Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian by Avi Steinberg (Epub)

Description

Avi Steinberg is stumped. After defecting from yeshiva to Harvard, he has only a senior thesis essay on Bugs Bunny to show for his effort. While his friends and classmates advance in the world, he remains stuck at a crossroads, unable to meet the lofty expectations of his Orthodox Jewish upbringing. And his romantic existence as a freelance obituary writer just isn’t cutting it. Seeking direction – and dental insurance – Steinberg takes a job as a librarian in a tough Boston prison.

The prison library counter, his new post, attracts con men, minor prophets, ghosts, and an assortment of quirky regulars searching for the perfect book and a connection to the outside world. There’s an amiable pimp who solicits Steinberg’s help in writing a memoir. An industrious gangster who dreams of hosting a cooking show titled Thug Sizzle. A disgruntled officer who instigates a major feud over a Post-it note. An ex-stripper who asks Steinberg to orchestrate a reunion with her estranged son, himself an inmate. Over time, Steinberg is drawn into the accidental community of outcasts that has formed among his bookshelves – a drama he recounts with heartbreak and humor.

Running the Books is a trenchant personal exploration of prison culture and an entertaining tale of one young man’s earnest attempt to find his place in the world while trying not to get fired in the process.

User’s Reviews

There is no Editorial Review for this book

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ I loved this book, read it twice a few years later. I work for a non-profit program that runs a lending library in the local jail and often give this book to some of the longer term volunteer librarians. Many of the 4 and 5 star reviews mirror my own thoughts so I won’t go into detail about why I like this book so much.My only real criticism is that he actually works at a jail not a prison. A jail typically houses inmates for less than a year or two. They usually are individuals that have not yet been found guilty of the charges against them and are waiting for a trial or a plea bargain. Some of completing short term sentences for less serious crimes. This book does not reflect life in a prison, in which inmates are “serving time”, some on death row, other there for life. The environment is much harsher, more extreme, prisoners are more restricted.

⭐ Prison librarian may not have been the career this yeshiva student and Harvard graduate had in mind while he was growing up, but it’s a marvelous thing that he ended up in the job by default. Disinclined to pursue more schooling, Steinberg applied for, and landed, the job in a Boston Prison, much to his own surprise.This is the story of his tenure there and the relationships that formed among the inmates, the guards, and the staff of which he is a member. In addition to running the library and supervising the inmate library staff, he teaches a creative writing class.And what a good thing, because Steinberg is a wonderful writer. He has a flawless ear for dialogue, somehow managing to accurately render the prison slang and street dialects without being either offensive or condescending. Especially enjoyable are the conversations between him and the various inmates who come into the library: wily, manipulative, sweet and shy, earnest, silly, aggrieved. The library is a refuge in an inhumane place, and without quite saying so, Steinberg does his best to make it fill that role most effectively without breaking the rules.There is a lot of humor in the story, since both author and inmates are clever and wise; but Steinberg is careful to maintain the boundaries and not get pulled into the daily dramas, disputes, and other compromising situations. While he can see the enormous disparity between his fortunate life and those of the prisoners, he never descends into maudlin reveries, and does a tribute-worthy job staying objective while remaining compassionate. He is not naïve; he can take teasing, and he weighs his responses to avoid trouble yet honor the humanity of the inmates.He occasionally bends the rules to help the more appealing ones in small but meaningful ways: sneaking in special foods from the outside (staff who do that are known as “feeders”), or passing clandestine messages. But these are small exceptions; most of the time, he is forced to turn down pleas and special requests, and heeds warnings about taking sides.The experience not only gives him a rich subject to write about but it also teaches him much that is valuable. He writes about the disturbing contrast between life inside the prison and outside, without making crass judgments about the people who end up in prison. He encounters some released prisoners who recognize him before he recognizes them, and the encounters are not pleasant. But, then, he visits the mother of a young man whom he had befriended in prison who was later murdered in a gang incident after being released. The man had been earnestly trying to realize a career dream that, we are given to think, was within reach. Steinberg gives the mother pieces of correspondence and poetry written by her son in prison.Steinberg pulls off the difficult task of describing experiences that range from touching to frightening to funny, without an ounce of sentimentality. The book is a treasure: a prison account that manages to be funny, sad, moving, fascinating, and just plain tell a great story.

⭐ This book was great. I have been involved with prisoners. My husband and I would house them for about a month when they were released. We helped them try to get set up in the real world. So the book was really meaningful to me.

⭐ A good book about a young Jewish man finding himself through his work as a prison librarian. The book moves along at an easy pace. The author jumps around some ( past to present, inmate to another inmate, then back again) which was a little distracting. I would have enjoyed linear storytelling much better.

⭐ I’m half-way through and still haven’t finished it. It’s not bad…just enh.

⭐ I had to read this book as a part of my Honors College colloquium and I really enjoyed it. Great for discussions. I learned a lot and stayed interested. It has a very casual and friendly tone with I really like. I’ve recommended it to friends.

⭐ Delightful book. I run a nonprofit in the state prison and I recommend all the volunteers read this book so they can understand prisioners and prision culture.

⭐ so intuesting how he was beneficial in that prison cliomate/

⭐ Here is a different line of work to explore!

⭐ The story was good, writing could have been better.The most compelling part of the book was the writing by the inmates. Wow…..I recommend this book to anyone interested in seeing a prison through the eyes of author.

Keywords

Free Download Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian in Epub format
Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian Epub Free Download
Download Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian 2010 Epub Free
Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian 2010 Epub Free Download
Download Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian Epub
Free Download Ebook Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian