March 2024 Post 3

03/29/2024

Morgan Konz

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Welcome to Our Library Blog!

Happy Geeky, Nerdy Friday, everyone!

We do not have any news this week. Please have an enjoyable weekend!

Nerd Blogger: Morgan, Library Specialist: "Don't Get Me Started on the Telly"

It is 2013, and I'm on the tube. All I can think is "I'm really here".

I am walking along the business side of Thames because we missed our scheduled event in our travels. (Not by the water because who actually does that?) All I can think is "I'm really here".

I rode a double-decker bus (sadly, not red and half the size). All I can think is "I'm really here.

I (sorta) fought with a cashier when ordering fries because I called them chips on the first go. I ordered black tea and never drank it because it really sucked. I went to a fish and chip shop but didn't order any fish. I really was there. I was on a trip to the UK. The place that I have seen in movies and shows that I have tried to consume like a hungry lion. And I was more excited than I ever pretended to be and felt I had way more knowledge than I actually did.

Thinking back on what media I had consumed then, I would have been a whole lot of Tudor England knowledge, some Beatles history, some Graham Norton episodes, Sherlock (I'm going to say I watched it by now. I've watched it so much that I don't actually remember what year is my "awakening"), and Doctor Who. Sure, I watched documentaries on several castles, a good number of British specific movies, and some niche BBC series that no one actually knows the name of except me and a handful of people.

There was a time when I had watched or at least tried to start almost all the BBC shows being shown on Netflix. At the beginning, it was pretty easy as there were only a few, but it grew to be too many. Although, I have not seen a BBC produced show in quite some time, I can tell you it probably is one of the better set of drama writing that I have seen. As watching as a foreigner, I find the script usually non-formulaic most of the time. When it comes up in conversation, I bring up that Broadchurch (ITV) was remade for a US audience and titled Gracepoint (Fox). Although this has not been the first show to cross the ocean and will not be the last, the ending was switched in a terribly predictable American way. The show promised the viewers new twists, but delivered a drama filled heavily with lead while its parent show produced drama that whipped like the wind from the overlooking cliffs.

I find myself watching BBC series less and less as the amount of shows becomes increasingly more available. When I do watch and see the familiar logo flash across the corner of the screen, I feel the familiar feeling of comfort and feeling of "hey, I was there once!" as I settle down to some twisting British drama.

WITcha reading?

Let us know WITcha reading, WITCC by emailing the library at library@witcc.edu and let us know if we can put you in our Blog!

WITcha recommend? Let us know what books you recommend. You can find recommended books in our books tab!

WITcha Listening To?

What podcasts are you listening to? What are you recommending?

Let us know WITcha listening, WITCC by emailing the library at library@witcc.edu and let us know if we can put you in our Blog!

Say 'Hello' To Our New Books

Don't forget to stop by our books webpage for our new books and see what books are being recommended!

Thank you for joining us for our geek week!

We hope to see you again next week!

See you then!

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March 2024 Post 2

03/22/2024

Morgan Konz

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Welcome to Our Library Blog

We hope you had a great Spring Break!

Ted X April 11

We would like to take this time to remind everyone about the TED X event on campus Thursday, April 11th. TED X is an independently ran TED event with multiple speakers. Description of the event is available on the WITCC TED X website.

Thank you for all those who joined in our Bookmark Contest! You can look at the bookmarks at the bookmark contest page.

Women's History Month

Women's History Month started as Women's History Week in 1980 when President Jimmy Carter issued a Presidential proclamation. Congress passed a resolution soon after for the following year (1982) to establish a national celebration. However, Women's History Week could be seen as early as 1978 in Sonoma County California. In 1987, Congress passed a statute that set up the month of March of that year as Women's History Month. Congress passed additional resolutions authorizing the President to proclaim March of each year between 1988 to 1994 to be for Women's history. Each president since then have continued to do so.

Women's History Month celebrates the contributions women have made to the United States. It is to recognize achievements women have made over history in their diverse fields and to lift up women's voices to be heard.

Developmental Disabilities Month

This month (and all months), the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities (NACDD) raise awareness for the inclusion of people with disabilities and to bring awareness of barriers that people of disabilities still face while connecting and partaking in the communities in which they live in. This month is to highlight how communities with all different abilities can come together and form strong connections and stronger communities. While forming these bonds and creating the awareness, barriers are removed.

National Library Week

First started in 1957, National Library week was put together by the American Library Association (ALA) with libraries across the country to promote library usage and to support local libraries. Countries across the globe have different weeks in which they celebrate libraries, but the idea has spread.

Every year, the ALA has an overreaching theme for the year while each day has a celebratory day.

Monday: Right to Read Day- "a day for readers, advocates, and library lovers to take action to protect, defend, and celebrate the right to read".

Tuesday: National Library Workers Day

Wednesday: National Library Outreach Day- a day dedicated to professionals who are "meeting their patrons where they are"

Thursday: Take Action for Libraries Day- "a day to rally advocates to support libraries".

Check out our display both online and in our library to celebrate National Library Week

Review: Morgan, Library Specialist: If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood by Gregg Olsen

As someone who has occasionally will watch a true crime series or will listen to a true crime podcast, I have not read very many true crime books. When it comes to seeing something and hearing true events, I find the story more interesting while hearing and seeing than reading. The story generally seems more impactful to me this way. However, I found this book while scrolling through my phone and the story of it (however horrible it may be) sounded so interesting. The story felt much like a movie plot or a mini-drama you would find that you didn't know existed (for the record, there is an episode of a true crime show about this). I needed to know how it ended without even reading a single word of what was inside.

Michelle "Shelly" Knotek is a parent. A strict parent. But not one of those strict parents where maybe you can see it comes from a place of love or even misplaced love. She just needed the upper hand. Her rules are arbitrary. Her rules compound. Her rules are not equal between her children. She does not make deals. She does not care if someone is sick. She abuses family and non-family alike. Shelly is psychologically and emotionally manipulative. And she is relentless.

Sisters Nikki, Sami, and Tori are in it together. One is the favorite. One has balanced between favoritism and being at the bottom end of Shelly's blows. The other...well. Receives some of the worst. As family, step-fathers, and friends came into this family's life, the more horrible and more fantastical this story seemed to be. Who is actually missing? Who is actually murdered? Is anyone actually cared for deep down? How can something as safe and as comforting as family and love be turned around in these children and then adults' lives? And is when it seems the most real.

I couldn't stop reading. There is so much that happens to these children turned teens turned adults that I needed to know that these people would come out at the end.

Olsen has great writing style in the books that I have read, started to read, or had read samples of. He knows the language that keeps an audience engaged as if this were a novel, but doesn't let you forget that this is a true story.

We do have a copy available on campus if interested.