My blog has moved!

I have decided to move my blog to Wordpress due the nicer designs (though it is annoying that you can't adjust the font). Here is my new address: http://librarymom12.wordpress.com/ I hope my followers here will join me at the new site and continue to follow me there. Happy Friday all!

Reading, one cool librarian thing and a new blog

I've not been very focused on books, to be honest, mostly because all of my thoughts are preoccupied with the baby. The only books I seem to be able to focus on are cookbooks because they require a relatively short attention span, and have been on a Mexican kick with that, probably due to the amount of that nationality here in Arizona (despite the local government's best attempts otherwise). I started reading a great children/teen book by Nnedi Okorafor (a Nigerian-American writer I had been friends on Goodreads for awhile) called Zahrah the Windseeker. I had recently finished her adult fantasy novel Who Fears Death and loved it, so reading this book seemed like the logical conclusion. However, my brain is so scattered that I can't focus on it. I'm going to try to read a teen book that I've had on my to-read list forever called Marcelo in the Real World about a boy with autism, and hopefully I can get through that. 

I was browsing my library likes on Facebook and had discovered the ALSC blog (Association for Library Services to Children) and they have a section called "What I Wasn't Taught in Library School". Two points stood out to me, the first being humorous and the second being way more practical. As I've recently finished up library school and while I was there, participated in an independent study and an internship, I know there is so many little but important things they don't teach you there that you can only learn with hands-on experience. Working in customer service type jobs since I was 16 helps a lot with some of the stuff you come up against, like angry patrons, but things like trying to do programming with insanely low budgets or learning how to get the information about your programs out when your director doesn't like social media is not usually discussed. 

And last, but not least, my hubby has decided to share his love of cooking with world in the form of a blog. He has never done anything like this before, so I am helping to plug it on here. Please go check it out and share your thoughts/comments with him.

Freak out and Book Awards

So I have been writing this blog since last fall and the purpose is mostly so I have something else to do, as I was unemployed during the time and had a lot of free time. I also like to post about libraries, books and what it is like for a library school student/graduate trying to find a job. True, I have not been as diligent in the last month or so as I have been rather distracted with finishing up school and real life in general. I am hoping to correct that in the future. I was just psyched when I came on my blog to figure out which episode of Kekkaishi anime I am on, and instead I noticed I had a comment on my last YA book review from Mary Hoffman herself, the author of the Stravaganza series and many other wonderful books that I discovered in 2010!! Needless to say, that is way cool, so I commented on her blog after a nice post about saving libraries in the UK from funding cuts.

I know this list has been out for over a week and I apologize for not posting it earlier. The ALA released the awards list for youth books, videos, and audiobooks. I'm sorry to say that I've not read any of the books yet, with the exception of Will Grayson, Will Grayon which won the Stonewall Children & Young Adult Literature Award, but I will amend that as I continue to work in the children's room and have time to pick up more books.

Joey Pigza Quote and Food Blog

I haven't blogged for about a week due to being out of town visiting my grandparents in Alabama for Thanksgiving and being generally distracted as it is the end of school, amongst other things. So I figured I would catch up on blogging by combining Sunday and Monday's post again. The Blog of the week is one that I have been obsessed with for two days called Momofuku for 2.  For those who have no idea what Momofuku is, it is the cookbook for the restaurant of the same name in NYC, created by genius chef David Chang (who Anthony Bourdain also thinks is brilliant, which gives him even better credit in my book). I had read the cookbook myself after waiting for it for over a month at the library, and thought his recipes were really ingenious twist on classics, plus the photos were gorgeous and it really makes me want to go to NYC to try it out. Chang now owns five Momofuku restaurants, which you can see through this link for more info. The author of the food blog Momofuku for 2 not only creates classics from the cookbook, like the Potatoes & Clams in Bacon Dashi  but also many other delicious creations such as French Onion Melt Sandwich, Thai Noodle Salad (which is very similar to a dish I have eaten in a Thai restaurant), and the best sounding title for a recipe Blueberry Boy Bait.

The quote of the week is a random one from Jack Gantos's third Joey Pigza book in the series called What Would Joey Do?, which is about a young boy who has ADHD and is just starting to get his life under control again. In this book, his mom who moved back in with him in the first book is dating again but Joey is not sure about the new boyfriend. I just thought it was funny. 

