"The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins

I finally got to the top of the waiting list at the library for Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games. I can see why the wait was so long! It was a really exciting read. Generally not the type of book I go for, I wanted to see why it is so popular. Here's the book blurb:

In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.

And here's a book trailer I found for it (I don't know why, but I really get a kick out of book trailers):



The frustrating thing is that the ending is obviously leading up to more, and now I have to wait until the fall when the next book, Catching Fire, comes out.

Wikipedia - Good? Bad?

This week in my reference services class, the discussion board topic is Wikipedia. Do we like it? Do we use it? Would we recommend it to patrons?

We also read this article from The New Yorker as a starting point for the discussion.

I had no idea that people felt so strongly about it one way the other, but it's turning out to be a very interesting discussion. Some people are very strongly against its use as anyone can write or modify an article making it hard to trust any information 100%, but the fact that anyone can contribute is also what makes it so vast and powerful as well.

I feel that, as with any information resource, each article should be evaluated on its own merits, and one should never use a Wikipedia article as a source for an academic paper, but it's a great starting point in research - it can give a decent overview and point someone in the direction of other, more verifiable sources. I love Wikipedia, and use it all the time.

"The Amaranth Enchantment" by Julie Berry and "The Perilous Gard" by Elizabeth Marie Pope

I recently finished reading both The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry and The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope.

I enjoyed both of them well enough, The Perilous Gard a bit more than The Amaranth Enchantment.

The Perilous Gard was a Newbery Honor book in 1975. Set right before Elizabeth I became queen, the main character, Kate Sutton, was one of Princess Elizabeth's ladies-in-waiting until her younger sister sends an ill-advised letter to Queen Mary complaining of their living conditions. Kate gets blamed for the letter and is banished Elvenwood Hall, a castle also known as the Perilous Gard. All is not quite right at Elvenwood Hall and Kate takes it upon herself to solve the mystery of Sir Geoffrey Heron's missing daughter and what exactly his brother's involvement in that disappearance was. Kate determines that it was the fairy folk under the hill that stole her in order to pay the teind. Sir Geoffrey's brother, Christopher, who feels responsible for the little girl's disappearance offers himself up in exchange for the return of his niece. Unfortunately Kate witnesses the exchange and is sent underground as well. Many allusions to the balled of Tam Lin are throughout the story.

My only problem with the book is that, to me, it felt a little bit too modern. Maybe I was influenced by the hideous cover on the paperback copy I borrowed from the library.

The Amaranth Enchantment is kind of a Cinderella story. There's a prince, going to a ball in disguise, and a once rich girl who is forced into the life of a servant by her evil stepmother aunt.
Lucinda Chapdelaine must get back the gem that was stolen from her and then sold to the prince. It was cute enough, but nothing spectacular.

Who knew something like this existed?

I'm sure librarians knew, but I didn't! One website that both of my classes this summer have talked about is WorldCat.org. It's a basically a library catalog that lets you search for books/DVDs/CDs/articles, and it will tell you what libraries *all over the world* have that item.

For instance, I searched for the book The Silver Curlew by Eleanor Farjeon, and it has listings in Australia, Singapore, Netherlands, UK, but the very first listing is one of my local library systems. The closest libraries are listed first and on to the farthest away ones. You can enter your own location to measure this, but it somehow already has one as default - not sure if it's based on IP address or what. How cool though?