The Books We Read Blog is conducting a series of interviews with contributors and friends of the blog to get a snapshot of our reading habits: the things we like to read, the circumstances in which we read, and more. Jamey Silverstein, Library Assistant, is the Collection Manager for the Recreational Reading Collection, the first … Read More
The previous post introduced a volume of Ukrainian poetry entitled Words for War: New Poems from Ukraine published before the 2022 Russia invasion of Ukraine. Who are these poets? Let their poetry speak for them. Born in Chortkiv, Vasyl Makhno left Ukraine in the late 1990s. Although he currently lives in New York chronicling a … Read More
“When arms speak, muses are silent” is the English paraphrase for an aphorism attributed to Cicero, albeit with a slightly different word order. Inter arma enim silent lēgēs is Latin for, literally, “For among arms, the laws are silent.” Currently both laws and muses are silent. Warnings such as “viewers discretion advised” or “Warning! Graphic content” … Read More
Join our fun summer reading program hosted by New Brunswick Libraries and Summer Session. Summer Tales Book Club is back––in a brand new, more sustainable and even less stressful format! Follow our fun summer reading recommendations sponsored by New Brunswick Libraries and Summer Session starting today, May 31, 2022 with this post through the entire … Read More
It has been over five years since Jeffrey Beall, who coined the term “predatory publishing” and maintained a list of such publishers and journals (see archived version), was forced out of the University of Colorado Denver and had to shut down his list. We are still talking about predatory journals and predatory conferences. Now the … Read More
Fact: Pets are very popular at library stressbuster events. After the lockdown in Spring 2020, Books We Read came up with the idea of “Virtual Pet Therapy” as a new, safe practice during the pandemic to continue to benefit from the distraction our furry friends can provide. One of our most popular pages is DOTUS, aka … Read More
“Adult-use cannabis sales set to begin in New Jersey,” says the headline from the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission, issued a few weeks ago. The start date is April 21, 2022, nearly a year and a half later after the citizens of the Garden State voted on the legalization of marijuana on the November ballot … Read More
“Feel like rearranging the deck chairs?” we used to ask in my library when we saw the writing on the wall about its sad demise. It was around that time that I received this wonderful cookbook called Last Dinner on the Titanic: Menus and Recipes from the Great Liner as a gift. To begin with, I … Read More
It was 6 pm in Ukraine, 9 am in California, and 12 pm in New Jersey on Wednesday, April 6, 2022, when 300 librarians gathered virtually for an international Zoom event initiated by a librarian at UC Berkeley. For an hour and a half, we were listening to personal accounts of our Ukrainian colleagues related … Read More
If you grew up in the United States, you must know who Judy Blume is. If you didn’t, the name may still sound familiar, especially if you are interested in banned books. The Newark Star-Ledger’s headline that one of the rest areas along the Garden State Parkway was recently named after Judy Blume is not … Read More