Friday, January 26, 2018

Booknote: F in Exams: Complete Failure Edition

Richard Benson, F in Exams: Complete Failure Edition. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 2016.  ISBN: 978-1-4521-4896-0.

Genre: nonfiction
Subgenre: humor, schools
Format: paperback
Source: Berea branch of the Madison County (KY) Public Library

This is a single volume compilation of the F in Exams series you may have seen in single book format or online. This series collects the creative at times wrong answers students give  in exams and assignments. From doodles to creative statements, students can sure find ways to amuse when they do not have a correct answer.

The book has two main parts: elementary school and high school. High school part is divided into 11 parts by subject plus an extra credit part. After a brief introduction, we get to the humor. In addition to material from previous books, the author added 100 new entries plus a trivia element he calls "Stuff they should have taught us in school." Those are things he thinks would engage student attention if they were taught in schools. I found the trivia bits amusing too.

Overall, this is a light and amusing book. You don't have to be a teacher to appreciate the humor. Whether you are a student now or your school days are long over, this is a good book to make you smile. If you want a light distraction from daily life, this is a good option. I really liked it.

4 out of 5 stars.


Friday, January 19, 2018

Signs the economy is bad: January 19, 2018 edition

Welcome to another edition of "Signs the Economy is Bad" here at The Itinerant Librarian. This is the semi-regular (as in when I have time and/or feel like doing it) feature where I scour the Internet in search of the oh so subtle hints that the economy is bad. Sure, pundits may say things are getting better, but what do they know? And to show not all is bad, once in a while we look at how good the uber rich have it.
 



This is the first edition for 2018. I thought I could go easy on this feature, but the Bad Economy just keeps chugging along. The Pendejo In Chief and the Party of Stupid certainly do not help the economy, but hey, it is what Americans (US people) proudly, willingly, and gladly voted for. So, let's see what has been going on recently.

Special section this week: Pendejo In Chief news:

Let's see how the Pendejo In Chief has been fucking shit up in the Bad Economy:

In higher education news of the Bad Economy. These are via Inside Higher Ed.:


In other news of the Bad Economy:
  • In Kentucky, local politicians mention the "War on Coal," and the masses get riled up. But the reality is that coal is in decline, and it will continue to decline over time. The federal government states as much. It really is time for people to get a clue, and among other things start retraining workers displaced by closing mines and making plans in other forms of energy. Hat tip to The Rural Blog.
  • Speaking of Kentucky, one of the local "scandals" to decent people is how the state continues to give tax breaks for film, movie, television, and commercials productions, including crappy films, to the tune of $160 million or so while the state overall has a serious budget shortfall. Because priorities, man. Story via The Lexington Herald Leader.
  • ProPublica took a serious look at the business of private trash collection and finds it to be deadly, especially in New York City.
  • In the United States overall, the bill for natural disasters, which have been specially harsh in 2017, is up to about $300 billion in a single year. But you know, that whole climate change stuff? No big deal, meh. Story via The Guardian.
  • Meanwhile, south of the border in Latin America, after making gains for years, poverty in Latin America is on the rise. Story via TeleSur. 
  • If you want proof that Big Pharma really has no interest in curing anything, but rather in just  making enough medications to keep treating something on and on (and thus fleecing more money), Pfizer just recently said they are halting research on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's treatments. There is no money in that kind of stuff, and those old people are doing to croak soon anyhow (or so they hope). Story via NPR.
  • So, you thought that prison scene (link to YouTube) in the movie Goodfellas was total fiction? It turns out that in the U.S., prisoners with money CAN pay for better accommodations in  prison. Story via AlterNet.
  • In rural areas, turns out it is getting harder for farmers to sell their farms to the next generation. Via The Daily Yonder.
  • Even in the narco trade, getting paid is getting harder, so drug debts are a part of life, and this means the violence to collect those debts has gone up too. Story via VICE.
  • A lot of business are going cashless, as in they do not take cash for transactions because they expect you to have a debit or credit card. Now, call me a Luddite, but I think  anyone not carrying at least a small amount of cash is a fool. Because, you know, Internet goes down, power goes out, so on, and suddenly you can't buy something nor can the business sell you something you may need because they decided to go cashless. And do not even get me started on all the hacks going on since said businesses are basically irresponsible assholes who can't secure their customers' information. Story via NPR. 
  • Weddings can be expensive. It is an idea the Better Half and I do not understand, since we did ours very modestly, but we hear people spend thousands and thousands on weddings. So, money gets tight later in the marriage, and couples need to recoup costs somehow. One way now is to sell your gently used wedding items to another couple getting ready for a wedding. Story via AlterNet
  • If you happen to be an attractive woman, and you are willing, you can be a sugar baby to a sugar daddy. However, you can't go just anywhere to find a sugar daddy. Here are the top 5 cities if you are seeking that kind of arrangement to help pay your college tuition or whatever it  is you may need money for. Via FHM magazine.


