Rupert Giles Patron Saint of Librarians

Forget Marian The Librarian, my go-to representation of librarians in pop culture has to be Rupert Giles from the tv show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Giles is the Watcher, sent to guide and train the Slayer under the guise of the school librarian at Sunnydale High which is conveniently located on a supernatural vortex.

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On the surface, Giles is a stuffy Englishman in tweed  bemoaning the rise of the “dread machine” (aka computers) . But he has a dark past; like his young protégé when she first comes to Sunnydale, the role of Watcher is a calling which the young Rupert rejects. With a group of college friends, he delves into dark magic, calling himself Ripper. After a disastrous summoning, Giles repents his miss-spent youth and returns to his Watcher training determined to stifle the darkness within. But some of his greatest moments come when he allows his mask to slip in defense of his friends.

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Through the rest of the series, he develops a parental relationship with Buffy and her friends, seeing each other through the trials of life and growing up while facing host of monsters, demons and witches. And the series doesn’t end with the tv show; the adventures continue in graphic novel form.

                

            

Ok, so Giles doesn’t have much to do with cataloging books or answering reference questions (at least we don’t see it in the show), but the Scooby gang turn to him and the library for his vast knowledge as they fight to save the world time and again. It’s enough to warm any librarian’s geeky heart. These are a few titles you might find on Giles’s bookshelf.

 

Happy Library Week!

April 8-14 is National Library Week in the US. I got my Masters in Library Science in 2013, but I have been working in public libraries since 2005. I have seen lots of new technologies and ways to reach the public where they live. In this climate of political and economic strife, libraries which serve the people who need them most are the most easily challenged. As I mentioned in a previous post, I don’t get political, but if you want to feel like you can do some good, go to the library. And tell your friends.

If you prove to those in government that those services are important by using them and voting for their support, you can make sure that these institutions continue. One of the comments I hear from many people is that libraries are irrevolent, that nobody reads anymore, that technology and the internet have made libraries and librarians obsolete. Libraries are changing, true; but beyond books, libraries are a haven of services and information and community engagement.

Ok, that’s enough of that. Happy library week.

American Library Association

Library Comic

Unshelved

Gordianus the Finder’s Republican Bookshelf

Gordianus the Finder is an investigator in Ancient Rome who becomes involved with the best and brightest in the last years of the Republic. His journey through the Roma Sub Rosa series takes Gordianus from the slums of the Subura to the Capitoline Hill and the Senate among the similar rise of new men and powerful generals emerging at this time.

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Instead of the cold, detail driven powers of reasoning of Sherlock Holmes, Gordianus has a talent for putting people at ease with his unassuming nature and getting them to tell their secrets. For those he crosses, he is a dangerous man with the power to topple the status quo by the things he knows. For his unusual family of ex-slaves, he he is a loving man who takes risks for the truth. Steven Saylor’s series spawned similar titles of ancient investigators and tales of the end of the Republic.

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Gordianus becomes reluctantly connected, through his adopted son, to Caesar; and through his work to the other great man of the age, Cicero. Now at old age, Gordianus looks back on his life and career in what is likely the end of the series. These are a few things you might find on his bookshelf.

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Writing Wednesday

Writing is a solitary venture. I have no idea if what I am doing is good. The danger is that I will keep picking away at what I have written, trying to get the perfect paragraph when what I have is good enough. I did the same thing when writing papers for grad school; finally, I just had to turn something in and it was fine.

If you are fortunate enough to learn craft in the classroom setting, you get instructional support and the encouragement of your fellow students. But if you don’t have that, you must find a different support system. One of the reasons NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is so successful as a movement is that it creates a community for writers to support and encourage each other.

I started listening to StoryWonk for their analysis of the Starz production of Outlander. They are nerds, and they know how to explain the mechanics of story. There is an incredible backlog of podcasts and classes on story analysis. While Alistair and Lani are no longer working together, they are each continuing the wonk life under their own projects of story analysis and writing instruction.

Some people find a writing group to give them the support you need. In the online environment, it is also not difficult to find a virtual group or form one to meet your needs.

Sometimes it is good to know that you aren’t alone.

Writer’s League of Texas

Writers Digest

Eleanor Shellstrop’s Forking Bookshelf

Eleanor Shellstrop from the fantastic comedy The Good Place finds herself in an afterlife designed by the affable Michael as a reward for living a virtuous life. Quickly, she discovers that an error has been made and her presence is tearing their utopia apart. She must either resign herself to the “Bad Place”, or try to be good.

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Despite her history of bad behavior, Eleanor forms a community of friends who help in her journey of redemption. Eleanor is assigned a soul-mate with whom to spend eternity in the bookish philosopher Chidi. He agrees to teach her philosophy in order to become a good person and earn her place in the afterlife. Things become complicated when she develops real feelings for Chidi.

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Things are not what they seem as Eleanor and her fellows discover more about their new home. The cast is peopled by complex characters from various backgrounds. The writers of this intelligent and quirky show have kept audiences guessing with surprises and twists through the second season. Here are a few items you might find on her bookshelf.

Other sources:

The Good Place official website

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

TED Talks: Religion

Reading list

Are you wondering what to read next? Do you know a reluctant reader? Request a reading list.

How does it work?

