Creating your Character

Hello everyone! Julia from JCPL here and this go around in Dungeons and Dragons world we will discuss the first step in beginning any successful DnD campaign- creating your character. As with most things in DnD, you have near unlimited control over who your character is and who she/he will become. Which also means that …

D&D at your local library

Hi everyone! Julia from Jackson County Public Library here with my first blog for Shelf Life of the Mountains. For this first post I had originally thought to write about ghost writing, comparing and contrasting it to best selling writers that use co-authors, such as James Patterson.  I quickly realized that the content was well… …

Stepping Stones

A few weeks ago a riveting image showed up on my Facebook page. It was something like this: I was immediately captivated by the artist's style and searched out more images of  Syrian artist Nizar Ali Badr's work. It turns out some of his creations, which he shares mainly via Facebook, have been used to …

Calling all Nerds! – Healthy Escapism 101

I am a proud, card-carrying nerd.  While I am not a stereotype, I enjoy and appreciate all things geek (I do, after all, work in a library).  Over the years, my inner geek has taken a back seat to jobs, school, moves, and financial constraints, however, the geek is and will always be around, waiting …

March: Book 1

The first book in the graphic novel series titled March opens with John Lewis in his office on the day of President Barack Obama’s inauguration. He and Rosa Parks are standing in his office talking when an African American family from Atlanta comes in, asking to see Senator Lewis’s office. They realize that they are …

Persepolis

"In 1951, Mohammed Mossadeq, then prime minister of Iran, nationalized the oil industry. In retaliation, Great Britain organized an embargo on all exports of oil from Iran. In 1953, the CIA, with the help of British intelligence, organized a coup against him. Mossadeq was overthrown and the Shah, who had earlier escaped from the country, …

The Grand Finale

I've done over 50 blog posts in my career here at Fontana Regional Library. 50! Seems like a lot. The reason I bring this up is because this post that you are reading right now is my last. I am leaving the library and we are moving across the country (2,674 miles to be exact). …

ISDKWYATA: Even More Acronyms (and books)

I received a lot of good feedback on my first post about acronyms. Several people mentioned other ones that they use or see with some frequency, so I figured a second venture into the world of initialisms was warranted. See what I did there? It has been argued that what are commonly referred to as …

10 More Books I Read

The books keep piling up. Most of my posts have a theme to them, such as zombies, or cats, or weddings. It is easy enough to fit books into categories. The problem are those books that don't quite fit into these niches. This helped give birth to Random Book Day, but that isn't until November, …

Star Wars. Star Wars (Books) Everywhere

What is the first thing that comes to you when I say Star Wars? For me it is that Star Destroyer rumbling down the screen, first seen back when it was just Star Wars, and not yet Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. I was 10 at the time, and no other movie experience …