‘Farm City’ by Novella Carpenter

Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter (Penguin Press, 2009) is this year’s “common read” for Cuesta College, the school where I’m taking my (distance-ed) courses in Library and Information Science.

It’s an interesting dichotomy, to live in such a strongly agricultural area and read about everything the author went through to create a farm out of a vacant lot in Oakland.

Posted to the Facebook page of the Lake County Library

Library purchasing recommendation: Dark’s Tale by Deborah Grabien

The purpose of this paper is to recommend the inclusion of Dark’s Tale by Deborah Grabien in the inventory of the Morro Bay Library and, through it, the San Luis Obispo and Black Gold Cooperative library systems. A keyword search confirmed that this book is not already among its holdings.

Dark’s Tale is Grabien’s 13th published novel ― but her first book for a non-adult readership (Hackett). School Library Journal places the book’s readership at grades four to seven (Jonker).

Other books by Grabien include While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Rock & Roll Never Forgets and London Calling (Kinkaid Chronicles) and a series of mysteries featuring the ghosts of characters from folk ballads: Cruel Sister, The Famous Flower of Serving Men, Matty Groves, New-Slain Knight and The Weaver and the Factory Maid (Grabien, Home page) among others.

Second semester at Cuesta College

I'm really looking forward to the beginning of class. I'm taking three courses this spring, two of which are one-unit courses that last for half a semester. So I will have two courses in progress at any one time this spring, beginning on Jan. 18.

First up are LIBT 102, Introduction to Web Technology, and LIBT 105, Library/Information Center Collections. I have my textbooks for both of these classes. I still need to buy a textbook for LIBT 212, Research Skills, which begins March 21.

Facebook commenting on Record-Bee web site

The Lake County Record-Bee recently introduced a new article commenting system on its web site, www.record-bee.com. Commenting is enabled via Facebook, the social networking site, and requires a Facebook account. The Record-Bee published the following information to explain Facebook commenting.

Cats (and people) are not defective dogs

In what has earned my pick for the worst beginning to a book, Dave Bruno risks alienating a sizable portion of his readership in "The 100 Thing Challenge" (Harper, 2010).

The book arrived in our newsroom just in time for the New Year's holiday with its accompanying focus on new year's resolutions. In his book, Bruno documents his effort to reduce the number of his personal possessions to an even 100.

With his preface, Bruno sets the scene for his "contented middle-class lifestyle." All well and good so far -- until he brings up the subject of the cat that "we have living with us."

Unlike his dog, whose faithfulness Bruno praises, he says cats have their own agenda. To which I respond,  "You say that like it's a bad thing."

Bruno claims that no one ever equates cats with being a part of the "good life." He repeatedly stresses that pet cats  are replaceable.

There is no other word than  "whomperjawed," coined by my heroine Molly Ivins, to describe my reaction to these statements. Setting aside the possibility that Bruno will alienate lovers of cats, what do these statements even have to do with the subject of his book?