Nonfiction Book Reviews

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I first heard about Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing “Hoax” by Philip Plait at the local planetarium when my husband and I went to watch a movie called (you guessed it!) “Bad Astronomy.” It was a movie made to show in a planetarium, so as you might imagine, it was not exactly on par with Hollywood blockbusters. But still, it was enjoyable, and I learned a lot from it. It also made me want to read the book.

The premise of Phil Plait’s book, movie, and website (Bad Astronomy at Discover Magazine,) is the fact that there are a lot of flat-out wrong ideas when it comes science, and more especially astronomy.  Plait is working hard to debunk the conspiracy theories that surround things like the moon landing, and to help people realize that there are common myths (like you can only balance an egg on the spring equinox) that are completely untrue.

In short, he’s a skeptic and a debunker of pseudo-science.

Since I enjoy that kind of thing, I really enjoyed the book and the movie.  There were certain things that he covered that I had honestly never thought about.  Take, for example, ships flying around in space.  Watch any famous movie or TV series (like Star Wars or Stargate) and you’ll see ships flying, then slowing down and stopping next to the mother ship (or whatever).  Notice when you watch those scenes that as far as you can see, there is nothing to slow the ship down!

In space, in order for a shuttle to slow down, it has to fire thrusters at the front of the ship in order to produce force that would send them backwards.  Or in the case of them already going forward, a backwards thrust would cause them to slow down and eventually stop.  But in all of the Hollywood movies, the ships simply stop, as if the pilot stepped on the breaks or something.

After Plait pointed this out to me, I have to admit that it’s been bugging me ever since.  If you like sci-fi movies or TV shows, do know that reading this book may take away some of that joy.  Just a head’s up in case this sort of thing would annoy you instead of provoking humor (ha-ha!  This movie is so stupid - it breaks every natural law in the book! kind of humor.)

Some of the other bad science that Plait tackles: UFO’s, naming stars after yourself, the supposed “fake” moon landing, and a whole lot more.  I will say that there was hard-core science in the book in some spots, and since I have a hard time following that sort of thing (science is interesting to me but science doesn’t always make sense to me) I will admit that I skipped some paragraphs.  Anyone who is more of a science geek than me won’t have any problems with it.  For the most part, it was written so that anyone could understand, even the non-science geeks of the world.

And, speaking of science, there are some great science blogs here in the Today.com network that you might want to check out - both Science Fun and Rocket Scientist are well-written and educational blogs in the science field.  Also, I have read and reviewed other astronomy related books here on Nonfiction Lover, like Hubble: The Mirror on the Universe and Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking that you might want to check out if science and astronomy are a passion of yours.

Overall, I give Bad Astronomy 4.5 out of 5 stars.  Whether you’re a science teacher, debunking fiend, or just enjoy astronomy, you’ll love Bad Astronomy.

Havs

Well, I know that this will come as a surprise to all of you, but I have heard a rumor that there are more books in this world than just nonfiction books.

Sit and let that soak in for a moment.  That means that there might be other book reviewers than just me!

No!

Yes!

Really?

Okay, fine, so there are a LOT more bloggers than just me out there.  And in an effort to help introduce all of my lovely readers to that great big world of Other Book Bloggers that does in fact exist (this is like The Others from the TV show Lost although not as creepy), I thought I’d start a new series on my site.  From here until the day I run out of people to interview, I will post an interview with a fellow book blogger every Tuesday.

I was trying to come up with a cool title for it like “Tuesdays Bloggers” but then realized that Tuesdays Bloggers is in fact not a cool title, and so I gave up trying to be creative and cool and stuff.

Then I realized that DUH!, I have creative and cool and stuff readers!  So I’m opening this up to you guys - if one of you can come up with a catchy or fun title for this new series, then you’ve just won yourself a nice permanent backlink in my sidebar.  Leave your ideas in the comment section below.

And if you don’t have a blog for me to link to, then you will win a permanent place in my Top Ten Coolest People Ever list.  So if I ever put together another list like that again, you’d totally come in at number one.  And if I don’t, well…ummm….

Moving on now…

I also have to ask: Are you one of those Other Book Bloggers?  And if so, are you interested in being interviewed by moi, and being spotlighted on my blog?  Drop me a link through my Nonfiction contact page and we’ll chat.  I have had quite a few people respond already, so you wouldn’t be highlighted, say, tomorrow, but it would happen eventually and it would totally be worth your while.  I think.

Last but not least, before I sign off for the night, I wanted to thank DreadPirateRose of the ultra-cool Convention Fans blog here at Today.com for my new header.  I will be messing with my colors in my blog to match my new spiffy header which is always fun for me.  I like messing with that kind of thing.  It’s like all the fun of painting your home without all of the work that comes along with!

Thanks again Dread - you rock!

Havs

PS The book bloggers that I interview will have their link added to my sidebar under the “Book Bloggers I Interviewed” heading.  —-> The most recent five bloggers will be highlighted there.  As you can see, I’ve already got one up - Andrea from So Many Books, So Little Time will be the first in the series - her interview will show up Tuesday morning.  Be sure to check it out then!

The following is a fantastic guest post by a fellow blogger, Jennifer L Price, here at Today.com. If you are interested in more of Jennifer’s writing, please check out her blog at Journeys and Adventures. She is an excellent writer, so be sure to give her lots of praise in the comment section! Thanks again, Jennifer!!

I should probably start this review by admitting that I’m a foodie; foodies are defined by Wikipedia as “amateurs who simply love food for consumption, study, preparation, and news.” Yup, that’s me - I like to make food, look at food, think about food, and, of course, eat food…so a book about a food writer attending the well-known Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris is exactly the kind of book I enjoy.

The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World’s Most Famous Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn details her experiences as a former middle manager attempting to follow a life-long dream and navigate life in Paris after being fired from her job - while also trying to learn how to gut a trout without damaging the head, cook with rooster blood, and make the perfect 512-layer puff pastry.

The book is obviously about food; Flinn uses mouth-watering descriptions to illustrate the dishes she creates and enjoys: “My final menu [includes] fillet of veal in pastry, stuffed with apples, celery, and mousse de fois gras with Calvados sauce, endive flowers with marinara sauce, whipped cauliflower with salsify and roasted garlic, chanterelle mushrooms sautéed with parsley.” (Don’t worry if your stomach starts to growl while reading, more than 25 recipes are also included in the book!)

