Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

Poison Study is one of my favorite books. So much so that I own three copies of the book currently. One audio version on my MP3 player, one hardback copy with the dust jacket, and one hardback copy w/o the dust jacket! :-) My library has recently added the whole Study Series to the collection as well. I'm so excited to share this fun series with my students.

The story starts with Yelana, our main character, in the dungeons waiting to be executed. Instead she is brought to a man who gives her a choice: continue on to be executed and know your death, or become the Commander's Food Taster and await possible death by poison. She takes the job and that's just the beginning of her problems. The whole story line really grabbed me. I enjoyed the ups and downs as Yelana made friends and enemies while trying to stay alive and gain her freedom.

Yelana's adventures continue in Magic Study and Fire Study.

Is it Break Yet?

I have 7 days, not counting today, left of school before the Winter Break. I am BEYOND ready for it to be here. And more importantly so are the students. I can't wait for next semester, with new schedules and new faces. The students seem to feel the same, schedules came out last week and it's been a little crazy ever since.

Surprisingly this feeling didn't really "hit" me until today. I've got a head cold going on, giving me the world's most annoying headache. On top of which I went to the doctor last night, yes Happy Birthday to ME I've got health insurance (!), and found out I broke my foot. I've been walking around in slight pain for the better part of two months, because the last time I saw a doctor about my foot they said "there really isn't much we can do." But I was fed up with the pain so I went to the doc anyway and it's a good thing I did! Today I get to go to Carroll and buy a "boot" from a pharmacy, which I am to wear for the next couple of weeks. So, I'm ready for a break. Really, really, ready. Maybe I'm getting a bit more ready the longer this day lasts...

Just like that

I started looking over the biography section. I know I'll need to move it, and I know I want to get rid of the old useless books while I'm at it. So I decided to jump right in.

I went through the first three shelves of the section. Only looking at the condition of the book and the copyright date I was ready to grab anything that was older than the 1990s. However, upon seeing most of the books coming from the 1950s and 1960s I revised my earlier standard. I kept anything from the 1980s and some things from the 1970s depending on the condition and the content. It was quick, and kind of painful. In no time at all half of each shelve was in my discard pile.

I'm not ready to toss the books out yet. I want to be stealthy about it so nobody tries to give them to charity. These books are fit for no one! So for now they'll get put in my back room as a "consideration" pile. And when I'm ready I'll delete them from the computer and send them to the recycle bin. I fully plan to have half as many biographies by the end of the week. But on the bright side I did find some really great books once they were not hidden behind real losers. Now I'll have half has many books to fit into the already bloated non-fiction section!

WTF?!

Okay, I know that when using the Dewey Decimal Classification System it is easy and common to come across differences in cataloging. It's a highly subjective "science." But I have never seen or even heard of what I found today. Next to the biographies in the middle of the Fiction section that is divided by AR and non-AR is a section labeled SC: Story Collection. This is where I found Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Famous Tales of Sherlock Holmes and a Garrison Keller book. Random? I should freakin' think so! I now have so much re-cataloging to do it's not even funny. To be fair the section is really very small, but where the heck did it come from and who decided what a "SC" book was anyway? I think I might be spending my WHOLE summer in the library now. Between combining the Fiction sections, putting the biographies back in the Non-Fiction section (hopefully weeding some of the section) and now disbanding the bat-shit-crazy Story Collection section! AAAHHHH!!!!! I hope everyone else is having a better Friday than I am.