Tell me a couple of authors or books you like and a couple of books or authors you don’t like. The last thing is tell me if you have a specific type of book you are looking for–you want to branch out to a new genre, you want to find something besides graphic novels for your kid.

I will then curate a reading list for you based on your responses and get back to you with your personalized recommendations.

Jean-Luc Picard’s Starfleet Bookshelf

From the first season of Star Trek: the Next Generation, Captain Jean-Luc Picard leaps off the screen and commands your attention. He is very gruff and uncomfortable around children, but he grows into deeper connections with the crew as they “seek out new life and new civilizations”.

            

              

While Picard is the captain of a scientific mission, he is deeply connected to history and spends his free time reading old books and drinking tea–earl gray, hot.

                 

                

There is little doubt that the writing and attention to world building give Patrick Stewart’s depiction of Jean-Luc room for interesting character development. These are a few titles you might find on his bookshelf aboard the Enterprise.

                     

Other sources:

StarTrek.com

Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

Johnson Space Center

Hubble Telescope

The Romance of the Romanovs

Last week, I finished The Family Romanov for the Young Adult For Adults Book Club. It is a good biography of the last Tsar of Russia and the perfect storm of history which lead to the fall of a three hundred year dynasty.

Our ice-breaker question? Would you want to be part of a family like the Romanovs?

While it would be nice to have unlimited wealth and privilege, I also like the sense of purpose and influence for the good of society. I am not in any way a politically or socially active person in real life except to live the best I can and serving the community at the library, but I guess I like the idea of being in a position to do more.

Most of us agreed that the lack of privacy and freedom would not be worth it. We also agreed that it would be different to be able to chose such a life and to be prepared for the responsibilities and challenges. But given that the alternative is the hard life of a peasant, we concluded that maybe it wasn’t such a bad choice after all.

Nicholas III was woefully unprepared for the job he inherited and lived out of touch with the lives of his people. The same thing happened with Louis XVI of France and Charles II of England. Take what you will about current history.

I had read a novel when I was a teen about an English agent falling in love with Grand Duchess Olga. I got interested in the history and read what I could. In the mid to late 1980’s, information about where they had been imprisoned or where they had been buried was kept strictly out of the public eye. With all of the secrecy surrounding their fate and the rumors and people who either claimed to have seen the royals or to be one of them, it was easy to romanticize the idea that someone survived the massacre.

After the fall of Communism in 1991, the Russian government finally released that they had found the bodies of five of the royals. Over ten years later, the last two were found. After one hundred years, the mystery surrounding the Romanovs has been resolved and they can be properly laid to rest.

Other sources

Alexander Palace Time Machine

Leslie Knope’s Municipal Bookshelf

Leslie Knope from the hit comedy series Parks and Recreation is earnest and competent in a sea of jaded municipal workers in a small Indiana town. She loves Pawnee and America and believes in the power of government, but her faith is celebrated, not mocked.

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  Parks and Recreation has a stellar ensemble cast that charmed audiences with its quirky small town life.

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  Leslie’s favorite food is waffles and anything sweet. She develops deep relationships with her female friends, lavishing them with homemade gifts on the holiday she made to celebrate her gals.

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  Amy Poehler got her start on Saturday Night Live, but her foundation Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls promotes female empowerment; something Leslie would absolutely get behind.

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  In the current atmosphere of political activism, Leslie Knope is a refreshing character who shows that a woman can make a change in the world from a local park to the Senate.

Other Sources

Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls

League of Women Voters

Malala Fund

Anchor Scenes: Master and Commander

Now a look at Master and Commander: Far Side of the World 2003

Inciting incident. The Surprise has been ordered to stop the French ship Acheron from attacking British whaling vessels. The Acheron attacks them in the fog.

Acceptance. After being ambushed a couple of times, his officers advise him to abandon the pursuit of the superior Acheron. Jack decides to chase Acheron around Cape Horn even though it takes him outside the scope of their mission.

Midpoint reversal. Jack promises Stephen (the Doctor and Jack’s friend) time to explore the natural wonders of the Galapagos while Surprise searches for the Acheron. They encounter the survivors of a whaler who tell Jack where the Acheron is heading; forcing Jack to break his promise to Stephen.

Point of no return. The Surprise gets caught in the doldrums and can’t move. The crew singles out a midshipman as the source of their bad luck and drives him to suicide. Stephen condemns the naval practices and superstition that lead to the situation and blames Jack. At the young man’s funeral, the wind picks up and allows them to continue their pursuit.

Dark moment. Stephen gets shot by a stray bullet when the captain of the marines tries to shoot an albatross. They are about to catch up to the ship but the only way to save Stephen is to get him ashore on the Galapagos Islands for surgery. Jack decides to sacrifice his mission for his friend.

Climax. On the mend, Stephen explores the island  and spots the ship on the other side. He must give up his collection of specimens in order to tell Jack about the ship. Disguising the Surprise as a whaling ship, they sneak up on the ship and attack.

Resolution. Jack leads his crew to victory, but with a great loss of life, including the Acheron’s captain. Jack assigns men to serve as the prize crew and sends them ahead to a British port for repairs. He promises to return to the Galapagos so that Stephen can retrieve his specimens, but Stephen reveals that the French surgeon died weeks earlier and they realize that the man they left with the prize crew is in fact the captain. Stephen is once again denied his specimens to rescue their men.