Author: Katie McLain

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 Dynamite Entertainment.

Underpowered and overwhelmed, Kenton tries to hold the Sand Masters together as forces political and personal conspire against them. Now, in one final push, Kenton must tap the most dangerous depths of his own abilities to combat the enemies within his own guild, and discover the truth behind the ambush that killed his father and almost destroyed the Sand Masters for good.

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Libraries & Librarians

News Updates

• Librarians protest against CIA presence at ALA Annual.
• Marion Public Library (IA) faces criticism over upcoming Pride events. SERIOUSLY, PEOPLE. LIBRARIES OFFER PRIDE EVENTS. GET OVER IT.
• On a related note: The library at the University of Arkansas posted a quote from Lady Gaga outside the library: “Being gay is like glitter. It never goes away.” The University President ordered the sign to be removed.
• Arizona prisons lift the previous ban on Chokehold: Policing Black Men by Paul Butler.
• Hoopla is expanding to offer multiple models, which will include expanded content and holds lists.
• Urban Libraries Council releases a strong statement against Hachette’s proposed new digital lending models.
• NYPL will no longer be offering Kanopy to its patrons due to rising costs.

Cool Library Updates

• School Library Journal created a curated list of family friendly podcasts to inspire community empathy.
• Summer meals at the library.
• How to start a nerd camp.
• Family-oriented maker camp at the library.
• A pop-up library on the beach?? I’ve been asking if we could have library outside for YEARS! I’m so down with this!

Worth Reading

• Surveying public library services and programs for refugees and immigrants.
• Confronting white nationalism: how libraries can anticipate and counter racist incidents.
• A library thrives in one of Pakistan’s gun markets.
• On radical librarianship.
• Self care is not selfish.

Book Adaptations in the News

• Paramount makes a 7-figure film deal for the upcoming book The Chain by Adrian McKinty.
• Thousands petition Netflix to cancel Good Omens. Amazon Prime responds by promising Netflix to cancel Stranger Things in exchange. The world laughs.
• Shonda Rhimes is adapting the Bridgerton series by Julia Quinn, and Julie Andrews is the first actor cast.
• Kylie Bunbury and Demi Moore are starring in a Brave New World series.
• Rosamund Pike joins the Wheel of Time adaptation.

Collection Development Corner

Publishing News

• Roman & Littlefield acquire Prometheus Books.

New & Upcoming Titles

• Publisher’s Weekly shares a bunch of fall announcements. (You’ll need to log in to read the article.)
• Amazon’s best books of the year (so far).
• Most anticipated YA for July.
• Best debut crime, political thrillers, and international crime novels for June.

What Your Patrons Are Hearing About

• Stay Sexy and Don’t Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide – Karen Kilgariff & Georgia Hardstark (Entertainment Weekly, USA Today)
• The Most Fun We Ever Had – Claire Lombardo (NPR, USA Today)
• Bunny – Mona Award (New York Times, Washington Post)
• Big Sky – Kate Atkinson (New York Times, Washington Post)
• FKA USA – Reed King (NPR, USA Today)

Books & Authors in the News

• (TW sexual assault): E. Jean Carrol accuses Donald Trump of raping her at Bergdorf’s in the mid 90’s in her new book, What Do We Need Men For: A Modest Proposal.
• Janet Mock signs a huge Netflix deal, making her the first publicly transgender woman to call creative shots at a major content company.
• Pioneering romance author Judith Krantz dies at age 91.
• Vulture looks at Sherrilyn Kenyon’s claim that her ex-husband was poisoning her.

Numbers & Trends

• An updated look at diversity in children’s books in 2018.
• 7 stats about diversity in book publishing that reveal the magnitude of the problem

Award News

• Joy Harjo becomes the 23rd poet laureate and the first Native American poet to serve in the position!
• ALA votes to rename the Melvil Dewey Medal, citing Dewey’s history of racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism.

Pop Cultured

• Most of you probably know this already, but Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is now available for iOS and Android in the US.
• Final trailer before Stranger Things Season 3 is available to watch on Netflix, and I am SO DANG EXCITED!!

All Things Comics

• IDW is publishing the Mueller Report as a graphic novel.
• More news about the end of Vertigo and the overall DC restructure.
• Noelle Stevenson is publishing a graphic memoir!!
• Manga sisterhoods.
• Ngazi Ukazu announces a follow-up to Check, Please.
• 10 exuberantly queer graphic novels.

Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

Children/Teens

• Board books that instill positive behavior.
• 7 books about kids loving their natural hair.
• 50 must-read middle grade books about friendship.
• 17 YA historical fiction novels.

Adults

• 10 horrifying horror novels.
• 6 nonfiction books about Chernobyl.
• 8 memoirs about mental illness written by authors of color.
• 50 must-read short books under 250 pages.
• 6 books inspired by your favorite podcasts.
• 8 modern career books for entrepreneurs & creative types.
• 10 SFF books about AIs taking over.
• 15 new historical fiction books for your vacation.

Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

• Okay, this is fantastic. In Germany, tampons and other sanitary products are taxed 19% as “luxury goods” (which anyone who has had a period knows is utter BS), while books are taxed at 7%. So…the founders of a sanitary product company published a book that contains…tampons. It sold out in a single day.
• Historians have discovered a new bible owned by Abraham Lincoln.
• 11 things this Rioter wishes they had known before starting a book blog.

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, and I’ll see you next week!

–Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading a bunch of classic Nancy Drew novels.

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 Libro.fm.

Libro.fm lets you purchase audiobooks directly from your favorite local bookstore. You can pick from more than 100,000 audiobooks, including New York Times best sellers and recommendations from booksellers around the country. With Libro.fm you’ll get the same audiobooks, at the same price as the largest audiobook company out there (you know the name), but you’ll be part of a much different story, one that supports community. In June, Libro.fm is launching their Kids Club and YA Club, which will offer select audiobooks priced under $10 each month, as well as their Summer Listening Challenge–each person to finish will get free audiobook credit and the chance to win free audiobooks for a year! Sign up here to get three audiobooks for the price of one.

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Before we jump in, make sure to check out Book Riot’s Amazon storefront – we’ve put together a selection of our favorite books and bookish things for the summer!

Libraries & Librarians

News Updates

• Why are libraries still having to defend the presence of LGBTQ books in their displays? Also, a New Jersey library defends their Pride flag.
• University of Oklahoma is pilot testing an AI chatbot to assist with common student questions.
• Salt Lake County libraries participate in a gun lock giveaway in the hopes of curbing suicides and gun-related accidents.
• NYPL officially launches its bookmobile service.

Cool Library Updates

• Book clubs for adults with disabilities, and sensory programming for patrons with special needs.
• How the NYPL brought novels to Instagram.
• St. Louis and Boston Public Libraries used Twitter book stacks to face off during the Stanley Cup finals.

Worth Reading

• Ending library fines is a social justice issue.
• School librarians should be required, not fodder for short-term budget cuts.
• How to end a book ban.
• If kids can’t read what they want during the summer, when can they?
• Automated 24-hour access offers solutions for increasing library access. I’m still not a huge fan of this idea but we’ll see…
• When programming isn’t fun anymore.

Book Adaptations in the News

• A first look at Little Fires Everywhere.
• The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie is coming to TV.
• Netflix is developing a Chronicles of Narnia adaptation.
• The first trailer for Doctor Sleep.
• The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani is being adapted for film.
• The cast of The Handmaid’s Tale filmed a public service announcement with Harper’s Bazaar and Planned Parenthood, because The Handmaid’s Tale is becoming a lot less fictional.

Collection Development Corner

Publishing News

• After speculation that there may be another bidder for Barnes & Noble, the deadline passed without any new bids.
• Hachette changes its eBook and audiobook lending model. ALA drafts a concerned response.

New & Upcoming Titles

• A Hunger Games prequel? Yes please!! And we only have to wait until May 2020!
• Joe Scarborough of Morning Joe is publishing This Ends Badly: How Donald Trump Conned America.
• Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a book coming out in September.
• Ibi Zoboi announces the first book in a two book deal.
• Amazon & Barnes & Noble pick the best books of 2019 so far.
• Summer reading lists from LitHub, The Millions, O Magazine, Chicago Tribune, plus a YA summer list from Entertainment Weekly.

What Your Patrons Are Hearing About

• Recursion – Blake Crouch (Entertainment Weekly, New York Times, NPR)
• The Porpoise – Mark Haddon (New Yorker, Time)
• How Not to Die Alone – Richard Roper (New York Times, USA Today)

RA/Genre Resources

• Weeding graphic novels.
• Books your patrons will love based on their taste in movies.

Books & Authors in the News

• If you thought Linda Fairstein was going to go quietly, well, think again.
• Rare Bird releases a statement about Natasha Tyne’s lawsuit.
• After more accuracy questions emerge, Naomi Wolf’s book Outrages: Sex, Censorship, and the Criminalization of Love has been delayed by the publisher.
• Nicholas Sparks’ status as an overall crappy person was confirmed by a lawsuit that claims he fostered a discriminatory environment at his private school, and allegedly banned students from forming an LGBT club. His response is not particularly impressive.
• Discovering an unfinished manuscript by Anthony Burgess.

Numbers & Trends

• Former Waterstones managing director Tim Coates commissioned a survey on how and where readers are getting their books.
• The Guardian shows that the top 100 illustrated children’s books from 2018 show a growing marginalization of female and minority ethnic characters.
• Barnes & Noble researched the summer reading plans for American readers.

Award News

• George R.R. Martin will receive the Carl Sandberg Award from the Chicago Public Library.
• Winner and honor books for the Children’s and Teen Choice Book Awards.
• A new literary award to honor YA books written in an Indigenous language.
• Elizabeth Acevedo wins the Carnegie Medal for The Poet X, the first author of color to ever win the prize.
• Winners of the International Dublin Award, Wolfson History Prize, and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.
• Longlists and finalists for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award and the Polari Book Prize.

