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Book review: ‘This Book Is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All,’ by Marilyn Johnson – washingtonpost.com: In researching her previous book, ‘The Dead Beat,’ which celebrates the pleasures of obituaries, Marilyn Johnson discovered that, with few exceptions, ‘the most engaging obit subjects were librarians.’ Motivated by ‘the idea that libraries were where […]

Central Connecticut State University (CCSU): AMLC Home: This study focuses on six key indicators of literacy: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment, and Internet resources. Seattle, Washington DC, and Minneapolis head the list. My hometown of nearly 40 years, St. Louis, came in at #11.

Books | The year’s best mystery books | Seattle Times Newspaper: Seattle Times crime-fiction columnist Adam Woog’s picks for best mysteries of 2008 include works by Tana French, Alan Furst, P.D. James, John le Carré, Richard Price and other authors whose books will keep readers turning the pages well into 2009.

Crime – Notable Crime Fiction of 2008 – NYTimes.com: I’ve already linked to The New York Times‘s other “notable books” lists, but this is a new one: mystery reviewer Marilyn Stasio’s list of best thrillers and mysteries.

Essay – How to Read Like a President – NYTimes.com: “You can tell a lot about a president — or a presidential candidate — by what he reads, or says he reads,” declares Jon Meacham, editor of Newsweek, in this essay in the New York Times. After discussing both John McCain’s and Barack Obama’s favorite

Nobel literature winner, France’s Le Clezio is little known in the U.S.: For those Americans seeking great foreign authors who have yet to be discovered in English, the Nobel Prize judges present a fresh candidate: Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, this year’s winner of the literature prize. Here’s some background for American readers on the latest

Local News | Seattle Public Library celebrates “Libraries For All” in neighborhoods across the city | Seattle Times Newspaper: “‘Libraries For All,’ a $196.4 million bond measure passed in 1998, promised a face-lift for Seattle public libraries, including a new Central Library and 26 new or renovated branches. Ten years later, the city boasts a

Happy birthday to me! Sixty years ago today, I was born–on the first day of a heat wave, as my mother delights in pointing out nearly every year.Having now reached the age when wrinkles traditionally denote wisdom, I’ve accumulated a few nuggets of knowledge. Since it’s my birthday, I’m going to claim the right of

The school I attend has an unusual academic schedule. We have the months of February and August off, which means that July has been a manic month of reading and writing papers for me, with no time for updating this blog. But I’m back now, and looking to make up for lost time! Thanks for

About an hour ago I took down the old pages of the Notes in the Margin Web site and uploaded an all-new, streamlined version. For now, the Fiction Notes page is sparse, with no linked reviews for many of the books listed. I apologize for that. I’ll be catching up with the fiction reviews bit