Sponsored by Amazon Publishing.
Crime reporter Sawyer Brooks has long struggled with the trauma of her childhood. Now, forced to come home to River Rock, she’ll have to confront her painful history. When a murder is committed with eerie similarities to a past killing in River Rock, Sawyer vows to investigate and put an end to this violent cycle. As her investigation leads to River Rock’s darkest corners, what will prove more dangerous—what she knows of the past or what she has yet to discover? From New York Times bestselling author T.R. Ragan comes a twisting new thriller. Read Don’t Make a Sound.
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. This week, we unsealed our library’s book drops for the first time in three and a half months, and found three books and a partially-eaten chocolate muffin. Add that to the 2020 reopening bingo card!
Libraries & Librarians
News Updates
- We shouldn’t have to say this…but please don’t microwave your library books as a way to kill COVID.
- The men who were involved with the rare book heist from Carnegie Library have been sentenced to house arrest.
- Libraries adapt quickly to launch summer reading programs.
Cool Library Updates
- How libraries are supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.
- 12-year-old Jonah Larson has been using his crochet skills to raise enough money to build a school library in the Ethiopian community where he was born!
- Ipswitch library staff record an audiobook for a 102-year-old woman.
- This librarian has been illustrating the pandemic from the eyes of fellow library staff members.
Worth Reading
- Black women librarians during WWII created lists of anti-racist books as an explicitly political act.
- Coronavirus tests the limits of America’s public libraries.
- In defense of dumping 600,000 books.
- Tips for filming virtual storytime. Also, do online storytimes violate copyright?
- Bookmobiles navigate new terrain in the pandemic.
- Putting a value on author visits at the library.
- It’s time for a permanent change in reading habits.
Book Adaptations in the News
- Not surprisingly, Adrian McKinty’s thriller The Chain is getting a film adaptation.
- Hulu is developing a comedy series based on the book Action Park: Fast Times, Wild Rides, and the Untold Story of America’s Most Dangerous Amusement Park by Andy Mulvihill and Jake Rossen.
- Hulu is also developing a limited series based on Beth Macy’s bestselling book, Dopesick, starring Michael Keaton.
- Hulu’s also ALSO planning an anthology series based on Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.
- They’re finally making an Animorphs movie!
- NBC is adapting Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol.
- James McBride’s Deacon King Kong is getting a film adaptation.
- Oscar Isaac is starring in the movie London, which is based on a short story by Jo Nesbo and will be directed by Ben Stiller. Look, they had me at “Oscar Isaac.”
- Netflix is adapting the upcoming book Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutano, which is described as “Crazy Rich Asians meets Weekend at Bernie’s.” *insert wide-eyed emoji here*
- The Alienist: Season 2 will air one week early on July 19th.
- Trailers for The Luminaries, The Baby-Sitter’s Club, and Hamilton.
Books & Authors in the News
- As you have probably realized by this point, the courts have refused to block publication of John Bolton’s memoir.
- Not surprisingly, Trump may be considering legal action against his niece, Mary Trump, who is publishing her own tell-all book.
- Author Carlos Ruiz Zafón has died at age 55.
- Bob, the cat from the nonfiction book A Street Cat Named Bob, has died.
- Demand for Ibram X. Kendi’s Antiracist Baby Board Book is so high that it’s getting released as a picture book as well.
- Elin Hilderbrand is the first author to venture back into in-store book promo events.
Award News
- The National Book Critics Circle is down from 24 members to 9 members and pledges to begin “difficult internal work.”
- NBCC is also halting their 2020 award season.
- The shortlist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award is out.
- The winners of the Bisexual Book Awards have been announced.
Pop Cultured
Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous
- The Jefferson Davis House loses its literary landmark designation.
- Alaskan authorities have had enough of tourists trying to reach the abandoned bus from Into the Wild and needing to be rescued, so they’ve airlifted the bus out of the wilderness.
On the Riot
- Librarians and the power of social media.
- How to host your dream convention.
- How to make a zine.
Take a breath and take care of yourselves, folks. I’ll see you next week.
—Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter.