Welcome to Litsy!

The Age of Reason: Being an Investigation of True and of Fabulous Theology. By Thomas Paine | Thomas Paine

Recent acquisitions:

📖 The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine
📖 The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever edited and with introductions by Christopher Hitchens

#UniteAgainstBookBans and #LetUtahRead

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The Skull: A Tyrolean Folktale | Jon Klassen

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★★★★★

#UniteAgainstBookBans and #LetUtahRead

War Horse | Steven Spielberg

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★★★★☆

'The Making of the Motion Picture'

#UniteAgainstBookBans and #LetUtahRead

Featherhood: 'The best piece of nature writing since H is for Hawk, and the most powerful work of biography I have read in years' Neil Gaiman | Charlie Gilmour

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★★★★★

Excellent programme from David Gilmour's current tour. My wife and I were able to attend the Pink Floyd guitarist's Hollywood Bowl gig last week.

The programme isn't listed in Litsy, so I have tagged Gilmour's son's 2020 memoir, which I enjoyed.

#UniteAgainstBookBans and #LetUtahRead

Scapegoat: A History of Blaming Other People | Charlie Campbell

Recent acquisitions:

📖 Scapegoat: A History of Blaming Other People by Charlie Campbell
📖 Dramas of Testimony: The Dance of Death I & II / Advent / Easter / There are Crimes and Crimes by August Strindberg
📖 English Hours by Henry James

#UniteAgainstBookBans and #LetUtahRead

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A New Verse Translation | Marie Borroff

Recent acquisitions:

📖 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A New Verse Translation by Marie Borroff

#UniteAgainstBookBans and #LetUtahRead

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The Last Bookstore | Los Angeles, CA (Bookstore)

My wife and I visited yesterday on my cousin's recommendation. It was great!

Acquisitions to follow in another post or two.

#UniteAgainstBookBans

charl08 Loved this shop! Such a great place to visit. 2w

TheBookHippie I love it there. 2w

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A Pocket History of Ireland | Breand�n � hEithir

Recent acquisitions (gifts from my friend Shawn):

📖 Seven Victorian Poets by David Wright
📖 O'Brien Pocket History of Ireland by Breandán Ó hEithir

#UniteAgainstBookBans and #LetUtahRead

The Elizabethan World | Susan Doran, Norman Jones

Recent acquisitions (gifts from my friend Shawn):

📖 The Elizabethan World edited by Susan Doran and Norman Jones (my former professor)
📖 American Religious Humanism (Revised Edition) by Mason Olds

#UniteAgainstBookBans and #LetUtahRead

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Magna Carta | Dan Jones

Recent acquisitions (top to bottom):

📖 Magna Carta by Jones
📖 The Fifteenth Century 1399-1485 (The Oxford History of England) by Jacob
📖 The Fourteenth Century 1307-1399 (The Oxford History of England) by McKisack
📖 Domesday Book to Magna Carta 1087- 1215 (The Oxford History of England) by Poole

#UniteAgainstBookBans and #LetUtahRead

English Religious Drama of the Middle Ages | Hardin Craig

Recent acquisitions:

📖 English Religious Drama of the Middle Ages by Hardin Craig
📖 Handbook of Middle English by Fernand Mossé

#UniteAgainstBookBans and #LetUtahRead

Pumpkinheads | Rainbow Rowell

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★★★★★

A simple story about friendship, place, and the excitement of young love in the autumn before adulthood.