Pop Cultured

• Fashion icon and author Gloria Vanderbilt dies at 95.
• This is a great time to do tie-in displays with When They See Us and Chernobyl.

All Things Comics

• Marvel Land is coming to Disneyland in 2020 (holy crap!)
• Swamp Thing has been canceled after debuting on May 31st.
• LGBTQIA+ graphic novels for young readers.

Book Lists, Book Lists, Book List

Children/Teens

• 19 pop-up books adults won’t want to share.
• 20 books with LGBTQ characters your kids will love.
• Middle grade LGBTQ books for Pride.
• Queer princess books for readers of all ages.
• YA horror anthologies & collections.

Adults

• 20 horror novels by authors of color.
• Edwardian true crime suggestions.
• 50 must-read books by YouTubers.
• 8 books after you finish Daisy Jones and the Six.
• 8 funny books featuring queer adult women.
• Good books about bad information.
• 7 horrible fictional sisters.

Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

• New York City gave The Strand landmark status, but the owner isn’t happy about it.
• A Harry Potter-themed coffee shop called Steamy Hallows!!
• LeVar Burton gets a Sacramento park named after him.
• Is there a dearth of queer men in science fiction?
• 101 literary tattoos…better book your appointment now!

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, and I’ll see you next week!

–Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter.

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).

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Sponsored by Flatiron Books

A lifetime of secrets. A history untold. No. It is a simple word, uttered on a summer porch in 1936. And it will haunt Kitty Milton for the rest of her life and its consequences will ripple through the Milton family for generations. Moving through three generations and back and forth in time, The Guest Book asks how we remember and what we choose to forget, and tells the story of a family and a country that buries its past in quiet, until the present calls forth a reckoning.

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Libraries & Librarians

News Updates

• Ohio Library Council pushes back against state House Speaker Larry Householder’s criticism of library drag events. (On a related note, the last newsletter listed the House Speaker as Larry “Household,” and I apologize for the typo.)
• Kansas prisoners are banned from reading thousands of books, including Game of Thrones.
• The St. Paul Public Library system eliminated late fees over the winter, and the results have been quite positive!
• Patricia Battin, librarian and recipient of the National Humanities Medal, has died at age 89.

Cool Library Updates

• Halifax Public Library system has started offering free menstrual products in all of its bathrooms.
• Has your library started using smart speakers like Amazon Echo to engage with patrons?
• How to support your patrons who are experiencing mental health challenges.

Worth Reading

• Libraries face tough choices when their homeless patrons set up permanent residence.
• How to avoid gender stereotyping during library storytime.
• A DACA librarian is not a threat to America.
• Summer reading incentives for kids: yay or nay?
• The chief librarian and the soap thieves. Anyone else think this would be an amazing band name?
• How a Connecticut librarian and a podcast helped solve this lingering cold case in New Hampshire.

Book Adaptations in the News

• Jane Eyre is now a ballet.
• We’re getting TV adaptations of The Lost Symbol (Dan Brown), The Edible Woman (Margaret Atwood), Bunny (Mona Awad), and Dune: The Sisterhood (Frank Herbert & others), plus an update on the Jack Reacher series.
• Trailers for The Rook and season 2 of Sweetbitter.

Collection Development Corner

Publishing News

• Waterstones purchases Barnes & Noble, which is causing a lot of excitement in the publishing world.

New & Upcoming Titles

• (TW: sexual assault) The survivor from the Brock Turner case is writing a memoir.
• Best books of the year (so far) from Entertainment Weekly, The Guardian, and Vulture.
• Did you miss Book Expo? Check out 9 of the buzzy new releases from the show, along with the featured Shout n Share titles.
• Library Journal posted summaries from the Day of Dialog (including book panel write ups and Editor’s Picks), as well as Book Con.
• And don’t miss the ALA Galley Guide!
• Bustle, L.A. Times, Paste, and Tor.com all have some notable June releases to keep an eye on.
• 8 awesome horror novels from 2019.
• 40 thrillers for summer.

What Your Patrons Are Hearing About

• L.A. Times selects The Library Book by Susan Orlean as its first book club pick.
• Soulless: The Case Against R. Kelly – Jim DeRogatis (Entertainment Weekly, NPR, USA Today, Vulture, Washington Post)
• Mostly Dead Things – Kristen Arnett (New York Times, NPR, Vulture, Washington Post)
• Patsy – Nicole Dennis-Benn (The Atlantic, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Washington Post)

RA/Genre Resources

• The New York Times pulled together a list of “it” books from previous summers.
• Resources for new horror readers.
• 5 of the best ways to pick a new book – for your patrons who want to read something new but don’t know where to start.
• NPR’s Summer Reader Poll will focus on humorous books. And don’t forget to check out their previous lists on horror, comics, and romance!

Authors in the News

• Linda Fairstein has been dropped by her publisher in the wake of Ava Duvernay’s When They See Us.
• Author Natasha Tynes, who lost her book contract with Rare Bird Books after a social media shaming scandal, is now suing the publisher for $13 million in damages.

Numbers & Trends

• In 2016, people visited public libraries more than a billion times. A BILLION.
• School Library Journal looks at summer programming numbers in public libraries.

Award News

• Tayari Jones wins the Women’s Prize for Fiction with An American Marriage.
• If you missed them, here are the Tony Award winners.
• Shortlist for the Orwell Prize.

Pop Cultured

• Entertainment Weekly is transitioning to a monthly publication beginning in August.
• 12 true crime podcasts to bust through this summer.
• What the fork?! The Good Place is ending after its fourth season.

All Things Comics

• DC Comics is rumored to close Vertigo.
• Lucifer has been renewed for a fifth and final season.
• New trailer for Jessica Jones Season 3.
• Mindy Kaling spoke to Marvel about developing a Ms. Marvel project, and she says the response has been positive.
• 8 classic works of literature as graphic novels and comics.
• 50 must-read romance manga.
• 10 comics to read while you smash the patriarchy.

Audiophilia

• Check out libro.fm’s list of activities for National Audiobook Month!
• The best audiobooks of 2019 so far.

Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

Children/Teens 

• 8 picture books to promote resilience.
• 5 picture books for daddy/daughter reading time.
• 11 intersectional LGBTQ+ YA novels.

Adults

• 50 unapologetically queer authors share the best LGBTQ+ books of all time.
• 12 books to read if you loved (or are waiting for) The Guest Book by Sarah Blake.
• Barnes & Noble has a list of 100 books to read this summer.
• True crime books to read with your book club.
• 50 memoirs that will hit you in the feels.
• 10 joyful queer books for Pride Month.

Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

• Are you a reader who treats reading like homework?
• How fact checking works for nonfiction.
• If you or your patrons are late to the Goodreads game, here’s how to get started.
• How long will it take to read that book?

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.

–Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading Our House by Louise Candlish.

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 All the Books, our weekly podcast about new book releases!

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Libraries & Librarians

News Updates

• Several Twin Cities library systems are experimenting with unstaffed libraries. I had a long angry paragraph about this, but ultimately it comes down to THIS IS A BAD IDEA and STOP DEVALUING LIBRARY EMPLOYEES.
• How Emma Boettcher, University of Chicago librarian, beat James Holzhauer on Jeopardy. Heck yes!!
• Fall River Library (MA) hosts an extremely successful first Drag Queen Storytime. Meanwhile, Ohio House Speaker Larry Household denounces drag queen events planned at two Ohio public libraries, and the Delaware County Library’s Drag 101 event has been canceled due to “veiled threats.” The program will now be held at a local comics shop.
• Illinois prison removes more than 200 books from the prison library, the majority of which were about race. Related: why inmates should have the right to read.
• The MacArthur Foundation plans a $5 million grant to create a new Chicago Public Library branch at the Obama Presidential Center.

Cool Library Updates

• This Buzzfeed list of 21 Libraries That Will Make You Say “Damn, That’s CLEVER!” is pretty legit! I screencapped a few suggestions from this list for my own library.
• Serving children with diverse abilities.
• St. Louis County library system officially marks Pride Month with more than 80 activities for all ages at each of its 19 branches.

Book Adaptations in the News

• Adaptation news for The Goldfinch (Donna Tartt), Normal People (Sally Rooney), Looking for Alaska (John Green), Lucky (Alice Sebold), plus a super terrifying trailer for Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (Alvin Schwartz).
• Sarah Dessen signs a movie deal with Netflix.

Collection Development Corner

New & Upcoming Titles

• Mindy Kaling announces a collection of essays via Amazon Original Stories in 2020.
• Debbie Harry and Patti Smith each have a memoir coming out.
• J.K. Rowling is publishing four short eBooks on the history of magic.
• Noteworthy June titles from Amazon, CrimeReads, Entertainment Weekly, io9, LitHub, The Millions, New York Times, and the Washington Post.
• Tor.com gives us the best fantasy, science fiction, SFF YA, and genre-bending titles for June.

What Your Patrons Are Hearing About

• Siege: Trump Under Fire – Michael Wolff (The Guardian, New York Times, NPR, Washington Post)
• The Confessions of Frannie Langton – Sara Collins (NPR, Washington Post)
• City of Girls – Elizabeth Gilbert (New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post)
• On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous – Ocean Vuong (Los Angeles Times, Washington Post)

RA & Genre Resources

• Is diverse fiction a new genre? (No, but we’re starting to treat it like one.)
• A guide for first-time romance readers.
• Where to find trigger warnings for books.

Books and Authors in the News

• Han Kang joined Margaret Atwood and David Mitchell in participating in the Future Library art project by locking away a manuscript that will be published in 100 years.
• Tony Robbins’ next book is being canceled in the wake of misconduct allegations.
• Turkish prosecutors have launched investigations into fiction authors who tackle difficult subjects like child abuse and sexual violence, including award-winning author Elif Shafak.

Numbers & Trends

• Manga sales are up 16% in the U.S. since the beginning of the year.

