List Love: End of Summer TBR

~ Sarah Joyce ~ Leave a comment

If you can remember back to Monday, you’ll recall that my summer has a bit of a theme. Like any reasonable person I am embracing my current reading obsession with open arms. Here are a list of books I hope to get to in the not too distant future. 

Lavinia – I’m a sucker for female centered retellings of classic stories. After powering through the Aeneid I am curious to see what powerhouse Le Guin can do with Lavinia. She’s only mentioned a handful of times in the original text, but her existence sets so many things into motion. I hope to see her have real agency. Her perspective on war and marriage should be fascinating. 

Galatea – Admittedly I knew little of Galatea, the marble statue come to life before this summer. However I would currently trust Madeline Miller with my reading life. Short stories are also some of my favorite things to read so I am extra excited to see how much information could be packed into this small package. 

Mythos & Heroes – Both by Stephen Fry, these are retellings of all the myths we’ve grown to know, love, yawn at, reference poorly, and everything in between. After reading Norse Mythology last year I was desperate to find a modern take on Greek tales, and it seems like I have finally gotten exactly what I asked for. My two copies are sitting by my nightstand now, waiting to be read. 

The Cassandra – World War II. A Seer that no one will believe. Sign me up. I have noticed a surprising (at least to me) lack of Cassandra retellings in my searching. Her myth is so iconic, and her plight so easy to translate across settings and eras that I was expecting to find them everywhere. I’m hoping this lives up to expectations

Gods Behaving Badly – It’s modern day and our favorite Gods are feeling a little irrelevant. They’re sharing a flat in London and wreaking havoc on their neighbors, and possibly the world! This sounds like an adult Percy Jackson to me and I am so here for it!

The Penelopiad – The Odyssey but from Penelope perspective. Also they’re in Hades. And there may be some repercussions for slaughtering all her maids. Sign me up.

A Thousand Ships – Lastly we have what sounds like The Silences of the Girls on steroids. This is toted as being the Trojan War told entirely from the perspective of the different woman that lived and suffered through. I cannot wait to get my hands on this. I will probably need a lot of chocolate and other comfort foods to compensate for all of the misery. It’ll be worth it.

So that is my Mythology related TBR. I hope there are a few you haven’t heard of and may join me in reading!

It’s all Greek to Me: Myths, Retellings, and a Summer of Epics

~ Sarah Joyce ~ 3 Comments

Sometimes I can get a little obsessive. It usually results in podcasts, music, tv shows and books all centered around a central theme. I’ll make little Sim families related to the current topic. I’ve gone off the deep end on the Plantagenet’s, I’ve gone gaga for impressionist artists in fiction and television, and like any good reader had my “will read any book about books” phase. 

This summer I am all about the Greeks. Last year I read Circe and I still think back to it frequently. Then I read The Song of Achilles, and the same thing happened. Most of my whimsical thoughts were captured by ancient Gods and timeless myths. This year I listened to all of the Silence of the Girls while working in my garden. By the end I was in love with ancient, decimated Troy and acutely aware I had never actually read The Iliad. So I did that. Then the Odyssey. I had my friend pick up Stephen Fry’s Myths and Heroes while she was in the UK so I could continue my obsession.

Oh. I also listened to Hadestown. A lot. My boyfriend is not amused. My dog is not amused. I sing WAIT FOR ME whenever I fall slightly behind a group.

I swear I am actually a pleasant person. 

Anyway, my goodreads TBR is now completely filled with retellings. I’m trying to finally understand myths that I’ve only ever heard from Disney or Wishbone and it is fantastic. For once it feels like one of my mini obsessions is something I can actually communicate. 

It can also grow naturally. After telling a girl at a humanities workshop about my recent time with the Iliad she talked to me about the Aeneid, and off I went. Roman history is less interesting to me but I still sped through the epic. 

I understand so many references now. I unfortunately still have zero interest in toga parties. 

There was a point this summer where I felt a bit like a one trick pony. All I wanted to talk about were Greek Gods and their extremely poor decisions. I didn’t want to share this thing that made me so excited because I was worried I would get blank stares and variations of “weirdo.” Call it a holdover from a childhood of wanting to be liked.

I wound up talking to friends. One read through the Iliad with me. My boyfriend still lets me blast Hadestown in the car. I’ve made new friends talking about this really old thing that has become so dear to me.

What I am trying to get at is obsessions are great. Sharing them with others is amazing. Fall down the rabbit hole and learn something. 

Who knows, maybe you’ll start learning Greek, or learn how to bind books (check), create a backyard garden (check), or get really into home repairs (check for the bf.)

