Fahrenheit 451: A Novel by Ray Bradbury My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is one of those books I always heard about, but hadn’t actually read, so I finally got around to it. This short novel follows “fireman” Guy Montag as he begins to question the society he lives in, and its emphasis on [...]

My father just forwarded me an email he received from AbeBooks.com which gathered the top 10 books written by librarians. Here is the content of the email and their selection of books. AbeBooks loves librarians. Librarians love AbeBooks. (And we think everyone else loves librarians too aside from the bean-counters who keep cutting their budgets.) [...]

This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson My rating: 5 of 5 stars I picked up a galley of this book while attending ALA Midwinter, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Marilyn Johnson became interested in librarians while researching her previous book on obituaries, and running into a few [...]

Gringo: A Coming of Age in Latin America by Chesa Boudin My rating: 4 of 5 stars I picked up this book because of the title; I’m a big fan of the word “Gringo.” And for those of you who are about to get offended, know that I am the daughter of a self-proclaimed “gringo” [...]

Sin Tetas No Hay Paraiso by Gustavo Bolivar Moreno My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a piece of fiction that weaves together a lot of Colombia’s recent history relating to the drug war. The story follows a young girl along her struggle to become physically “beautiful” in order to gain the attention and [...]

RTVE.es is Spain’s Radio and Television Corporation, and between news reports and other stories they also include reviews of the world’s literary classics. Presenter Esther Lorenzo creates brief descriptions of the story, gives some historical background, gives a little description of the specific edition she read, and encourages the listener to read the classics. Currently [...]

Radical Cataloging: Essays at the Front by K. R. Roberto My rating: 4 of 5 stars The collection of essays in Radical Cataloging cover a wide range of issue in the cataloging world, and it’s not the boring book most non-catalogers might assume it is – but be warned that unless you already understand LCSH, [...]

Una Botella de Ron pa’l Flaco: Crónicas Caleñas by Juan Manuel Caicedo My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a collection of personal narratives by students affiliated with Universidad ICESI, which cover a wide range of Caleño society. Here you’ll meet a young Goth woman, an old Japanese-Colombian woman, a street mime who sets [...]

Razones de vida by Vera Grabe My rating: 5 of 5 stars I looked up this book because I was curious to read the story of one of Colombia’s guerilla groups (The M-19) from their point of view. Vera Grabe‘s story is similar to that of many other guerrilla fighters, they want to believe that [...]

Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England’s Tragic Queen by Joanna Denny My rating: 3 of 5 stars In this book Denny sets out to “correct” the negative impression history has left on Anne Boleyn, but unfortunatly she goes to the opposite extreme painting Boleyn as a passive victim to Henry VIII and history. The [...]