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For nearly two centuries, scholars have wondered how on earth Mary Shelley, a nineteen-year-old girl, was able to conjure one of the most frightening and enduring horror stories of all time: Frankenstein. But with the recent discovery of Mary Shelley’s secret memoir, the truth is finally revealed: Mary Shelley didn’t just write Frankenstein, she lived it. Traveling back to that historic Geneva winter of 1816, Mary, her fiancé Percy, sisters Claire and Fanny, and the celebrated poet Lord Byron find themselves guests of the eerie Frankenstein Estate. The macabre and frightening events that follow lead Mary to both a gruesome discovery: their mysterious host is not at all what they expected.
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).
Libraries & Librarians
News Updates
- The Free Library of Philadelphia, the Los Angeles Public Library, and the Seattle Public Library are eliminating late fees in 2020.
- From PEN America: Kansas Prison book ban repeats the state’s prior mistakes.
- Attack in Auburn raises concerns of library safety a year after Sacramento librarian Amber Clark was murdered by a former patron.
- Amber Clark’s husband, Kelly Clark, speaks about the upcoming one-year anniversary of his wife’s death.
- The Anna Porter Public Library in Gatlinburg, Tennessee is looking for a loving home for their resident library cat, Porter C. Bibliocat, who has developed some health issues in his advanced age. Poor baby! I want to adopt the library cat!!
Cool Library Updates
- The Long Branch (NJ) Public Library’s prisoner re-entry program is going statewide thanks to a $630,000 federal grant received by the New Jersey State Library.
- Lisa Lamont at the San Diego State University Library, is curating a living collection of over 1700 letters written by migrants in detention centers.
- How Chicago’s Chinatown public library is adapting to its senior population.
- The Burlington (WI) Public Library has an exercise class that helps patrons with Parkinson’s disease.
- How South Carolina libraries are working to improve low child literacy rates.
- OMG, it’s a Little Free Stick Library for dogs!!
Worth Reading
- Why it’s time to quantify the library’s role in the reading marketplace.
- Libraries take a leading role in the 2020 Census.
- Public libraries are now mental health resource centers.
- The complicated role of the public library.
- Libraries where bats are welcome patrons.
Book Adaptations in the News
- Kay Oyegun, producer for This Is Us, is adapting Angie Thomas’s YA novel On the Come Up.
- Rick Riordan is in discussions with Disney about adapting Percy Jackson.
- Paul McCartney is teaming up with Netflix to adapt the children’s novel he co-wrote, High in the Clouds, about an imaginative teenage squirrel. He’ll also produce and contribute songs for the film.
- Pierce Brosnan is cast as the king in the upcoming Cinderella musical. I’m sorry, but is anyone else disappointed that he’s not playing a silver fox Prince Charming?
- Susan Choi’s Trust Exercise will be adapted as a limited series.
- Michael Chabon and his wife Ayelet Waldman will be adapting Chabon’s novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay for TV.
- Stephen King’s The Dark Half is getting adapted for the second time.
- Elin Hilderbrand’s The Perfect Couple is coming to Fox.
- PopSugar has a list of 34 books that are being adapted in 2020.
Books & Authors in the News
- Neil Gaiman wrote a poem for refugees based on 1,000 individual tweets.
Award News
- The 2020 PEN America Literary Awards longlists are out.
- National Book Critics Circle announces the 2019 finalists for the Best First Book award.
- De’Shawn Charles Winslow won the Best First Novel award from the Center of Fiction.
- Lois McMaster Bujold becomes the 36th Damon Knight Grand Master, as awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
- The New York Times says that the Caldecott Medal needs an international makeover.
- For the first time, the Bad Sex in Fiction award was given to two authors.
Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous
- How reading changed in the 2010’s.
- Chicago’s getting a Harry Potter-themed Christmas pop-up bar!
- Two words: Book fairies.
- Lego’s latest Creator Expert set is a 2500 piece modular bookstore! WANT!
On the Riot
- What’s the deal with all of these middle grade adaptations?
- The therapeutic value of weeding your digital shelves.
- Measuring reading time, rather than the number of books read.
- Tracking down the history of the library cake.
- Book signing conversation tips, or how not to sound like a total doofus when you meet your favorite author.
Thanks for hanging! See everyone on Tuesday!
–Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading The Farm by Joanne Ramos.