Itinerant Librarian on Books

I have not done one of these posts in a while, mostly because life keeps happening. But I do enjoy my Saturdays browsing and finding new things to read at my local public library, so here are my latest findings. Once I read them, I will do my best to get the reviews up. I find that writing up the reviews, or at least taking notes to write the reviews, is the easy part. Putting them up online? Not as easy. Anyhow, here we go.

The Radical King. I recently read Black Prophetic Fire (link to my review if you are interested) which was written by Cornel West. In the book, West speaks of the radical nature of Martin Luther King, Jr., a nature that has been mostly sanitized from the history books. So when I saw The Radical King, which is an edition of King's works highlighting his more radical work, I knew I had to pick it up and read it as well to keep on learning.

The 12 Bottle Bar. I had requested this for review at Netgalley, and they actually turned me down. It does not happen very often, but once in a while I do get rejected for a request. I was slightly curious why I was not approved since I have reviewed bar and and drinking books before, but oh well. Maybe it was for the better since at least one review of it I saw (via Drinkhacker) seemed mixed. However, when I saw it at my local public library, I was curious enough to take a look.

Etiquette for Outlaws. One of the places I check when I go to the public library, after the new books shelf, is the returns shelf. This is the staging shelf the library uses for books that return that have been discharged and need to be reshelved. Not all libraries keep their staging/returns shelf in an area available to the public. For me, it gives me a small glimpse of what other people in the community may be reading, and once in a while I do find something to read from there. Etiquette for Outlaws was one such find. I will admit the cover caught my eye right away. The book claims to answer questions like: what to wear to a fetish ball? what to tip a tattoo artist, strip club etiquette, and a few other streetwise and a bit chaotic things that somehow you are supposed to know, but no one tells you. The library's copy is a bit tattered, so it has gotten some use. When I read it, I will post a review.

Happy reading.