There is more to the book than the food, though - Flinn offers an honest portrayal of life in a challenging culinary school, including demanding chefs and competitive classmates from around the world. The facts used to support her story (like the history of Cordon Bleu and how restaurants started) add a fascinating background to the already enchanting Paris. Trips to the market and glimpses of the Eiffel Tower bring the city to life.

At the forefront, however, The Sharper Your Knife is a memoir. In addition to her culinary experience, Flinn honestly shares the stresses, joys, and trepidations of losing her corporate job, moving to a foreign country, discovering herself, and searching for love: “As in cooking, living requires that you taste, taste, taste as you go along—you can’t wait until the dish of life is done.”

So, foodies like me will definitely enjoy the book—as will anyone who ever thinks of starting over and following their dreams overseas. There’s quite a bit of French in the book and Flinn covers a lot of territory in a short amount of time, sometimes moving too quickly and seemingly glossing over important parts, so The Sharper the Knife, The Less You Cry gets a 4.5 out of 5 stars from me.

~Jennifer

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Again, you can find Jennifer’s blog at Journeys and Adventures - she writes about countries all over the world that she has visited, and that the tips and ideas that she has to make your trips more enjoyable and stress-free. Even if you’ve gone no further than your own backyard but you love to dream, you’ll love her site. Check it out!

Havs

So I got home from class tonight, and logged on to check my emails.  I had a ton in there, which is not normal for me.  I started scanning through, trying to pick out the most important ones, when I saw the email confirming a payment from Today.com for my blogs.

That was good to see, because I was expecting a $100+ paycheck from them this month (there is a $50 minimum payout each month, and last month, I ended the month with $49.69 in the payout slot.  Couldn’t make it up if I tried.)  So I was pretty thrilled to finally be getting paid.

Except when I clicked to open the email, I saw this instead: $389 and change.  What the heck? ::head scratching ensued:: I knew that couldn’t be right, and although it would have been nice to keep that much money, I knew that they’d figure out their mistake sooner or later, and come asking for it back. I started writing an email to the payroll gal, when a thought occurred to me.

No, that couldn’t be it.

Really?  Maybe?  I mean, it is possible.  Anything is possible.

Okay, just in case, I have to go look.

I went to Today.com’s blog, which is only in existence to announce the monthly winners of their contests, and scrolled down to see if perhaps my name was mentioned somewhere on the list.

AND THERE I WAS!!!!

Okay, I know it’s bad form to yell online, but I was so excited, I was jumping up and down and yelling in real life, so that just gives you a little taste of the excitement I was feeling.

Turns out, they had chosen me for the Editor’s Choice Award for the month of January, and awarded me $250 for my efforts.  It is my birthday tomorrow, and I think this is just about the coolest birthday present I could receive.

So I’m going to go download the cool award plaque thingy and put it in my sidebar, and then we can all gaze in rapture at its ultra-coolness.  If I don’t post for a week, it’s because I’m still staring in rapture at my award, and cannot be bothered with, you know, posting and stuff.

THANKS, TODAY - YOU ROCK!!!

Havs

Today, we are being given a rare treat: A guest post from a fellow blogger here at Today.com. Ravyn has been blogging on her site, Exchange of Realities, since June of 2008, and is (as you’ll be able to tell below) a very talented writer.  If you are at all interested in role-playing games (the topic of her blog) then you’ll definitely want to check out her site.

For us, Ravyn wrote up a review of a nonfiction book called The Language of the Night, written by a popular science fiction author many moons ago.  Read through and be sure to leave her lots of praise in the comment section.

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I found The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction by Ursula K Le Guin by accident. My original goal in asking for reading material had been finding linguistics books, so I could write about slang. And where better to go than my mother and her shelves full of references on language? But amid the pile of pieces on semantics and colloquialisms and the evolution of language, she handed me this book. In a way, I haven’t put it down since.

Having read a few of Le Guin’s pieces, I’d expected the writing to be excellent. What I hadn’t expected was for it to call out to me so perfectly. Yes, the book was published thirty years ago, and most of the essays therein are at least a decade older than I am. But they’re still true, and with every essay I read, I found one more point that I’d always wanted to make but never known how to say.

What I find particularly interesting about it is her approach. Le Guin doesn’t talk about how to write, in the way that many ‘how to write’ articles do, with should and shouldn’t filling every other page. Instead, she talks about how she writes, and how other people write; what was out there at the time, and what she wanted to read; she grounds the essays in the real world with personal anecdotes, but at the same time couches them in terms of archetypes and ideals. Like the author, the book stands with feet in two worlds, and without one the other makes no sense.

And most importantly, she laughs at all of it, even as she tackles issues that go far beyond science fiction.

Did you know that I am a very rare creature? My species was at first believed to be mythological, like the tribble and the unicorn…I am extremely puzzled, even embarrassed, at my own rarity. Are they going to have to lock me up in pens, like the Whooping Cranes and Duckbilled Platypuses and other species threatened with extinction, and watch eagerly to see if I lay an egg?
~In “The Stone Axe and the Muskoxen” essay

Every six months I read this book, and every time I do something ends up as a blog article. The first time, it was a rail against the lack of proper critique in science fiction, something that from what I can see hasn’t changed a bit since the essay that inspired me was written. This read-through, I penned my own opinion on where to find that elusive image of humanity in fiction known as Mrs. Brown. Next time - who knows?

The advice here is eternal; it’s something every writer of science fiction or fantasy should go through at least once, every teacher of how to write should treat as a reference book, and anyone merely interested in the written word should at least consider skimming. I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

Ravyn

Thanks again to Ravyn for her wonderful review of The Language of the Night.  Now I’m going to have to add another book on my To Be Read list!  Again, be sure to visit Ravyn at her site, Exchange of Realities.  ~Hava

PS Do you have a favorite nonfiction book that you’d love to review for my site?  I’m open to either exchanging guest posts, giving payments for the guest posts using EntreCard credits, or any other idea that sounds reasonable to you.  Drop me a comment through my contact page and we’ll see what we can figure out.

