The World's Strongest Librarian; The First Lie; The Cherry Cola Book Club

A bunch of disappointments lately. Damn.

I was really looking forward to "The World's Strongest Librarian" by Josh Hanagarne. I really wanted to like it. But I didn't. I thought it would be more about being a librarian in Salt Lake City. I was looking forward to some funny stories I could relate to. But it was mostly about his struggle with Mormonism. Which is fine, if you enjoy learning about the Mormon faith. I have zero interest in it, so for most of the book I was bored stiff. He only briefly mentioned a few things about his job. Oh well.

At least "The First Lie" by Sara Shepard was short, only about 60 pages. It takes place before the first Lying Game book, about Sutton, Charlotte, and Madeline deciding to trick Thayer into thinking Sutton is really interested in him. Only problem is, Sutton does actually start to fall for him. It was all stuff we knew from before, from reading the Lying Game books, and it wasn't particularly interesting to see it from Sutton's POV.

And finally, "The Cherry Cola Book Club" by Ashton Lee, which made me want to punch someone in the throat. First of all, I don't know if librarianship is really that different in small town Mississippi than it is in every other library I've ever worked at, but man, this guy has no clue. Maura Beth is a library director of a tiny library in Cherico, Mississippi, a town of about 5,000. She's twenty-eight and has been director for 6 years. I'll let you do the math on that. Anyway, the city council is threatening to pull funding for the tiny library unless Maura Beth can make it more relevant, so she sets out on a campaign to save the library. That's fine, well and good. While she's out pounding the pavement and putting up petitions for the good people of Cherico to sign, she mentions that she leaves her 18 year old clerk in charge of the library and nobody notices the difference. Let me pause for a minute here. A woman a decade older with a MASTER'S DEGREE in library science (supposedly) who is also the director has made so little impression on her community that they can't tell the difference between her help and that of a teenage girl out of high school. Sure, that's legit. That totally validates my entire profession. Thanks, Mr. Lee. Anyone, at another point in the book a mildly deranged patron cracks a spine on a book and Maura Beth and her clerk bemoan the replacement fees. Um, what? A book in my library literally has to be in pieces and growing mold and preferably on fire before we spend the money replacing it. A cracked spine? Shoot, most of the books have the spines cracked. That means PEOPLE ARE USING THEM! Which is a good thing. Seriously, by the end of the book I was rooting for the council to shut the library down and hoping Maura Beth would pick a new profession to go into. What a waste of time.