My new boyfriend

I'm in love.

His name is Martin Millar but sometimes he goes by Martin Scott. He is a writer who was born in Scotland but lives in London. Most of his books were published years ago in the UK, but thanks to Soft Skull Press here in Brooklyn, they are slowly being released with nifty American covers.

I read Lonely Werewolf Girl after reading an odd review of the 560 page book. The back explained only enough to make me curious:

"While teenage werewolf Kalix MacRinnalch is being pursued through the streets of London by murderous hunters, her sister, the Werewolf Enchantress, is busy designing clothes for the Fire Queen. Meanwhile, in the Scottish Highlands, the MacRinnalch Clan is plotting and feuding after the head of the clan suddenly dies intestate. As the court intrigue threatens to blow up into all-out civil war, the competing factions determine that Kalix is the swing vote necessary to assume leadership of the clan. Unfortunately, Kalix isn’t really into clan politics — laudanum’s more her thing. Even more unfortunately, Kalix is the reason the head of the clan ended up dead, which is why she’s now on the lam in London. . . This expansive tale of werewolves in the modern world — friendly werewolves, fashionista werewolves, troubled teenage werewolves, cross-dressing werewolves, werewolves of every sort — is hard-edged, hilarious, and utterly believable."

It was the funnest book I've ever read. And now, Soft Skull has just released Milk, Sulphate and Alby Starvation, which was originally published nearly 20 years ago. When I was flipping through the New York Times Book Review last week and saw a review of this "new" Millar book I just about peed my pants. And it's a great review! You can read it here.

My boyfriend's other books include The Good Fairies of New York, Suzy, Led Zeppelin, and Me and Lux the Poet. Writing as Martin Scott, he received the World Fantasy Award for his series Thraxes. Warning: these books have the worst sci-fi cover art I have ever seen and people WILL judge you and your book by the cover. I am hoping Soft Skull will release these with cool new covers soon.

You can check out my boyfriend's blog here.

oh NO you di'nt!

My MAINE guy, Stephen King, was doing an interview with USA Weekend earlier this month and he totally dissed Stephenie Meyer. Kim, from our Teen Department, rushed down to reference to insist I blog about it. She is also considering pulling all of Stephen King's books off the shelves. Here is what has got all the teenage Twilighters online abuzz:

"The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn," he said. "She's not very good."

But it wasn't just Stephenie ...

King declared Perry Mason author Erle Stanley Gardner "terrible," Dean Koontz "sometimes…just awful," and James Patterson "a terrible writer" who is nonetheless "very very successful."

I saw Stephen King, J.K. Rowling and John Irving read from their works a few years ago. They seemed to be good buddies, and Stephen King had a great comment (I don't know the exact quote - but something like "Rowling writes books that get kids ready for the books Irving and I write.") I don't think he has an issue with overhyped authors, just bad writing. King is a very well read man (and he doesn't just write horror - try On Writing) and I actually trust his opinion. And, I admit, I have not yet read the Twilight books. For shame.

I couldn't make this up ....

These are the problems our patrons have:

A patron called and Terry answered the phone. She wanted a book that we don't have in our library. Another library in the county has it, and we can inter-library loan it. This takes about 3 days. The patron wanted the book now, so Terry called the other library and had them hold the book for the patron, who was going to go get it. The library requires the patron's library card number, which Terry gave them.

The patron calls back. She has sent her driver and her housekeeper to pick up the book at the other library. She is concerned now about whether the library will give the book to her housekeeper and her driver, since they don't have her library card.

Terry is currently calling the other library back to explain that the patron will not be there, but the patron's driver and housekeeper (why both of them, I don't know. Apparently the driver must drive the housekeeper).

Truth is stranger than fiction.

Perks

Isabella Rossellini was just here, sitting at a study desk. We all pretended we were not looking at her.

The Generation Gap

An older, rich couple came in to the library the other day. Despite being computer illiterate, they decided to find a hotel in Paris using the Internet. Mrs. Rich continuously waved her hand and "yoo-hoo'd" me to help while Mr. Rich sat patiently next to her. For half an hour I bopped up and down, showing them how to do a Google search, suggesting they use our travel books to recommend a hotel instead of the Internet, showing them how to close the countless advertisement boxes that popped up, found the "rates" link in each web page, and so on. The entire time Mr. Rich silently sat next to Mrs. Rich, watching me navigate the mouse. Finally, as they were asking for help on how to log off, Mr. Rich spoke up.

Mr. Rich: "This is bad."
Bethany the Librarian: blink.
Mr. Rich: "I have a doctorate."
Bethany the Librarian: "Oh?"
Mr. Rich: "But you were BORN with computers, right?"
Bethany the Librarian: "Pretty much."
Mr. Rich: "I was born with a secretary."

NYC Comic Con 2009!

I had so much fun at this year's Comic Con in New York. I got to see Mo Willems (author of the Pigeon children's books, among others) read out loud while jumping, running and screaming around the stage. He was amazing. I also got to meet Bryan Lee O'Malley, author of the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels as well as Ryan Kelly and Brian Wood, who illustrated and wrote Local. I saw Jeff Kinney, author of the Diary of Wimpy Kid series but his line was too long!

I could never explain the amount of people crammed into the massive Javits Center, the elaborate costumes, the horribly overpriced foods or the feeling of camaraderie with other geeks - it was an amazing experience. Here are a few photos to illustrate.


This doesn't do the crowd justice - I needed a wide angle lens to capture that space. There were booths with publishers, artists, tv, films, video games, dolls, toys, clothes .... and on and on.


I had to wear comfortable shoes.


Checking out our signed copy of Local while waiting for Mo Willems.


Mo! He taught us how to draw the pigeon.


Long line for Diary of a Wimpy Kid.


I love to see people excited about books!