Check out my review of Chuck Forsman's Wolf over at inkstuds.

learn and relearn, library science style

1) I do not like reference all that much, but I love reader's advisory--obviously.

2) Metadata is really, really interesting. I'd like to sign up for its newsletter.

3) Butler Library at Columbia provides an intoxicating atmosphere of old money, untold secrets and intellectual vigor. No wonder all those undergrads want to hump in its stacks.

4) Poster-making is inexplicably considered a valuable thing for a graduate student to do.

5) The NYPL offers so many free services like reference chat, access to databases and old-timey eye candy that is feels like I are getting way with something every time I use their site.

6) Group projects suck baboon ass.

7) Librarians are geniuses.
Rest assured that its ass is angry about my comment, too. Image via the NYPL, of course

A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews

Reading A Complicated Kindness reminded me a lot of reading Geek Love for the first time. It is fast paced, strewn with pain and humor and told in a captivating first-person narrative that makes the form seem easy. Though not set in the freak show circuit like GL, ACK does follow life in, in the words of the 16-year-old narrator Nomi, a “secret town” of Mennonites in Canada called East Village. She spends a lot of time considering her place in the Village, and the flow of her thoughts is very true: “That I belong in the frightful fresco of this man’s dream unnerves me. I wonder exactly happened in Menno’s world that made him turn his back on it…The mark of the beast? Streets paved in gold? What? Fuck off. I dream of escaping into the real world. If I’m forced to read one more Narnia series book I’ll kill myself.”


Nomi is angry, defeated, self-destructive, but mostly just sad. Both her sister and her mother have disappeared from town, leaving her with her good-hearted but befuddled father and a bad reputation. She has a plan to leave town too, like we all did at 16, and it is equally possible and fantasy. The main thing keeping her is her lovely dad, Ray, whose own depression at the loss of the other half of the family. I love the character of Ray; his unfunniness and Dadliness are dead-on renderings by Toews and his treatment shows the depth of her understanding of the heartbreak of living in both a faith bound society and in the world, the real world as Nomi would have it, at once when all you want to do is be a good person and have a good life.

The specter of excommunication, a concept that seems especially cruel to me, hovers over this story, and that is especially sinister since Nomi’s frothing uncle is the town’s religious head. As we learn more about the family’s history we can decide to see Uncle Hans as a damaged individual with a poor choice of coping mechanisms or just a complete asshole, or both. Hans shows well the unfortunate arc a life can take when a person chooses to transform an incidence of pain into a grudge against the world and how potent and scary that transformation can be in a religious context.

Women in East Village have it noticeably worse than the men and Toews engages this subtly. The fine line between being a child and being an adult is especially perilous in East Village, and I like that Toews exploits this by having Nomi left by her mysterious, vibrant mom at age thirteen (still a kid) and telling this angry, revelatory story as an outraged teen, near the age when her outrageous sister took off. Other women who can’t or won’t leave go sick like Nomi’s religious best friend, get drunk like her grandma or just go dead like her aunt, extreme reflections of the options available to women everywhere who can’t conform but can’t leave.

All this sounds depressing, but A Complicated Kindness is funny and vibrant too. Though she feels stuck, you know that something is happening with Nomi. All that teenage energy comes busting through the pages, and it is an inspiration and a warning at once.

Good

*Click to enbiggen*

this...

turned into this

The roof is actually even more potty than this now that I've begin to thin and repot seedlings. Besides the vegetables you see here I am growing some sunflowers for B, and some zinnias for me. Between the two is nasturtium; I have several pots of those grown from seed. Will they actually flower?

&&&
From my parents' basement...
It shoots popcorn! It jazzes up the counter with its wild lettering! It only smells a little like burning wires! Bonus: giving it to me makes my parents seem less like hoarders.

&&&
This week was a bad one for stress, but a good one for art. My friend Pete not only brought his bad self to visit, he brought a housewarming painting with him:
One Day by Esther Pearl Watson
I keep going back and looking at it over and over. Especially the little socks.

&&&
More art arrived with Eva today. I commissioned a set of portraits for B's birthday awhile ago from Simon, and she graciously lugged them from Vienna to Brooklyn. They look so much like us that I had to redact! I thought that we'd put them in the bathroom so guests feel safe knowing that we are always watching.

nice lettering

Any letterers out there? How about form fetishists?

Check out this event at Columbia's Butler Library on April 20:

Notes of an Alphabetical Fetishist: Lettered in Rome

"Russell Maret will discuss his recent alphabetical investigations and experiments conducted while a fellow of the American Academy in Rome. Russell's initial intention in Rome was to document and analyze lettering in the catacombs. Upon arrival, however, he was quickly diverted by the great variety of classical lettering styles; and what began as an inquiry into non-Imperial lettering developed into a more playful study of diverse alphabetical "themes." Join Russell for a tour of what he found in Rome and what he made as a result."

If I wasn't mired in work, etc., etc.