#UniteAgainstBookBans and #LetUtahRead

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The Mystery of King Arthur | Elizabeth Jenkins

Recent birthday acquisitions:

📖 The Mystery of King Arthur by Elizabeth Jenkins
📖 The Arthurian Legends: An Illustrated Anthology, Selected and Introduced by Richard Barber
📖 Robin Hood and the White Cat

#UniteAgainstBookBans and #LetUtahRead

Ruthiella Happy Birthday! 🥳🥳🥳 1mo

bibliothecarivs @Ruthiella thanks! 1mo

4 likes2 comments

Thomas Hardy: The Guarded Life | Ralph Pite

Recent birthday acquisitions:

📖 Thomas Hardy: The Guarded Life by Ralph Pite
📖 The Poetical Works of John Keats

#UniteAgainstBookBans and #LetUtahRead

bibliothecarivs 💿 L-R: Kaiser Chiefs, The Waterboys, Radiohead, The Cure, Black Sabbath 1mo

Bookwomble Happy birthday! 🍰📚 1mo

bibliothecarivs @Bookwomble thanks 🙂 1mo

5 likes3 comments

They Called Him Marvin | Roger Stark

so-so

★★★☆☆

#UniteAgainstBookBans and #LetUtahRead

It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health | Robie H. Harris

My wife and I have been slowly reading this with our two youngest kids for a while now.

#UniteAgainstBookBans and #LetUtahRead

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Capitalism's Conscience: 200 Years Ofthe Guardian | Freedman Des

Recent acquisitions:

📖 Capitalism's Conscience: 200 Years of the Guardian edited by Des Freedman
📖 The Leveller Revolution by John Rees

#UniteAgainstBookBans and #LetUtahRead

Welcome to the Book of Common Prayer | Vicki K. Black

Recent acquisitions from San Antonio:

📖 Welcome to the Book of Common Prayer by Vicki K. Black
📖 Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul by John Philip Newell

#UniteAgainstBookBans and #LetUtahRead

Call the Nurse: True Stories of a Country Nurse on a Scottish Isle | Mary J. MacLeod

Recent acquisitions:

📖 Call the Nurse: True Stories of a Country Nurse On a Scottish Isle by Mary J. MacLeod
📖 Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness by Edward Abbey (I already had a copy of this nature classic set in my home state but I just had to get this British edition with an introduction by Robert Macfarlane, one of my favourite writers.)

#UniteAgainstBookBans #LetUtahRead

A Church for All | Gayle E. Pitman

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★★★★★

#UniteAgainstBookBans #LetUtahRead

Thomas Hardy | Claire Tomalin

p. 78: '[Hardy] could no longer believe, but he cherished the memory of belief, and especially the centrality and beauty of Christian ritual in country life, and what it had meant to earlier generations and still meant to some.'

A Documentary History of England 1 (1066-1540) | John Joseph Bagley, Peter B. Rowley

Recent acquisitions:

📖 A Documentary History of England Vol. 1 (1066-1540) by J. J. Bagley and P. B. Rowley
📖 A Documentary History of England Vol. 2 (1559-1931) by E. N. Williams

#UniteAgainstBookBans #LetUtahRead

Thomas Hardy | Claire Tomalin

p. 63: '[Hardy] went several times to hear Dickens read... and to hear John Stuart Mill speak on the hustings, and to the House of Commons to listen to Lord Palmerston. When Palmerston died, he got tickets for the funeral in Westminster Abbey, very conscious of the fact that the great man had stood in the House with Pitt, Fox, Sheridan and Burke. It was the personal link always that stirred Hardy's interest in history.'

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Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (Selected): An Interlinear Translation (REV) | Vincent F Hopper

Recent acquisitions:

📖 Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (Selected): An Interlinear Translation (Revised and Enlarged) edited by Vincent F. Hopper
📖 Villette by Charlotte Brontë

#UniteAgainstBookBans #LetUtahRead

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Blankets: An Illustrated Novel | Craig Thompson

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Blankets was banned in all Utah K-12 schools in August, 2024. I feel so strongly about intellectual freedom that I'm going to share some very personal insights. Warning: tough topics ahead.

'Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.'
- James Baldwin, As Much Truth As One Can Bear

⬇️

bibliothecarivs Growing up male, straight, white, middle-class, and as a member of Utah's predominant faith, I had many privileges. But during my late teen years in the late 1990s, conflict erupted in my home, where I was the oldest of five kids. Amidst a miasma of mental illness, grief, abuse, and distrust, I often clashed with my parents about religion and values. ⬇️ 2mo

bibliothecarivs Not everything about my life was awful, and I found solace in music, girlfriends, and libraries, but the toxic environment was bad enough that it eventually led to me being a homeless, nearly friendless, suicidal school dropout within six months of turning eighteen. ⬇️ 2mo

bibliothecarivs Unbeknownst to me, around that same time, a young artist named Craig Thompson was processing his painful rural midwest adolescence into a new graphic novel. As he was finishing the book, I was beginning to heal after marrying my smart, patient, and strong partner, Amy. ⬇️ 2mo

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bibliothecarivs I got my first library job, we started having kids, and I went back to school. Blankets was published in 2003, earning acclaim and a bunch of awards and I read it in 2012, after it was recommended by my good friend, Shawn. ⬇️ 2mo

bibliothecarivs Seeing something like my own experience portrayed in such a beautiful and moving way between the covers of a book was at first overwhelming and then profoundly comforting. I was reminded of the positive potency of creative expression, and visual storytelling in particular. ⬇️ 2mo

bibliothecarivs I learned that Thompson went through a lot and yet survived to make a constructive contribution to society. Most importantly, I understood that I was not alone in my experiences, and that fact gave me power and empathy. I wish Blankets had been available for me to read as a teenager. ⬇️ 2mo

bibliothecarivs Of course, the story of my teen years is not unique. Perhaps you experienced something similar. From everything I know, teens in my community are experiencing it right now. But without Blankets and other such stories on their high school library's shelves, that same source of power and empathy isn't available to those teens unless they somehow know to seek it elsewhere (I hope they find this review and then find Blankets another way). ⬇️ 2mo

bibliothecarivs Life-long learning and exploring the reality of our world are core values for me. Truthfully, that's what led me to non-fiction librarianship and Humanism. I'm upset that some people are seeking to infantilise anyone who's not an adult by banning books that include human experiences that make them personally uncomfortable. ⬇️ 2mo

bibliothecarivs In my opinion, restricting professional educators and librarians to presenting an overly sanitised/idealised/ultimately untruthful view of life and then hoping minors will be prepared on their high school graduation day or their eighteenth birthday to handle the real adult world is a foolhardy plan. ⬇️ 2mo

bibliothecarivs All kids should have the opportunity to access developmentally-appropriate literature/news/art/research/instruction/conversations that can, step by step, help them place their experiences into context and prepare them for the future. No system will ever be perfect, but I believe this is a noble goal to try for. That's one of the main reasons we have public schools and public libraries. ⬇️ 2mo

bibliothecarivs It's been twelve years and Blankets is still yielding power and empathy to me and many others. Let's #UniteAgainstBookBans and #LetUtahRead.

- September, 2024 🔚 2mo

Ruthiella Can public libraries still shelve the books? I read Forever as a preteen. I turned out ok. It in no way encouraged me to have premarital sex, but it did help demystify the concept of sex when I had no one I could ask. Children are smarter and more resilient than the average adult realizes, I think. 2mo

bibliothecarivs @Ruthiella Yes, so far, our public libraries are not affected by this ban. But who knows what the future holds? 2mo

Bookwomble Thank you for sharing some of your story ❤️🤗 2mo

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Thomas Hardy | Claire Tomalin

p. xxii-xxiii: 'Hardy was a writer who made many of his best efforts out of incidents and stories he had collected and put aside, sights stored up, feelings he had kept to himself, anger he had not shown to the world. [As a poet] he is like an archeologist uncovering objects that have not been seen for many decades, bringing them into the light, examining them, some small pieces, some curious bones and broken bits, and some shining treasures.' ⬇️

bibliothecarivs 'There is rising excitement in the writing as of someone making discoveries. He has found the most perfect subject he has ever had, and he has the skills to work on it.' 🔚 2mo

