a NYT bestseller, and was made into a movie in 2017. It's long subtitle might be of interest: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together. Highly recommended! Diana's main take away: pray always about everything. My main take aways: don't catch and release people. Making firm connections with others is an important thing to do. Also, about prayer, Denver saying "that's the good thing bout God. Since he can see right through your heart anyway, you can go on and tell him what you really think." (Like, if you are mad at him, just tell him!) 

2. Prada and Prejudice (2009) by Mandy Hubbard. I found this on the Juv sorting shelves, and was drawn to it because I like retellings. I have not read Pride and Pejudice retellings, but enjoyed the movie retellings that were Bride and Prejudice and the Pink Pride & Prejudice. So, this was a fun, fast read--I read it in a day. Callie is in London on a study abroad and not "fitting in" with the snobby mean girls, so she uses her mom's emergency credit card to solve her social emergency, buying Prada heels that cost 400 BP. She trips on the cobblestone and wakes up in 1815, where her first aid knowledge comes in handy, she learns a lot about herself, and returns to modern London a better person (with ruined Prada heels, because Prada heels in 1815? Not the best foot wear!)

3. Wah! Wah! Girls: The Musical, Britain Meets Bollywood (2012) by Tanika Gupta. I read this because I was going through some PN call numbers making collection decisions, and I was like--wait, this is a musical. It should be in ML 50. So I read it to be sure, and yup, it should be ML 50. Librettos. It is not a straight play, it is as its title indicates, a musical. Kind of fun because it uses some of the songs from Devdas and Umrao Jaan (both pretty famous Bollywood films that have had several remakes over time). It is a script, so reading it was fast, also a day, because it only lasts as long as it would if you were watching it on stage. Sadly, the reviewer of the actual play, for the Guardian, was not a fan. I agree with her that the story was on the weak side, but I still think it would be fun to watch!!

 4. Scarlett Undercover (2015) by Jennifer Latham. This was on the YA shelves along with #2, and it looked like a fun story. And it was! Scarlett, an over-achiever who finished high school early, is trying to run a little private eye business. Gemma, a nine-year old client, brings a case to her (please help me help my brother) that leads to big things. Dangerous things. Things related to the unsolved murder of Scarlett's own father. I thought the story was very well told.

5. The Sabbath: Its meaning for modern man (1951) by Abraham Joshua Heschel. I don't remember how I came across this title, but I decided to read it because I have been in this learning group all winter semester at the library, in which Isaac Calvert (who I used to know as a music student twenty years ago, who is now a professor in the education department) took us through the wisdom related to teaching and learning from all the world's religious traditions. It was super interesting! It wasn't a class, but it was every week, like a class is. So, this book is a Jewish rabbi's look at the Sabbath. Here is the Amazon blurb: In this brief yet profound meditation on the meaning of the Seventh Day, Heschel introduced the idea of an "architecture of holiness" that appears not in space but in time Judaism, he argues, is a religion of time: it finds meaning not in space and the material things that fill it but in time and the eternity that imbues it, so that "the Sabbaths are our great cathedrals."

6. The Death of Comrade President (2020) by Alain Mabanckou. (Translated from its original French by Helen Stevenson.) I found this on the sorting shelves on the 5th floor, and it looked interesting. The publisher blurb: "A novel telling the story of Michel, whose life is overthrown when, in March 1977, just before the arrival of the rainy season, Congo's Comrade President Marien Ngouabi is brutally murdered." At first, I wondered "why isn't this a YA book?" because the protagonist, Michel, is just a boy. But then, I grew to understand. The things that happen are quite brutal. Very interesting historical fiction-- Ngouabi is a real person. Michel, who is sometimes accused that he exaggerates or says rude things without meaning to, is such a well-developed character.