Friday, January 05, 2018

My Reading List for 2017

(crossposted from A Simple Scholarly Librarian)

Welcome to my 2017 Reading List and end of year report. You may notice  I did a bit of housecleaning on this blog [at what is now A Simple Scholarly Librarian], including a small title change (as well as the URL); I also edited the "about me" stuff to simplify things. I think the new title in this blog is more plain, reflective of  how I try to be as a librarian. I was also inspired by that one poem (you can see it in my profile). My four readers have likely noticed I blog a lot less here. One of my recent resolutions is to avoid drama as much as possible, and the library field can have a lot of drama. Life is already tough in the "Hard Times" without having to worry over the asshats in my profession too. In addition, I just do not find too many things of interest to blog about here. So I just post here now and then if something comes up, but I am in no rush. One thing I am hoping to do is to go back to posting my notes on library literature I read, and I may shoot to do that once a week. (By the way, just because I am not blogging here much does not mean I am not reading, keeping notes, and doing professional development. I've done some nice presentations, including one at LOEX, but that is another story). We will see how it goes. I am not quite ready to shut down this blog, but the hiatus periods may stay. At the end of the day, I just feel I have more interesting things, and things that make me happier, to blog about elsewhere.I am at peace with that. I keep doing this list  here mostly because I started the tradition here. If the day comes I turn off the lights on this blog, I will move this feature over to The Itinerant Librarian.

On a positive note, I have been happily blogging and posting book reviews at The Itinerant Librarian blog. I have turned that blog into a small  but nice book blog. I am making plans to add some additional reading related content in 2018, so stay tuned for that. A big reason I do it, besides the fact I  enjoy reading and sharing what I read, is to serve in some small way as form of reader's advisory. By the way, if you are an author, editor, or publisher, and you think you have a book I may want to read and review, check out my book review statement, then let me know. I'd be happy to consider it if fits with my review statement and reading interests.

On another positive note, I recently came to my five years anniversary working at Berea College. I even got a small letter from the college president about it. Deity of choice allowing, I hope to stay here for a while longer (let's see if we can make at least another five, you know, start small and work our way up).

Getting to the reading part, even without reviewing my list of books for 2017, I could already feel I read less when compared to last year. The "Hard Times" we are living in the U.S. have wreaked havoc on my reading mood. I often read in the evening before bedtime, and I am often too tired to read, or I just tune out. In November, when I was reading some political/social issues books, I just finally burned out, and I declared a self-imposed moratorium on reading anything related to politics, social issues, activist topics, and/or most current events. In addition, I trimmed my feeds on social media to minimize my exposure to that kind of stuff because in the end it boiled down I need to do some self care and keep some sanity. In fact, I have a politics, social issues, activist, and/or current events moratorium on social media, with the penance that if I slip and post something on those topics, I have to post something about kittens to atone. A few kittens have made my feeds, but the number is dwindling. I am just done with the overall stupidity, selfishness, and bullshit at large. Thus I am doing my best to read more escapist and recreational things. Despite all that, I managed to read some good stuff, and that is always a good thing.

So for 2018 pretty much, this is where I stand:




A small reason I have read less in 2017 is that in my effort to escape the reality of the "Hard Times" I have  been binging on watching DVDs for films and specially for old television series. I have gotten some of those from my local public library. I will probably make a separate post to list some of the things I have enjoyed on video.

Six of Pentacles from the Modern Spellcaster's Tarot deck
The Six of Pentacles, from The Modern Spellcaster's Tarot Deck.




Another positive in 2017 is that I continue with my Tarot and oracle card studies. The main form of engagement with this is my morning ritual of a daily Tarot card draw. If you are interested, you can follow me on Twitter, where I am posting a photo of the daily card with my reading of  it. I do a daily card and the underneath card (i.e. I see what  is lurking under the deck). Based on the Twitter posts, I am considering exploring Instagram for sharing those photos. We will see. I am also working on focusing my commonplace blog, Alchemical Thoughts, into a bit more of a Tarot and divination blog where I can share some readings, some exercises, reviews of decks and books on Tarot, oracles, and other esoterica. The reviews are likely going to be crossposted from The Itinerant Librarian. Speaking of Alchemical Thoughts, for the month  of January I am participating in the "31 Days of Tarot" challenge. I am posting the daily prompts there, and I am crossposting them to my Tumblr, The Alchemical Annex. If interested, feel free to check that out. Here is the link for the first day. I am finding that studying Tarot, along with some esoteric topics, has helped me find some peace and calm in the "Hard Times," so I foresee I will keep at it. By the way, studying Tarot and oracle has also made me into a bit of a deck collector. However, I have at least one tight rule for any deck I add my collection: I have to be able to read with it. A deck may have gorgeous art, but if I am unable to actually use it, it is not going into my collection. This is why I do not add Marseilles-style decks (read here decks with non-illustrated pip cards); I can't really use them as they do not do much for me. However, there is a Marseilles-style deck I'd be willing to make an exception for and add to my collection, and that is Ciro Marchetti's Tarot Decoratif (which is actually a bit of homage to Marseilles with some Rider Waite Smith blended in. Link to Ciro's site). On a side note, I do have two Marseilles decks (reproductions, of course), and those were gifts from special people, which is why I have kept them. For those, I recently got myself a good book on Marseilles Tarot to teach myself how to work with such decks better. I will let you know down the road how that experience goes.
Let's get on with it and look at what and how I read in 2017. After the list, you will find my comments and remarks. Note that books with an asterisk (*) are rereads.

January:
  • Becky Diamond, The Thousand Dollar Dinner.
  • Inazo Nitobe, Bushido: The Soul of the Samurai (graphic novel adaptation). 
  • Scott Jerry, Zits Sketchbook 1
  • The Usual Gang of Idiots, The Mad Bathroom Companion: Gushing Fourth Edition.
  • Mark Kurlansky, Paper: Paging Through History
  • Kaelan Rhywiol, Nera's Need.
  • Mike Barr, et.al., Star Trek Archives Volume 4: The Best of Deep Space Nine.*

February:
  • P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast, Marked (House of Night, Book 1).  
  • Lee Hammock, Halo Graphic Novel
  • Rebecca Hankins and Miguel Suarez, Where are all the Librarians of Color
  • Mario Benedetti, Biografia para encontrarme.  
  • John Lewis, March: Book Three
  • C.S. Goto, Blood Ravens: the Dawn of War Omnibus (Warhammer 40,000).*

March:

  •  Yoav Ben-Dov, The Marseille Tarot Revealed
  • Artisan Press, Why We March
  • John Palfrey, BiblioTech (audiobook edition).
  • Colette Baron-Reid, The Enchanted Map oracle cards (oracle deck kit with book). 
  • Jennifer Worick, Things I Want to Punch in the Face (audiobook edition). 
  • Tommy Dades, Friends of the Family
  • Jay Fonseca, Banquete Total
  • Scott Martin, Bringing the Tarot to Life

