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Anna’s mother has died, leaving Anna and her father to care for a young sister with special needs. When a violent encounter with the Lord’s rent collector results in their arrest, all seems lost. But Anna sees her chance and bolts from the jailhouse. On the run, Anna must rely on her own inner strength to find a way to save her family. A Slip of a Girl, told in verse, is a poignant story by a two-time Newbery Honor-winning author painting a haunting history of the Irish tensions in the early 1890s, and the aftermath of the Great Famine.
Welcome to Check Your Shelf! This is your guide to help librarians like you up your game when it comes to doing your job (& rocking it).
Collection Development Corner
Publishing News
- Naomi Wolf & Houghton Mifflin Harcourt part ways after the publication delay of her forthcoming book Outrages.
- Amazon Australia reverses its decision and will start selling Ronan Farrow’s book Catch and Kill despite facing serious legal pushback.
New & Upcoming Titles
- Publisher’s Weekly releases its Best of 2019 list.
- The anonymous author of the 2018 Trump resistance op-ed in the New York Times is writing a tell-all book to be published next month.
- Brad Meltzer is writing a nonfiction book about President Lincoln and a little-known assassination plot that ultimately failed. It’ll be out in May 2020.
- Patricia Highsmith’s diaries are going to be released in book form in 2021.
- A first look at Sandhya Menon’s upcoming book 10 Things I Hate About Pinky.
- Book Riot’s Jamie Canavés puts together a Goodreads list of some highly anticipated mystery & thriller titles for 2020.
- Most popular self-help books of 2019.
- 20 of the best LGBTQ books of 2019.
- 7 international crime novels and the best debut crime novels to read this month.
- Barnes & Noble picks the best books of October 2019.
- Most anticipated YA books to read this November.
- 29 debut YA novels of 2019.
- Fall 2019 new releases in translation.
What Your Patrons Are Hearing About
- All This Could Be Yours – Jami Attenberg (New York Times, NPR, USA Today)
- All the President’s Women: Donald Trump and the Making of a Predator – Barry Levine & Monique El-Faizy (Esquire, HuffPost, Washington Post)
- Find Me – André Aciman (New York Times, USA Today)
- Curious Toys – Elizabeth Hand (NPR, Washington Post)
- How We Fight For Our Lives – Saeed Jones (NPR, Washington Post)
- Agent Running in the Field – John le Carré (NPR, USA Today)
All Things Comics
- Major changes are happening in the comics industry, and comic stores will have to adapt.
- The story of David Bowie & Ziggy Stardust is coming out as a graphic novel!
- What to read when you’re done with Watchmen.
- Recommended vampire romance manga.
- SFF webcomics for Halloween.
Audiophilia
- Uber lets passengers listen to short stories on Audible.
- Psst. You can pick up 35 free (!) horror short stories on audio from Tor!
- Lamar Giles reacts after realizing that he unknowingly selected William Jackson Harper (aka Chidi from The Good Place) to narrate his book Fake ID years ago! Holy shirtballs!
- Awesome audiobook hacks to use with Libby.
- AudioFile magazine lists some spine-tingling mysteries to listen to.
- How to score audiobook ARCs.
- 13 spooky audiobooks for Halloween.
Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists
Children/Teens
- 18 essential fall books for preschoolers.
- 10 awesome picture book biographies.
- 11 witch books for kids of all ages.
- 8 YA books for music lovers.
Adults
- 9 romance novels for people who don’t usually read romance.
- Jewish romance novels.
- 15 authors like Stephen King. Plus Stephen King’s scariest stories, ranked.
- 10 best memoirs of the decade.
- 36 of the creepiest books.
- 9 mind-bending books about parallel universes.
- 7 contemporary monster books written by women.
- 11 books about haunted woods.
- 25 best horror novels of the decade.
- 26 books authors are reading on Instagram this fall.
- 16 of the best adult coloring books for your Christmas list.
- 17 awesome true crime books you need to read immediately.
- 6 themed cookbooks to spice up dinnertime.
- 20 must-read books with love triangles.
- 8 books about Judy Garland.
Level Up (Library Reads)
Do you take part in LibraryReads, the monthly list of best books selected by librarians only? We’ve made it easy for you to find eligible diverse titles to nominate. Kelly Jensen created a database of upcoming diverse books that anyone can edit, and Nora Rawlins of Early Word is doing the same, as well as including information about series, vendors, and publisher buzz.
Thanks for hanging! See you on Friday!
–Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan.