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).
“Check Your Shelf” is sponsored by Forward Me Back to You by Mitali Perkins and Fierce Reads.
Katina King is the reigning teen jujitsu champion of Northern California, but she’s having trouble fighting off the secrets in her past. Robin Thornton was adopted from an orphanage in India and is reluctant to take on his future. If he can’t find his roots, how can he possibly plan ahead? Robin and Kat meet in the most unlikely of places—a summer service trip to Kolkata to work with survivors of human trafficking. As bonds build between the travelmates, Robin and Kat discover that you can’t rewind life; sometimes you just have to push play.
I’m going to be tweaking the format of the newsletter slightly over the next few weeks as I incorporate some of the great feedback you guys gave in the survey! The biggest change is that instead of having a “Books & Authors in the News” section and a separate “Upcoming Books” section, I’m combining the two into a “Collection Development Corner” that will highlight newly announced titles, genre guides & resources, and recently published books that your patrons are probably hearing about on NPR, the New York Times, etc. I hope you find it helpful!
And now, on with the newsletter…
Libraries & Librarians
- This week’s lengthy, but important read: Librarian Fobazi M. Ettarh talked about librarian values and “vocational awe” at the ACRL conference in Cleveland. Take a look at her work – I read her original article about a year ago and was inspired to write about the psychological toll of library work for Book Riot. (I fully acknowledge that this barely scratched the surface of her research, which talks about the inherent classist and racist inequalities in library service and is much more nuanced than my article.) But this is a topic very much worth discussing.
- Also, you can catch up with the ACRL conference using the #ACRL2019 hashtag.
News Updates
- An update on the Washington Department of Corrections’ ban on sending used books to prisoners, and the fact that their reports of an increase in illegal contraband don’t add up. In the meantime, a similar situation is coming up in Georgia.
- (TW: racially-motivated violence) There was an incident at Barnard College where a black student was physically stopped and restrained from entering the campus library. This is so rage-inducing, and yet sadly, so very common for black students.
- Over half of the books on the ALA’s Top 11 books banned or challenged in 2018 were challenged due to LGBTQ+ content.
- Spokane eliminates school librarians. BOOOOOO.
- 200 classic children’s stories have been withdrawn from a school library in Barcelona over concerns about sexism and gender portrayal.
- Two articles on the benefits of public libraries, from the New York Review of Books and NBC.
Cool Library Ideas
- People pay $100 to get a tattoo and support the Lawrence (KS) Public Library. I would totally do this.
- Los Angeles Public Library debut a limited-edition library card featuring art from a local artist. This is so cool!!
- Rare footage of the Black Panthers and California activism have been digitized by the Oakland Library.
- Smart Bitches, Trashy Books highlights the awesome events going on at libraries, from comic cons to romance cons.
- Why doctors & librarians make great partners.
Worth Reading
- Lots of talk about digital libraries, specifically Obama’s presidential library and Carla Hayden’s “audacious” plan to make the Library of Congress available online.
- Tackling copyright concerns when taking storytime online.
- LitHub created a new column called “Shhh…Secrets of the Librarians” that interviews different librarians from across the country.
Book Adaptations in the News
- New adaptations coming for Rot and Ruin (Jonathan Maberry; Alcon Entertainment), Lake Success (Gary Shteyngart; HBO), The Last of the Mohicans (James Fenimore Cooper; Paramount TV), The Confessions of Frannie Langton (Sara Collins; Drama Republic), and Red, White, and Royal Blue (Casey McQuiston; Amazon).
- First film, and now TV: Love, Simon (based on Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli) is coming to the small screen thanks to Disney+.
- Shrill and Big Little Lies have both been renewed for a second season. Check out the Shrill announcement here and the trailer for Big Little Lies.
- Netflix is on a book buying spree, looking for more content.
Collection Development Corner
News & Upcoming Titles
- Honestly, half the reason I’m sharing the announcement of No Fuzzball!, a picture book by Isabella Kung about a spoiled cat, is for the cover.
- We’re getting a Diary of a Wimpy Kid spin-off series called Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid.
- Alex Gino announces Rick, a companion novel to George, which will be released in 2020!
- Reverie, by Ryan la Sala, is marketed as “Inception meets The Magicians” and follows “a gay teenager with amnesia who is haunted by a drag queen sorceress.” Holy cow, I need to read this now.
- Tom Doherty Associations forms a new horror imprint.
- Jasmine Guillory is writing a romance novel based on Doria Ragland, Meghan Markle’s mother, called Royal Holiday, out in October. You can get an exclusive first look here.