April:

  • Jen Mann, People I Want to Punch in the Throat (audiobook edition).
  • Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential (audiobook edition).
  • Leeza Robertson, Tarot Court Cards for Beginners
  • Yankee Magazine, Living Well on a Shoestring
  • Melissa Cynova, Kitchen Table Tarot
  • Josh Katz, Speaking American
  • Jason Aaron, Showdown on the Smugglers' Moon (Star Wars comics).
  • Penelope Bagieu, California Dreamin'
  • Ray Garton, Live Girls

May:

  •  Eileen Kaur Alden, Super Sikh, Issue 1
  • Matt Kindt, Divinity III: Stalinverse.
  • Colin Dickey, Ghostland
  • P.J. O'Rourke, How the Hell Did This Happen?
  • Sideshow Collectibles, Figure Fantasy: The Pop Culture Photography of Daniel Picard
  • Jancis Robinson, The 24-Hour Wine Expert
  • Serafin Mendez Mendez, Puerto Rico Past and Present: an Encyclopedia
  • Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop
  • Clay Cane, Live Through This

June:

  • Cullen Bunn, Battlestar Galactica: Folly of the Gods
  • Kathryn Petras, The Stupidest Things Ever Said Book of Top Ten Lists
  • Roger Langridge, Betty Boop.
  • Jennifer Adams, Emma: a BabyLit Emotions Book
  • Jennifer Adams, Treasure Island: a BabyLit Shapes Primer
  • Andy Diggle, James Bond: Hammerhead
  • Vincent Terrace, Television Series of the 1960s
  • Michael Ruhlman, Grocery

July:

  •  Andy Schmidt, G.I. Joe: Future Noir, Volume 1
  • Sybille Titieux de la Croix, Muhammad Ali.
  • Alana Fairchild, The Isis Oracle (oracle cards deck with book kit). 
  • Gerard Way, Doom Patrol, Volume 1: Brick by Brick
  • Joanna Powell Colbert, The Gaian Tarot (Tarot cards deck with book kit). 
  • Sarah Vaughn, Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love
  • Leonardo Lucarelli, Mincemeat
  • Matt Kindt, X-O Manowar, Volume 1: Soldier
  • David Gonzales, Homies
  • Norman Ohler, Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich
  • E.K. Johnston, Ahsoka (Star Wars YA novel). 

August:

  • Jimmy Palmiotti, Harley Quinn, Volume 2: Joker Loves Harley
  • Graham Masterton, Figures of Fear.















  • Tracking books this year got a little tricky. I left GoodReads mostly after it got acquired by the online book retail behemoth. I discovered BookLikes, which is a bit of a hybrid between GoodReads and Tumblr, and I was using that to keep track of books as well as another place to post  my reviews. Well, last year BL had some serious clusterfuck where they were down for almost two months with no response whatsoever. A few of us thought the site was gone for good. They hobbled back online, but I have not gone back since. I may in the future; I have not decided yet. So, I reluctantly went back to GoodReads for tracking, where I just record I read something and rate it. I do not post reviews in GR unless requested.

Finally, first of all, thank you for hanging around and stopping by the blogs throughout the year. Also thank you for reading this far on this post. Hope you will come back in 2018. As I have done before, I am ending this post with a sampling of reading reports from other bloggers out there. By the way, if you did an end of year reader summary, and you want to share it, you are welcome to share it in the comments.



Monday, January 01, 2018

Deck Review: Modern Spellcaster's Tarot

Melanie Marquis and Scott Murphy (illustrator), Modern Spellcaster's Tarot. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Worldwide, 2016. ISBN: 978-0-7387-4166-6.

WorldCat Record.
Find it at the publisher.

