The musings of a Minecraft Mum

Over the last several months I have discovered the joys of being a Minecraft Mum. That is, a Mum to two small boys who have become rather addicted to the game Minecraft, and all of its related trappings (and toys!). I read somewhere that once your kids start playing Minecraft, it is all you hear about, and I can confirm it is true ;)

This year it even meant that when my lovely sons shopped for my birthday, they were very proud that they brought me these diamond earrings. As a good Minecraft Mum, I did proudly wear these to work, where I kind of hoped all the cool kids would be most impressed. They weren't, but I did meet lots of OTHER Minecraft Mums who were, lol.

What is Minecraft? Well, it looks like a very basic kind of game, where everything is in cube form, including the main boxy character Steve. But while it looks really basic (and like WHY WOULD ANYONE EVEN PLAY THAT), it is in fact a virtual sandbox, where players can build and create anything they can imagine, using cube shaped building blocks. The possibilities are pretty much endless, and that is the true beauty of the game. The things my five year old has created are stunning…..and a little scary ;)

I knew we had reached new levels of addiction when my 5 year old was completing activities for the Dare to explore summer reading programme at the library, and in nearly every case, he could find a way to make it Minecraft related. We needed to come up with ingredients for a magic potion, and he came up with ghast tears, gunpowder and redstone, which I was a bit of a mix of disturbed and impressed with, until his Dad pointed out they were things that you pick up in Minecraft, phew!

It is so nice to know that being a Minecraft Mum is quite a common phenomenon, there are even websites such as this one  to support and inspire us (and maybe give us a clue when the kids know more than we do).

Not to mention all the fantastic books we can borrow from the library, some of the personal favourites in our household are:

Craft projects for Minecraft and pixelart fans by Choly Knight 

Minecraft : beginner's handbook by Stephanie Milton

Minecraft for dummies by Jesse Stay

and The Minecraft guide for parents :down-to-earth advice for parents of children playing Minecraft by Cori Dusmann.

You can even borrow the game itself from the library! 

We have it available to borrow for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and the PlayStation Vita . Just be warned, that’s just how we got started….and I don’t regret it for a minute ;) 

That New Book Smell

Ahh, that moment when the book you've finally been waiting for comes in. It's brand spanking new and shiny and perfectly covered. The pages aren't marked and it still smells​ of new book. And then sometimes, you get the book you'd long forgotten you'd even wanted. It's a favorite authors book and you've been waiting in line for it for months.The hold you put on, oh, what, late last year? It's finally come in! You pick it up and you think about it for a second - a memory niggles the back of your brain, and then BAM! It's exactly what you needed. Past you knows you so well. You hold it in your hands and you know that the instant you get home, you'll be unreachable to all others until you've at least finished the first 100 pages. That's the perfect moment and definitely one of my favorite things as a book-lover. 

You take that baby home, devour it in one, two sittings, and then afterwards you feel a mixture of excitement, contentment and sadness at the face that it's over so quickly. But it's okay! You're rejuvenated, you're ready for the next one. Hop on our webpage and put more holds on the latest additions, and hopefully beat the rush and get first in line.

If you're like me and you love to take out new books, check out our New Titles tab on the Auckland Libraries website. It has all the books the library has just bought this month (as well as a couple of previous months if you want to look back), plus the links to every one of them on the catalogue. (If you're not sure if we're going to get a book you're looking forward too, you can always suggest it for purchase, too).

Some of my favourite 'new' books that have just come in were these treasures -

Displacement - Lucy Knisley
A travelogue from one of my favourite authors and comic artists, Lucy takes us with her on a cruise... for the elderly. She volunteers to go with her grandparents when her family gets worried, and ends up being run around mad while trying to come to grips with mortality and the hard work of watching the ones you love get older.