Award News

• Winners for the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards, Best Translated Book Awards, and the Lambda Literary Awards.
• Finalists for the International Thriller Writer Awards.

All Things Comics

• It’s official: Robert Pattinson is Batman.
• 20 new graphic novels & memoirs for summer reading.
• 10 of the best webcomics for newbies.

Audiophilia

• 10 audiobooks for wedding season.
• 40 summer road trip audiobooks.
• Marvel is turning its comics into audiobooks with Dreamscape.

Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

Children/Teens

• 7 picture books about autism.
• 15 great read aloud books for older kids.
• Muslim characters in YA.
• YA anthologies & short stories..

Adults

• 10 nonfiction books about China.
• 12 child actor memoirs.
• Fantasy books by women and authors of color.
• NYPL library employees talk about the LGBTQ+ books that were the most meaningful in their personal journeys.
• Ibram X. Kendi compiles an antiracist reading list.
• 7 books about djinn.
• 10 personal finance books by black authors.
• Recommended books by and about Native authors.
• 25 top horror novels on Goodreads.
• 50 must-read books by podcasters.

Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

• How to break up with your book club.
• When childhood books should not be revisited.
• Bookish pets!

Level Up (LibraryReads)

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 Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading Duped: Double Lives, False Identities, and the Con Man I Almost Married – Abby Ellin.

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 Lion Forge.

In Gender Queer, Maia Kobabe has crafted an intensely cathartic autobiography about eir path to identifying as nonbinary and asexual, and coming out to eir family and society. By addressing questions about gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—the story also doubles as a much-needed, useful, and touching guide. Find the graphic novel memoir in stores now from Lion Forge!

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A correction from last week’s newsletter: I mistakenly said that San Francisco city officials were naming a teen space after Amber Clark, when it was actually Sacramento. You can read the original article here, and I apologize for the error!

And now, on with the newsletter!

Libraries & Librarians

News Updates

• David Byrne joins the fight for NYC library funding. From the article: “The fight to fund cultural institutions in New York City is the same as it ever was.” *ba-dum-chhh*
• Proposed budget cuts to the Narragansett (RI) Public Library draw crowds of protesters.
• No more late fees at the Dallas Public Library.
• Leander Public Library (TX) cancels Drag Queen Story Hour. Meanwhile, Delaware County District Library (OH) is offering a Drag 101 program for teens interested in learning the basics of drag, hosted by a local drag queen, and is apparently standing firm in the face of public backlash. Now THERE’S a revolutionary teen program! I can’t wait to hear how it goes!
• The Digital Public Library of America created a free, readable eBook version of The Mueller Report, unlike the government-issued eBook version, which was a low quality, almost illegible PDF version.
• (TW racism) Doane University in Nebraska has suspended the director of the Perkins Library for a historical display that featured two photos of students in blackface in 1926, but did not provide additional context for the images.
• New library for the LGBTQ+ community opens in Hatboro, PA.
• Ian Rankin gifts his literary archive to the National Library of Scotland.

Cool Library Updates

• How the Sacramento Public Library used community outreach to engage with people with disabilities in the community.
• Nashville Public Library runs an early literacy program for incarcerated teen fathers.
• Sonoma County Library launches a Spanish eReading room.
• This digital bookmobile travels around and shows people how to access eBooks & eAudiobooks via Libby!
• How Alterspace allows library users to customize the light, color, and sound of their study room.
• Encouraging a reading culture in Africa.
• How to start your library’s first chess tournament.
• Turn RA into fun, simple programming.

Worth Reading

• Librarians respond to the humanitarian crisis at the border.
• How libraries can make a difference to help ALS patients and caregivers.
• A look at the affordable housing co-located with a library branch in Chicago.
• University libraries are seeing sharp declines in the use of their physical collections.
• Are you thinking about starting a non-traditional collection at your library? Check out this list of 200 random things that libraries are lending out – everything from cheese warmers to ghost-hunting equipment to skulls! Plus each of the listed items links back to its home library for more information!
• How to extrovert when you have to. *blech*
• The uncertain future of Sweden’s floating libraries.
• What student employees have taught this librarian.
• Who decides what will go into the Library of Congress?
• University of Southern Denmark discovered that three of their books from the 16th and 17th centuries contained large amounts of arsenic.

Book Adaptations in the News

• Another Stephen King adaptation: The Long Walk.
• Trent Dalton’s new novel, Boy Swallows Universe, is being adapted for TV.
• Queen Latifah will star and produce in the adaptation of The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo.
• FX is adapting Akwaeke Emezi’s Freshwater.
• Joshua Jackson joins the cast for Little Fires Everywhere.
• Hulu is adapting North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Ballingrud.

Collection Development Corner

Publishing News

• Publisher Robert Bernstein dies at age 96.
• Penguin Random House acquires a minority stake in Sourcebooks.
• Berkley has acquired its first print queer female romance!

New & Upcoming Titles

• Hilary Mantel announces a 2020 release date for The Mirror and the Light, the last book in her Thomas Cromwell trilogy.
• The Jonas Brothers are writing a memoir.
• In “I’ll believe it when I see it news,” George R.R. Martin sorta promises a due date of August 2020 for The Winds of Winter.
• Marie Kondo is writing a children’s book, and I can only imagine how delightful this will be!
• A picture book about Venetia Burney, the girl who originally named Pluto.
• Donald Trump Jr. is writing a book, because of course he is.
• A preview of Karen McManus’ book One of Us is Next, the sequel to One of Us is Lying.
• 23 upcoming books that librarians, editors, and booksellers think you’ll love.
• Summer reading suggestions and previews from Bustle, Entertainment Weekly, New York Times, Shondaland, Vanity Fair, and Washington Post.
• What’s new in LGBTQIA+ YA for May 2019.
• New books by your favorite authors coming out this year.
• Time magazine picks the best fiction & nonfiction books of the year (so far)

What Your Patrons Are Hearing About

• NoveList now has a way to track media mentions of a particular title, so if you have a patron who’s trying to remember the name of a book mentioned on NPR, you have a new resource at your fingertips! This is so cool!!
• The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth – Josh Levin (New York Times, NPR).
• All the Rage: Mothers, Fathers, and the Myth of Equal Partnership – Darcy Lockman (NPR).
• Exhalation – Ted Chiang (NPR).
• The Bride Test – Helen Hoang (Washington Post).
• The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna – Juliet Grames (Washington Post).
• Middlegame -Seanan McGuire (NPR).
• On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous – Ocean Vuong (New York Times).
• Patsy – Nicole Dennis-Benn (Time).
• City of Girls – Elizabeth Gilbert (Time).
• A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II – Sonia Purnell (New York Times)
• Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide by Karen Kilgariff & Georgia Hardstark (Washington Post).

RA/Genre Resources

• A reader’s guide to different book genres.
• Donald Goines and the birth of black pulp fiction.
• YA addresses #MeToo.
• Crime fiction as self care – this is a great article to get you thinking about less obvious reasons why your patrons might be interested in a particular genre.

Books & Authors In the News

• Arizona Department of Corrections has banned prisoners from reading the book Chokehold: Policing Black Men by Paul Butler, which discusses the impact of the criminal justice system on black men. The Department of Corrections apparently sent a notice to the publisher that some aspect of the book was “detrimental to the safe, secure, and orderly operation of the facility.”
• Related: New Hampshire prisons ban books that are critical of the justice & prison systems.
• Children’s author Judith Kerr has died at age 95 and award-winning journalist and author Tony Horowitz died at age 60.
• You may be hearing about Naomi Wolf, who learned on-air during a BBC radio interview that her interpretation of a legal concept frequently referenced in her upcoming nonfiction book, Outrages: Sex, Censorship, and the Criminalization of Love, was completely wrong. Wolf later said that the issue was corrected and she stands by the premise of her book. I’m not a lawyer, and I don’t play one on TV, so I won’t delve into the minutia here, but holy cow, this sounds like an epic nightmare.
• We’re hearing a lot about Moby’s recent memoir, but only because celebrities like Natalie Portman have had to come forward and say, “Actually, I never dated Moby – he was just creeping on me when I was younger.”
• George R.R. Martin talks about whether or not the Game of Thrones books will end like the TV series.
• The Chicago Tribune did a feature on Nnedi Okorafor.
• Alexandria School District (MN) pulls two books from an eighth grade language arts unit after parent complaints: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli and Sold by Patricia McCormick.

News & Trends

• Author Gabino Iglesias talks about the lack of diversity amongst the Big 5 publishers.
• On average, there are only 421 new fiction translations published each year in the US.

Award News

• Jokha Alharthi wins the Man Booker International Prize for Celestial Bodies.
• Melissa Harrison’s All Among the Barley wins the 2019 European Union Prize for Literature.
• Shortlist for the Forward Prizes for Poetry.
• Longlist for the Miles Franklin Literary Award.
• The Wellcome Book Prize has been suspended due to lack of funding.

Pop Cultured

• How Claudia Kishi from the Baby-Sitter’s Club books inspired a generation of Asian-American writers.
• Vanity Fair has an enormous feature on The Rise of Skywalker, and honestly, I am 100% here for the John Boyega/Naomi Acki-as-black-space-cowboys and the whole Oscar-Isaac-sexy-desert-scarf look. Also, there’s going to be a significant Carrie Fisher appearance in The Rise of Skywalker.
• Suggestions for fiction podcasts.
• Trailer for Star Trek: Picard.
• 11 TV shows like Killing Eve.

All Things Comics

• Professional development opportunity! The ALA Graphic Novels & Comics Round Table is partnering with ALA president Loida Garcia-Febo for a free webinar on June 12th on “Libraries, Comics, and Superheroes of Color.”
• A beginner’s guide to comic books.
• Street Noise Books is a new YA publisher, which will focus on “unapologetic, authentic, and politically relevant” graphic nonfiction for teens.
• Comics to enjoy while you wait for Saga.
• The final season of Jessica Jones will be available for Netflix streaming on June 14th.
• Clue gets the comic book treatment.
• A Napoleon Dynamite sequel in comic form.
• The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl says “Farewell.”
• Trailer for Swamp Thing.
• Some light-hearted comics.