7. What difference do it make? (2009)  by Ron Hall and Denver Moore (and Lynn Vincent as a collaborator) is the sequel to #1 on this list. I ordered it through ILL because I wanted to know what happened next! The title comes from a phone call from Ron to Denver: "They want us to write another book. What should we call it--what should the title be?" Denver's response, "What difference do it make?" Ron's exclamation, "That's it!" These men go on making a difference in the lives of the homeless. Denver, besides learning to read, teaches himself piano and becomes a singing entertainer, and a painter whose paintings sell for hundreds of dollars. Not bad for a homeless man whose life, once touched by God's hand, is dedicated to doing good. (Denver died in 2012 at age 75.) In the earlier book, Denver said, "We is all homeless. Just workin our way toward home." And that is what both men were doing as described in this second book--trying to make good choices as they work their way toward their heavenly home.

8. Roots and Wings: Virginia Tanner's Dance Life and Legacy (2023) by Mary Elizabeth Manley, Robert Bruce Bennett and Mary Ann Lee. I had waited years for this book! I think it was originally supposed to be published in 2021. I had been writing an article about Virginia Tanner's older sister, Mildred Tanner Pettit, and before I sent it to a potential publisher, I wanted to see what might have been said about growing up in the Tanner family in this book! So I ordered the book, but...well, finally it was actually published, and I actually had it. I am so glad that Virginia's life story was written, shared with us by one of her colleagues (MEM), her husband (RBB) and her former student and then colleague (MAL)! Let me share a quote from page 251. (Which I will add later! I forgot that I took the book back to work! It is sitting in my office!) Okay, here it is. This was the ending of her address to Wilson College in 1963, when she received an Honorary Doctorate: "I believe that each spirit born has a special purpose--and determining that purpose--the particular purpose of your life--will be the greatest source of happiness to you if you aim high. For each of you the opportunities can be unlimited but the opposition will be strong. In your pursuit of happiness avoid those experiences that others have proven to be destructive. Send your roots deep into fertile soil! Let your wings know the joy of soaring above the ordinary range of your power! Each day "do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with thy God."

9. Sing me forgotten (2021) by Jessica S. Olson. Because I recommended #2 (Prada) to Josie's employees, who also like retellings, they recommended this book to me, because it is a retelling of The Phantom of the Opera, with a female phantom. I sort of did not really like Isda, the phantom. She was good in some ways, but also kind of horrible in other ways. Then, in talking with Josie, I realized that I have never watched or read Phantom--I just made my own assumptions that the phantom was a good but misunderstood person whose life was impacted in a bad way by disfigurement. But Josie pointed out to me that the phantom was kind of horrible!! So of couse, so was Isda!! That helped me, to understand that! This is actually a well-told story, just not something that a person like me could read quickly. Small doses.

10. Here in the real world (2020) by Sara Pennypacker. (Isn't that an adorable surname? I think so!) Ware feels different from other children. He feels not completely accepted by his parents--his mom would like a more social child; his dad would like a more sportsy child. And they are stuck with him. Joleen knows she isn't wanted--her mother dropped her off with her aunt, who never wanted a child at all. These two meet and start to make a difference to each other. Add in Ashley, who is all about saving the birds. These three create a castle and a garden and a bird refuge. But is it all for nothing?

And those are my finished books for the month of April! Two books underway that I will finish in May!

Level Five

 So, I have not written about our ongoing trouble on Level Five. In our library, there are only two Quiet Zones anymore--the Periodicals Reading Room and Level Five. Maybe three--I think Social Sciences might be quiet, too. Our library is not quiet, though, generally. These young learners are a very collaborative and chatty bunch. And that's okay--just, some people would appreciate quiet, so if you want to be chatty, you can find lots more places to do that, comparatively speaking.

We don't care about the chatting just to be perverse, or to live up to librarian stereotypes--we care because the students who come to Level Five in search of QUIET STUDY care about it! They ask us to please help them quiet their peers; they thank us when we can successfully achieve some measure of quiet for them. 

Well for the past few YEARS, we have been dealing with groups of students on Level Five who are very chatty. Loud chatty. It sort of grew into a really big problem end of last semester, and when they came back after Christmas break, it just kept escalating.

At the end of last semester, there was a student with a big ol' bread knife, getting ready to slice a long loaf of French bread at a study table. He was not being careful in his handling of the knife right beside an aisle, where someone might be walking. So, K called security to deal with him. She also overheard, in the stairwell, a girl talking about how her goal was to get banned from the library. 