Genre: nonfiction
Subgenre: Tarot, divination, spirituality, witchcraft, pagan, magic
Format: Box set with book and deck of Tarot cards
Source: I bought and own this one


I picked this deck to work with during the month of December in part to use the book in completing the Color Coded Reading Challenge for 2017 I was doing. I needed a brown color book, and this is it. For this review, I will start looking at the book, The Spellcaster's Handbook, then I will discuss the cards. My set is a box set that includes the companion book and the cards deck. The box is actually a solid box with a magnetic clip closure. The box is definitely an improvement over Llewelly's usual thin, flimsy, and mostly useless cardboard boxes. I hope they keep doing this.

The book is a 242 pages paperback by Melanie Marquis, who is also the deck's creator. The book is arranged as follows into seven chapters and some small extras:

  • "The Cup." An opening poem.
  • A short introduction.
  • Chapter One: "Anatomy of Tarot." I expected this to be the usual chapter on Tarot basics you get with companion books. Instead, this chapter deals mainly with correspondences and numerology. 
  • Chapter Two: "Deck Care and Maintenance." This chapter covers things like caring for your deck, cleansing, and charging it. The chapter describes a variety of ways to charge your deck's energy. 
  • Chapter Three: "How to read the cards." This is the chapter on how to read the cards. 
  • Chapter Four: "Using the Tarot for Magick." This is a deck designed for those who practice magic and use it as part of their divination and rituals. While you do not have to use magic or other crafts to use the deck, if you do, this chapter offers a few suggestions and ideas for using the cards with spells and other rituals. It also offers a couple of Tarot spells you can try out. 
  • Chapter Five: "The Major Arcana." This chapter has card meanings for the Major Arcana. For each card, you get a black and white picture of the card, card title, card description, divinatory meanings, reversed meanings, and magickal uses. 
  • Chapter Six: "The Minor Arcana." This chapter has card meanings for the Minor Arcana including the court cards. The card order is arranged by suits- cups, pentacles, wands, and swords. For each suit, it goes from ace to king. For each card, you get a black and white picture of the card, card title, card description, reversed meaning, and magickal uses. 
  • Chapter Seven: "Easy Tarot Spreads." You get a few basic spreads and a bit of advice for creating your own spreads. 
  • "Next Steps on the Tarot Trail." This is the author's conclusion encouraging readers to continue on their journey. 
  • Recommended reading. This is a very basic and minimal reading list. It includes six items. From the list, I have read the Barbara Moore's Tarot for Beginners (link to my review). 
I find that the companion book for the deck is about average. For me, it is a bit of a mixed bag. Let me just tackle right away the big issue a few other reviewers have mentioned: Marquis' switch of elemental correspondences between swords and wands. In Rider Waite Smith (RWS) system as well as with most authors, sword correspond to air and wands to fire. Marquis reverses that making swords fiery and wands airy. She claims this comes from the witchcraft tradition of the athame knife associated with fire.  I will take her word for it, but this is the first time I have seen this, and I've read a few books on Tarot, none of which mention her matches. While she claims Tarotists disagree on this issue, what I have observed is that reviewers often disagree with her change. In the end, you can take it or leave it. Personally, I just ignore the switch and read the cards as I always do with air for swords and fire for wands. In the book, the meanings are basically switched, especially for the aces. So you can just read the Ace of Swords meaning for the Ace of Wands and vice versa in the book, so no big deal.

That leads me to my next point about the book. Once you put aside the material on magic and witchcraft, which can be interesting, the card meanings are mostly traditional. One or two meanings did not really work for me, and in that case I turned to other books as needed, usually Lyle's The Illustrated Guide to Tarot (link to my review), to double-check my impressions or verify some detail.  Your mileage may vary on this. If you do not care for Marquis' correspondence switch, and you do not use the material on magic and spells, then you can probably skip her book and use your own favorite reference text or standby handbook. You can also read the cards by intuition as they are very well illustrated.