First Frost - Sarah Addison Allen
My absolute favourite author. This is the second book in the Waverly Sister series (the first being Garden Spells), but is entirely fantastic as a stand-alone novel as well. The Waverly women are known for their powerful but obscure family magic. Claire starts to doubt her cooking magic which she has always been so sure of, while Sydney (hair magic) tries to understand her teenage daughter, Bay, the way most mothers do. Lovesick Bay knows where things belong - but doesn't know what to do when the person she belongs with doesn't think the same. A lovely, endearing story all aglow with magical realism.

In Real Life - Cory Doctorow, Jen Wang
A simple but thoughtful fiction graphic novel that looks at the way poverty and gaming come together in the form of gold farming - the act of collecting valuable items in-game to sell in real life to wealthier players. Anda, new player to the MMO taking the world by storm, starts out by taking out these gold farmers - until one of them stops to talk to her and an unlikely friendship begins.

And some I've just put on hold now, from browsing through the New Titles list (again)!

Cut, fold & hold : unique cardboard projects for the home - Petra Schroder & Dirk von Manteuffel
I love love love looking at craft books. I don't often make the things in them, but they inspire me nonetheless - especially ones to do with papercraft. 

"This book is filled with detailed photographic instructions on how to create amazing items from cardboard. Everything needed to complete the projects is outlines in the first chapter, and a vast majority are typical household items many people already have lying around."

Sound of a Woman - Kiesza

Yep, even the recent CDs that the library has bought are available to see on the New Titles page. I am a huge fan of what little I've heard of Kiesza and am totally stoked to hear what's on her album past the singles released on the radio. Check out her music and the rest of what we've recently got!

It's always interesting to just scroll through our catalogue and see what has popped up. And now that March has officially started, it's time for me to get requesting... Just joking, I already did on the very first of the month.

Sneak Peek: Bosch The TV Show, Not the Appliances

 

On the surface Bosch sounds like every other TV cop show. There's a hard-ass cop who smokes too much, a murder that soon turns into a possible serial murderer and behind-the-scenes political intrigue.

And yet watching Bosch is like having a long soak in a warm bath or a firm but relaxing massage or eating a bar of chocolate.  It makes you feel all warm and fuzzy and relaxed and is highly addictive.

Like seriously addictive.

To the point where you finish an episode and just want to watch the next one.  Even better it has just 10 episodes in the 1st season which means it's perfect for a marathony binge.

It has an old-school film noir feel along with a gritty edginess, a superb cast including the much under-rated but always excellent Titus Welliver in the lead role, lots of twists and turns and red-herrings and the story pacing is taut, tight and rolls out the hits one by one.

Of course if you've read the books you're probably already aware of who Bosch is, if you haven't then you're in for a treat.

So remember the name and keep an eye for Bosch on your screens.

Reconsumption

What is it about watching the same movie or TV show over and over? Why do some books survive repeat readings? Well, it’s partly because with reconsumption you pick up on different aspects of the story – details that you missed the first time, or the tenth time. And partly it’s your brain wanting that reliable reward - every time, guaranteed - whether that reward is delight, thrills, or consolation. It’s also a way to gain insight into your own life and gauge how you’ve changed over time.

Anyone with kids will know that they love to have the same stories read to them, over and over and OVER. It’s comforting and familiar, and repetition has some actual sciencey benefits too: children learn vocab much faster through repeat readings and they gain a deeper comprehension of, say, exactly where is Spot.

We’re going way back here, but for me as a tween (although tweens hadn’t been invented then) my most-thrashed movie was the Parent Trap (1961) starring Hayley Mills AND Hayley Mills (see what they did there??). This was when you had to rent movies on VHS from your local video store – there were no easy downloads straight to your phone – but I still managed to borrow it so often that I learned all the dialogue by heart AND drove my family completely crazy.

When I re-watched it as an adult I was absolutely shocked at how TERRIBLE the story is! But it's good-terrible. Hayley Mills stars as identical twins, Sharon and Susan, who were separated from each other as babies when their parents divorced. Each parent took a kid, Dad took Susan to California and Mom took Sharon to Boston, and they never told them about their sister. Can you imagine? These details are just glossed over in the movie. It’s Disney. There is no bitterness, no family therapy, not even a “how could you lie to me for my whole life?!”