Audiophilia

• Washington Post lists some audiobooks perfect for your summer travels.
• We’re getting a brand new audio version of Charlotte’s Web, which will be narrated by Meryl Streep and an ensemble cast, and will be the first audio version of the book since E.B. White’s original recording!
• Audiobook roundup from Penguin Random House.
• Christian publishers are positioning themselves to take advantage of the growing audiobook market.

Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

Children/Teens

• Picture books that defy gender stereotypes.
• Picture books and board books about food.
• 10 books for fans of Raina Telgemeier.
• 30 middle grade & YA books by UK authors of color.
• 7 books about reproductive choice for teens.
• Must-read YA ballet books.

Adults

• New York Times: 75 suggestions for summer reading.
• Genre-bending romance series.
• 13 optimistic fantasy novels.
• 10 books about angry women.
• Literary thrillers.
• 7 creepy fictional couples, plus 7 domestic thrillers if you liked The Couple Next Door.
• 20 translated short story collections from around the world.
• 20 road trip novels for the summer.
• 24 unusual historical romances.

Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

• The responsibility of a book critic in the era of a Trump presidency.
• Summer reading shouldn’t be a chore.
• Reading with toddlers may reduce harsh parenting and enhance your child’s behavior, according to this study.
• Bedtime stories in the digital era.
• Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has a post about being biracial and writing biracial characters.
• How to decorate a bookshelf with things other than books. (Is there such a thing?)
• 10 must-visit spots for mystery lovers.
  
• There’s a Nonfiction Women Book Club on Instagram, and an Iowa book club that plans to read all of the autobiographies written by Democratic presidential candidates.
• Suryakanta Barik told his future in-laws that he wouldn’t accept a dowry. Instead, they gifted Barik and his fiancee (both avid readers) with nearly 1,000 books for their personal library.
• Daniel Radcliffe’s original Harry Potter glasses are up for auction!
• A 17th century book with a hidden compartment for poison is selling for $11,000.

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 Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading all of my half-finished books from the last few weeks!

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 Kingsbane by Claire Legrand.

The sequel to the instant New York Times bestseller Furyborn! Rielle Dardenne has been anointed Sun Queen, but her trials are far from over. The Gate keeping the angels at bay is falling. To repair it, Rielle must collect the seven hidden castings of the saints. Centuries later, Eliana Ferracora grapples with her new reality: She is the Sun Queen, humanity’s long-awaited savior. But fear of corruption—fear of becoming another Rielle—keeps Eliana’s power dangerous and unpredictable. Hunted by all, racing against time to save her dying friend Navi, Eliana must decide how to wear a crown she never wanted—by embracing her mother’s power, or rejecting it forever.

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Libraries & Librarians

News Updates

• Michigan lawmakers push to require librarians in public schools. Meanwhile, Oakland school library workers have been forced out after the district reallocates funds.
• San Francisco city officials are renaming the North Natomas branch teen space after Amber Clark, who was murdered several months ago. The library director is also planning to set up a memorial fund in Clark’s name to extend accessibility programming at the library, which Clark was a huge advocate for.
• Sarah Jessica Parker advocates against Bill de Blasio’s proposed budget cuts to NYC libraries.
• Louisville Drag Queen storytime draws protesters.
• Pittsburgh library news: the University of Pittsburgh Library System acquires the archives of the late great George A. Romero and Dolly Parton opens a Pittsburgh branch of her Imagination Library.
• More libraries are waiving fines.
• Literally the day after I published last week’s newsletter, two of the falcon eggs at the Evanston Public Library hatched!
• OHMIGOD, my former home library rescued a baby deer the other day and the photos are too adorable for words!!

Cool Library Updates

• This former library board member in a tiny Wisconsin town volunteers one Saturday a month to provide mending and tailoring services for the community. The fundraising has allowed the library to purchase additional titles for their adult nonfiction collection.
• School Library Journal has a bunch of recent articles on diverse books and diversifying reading selections: creating diverse summer reading lists, where to shelve diverse books, how diverse characters can impact decisions to buy books, diversity auditing 101, a diversity and cultural literacy toolkit, and finally, a look at whether or not diverse books can save us.
• Columbia University announces the Obama Presidency Oral History Project. You can check out the official website here!

Worth Reading

• The impact of Little Free Libraries over the last 10 years.
• Speaking with OlaRonke Akinmowo, founder of the Free Black Women’s Library.
• The first feminist, community-owned library opens in India.
• Mobbing in the library workplace: What it is, and how to prevent it.
• 100 Scope Notes, a School Library Journal blog has a cool feature on Endangered Series, aka children’s series that are beloved classics but may not be as popular as they once were. The most recent post is about the Arthur series, but there are a bunch of other series to check out here.
• Here’s what happens when you ask the NYPL for John Wick’s murder book in John Wick 3. *Spoiler alerts if you haven’t seen the movie*
• Having a library or cafe down the block could change your life.

Book Adaptations in the News

• Issa Rae options Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones.
• Annette Bening and Michelle Pfeiffer have joined the adaptation of Turn of Mind by Alison LaPlante.
• Richard Thomas will be starring as Atticus Finch in the national tour of To Kill a Mockingbird.
• The Good Lord Bird is heading to Showtime.
• Amazon Studios picks up Lauren Oliver’s YA series, Panic.
• Queen Latifah and Will Smith are producing a hip-hop version of Romeo and Juliet for Netflix.
• Seth Grahame-Smith is adapting Stephen King’s Eyes of the Dragon for Hulu.
• Trailers for His Dark Materials, The Art of Racing in the Rain, and Where’d You Go, Bernadette?

Collection Development Corner

Publishing News

• There’s been a high profile firing at Alfred A. Knopf over a “breach of company policy.”

New & Upcoming Titles

• After making an appearance in Stephen King’s The Outsider, Holly Gibney, who originally appeared in the Mr. Mercedes trilogy, gets her own spinoff story with If You Bleed, which will hit shelves in 2020. (The Stephen King universe keeps getting bigger and bigger…)
• Speaking of Stephen King, there’s going to be a collector’s edition reissue of his 2014 novel, Revival.
• Nora Roberts…er…J.D. Robb…is writing the 50th book in the In Death series! Look for it in February of 2020.
• Michael Wolff is publishing another book about Trump called Siege: Trump Under Fire.
• Elle: 30 best books to read this summer.
• Crime Reads: Most anticipated crime novels of the summer, best debut novels in May.
• Tor.com: Forthcoming queer novels starring queer women.
• Bustle: 25 short story collections this summer.
• Best beach books of 2019.
• 50 books to read this summer.

What Your Patrons Are Hearing About

• Barnes & Noble picks The Guest Book by Sarah Blake as its May book club pick.
• Orange World and Other Stories – Karen Russell (New York Times, NPR, Washington Post)
• Disappearing Earth – Julia Phillips (Entertainment Weekly, New York Times, NPR, USA Today)
• Red, White, and Royal Blue – Casey McQuiston (NPR, Vogue)
• Cari Mora – Thomas Harris (New York Times, USA Today)

RA/Genre Resources

• At the recent Massachusetts Library Conference, Anna Mickelsen presented an enormous list of recent and upcoming diverse novels for your reading, suggesting, and displaying pleasure, and best of all, it’s freely accessible on Google Docs! USE THIS AS A RESOURCE.
• Barbara Hoffert’s annual Book Expo galley and signing guide is now available! Even if you’re not going, this is a great collection development resource.
• YA for changing times.

Books & Authors In the News

• Herman Wouk, author of The Caine Mutiny, has died at age 103.
• After her blog post about how her then-husband was slowly poisoning her, author Sherrilyn Kenyon has been jailed for lashing out in court.
• James Patterson is funding “Buy a Book, Give a Book” to encourage reading in children and families from disadvantaged backgrounds.
• Stephen King tweets his support for the last season of Game of Thrones.

News & Trends

• Who’s aware of the term #ownvoices? (Spoiler: not many people).
• School Library Journal created an infographic based on survey question, which asked how important it was to have a book collection with diverse points of view.
• Trends in library school accreditation.

Award News

• Nominees for the Best Translated Book Awards, the Nommo Awards (speculative fiction by African authors), and the Anthony Awards.
• Winners for the Nebula Awards, This is Horror Awards, British Book of the Year Awards, and the 100th Annual O. Henry Prize.
• Karen Tongson wins the 2019 Jeanne Córdova Prize for Lesbian/Queer Nonfiction.
• The Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction was awarded to Richard Ford.
• The new Prix Monte-Cristo is a literary award where the judges are chosen from the inmates in Europe’s largest prison, Fleury-Mérogis.
• Which authors have won the most prizes?

Pop Cultured

• School Library Journal has a list of summer podcasts for elementary, middle, and high school students.
• A look at the petition demanding that HBO remake Season 8 of Game of Thrones. (I’m not a GOT watcher, so I can’t speak to everyone’s reactions regarding this final season, but the idea that fans should be able to dictate the evolution & progression of a creative work is bonkers.)
• However, if you’re not one of these people, perhaps you may consider getting a Game of Thrones tattoo?
• And finally, let’s be reasonable about spoilers, okay?

All Things Comics

• Robert Pattinson (yes, that Robert Pattinson) is in talks to star in The Batman. As Batman. Discuss.
• Reading comics is not cheating.
• Removable wallpaper for fans of comics and/or vintage books.
• Stan Lee’s former manager has been charged with elder abuse. This is so sad.
• A group of Wisconsin graduates are using comic books to promote science education.
• R.L. Stine’s first comic just reached 200,000 copies in advance sales!
• An Avengers mini-series is coming to Disney+.

Audiophilia

• Libro.fm launches three new book clubs for kids, teens, and romance readers.
• Alyssa Cole is creating an Audible Original about “robot love.”

Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

Children/Teens

• 10 picture books that break the fourth wall.
• Feminist fairytales for children that teach modern values.
• 6 children’s books about Asian American culture.
• Bee books for all ages.
• 10 YA standalone fantasies.
• Top YA horror novels on Goodreads.
• 7 YA fantasy novels with heroines disguised as boys.
• 26 inclusive YA fantasy novels.

Adults

• 15 books to read about the abortion debate.
• 41 of the best LGBTQ books that will change the literary landscape in 2019, plus 10 LGBTQ books to usher in World Pride.
• 7 books to read if you love RuPaul’s Drag Race.
• Christina Lauren picks 11 essential summer romances.
• 14 #ownvoices mysteries for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
• 5 must-read short story collections for SFF fans.
• 7 books to make you wonder if your best friend is a serial killer.
• 8 summer affair books featuring lesbian & bisexual women.
• 12 historical fiction novels to read if you love the glamor of old Hollywood.
• 16 of the best science books of all time.
• 50 books about complicated marriages.
• 40 of the most popular translated books on Goodreads.
• 13 single parent romances.
• 12 recent locked room mysteries for fans of escape rooms.

Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

• These are the three books Barack Obama thinks you should read this spring.
• Do you remember the teen vandals who were sentenced by a judge to read books about racism? Apparently it worked – the teens have stuck to their education, have not reoffended, and they all appear genuinely remorseful about their crimes.
• For the first time ever, you can access the entire digital Vanity Fair archive from 1913 – present. It’s fully searchable, and it’s free until June 30th, when it will become a perk to subscribers.
• Reader’s Digest picks the most-loved bookstores in every state.
• New York Times talks about how book clubs have gotten “especially clubby.”
• Get an in-depth look at a Barnes & Noble concept store. (I’m not going to lie – I’ve visited one before, and I did NOT like it, but my opinion is only one of many.)
• Kids reading to horses!
• Reading in the age of the personalized book subscription service.

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 Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading Trust Exercise by Susan Choi.

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 Wednesday Books.

From one of the most followed BookTubers today, Christine Riccio, comes a story about second chances, discovering yourself, and being brave enough to try again. Colleen Hoover calls Again, but Better “is a fantastic debut novel! Entertaining, clever, and impossible to put down.” What would you do with a second chance?

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Libraries & Librarians

News Updates

• Check out the winners for the IMLS National Medal for Museum & Library Services!
• A recent analysis shows that Georgia prison libraries are extremely short on books for inmates.
• (TW: racism): After a thirteen-year-old’s arrest in a branch of the Austin Public Library, black advocates demand that library policies create safe spaces for all.
• Ohio voters approve all five public library levies on the ballot for their May 7th election.
• A public library event for the author of P is for Palestine sparks concern and pushback from the Jewish community in Highland Park, New Jersey.
• Clearing out a library with the world’s smelliest fruit. Best of all, this is the SECOND time in a year that a university library has had to evacuate because of a durian!
• Jeopardy super-winner James Holzhauer has won $1.69 million so far, and donated $10,000 to the Las Vegas-Clark County Library, among other area organizations. Rock on!
• Evanston (IL) Public Library fans are on falcon watch, as its avian residents are currently sitting on four eggs. The library has a live camera feed on its YouTube channel!

Cool Library Updates

• Try out these book bentos for your library’s social media accounts.
• Academic libraries are fighting campus food insecurity with onsite pantries.
• Chicago Public Library launches a new community cinema program.
• Huntsville-Madison (AL) County Public Library creates parts in its maker space for an international space station project!
• Oakland Art Library loans out its works to patrons, but patrons need to pay a $20 monthly fee in order to check out works of art. Thoughts?
• There’s now a crowdsourced Google Doc called “How Cold is that Library?”, which is meant to help visitors at research and academic libraries. Slightly absurd? Yes. Useful? Absolutely!
• What do you do when insects destroy the trees in your community? Turn them into Little Free Libraries, of course!
• Opioid crisis resources for libraries, plus an in-depth look at measures many libraries are already taking to combat opioid dependency in their communities.

Worth Reading

• Measuring diversity in your library’s collection.
• Should a public library be responsible for publishing local news? That’s the debate going on in Longmont, Colorado.
• Be an ally for accessibility.

Book Adaptations in the News

• There’s already a TV series in the works for the upcoming book, Accepted, about the ongoing college admissions scandal.
• Hold onto your butts, people. It’s the trailer for It: Chapter 2 and HOLY BANANAPANTS, it’s scary!! (I totally can’t wait to see this movie, but yes, the trailer is terrifying.)
• New trailer for Big Little Lies, season 2.
• The Passage has been canceled after only one season.
• Evan Rachel Wood is starring in One Thousand Paper Cranes, which is based on the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. What I can’t figure out is why the movie is centering the story around the author of the book, and not Sadako Sasaki, who was, you know, the entire point of the story.
• The Power of the Dog by Thomas Savage is getting an adaptation starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Moss.
• Casting updates for Looking for Alaska.
• Rainbow Rowell is working on a film adaptation for Eleanor & Park.
• New Rebecca adaptation headed to Netflix.
• NBC picks up Lincoln, based on the Lincoln Rhyme series by Jeffrey Deaver.
• R.L. Stine & Marc Brown signed a deal to create animated content.
• Sandra Cisneros is collaborating on an operatic adaptation of The House on Mango Street.
• Another Christmas Carol adaptation, with Guy Pearce as Scrooge.
• Scott Wolf replaces Freddie Prinze Jr. in the CW Nancy Drew series.

Collection Development Corner

New & Upcoming Titles

• Publisher’s Weekly pulled together a list of adult and children’s galleys to look for at BEA. Can’t make it to BEA this year? Consider this a head start on your purchasing for the next few months! Also, the EarlyWord May Galley Chat has been posted.
• A preview of Noah Hawley’s book Fargo: This is a True Story.
• Karamo Brown, Queer Eye’s barrier-breaking life therapist, has written a picture book with his son called I Am Perfectly Designed. If you need me, I’ll be out buying a copy of this for all of the tiny children in my life.
• Memoir updates: Liz Phair announces a memoir in October and FSG is publishing Chelsea Manning’s memoir. Also, Obama’s memoir may be published in 2020, in the midst of the presidential election.
• Marie Lu brings readers back to Legend with her upcoming book, Rebel.
• Caroline Kepnes is planning a third and fourth book in the You series.
• Bookmarks: Best reviewed books of the week.
• LA Times: new sci-fi releases.
• Vulture: 8 new books you should read this May.
• Paste: Best YA novels of May.
• CrimeReads: Best true crime and thrillers of May.

What Your Patrons Are Hearing About

• The Farm – Joanne Ramos (NPR, New York Times, Shondaland, USA Today)
• Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee – Casey Cep (NPR, Time, Washington Post)
• Becoming Dr. Seuss: Theodor Geisel and the Making of an American Imagination – Brian Jay Jones (NPR, New York Times, Washington Post)
• Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century – George Packer (NPR, New York Times)
• No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us – Rachel Louise Snyder (NPR, New York Times)
• Howard Stern Comes Again – Howard Stern (Entertainment Weekly, New York Times, Washington Post)
• Fire On High – Elizabeth Acevedo (Entertainment Weekly, New York Times)

RA & Genre Resources

• NoveList gives you some Pokemon-related RA tips.
• Why are we living in a golden age of historical fiction?
• A conversation about queer crime fiction.
• Anti-diet books are the new diet books.

Books & Authors in the News

• People are talking about Danielle Steel’s ridiculous 22 hour work days. Forget feasibility…is it even humanly possible??
• Nnedi Okorafor has been selected as the ALA President’s Program Speaker for the Annual Conference in June!
• George R.R. Martin says, no, he has not secretly finished books 6 and 7 in the Song of Fire & Ice series, and wonders why people would say such silly things.

Numbers & Trends

• By the Numbers: Library School.
• Nearly half of all parents are unaware of the term “summer slide,” and other trends from the Scholastic Kids and Family Reading Report.

Award News

• Winners for the Bram Stoker Awards and the Aurealis Award.
• Aida Edemariam’s The Wife’s Tale wins the RSL Ondaatje Prize and Normal People by Sally Rooney wins the top prize at the British Book Awards.
• Poet Hannah Ensor and journalist Robert Fieseler win the Judith A. Markowitz Award for Emerging LGBTQ Writers.
• Simon Armitage is the new poet laureate for the UK.
• Naomi Shihab Nye becomes the first Arab American author to be named as the Young People’s Poet Laureate.
• Longlists for the CWA Dagger Award and the 2019 Orwell Prizes.
• Shortlists for the Locus Awards and the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

Pop Cultured

• The world mourns the deaths of Doris Day and Tim Conway.
• Entertainment Weekly features 15 of its favorite pop culture bookstores.
• The pop culture importance of Hannibal Lecter.

All Things Comics

• Portland-based Oni Press joins forces with Lion Forge Comics.
• Teaser trailer for Watchmen on HBO.
• Fiction podcasts for superhero fans.
• Classic children’s books as graphic novels, and why this is a good thing. And on a related note, The Witches and the Babysitter’s Little Sister series are each getting a graphic novel adaptation! I’m super excited for both of these!
• 8 awesome middle grade comics.
• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a super hero? Heck yeah!

Audiophilia

• 10 new titles you need to listen to on audio ASAP.
• Youth mystery titles on audio that will appeal to anyone.
• Audible and Reese Witherspoon have partnered to co-produce three Audible-exclusive memoirs by women.
• 21 must-read mystery and thriller audiobooks available RIGHT NOW on Hoopla!

Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

Children/Teens

• 9 exciting mystery novels for kids.
• 50 must-read books set in schools. (There’s a mix of children’s, YA, and adult titles here.)
• YA/middle grade readalikes for Game of Thrones.
• Awesome royals in YA fantasy.
• Asian-inspired YA fantasy.
• 17 YA books to read during Mental Health Awareness Month.
• 8 YA novels in translation. 