Confession: I am just not into the internet memes that go around the internet.  They’re like a virus, spreading from blog to blog, tying up time that could otherwise be spent doing something useful, like watching paint dry.

I know, I know, I should tell you how I really feel, right?

But I just can’t help myself - internet memes just seem like such a waste of time.  And so it was with trepidation that I saw that there is a massive one happening today, called the International Thank All of Your Entrecard Droppers Day (or something like that) where everyone who uses the Entrecard system is supposed to write up a post, linking to the top droppers for the month on their site.

Well, I have to say that yes, I like Entrecard, and yes, I am glad that people come and visit my site through the EC system.  But a thousand times better than a simple drop from EC is someone taking the time to write up a comment and leaving it for me, to give me some feedback, insight, or even just give me some laughs!

So instead of writing up the list of EC droppers, I am going to list out the Top 10 Commentors (ie, the Ten Coolest People You’ll Ever Meet) on my site this month.  That, to me, thanks the people who really added something to my site, instead of the people who just drop and run.

Of course, this meant that instead of just going to my EC admin panel and looking at my stats to see who I should link to, I’ve actually had to go through and count my comments by hand.  You can give me lots of pity - I’ll let you, promise.

Actually, being the obsessive compulsive spreadsheet maker that I am, I put together a spreadsheet so I could make sure to keep everything straight (not to mention that I just like making spreadsheets.  Everything is so neat and orderly in a spreadsheet.  It’s okay - you can call me crazy if you want to.  Most people do.)  So honestly, this was kinda fun.

Now we’re back to the whole crazy thing, aren’t we?

Well anyway, after compiling the numbers, I found out the following:

I’ve had four family members leave comments on my site (so much for making fun of my family behind their back…) plus five coworkers comment on here (how am I supposed to make fun of them behind their backs, either?!) and a whopping 65 unique commentors total.  That was pretty cool to see - that means that although my family and coworkers obviously love me (as they well should) that there are other people in this world who love me too.  Who knew?

So onto the list.  I’m focusing here, really.

First Place goes to Stephanie Barr of Rocket Scientist, without a doubt.  Apparently she’s spent enough time on my site, I might as well put her on the payroll and keep her here permanently.  With 34 comments, she rivals even me in chattiness.  Not something people can normally accomplish - well done, Stephanie, well done.

Be sure to go check out Stephanie’s site - she has an unusual blog topic (yes, she really is a rocket scientist) and her posts are simply awesome.  I don’t comment on her site nearly as often as she comments on mine, but that’s probably just cause she’s way cooler than me.

Second Place goes to Ruthie at A Jedi’s Musings.  Despite what you might think, she doesn’t actually put up YouTube videos of Star Wars videos, but instead writes reviews of books in the sci-fi and fantasy genre (with the occasional mystery book thrown in for good measure).  If you’re into that genre, then you’ll definitely want to go check her site out.

Third Place goes to Callista of SMS Book Reviews.  She writes reviews of nonfiction and children’s books, and it was from her that I heard about The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.  I thought it sounded like an interesting book, so I checked it out of the library, and yeah, it was fun. :-)  I love books that stay with you long after you close the book, and Knife does that.  I keep looking at my dogs, expecting them to talk. Anyway, if you love book review blogs, SMS is another great one to check out.

Fourth Place is Ravyn at Exchange of Realities.  If you’re really into RPG or D&D games (and if you don’t know what those acronyms stand for, then HINT: You’re not into them!) then you’ll love Ravyn’s site.  She is a talented writer, so go enjoy!

Fifth Place goes to my sister, Sariah, and her fun blog called Sagebrush and Hollyhocks.  I actually helped her set the site up, but she’s since done a ton to it that I never even had to show her how to do - way to go, sis!   She started that blog as a blogging newbie, but she’s really done awesome things there.  She’s a homeschooling mom, so if you do that yourself, be sure to check her site out.

Sixth Place goes to The Secret of Newton, a blog that I found through Rocket Scientist, actually.  Brian is pretty new into the blogging world, but it doesn’t show.  His posts are funny and informative, and you leave feeling like you’ve actually done something constructive with your time.  Two thumbs up for Secret of Newton.

Seventh Place goes to laneerg at The Single Frugalton.  Along with great tips on how to make your dollar go farther, she also has funny stories and a great writing style to boot.  Not to mention that she’s a readaholic like me, so really, what could be better?  Be sure to swing by her site.

Eighth Place goes to Flit at Flitting on Fiction.  Flit makes me laugh - she is in college too, so I get to read all about all of the fun she’s having (her English class sounds like H*ll on Earth!) and then there’s her rants and raves about her local library…It’s surprising that she wants to come to my site at all, considering how bad her local library is.  I’m just glad that my library has it together a little better than that.

To round out the top ten, I have two people who do not have websites themselves, but still deserve thanks because they’ve spent a lot of time leaving comments on my site. Ann and Chris, you know who you are.  You guys rock.

Want to be on this list next month?  Well, good luck, ’cause knowing me, I won’t put one together next month.  But just in case, you ought to leave a comment every day, on the very off chance that I’ll sing your praises next month.  No really, you should, I promise.

Thanks to all of my commentors for their insights and humor - it’s been real.  It’s been fun.  Heck, I’ll go the whole 8 yards and say that it’s been real fun.

Hava

PS Today.com has changed it so we can play around with our colors and stuff.  Whadaya think of the new look?  I’m open to any and all suggestions!

PPS For any Today.com bloggers out there reading this post, be sure to vote in the Blogger’s Choice Award of the Month thread on the forums.  Somehow, I strangely managed to get on that list, so even better than just voting would be to vote for me.  I’ll slip a $5 later, k?  And if you’re not a Today.com blogger, sadly enough, you will not be able to access that forum, but thanks for wanting to try anyway.  I appreciate your willingness to be bought for $5.

When Rabbit Howls by Truddi Chase is, by far, the most unusual book I have ever read.  It was recommended to me by Stephanie of Rocket Scientist as a good book to read if interested in multiple personalities.

I have to say, I haven’t ever read or watched anything about multiple personalities before, so I started this book with a clean slate.  Even so, this book blew me away.  I don’t even know where to start.  I guess the general outline of the book would be as good as any…

Truddi Chase was two years old when her mother left her father, and moved in with her stepfather.  This turned out to be a Very Bad Thing in Truddi’s life, because the stepfather was the biggest slimebag to ever walk the earth.  He raped Truddi, at age two.  The sexual abuse continued unabated until her teenage years, when her mother finally, finally, threw the guy out.

