Hyperbole and a Half

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem and Other Things That Happened
by Allie Brosh [Biography Brosh]

Allie Brosh's blog-turned-book is packed with humorous illustrations and page turning reflections from her life from a childhood to current day. In addition, Brosh sandwiches in segments about what it is like to deal with depression and mental illness in the first person. (A great resource for friends and loved ones.) You will laugh until you cry. Dogs, geese, cake and various adventures are color coded for reading ease....but you definitely won't want to stop! -- recommended by Sarah J. - South Branch Library

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Let's Pretend this Never Happened by Jenny Lawson.]

[ official Hyperbole and a Half web site ]

Have you read this? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded

Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded
by John Scalzi [817 Sca]

John Scalzi is an accomplished science fiction author, with both hard SF (Old Man's War) and humorous SF (Redshirts, Agent to the Stars) to his credit. He's also well-known in the science fiction online community for his excellent blog, Whatever, which he launched in September 1998. This book, the winner of a Hugo Award for best Non-Fiction dealing with science fiction, collects many of the most popular, and most controversial, of his blog entries from the first 10 years of Whatever. Though he's a science fiction writer, Whatever addresses whatever happens to be on Scalzi's mind at the time. That can include subjects of interest to scifi fans, but can also dip into politics, popular culture, history, the writing life, family, etc. Scalzi uses sarcasm like a surgical instrument, poking fun at topics that may be highly charged. He also receives a lot of feedback, often of a complaining nature (hence the title), from his followers, and this collection definitely highlights many of the blog entries that inspired both positive and negative reactions. Depending on your position on various political and/or social issues, you may find yourself fist-pumping in agreement or gnashing your teeth in frustration at some of Scalzi's essays. But you won't be disappointed. [I'm surprised to see this in the 817 "humor" section, instead of the 814 "essays" section -- some of these are very humorous, but others are extremely serious as well.] -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library [Subscribe to Scott's monthly booklist newsletter It's All Geek to Me! - on the Books, Movies & More newsletter sign-up page].
 
[ official Whatever blog by John Scalzi ]
 
Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

Adventure Out West '11 stops in Lincoln!

The Bennett Martin Public Library had a visit on Saturday from two librarians from Illinois (near Chicago), who were on a summer road trip with a literary theme.

They've been traveling with a stuffed "Owly" (see him at the Nebraska State Capitol Building!) and cardboard cutouts of Frankie Pickle and Argyle, two kids lit characters, and visiting libraries and other literary sites as they head "out west" during the summer of 2011. They take videos and still photos to chronicle their trip, often with Owly, Frankie or Argyle in them, sharing their adventures with fellow reading enthusiasts.

Our own Glory B., profiled here for the BookGuide reviewer profiles recently, got captured on camera by these roving librarians during their visit to the downtown library, and her contribution to the Lincoln portion of their trip can be seen here:



Check out their Flickr photo feed and their blog to see their other Lincoln stops -- there are a LOT of their photos on Flickr, and to continue to follow their library-loving adventures over the course of this summer! It's always fun to see visitors' impressions of things here in our fair city!

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Thanks to all of you for your continued support and readership!