Hello

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Hello, my name is Ricke Elaine Ballard Gritten. I am currently a student at IUPUI working towards a Masters in Library Science. I enjoy cult television and movies, books and travel. I am a mother of two girls and am husbanded by Kevin, and act as steward to two cats, Hermione and Bandit. The purpose of this blog is to post weekly assignments, reflections and reviews required for LIS-S 524 Adult Reader's Advisory. To explore other examples of graduate course work, please visit my Wordpress site, https://ricketiki.com.

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Personal Reading Profile

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Bibliophile: ( noun)  a person who collects, or has a great love of books. Personal Reading Profile I have loved reading all my life. The first word I recall reading is cat. I enjoy reading for the sake of reading. I use it for gathering information, engaging in immersive experiences in fiction, and delving into  non-fiction topics and histories with biographies, large sweeping histories and detailed specific topics of history. I also enjoy reading cultural commentary, feminist theory, intellectually challenging scholarly work, literary fiction, trashy time travel romance, good time travel, science fiction (not hard), speculative science fiction, some fantasy, newspapers (present day and vintage), Twitter, just about anything. But because my leisure time is limited, when I devote energy to a book, it has to be exactly the reading experience I’m seeking. My reading tastes are somewhat eclectic. To create my personal reading profile, I began ...
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Week 12 Prompt: Nonfiction Matrix Annotation- On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

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For your prompt this week, please complete the Readers' Advisory Matrix, found on the last page of the reading title "RA Guide to Nonfiction" in the Canvas files, about a non-fiction book you have read. If you have not read a non-fiction book recently, feel free to use some of the techniques on how to "read" a book in five minutes such as Mary Chelton's handouts or any others we have covered to get a feel for a non-fiction book. I look forward to reading these! Author : Timothy Snyder Title : On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century Publication date : 2017 Number of pages : 126 Geographic setting : N/A Time period : 20 th and 21 st century Subject headings : Despotism. History, Modern—20 th century. Political ethics. Democracy—United States. Political culture—United States. Type : Book Series notes : N/A Book Summary : An essay divided into twenty sections on lessons from past episodes in hi...
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Suspense Annotation: Origin: A Novel, by Dan Brown

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Author: Dan Brown     Title : Origin: A Novel Genre : Suspense Publication Date : 2017 Number of Pages : 461 Geographical Setting : Spain Time Period : Contemporary Series : Robert Langdon #5 Plot Summary : Harvard professor of symbology and religious iconography Robert Langdon (of the Da Vinci Code) travels to the Guggenheim museum in Spain at the behest of former student and controversial tech billionaire Edmond Kirsch to observe his presentation of a scientific discovery that he claims will change the world. When Kirsch is murdered before the eyes of the watching world, Langdon and Kirsch’s colleague, museum director Ambra Vida, with the assistance of an AI program created by Kirsch named Winston, are plunged into a race to crack Kirsch’s password to launch the presentation with the hopes that whoever killed him and is pursuing them will be stopped. In one frantic night the duo evades the threats of a mysterious assassin, ...
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YA Annotation: Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorofor

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Author: Nnedi Okorafor Title: Akata Witch #1 Genre: YA, Fantasy Publication Date: 2011 Number of Pages: 349 Geographical Setting: Nigeria Time Period: Contemporary Series: Akata Witch Plot Summary:   Sunny is an 12 year old African-American girl, born to Nigerian immigrants, who navigates the world with a few distinct disadvantages that are compounded when her family relocates back to Nigeria: she must deal with albinism in a culture that stereotypes people like her with pale skin, yellow hair and hazel eyes as evil juju practitioners, and she is an American who speaks with a funny accent. At school she is bullied, at home her father’s disappointment that she is a girl is evident. Kids at school call her an Akata, a slur, which means bush animal, or a black American or foreign born black person. After stumbling into her first vision trance that terrifies her with images of an apocalyptic future, Sunny accidentally sets her hair on fire gazin...
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Book Club