Adults

• 15 must-read translated books from the last 5 years.
• A reading list for the new royal parents.
• 16 mother-daughter book pairings for Mother’s Day.
• 15 true crime stories about con artists.
• 8 books set in isolated locations.
• 10 noir SFF protagonists even weirder than Detective Pikachu.
• 9 books that tackle sexual assault head on. (Trigger warnings for these books.)
• Book suggestions for fans of Killing Eve.
• Nonfiction books about female spies.
• Memoirs by Muslim women to read this Ramadan.

Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

• Check out these 15 independent black-owned bookstores that are reclaiming their shelves and their communities.
• Another day, another protest against a Drag Queen Story Time. Seriously…the protests are getting really old, people.
• Pediatrician offices are partnering with the Reach Out and Read Program to give books away to patients 5 and under! This beats doctor’s office lollipops by a LONG shot!
• The Indian Novels Collective plans to translate 100 novels from 13 Indian languages into English.
• Why own voices reviews are important.
• The Charles Dickens novel that accompanied Captain Scott’s doomed expedition to Antarctica will be on display in London. The book apparently still smells faintly of smoke and fish.
• Learning to enjoy annotating.
• A book nerd’s guide to the Met Gala.

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 Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

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 Albert Whitman & Company, 100 Years of Good Books.

It’s been a year since the Catalog Killer terrorized the sleepy seaside town of Camera Cove, killing four people before disappearing without a trace. Like everyone else, eighteen-year-old Mac Bell is trying to put that horrible summer behind him—easier said than done since Mac’s best friend Connor was the murderer’s final victim. But when he finds a cryptic message from Connor, he’s drawn back into the search for the killer—who might not have been a random drifter after all. Now nobody—friends, neighbors, or even the sexy stranger with his own connection to the case—is beyond suspicion.

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Libraries & Librarians

News Updates

• After receiving a complaint from a local teacher, the Kalispell ImagineIf Library (MT) board voted to keep Prince and Knight, a gay-inclusive fairytale, on the shelves.
• There have been some troubling changes to a New Jersey school district’s challenged book policy, especially because the changes, which would give the superintendent a large amount of power in deciding the fate of challenged books, were made after Fun Home was returned to library shelves despite the superintendent’s objections.
• Inspector General Joe Ferguson says that staffing at the Chicago Public Libraries are still not aligned with community needs, one year after the initial audit.
• Project Panorama is doing a survey of reader’s advisory practices and how public libraries can impact book sales and title/author discovery. The survey is live until May 21st.
• Los Angeles school libraries are in distress.
• (TW: racism) Historical blackface photos lead to librarian’s suspension.

Cool Library Updates

• South Philadelphia library is distributing personal hygiene kits.
• The Elkhart (IN) Public Library hosted a Star Wars escape room for Free Comic Book Day.
• You’ve heard of “makerspaces,” but what about “breakerspaces?”
• Edmonton libraries offer recording booths for local musicians.
• LitHub interviews Dev Aujla, founder of New York’s Sorted Library.
• Shout out to my former workplace! The Waukegan (IL) Public Library, hometown of Ray Bradbury, is planning to dedicate a 12 foot statue of the author on his birthday, August 22nd, 2019. Check out more info about the statue here!
• Unboxing videos at the library.

Worth Reading

• “The specialized help that can be accessed at libraries or via knowledgeable staff may be invaluable to a patron, but in highlighting and promoting this work it may come at a cost of privacy to the very populations that are seeking protection.” – On complicated issues of immigrant patrons and privacy.
• “I didn’t want to know that!”: Maintaining privacy from incidental revelations.
• The importance of making your queer and questioning users welcome.
• Adult Literacy through Libraries toolkit from ALA.
• Marketing your teen summer learning program.

Book Adaptations in the News

• Twilight is launching a global re-airing tour with an orchestra.
• Nicole Kidman is producing and starring in Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty for Hulu.
• Trailer for The Handmaid’s Tale, season 3. Also, The Handmaid’s Tale has been adapted for the opera.
• Stay Up with Hugo Best by Erin Somers has been optioned for film.
• Intercepted by Alexa Martin is being adapted for Starz, starring La La Anthony and Curtis Jackson, aka 50 Cent.

Collection Development Corner

Publishing News

• Baker & Taylor is closing its retail wholesale business. Meanwhile, Penguin Random House launches the “Indies Express Program” that will let bookstores who previously purchased PRH titles from Baker & Taylor order directly from PRH.
• Macmillan Learning becomes the industry’s first company to become “Global Certified Accessible” and provide “born accessible” eBook options for students with disabilities.
• Penguin Classics launches an Asian American Classics line on May 21st.
• Mayo Clinic launches its own publishing imprint.

New & Upcoming Titles

• Richard Chizmar is publishing a solo sequel to Gwendy’s Button Box, which he cowrote with Stephen King. The sequel is called Gwendy’s Magic Feather, and will be released this November.
• Fyre Festival scammer Billy McFarland is apparently self-publishing a memoir, because of course he is.
• Do you remember that adorable photo of Parker Curry, looking up at Amy Sherald’s portrait of Michelle Obama in wide-eyed wonder? Well, her mom turned the viral photo/experience into a children’s book called Parker Looks Up, and it looks too cute for words!!
• Holly Black has a middle grade Maleficent novel coming out.
• The Spice Girls all have their own Little Miss books!
• Rebecca Roanhorse is writing a Star Wars novel!
• Julie Andrews is writing her second memoir. Meanwhile, Woody Allen’s trying to sell his memoirs, but publishers are passing.
• Glamour picks the best books of 2019 (so far).
• Swoony YA summertime romances.
• USA Today books of the week.
• Best books for May: Amazon, Barnes & Noble (SFF) Bustle, CrimeReads (Psychological thrillers), Entertainment Weekly, Goodreads (YA), io9 (SFF), LitHub (SFF), the Millions, New York Times, Oprah, Time, Tor.com (YA SFF), The Verge, Washington Post

What Your Patrons Are Hearing About

• From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home – Tembi Locke (sister of Attica Locke) was selected for Reese Witherspoon’s May book club pick.
• Celeste Ng selects Red Clocks by Leni Zumas for Bustle’s book club.
• Emma Watson picks Pachinko for her book club’s May/June pick.
• Flight Portfolio – Julie Orringer (Entertainment Weekly, New York Times).
• Fall & Rise: The Story of 9/11 – Mitchell Zuckoff (New York Times, Washington Post).
• Lie With Me – Philippe Besson; translated by Molly Ringwald (NPR, Vanity Fair, Vulture).
• The Bride Test – Helen Hoang (Entertainment Weekly, NPR).
• What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About: Fifteen Writers Break the Silence by Michele Filgate (ed.) (Bustle, Buzzfeed, NPR).

RA & Genre Resources

• Mystery genre spotlight from Library Journal.
• Agatha Award winners discuss the state of the cozy mystery.
• April romance column from Entertainment Weekly.

Books & Authors in the News

• USA Today looks at the best-seller status of the Mueller Report.
• Oyinkan Braithwaite talks about the books that made her.
• Roxane Gay is hosting a book club that will air on HBO (!!!), AND she launched her own magazine, Gay Magazine, “creating an online space where writers are afforded the time to produce their best work.” Is there anything she can’t do??
• Living & learning at the first annual Antiracist Book Festival, hosted by Ibram X. Kendi.
• Christian author Rachel Held Evans passed away, and her death has struck a chord with a huge number of people.
• Trailer for Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am.

Numbers & Trends

• Library Systems Report of 2019.
• Can we say “whitewashed?” Study finds that 94% of authors in the U.K. are white. Meanwhile in Canada, a new report shows that 60% of Canadians are actively seeking out diverse reading material, although 13% of respondents who self-identified as belonging to a marginalized group “strongly agreed” that they had trouble finding diverse reading material.
• 2018 North American comic sales rise to $1.09 billion dollars. *cue the Dr. Evil gifs*

Award News

• Nominees for the Shirley Jackson Award and the Tony Awards.
• Winners for the Agatha Awards, 2019 Indies Choice and E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards, and the Wellcome Book Prize.
• Vermont Department of Libraries is changing the name of a children’s book award that honors the late Dorothy Canfield Fisher, an author and activist who had ties to the eugenics movement of the 1920’s and 30’s.
• Imtiaz Dharker, a Pakistani-born British poet declines the British poet laureateship, citing a need to focus on her writing.

Pop Cultured

• Here are the programs that the Obamas are going to bring to Netflix!
• Peter Mayhew, forever known as Chewbacca, passed away at age 74.
• We’ve got movie sign! 10 bookish Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes.
• Pets in their best Star Wars cosplay for May the 4th.
• The best true crime podcasts of 2019 so far.
• Disney is creating a live action version of Lady and the Tramp, with Janelle Monae writing new music for the film.

All Things Comics

• OverDrive adds 600 Marvel graphic novels and comics to its collection!
• 5 recent Marvel comics that influenced Avengers: Endgame.
• 5 comics to read this May from Entertainment Weekly and Barnes & Noble.
• Mackenzi Lee is writing a queer YA novel about Marvel’s Loki!
• 10 essential graphic novels and memoirs about queer women.
• 3 comics to mark Mental Health Awareness Month.
• Trailer (and spoiler warning) for Spider-Man: Far From Home.
• The CW has a teaser for the new Batwoman series, starring Ruby Rose, which will also be the first superhero series with a gay lead character.
• A reader’s guide to Naruto.
• Canada’s Indigenous comic artists redress history.