Stay tuned later this week for a masterlist of all the myth retellings I am hoping to get to this summer. Also, leave recommendations in the comments!


Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (Plus the Best Biscuits Ever)

~ Sarah Joyce ~ 5 Comments

Have you ever read a book, and immediately googled flights to it’s setting? That’s me, John Berendt’s Savannah right now.
While Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is coming up on 20 years old, I found it was a perfect pick for the book club I run at the museum. We’re all history buffs, a little into true crime, and really into rich historic houses.

I won’t know what my coworkers thought of the book for another couple weeks but I can tell you a few things from my reread. And boy, was it worth the reread.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is half court room drama, half love letter to Savannah, if I may be cliche. Berendt does an excellent job of establishing his setting before diving us into the Murder that captivated the city in the 1980’s. Through him we meet socialites and drag queens. Everyday citizens who are full of quorks. Debutante balls, bars, and massive parties abound. Everything feels rich and humid, like you’re actually in Georgia as you’re parsing through this true story that fully feels like a novel.

The actual crime aspect is both hilarious and intriguing. Jim Williams is a flawed character with enough money and personality to go around. He reads as both someone you’re rooting for and as a person you wouldn’t want as your friend.

I was surprised by how well the story aged. I originally read the book in the early 2000’s as a high school student and at the time I was fully engrossed in a time and setting not too far off from my own. Now as an adult in the digital age I was expecting something to feel different, off, quaint, something. Instead Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is still the page turner it was when it was released 20 years ago. I guess you don’t become the longest running NYT Best Seller for nothing.

The whole week I spent reading what is now my favorite true crime novel I was craving biscuits. There’s something Savannah, and the south in general that makes me want to be in the kitchen, getting some really flakey, buttery treats in the oven.

Plus biscuits are one of the few foods my boyfriend and I agree on. So I caved. Despite the heat I pulled out my go to biscuit recipe, took out my abundance of jam, and had the most delicious snack while hearing about how Jim Williams spent the last of his days.

For those of you who want to join me in my tour of southern literature mixed with very tasty (and on theme snacks) the recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:
2 Cups all purpose flour
1 Tbsp baing powder
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tsp salt
6 Tbsp cold (ideally frozen) unsalted butter
3/4 Cup cold milk

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425F and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper

Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Mix well.

Cut butter into flour mixture using pastry cutter or your fingers until you develop a mixture that looks like a rough crumb

Add milk to the butter/flour mixture and stir to combine. Be careful not to over mix. You don’t want tough biscuits!

Transfer dough to a clean, flat surface and work the dough together until it is in a manageable ball.

Fold the dough in half over itself and flatten. Turn 90 degrees and repeat several times, taking care not to over work your dough.

Flatten dough to 1 inch thickness and use a biscuit butter/glass to out biscuits, placing directly onto baking sheet. You should get 7 to 10 biscuits.

Bake at 425F for 10-12 minutes. Tops should turn a faint golden brown



Format: Teaching an Old Reader New Tricks

~ Sarah Joyce ~ 5 Comments

I have an odd problem.

I’m obsessed with Audiobooks.

I have a job where I spend a lot of time alone, parsing through data. I also have 3 library cards, an audible account, and a love of taking long walks with my dog.

I’ve finished 26 audiobooks this year. I don’t even want to think of how many hours that equates to.

My podcasts are suffering, but I have finished some amazing stories.

The thing is, I didn’t use to believe in audiobooks. When I say believe I mean they weren’t for me. I knew they were real but they didn’t feel like reading. I didn’t understand how someone could concentrate on a story without looking at physical words on a page. I thought I would miss the smell of old books and the weight of a hardcover in my purse.

And then I needed a change. Work can be boring without some sort of audio entertainment and I couldn’t listen to another political or history podcast. I dipped my ears in the fountain (see what I did there?) With Chernov’s Grant. I owned his biography of Hamilton already and had quickly learned that while it looked impressive on my bookshelf I would never actually be able to finish it. It was too bulky to easily carry around, and too dense for before bed reading. Grant was of a similar length and I had read good reviews. What did I have to lose?

It turns out, nothing. I loved the experience of hearing a well written biography. I found the right playback speed for my attention span. I learned that for all the years I was singing the praises of podcasts and ignoring audiobooks I was mistaken. Their content can be similar. The listening experience the same. Honestly, there are just less ads.

So I’m a convert. It took a few starts and stops but now I’m here. I’m listening. I’m singing in the audiobook choir.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I spend my days talking about access. How we can make our library items easier to use, the information faster to digest, the content easier to find. Now I’m just treating myself like my patrons.

