Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Two: The Historian

I've read Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian once before, about eight years ago, so I didn't remember many of the details and it was almost like reading the book for the first time.  I do remember that I found this academic vampire-hunting story really terrifying when I read it as a teenager, and while it is still pretty chilling, I was not nearly so terrified this time around.  This is a long novel, but I was so absorbed with it that I found it difficult to put down and ended up reading it fairly quickly.  One website described it as an atmospheric novel; I'm not sure that's quite the word I'd pick.  While there are frequent descriptions academic research related to Dracula (as fifteenth-century ruler of Wallachia, not as vampire) and of the many beautiful settings--this book takes place all over 20th-century Europe, from Cambridge to Istanbul, Amsterdam to Venice, and of course in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania--there is also plenty of action.  This is, after all, a book about hunting down Dracula and his vampire minions, and it certainly includes the necessary bites to the neck and stabbings through the heart.  There is a lot of mystery to counterbalance the longer descriptive passages, and as I said, I found it really hard to put this book down.  It's not for the faint of heart, but if you're looking for an engrossing read with fascinating characters, lush settings, and a good helping of action and mystery, this is a great choice.

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-One: The Fair Garden and the Swarm of Beasts

So the full title of this (non-fiction) book is The Fair Garden and the Swarm of Beasts: The Library and the Young Adult.  First published in 1969, it is written by Margaret A. Edwards, one of the earliest well-known pioneers of library services to teenagers and a long-time young adult services librarian in Baltimore's pubic library system.  While many of her attitudes about teenagers are dated--especially regarding what teenage boys like to read as compared to teenage girls--I can really respect most of her ideas, ideas that were largely ahead of her time, namely, her respect for teenagers as people, her belief in the importance of reading for fun (and in the importance of having YA literature available for teens to read), her outreach efforts in schools and in communities, and her insistence that teens deserve library services and materials dedicated to them.  This was not the most thrilling book to read, but as someone who's really interested in public library services to teens, it did provide an interesting historical background to teen services in public libraries.  But if you're not interested in that, I wouldn't suggest you read this book.

Chapter One Hundred Twenty: I Work at a Public Library

This is a collection of extremely short vignettes (all are less than a page long) that recount hilarious real-life interactions between librarians and the patrons they serve.  Its arrangement into themed chapters, with each chapter assigned the appropriate Dewey number, is cute and fits the mood of the book perfectly.  If you're looking for something to make you chuckle aloud, I Work at a Public Library is a strong contender.

Chapter One Hundred Nineteen: The Revelation of Louisa May

This is a newer book by Michaela MacColl (Always Emily), which I also got for free at school, and in many ways it is quite similar to Always Emily.  It is another blend of YA/historical fiction/mystery/literary fiction, with a fictionalized, teenaged Louisa May Alcott as its protagonist.  As with Always Emily, I found the end mostly satisfying, although again I found the treatment of the romantic subplot a bit simplistic; once more, if you enjoy any of its constituent genres, you will probably enjoy this novel, though I wouldn't necessarily recommend reading it back to back with Almost Emily, as I did, since they're quite similar.  I should also note that Michaela MacColl also has other YA novels that look similar to the two I've read, although I haven't read any of her other books yet.  I probably will read them at some point in the not too distant future, though.

Chapter One Hundred Eighteen: Always Emily

I got this book by Michaela MacColl for free at school (the perks of being a grad student), and I ended up enjoying it more than I expected to.  This is an interesting mix of genres, blending mystery with historic fiction and literary fiction with many typical YA elements: teenaged Charlotte and Emily Bronte are the main characters in this novel, and they must attempt to figure out some (totally fictional) mysteries that are, in fact, based on their more famous books (somewhat loosely, I think, never having read them--whoops).  The quotes from the Bronte sisters' books that begin each chapter are a nice touch.  The ending is mostly satisfying, although I think MacColl simplifies the romantic element a bit too much, and overall I enjoyed this quick read.  If you like any of the genres this book includes, you'll probably enjoy reading it.

Chapter One Hundred Seventeen: Fortunately, the Milk

This is one of Neil Gaiman's most recent books for kids, and it is a delightful romp of a story.  Skottie Young's delightful illustrations are the perfect completion to this hilarious tale of what happened when a dad went to the corner store to get some milk.  For an adult reader, it's a very fast, light read--it's pure silliness, in the best possible way.  If you need to while away three quarters of an hour, reading Fortunately, the Milk is a great way to spend it.

Chapter One Hundred Sixteen: In the Stacks: Short Stories about Libraries and Librarians

Well, I don't usually enjoy short stories as much as I enjoy novels, and that held true in this case as well.  While I did enjoy these stories--and some of them I really liked quite a lot--I just don't feel as motivated to keep reading one short story after another compared to a novel, where I feel compelled to keep reading chapter after chapter to see what's going to happen to the main character.  Short stories lack that buy-in.  Nonetheless, this library-themed and librarian-themed collection was of particular interest to me, as a student in library school, and I enjoyed reading it, even though it took me a long time to work my way through this fairly short collection.