On top of that, Truddi was also subjected to emotional and physical abuse by both her mother and her stepfather.  Her mother knew what the stepfather was doing to her daughter, but instead of defending her daughter, she blamed the daughter for all of it, saying that she was a “dirty” person, and that it was all her fault that this was happening to her.  There were also step-siblings in the picture who were also being abused, although Truddi doesn’t focus on that very much.

There is much, much more to the emotional, sexual, and physical abuse than what I’m stating above, but it was hard enough to read the first time around - I don’t think I can bring myself to type it out.  The bottomline is, the overwhelming pain and degradation was so extreme, Truddi’s mind formed other personalities in order to deal with it all.

There are several things that are fairly common when someone has multiple personalities:

First, the core personality is the one that was present at birth, and that personality is still around and available.

Second, most counselors try to help the personalities reintegrate into one, so that there is only one person left inside of the body.

Neither of those statements are true in Truddi’s case.  When she was raped by her stepfather at age two, her core personality died, and her multiple personalities were born.  Two core personalities came into being: One that was the child personality, and one that eventually became the adult personality.  On top of those two came 90+ other personalities, all of them serving their own functions in support of Truddi.  Some personalities died, and only an echo of them was left.

Sound confusing?  Oh yeah.  This was a mind-bending book.  The multiple personalities called themselves as a whole “the Troops,” and it was the Troops who actually wrote the book.  If you look at the front cover, it says, “The Troops for Truddi Chase” as the author.

When the counselor talked to Truddi, he could see differences in her as he spoke to her, depending on which personality was controlling her.  She was tested, and there were measurable differences in speech pattern, brain wave activity, intelligence level, handwriting, posture, voice, etc, depending on the personality.  Even her eye color and cheekbone structure changed.

Get this: Some of the personalities had allergies, so during allergy season, they couldn’t come out front and be in control, because then Truddie would have been miserable.  Oh, and when one personality was in control, Truddi tested positive for pregnancy.  As soon as another personality took over, the pregnancy disappeared.

It was a mind-blowing book.  I had absolutely no idea any of this existed.  And because the book was written by the Troops, you got to see all of this from their perspective - talking to each other, talking to the counselor, doing the day-to-day tasks required to live.

I think one of the hardest things to understand was how utterly difficult this was for the woman.  The Troops created a personality that knew nothing of any abuse, so she could be the front to the world.  This personality did not think by itself, or have any desires by itself - it only did what the other personalities directed it to, which isn’t something you (or this personality) find out until late in the book.  That part just made my head hurt.

After the book was released, Truddi went on tour - she appeared on Oprah and the Phil Donohue Show.  I tried to find clips online from those appearances, but came up empty handed.  I did find out that a reporter from the Washington Post searched for Truddi’s family, and from there, found out that all of the step-brothers and sisters supported Truddi’s story, and even said that Truddi didn’t reveal all in her book: They said that on top of sexual abuse from the stepfather, she also suffered from sexual abuse from the mother too.

That was never once even hinted at in Rabbit Howls, so I’m guessing Truddi’s personalities suppressed that information very, very deep.  On the other hand (not surprisingly) the stepfather denied everything.  Wow, who saw that coming?

I tried to find follow-up information on Truddi - where is she now, how is she doing, are all of the personalities still there, etc, but came up with zip.  It’s as if she fell off the face of the planet.  If anyone has any information on what happened to her after the finish of the book, I’d love to hear about it.

I don’t know how to rate this book.  As with everything to do with it, I’m at a loss.  So I’m going to do something I’ve never done before: I’m not going to rate it.  I just don’t see how to attach a number to this book.

I will put this out there: Please, please, do not give this to your children or teenagers to read.  This is an extremely difficult book to read in terms of descriptions of different abuse that happened; if it were a movie, it would be rated X.  If language and sexuality bother you, absolutely do not pick this book up.

On the other hand, if you’re wanting to learn more about the multiple personality world, and are not easily offended, you’ll definitely want to read this.  As far as I know, this is the only multiple personality book written by the personalities themselves.  It is a rare glimpse into that world - not a pretty one, not an easy one, but one worth finding out about nonetheless.  It was hard enough for me to read this book - I cannot imagine living it.

Hava

PS If you’re interested in an in-depth look at When Rabbit Howls and multiple personality disorder in general, be sure to check out Trauma, Testimony, and Fictions of Truth: Narrative in When Rabbit Howls. It was an interesting (but long!) article that I thought did justice to the book.

A while ago, Stephanie from Rocket Scientist tagged me to write about my job, and hopefully come up with a list of things that the “average Joe” wouldn’t know about their local library.  Since I have never worked at any other library, and I am not actually a librarian myself (see below), I’m going to list out six things that happen to be true for our library, but I make no promises for any other library. With that in mind, here we go:

1) When we first process a paperback book, we put vinyl on the cover to help protect it.  It is ordinary vinyl (we buy it from a local store, actually) and is normally used to line the bottom of people’s kitchen cabinets.  Clear and strong, we use it to make our paperbacks last longer.  If you’re really rough with your paperbacks, you could easily do this at home to your own books.

2) We put thin metal strips (think roughly the shape and size of spaghetti noodles) in between two pages in the middle of each book.  This security strip is then activated, and the book is put on the shelf.  If someone tries to walk out the front door without checking out first, the strip sets off the security gates.  Most of the time when the gates go off, it’s because the employees at the front desk have simply forgotten to desensitize a book, but either way, the patron has to come back to the desk to get cleared.  Otherwise, we call the police.  Which really isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, promise.

3) Not all library employees are created equal.  There is not a single person working at the circulation desk at my library who has any sort of library degree.  The only education requirement to work at the circ desk at our library is a high school diploma.  The reference desk is a whole other story.  There, two out of the three ladies has a Masters in Library Science, and the third one has a Bachelors, and is working on her Masters.  This is why we send all questions to the reference desk - they’re smarter than we are.