#ohcrap

"a better life for everybody"
Eleanor Davis on inkstuds. She is such a great thinker--I love hearing her perspectives on the importance of children's literature, the complicatedness of life, gender politics and why you should have bought her mini comics already. Robin also briefly talks about his struggle with sane presentation of women on his show, which was quite interesting to me as a listener.

nunununununun

Did you know that the Library of Congress just acquired every tweet ever? Now that all those messages about nausea and disappointment (just me?) will be available to researchers of the future I feel a little chastened.

nunununununun

Among the many things I can't do because of school crunch time is this:

Lectures on the Dime Museum, head hunting and automata--what more could you ask for?

Sorry to disappear so soon after MoCCA but between the end-of-the-semester-crazies, being back at work and trying to juggle some other obligations, blogging has slipped down the list of priorities.

I have a couple of reviews in the works, both for here and inkstuds, and I can't wait to get them to you.

MoCCA 2010 haul

Between purchases and generously-given review copies, mine and B's MoCCA bounty was large and impressive. Not pictured are a Tshirt and large print also purchased at the show.

This time around I got to visit many of the tables I'd been hoping to see and am greatly regretting the ones I missed. I'm sure as more MoCCA reports come out, the more regretful I will be.

MoCCA roundup

obligatory crowd shot
This year's MoCCA was much more fun than last year. Here are some things that I noticed:
1) business cards everywhere
2) prints--so many more than last year
3) ft. thunder-influenced neon color jams everywhere. too bad...
4) the babies of mocca should be a calendar. 2008/2009 must have been sexy years for cartoonists.
5) CCS has become a formidable presence and I love it. their tables dwarfed even the large publishers.
6) the reading area was bullshit. guess the high table price backfired. some seats would have been nice for actual relaxing.
7) comic newspapers abounded. this is an exciting development. if you didn't pick up at least one you are a confirmed idiot.

Things I wished I had done:
1) see what the school kids were up to. the risd, sva, etc. tables were jumping.
2) gotten a copy of pood.
3) not gone inside the village pourhouse. i couldn't get the smell of cheese-stuffed desperation out of my nose for hours--and i didn't even make it down to the party!
4) gone to limerick earlier
5) checked out more of the Scanda contingent
6) eaten fewer eggs

Some pictures from Day 2:


l. nichols rules you

kenan rubenstein and girlcate bring intensity

neil brideau is very tolerant

j.t. yost is loving and virile

sara edward-corbett is creating something beautiful

mike bertino is not afraid

"sofia olsson"* brings some Swedish flavor

sara lindo, steve seck and darryl ayo were excited in the face of disappointment

the grants can see into your soul. they do not like what they see.

mr. phil, peter rios and charlito are about to go for a post-fest fun run

Why didn't I take a picture of you? Probably because your comics sicken me. Or I ran out of memory. You decide!


*that's what the name tag says, folks.

MoCCA, cha cha cha

Because I need to sleep, and also need to be late for everything, yesterday at MoCCA was a bit of a wash. So, in lieu of a detailed rundown of people and things, here are some photos from this morning:


MoCCA walking shoes


First day's haul


window gardening- nasturtium seedlings

See you at the armory!

3 important comics

If you don't read these, you are an asshole:

----------------1--------------------

----------------2--------------------

----------------3--------------------

thoughts from a cold snap night

Revenge has been a topic of conversation in tryharderland recently. We've been talking about the revenge film, but when I am talking to myself the conversation is about wrongs both small and impossibly large and the poisonous wish to redress them all with the limitless force of unsoothable rage. There are, of course, problems with this.

That is what this story is about and it is truly frightening:
Oded the Merciless by Tina Starr

The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti

Last year I read the still-unreviewed book of short stories Animal Crackers by Hannah Tinti and enjoyed it overall. I bought The Good Thief at Unnameable Books the other day, fueled by vague remembrances of good reviews, a bookish companion and the ten bucks burning a hole in my pocket.

I started the book that night and got sucked in immediately. The story is about an orphan named Ren with five sticky fingers and a mysterious past. After years of lining up in front of a sinister statue of St. Anthony for prospective parents looking for a farmhand, a shop boy, or maybe even someone to love, and not being picked, he gets adopted by a man that claims to be his brother and seems especially convinced by Ren’s missing hand.

The Good Thief is an enjoyable ride marred only by Tinti’s protective love of her main character. Firstly, she occasionally imbues him with internal thoughts that a boy who’s rarely seen the outside of a Catholic monastery wall wouldn’t likely have. When he thinks of God, he pictures a “benignly neglectful garden, carefully snipping His roses,” a musing that seems too sophisticated and far from the Catholic indoctrination he received. When he imagines a real home he imagines a set of “good “ dishes, unconvincingly knowing such a thing exists, specifically “white porcelain” and a “small bowl of wildflowers, picked from behind the kitchen door, pink and blue with tiny yellow buttercups.” Apparently, Ren has a flair for fantasy interior design! The few passages like this tore me right out of the story and detracted from Tinti’s otherwise careful rendering of Ren by trying to give him delicateness that just translates into preciousness.