Last semester it was so bad that A, one of our student employees this semester, who was a library security guard last semester, would always sign up for early morning shifts so she wouldn't have to patrol on Five. The students were rude and obnoxious to her, and made her cry, which is not the image that you want as a security guard. So after a few run-ins, she just always worked very early to avoid the problem. 

The students also seemed to be targeting E, because she has taken it upon herself to try to quiet the chatter sometiomes. She is the only female librarian who has their office on Five who still has the courage to try. M and C are both small people--under five feet tall, and they have had enough backlash from rude students that they are unwilling to continue to confront them. The students have made E, C, and M all cry. The students started taking down "Quiet Study" signs, and replacing them with "Loud Study" signs or "Beth's Study" signs. And also stealing E's name plate from her office. (At least 3 times.)

One time MH, a male librarian who is a big guy with a big voice, heard Level Five commotion from his office, which is quite a distance, and he came out and demanded quiet. And pointedly would (actually pointing!) kick kids out. "You, leave!" "You, on the cell phone, leave!" But he isn't always around to take charge like that.

We have tried and tried to get something done about it. We have asked and asked. However, it was this note, created by tearing apart a library "Quiet Study" tabletop sign and writing on the back of it, left on a table on March 18, that turned the tide. Finally, library administration, library security, and the BYU police started paying attention.

One of our student workers found this note on the north side of Level Five. 

Because this note contains a threat, finally we got some action. Like, we didn't have any cameras on Level Five. We didn't realize this--we have asked before, when other signs were vandalized, if they could check the cameras. The reply never said, "Oh, we don't have cameras." It was more like, "We don't have that information." We just thought their cameras weren't catching anybody or something. It was frustrating. 

By the time I had to meet with library administration to discuss the situation, E knew some first names and one last name of a group of male students. (But girls are a problem, too. Just she only knew four names of boys.) But we didn't know how to catch them. We needed cameras.

So now we have cameras, and a few days after, M found a vandalized Quiet Study Sign. It had been covered with a sticker of the Monster drink emblem, a big old letter M. M gave it to me. I gave it to my supervisor, and they found the perpetrator on camera. So, he was identified, visited by the police, and charged with a misdemeanor charge for vandalism. And also banned from the library for ten days.

Things got quieter on Five. I mean, I feel bad for the kid for getting charged for something so silly--but honestly, it was out of hand. Us asking the kids to, you know, just be good people, wasn't cutting it. 

We also had some tables moved from Five to Four around the same time, and that also helped just because of less congestion, so there would be less accidental noise. Four is already loud, so it didn't matter if we got more crowded. (But seriously, on four, from my office, which is not close to the tables, I can sometimes hear EVERY WORD of conversations.)

Yesterday, M emailed me to say that Five South was getting really noisy, now that Five North has settled down. I forwarded her email to my boss, who notified library security to patrol there better. But today, they were at it again, so I told Mary I would come up. By the time I got there, library security was already there. I talked to him, and he told me he was going to walk around the floor, and go and kick some kids out if they weren't removing themselves voluntarily (if they wanted to keep their socialization going). I went to M's office, and she showed me a video she took with her camera, from her office door, and you could hear that group of kids who were so far away very clearly!

By the time I left, all was quiet. But on the stairwell, there was a group of three girls, the same ones who had been part of the problem on M's video, and they were loud and laughing, and one said, "We're library criminals!" and then they all laughed. Bunch of Bimbo Barbie girls, I would characterize them as, if I was being rude. All pretty (and they know it), all blonde, all perky and full of attitude.

So, this has been fun. Too bad that I am "in charge," right? It would be so nice if I could just stay in my office and ignore this, but my employees have to deal with these people, so I do too. Tomorrow is the last day of classes!! I think we are all ready for Spring term, and a change in who comes into the library! 

