Our full shownotes page is here. We have links to other resources, and to the books we shared this week!
This week we look at ideas about professional development for library people. We are a fast-moving and ever-changing profession. People who are not keeping up with professional development get left behind – and nobody wants that!
This week we have a returning Guest Host, Leah Larson, LSTA Coordinator at the Minnesota State Library Services.
Each week we assemble a collection – a bouquet, if you will – of books you can read for yourself, or use to build into a display in your library. As always, the books we link to have info from Amazon.com. If you click a link and then buy anything at all from Amazon, we get a small percent of their profits from your sale. Yay!!! Thanks!!! We really appreciate the assistance! 💕😊
We have more holidays ahead, so planning out some game time is something that may help you have some fun without getting too carried away! (Unless you are a rabid game player, in which case – sure, have fun with that!)
The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin
A bizarre chain of events begins when 16 unlikely people gather for the reading of Samuel W. Westing’s will. And though no one knows why the eccentric, game-loving millionaire has chosen a virtual stranger – and a possible murderer – to inherit his vast fortune, one thing’s for sure: Sam Westing may be dead…but that won’t stop him from playing one last game! (A Newberry Award winner!)
Slay, by Brittney Morris
By day, seventeen-year-old Kiera Johnson is an honors student, a math tutor, and one of the only Black kids at Jefferson Academy. But at home, she joins hundreds of thousands of Black gamers who duel worldwide as Nubian personas in the secret multiplayer online role-playing card game, SLAY. No one knows Kiera is the game developer, not her friends, her family, not even her boyfriend, Malcolm, who believes video games are partially responsible for the “downfall of the Black man.”
But when a teen in Kansas City is murdered over a dispute in the SLAY world, news of the game reaches mainstream media, and SLAY is labeled a racist, exclusionist, violent hub for thugs and criminals. Even worse, an anonymous troll infiltrates the game, threatening to sue Kiera for “anti-white discrimination.”
Driven to save the only world in which she can be herself, Kiera must preserve her secret identity and harness what it means to be unapologetically Black in a world intimidated by Blackness. But can she protect her game without losing herself in the process?
In Real Life, by Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang
Anda loves Coarsegold Online, the massively-multiplayer role playing game that she spends most of her free time on. It’s a place where she can be a leader, a fighter, a hero. It’s a place where she can meet people from all over the world, and make friends. Gaming is, for Anda, entirely a good thing.
But things become a lot more complicated when Anda befriends a gold farmer — a poor Chinese kid whose avatar in the game illegally collects valuable objects and then sells them to players from developed countries with money to burn. This behavior is strictly against the rules in Coarsegold, but Anda soon comes to realize that questions of right and wrong are a lot less straightforward when a real person’s real livelihood is at stake.
The Eight, by Katherine Neville
New York City, 1972—A dabbler in mathematics and chess, Catherine Velis is also a computer expert for a Big Eight accounting firm. Before heading off to a new assignment in Algeria, Cat has her palm read by a fortune-teller. The woman warns Cat of danger. Then an antiques dealer approaches Cat with a mysterious offer: He has an anonymous client who is trying to collect the pieces of an ancient chess service, purported to be in Algeria. If Cat can bring the pieces back, there will be a generous reward.
The South of France, 1790—Mireille de Remy and her cousin Valentine are young novices at the fortresslike Montglane Abbey. With France aflame in revolution, the two girls burn to rebel against constricted convent life—and their means of escape is at hand. Buried deep within the abbey are pieces of the Montglane Chess Service, once owned by Charlemagne. Whoever reassembles the pieces can play a game of unlimited power. But to keep the Game a secret from those who would abuse it, the two young women must scatter the pieces throughout the world. . . .
The Player of Games, by Iain M. Banks
The Culture – a human/machine symbiotic society – has thrown up many great Game Players, and one of the greatest is Gurgeh. Jernau Morat Gurgeh. The Player of Games. Master of every board, computer, and strategy. Bored with success, Gurgeh travels to the Empire of Azad, cruel and incredibly wealthy, to try their fabulous game… a game so complex, so like life itself, that the winner becomes emperor. Mocked, blackmailed, almost murdered, Gurgeh accepts the game, and with it the challenge of his life – and very possibly his death.
We are so happy to be with you again, as we start Season Six of Linking Our Libraries!
You can get our full show notes page here, with links to all the other resources, and links to the books we shared this week.
This week we will work through one of the most important skills for a school library or media center staffer: connecting your services with the teachers in your school. Even if you are not in a school library right now, these partnership skills will always be useful in connecting with your community members and stakeholders.
Our Guest Host this week is Amy Moe, who can share her experience and suggestions on this topic from her time as an Instructional Technology Specialist at Pine Meadow Elementary school! Thank you so much for recording with us, Amy! 😊
We were so impressed by the great turnout to our first Relaxed Readers Meetup Event last week! Thank you to everyone that came and talked about books with us. The conversation was interesting and engaging and the food was yummy!
