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Author Archives: Alicia Abdul

About Alicia Abdul

You'll find me drinking tea in a dress and reading... or making lists.

The 31 Days of December: Literary lunchbox

A fellow librarian colleague, Stacey Rattner, who I’ve mentioned in the past and I presented last month about how our reading lives as librarians affect our students’ reading lives. We asked questions to think-pair-share about and then coupled them with reading recommendations.

During one of these sections, we talked about having time/making time to read and Stacey shared that I read during my lunch period. Yes. Every day I read during my lunch period. Other than when my intern and I were eating together this fall or if I can’t take my lunch for some reason, you’ll find me with my feet on the opposite chair, eating my snack, and reading. And it was recently reinforced when I was listening to the audiobook Do Nothing: How to Break Away From Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving by Celeste Headlee that what I’m doing has work and personal benefits similar to this BBC article from 2019 that also references how brain breaks at work lead to happier employees and feelings of productivity. I didn’t start doing this because of these reinforcing studies, I did it because I knew it would help me detach for a brief time in the middle of the day and do something I loved. It resets me and I started sharing on my public Instagram my lunch time reading it, using the hashtag #literarylunchbox. They tend to be graphic novels or short nonfiction that I can either read in a period or over a few days.

Here are some of the titles I’ve read recently during my lunch period:

What do you do during your lunch break?

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 21, 2021 in Adult, Articles, Blogging, Fiction, Graphic novels, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Young Adult

The 31 Days of December: The best spot

20 Dec

If you’re a book lover, it’s not hard to love Macanudo, the daily comic by Argentinian comic Liniers, especially when he writes and draws his central character, Henrietta and her cat Fellini because the focus of most of those comics are about her reading. The comic from the other day was another perfect one: the good spot to read.

Where is your good spot? What is your good book?

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 20, 2021 in Blogging, Childrens, Reflections

The 31 Days of December: Dial a librarian

19 Dec

Taking advantage of being alone in the house on Saturday, I wrapped a few last presents to put under the tree while listening to an audiobook. As I looked over, I saw a chat message in one of my social media apps light up with a message. It was a coworker who was looking for a few book recommendations for his significant other.

What I liked about his plea, with a mea culpa of waiting until the last minute, was that he recognized that it was overwhelming to be in a bookstore and want to purchase a book for someone but that there’s too much. The paradox of choice. When I go into a bookstore, I know what I’m looking for. I’m usually never browsing because I spend my work days browsing professional magazines, blogs, publisher emails, etc. So I cannot relate to my coworker because even when I’m purchasing for others, I usually have titles, topics, or authors already in mind.

He was resourceful– he dialed a librarian. What expertise do you have that others would dial you up?

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 19, 2021 in Blogging, Miscellaneous

The 31 Days of December: Food & romance

18 Dec

December brings up the New Years Eve kiss and new romantic possibilities but also food. So what’s not to love about books that are romances featuring food? Nothing, the answer is nothing, these are the best kinds of books. Here are a few of recently-read favorites:

Whether it’s turning a girl from a Grinch to a happy elf with hot cocoa or a indulging in a magical pastry in the fantastically delightful cafe, I’m a sucker whether it’s near the holidays or not. I find them indulgent and lighthearted in ways that a book on serial killers and body snatching can’t compare. When you look at my reading history, you’ll often see a one pop up every handful of books as a way to find delight and joy from the experiences of the characters. It’s especially delicious when the author can capture the senses in their writing and provide a wraparound experience.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 18, 2021 in Miscellaneous

The 31 Days of December: Excellence in Nonfiction finalists announced

17 Dec

I’m a little biased because over the past year I’ve worked with a group of phenomenal librarians: Ginny, Laura, Laura, Yolanda, Jeana, Mike, Janet, and Rebecca. Together we make up the 2022 Excellence in Nonfiction Award Committee through YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association), a division of the American Library Association. Our charge is to select the best written, researched, presented nonfiction writing targeted toward kids ages 12-18. We read through hundreds of books, nominate the special ones, debate their merits, whittle it down to five finalists, and then by next month, select the winner to be announced at the Youth Media Awards. It’s the most rewarding work. And here are our finalists:

Check out the full release with annotations on YALSA’s website. I’ll sign off so I can go pop a little bubbly that they’re out in the world!

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 17, 2021 in Blogging, Events, Graphic novels, Nonfiction, Young Adult

The 31 Days of December: “Not my usual”

16 Dec

Our school library is always looking for a good collaboration. This collaboration came looking for us. Our local county’s crime victim case manager wanted to see if we could partner on a book study and information session about healthy relationships.

With a few starts and sputters, we got it off the ground with 22 students who were given the book (to keep)– Bad Romance by Heather Demetrios and a donut– and the job to read the book plus eat the donut, and we’d have a discussion and session in February.

The other day one of the boys came in and was ready to return the book saying that he had finished it already and was handing it back in. I reminded him that it’s his book to keep to which he was excited and I said “What did you think? Ready for the discussion in February?” His response was “It’s not my usual kind of reading, but I really liked it and yes, there’s a lot to talk about.” Maybe he’s discovered a new category of book to read or maybe it’s the social aspect of the reading that appealed to him, either way, I’d call that a win. I’m counting the days to February to make it a special and informative event for the students (with the added bonus that we might be able to Zoom-in Demetrios for an extra special experience).