• “She won't call me anything like strange or abnormal or peculiar. She just says things like 'Oh, don't mind that Joey is trying to get pet termites to live in the woodwork. He's not like other boys. He is out of the ordinary.' And Booth whose head is so rectangular it looks like a shoebox with a nose stuck on one long side, gives me that I-didn't-raise-you-to-be-this-way-but-I'll-put-up-with-you-as-long-as-your-mom-is-my-girlfriend-otherwise-I-would-put-you-in-a-rubber-room look. In return I give him my Don't-fall-asleep-on-the-couch-because-when-you-wake-up-you-might-find-that-I-slowly-cut-all-your-clothes-off-and-when-you-stand-you-will-be-totally-naked-and-Grandma-and-I-will-have-your-camera-ha-ha-ha look.” Joey Pigza in What Would Joey Do

Football news and *Love the Liberry*

So apparently Wayne Rooney is not leaving Man U and just signed a brand new more money contract. Guess we can't get rid of him that easy. The rumor this week is that coach of Man U Sir Alec Ferguson (aka Fergie) wants to snatch up my favorite Liverpool player, phenomenal goalie Pepe Reina, after he's supposedly upset with the way coach Roy Hodgeson is running things. I hope that is totally incorrect as I would be rather ticked if he left! Luckily, I'm pretty sure it is not true as one of the new owners, John Henry, has personally come out to say that people should stop spreading malicious rumors. Go NESV!

Since I did not feature a blog this week, I figured I would now. I was browsing the librarians' blog Love the Liberry and cracking up at the patron's antics. It is done by three librarians, ast least one being a reference librarian. I  love the subheading of the blog: "Stranger than Fiction...We Couldn't Possibly Make These Things Up." Some of my favs so far include the Spelling post on Oct 20, Prescription for Disaster on Oct 13, and Can't Fool Us on Oct 10.

Quotes & The Merry Librarian

I've been a bit behind in posting this past week due to my last-minute trip to Arizona, but I'm glad I went as I had fun and it was relaxing to get away for a few days and somewhat catch up on work. I got all my reading done for my classes, the only downside is that I spent nearly 9 hours of yesterday writing my paper and I'm still not happy with it. But that's a story for another day. So I'm catching up today by making up Sunday and Monday's post, and might write one for today later on when I have more free time.

The quotes of the week will be some of my favorite Christopher Moore quotes, taken from his books Coyote Blue and Fluke: Or I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings.  The second one is particularly funny as the kid in question, Kona, is a bit of a spacey stoner who Nate regrets hiring until he makes a brilliant suggestion about whales that proceeds this quote.
 

• “He soon found, that his thoughts, like monkeys in church, were bad company.” –Christopher Moore, Coyote Blue
• Nate was stunned. Not because he thought Kona was right, but because the kid had actually had the cognitive powers to come up with the question. Nate wouldn’t have been more surprised if he walked in on a team of squirrels building a toaster oven. Maybe the kid had run out of pot, and the spike in intelligence was just a withdraw symptom.” –Christopher Moore, Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings

The blog of the week is The Merry Librarian. It is a blog created by a librarian and  other people/librarians send in stories about the unbelievable but true things that go on in the libraries. She also has a links to many other librarian blogs (which I will definitely be checking out in the future), and to her book review site (book club) and bookstore. I discovered this site after a classmate posted this link to one of her posts from June 14, which like the Merry Librarian, made me laugh out loud, as did this one. The Father's Day story, which is unfortunately the most recent post, made me smile. My only gripe is that I wish she would continue to update the site. But if you go back through the older posts, there are some gems.

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*Poor Girl Eats Well*

Kimberly Morales is the creator of Poor Girl Eats Well, and it is her personal blog for food blogging and recipes. She specializes in creating delicious home-made nutritious meals for very low prices, as she herself is constantly doing temporary work, and has a very limited budget. She's even been on food stamps. Kimberly  is also up for the Project Food Blog award from the Foodbuzz website, where the winner can win $10,000 and a feature on Foodbuzz for a year. So I have been voting for her in the contest. She also had a cool feature on Anthony Bourdain (who I love watching and think he is great writer and TV presenter), who she got to see live at the Food Bloggers conference in August.

I have been following this blog for a couple of months and love it! As her recipes are all cheap and easy to prepare, I have been coming every day or every other day to see what brilliant new recipes she has posted. For example, recently she made Kiwi-Basil Granita and Bobotie for the Project Food Blog contest, but there is also Tropical Fruit Crepes with Zabaglione, Warm Breakfast Quinoa with Cinnamon and Apples, and the Spanglish sandwich. Plus there are many more on the website. Please go to her website and check it out!

*David Lebovitz*

Today's blog highlight is for pastry chef David Lebovitz's website. I had not heard of him before finding his newest cookbook Ready for Desserts: My Best Recipes that one of my Goodreads friends had read (fantastic recipes by the way). I then got his biography with recipes The Sweet Life in Paris which was about him moving from the US to Paris to live, and his food adventures in France. I've also read his cookbook Ripe for Dessert and his contribution to The Bakers's Dozen Cookbook, which were both excellent. So I subscribe to his blog as he always has interesting things to say, like when he was talking about "10 Thing to Bring Back from Paris," Economy Candy a candy store for adults in NYC,  or his experience with sushi in his life and in Paris. His website has a "My Paris" section, where he recommends good restaurants and guides to the city. There are sections for his schedule for book signings, frequently asked questions, a store to buy his books, a tour that you can book with the author for a fee (which I would absolutely love to do if I had the money), and the recipe page (which is currently being revised so is offline).