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"So, I guess I'm out of the book club?" - Ben, LOST, "A Tale of Two Cities" On LOST (one my favorite TV shows) the mysterious "Others" had a book club, and it was no different than any other book club held by people who are not the descendants of a secretive hippie scientific initiative and a crew of random true believers recruited by a megalomanic engaged in exploiting a supernatural island and terrorizing plane crash survivors. According to Lostpedia, The " book club " is an informal group of  Others  who get together periodically to discuss a  book  that was selected by the meeting's host. §    Members included:  Juliet ,  Amelia ,  Adam , and four  Others background cast , three of  whom appeared in later episodes. §    Ben  didn't attend at least one meeting hosted by Juliet. Members of the "Others" on LOST have a book club Click on the video to see how tense a discussion of Stephen King's Car...
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Science Fiction Annotation: The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen A. Flynn

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Annotation  Author : Kathleen A. Flynn Title : The Jane Austen Project Genre : Science Fiction>Time Travel Publication Date : 2017 Number of Pages : 373 Geographical Setting : England Time Period : Semi-distant future, Georgian England (1815) Series : N/A (Though this could easily be turned into a series.) Plot Summary : Due to global warming, the future is a place where all food is vegan by necessity, vast numbers of species are extinct and Venice is only a memory, and, oh by the way, the secret to time travel is discovered. The latest mission to the past aims to retrieve Austen’s last novel, once thought unfinished, to find out what illness caused Austen’s death and to obtain missing correspondence sought by scholars. The two-person team is comprised of an Austen obsessed American doctor, Rachel, and a British literature scholar and trained improvisational actor Liam. Upon arrival in 1815, the plan is to insinuate themselves into the circle of Austen’s f...
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Special Topics Paper: Indigenous Futurisms

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“Indigenous Futurisms: The Transformative Potential of Science Fiction’s ‘What If’ Appeal” Click Here For Full Paper (This paper has been reorganized for the blog) Science Fiction is an intellectual genre (comprised of multiple subgenres) that asks the question, “what if?”; this is the core of its appeal (Rosenberg, 1982, p.173). Science Fiction, or “SF”, “posits worlds and technologies which could exist. Science rather than magic, drives these speculative tales, and the science must be accurate and true…” (Saricks, 2009, p.245). Also known as Speculative and Visionary [1] Fiction, despite its history of male dominated creators and audiences [2] , and it’s “saturation” with “race thinking” of its particular time, the genre is “fertile” terrain for creators who question the status quo (Carrington,2016, p.2, Ertung, 2011, p.77, Saricks, 2009, p.246). From Feminist Science Fiction writers in the 1970s, to Cyberpunk [3] in the 1980s and early ‘90s (Pat Cadigan, Synners) to Afro...
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Week Thirteen Prompt

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Week Thirteen Prompt Though this week's group of "genres" all seem very different, they all have in common the fact that many people don't feel that they are legitimate literary choices and libraries shouldn't be spending money on them or promoting them to adults. The common belief is that adults still don't or shouldn't read that stuff. How can we as librarians, work to ensure that we are able to serve adults who enjoy YA literature or graphic novels? Or should we? I can't wait to read your thoughts on this. Thanks! When applied to any material that doesn’t pose an imminent threat of danger, such as an enchanted spell book that once opened will unleash a hell dimension on earth, the words “shouldn’t read” are not in my vocabulary.  That is not to say that I don’t hold opinions on various titles or genres, in some cases very negative opinions and judgments, but it is not my place as a librarian to impose those views on a patron. ...
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Fantasy Annotation: The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor

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Author : Nnedi Okorafor Title : The Book of Phoenix Genre : Fantasy/SF/Magical realism Publication Date : 2015 Number of Pages: 232 Geographical Setting: Dystopian former United States, Ghana, Africa Time Period : The not too distant future Series : Who Fears Death Plot Summary : Phoenix is only two years old, but she looks forty. She is the product of a corporation/dystopian government project that uses genetic experiments to create “speciMen,” creatures/people hybrids, coded for specific purposes. Some “projects” fail and others succeed. Some speciMen for instance supply the world’s elite with organs. In Phoenix’s case, she learns she is a weapon, driven by a thirst for justice she turns her powers of destruction on her careless and selfish creators. As Phoenix’s name suggests, this story, despite the science fiction elements, is fundamentally a fable. The author Nnedi Okorafor is a first generation Nigerian American. She skillfully weaves fairy tale eleme...
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