- Isabel Allende’s new novel, A Long Petal of the Sea, is out in 2020.
- Nikki Haley is planning a memoir.
Current Noteworthy Books
- 24 starred reviews for April 2019 from School Library Journal.
- Best-reviewed books of the week from Bookmarks.
- CrimeReads: True crime picks for April, and the best historical mysteries of 2019 (so far).
- Goodreads: Top nonfiction of the year so far.
- 15 nonfiction books feminists should read this spring.
- 50 must-read crime novels published April-June 2019. (I put this list together!)
The Books Your Patrons Are Hearing About
- Normal People by Sally Rooney (Entertainment Weekly, New York Times, NPR, Slate,Time, USA Today, Vulture)
- Trust Exercise by Susan Choi (Entertainment Weekly, NPR, USA Today)
- Naamah by Sarah Blake (NPR, Paste, Washington Post)
- The Mister by E.L. James (Entertainment Weekly, New York Times, USA Today)
- Outside Looking In by T.C. Boyle (New York Times, USA Today)
- Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing by Robert A. Caro (New York Times, NPR)
- White by Bret Easton Ellis (New Yorker, NPR). (I won’t lie – I have little patience for Bret Easton Ellis, but the frustration coming from the New Yorker interviewer is hilarious.)
- Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir by Ruth Reichl (New York Times, Vanity Fair)
Numbers & Trends
- Children whose parents read to them hear up to 1.4 million more words before kindergarten.
- A look at social media usage amongst US adults.
Award News
- 2019 Pulitzer Prize winners and the LA Times Book Prizes have been announced.
- Check out the Man Booker International Prize shortlist and the Best Translated Book Awards longlists here.
- Tayari Jones wins the Aspen Words Literary Prize for An American Marriage.
- New York Public Library announces the Young Lions Fiction Award finalists.
Pop Cultured
- Updates on the Disney+ streaming service, plus everything else you need to know. (I’m resigned to the fact that I’ll definitely be plopping down money for this in November.)
- We’ve got trailers for The Addams Family, Scary Stories, and the Veronica Mars reboot.
- 10 Game of Thrones podcasts you should listen to this season.
- Roxane Gay and Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom are starting an advice podcast, and I never knew I needed something so badly in my entire life.
- Tor gives us a rundown on The Mandalorian.
All Things Comics
- Black superheroes and comic creators descend on Tampa and the Robert W. Saunders Public Library for AfroCon.
- New updates for Saga.
- 10 essential graphic novels and memoirs about queer women.
- 10 manga to read after catching up with One Piece.
- An exclusive first look at The Banks by Roxane Gay!
- 8 superhero-inspired titles for Spider-Man-loving middle graders.
- One viewer’s thoughts on The Joker trailer.
- Talking with comic book artist Camilla D’Errico.
Audiophilia
- Audible is recording plays! You can read about their plans here.
- 5 YA poetry audiobooks read by the author.
- Audiobooks with theatrical narrators.
Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists
Children/Teens
- Makerspace books for kids.
- 21 nonfiction books for kindergarten.
- 25 children’s books about grandparents.
- 19 unsettling YA books.
- 12 young adult books that address religion.
- YA #ownvoices authors that highlight the “Asian/Pacific American experience.”
Adults
- Great reads that celebrate the bonds between women.
- 7 astrophysics books for ordinary people, and 4 books about black holes.
- 10 essential feminist books.
- Queer poetry collections to read during national poetry month.
- 25 books you can finish in a single weekend.
- 50 must-read literary biographies.
- 24 sci-fi & fantasy picks to shake up your book club.
- 7 haunted Civil War books.
- Must-read essay collections by women.
- 20 best debuts of the first half of 2019.
- 16 of the best thriller books to keep you turning the pages.
Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous
- Beverly Cleary turns 103 years old! Here are 10 quotes from Ramona the Pest to celebrate!
- 16 YA authors who got their start in libraries.
- National Geographic: Photos of beautiful libraries from around the world.
- A giant mural of a bookcase transforms the side of an apartment in Utrecht, Netherlands.
- A newly-discovered 500 year old library catalog reveals summaries of books that have been lost for centuries.
- How to find a book by description…or in other words, how to help the patrons that can’t remember the title or the author but remember that the book had something to do with a dog.
- The Spark Notes Twitter account makes classic literature hilarious and relatable.
- Recently discovered: poems by Daphne du Maurier, 90 years after they were written.
- In light of the tragic fire, Vox & Electric Literature write about Victor Hugo and Notre Dame.
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 out and I’ll see you again next week!
–Katie McLain, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading Ill Will by Dan Chaon.