Unlikable Characters
Does a book’s main character always have to be likable? If you think back on your favorite main characters, many were almost surely ones you liked, or at least admired … Read More
Little Free Library
Reading Middlemarch
This post starts with a confession: Middlemarch, by George Eliot (pen name of Mary Anne Evans), is widely considered one of the greatest novels ever written––certainly the odds-on favorite for … Read More
The Banned Books of Rutgers Special Collections and University Archives
Books have been banned, challenged, censored, or even burned by organizations, schools, and parent organizations for a lot of reasons. What defines a banned or a challenged book? A banned book … Read More
Just Say Yes to Banned Books Week outside the United States!
Last week we celebrated Banned Books week in an event called BANNED: A Virtual Banned Books Read-Out & Discussions on the Freedom to Read at Rutgers. In my flash talk at the … Read More
New Hungarian Law Challenges Librarians
A children’s book shredded in public by a member of the parliament. A poster outside a bookstore warning customers of books with “homosexual propaganda dangerous to children.” A mayor demanding that … Read More
Cozy Mysteries from Rutgers Libraries
If you’re appalled by violence and graphic details in a book or movie but––pun intended––you’d kill for a good mystery, cozy mysteries are for you. Rest assured, you are not … Read More
What is Bibliotherapy?
Bibliotherapy, or guided reading, is defined as using books from a list created under the guidance of a subject expert in order to address a therapeutic need. It has been … Read More
Books We Cite: Bunky’s Birthday
I hardly remember birthdays. But come August 15, I can’t help asking “Who remembers Jellinek?” In an editorial for the Jellinek Special Anniversary issue of the CAS Information Services Newsletter, we … Read More
Finding Humor for Emotional Strength
In Diem Perdidi by Julie Otsuka, the narrator recounts her experiences dealing with her mother’s Alzheimer’s progression. Alzheimer’s is an unforgiving, unpredictable disease. Periods of lucidity are contrasted with periods … Read More
SEBS Little Free Library survived!
July 22, 2021, Rutgers Cook Campus (Facebook, Twitter): “Photo taken today in Foran Hall with an overflowing Little Free Library: the SEBS book exchange program has officially survived!” The SEBS Little … Read More