Name: Casey T.
Location: Cincinnati, OH
Contact: bookworm4life (at) ymail (dot) com
Summary: I am a Teen Librarian for The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. I love to read, mainly teen and tween literature, but I’m willing to try anything. I have two beautiful cats with whom I am slightly obsessed named Oakley and Amberley — named after suburbs of Cincinnati — and I am married to a non-reader who I am slowly trying to convert.
Reading: My favorite genres are historical, fantasy, and supernatural (i.e. vampires, witches, werewolves, and shapeshifters). It’s hard for me to pick favorite books because the list is always changing. Some of the books that have stuck with me through the years are: Silver by Norma Fox Mazer; Mel by Liz Berry; Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause; Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte; The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin; The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare; From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg…I am sure there are more that I am blanking on (I will update when I remember) but this is a pretty good reflection of my reading life. For my more current favorites, check out my yearly top picks.
Music: I am the reader in the family and my husband is the music geek. I love listening to music but I am very bad at learning band names, song names, and lyrics so I tend to just listen to whatever’s on the radio. I do not enjoy listening to rap or country but other than that I’m wide open. Currently if I listen to something other than the radio it will probably be: Death Cab for Cutie, The Long Winters, Oh My God, Band of Horses, John Vanderslice, The Fray, and The Bird and the Bee — I know, a lot of random indie bands for someone who listens to corporate radio. :)
TV: Um, right now we don’t have cable. Shocking, I know. I enjoy How I Met Your Mother, Life, Jeopardy, Criminal Minds, and others when I’m not working evenings. I like to watch HGTV and A&E show full episodes online. Mostly I don’t watch a lot of TV anymore. Maybe one day…
Guilty Pleasures: Trashy gossip magazines like People and US Weekly and romance novels.
Likes: Fall and Spring when the air is warm but refreshing and their is little-to-no humidity; staying up late; the beach; sleeping in; going on long drives for the fun of it; oh, and reading.
Dislikes: People who call in to sports talk radio shows (at least the ones I’ve listened to); people who don’t signal when they turn; people who text while driving; people who insist they could never possible have made an error like returning a library book one or two days late to the library — I mean, they’re perfect in every way, grr.
Posts
Hi! Love your blog(s)! I write a young adult fantasy book review blog. I’d love to add you to my blogroll, and if you like my site, please add me to yours! I’m new to the blogsphere, so I’m only now learning about this amazing community of YA book reviewers and bloggers. Thanks!
| October 29, 2008 @ 1:20 am
I live right by Cincy. That’s really cool! And yes, you must convert the non-reader!!! hahah
-Lauren
| February 7, 2009 @ 3:29 pm
He’s coming around, slowly but surely. He’s been reading a bunch of sports nonfiction lately. Not at all my cup of tea but at least he’s reading! :)
| February 8, 2009 @ 7:05 pm
Casey got me hooked on Percy Jackson now. Currently having a pretty good time with it, though I didn’t enjoy the 2nd book nearly as much as the 1st and 3rd. Not a lot of great sports non-fiction out right now.
| May 14, 2009 @ 3:31 pm
Hi Case, Found your site by googling your name. Now I’ll have to read some of the books! One (not recommended by you) that I didn’t like was Choosing Sophie by Leslie Carroll. Right now I’m wading through Dale Loves Sophie to Death by Robb Forman Dew. It is a winner of the National Book Award. It’s growing on me. Love you!
| May 26, 2009 @ 9:14 am
You give good advice. I read The Drowning Tree and enjoyed it very much. It stayed with me for awhile after I was finished. A little haunting. My only complaint was that I’m not into mythology and I kept wishing someone would paint something other than trees, vines and water. That said, I want to read more books by Carol Goodman.
While I was getting the Goodman book out of the library, I stumbled across Hide by Lisa Gardner. (both in the G section) It was also very good. Eerie that a mental institution also played an important role as part of the setting in that story.
Wanted to go back to the library today because I am now out of books. But it’s closed on Sunday’s in the summer due to budget constraints. Don’t blame me. I always vote in favor of library levies.
| June 14, 2009 @ 4:22 pm
Have contacted all state offices today. Good luck on library funding.
Got Lake of Dead Languages out of library. Also got Brad Meltzer’s The Book of Lies. Since this was a 14 day loan, I read it first.
It is an interesting connection between Cain and Abel, the Nazis, and Superman. It is based on some historical fact and a lot of imagination. Is is very DeVinci Code like and at times I felt it was a rip off of that. But, it was well written and kept me interested. It was a good fast summer read.
| June 22, 2009 @ 3:59 pm
I’m happy you’re reading and I knew that Percy would be up your alley.
| May 15, 2009 @ 5:15 pm
I’m glad you found me. I’m sorry I’ve never sent you the link. Shame on me! :) I think Dad’s right, you need to go back to his section of Books In Stock and skip that first section. Hope you find some winners. Have you ever read any of Carol Goodman’s books? I haven’t reviewed any of them here because I read most of them before I started my blog but I really enjoy them. I just recommended them to Beth at work and she has read three or four of them in the past month or so. The first one she wrote is called The Lake of Dead Languages and my favorite is The Drowning Tree. I own Lake of Dead Languages but have it here. I’m sure the library would have it. All of her books are mysteries, a bit more literary than your average mystery but not too literary to make you feel like you’re working at reading. Hope you find a good book soon!
| May 31, 2009 @ 8:42 pm
Lisa Gardner is pretty popular but I’ve never read her. Sounds like it was an interesting story. I’ll have to keep Hide in mind for one of my next adult book fixes.
I don’t have any other recommendations right now. I’m reading/listening to The Art of Racing in the Rain for my “adult” bookclub. So far it’s kind of sad but good. I’ll let you know how it is when I’m done.
My library’s never open on Sunday. Don’t think that will change even if we get the levy but I guess we’ll see. I’m not sure that I would like having to work Sundays but it certainly would be better customer service. Thanks for voting yes for library levies. :)
| June 14, 2009 @ 10:38 pm
Thank you for contacting your state officials. We’ve had a lot of positive support from people coming into the library, I just hope they are all calling and emailing like they said!
The Book of Lies sounds interesting…Cain and Abel, the Nazis, and Superman, what a combo! Let me know what you think about Lake of Dead Languages.
| June 23, 2009 @ 8:28 pm