Goodreads and Fab Frugal Food

I know it has been a couple of weeks since my last favorite blog of the week post but things have been super busy around here and I forgot. To make up for it, I will include two blogs/websites this week:

The first is Goodreads. I've been a member here Sept 2008 when I started graduate school, but I didn't become really active till the following spring when I started taking all my childrens and teen literature classes. I love it because it is a good way to keep track of all the books you've read, though it's not got all the books I've ever read (but I add them as I think of them). I usually had to read 50 books per class, and I have really bad short term memory, so this is excellent for keeping track of the books I've read and what I thought of them. You can write reviews or just give them stars (out of 5), as well as checking out reviews before you read a book, adding books to your reading list, and listing what books you are currently reading. You can also add your favorite writers, rank them in order of your favorite and follow their blogs if you want. Ooh and they do book giveaways every months, I've won a few free ones that way. They have a ridiculously long trivia game that you can play, there are book discussion groups you can join, and sometimes authors come on there and you can ask them questions. Oh and you can add friends. I've "met" a lot of interesting people that way, mostly librarians which I enjoy, but also writers and other people with interesting reads. Once a week you get a newsletter which tells you which books they want to read and you can add them too if you like. Goodreads also links through Facebook if you are interested in that.

A blog that I really enjoy and check regularly is Fab Frugal Food, which does "budget friendly recipes for foodies." I have very expensive taste on a very limited budget, so I can't always have the kind of food I want but rather what I can afford. This website is great for that, as is the one I will feature next week. I like FFF because they feature vegetarian, gluten-free or vegan recipes, which I like to throw into my diet now and again for variety. Plus they endorse Meatless Mondays, another great food blog. They feature yummy recipes such as Peaches and Cream Quesadillas, Summer Rolls, Granitas Five Ways, and Artisan Cheese Bread.

The Yuca Diaries

This week's blog highlight is The Yuca Diaries, http://theyucadiaries.blogspot.com/, which I discovered last week. The author is a Cuban-American who loves to cook. I love her description about the duality of the blog: "When I dream, it sometimes happens in English and sometimes in Spanish. This principle of duality holds true in my waking life which I hope to share here with you via my recipes, writing, photographs, and any other medium I think up on a whim." Plus she just has some great recipes for traditional Latin fare like Tres Leches, which is her current post, to other Cuban recipes like Fufu de Platano (which I hadn't heard of before, but looks delicious). She also has yummy recipes for Brisket and Butter Chicken. All in all a website I plan on keeping my eye on in the future.

*Maria Palito*

I've decided to highlight one cool blog or website a week. Last week's was Culinary Concoctions by Peabody, one of my favorite food blogs. I'm starting with a friend's blog/web store, Maria Palito. I met my friend Maria Jose through one of the volunteering programs I do at my local public library. She makes beautiful eco-friendly jewelry and adorable felt animals, cards, and door hangers. I own one of her Tagua seed and wooden bead necklace and earrings sets, in red and black, which I totally love. Tagua seed is a fruit seed that grows mainly on the tropical rain forest of South America. I gave a friend of mine one of her super cute stuffed felt duckies and she absolutely loved it. So here's her blog/website and enjoy: http://workshop.mariapalitousa.com/

One of my favorite food blogs

I, as you might have noticed from my blog list, like quite a few food blogs. One of my favorites is Culinary Concoctions by Peabody because she has the most decadent looking desserts and as she says in this CNN article, "I will admit that my baked goods are usually a little over the top and can cause your thighs to expand just from looking at the photos, but if you eat healthy the rest of the time, it all balances out in the end." That being said, how can you avoid drooling over things like Friday's offering (Tira-Me So Hot to Bake Sundaes), or the Bananas Foster Sticky Buns, Soft Pretzel Salted Caramel Bread Pudding or even Because I Can Cadbury Creme Eggs Cupcakes.

She not only has gorgeous tasting and looking food on her blog, but also funny stories to go along with them, which makes them a joy to read. One of my favorite posts of hers was from when she was baking the Double Stuff Oreo-Chocolate Chip Shortbread and writes about her brother and her dad's least favorite phrase. I've only tried one of the recipes she posted, the WW Peanut Butter Cookies due to the fact that I've had no time to bake them, but maybe with my current unemployment, I could try my hand at a few. Maybe I could do one of the less complicated recipes like the Bananas Foster Bread Pudding with Sauce, Roasted Onion and Gorgonzola Soup, Bacon & Two Cheese Quiche, or the Dulce de Leche-Cashew Thumbprint Cookies. In any case, they all sound good.