Audiophilia

• New audiobook suggestions from the Washington Post and the New York Times.
• 4 types of books that are better as audiobooks.
• Chronicle Books is creating an audio division.
• Middle grade and YA audio picks for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

Children/YA

• 6 picture books that make great gifts for Mother’s Day.
• Children’s books about dogs.
• 37 amazing illustrated book covers featuring people of color.
• 10 modern classics for young readers.
• 5 books about foster families for young readers.
• 25 middle grade books by black authors.
• 50+ YA books about sports.
• Reading pathway for E. Lockhart.

Adults

• 21 must-read books for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, plus 17 books by queer Asian American writers.
• 7 strange and beautiful Holocaust novels you’ve probably never heard about.
• 30 books for 30 days of Ramadan.
• Fiction that explores #MeToo.
• SFF romances.
• The Bride Test and 5 other books with differently-wired protagonists.
• 20 romantic suspense titles.
• You want vampires? We got vampires! Unique vampire novels, diverse vampires, non-Western vampires, and under-appreciated vampire novels.
• 9 nonfiction books about spies.
• 40 best true crime books of all time.
• 8 crime books featuring women loving women & other queer people.
• If your library’s anything like mine, you’ll want this list of 5 books to read if you loved Where the Crawdads Sing.
• 10 books where the narrator is not the main character (and no, The Great Gatsby is not on this list).
• 24 of the best historical fiction books.
• Tor.com: Star Wars books for every type of fan.
• 11 chill books about anger management.
• 9 new novels with shocking endings.
• 10 novels featuring single mothers.

Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

• Barnes & Noble is launching a YA book club.
• This anonymous library employee posts the most bizarre book titles in their library’s collection on Instagram.
• A beginner’s guide to book blogging.
• Who hasn’t wanted to stay in Hagrid’s hut? (Illegal dragons not included). Also what it’s like to use the Hogwarts library.
• Unpopular opinion: tagging authors in negative reviews.
• Can you read…too much?
• Holocaust memorial project in Israel turns poetry written by Holocaust victims into music.

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 Evil Things by Katja Ivar.

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 Vertical, Inc.

Where did Sherlock Holmes go during his famous disappearance between his death at Reichenbach Falls and reappearance in Baker Street, three years later? God of mystery Keisuke Matsuoka contends that it was in the Far East—in Japan, to be exact. In 1891, Nicholas Alexandrovich, the Tsarevich of Russia, was traveling in a fragile Meiji-era Japan on an official tour when he was almost assassinated. The Otsu Incident, as this came to be known, led to fear of an international incident, perhaps even a declaration of war from Russia. In steps Sherlock Holmes—on the run from the British police and presumed to be dead. Together with Hirobumi Ito, the first Prime Minister of Japan, the two unlikely allies immerse themselves in a knotted tangle of politics, deceit, and great powers. In this deftly researched and immersive novel, based on real historical events, the great Sherlock Holmes stakes his flag in modern history in the turbulent early years of a rising Japan buffeted by the winds of change.

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Libraries & Librarians

News Updates

• Smart Bitches, Trashy Books are looking for new romance reviewers!
• (TW gun violence) Patron threatened to shoot up the Penn Library in Harrison City, PA in retaliation for late fees. Although the patron said he was joking (WTF dude), police found an unlicensed firearm in his car nearby.
• Kelly Clark’s push for better library security got the attention of the local news.
• Library of Congress publishes a new digital collection of classic children’s books from over 100 years ago.
• North Dakota legislators just voted to build a Theodore Roosevelt presidential library.
• Geneva Bible stolen from Carnegie Library (PA) has been recovered in the Netherlands.
• Project Dustbunny aims to find out, among other things, whether or not Shakespeare’s DNA is hiding in the Folger Library’s Vault. It’s unlikely that they’ll find anything, but I’m just saying that we better not read a future article about how scholars have created a tourist attraction with cloned versions of Shakespeare. IT WILL NOT END WELL.

Cool Library Updates

• NYPL creates dialogue-driven programming with its Community Conversations.
• Boston-area library has a program for aspiring DJs.
• Kent District Library (MI) will be the first library in the country to introduce MagnusCards, a new initiative to assist people with cognitive special needs.
• How to host a Bob Ross painting party.
• British Library has a new exhibition that traces the evolution of writing.

Worth Reading

• A look at the racist, classist, and sexist biases in library call numbers and subject headings.
• Archivists race to digitize slavery records before the history is lost.
• How this teacher librarian brought students and teachers back into a recently re-opened school library.
• Experts say storytime can help children recover from trauma.
• How to make your next library project beautiful.
• Book selection is not a politician’s job.
• Worth reading if your school does the 40 book challenge, and all the ways it can go horribly wrong.
• When RA training and diversity training meet.

Book Adaptations in the News

• The film adaptation of Walter Dean Myers’ YA novel, Monster has been acquired, and will be released under the name All Rise.
• ‘Salem’s Lot gets its third adaptation, this time produced by James Wan, who you may know from NOPE-fest films such as Saw, The Conjuring, and Insidious.
• Did you know there was a video-game adaptation of World War Z released recently? Well, apparently it sold 1,000,000+ copies in the first week.
• Trailers for Catch-22 and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, starring Taissa Farmiga.
• Outlander is coming to Netflix in May.
• (TW: suicide) Teen suicide spiked after the debut of 13 Reasons Why on Netflix.
• Laura Linney is returning to Broadway in the adaptation of My Name is Lucy Barton.
• Sarah Silverman’s memoir, The Bedwetter is getting a musical adaptation.

Collection Development Corner

New & Upcoming Titles

• Earlier in the year, Blood Heir by Amélie Wen Zhao was pulled from its publication schedule after a significant social media controversy, but is now slated for a November publication.
• Tegan & Sara are writing a memoir.
• We have a title & a tentative release date for the next book in Justina Ireland’s Dread Nation series!
• An update on the final book in the Diviners series by Libba Bray.
• Unnamed Press is publishing a science fiction anthology in October.
• You’ll want to put The Imaginary Corpse by Tyler Hayes on your reading list ASAP, just based on the plot synopsis: “A dinosaur detective in the land of unwanted ideas battles trauma, anxiety, and the first serial killer of imaginary friends.”
• Bookmarks: Best-reviewed books of the week.
• USA Today: Books of the week.
• O Magazine picks 10 April books you won’t be able to put down and 4 of the buzziest new reads you should have on your radar this month.
• Entertainment Weekly: 25 new paperbacks to check out this spring.
• Best international crime fiction for April.
• Barnes & Noble gives some key May titles for mysteries, thrillers, history & current affairs, and biographies & memoirs.
• May title updates from LA Times, Washington Post, Tor.com (fantasy), Book Riot (fantasy), EpicReads (YA), and Goodreads (romance).

What Your Patrons Are Hearing About

• Machines Like Me – Ian McEwan (Washington Post, New Yorker, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, LA Times).
• The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World – Melinda Gates (NPR, Shondaland, LA Times, Time).
• When We Left Cuba – Chanel Cleeton (Entertainment Weekly, Washington Post).
• Southern Lady Code – Helen Ellis (NPR, O Magazine).
• Miracle Creek – Angie Kim (Washington Post, Elle)

RA & Genre Resources

• The state of the mystery genre: a roundtable discussion amongst Edgar Award winners about the biggest issues that the genre faces. There are some good points here, but tbh, I’d really have liked to see more discussion about how the mystery world is super white.
• The hipster-mystery. The hipstery? Can we please call it something else?
• Starter guide to locked-room mysteries.
• Inclusivity in romance novels.
• Refinery29 has been covering YA novels all month, and here’s a roundup of all their news items.

Books & Authors in the News

• #copypastecris isn’t going anywhere – Nora Roberts sues the Brazilian author for multiple counts of plagiarism.
• A lost sequel to A Clockwork Orange has been discovered.
• Imani Kendi, author of the award-winning book Stamped From the Beginning: A Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, is launching the first National Antiracist Book Festival.
• Ron Chernow was the keynote speaker at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Numbers & Trends

• Why independent bookstores are flourishing in the age of Amazon.

Award News

• Winners for the Edgar Awards, Triangle Awards, and the James Beard Media Awards.
• Joy Harjo wins the Jackson Poetry Prize.
• Hoda Barakat wins the International Prize for Arabic Fiction for The Night Mail, and is just the second woman to win the award.
• Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist announced.
• Call Me Zebra by Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi wins the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
• American Academy of Arts and Letters is awarding Toni Morrison a well-deserved gold medal for her lifetime achievement in fiction.

Pop Cultured

• Tupac’s estate celebrates National Poetry Month with a fan competition.
• There’s going to be a Britney Spears-inspired musical, Once Upon a One More Time, and if you can’t get to the musical, there’s going to be a movie as well!
• The Tolkien estate is not a fan of the upcoming biopic.
• 10 things to do on Sunday if you don’t watch Game of Thrones.

All Things Comics

• There’s a new Stan Lee project coming out, and it introduces a new superhero universe.
• Avengers: Endgame has broken a LOT of records. And here’s a list of comics to read after watching the movie.
• More Baby-sitters Club graphic novels!
• Cool bookish places: Squishface Comic Studio, Melbourne.
• Freddie Mercury re-imagined as comic book heroes.
• Will Eisner Comic Industry Award nominees.
• Why comics make great history books.
• Graphic novels & comics about animals.
• First-person graphic memoirs for younger readers and teens.

Audiophilia

• Half of all Americans over the age of 12 have listened to the audiobook in the last year.
• Baby-sitter’s Club AUDIOBOOKS!
• Hear JRR Tolkien read from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit in these vintage recordings.
• Best podcasts for children’s books.
• It’s past Alien Day (4/26), but here are 20 xenomorphic books to read all year long! Also, Audible is adapting William Gibson’s unfilmed Alien script!
• How to score free audiobooks this summer.
• Why narrating an audiobook is a LOT harder than you think.

Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

Children/Teens

• 23 children’s books about emotions for kids with big feelings.
• Social activism books for kids.
• 5 kidlit books for gamers.
• National Student Poets choose 5 books every high schooler should read.
• YA Shakespeare retellings.
• Woke SFF for teens.
• 10 books about girls who code.