And I didn't even talk about food, except for the bread at the beginning--now that we have a library cafe, people want to bring their food to Level Five! Seriously--it wasn't even a decade ago that we didn't even have vending machines in the library!! And everyone survived! Now the kids get offended if we ask them to take their food back to level three, where food is okay anywhere on that floor. (See the poem above.) One of the boys E talked to said, "But I like to eat with my friends on this floor." Well buddy, sometimes you don't get to do what you like to do. Instead you learn to like what you have to do. You are so lucky, compared to people not so long ago who had to walk to a different building to get food!! 

Oh, and also, one of the students in the LAO overheard a conversation about Level Five, and she went to the University Librarian and said, "I know the students who are doing this. I was at a party with them, and they were laughing and telling their friends all the things they did, and I just heard you telling the same things." So, we literally got all of their first and last names.

Okay. Disjointed and out of order, but there you have it. So fun.

Edited at 10:26 AM on 4/17/24 to add that E's name plate is gone again. It was there last night at 6 pm, and this morning when E arrived at work--gone.

Edited on 4/28 to add that the stealers of E's name plate were caught on camera and apprehended. Misdemeanor charges and library bannings for the two young ladies who were the perps.

7 April 2024

 Today is Josie's birthday. In keeping with her tradition established more than a decade ago, she gave me flowers for my her birthday. I do not know what kind they are. They are lovely but have no scent--perfect for Josie, who doesn't like the smell of flowers. (They remind her of death. She has been attending flowers funerals since she was very young, and her brain has made that assocation. Is there even a difference?)

Anyways! They are lovely and brightening my kitchen! If anybody knows what kind they are, I would like to know, so please enlighten me! (Then I will be both brightened and enlightened!)

Thank you, Josie!

And this year, she brought me another gift for her birthday! She was at Costco with her friends, and she saw this, and bought it for me, too! Josie is a very kind person, who pays attention and remembers things about people around her. I love her.

What can I say? I like Spam! I had bought a case in last year's case lot sale, and mentioned that I only had three left, and she remembered, and when she saw this at Costco, she bought it for me! 

In Canada, when I was a child, we had Prem. That is still an existing brand name, sold by Maple Leaf Foods. One of my favorite sandwiches was Prem and Pickle. So good, in my opinion! But nobody ever made a song about Prem!!

In March (29th to be exact), I forgot to mention that my former student Steve, also David's former roommate, came to BYU. He texted me when I was almost to the parking lot where my car was parked, leaving to go home. He and his wife and three fifths of their children had been visiting his sister (also a former student of mine) and left two children with her to go to a baseball game on campus. They were just leaving the Museum of Art, so I turned around to meet them. It is always fun to see former students! They have all been such wonderful people!

Me and Steve

Sarah, oldest child, second child, Steve. And youngest.

Follow up + follow up

 Follow up on Zitkala-Ša exhibit: Today was the accompanying lecture to the exhibit, with Native American scholar P. Jane Hafen.

This was a very interesting lecture. Afterwards, we (the people behind the exhibit) were invited to a light dinner in the JFSB at 5:30. I imagined Jane and her family (husband and three grand-daughters) and some assorted faculty and the librarians.

I walked into the room, and I was like "here are all the native Americans at BYU that I never see!" It was so delightful to see them. Dr. Taylor, who runs the American Indian Studies minor at BYU, had invited all the students in the program (mostly young women--though he said he has two males in the minor) and so the room was full.

This is also a follow-up on my readings in March and earlier. In March, because I talked about not seeing native students (in Canada, we would say First Nations students) AND Jane Hafen was one of the sources behind Farina King's book, but also earlier in the year I read a bunch of Jane's books in preparation for the exhibit. It was lovely to meet her. 

Our meal was Navajo Tacos, which I have never had before, prepared by a native woman named Blue. They were delicious, but I felt a bit intimidated because I didn't know how to eat them. Mary and I ate with and chatted with DJ Gonzalez and his wife Carla. He teaches Latino History and Immigration history. 

I chatted with Mike Taylor, and he said that we have only 1% of our student population as native Americans. Which is pretty low. But it was lovely to know that they exist and to meet them tonight.