There is a debate in the library world as to whether or not a regular clerk like me should be called a librarian.  I have no library training, and no degree.  It’s like the secretary at the sheriff’s office calling herself a cop because she’s in the office with other cops all day long.  It doesn’t mean she actually knows how to be one. But on the other hand, it’s hard to figure out what to call me if not librarian - circ clerk works, but most people don’t know, off hand, what that means.  So the debate rages on.

4) The bigger a library, the more specialized each position is.  If you’re interested in working at a library, then you’ll want to consider what exactly is drawing you to it: Is it the idea of being away from patrons, just working on the computer and cataloging items?  Or do you want to be out and about, answering questions, helping patrons, etc?  In a really small library, one person does both, so if you’re interested in that, you’d want to find a job in a small town.

5) Each book in our computer system gets a code: tanfn, for example, stands for

T - junk code - doesn’t mean anything
A - adult book (as opposed to a child, junior, or young adult book)
N - non
F - fiction
N - new

tapbsf is adult paperback science fiction. tafn is adult fiction new. As strange as it sounds, I actually think in code - one time I found a book labeled tafn instead of tanfn, and instead of thinking, “Oh no, we’ve got a nonfiction book labeled as a fiction book” I thought, “Oh no, we’ve got a tanfn labeled as a tafn!” Which is a good sign I need a vacation.

6) If a book is lost or damaged, we only charge the cost of the item - what we paid for it ourselves, or if it was donated, what the cost would be to replace it. Despite what some patrons think, we do not make money off them. I had to explain this to a guy just the other day. He said that the library was a money making operation, and I told him that there were certainly a lot of people who would wish that were true, but it definitely wasn’t.

Well, I hope I didn’t put anyone to sleep. I don’t know how much wild and new information I brought up here, but hopefully this gives you a little better idea of how a library works. I’ll be happy to answer any questions I can, so feel free to leave a comment below!

Havs

I ran across another Today.com blog entitled The Librarian.  Delighted, I clicked on it.  How fun that there was another Today blogger who was a librarian!

She related the following story on her site - I’m pasting the most hilarious part below, but follow the link if you want to read the whole thing:

Two years later, she’s still coming in and still asking questions about her future, like we’re some kind of Magic 8 Ball come to life. I mean, I know the sign above the desk says INFORMATION, but that’s not really what it means. Her questions now are more specific, like “Do you think I’ll win $70 million from the lawsuit against my job?” She says she’s suing her boss because he’s mean to her. Or “Do you think I’ll marry a tall Italian man who drives a BMW?”

And while she used to just frown when you said you didn’t know or shrugged, now she gets ANGRY and huffs at you. Oh, yeah and she really hates me because I won’t answer her questions. She asked me not long ago if I liked working at the Library and I told her I did. She wrote me a sweet little note that said I DON’T LIKE YOU WORKING HERE.

Lovely.

I almost snorted my water up my nose when I read this (a hazard of browsing the internet and drinking at the same time). A patron who honestly seemed to think that the reference desk should not only be able to tell her where the atlases are at, but also peer into the future, and tell her what her fate is going to be?  Oh c’mon peoples, you just can’t make this kind of thing up!

I started to think about how, exactly, this was supposed to work. This is what I came up with: What if, after the librarian finishes school, master’s degree proudly in hand, she’s suddenly imbued with a magical ability to read palms and foretell the future?  Switch the tassel from one side of the cap to the other, and BAM! Here comes all of the psychic abilities.

I tell you what, I’m feeling significantly ripped off by the reference desk at my library, because never once has any of them told me what numbers to use when buying a ticket for Powerball, nor accurately foretold even so much as the weather. Hey, they are the “Information” desk - shouldn’t they be able to tell me anything and everything I want to know?

For any of you who are down on your luck, and need a bit of extra cash to make it through, be sure to stop by your local library before hitting your gas station, so you can have your lucky numbers in hand. Give yourself plenty of time though - when word of this spreads, the lines are going to be insane.  Forget the lines at Disneyland - this is so much better than a three minute ride through “It’s a Small World.”  We’re talking months of camping out here.  Black Friday times, like, a million.

Just remember, Almighty Reference Ladies, I was the first to know about this magical power, so you have to help me first.

Hava
Who is off to go plan how she’ll spend her millions of dollars…

Okay, first off, I just wanted to say I have never read Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time.  I have heard that A Brief History of Time is supposed to be the more technical book out of the two, whereas the The Universe in a Nutshell is geared towards people who are not first and foremost scientists.

It is for that reason that I don’t envision myself ever reading A Brief History of Time, since I hardly understood The Universe in a Nutshell.  Here is an example of a mind-bending point that Hawking makes in Universe:

Yang-Mills theory is an extension of Maxwell theory that describes interactions in two other forces called the weak and strong nuclear forces.  However, ground state fluctuations have a much more serious effect in a quantum theory of gravity.  Again, each wavelength would have a ground state energy.  Since there is no limit to how short the wavelengths of the Maxwell field can be, there are an infinite number of different wavelengths in any region of spacetime and an infinite amount of ground state energy.  Because energy density is, like matter, a source of gravity, this infinite energy density ought to mean there is enough gravitational attraction in the universe to curl spacetime into a single point, which obviously hasn’t happened.
~The Universe in a Nutshell, page 46.

Obviously.

I should confess: My last science class was in the 10th grade, where I took biology.  I’m not exactly a science expert.  But if I understand right, I’m just the type of person Hawking was trying to target with this book - someone interested in science and wanting to learn more about the deeper principles and ideas being explored, but who doesn’t have a PhD in anything, let alone theoretical physics.  (I didn’t realize until I started adding links to that sentence, how many book reviews I’ve written on here about books on science, as compared to books about art [Art books reviewed: 0.]  You can tell what I am really interested in.)

In Hawking’s defense, these ideas are extraordinarily complicated, and that’s not exactly his fault.  I can’t imagine a harder task than trying to explain quantum physics to your average Joe, and that’s what Hawking was attempting to do.

I do give him kudos for sprinkling humor throughout the book.  He talks about bets that he’s made with other scientists on obscure scientific theories, added lots of drawings with little green men in them, and then topped it all off with dry humor comments that added spice to the book.  Here’s an example:

It would be possible to detect the radiation from much smaller and hotter black holes, but there don’t seem to be many of them around.  That is a pity.  If one were discovered, I would get a Nobel Prize.
~The Universe in a Nutshell, page 120.