Adults

• 10 LGBTQ+ characters in crime fiction.
• Crime fiction’s new favorite private eyes.
• 10 sibling thrillers.
• 50 how-to books.
• Best narrative nonfiction books for non-nonfiction readers.
• Foodie books to add to your TBR.
• 11 nonfiction serial killer reads.
• Books about smartphones & the consequences of constant connection.
• Reading pathway for Beverly Jenkins.
• 5 novels with interracial love.
• Must-read black poets.
• 6 books about the gender pay gap.
• Books that perfectly illustrate why women stay silent.
• 13 adorable amigurumi books.

Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

• Help send 1000 books by authors of color to Milwaukee Public Schools.
• How sexism & machismo shaped the Iowa Writers Workshop.
• White nationalists interrupted an author event at Politics & Prose in Washington DC, and just……ugh.
• Noëlle Santos opens the only indie general-interest bookstore in the Bronx. Bonus: it doubles as a wine bar! (I want to go to there.)
• Should writers write what they don’t know?
• On the benefits of quitting your Goodreads challenge.
• Vans + Harry Potter = GIMME NOW. Also, new Harry Potter Legos!
• Trivial Pursuit: Shakespeare edition.

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 Circe by Madeline Miller.

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 Story Monsters Ink.

The award-winning literary resource for the latest news on popular and debut books, celebrity and indie author profiles, book reviews, reading lists, monthly columns by bestselling author James Patterson and Scholastic Book Clubs president Judy Newman, and more!

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I have a couple news items that I want to talk about before I jump into the rest of the newsletter.

(TW racism) First, if you haven’t already read Sofia Leung’s blog post on whiteness as collections, please do, because it talks about how the items we choose to purchase and preserve say a lot about our personal and institutional values, and not surprisingly, libraries value white perspectives. Also not surprisingly, there’s been a lot of racist pushback on Twitter to this idea, not only from trolls, but from fellow librarians, and to that I say NO. Librarians need to do better, and one of the ways to do better is for the white librarians to zip their lip and listen to people like Sofia. Becky Spratford and guest blogger Karen Toonen express this sentiment very directly, and I suggest you read their posts as well, because this is not acceptable. At all.

(TW library violence) Secondly, American Libraries posted an article by Kelly Clark, partner of Amber Clark who was allegedly murdered by a banned patron in December 2018. The article makes an impassioned case for not only increased library security measures, but for library managers and administrators to listen to their employees about safety issues. The fact is that libraries are not always safe, and working in libraries can take an extreme psychological toll on employees, but so many administrators turn a blind eye to the reality of what front line staff have to deal with. If you are a library manager, administrator, or are in any way positioned to affect change at your library, please do so, and please listen to your staff.

Libraries & Librarians

News Updates

• LGBTQ community members spoke out at a recent Anne Arundel County Library meeting, saying that they want to be normal, not controversial, and that LGBTQ-themed programs could save lives, which OH MY GOD WHY DO SOME PEOPLE STILL NEED TO BE CONVINCED OF THIS?? I give all the kudos in the world to the people who were willing to come forward and talk about this in front of the board.
• Yale students push back against the undergraduate library’s plan to massively weed their physical collection, which was undertaken in response to declining circ numbers and the need for increased work and seating space.

Cool Library Ideas

• A collaborative effort to develop a national digital eBooks platform for libraries.
• St. Joseph County Public Library (IN) showcases its 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program.
• An honor system checkout policy allows library patrons (especially teens) more freedom to borrow topic-sensitive books.
• This Anchorage library takes unconventional checkouts to the next level by lending out taxidermy specimens.
• A look at libraries and their social media practices.
• The Cullman County (AL) Public Library offers goat yoga!

Worth Reading

• The fire at Notre Dame is a brutal reminder to protect our libraries, museums, and archives.
• Looking at library leadership through an intersectional feminist lens – this is a very interesting read.
• What are the biggest challenges in teen library services?
• Working as a librarian gave this writer post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms.
• The funniest & weirdest stories of damaged library books. Two words: Bacon. Bookmarks.
• How to get a Library of Congress Reader’s Card.
• How to clean a computer keyboard. (Don’t lie. You know your keyboard needs this.)

Book Adaptations in the News

• New adaptations coming for Sleeping Beauties (Stephen King, Owen King; AMC), The Last Mrs. Parrish (Liv Constantine; Amazon), Barkskins (Annie Proulx; National Geographic), The Bone Season (Samantha Shannon; Lunar Park), and “Rest Stop” (Stephen King; Legendary).
• Phoebe Waller-Bridge, a producer on Killing Eve, has been asked to punch up the new James Bond screenplay.
• Letitia Wright of Black Panther fame is starring in Death on the Nile.
• Reverse adaptation news: breakout queer Broadway play The Prom is getting adapted as a YA novel.
• Kirkus: 9 books that would make the best movies.

Collection Development Corner

Publishing News 

• Simon & Schuster forms a new nonfiction imprint and partners with Law & Crime for a new true crime publishing unit.
• Skyhorse forms Arcade CrimeWise imprint.
• Pushing diversity forward in publishing.

New & Upcoming Titles

• Mueller Report updates: publishers are rushing to release the Mueller Report, which has now become a best-seller even though its classification as a government document means it’s free to read for anyone. Slate even gives the report its own book review.
• Publisher’s Weekly releases their list of the Best Books of Summer 2019.
• Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed are collaborating on a new YA novel called Yes, No, Maybe So.
• Carly Simon is writing a memoir about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
• Prince’s posthumously published memoir finally has a release date.
• Henry Winkler signed a 3 book deal about an “an alien who somehow lands in Hollywood and becomes a teen sensation.”

Current Noteworthy Book Lists

• Bookmarks: Best reviewed books of the week.
• CrimeReads: Best debut thrillers & crime novels of April 2019.
• USA Today: Books of the week.
• Entertainment Weekly: authors pick their top books of the spring.
• Paste: Best YA novels of April.
• The Verge: Science fiction & fantasy books of late April.
• Book Riot: 10 new and upcoming political YA books to add to your TBR.

RA & Genre Resources

• A free toolkit on building & maintaining LGBTQ+ picture book collections.
• What do we really mean by women’s fiction?
• Go back through your reading history to find a gold mine of backlist books ready to suggest to patrons.
• Why we need to set a better example of nonjudgmental RA service.
• Genre columns in the news: New York Times covers romance and crime, Washington Post looks at science fiction and fantasy, and NPR looks at romance as well.

Books & Authors in the News

• Ian McEwan recently made some really absurd statements about why his new book is NOT science fiction, and then went on to speculate about what science fiction could be if it actually considered issues of humanity and AI and sentience, as if his book was the first to pose these questions. The whole thing is absurd, and The Guardian looks at the history of science fiction’s lack of respectability in the literary world. Also, I just wanted to send a bunch of Ex Machina gifs to Ian McEwan but I imagine they would go right over his head.
• Gillian Flynn is writing for Amazon TV with Utopia.
• Some parents are upset after learning that an elementary school teacher read the book Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag to her class.
• Nnedi Okorafor is creating a TV series company for Africanfuturist stories.

Award News

• Time released its list of the 100 Most Influential People, and there are multiple authors and book-related people included.
• Winners for the Kitschies, Reading the West Awards, Chicago Public Library Literary Awards, and the British Science Fiction Awards.
• Shortlists for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction.
• Lambda Literary presents Alexander Chee, Masha Gessen, and Barbara Smith with special honors.
• RWA plans to hire an outside Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion Consultant.

Pop Cultured

• Everyone’s talking about Beyoncé’s surprise Netflix documentary/concert film, Homecoming, and Lemonade is finally streaming on Spotify & Apple Music. So if your patrons are looking for ever more Beyoncé, you can hand them this list of books to read after they finish Homecoming.
• Podcast news!
  • If you enjoy cookbooks, you may want to check out Cookery By the Book, which may be the first podcast of its kind.
  • Michael Lewis is starting a podcast called Against the Rules, which looks at issues of authority.
  • An update on Hear to Slay with Roxane Gay & Tressie McMillan Cottom.
  • Podcasts for poetry lovers.

All Things Comics

• A look at 2018 graphic novel sales and trends.
• Cartoonists Studio Prize winners announced.
• Cartoonist MariNaomi shines a light on diverse cartoonists by creating databases featuring queer cartoonists and cartoonists of color.
• A new Kate Bishop Hawkeye series is in the works at Disney+.
• Using graphic novels as a teachable format in the classroom.
• We’re going to get a Grateful Dead origins comic.
• How to find kick-ass lady comics as a total noob.
• 12 comics about trans and genderqueer people.
• Environmental comics to celebrate Earth Day.
• 5 Instagram comics to follow.

Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

• 5 recent novels that blend science fiction and horror.
• Top 10 bilingual books.
• Do crime like a Victorian with these 11 nonfiction reads.
• Top 100 crime novels of all time.
• 8 cold-case stories.
• 10 books to understand the measles epidemic and 5 books about plagues & pandemics. 
• 6 romance novels that should come with snacks.
• Baseball books for 2019.
• 30 books by writers of color redefining the term “all-American.”
• 7 books for Ariana Grande fans.
• Goodreads: 40 of the most popular translated books and 24 top poetry titles.
• 15 cosmic horror titles to get you started.
• 365 books to start your climate change library. Related: 50 fictional eco-disasters.

Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

• A powerful read: “Turns Out I’m Trans: How Romance Helped Me Find Myself.”
• A mourning ring with Charlotte Bronte’s hair has been discovered.
• We may get a look at some unpublished Franz Kafka works after an extremely lengthy legal battle with his literary estate.
• How a decor-loving English professor displays her book collection.
• London commuters will be getting short story dispensing vending machines, where they can choose 1, 3, or 5 minute stories, with the first story written by Anthony Horowitz.
• In praise of re-reading.

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 Miracle Creek by Angie Kim.