Remember the Urban Sketching Project at Rutgers? Hosted by art librarian Megan Lotts in last November, this creative project invited students, faculty, and staff at Rutgers to grab an pencil or fire up the iPad and start using that unused part of the brain. No experience needed, suggested Megan in all her posts as well as in … Read More
When I was asked to join the “Books We Read” team, I thought nothing of writing about the book I was reading at the time (sounds like the objective, right?). I had just started Amia Srinivasan’s “The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century,” recommended by the New York Times Book Review the week … Read More
You might have noticed books on a shelf in your public library labelled “bibliotherapy.” You might have read about a bibliotherapy display in a bookstore. What the heck is this bibliotherapy again? Are you supposed to read books or attend group sessions? Lie on a couch? Would picking up a book help when your mind … Read More
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 greatest English novel. It is my fiancée’s favorite novel and she has written about it extensively. She’s not alone––many of the greatest literary critics of … Read More
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 is one that has been removed from the shelves completely. Books that have been challenged are an attempt by a person or group to remove … Read More
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 a book should be removed from a library display, upon (alleged) complaints from the public. Finally, a newsletter polling librarians whether professional organizations should raise … Read More
I have always enjoyed children’s and young adult (YA) books and continue to read them even as an adult. When I became a parent, I loved reading books to my kids, sharing my favorites with them and finding new ones we could appreciate together. Once they started reading on their own, I started screening many … Read More
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 alone. Cozy mysteries became one of the most popular escapist genres during the pandemic. What the heck is a cozy mystery anyway? Sounds like an … Read More
Banned and challenged books receive a great deal of attention from librarians, the champions of freedom of speech. Books We Read partnered with several other groups for Banned Books Week in 2020. In an introduction to banned books, we were tempted to sort them into categories based on the grounds for the ban or challenge: … Read More
I selected Charles C. Mann‘s (Twitter linked because no website is available) 1493: Uncovering the World New World Columbus Created as an audiobook commuting read. A patron recommended the book to me at my last library job. We would often swap non-fiction recommendations because few others at the library read the genre. Even fewer read it … Read More