Oh shucks.  If only there were more black holes in our general vicinity.

I read on Amazon that some people were upset with how much Hawking “dumbed down” the science, and wrote scathing remarks that if you knew anything about science, you could just skip this book because nothing in it would be new.  Apparently, I know less than nothing about science (no surprise there).

In the end, I give The Universe in a Nutshell 4 stars out of 5.  If you’re really into this kind of thing, and have the patience to try to unravel some of the theories that Hawking presents, then by all means, enjoy.  There is a lot of information to digest here, if you have the grits and determination to do it.  I liked learning what I could from it, but I doubt I’ll pick it up again.

Hava

PS If you are a fan of all things science like I am, make sure to check out a blogger in the Today.com network who also happens to be a rocket scientist.  Her blog rocks, and is not only informative, but very funny. Hi Stephanie!

I’ve told a couple of friends in the last few days that I get paid to blog on here, and they were all surprised.  For whatever reason, I had thought pretty much everyone I know already knew this, but apparently, I would be wrong.

So I figured I ought to write up a post, and invite people out in the cyberworld who are thinking about blogging, to check out the gig here at Today.com.  I have been paid to blog before, but this is the most enjoyable time I’ve ever had of it.  I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my blogging at Today, and I think it’s because I love my topic so much.  The last time I blogged for pay, the topic was “jobs” and that was nice, but I ran out of ideas to talk about too soon.  With this blog, there’s such a huge variety of things to say, I just don’t foresee me shutting up anytime soon.

When I’ve told people that I blog for pay at Today.com, and they can too, they always say, “But I don’t read many nonfiction books,” or “Do they choose the books you read?” or “What about fiction books instead?  Can I write reviews of those?”  That’s the problem with people only seeing one blog out of thousands (literally) - they think the one they’re looking at is the only possible version.

So let me be the bearer of good news, and say that there are as many topics being blogged about here at Today.com, as there are topics under the sun.  We have blogs about being a mother, spreading celebrity gossip, working at a publishing company, being frugal, living in Las Vegas, dealing with autism, being an Atlanta Braves fan, writing for a living, being single in LA, conservative politics, and much, much more.  There are 1500+ blogs at Today.com, so if there’s a topic you can think of, there’s probably a blog about it.

The even better news is, just because one person is blogging about a topic, doesn’t mean that Today.com won’t hire another person to blog about the same topic, because Today figures (correctly) that each blogger will have a different take on the stories, and will have a slightly different audience.  Let’s take celebrity gossip for example, just because I know there are multiple blogs on that topic.  We have CelebChitChat, Celebrity Today, and Celebrity World. I know there are others too, but I’m too lazy to go find them.

So in short, if there is a topic you are interested in, and you want to blog about it, then you can most likely blog here at Today.com for pay.

Now, here are the caveats (you knew they were coming…)

*They have to be defined topics, so if you like to range from politics to religion to crockpot recipes to the cute thing your kid said that morning, then go set up a free blog at Blogspot.com or Wordpress.com.  You won’t get paid for those blogs, but then again, no one is going to pay you for blogs on such a wide range of topics.  You have to pick one topic, and then stick with it, when it comes to a professional (ie, paid) blog.

*But as you can also see with my blog, Today.com gives you a wide latitude within that topic range.  I blog about nonfiction books, yes, but I also blog about my experiences at the library (since I figure that libraries tie in with books.)  And just a couple of posts ago, I talked about how I am changing from librarian to elementary education in my major at school.

All of that works, because I am staying (generally) on topic.  You’ll notice that I don’t put up posts about the really cool blog I found the other day on crockpot cooking (but if I was going to, I’d totally send you here), or blog about Barack Obama winning the presidency, or any of the other million and one topics I could be talking about.  I stay in my general topic area.  If you don’t love a topic enough to talk about it day in and day out (at least several times a week) then you need to pick a different topic.

*English needs to be your first language, and you need to enjoy writing.  Sorry if that was just a big fat “duh!” going on there, but I figured I should point it out anyway.

*You need to be fairly good at spelling, or at least be willing to look up words occasionally.  No onne is goyng to reed setenses liek thiss.  Just typing that made me want to poke my eyeballs out.

*You need to be fairly consistent in your posting (feel free to yell “Hypocrite!” at any time) because if you don’t post on a semi-regular basis, you’re never going to build up a steady stream of regular readers.  Today will kick you out of the program if you don’t post at least once a month, although I don’t suggest using that as your only guideline to posting.  Most people try for several times a week, and some adventurous souls (read: Not me) post several times a day.

Now to the fun part: Payment.

Today.com pays newbies $1 per post, plus a set amount of money per visitors, although I can’t remember how much off the top of my head.  This pay can be raised or lowered each month, depending on how your blog is doing in terms of visitors and income.  If your blog takes off, you get a lot of visitors, and you are doing a good job writing nice long meaty posts, they will raise your pay per post.

On the other hand, if you only write short, shrimpy posts occasionally, you have on average two people come to your blog a day, and you are bringing in pretty much no income from ads, then please know that your pay is going to get lowered.  If it gets really bad, they may kick you out of the program, although don’t quote me on that.  I’ve never really worried about it because I don’t plan on ever getting there.

Okay, so in a nutshell: $1 per post, only one paid post per day, and your post has to be at least 100 words long, although I cannot remember the last time I managed to write one that only had one hundred words in it.  I can barely say hello in 100 words.

Interested?  Have a topic you just can’t wait to blog your little heart out about?  Well, the news gets even better: It’s easy to apply.  Look to your right —> and up towards the top of the column.  Do you see the square ad that says, “Get Paid to Blog at Today.com” and then changes to say, “Join Now”?  Click on it.  The app process is pretty simple, and you should be on your way within minutes.

Although it says that it may take up to 30 days for a response, the chances are pretty darn good that you’ll get an answer much, much faster than that.  Most people get it within a couple of days.  While waiting for an acceptance email (and it’s pretty much guaranteed that you’ll get hired, FYI) I would suggest start writing up a list of topics you could cover on your site, so that when you get the acceptance email, you will be set to go.