The next event we have planned for our Relaxed Readers Meetup Group is on Wednesday, January 8th from 5:30 – 7:30pm at Mexican Village Downtown St. Cloud.
We will have an optional “we’re all reading it!” book; you can vote for your choice here. (This is optional – we are fine if you bring yourself and a book or two you’ve read.)
RSVP here! These events are open to anyone that likes to read, not just CMLE members. As our name implies, we are not going to quiz you about books or tease you about what you like to read. We encourage enjoyment of all books, and love to hear what others are reading!! 📚
You can find more information on our Meetup Group site. Hope to see you next month! 😊
Wow – this is a really big country! There are so many great states, and it’s great to see a book from each state. We are admiring each state in the order I drove to visit them this year, and enjoying a book from each state. (It’s not “the” book to represent an entire state – just one that will let you do some armchair travel while you plan out your own fun trips!
This week we are going to travel through four more states: Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada. These were fun states to visit, with lots of wide open space to pass through and lots of beautiful things to see. There were mountains, there was a great salt lake, there were deserts – it was great.
And for our travel tip this week: Cruise Control. Really, what else needs to be said? I think we can all agree that only monsters refuse to set their cruise control, thereby baffling everyone else on the highway who are just all trying to move the same direction. Monsters, I tell you!
(As always, the links below take you to Amazon.com for more book information. If you buy anything while you are there, Amazon will give us a small percentage of their profits. Thanks, in advance! We could use the money more than Jeff Bezos can!)
This was my first trip to Wyoming! So it was a little extra exciting for me to stay in Cheyenne. I love the Longmire series, and though it takes place on the other end of the state from my trip it was still cool to know I was in the same state as Walt! This is the first in the series, but they keep going, so no worries about running out of Western mystery adventures.
The Cold Dish: A Walt Longmire Mystery, by Craig Johnson
“Fans of Ace Atkins, Nevada Barr and Robert B. Parker will love this outstanding first novel, in which New York Times bestselling author Craig Johnson introduces Sheriff Walt Longmire of Wyoming’s Absaroka County. Johnson draws on his deep attachment to the American West to produce a literary mystery of stunning authenticity, and full of memorable characters. After twenty-five years as sheriff of Absaroka County, Walt Longmire’s hopes of finishing out his tenure in peace are dashed when Cody Pritchard is found dead near the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. Two years earlier, Cody has been one of four high school boys given suspended sentences for raping a local Cheyenne girl. Somebody, it would seem, is seeking vengeance, and Longmire might be the only thing standing between the three remaining boys and a Sharps .45-70 rifle.With lifelong friend Henry Standing Bear, Deputy Victoria Moretti, and a cast of characters both tragic and humorous enough to fill in the vast emptiness of the high plains, Walt Longmire attempts to see that revenge, a dish best served cold, is never served at all. “
I’ve said this (many times) already, but: I used to live here! Colorado is amazing and beautiful, and if you have not yet been there – please go. It’s an old one, but I really enjoy this book- and I’ve been to the hotel the story is based on: The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park.
The Shining, by Stephen King
“Jack Torrance’s new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he’ll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote…and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old.”
This was the first time I’d been i n Utah, except for being in the airport. It was beautiful; the Great Salt Lake Desert was very odd to drive through – like a negative image of driving through Minnesota lakes.
Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness, by Edward Abbey
“When Desert Solitaire was first published in 1968, it became the focus of a nationwide cult. Rude and sensitive. Thought-provoking and mystical. Angry and loving. Both Abbey and this book are all of these and more. Here, the legendary author of The Monkey Wrench Gang, Abbey’s Road and many other critically acclaimed books vividly captures the essence of his life during three seasons as a park ranger in southeastern Utah. This is a rare view of a quest to experience nature in its purest form — the silence, the struggle, the overwhelming beauty. But this is also the gripping, anguished cry of a man of character who challenges the growing exploitation of the wilderness by oil and mining interests, as well as by the tourist industry. “
I spent the night in an incredibly hot, flat campground. Incredibly. HOT. The desert is a very warm place to be in August!
I love this book series! Only part of the book is set in Las Vegas, and if you like this one, there are a bunch more out there!
The Disciple of Las Vegas, by Ian Hamilton
“Fifty million dollars has disappeared into thin air from the accounts of one of the richest men in the Philippines, Tommy Ordonez. His one hope is Ava Lee – sleek, capable forensic accountant and sleuth. With the help of her Triad-connected partner, Uncle, Ava follows the money trail from San Francisco to Costa Rica to the casinos and illegal gambling dens of Las Vegas. Meanwhile, a vengeful adversary from Ava’s past has put out a contract on her life, and the shadowy hit man is close at her heels every step of the way.
Will Ava recover the stolen cash without stepping into the crosshairs of a growing list of enemies? The first book of an electrifying new series, Ian Hamilton’s The Disciple of Las Vegas introduces Ava Lee: a deadly martial artist with a taste for luxury and a mind like a steel trap.”