Was there a book recently that you finished that you’d say the same thing about?

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 16, 2021 in Blogging, Cover Love, Young Adult

The 31 Days of December: Hosting interns

15 Dec

After close to fifteen years as a school librarian, I have hosted handfuls of student observers and interns interested in the field of school librarianship. Each has their own story whether it’s rolling into a Master’s program right after their Bachelor’s or making it a second career. Some will thrive as school librarians and others I recommended should consider public librarianship and in one case, the woman was barely there enough for me to have any idea what kind of school librarian she would make.

However, as a person in the profession, frankly any profession, you should be open to the idea of hosting people interested in your field regardless of how busy or overwhelmed you feel because we want any job to have more people in it– not for Hunger Games competition but to create diversity and a new crop so that there is someone to fill the retirements of those that come before and know what they’re doing when they step into those roles. It’s maddening to see positions (especially in schools) where a position and person has so much institutional knowledge and a system that when they announce their retirement, nothing is done to train the next person to do it and give them the resources to do it well.

Internships might become mentorships, friendships, or simply collegial relationships. So it makes sense to cultivate these up-and-comers. With a constant need to reinvent our practice with the changing times, I always welcome interns for what they bring– fresh perspectives, new ideas, and a positive attitude.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 15, 2021 in Blogging, Reflections

The 31 Days of December: The death of Anne Rice

14 Dec

I woke up to the news in my Instagram feed and was flooded from memories of my teenage years. There are certainly books I remember reading over and over again in elementary school but as I moved into middle school Anne Rice was the author woman for me.

I don’t remember which book I started with but I have a sneaking suspicion it was The Witching Hour because while her career was made famous through writing about vampires, her witches trilogy I remember being taken away with. But I did read every one of her books on vampires too. And I know I’ll have a few who agree and many who won’t, but I dare say that Interview with the Vampire was better on screen than it was in the pages of the book. It doesn’t diminish the worlds she created, the character development, sharing deep desires and longings, and what immortality could look like. She built them with skill and passion. She embodied her work. I’m sad to have never met her. But 80 is a fabulous life in which most knew her name and the work she produced.

Is it any wonder that a newer batch of writers like Holly Black and Cat Winters are among my favorites as well? Probably not because they both wrote messages of heartbreak over the loss.

While you’ll have to buy me a drink to get my best Anne Rice reading story, rest assured I owe my teenage reading life to the many checkouts at the local public library of the queen of vampires, Anne Rice.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 14, 2021 in Adult, Authors, Blogging, Fiction

The 31 Days of December: The joy of cleaning and audiobooks

13 Dec

What did I do before audiobooks?

I’ve been a late convert to audiobooks. The combination of mobile technology and my insatiable need to ABR (always be reading), I became an audiobook lover several years ago and I haven’t been able to stop. And I thought today, during my usual Sunday morning routine of house cleaning, organizing, and laundry, what did I do before audiobooks? I can’t remember the before time. I think I might have listened a little music here or there or simply done it in silence. Not any more. For the most part whenever I’m engaged in this kind of work, I usually slide my phone into my Spi-Belt and get it done. It makes the time go by in a way that I feel like I’m cheating– being entertained and/or learning about a topic while actually enjoying housework.

How many of you audiobook while doing chores?

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 13, 2021 in Audiobooks, Blogging, Reflections

The 31 Days of December: When one thing leads to another

12 Dec

You can agree that once a word, an item, a phrase is introduced to you or you learn about a topic, it then seems to be everywhere– but it’s about what’s in your consciousness. And I’m always entertained when it happens in my reading. I’ve explained that I’m a mood reader– I always have a mountainous stack of books at home so that I have a range of options to pick from. So when there is no real strategy, it’s delightful to make connections between books. Here is that tale in three books yesterday:

Book 1: I’m taking my time reading John Green’s The Anthropocene Reviewed. It’s essentially a collection of short stories– his reviews. I’m entertained and enlightened by his stories, so I’m reading a few a day. The other day I read his review on the Lascaux Cave Paintings. I knew a little about what they were, but now I now more.

Book 2: Science Comics are cool. I’ll always pull one of them aside if I haven’t read it even if it’s not a topic I’m super interested in (though I don’t know if I’ve ever really felt that way about any of them thus far). One of the new ones that came into our library was Crows: Genius Birds by Kyla Vanderklugt. In the graphic novel between a dog and a crow, it’s mentioned that there’s a sketch of a crow in the Lascaux Cave. BINGO!

Book 3: Then ding, ding, ding! I wanted a quick transitional book in the afternoon, so I picked up Singer’s picture book illustrated by Fotheringham from a recent box delivered to my front door called A Raven Named Grip: How a Bird Inspired Two Famous Writers, Charles Dickens, and Edgar Allan Poe. Crows and ravens– all part of the corvidae family.