Any questions?  Feel free to leave a comment below, and I’ll try to get back to you ASAP.  My only word of advice is, if the URL you pick is already taken (and you can pick the URL for your site; it isn’t assigned by Today) then simply pick another one - don’t feel as if you can’t blog on the topic because it’s already taken.  As I said above, Today will hire multiple people on the same topic, so don’t let that deter you.

Good luck, and I hope to have you join the Today.com blogging team soon!

Hava

There is an old saying, “Truth is stranger than fiction.” Mistaken Identity: Two Families, One Survivor, Unwavering Hope proves it.

Here’s the lowdown:

A busload of college students were driving home from doing banquet work in another city when they were struck by a truck, killing five out of the nine people inside. One of the survivors, Laura Van Ryn, was thrown 50 feet and it was touch and go for a while as to whether she’d live or not.  She lapsed into a deep coma, and the family had no idea if she’d ever wake up.

Five weeks come and go, and Laura slowly made progress.  Finally, she’s in good enough shape to start talking coherently, and do things like eating, exercising, etc.  As a part of the therapy, the physical therapist asked Laura to write her name. She scrawled across the page:

W-H-I-T-N-E-Y

Turns out, in the car wreck, there were two girls who didn’t know each other very well, but who looked strangely similar. The purse for Laura Van Ryn landed next to Whitney Cerak, and the first responders to the scene took one look at the driver’s license and identified Whitney as being Laura.

So Whitney’s family had a funeral (closed casket - the parents never looked at their daughter’s body upon their own request), gave away her clothing, and in general did their best to move on, all while their daughter was really in a hospital room in a deep coma.

And then there were Laura’s parents, loving and caring for someone who they thought was their daughter, and when they noticed small anomalies like her teeth being different, they attributed it all to the accident. “The force of the accident must have pushed her teeth that way,” they told themselves.

When Laura mumbled, “False parents” and pointed to her dad, her dad got huffy and thought, “False! I put you through college and have loved you and fed you and done everything I could for you. Why are you calling me a false dad?”

It wasn’t until Whitney became mentally quicker and more agile did the truth come out. It was confirmed with dental records. That day, the family of the Van Ryn’s went home to grieve the death of their daughter, and the Ceraks were called to find out that their daughter was raised from the dead.

Overall, it was one of the most interesting stories I think I have ever heard. It’s an amazing testament to the human mind, where an entire family could spend five weeks with a complete stranger they had never met, and yet believe the entire time that it was their daughter.

So yes, it was an interesting story, but for anyone who is not a born-again Christian, the book will make you uncomfortable. Both families are born-again Christians - both fathers work as pastors. The daughters were both going to a Christian college. Every page has some reference to scriptures, singing gospel songs, praying, etc. The entire book revolves around giving praise to Jesus, having a relationship with Jesus, praying to Jesus…You get the picture.

So if you’re born-again Christian, you’ll absolutely love this book. It will be an affirmation of your testimony, and you’ll come away from it with a stronger faith than ever.

If you’re another religion, or atheist, I suggest you skip this book. The constant references to Jesus will be too big of a distraction for you to enjoy it.

I give Mistaken Identity 4 out of 5 stars. The writing style was a bit simplistic and it didn’t end up being one of my favorites, but it certainly had an interesting plotline.

Hava

PS In case you’re in the mood for some real fiction, make sure to check out a fellow Today.com blog called Fiction Book Blog.  It’s written by a coworker of mine from my local library - when he found out that you could write about books and get paid for it, he got excited and asked for the website address to apply.  Now, he’s covering the other end of the spectrum: Fiction.  If you want variety in your reviews, you couldn’t ask for a better complement to my blog than his.

Before I get started on today’s book review, I just wanted to give a special thanks to a fellow Today.com blogger, Michael Nolan at Frugal Living Tip of the Day.  He was kind enough to make a new header for this blog, free of charge, and I now have a header that matches the subject of my blog, instead of a generic one.  I’ve already had compliments on it!  So many thanks to Michael, and for my readers, if you’re wanting to find a great site full of frugal tips, Michael’s is well written, and well done.  Be sure to head on over there.

So on to my book review: I originally checked out A.J. Jacob’s book, The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World from the library and gave it to my father to read. I figured if anyone would understand and love the quest to read the Encyclopedia Brittanica from beginning to end, it would be my dad. I didn’t read the book myself though.

Then I checked out The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible and it came home to sit on my shelf of books-I’m-going-to-read-someday. (And no, I don’t think the similarities in the subtitles are a coincidence…)

My sister came over, saw the book, thought it looked interesting, and checked it out of the library herself (my copy of the book eventually being returned unread). She really liked it, and told me I needed to read it. So I checked it out again. Returned it unread again.

The fourteenth time’s a charm - I finally read it. Funny thing was, as soon as I started reading, I was thoroughly engrossed in the story. He has an engaging writing style - easy to read, with lots of quirky humor and strange obsessions to round out his personality. Obviously, if he’s willing to read a 32-volume set of encyclopedias, or live an entire year as Biblically as possible (up to and including eating locusts, even if they were chocolate covered) then you know he’s not your average Joe.

My sister and I discussed the book and came to the conclusion: This book is great for raising questions in your mind; not so great at answering them. Why did God say that you can’t wear clothing of mixed fibers (such a blend of cotton and linen)? Or that you can’t touch a woman while she’s having her period? Or that you’re supposed to blow a horn at the beginning of each month?

I know that Christians don’t follow these rules now, but why were they put in place originally? What do these rules do for the human race?

A.J. does try to find answers to some of these questions, although more often than not, he doesn’t succeed. He is focusing on these questions because the majority of the book focuses on the Old Testament (A.J.’s family is lapsed Jewish, although A.J. is agnostic himself). He does spend several months on the New Testament, however.

He discusses a lot of red-hot social issues like abortion and homosexuality, and also things like literalism (the idea that everything in the Bible is 100% true, vs the idea that some of it and/or all of it is an allegory), and creationism (the idea that the Earth is only 6,000 years old, and that God did create the Earth in a mere six days).

Although he pretty much always comes down on the side of a more liberal point-of-view on these issues, it isn’t in an antagonistic fashion, and I don’t think too many people would get mad over his conclusions (they may not agree, but I don’t think they’d get angry at him for how he phrased his viewpoint).

