Holly, Author at Awful Library Books

Indian Summer

July 22, 2021 Holly Friday Fiction 16 comments

Indian Summer
Monjo
1968

Submitter: This 50 year old beginning reader book is a woefully one-sided history lesson about Kentucky settlers vs. The Indians. While Pa is off to “lick the British” with the likes of George Washington, Ma is left behind with her rifle to defend her children and their cabin from Indian attack. The story features stereotypical Indian illustrations, and atrocious language such as “redskins” and the children fearing they’ll be “scalped.” This was one of the original items owned in our children’s collection, and it last circulated in 2017, I’m sad to say. When I noticed the faded cover and yellowed pages, then discovered the terribly racist historical fiction within this book, I weeded it quickly. For fun, note the old fashioned “wash your hands” sticker we used to put in the front cover of children’s books at our library. It’s the best and most relevant part of this book!

Holly: Public libraries are not the place for this kind of thing anymore! Pass it on to a museum or archive…or wherever you’re putting your Little House on the Prairie books.

Celebrity Sewing Bee

July 20, 2021 Holly Craptastic Crafts and Hobbies 14 comments

Francine Coffey’s Celebrity Sewing Bee
Coffey
1974

Submitter: When the title says “celebrity sewing bee” they really meant a lot of Dinah Shore. The one area that was really popular during the pandemic was our crafting section. So much so, you could spot the books that needed weeding by glancing over to that section and seeing what did not go out the door. This was one of them – and with reason.

Holly: I can’t imagine why a sewing book with celebrities from 47 years ago isn’t popular anymore. <sarcasm> There are all kinds of great ideas here: put fabric on your ceiling, or Elmer’s glue some fabric to your floor! Make a diet-friendly birthday cake-shaped bag! Re-purpose bandanas into a dress (hey, if you can make a skirt out of curtains, you can make a dress out of masks! I’m sure that’s the next craft craze.)

Bye Bye Bye

July 16, 2021 Holly Celebrity Gossip and Advice 5 comments

*NSYNC
Boekhoff and Kallen
2003

Submitter: This book is ‘tearing up my heart’ knowing it’s still sitting on the shelf all these years. So who’s going to weed this book? “It’s gonna be me.” I guess I could have gone with Bye Bye Bye old book…

Holly: This was published just as the group was breaking up. I think we can safely let it go. “This I Promise You.”

T-Shirting

July 13, 2021 Holly Craptastic Crafts and Hobbies 11 comments

T-Shirting: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Getting it On Your Chest
Platt
1975

Submitter: I had high hopes from the cover this book might be a groovy book that, when put out on display might get someone to check it out. But alas, its one of those disappointing craft books with bad black and white images.

Holly: Fair warning before you scroll down: two of these images are potentially NSFW. One is a t-shirt model with “special skills” (image 6 below). This might have been a cool book in 1975, but I agree with Submitter: black and white images are just disappointing in a craft book. I want to see those chest handprints in living color (image 3 below…NSFW…).

Hippie Crafts

July 12, 2021 Holly Craptastic Crafts and Hobbies 14 comments

Hippie Crafts: Creating a Hip New Look Using Groovy ’60s Crafts
O’Sullivan
2005

Submitter: This book has not circulated since being purchased back in 2005. From the looks of it, I can see why! Maybe Mary can delight us in some of her 60’s threads.

Holly: Mary is cool, but not this cool.

Mary: I am quite certain I sported a few similar items, but I am going to say no to the vests in the 5th picture. Some of these should have stayed put in the 1960s.

Glamor Shots – NSFW!

July 7, 2021 Holly Fine and Not So Fine Arts 13 comments

Successful Glamor Photography
Kelly
1983

Submitter: While helping someone look for photography books here at the public library, I came across this gem. It’s porn – let’s not kid ourselves. Almost every page has topless women on it. To my eye, this is one of those “Art” books that is really upscale porn. The circulation for this book was still good, so I updated the subject heading so that patrons will understand the true intent.

Holly: I’ll just bet it circulates well! Lol! Scroll down AT YOUR PRE-WARNED DISCRETION for the uncensored cover and other images from within.

Apple Dumplins’

June 29, 2021 Holly Craptastic Crafts and Hobbies 9 comments

Apple Dumplings Presents Soft Sculpture
Graham
1981

Submitter: This ye olde craft book comes from a local branch of the public library. Since automation in 1999 it has not circulated. Sad because that might mean it hasn’t circulated in over 20+ years. It certainly is a time capsule of crafting in the late 70’s and early 80s. My personal yikes – Aunt Bessie.

Holly: At first glance of the submission, I thought, “Oh good, more apple head dolls. Mary will love this.” These are cute, in an old-white-granny kind of way!

But oh my word, Aunt Bessie (last image, below).

Science Fun!

June 28, 2021 Holly Bleeding Edge, For the Kids 15 comments

Fun With Science
Easy Experiments for Young People
Freeman and Freeman
1956

This little gem from the 1950s is CLEARLY past its “sell by” date. The cover was in bad shape and there was some yellowing. This came from a university collection, not a public library. (There was one public library that had this book listed in its collection.) The Freemans wrote many youth science nonfiction books up into the 1970s.

This book was first published in 1943 and was last printed in 2000. The Freemans passed away in the 1980s. I couldn’t find much biographical information about the Freemans with my cursory searches. Given the longevity of their books, as well has the number of titles, their materials should be archived and maintained for study.