Dangerous Edge of Things

What a great debut mystery. Some reviews have compared the protagonist to Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum - I'd say maybe if you're talking about book one of that series.

Tai Randolph has moved to Atlanta to take over the gun shop her uncle left her. Tai's plans are sidelined when she discovers the body of a young woman who has been left for dead in her car. The car is in her brother's driveway and Tai begins to investigate because she is worried her brother is somehow involved. Her investigation brings her into contact with the Phoenix company - one that specializes in security and protection services - and mysterious operative Trey Seaver. Trey is a former police officer who suffered a traumatic brain injury. That injury has altered his personality. He no longer is able to relate to people as he did before the accident and though he can tell if someone is lying, he isn't able to go with his gut and can't read emotions in the same way he once did. Sounds hokey but Tai and Trey make a great team and while there are a few rushed plot points, this is an author I'll be putting on the autobuy list.

Higgins' Best Yet

Kristin Higgins has become an autobuy author and My One and Only proves why this is so. The second chance at love/road trip romance hits all the right notes and was deeply satisfying on an emotional level.

Divorce attorney Harper James is content with her job, not least because she's pretty cynical when it comes to relationships. Her mother abandoned the family when Harper was a young teen and that has had a major impact on her. When her short-lived marriage fell apart twelve years ago, Harper convinced herself she was better off. Yes she loved Nick and she knows he felt the same, but she was always ready for the other shoe to drop and when it did she got out. Now her flaky (to Harper's mind) younger, sister is getting married to Nick's brother and Harper is convinced it will be a disaster. Despite her foreboding, she agrees to attend the wedding in Montana and once again come face to face with Nick. On the return to Maine Harper is forced to accept a ride from Nick and they begin to re-examine what went wrong with their relationship and whether they can get back what they once had.

Harper's fears are realistic given her background and Nick's frustration at her apparent lack of confidence and trust in him is well-founded as well. These are two adults who love each other and are struggling to find a way to make it work. Very well done and Higgins' best yet.

Children of Scarabaeus

This sequel to Song of Scarabaeus was very good, though not quite as great as book one. Sara Creasy continues to build this science fiction world to great effect and there is plenty of action and suspence this time out.

As Children of Scarabaeus opens Edie and Finn are trying to escape to the Fringe where they will be safe from Crib influence and be able to help the Fringe worlds get out from under the control of the Empire. The knowledge they carry and Edie's cypherteck abilities make them the perfect antidote to the problems with the terraforming on the Empire's planets. That terraforming is breaking down and many planets are facing starvation if they can't get assistance from the Crib. Their plan goes awry when they are captured by the Crib and Edie is forced to work on the terraforming of a new planet where the accelerated pace of the work may be causing planetary destruction. Though she is forced to work for her former masters Edie and Finn remain determined to escape. Their plans are complicated by the discovery that the Crib is now using children to work the planet and by a military agenda that has other plans for Edie's tech skills.

Fans of science fiction with a romantic element will certainly be looking to read this one. And though I didn't love it as much as the first, which had a tighter plot, it is still a very strong entry in the science fiction/romance field.

Fatal Justice

This was my first time reading Marie Force. I love police procedurals and books involving those in power in Washington D.C. so this sounded like the perfect mix for me. Fatal Justice ended up being a mixed bag, perhaps because of that mix of police and politics and romance too.

Lieutenant Sam Holland is facing major upheavals in her personal and professional lives. On the personal side of things she's trying to come to terms with being the girlfriend of the newest, and most popular, U.S. Senator from Virginia, Nick Cappuano. Because of his very public life, Sam finds her own privacy lacking. And as a newly minted police lieutenant (the professional change I mentioned) that public scrutiny is just making her job tougher. When a Supreme Court nominee, Julian Sinclair, is murdered Sam has to try and meld the two parts of her life.