Additionally, as much as no one wants a one-handed orphan boy to suffer extra bad luck, real pain for Ren is necessary to make his story real. His journey is certainly not without pitfalls, but at each tense moment the reader knows that Ren will end up essentially okay through quick thinking, luck, or the mood swings of another character. The circumstance that is supposed to make the ending bittersweet doesn’t quite hit the reader where it hurts, because the blow is weighed down by the sack of coincidences that lead up to it.

tonight: things that sound more fun than class

Worth a trip to New Brunswick, methinks:

Alternative Libraries Forum

Thursday, March 25, 2010, 7:00-9:00pm
Rutgers University
Alexander Library 4th Floor, Room 406/407

One of the speakers is Andrew Beccone, of the Reanimation Library, which shares space with one of my favorite groups in town, Observatory. I've wandered through the library a few times before events and enjoyed looking through the collection, especially the science books. Old-timers sure knew how to create an intriguing diagram.

Two friends of Try Harder are losing it at The Nervous Breakdown:
Amy Shearn is looking for a place to lay her head.

Amanda Miller is fully dressed, these days.

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Weekday Worrier is at his place explaining why there are such terrible sounds coming out of our apartment recently.

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

So, Spring Break has so far been sitting inside, wondering when we moved to Scotland and could we please move back now, ok? But today the sun is out, I've got seeds and pots on my mind. It's too bad that I had to say goodbye to my garden, but now I have sun!

Sweet Tomb by Trinie Dalton

Sunday night I babysat a much-missed blogger's baby. Or at least I think I did; she was asleep and made not a peep so I didn't even crack the door for fear of waking her up. Instead of using this block of time in a different home to rifle through my friends' things and judge them, I decided to read a book that the baby had apparently picked out.

Sweet Tooth is a tiny book of seven linked stories centering on a witch named Candy who lives in a pink city. She hates being a witch and can't decide if she should just kill herself, or bring all of her loved ones with her. I enjoyed the parts where she chronicles her attempts to be "non-witchy" as a girl and the perils of being a witch's daughter when you just want to have friends like you for you--not for all-you-can-eat candy.

Beyond her mother issues, older Candy has her fair share of bad relationships. The most steady is that with a vampire named Chad who loves her, but loves her blood best. Despite the handicap of poor social skills, long life and shitty lovers, Candy wants children on occasion but finds that, "Just because I can have fifty babies here within the hour...doesn't mean that I should or that I'll be a good mother." Considering that her own mother had stereotypical cravings, her reluctance is understandable. I like that even a with with magical baby-dispensing powers agonizes a bit about passing on the curse of witchery. For all the lemon drops and broomsticks, the anger of being born with burdensome and unpleasant traits and the subsequent fear of spreading them is a central theme in Sweet Tomb. It reminded me a lot of conversations I've had about mental illness in families.

The final two stories, "Killer Pair" and "Death Wish" are the most psychedelic of the group and the least interesting. Once Candy leaves the forest and her candy house for the city, not to return until she has achieved the lofty goal of "pain-free love in my heart and some healthy lust" she loses a bit of her magic.

Sweet Tomb would work well as young adult fiction in the vein of the Weetzie Bat stories. All of the seething, sticky anger was lost a little on me, but a 13 year-old is right there, trying to find her own path out of the woods.

The publisher,
Madras Press, publishes stories and novellas whose sale benefit charities chosen by the authors. Aimee Bender also has a story in this series that I am going to look for next.

snouts and tails

A few nights ago I was on the subway when I encountered a woman from my school. At first we yelled at each other across the car, listing the classes we are taking this semester and griping about a past class that was absurdly horrible. I moved to be nearer to her and we chatted some more while our companions either ignored us or zoned out, waiting for some indication that the conversation had moved on to some more interesting topic. While it was happening I didn't care--I was relieved that I could talk with someone who knows the irritating intricacies of [REDACTED], but I know it probably ruined the ride for everyone else.

So, I won't tell you about school even though that is basically all I am doing now.

((()))

I picked up issue 6 of RASL last weekend at Desert Island during Zane Grant's awesome comic release party. Is it ok to say that I am a little disappointed that the majority of the issue was a bio of Nikola Tesla? Sure, it's a good story, but Tesla is an indie inspiration juggernaut now and it was annoying that the usual inventiveness of the book was overshadowed by bio details I've heard before. Yeah, yeah, I know that Smith is doing a little alternate-past stuff with Tesla's life and work but it just seems a little weak. I can't wait to get back to the story!

((()))

I joined twitter so I wouldn't miss things like this:
"A memory is a shadow of the past. Drink a glass of water to be back in the present"

My twit name is carrietryharder.

I'll be back next week. In the meantime, why don't you write a letter to someone you love?

How many boxes?

I am in the middle of a massive move, a mini-rehab and the end of the beginning of the semester. On top of that I am juggling my internship and prospective employment.

All my books are packed away so the best I can promise is a few inkstuds reviews in the coming fortnight.

Say hi to fun for me, ok?

(via zooborns)

What could be better than a picture of a baby gibbon thinking about how to save the world?

Maybe some reviews?