Now it feels like I can conquer my TBR pile, and I’m never without a book.

Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok

~ Sarah Joyce ~ Leave a comment

I feel like I can’t turn around without seeing this cover somewhere. Instagram. Target. The Library. It is everywhere. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the hype. And then my bookclub picked Searching for Sylvie Lee for our July read.

I. Was. Obsessed.

I did the audio version, half for ease of devouring content (which is common for my book club picks) and half because I had an audible credit that cost less than a new hardcover. Hey, priorities.
But It turns out this is the type of story that really lends itself well to audio.

Here, Sylvie Lee has always felt like a misfit, in her family, in her first real home in the Netherlands, in the United States with her parents. She never fit in. The one constant in her life is the love for her sister Amy, her grandmother, and her enduring friendship with her cousin, Lucas

When Sylvie and Amy’s grandmother falls Ill and Sylvie decides to travel back to the Netherlands to see her one last time no one thinks twice. And then Sylvie doesn’t come back and sheltered Amy has to go on heartwrenching search for her missing idol. At its heart this is the story of the Lee family trying to fit-in in their new homeland, and what it means to be an outsider in a new country, as well as in your own family.

Told from multiple viewpoints and varying points of time Searching for Sylvie Lee had me on my toes. While the twists weren’t always large or unpredictable they were satisfying. This family drama had all the markings of a summer beach read. Dark secrets, love affairs, and self discovery are on every page. Every narrator means well, but it is clear through every passing chapter that no one in this family understands each other.

My book club had a really great discussion. The themes were fitting for a hot summer in a politically charged comment. When you can’t turn on the news without hearing about immigration it was refreshing to read a story about first and second generation Americans, and to see a glimpse of what being a Chinese immigrant in the Netherlands could be like.

If you’re looking for a quick family drama to get you through our latest summer heat wave I fully recommend going to your library or local bookstore and picking up a copy of Searching for Sylvie Lee.

I Miss You When I Blink

~ Sarah Joyce ~ 1 Comment

Sometimes books find you at the right time. Or your library holds come in at the right time, and past you really knew what was up. I came into this Philpott collection with few expectations other than the title story would probably be cute and I would probably have some sort of fuzzy feelings.

I wasn’t entirely wrong.

Full Disclaimer – This isn’t your average review.

I Miss You When I Blink, the essay, and really the collection is turned inward. Missing a past self, a facade of yourself you no longer express. Longing for an experience, old home, past relationship. It’s about growing up and realizing that time is still moving and you may never get back to that 21 year old wannabe screenwriter who would spend hours in the Chicago Public Library.

Or maybe I’m just speaking from experience. Last week was a milestone birthday for me. I had a lot of time to reflect with cake, puppy cuddles, and all of my favorite people. I thought about all of the years I spent in school, and the amazing people I met along the way. I browsed my own bookshelves and found stories, subjects I haven’t touched in ages that brought back so many memories. I remembered I used to share these feelings somewhere, that they eventually took me to library school and to another life, career than I had imagined.

That younger me, the one in Chicago, in film school didn’t didn’t know how she would make a living or where she would live knew she was an avid reader. She was also a blogger.

I found solace in the online book community when I felt like I didn’t fit in with my classmates or friends. I learned to think critically about writing, and to understand my own biases. I consumed books like I did food. I read outside of my comfort zone, giving as much time to Austen and Salinger as I did to the latest Dystopian YA hit novel.

I was a better reader then.

Scratch that. I was a more understanding reader. I processed more. I understood the impact books could have.

Flash forward to now. 4 library books on my coffee table. 3 audio books in on Libby and a TBR pile on the verge of overwhelming. While I’ve read more in 2019 than I have since I was a graduate student I feel isolated. I have sought out book clubs and given books to friends to have someone to share the experience, the story of reading with.

But what I really missed was the online community. So here I am. Creating my own little space in this community that I credit with making me the person, librarian, I am today.

Expect reviews and musings. I’ll try to learn the new memes and tricks. I’ll focus on my love of books and good stories. I’ll talk about my life as a solo librarian at a large cultural institution. I’ll share this huge part of my life. Maybe sometimes I’ll share a recipe or two related to the books I’m reading. Maybe you’ll even get to see a picture or two of my dog, if we’re all lucky.

Because what I took away from I Miss You When I Blink was not that the girl who used to write crazy long blog posts about Jane Austen characters and nail polish is gone. She’s just grown up a bit and would like to talk about books again. I’m Sarah and I hope you’ll go on this journey with me.