HAVEN'T READ IT

Summary: Kell is an Antari --a blood magician, one of the last--and thus he possesses the power to open doors and travel to and from three different worlds: Grey London, where magic is unheard of, Red London, which reveres magic, and White London, which threatens to destroy itself, like the fallen Black London, in its attempts to control magic lest it be controlled by magic. Kell carries official correspondence between Kings and Queens, but it is forbidden to bring anything else to a world it doesn't belong to. Unfortunately, Kell has a habit of picking up trinkets and trading them. One night, he is tricked into taking a curious black stone across the border of Grey and Red. Then, he gets his pocket picked by Lila Bard, a petty thief from Grey London who dreams of adventure and gets more than she bargained for. Kell and Lila have to team up to keep the black stone from falling into White hands. Fantasy Characteristics: Detailed settings depict another world, often located o...

I attended the Graphic Novel Book Club at the Logan Square branch of the Chicago Public Library. The club meets every two months, usually on a Tuesday from 6:30-7:30. There is no food or drink involved. I’ve attended a few times in the past and had wildly different experiences each time. Honestly, the “don’t know what you’re gonna get” aspect is part of what keeps me coming back, but the highs are pretty high and the lows…are pretty low. I do occasionally wish it was more consistently well-attended. Some weeks it’s only 2-3 people, while others it’s a more comfortable 5-7. The book we read in February was  Bttm Fdrs   by Ezra Claytan Daniels and Ben Passmore. I hadn’t read the book before, but I was able to pick up a reserved copy of it from the branch about 10 days prior and finished it without any issue. In the past I’ve had difficulty finishing the book because the leader tends to pick longer titles. The club is facilitated by the Adult Services librarian, Michael. He’...

For my special topics paper I was interested in exploring book clubs as a tool for social change: It’s primary season in America, and a virus is spreading sickness and panic. Society is contending with homelessness, poverty, the opioid crisis, an influx of immigrants fleeing corrupt regimes, climate change, rising gun violence, and more. Tensions are high, and it can sometimes feel, reading comments on local news stories or watching televised debates, like we have lost our collective ability to relate to one another. The internet promised to make us more connected than ever, but it “seems that, even as our Facebook friend circles expand into the hundreds and even thousands, our real-life circles of comrades and kindred spirits are steadily dwindling” (Olmstead, 2018, para. 5). Places where community can flourish without commodification are scarce. One such “place” is the book club. An estimated five million Americans meet in living rooms, bars, bookstores, online forums, and lib...

Summary: The Ekumen have sent First Envoy Genly Ai to the planet Winter to convince its inhabitants to join mankind in unity. Winter's inhabitants include the Gethenians, who are genderless except during mating cycles, when each can become either male or female. Genly is thrust into an alien sociopolitical world with strange rules and shifting loyalties. When Estraven, the King's Ear and the closest thing Genly has to an ally, is unexpectedly banished from the Domain, Genly's hopes of easily persuade the mad King of Karhide to join the Ekumen are dashed. In order to accomplish his singular goal, Genly must journey to the ends of Winter: to ask a question of a group of spiritual foretellers, court a rival civilization full of spies and double-crossers, survive imprisonment and interrogation at a Farm, and finally, cross the treacherous Ice of Winter with Estraven the Traitor. Science Fiction Characteristics: Explore moral, social, intellectual, philosophical, and et...