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Thomas Hardy | Claire Tomalin

Started

#UniteAgainstBookBans #LetUtahRead

Saints, Shrines and Pilgrims | Keith Sugden

so-so

★★★☆☆

#UniteAgainstBookBans #LetUtahRead

A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. | Martin Luther King

p. 122: 'The universe is so structured that things do not quite work out rightly if men are not diligent in their concern for others. The self cannot be self without other selves. I cannot reach fulfillment without thou. Social psychologists tell us that we cannot truly be persons unless we interact with other persons. All life is interrelated. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.'

A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. | Martin Luther King

pp. 112-113: '[The American people] have been persuaded to accept token victories as indicative of genuine and satisfactory progress.... ["Tokenism"] is a pallative which relieves emotional distress, but leaves the disease and its ravages unaffected. It tends to demobilize and relax the militant spirit which alone drives us forward to real change.'

Keep The Faith, Change The Church: The Battle By Catholics For The Soul Of Their Church | Charles Kenney, James Muller

Recent acquisitions:

📖 Keep the the Faith, Change the Church: The Battle by Catholics for the Soul of their Church by James E. Muller & Charles Kenney
📖 Butler's Lives of the Saints (Concise Edition Revised and Updated) edited by Michael Walsh

#UniteAgainstBookBans #LetUtahRead

Ruthiella I have the same copy of “Lives of the Saints”. 2mo

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Collected Poems | Philip Larkin

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★★★★☆

#UniteAgainstBookBans #LetUtahRead

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Collected Poems | Philip Larkin

'New eyes each year
Find old books here,
And new books, too,
Old eyes renew;
So youth and age
Like ink and page
In this house join,
Minting new coin.'

Philip Larkin

Collected Poems | Philip Larkin

'In times when nothing stood
but worsened, or grew strange,
there was one constant good:
she did not change.'

1952-1977 by Philip Larkin

Collected Poems | Philip Larkin

'...
Life is an immobile, locked,
Three-handed struggle between
Your wants, the world's for you, and (worse)
The unbeatable slow machine
That brings what you'll get. Blocked,
They strain round a hollow stasis
Of havings-to, fear, faces.
Days sift down it constantly. Years.'

The Life with a Hole in it by Philip Larkin

The Ministry for the Future | Kim Stanley Robinson

Started today

If you follow me, you know that sci-fi is not my usual reading. But climate change is my top issue so my good friend and fellow librarian, Shawn, gave me this for my birthday in 2021. In 2023, he and I met Robinson after a talk at the University of Utah and I was able to get it signed.

#UnitedAgainstBookBans #LetUtahRead

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Shakespeare | Michael Wood

Recent acquisitions:

📖 Shakespeare by Michael Wood
📖 The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett, illustrated by Graham Rust

#UniteAgainstBookBans #LetUtahRead

Collected Poems | Philip Larkin

'...
Life is first boredom, then fear.
Whether or not we use it, it goes
...'

Dockery and Son by Philip Larkin

Uprooted: On the Trail of the Green Man

The Ghost in the Garden�: In Search of Darwin's Lost Garden | Jude Piesse

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★★★★★

I received a free copy of this book through LibraryThing in exchange for a review.

Piesse has written a wonderful, meandering exploration of the Darwin family, their childhood garden in Shrewsbury, her own journey into motherhood as an academic, garden labour and the people who do it, and the importance of place and the living world as we all face the crisis of global heating. ⬇️

bibliothecarivs My family and I briefly visited Shrewsbury from the US in Oct 2016 so it was interesting to think of the author possibly being in the town and writing the book while we were there.

It was very strange to be reading two nonfiction books at the same time (this one and Desert Solitaire by Ed Abbey) that include people killing rabbits by throwing stones.

