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The world of Pierce Brown’s Red Rising expands further in the next installment of the Sons of Ares storyline! Fitchner’s quest for revenge continues as he and the other Sons of Ares seek out the Golds who have wronged his family. But actions come with repercussions and an elaborate game of cat and mouse is on. A battle of Gold versus Gold erupts further into more than acts of vengeance and becomes the seeds of a revolution.
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
- A successful Drag Queen Storytime in San Diego, where there were mermaids and bubbles and much singing.
- Amazon launches Alexa Answers, which allows Amazon customers to field questions that Alexa is unable to answer. So…a crowdsourced Reference Desk, basically. This should be interesting.
- The Jersey City Free Library renamed itself the Priscilla Gardner Main Library in honor of their director, who was the first African American director in the library’s history and is retiring after a whopping 50 years of working in the same library system! This is incredible!
- Literature Locked Up supports an end to US prison book bans for Banned Books Week.
- San Francisco and Phoenix libraries go fines free!
Cool Library Updates
- File under “B” for “Beekeeping!” Does your library keep bees?
- Hip hop hero sculptures at the Queens Public Library.
- YOU CAN CHECK OUT THERAPY DOGS AT THE VANCOUVER LIBRARY. (Wonder what the late fees are like for those?)
- How about a cursive writing workshop at the library?
- Check out the Chicago Tool Library – a nonprofit organization that rents out donated tools.
Worth Reading
- A look at how the digital divide can disproportionately affect people in poor urban households, since many digital divide efforts focus primarily on poor rural households.
- 12-year-old Yashoda D. Shenoy has been running her own library since January of this year, making her the youngest librarian in India!
- The first public library in the Americas has more than 45,000 books dating back to the 15th century.
- A handy guide to academic libraries for new students.
Book Adaptations in the News
- We have a trailer and a US release date for Dublin Murders, based on the first two books in Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series!!! All the exclamation points!!
- Fleishman is in Trouble is getting a limited series adaptation after a 10-way bidding war for the rights.
- HBO is doing a limited series adaptation of Americanah, starring Lupita Nyong’o!
- Tananarive Due’s amaaaazing horror novel The Good House is finally getting an adaptation, and I am so dang excited, I can hardly restrain myself!
- And Stephen King gets his own section in this newsletter:
- The Institute has an adaptation deal.
- Check out the trailer for Doctor Sleep.
- There’s also a new trailer for Castle Rock, Season 2.
- The Stephen King/Joe Hill novella In the Tall Grass is coming to Netflix, and you guessed it…there’s a trailer.
Books & Authors in the News
- Cokie Roberts, the pioneering broadcaster, journalist, and best-selling author, has died at age 75.
- Author Anne Rivers Siddons has died at age 83.
Numbers & Trends
- People who read before bed tend to sleep better, eat healthier, and make more money, according to Real Simple. As John Oliver once said, “Not my findings…the findings of science!”
Award News
- We’re getting the longlists for the 2019 National Book Awards! Translated Literature and Poetry longlists are here, and we’ll make sure to include the lists for Nonfiction & Fiction next week, which will be posted after the newsletter is submitted.
- A UK bookseller erroneously placed stickers on its copies of The Testaments by Margaret Atwood that claimed the book had won the 2019 Booker Prize…which hasn’t been decided yet.
- 2019 Kirkus Prize finalists.
- Tor.com looks at gender and the Hugo Awards.
Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous
- Scholars believe that they’ve found John Milton’s copy of Shakespeare’s first folio, complete with Milton’s notes and edits. This is being called one of the most important literary discoveries of modern times.
- A school vending machine that rewards kindness with books.
- Are you familiar with the “Don’t have a bookmark?” meme that’s been going around on Twitter? Hopefully not, but in case you’re curious, you can read about it here.
- On a related note, please don’t use tacos as bookmarks. And please don’t let tacos go uneaten.
Thanks for hanging! See everyone on Tuesday! And don’t forget to enter our giveaway of the year’s 10 best mysteries & thrillers (so far)!
–Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading Speaking of Summer by Kalisha Buckhanon.