He isn’t all serious - he tells some great stories that had me laughing.  He lives in New York City, and relates the following story about trying to buy some Bibles from a Christian store:

He shows me tables covered with Bibles of all shapes, sizes, and linguistic slants - from the plain-spoken English of the Good News Bible to the majestic cadence of the Jerusalem Bible.

He points out one Bible I might want. It’s designed to look exactly like a Seventeen magazine: An attractive (if long-sleeved) model graces the front, next to cover lines like “What’s Your Spiritual IQ?” Open it up and you’ll find sidebars such as “Rebecca the Control Freak.”

“This one’s good if you’re on the subway and are too embarrassed to be seen reading the Bible,” says Chris. “Because no one will ever know it’s a Bible.” It’s an odd and poignant selling point. You know you’re in a secular city when it’s considered more acceptable for a grown man to read a teen girl’s magazine than the Bible. ~ Page 9 of The Year of Living Biblically

Too true.

Overall, I thought it was an interesting look at one of the most influential books of all time, and I think that although The Year of Living Biblically may not be for everybody, it was well worth the read for me. I give it 4.25 out of 5 stars.

Now I’m going to have to go read The Know-It-All…

Havs

Well, I have some fun news: Andrea at My Autism Insights nominated me for the Arte y Pico Award.  Andrea blogs about having an autistic child, and the joys and struggles that come along with that.  She’s excellent blogger and friend here at Today.com.

Apparently, upon winning this award, I was tasked with the following:

1. I have to pick 5 blogs that I consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language. (Side note: Arte y Pico is an all-Spanish website.  I don’t read Spanish, so it lost me, but for those who can read Spanish, do go check out the blog and report back to me on what it says, in the comment section.  I’d be interested to find out how this award got started.)

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog so it can be visited by everyone.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

4. Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

For me, it was hard to decide on just five blogs.  I thoroughly enjoy quite a few more than that.  But after much deliberation, here’s some of my favorite blogs:

The Biggest Loser - This is a blog written by a gal, Diane, who is a major fan of the TV show, The Biggest Loser, and is on her own quest to lose some weight.  I will confess: I have never watched The Biggest Loser.  Not even once.  But Diane is such an excellent writer that reading her posts is like sitting down and chatting with an old friend.  I thoroughly enjoy her writing style. Which, as my readers on this site know, the writing style makes it or breaks it for me when it comes to what I read.  Oh, and I also love the site ’cause she’s had some contact with former Biggest Loser contestants (they’ve left comments on her site and everything) and she’s planning on doing some interviews with some. *cross your fingers* I’m looking forward to that!

Scrubs - Now this is a blog about a TV show I do watch: Scrubs.  Alana, the blogger on Scrubs, is just a blast to read.  She’s young, she’s enthusiastic, and she does an awesome job of researching her posts.  I find myself smiling as I read her posts - she’s just a happy person and that’s contagious.  Her blogs make me feel good.

SmallWorld Reads - Well, I’m a librarian, so I have to have at least one book blog on the list!  And that blog was easily chosen: SmallWorld Reads is one of my new favorites.  She is a thoughtful blogger who takes the time to write out reviews of books that are even more wordy than my own (I know what you’re thinking - that’s not possible!! - but it’s true).  I’ve never understood how someone could review a 500-page book in 150 words.  I can hardly say hello in 150 words. SmallWorld Reads is right there with me, and I’ve added quite a few books to my profile at GoodReads because of her.

ProBlogger - Darren Rowse is a huge name on the internet - he runs the immensely popular ProBlogger website, and makes his living as a professional blogger (a rare breed, let me tell you). He even recently wrote a book that I have on order and plan on reviewing on here. Anyway, if you’re looking for blogging tips and information, look no further than Darren Rowse. Not to mention he has a sexy Australian accent.

Living in Las Vegas - Here’s a Today.com blog that I’ve been visiting recently and have been enjoying. I have been to Las Vegas, and always wondered what it would be like to live in Sin City. I have had several people tell me that they’ve lived in Vegas for years and have never hit the Strip, so I was wondering if that was true across the board. Angela hasn’t talked a whole lot about the Strip yet on her blog, but she has talked about a variety of other things that make up life in Vegas, and I’ve enjoyed the peek into that life. I think nonfiction readers are voyeurs at heart - we like to see how other people live and imagine ourselves in that time period or that lifestyle ourselves. I think that’s why I enjoy the Vegas blog so much.

Well, that’s it for me. Do any of you readers have a favorite blog? Be sure to recommend one or two of your own, or throw your own hat in the ring and talk some about what your blog covers and why you chose that topic to write about. I’m always on the hunt for new sites to visit!

Hava

Affordable Remodel: How to Get Custom Results on any Budget by Fernando Pages Ruiz was a great book on remodeling.  It had enough in-depth information so that the reader wasn’t left saying, “But now what?” but it wasn’t so technical that it would lose the clueless (the clueless, of course, being me).

I had finished reading another book on remodeling a couple of weeks before starting this one, and the differences between them were astounding.  This one had lots of gorgeous pictures, clean illustrations, and step-by-step instructions that were never condescending or patronizing.

The other remodel book was written by a guy who spent the majority of his time saying that you needed to hire someone to do the work for you.  And he did it in a very patronizing tone, as if the reader was simply too dumb to know how to do anything.  The only project in the whole book that he said the home owner could “easily” do was painting.  I should hope so!

But Affordable Remodel was written with the goal of educating the homeowner enough that he or she would be able to do most of the work themselves, or at least have a good idea of how the work should go so that they could oversee the contractors intelligently and not get taken for a ride.  There’s also a lot of advice on how to get something done cheaper, although that’s not as big of a focus as you might expect, considering the name of the book.

I was surprised at how fun it was to read this book - I would get started while eating breakfast, and would keep reading even after I’d finished eating.  I almost ended up late to work a couple of times because I lost track of time!  This, while reading a remodel book! Not what I was expecting…

If you’re wanting an idea-generating book, plus loads of helpful information, make sure to pick this book up.  I give Affordable Remodel 4.75 out of 5 stars.

Havs

PS If you’re on the hunt for ways to save money, make sure to check out the Thrifty blog here at Today - Beth is one of my good friends, and her blog is just awesome! Lots of great ideas on there.