#UniteAgainstBookBans #LetUtahRead 🔚 3mo

bibliothecarivs Reminded me of this one:

3mo

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A Long Way from Tipperary: What a Former Irish Monk Discovered in His Search for the Truth | John Dominic Crossan

Recent acquisitions:

📖 A Long Way from Tipperary: What a Former Monk Discovered in His Search for Truth by John Dominic Crossan
📖 Six Middle English Romances by Maldwyn Mills

#UniteAgainstBookBans #LetUtahRead

Bookwomble You have a library ladder! 🤯💚 3mo

bibliothecarivs @Bookwomble indeed we do 📚🪜📚 The bedroom that a previous owner converted into a library was a big draw when we bought this house five years ago :) 3mo

Bookwomble @bibliothecarivs Clear out the guest room, I'm coming round! 📚 😄 3mo

bibliothecarivs 😆 Seriously, though, if you ever have occasion to come to one of the US states in the 'Mountain West', let me know! 3mo

4 likes4 comments

Irish Fairy and Folk Tales | William Butler Yeats

Recent acquisitions:

📖 Irish Fairy and Folk Tales by W. B. Yeats
📖 England at Large by Ethel Mannin

#UniteAgainstBookBans #LetUtahRead

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The Last of the Celts | Marcus Tanner

Recent acquisitions:

📖 The Last of the Celts by Marcus Tanner
📖 High Road to England by Richard Faber

#UniteAgainstBookBans #LetUtahRead

The Ghost in the Garden�: In Search of Darwin's Lost Garden | Jude Piesse

On page 161 (50% done)

#UniteAgainstBookBans #LetUtahRead

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A Vision of Britain: A Personal View of Architecture | Charles (Prince of Wales)

Recent acquisitions:

📖 A Vision of Britain: A Personal View of Architecture by Prince Charles
📖 The Wicked Wit of Winston Churchill by Dominique Enright

#UniteAgainstBookBans #LetUtahRead

Punk Football: The Rise of Fan Ownership in English Football | Jim Keoghan

Saturday is the start of the season for my team! They're a fan-owned club in the 8th tier of the English football pyramid. Though I live many miles away across the pond, I'm grateful to be able to follow match updates in real time on X (go away, Elon) and occasionally on Internet radio. Kickoff is at 8 AM in Utah / 3 PM in Dorset. #UpTheMagpies #WeAreDorch ❤️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚽️

Bookwomble How did they do in the game? 3mo

bibliothecarivs @Bookwomble, it ended in a 1-1 draw. 3mo

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London Lore: The legends and traditions of the world's most vibrant city | Steve Roud

Recent acquisitions:

📖 London Lore: The Legends and Traditions of the World's Most Vibrant City by Steve Roud
📖 Pilgrimage Pamphlets No. 4: London Part 3: The City Pilgrimage by Laurance Goulder
📖 Ghosts of London by Jonathan Sunderland

#UniteAgainstBookBans #LetUtahRead

Texreader Nice!! 3mo

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Robin Hood | Neil Philip

Recent acquisitions:

📖 Robin Hood (Eyewitness Classics) by Philip, illustrated by Harris (my 70th RH book)
📖 Fifteenth-Century England 1399-1509: Studies in Politics and Society by Chrimes, Ross, and Griffiths
📖 The Gawain-Poet (Medieval and Renaissance Authors) by Wilson
📖 The Life and Times of Richard III by Cheetham

#UniteAgainstBookBans #LetUtahRead

Robin of Sherwood | Richard Carpenter

so-so

★★★☆☆

Not great writing but pure nostalgia.

#UniteAgainstBookBans #LetUtahRead

U2 Rattle & Hum: The Official Book of the U2 Movie | Peter Williams

Recent acquisitions:

📖 U2: Rattle and Hum: The Official Book of the U2 Movie
📖 Religion, Identity and Politics in Northern Ireland: Boundaries of Belonging and Belief by Claire Mitchell

#UniteAgainstBookBans #LetUtahRead