The twins meet at summer camp and decide to switch places. (Sample quote: “You must bring Mother to California. Boston is no place to rekindle a romance.”) I think this was the big draw card for me: an opportunity to have a complete change of scene for a while: new city, new family – what fun! The twins have a good old time meeting their long lost parent and plot to get them to meet and fall in love again. (At confession time: “Let’s get this straight. I’m not Sharon I’m Susan. Sharon – your Sharon – is out in California with Daddy, swimming, riding and having a keen time while I’m stuck here with these lousy music lessons and I hate them!”) The spanner in the works is Dad’s new girlfriend, icy blond Vicky who’s out to get his money (Vicky: “You're a big girl now, Susan. You're old enough to understand that wonderful, delicate mystery that happens sometimes between a man and a woman.” Sharon: I know what wonderful, delicate mystery Daddy sees in you. And I can't say I blame him there, either. You're very nicely put together.”)

You get the idea: pranks, shenanigans, misunderstandings, camping. And a happy ending. Even I can still see the appeal in all that, even if the premise is seriously suspect.

What to read: Not That Kind of Girl - Lena Dunham

“There is nothing gutsier to me than a person announcing that their story is one that deserves to be told,” writes Lena Dunham, and it certainly takes guts to share the stories that make up her debut memoir, Not That Kind of Girl.

Fans of Lena’s will know already, she is queen of the outrageous one-liner.

“I am twenty years old and I hate myself,” are the opening words of the book; from a writer who uses pure self-loathing to mask her incessant narcissism.

Written in typical Dunham fashion, the book is disguised as an advice column in how to navigate the tribulations and awkwardness of girlhood. She delivers a candid and sincere reflection of the experiences that molded her young self into the empowering, confident and outspoken woman she is today.

Clustered into five main sections - Love & Sex, Body, Friendship, Work and Big Picture - the series of short essays provide insightful, and sometimes cringe-inducing, reflections on Dunham’s key life experiences.

Being an avid Girls fan, I waited patiently for months until her memoir finally hit the shelves. Having finished binge-watching Season three of the show in March, I desperately needed my Dunham fix. I had high expectations for the wild, witty, and warm girl I had grown to respect on screen – and in no way did she disappoint.

It is loaded with frank and intimate accounts that draw similarity to the trials faced by the fictional Hannah. She crafts a revealing, unfiltered, graphic and at times uncomfortable description of what she has learned thus far.

Before she was a sensation, Dunham was a 9-year-old vowing to be celibate; a 14-year-old playing dead at an all-girl sleepover, and the one girl sporting a tankini at an Oberlin University party.

It may seem like I’m gushing about this woman, but from my perspective, Lena’s likability stems from the fact that she doesn’t fit into a traditional celebrity mold. She is loud, unruly, imperfect, and some might say even a little gross. She speaks openly about feminism and sexuality, without apology, and for the majority of the book she is so wildly inappropriate, you don’t know whether to keep reading or slam the book down from embarrassment. Ironically, it is these unique qualities that I believe make her one of the most relatable celebrities to date.

I asked my friend the same question: ‘What is it that you like about Not That Kind of Girl”, to which she replied “her memoir just feels like an extension of the show and we get to dive in a little deeper into her personality – that, and she’s just so raw and hilarious, what’s not to love about her!”

Whether you have seen Girls or not, this book gives you access into the quirky mind and experiences that created one of Hollywood’s hottest comedic talents.

Not That Kind of Girl is from that kind of girl: bold, gutsy, ambitious and willing to stand out. This is why Dunham is not only a voice who deserves to be heard but one that will continue to shock, thrill and will most likely, continue to surprise us all.


- our thanks to Sophie Buchan for the guest post!