I did find the chapter on magic uses interesting, and I think those who practice a craft may find it of interest and useful. As I mentioned, the recommended reading list is pretty slim. Overall, the book had some interesting things, but for Tarot reference I find there are better books out there.

I found the book to be OK overall, so I would rate it 2 out of 5 stars.

The cards are illustrated by Scott Murphy, and the art is just beautiful. Art in the cards is made of full color paintings very rich in detail. The cards are borderless. While borders or lack of them is not usually an issue for me, these cards look great without borders. Each card is identified with a small scroll on the bottom of the card with the card's name. The cards measure 4 1/2 inches tall by 2 3/4 inches approximately. That falls within common Tarot card sizes. Many images reminiscent of RWS, but not all of them. The images provide enough for you to figure out meanings by intuition, or you an look the cards up in your favorite handbook. Furthermore, many of the cards have additional symbols that can provide more material for readings and personal study. In Chapter One of the book, Marquis provides a short list of symbols. If this section of the book had more depth and provided more symbols and details, the book would be more valuable. As it is, this was a missed opportunity. Again though, if you get a good reference book on symbols it may be useful for further study of this deck.

Additionally, the deck does display some diversity in terms of ethnicities and races. There are also some cards that nod to LGBTQIA people. It is still pretty basic on body types though, i.e. mostly average height and weight. This can be a contrast to, for example, The Gaian Tarot (link to my review), which does show various forms of diversity including body shapes. Anyhow, the Modern Spellcaster's Tarot is pretty diverse overall.

The Modern Spellcaster's Tarot has become a favorite deck for me, and I enjoy using it. I find it helps me look at Tarot in different ways, but it also reinforces what I have learned so far. It is a good deck for daily use. I'd say this is more of a deck for intermediate to advanced users. Overall, the deck is excellent. For collectors, I am sure they will appreciate Murphy's art. For practitioners, it is very readable and useful.

I am rating the deck 5 out of 5 stars.
Rating for the set, averaging the book and deck ratings: 3.5 out of five stars.

* * * * * 
Additional reading notes:

Whether you agree with all Marquis offers or not, she still encourages her audience to be open minded and to study widely and broadly:

"The tarot is organic, and it's meant to be adapted by each practitioner who uses it. Just as different chefs might prepare a different dish from the same selection of ingredients, so too does each tarot reader lend their own unique flavor to the process. Be open to other people's ideas and take time to study traditional tarot interpretation from a variety of sources, but above all, let your own heart and mind be your guide" (2). 

What Tarot is; it's not about absolute destiny:

"I like to explain it by saying that the tarot gives us a snapshot of where we're currently at, revealing to us the underlying patterns and cycles that have brought us to this point right now. Tarot provides us with clues to the future so that we can adapt our current course of action to achieve the outcomes we most desire. Emphasizing that everything is changeable will help put the person you're reading for at ease" (28). 

On how readings can vary, which is normal:

"Whenever I teach a tarot class, I always emphasize the fact that you could have the exact same cards laid out in a reading, and if you asked ten different professional tarot readers to interpret the spread,  you would get ten different interpretations. There would most likely be some similarities in overall theme, but each reader inevitably brings something completely different to the reading" (36). 

There may be elements I dislike or disagree with in the book, but I do appreciate Marquis' positive outlook and flexible attitude towards learning, encouraging readers to find their own path, keeping and discarding things as needed. As I mentioned in my review, I found some meanings to be off or not right for me. Marquis acknowledges this is a possibility, and I appreciate that. She writes:

"Please don't feel restricted to the card interpretations given here These meanings represent an eclectic blend of occult tradition, family tradition, my own experience, and intuition. Challenge  yourself to expand on the meanings you find agreeable, and to question and be willing to possibly discard the meanings with which you do not agree" (56). 


* * * * *
This set qualifies for these 2017 Reading Challenges: