Welcome to Check Your Shelf! This is your guide to all things book talk worth knowing to help librarians like you up your game when it comes to doing your job (& rocking it).
“Check Your Shelf” is sponsored by Julie Berry’s The Lovely War.
New York City, 1942. World War II is at its zenith. A stunningly attractive couple meets in a Manhattan hotel room for a forbidden tryst. But these are no ordinary lovers. When immortals Ares and Aphrodite are caught by the latter’s jealous husband, the goddess of passion must justify her actions, or face judgment on Mount Olympus. To plead her case, she spins a tale that took place in Europe some twenty-five years earlier: the story of four mortals whose lives entwined in the crucible of World War I. They are Hazel, James, Aubrey, and Colette. A classical pianist from London, a British would-be architect-turned-soldier, a Harlem-born ragtime genius in the U.S. Army, and a Belgian orphan with a gorgeous voice and a devastating past. Their story—filled with hope and heartbreak, prejudice and passion—reveals that, though War is a formidable force, it’s no match for the transcendent power of Love.
Libraries & Librarians
- The weird and unique things you can borrow from your local library. How many of your libraries have anything special or different you lend?
- Everything you need to know about your library’s new murder dome. (s a t i r e)
- Narcan to be made available to YMCAs and public libraries US-wide. An unsettling reality.
- Feel-good story (with, of course, the necessary disclaimers): how a single tweet changed a number of small-town Iowa libraries.
- Enjoy some gorgeous photos of libraries.
- New York Public Library releases a limited edition library card highlighting “knowledge is power.”
- When a white library worker calls the police on a black student.
- A leader of a pro-life, pro-family group burned queer-friendly books from the library. Perhaps the act of hate can be countered with donations?
Book Adaptations in the News
- Did you know there’s a film version of The Phantom Tollbooth in the works?
- Check out the trailer for Bird Box.
- Killers of the Flower Moon is even closer to the big screen (and what a team so far!).
- Check out the new trailer for The Passage, coming to a TV near you soon.
- Everything we know so far about the upcoming Cats adaptation.
- And we’re getting a new Judy Blume film adaptation.
- Here are the YA adaptations we’ll see in 2019.
Books in the News
- A celebration of Frankenstein on its 200th birthday.
- There’s nothing at all surprising about PBS’s Great American Read winner being To Kill A Mockingbird. (Also not surprising how white that list is…and how many are not even books by American authors).
- A newly-discovered Sylvia Plath short story will be published next year.
By the Numbers
- It’s far, far too early for “best of” lists but here we go. Here’s Marie Claire’s “Best of 2018.”
- Not far behind is Publishers Weekly and their Best ofs.
Award News
- This year’s Kirkus Prize winners have been announced.
- The Carnegie Medal shortlists are out.
- The Orwell foundation will be launching an award that celebrates political fiction.
- The Brooklyn Public Library announced their literary award winners.
All Things Comics
- There is a Godzilla comic coming.
- Oni Press highlights some of the comics you’ll see from them next year.
- You can now get Anne Frank’s Diary as a graphic adaptation.
- A celebration of nonbinary creators.
Audiophilia
- The buzziest audiobooks of the season.
- Here are some great Canadian audiobooks to put in your ears, eh?
- How to host an audiobook club.
- A look at some awesome — and prolific! — audiobook narrators.
- Tune into some audiobooks that are perfect for writers (put these in a display or reader advisory guide for NaNoWriMo!).
- Halloween might be over, but that doesn’t mean scary listens are done being great.
Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists
- Second novels from rising stars in crime fiction.
- Barack Obama offers up some more great books to read.
- Prose from Palestinian writers.
- What might a canon of trans literature look like?
- Lesbian and bisexual books set throughout and across the United States.
- Gloria Steinem recommends 35 feminist books.
- 50 must-reads of Slavic literature.
- Great trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming authors to read and support.
- 50 short nonfiction books you can read in a day (or two).
- The best of essay collections from 2018.
- Pick up some excellent romances by Latinx authors.
- 10 short story collections about race and culture.
- Then read your way into these 50 must-read contemporary memoirs by writers of color.
- What do you know about Splatterpunk Horror? Learn about it and pick up some of the titles that fit within that genre.
- 25 great space opera books.
Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous
- What does your favorite Shakespeare play say about you? Mine check out.
- Did you know there’s an award for weirdest book titles? There is, and all I can think about is how great a display of these would be (or others selected from your own collections).
- Get to know the Summer Scares program, hosted in collaboration with United for Libraries, Library Journal, Book Riot, and the Horror Writers Association, to bring more horror talk and resources into the library.
- How writers map their literary worlds.
- Shannon Hale’s regular reminder that books don’t have genders, and there are real issues when we suggest boys don’t read books about girls and vice versa.
- Does your home library need a book cart?
- Here are 18 book cover designs that didn’t make the cut but that are worth enjoying anyway.
What a great readerly love enamel pin. $10.
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Thanks for hanging out and we’ll see you again in two weeks. That’s when Check Your Shelf will go weekly and Katie will be taking over (I said that last time, but this time, it’s for real!). See you soon.