Perhaps because of all that was going on, this book ended up feeling a little choppy. I like Sam for the most part, though there is just a smidge too much focus on how tough she is, and Nick makes for a great partner in work and life for her, but...the mystery gets shorter shrift as the novel progresses and that was a weakness. That said, there was enough to interest me in continuing with the series as other books come out.

Curious Veronica Finds Some Friends

I'd wager that most reference librarians are curious people. Spend any time with us on the reference desk and you'll find us hunting for answers long after the customer has left. Even when the question has come to one of our colleagues, our curiousity is whetted and we start the quest.

That being said, Project Play has done wonders for me in terms of curiousity. Once I'm started with a question or a thought, I move right along. But sometimes I need that initial goose to get me started. A few years ago a friend and I took the train from Chicago to Flagstaff. Once there we spent time at the Grand Canyon, Sedona, and various other places. And as we travelled, questions arose. How do water towers work? (That one on the train ride out). What's the difference between ravens and crows? (This came at the Grand Canyon). Since my companion was a librarian as well, you can guess she came up with a plan. She made note of our questions and when we got back home we researched the answers.

That's what Project Play has done for me. It's helped set me on course to find the answers, or if not the answers, at least the beginnings of how to think about the resources we've studied. By posing the questions, you've jump-started my thinking. And for that I thank the designers of the play and the players.

All Mashed Up with Nowhere to Go

I love the idea of mash-ups and I generally think the ones I've seen are clever or amusing or even useful. The problem is in coming up with ways in which I could use a mashup in my working world (or even in my private one).

I think of this as being like cooking. In general I have a small list of dishes I can make without consulting a recipe. These are things I've made many times and because of my familiarity with them I'm able to change things up and still have some success. These would be the mash-ups I'm knowledgeable enough to improvise and create. In the library world they'd include the things talked about in Project Play. Library catalogs that add data from LibraryThing or maps that combine census information with geographic layout. Both are familiar to me and could be possible suggestions I'd make for my own workplace.

The problem is, that list of known mixes is small. And when I venture out, I get the same results as with my cooking. If I don't know the recipe for something, I need the recipe. I'm not intuitive enough (or experienced enough) to move past the recipe. When I most frequently err on the side of adding too many ingredients to the point my dish is inedible. But more often, I can't think of things to add. I can't brainstorm it on my own.

That's what mashups seem like to me. I know there's a world of possibilities out there but because my knowledge is so limited, I can't envision them. I welcome the chance to explore them more because familiarity will hopefully bring some creativity. But as it is, unless someone gives me the exact recipe for mashing something together, I'm probably not going to be able to come up with it.

Just What are those InterTubes?

Back in the early stages of my blog I made my first attempt to embed (sounds so militaristic!) a YouTube video of Elvis Costello singing my theme song in the blog. And I found the task pretty simple. This pointed up how easy it would be to include this kind of content in library endeavors. The handy thing about YouTube is that it serves as the host for all the videos your library might want to create. This means less server space used on your end. As an example one of the MPL branches did a video about a music program they had for kids. Once the video was done, how easy it would have been to load it onto YouTube and make it available on the library's website. What a nice way to promote your library, not only to your own community but to the wider web world. Think of a fundraising effort you may be undertaking and making a short film to sell the idea. The possibilities are immense.

All my cogitating aside, I'm not going to embed a video from YouTube today. Instead I'm going to embed an episode of my very favorite SF show from the new movie/tv service called Hulu. Hulu in their own words: "Hulu offers full-length episodes of not only current hit shows like The Simpsons and The Office but also classics like The Incredible Hulk, Miami Vice and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and in some cases, as with Arrested Development, Firefly, and Friday Night Lights, we have every episode ever aired. Our expanded library of full-length movies has something for everyone, from The Usual Suspects to The Big Lebowski, Me, Myself & Irene, Mulholland Drive and (one of my personal favorites) Three Amigos!." Their movie selection is still pretty small but I'm thrilled with the tv shows on offer.

And without further ado here is one of my favs (and with this tip for embedding - paste the embed code into a Word document first otherwise the full code doesn't always come through):