Week #5 - 11 The wonder that is Library Thing

I actually looked at Lulu and Biblio first. After all, they were the #1 and #2 Book category winners for the 2007 Web 2.0 awards. Biblio surprised me by having a long list of available copies of an out of print group of books that I have been casually looking for since about 1974: Piet Hein's Grooks, Grooks 2, and Grooks 3. I love those little poems. I crave to see "Icelander's Lament" in print again. I just may have to shell out the $20 and buy all three.

Library Thing, though, was very good. I loaded my 86 books and tagged them. My tag cloud is particularly nice. I haven't been very social with Library Thing yet, but I did "invite" someone to come and see my collection. I would like to see more sorting capabilities on Library Thing. For example, the librarian in me longs to sort all my Sue Grafton's into alpha-order by title: A is for..., B is for... However, that does not seem to be an option. I did enjoy being able to tag books as a group, especially since I loaded many of my series favorites.

Librarians, please take note of Miriam Grace Monfredo's Seneca Falls series. Her protagonist is a lady librarian before and during the American Civil War. The mysteries are very well devised and Monfredo deftly brings in historical elements of the Women's Suffrage movement, which began in Seneca Falls, New York. I was fascinated all the way through the series. I watched the PBS special on the Movement called Not for Ourselves Alone about the same time I was reading these books. It brought the stories to life because Monfredo's Glynis Tryon (spinster librarian) reflects on Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony and their movement's activities in Seneca Falls and in England. This is a great bunch of books!

Oh, and don't miss the Laurie R. King series beginning with The Beekeeper's Apprentice. These are the adventures of retired detective Sherlock Holmes and his young apprentice, Mary Russell, who later becomes his wife. One of these books, A Monstrous Regiment of Women, also deals with the Women's Suffrage movement in England. The plots are so deliciously intricate and the characters are so insightful. You'll be as enthralled as I was. I gobbled up all six of them like chocolate. What a creative mind this woman has! She writes of disguising as Arabs and spying in the Middle East in the early 1900's, discovering the ancient writings of a female apostle to Jesus, a ghost coach riding the moors and the resurrection of the Hound, fears of madness connected to the famous San Francisco fire, and a wonderful, well-written romance that lightly interweaves through all the books.

Well, enjoy my Library Thing collection, if you are interested. Here's the URL: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/donnielou

Goodnight.