Welcome to Check Your Shelf. Our new fiscal year has finally started, which means that I have a giant cart of adult fiction books ready to order through Baker & Taylor the moment I come into work this week. I’ve already preemptively apologized to our cataloger for the havoc I’m about to wreak, but not much I can do about it at this point.
I’ve posted enough adorable photos of my cats over the last few weeks…now here’s a doofy one. This is Gilbert’s true essence, and often the first thing I see when I wake up.
Stay cool, all you cats and kittens. I’ll see you on Friday.
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. These last couple of weeks have been absolute hell on my to-do list at work. I don’t know what happened, or why the universe suddenly decided to spring a bunch of time-consuming and time-sensitive projects on me all at once, but here I am. Today, I found myself putting my head in my hands every couple of hours as I realized that I had yet another super important project/meeting coming up that I needed to juggle with all the rest of my work responsibilities. Normally I enjoy wearing a bunch of different hats at work, but sometimes you reach a point of just TOO MANY HATS. I think I’m at that point now. NO MORE HATS.
How one district is pushing back against book banning. (This is quite good: if you haven’t followed the formal complaint process, including reading the entire book, you don’t get any allotted time to speak at board meetings.)
Seven Llano County (TX) residents are suing the library board, county judge, commissioners, and library systems director for violating their First Amendment rights by banning books, blocking access to digital titles, and making these decisions behind closed doors.
The Suffolk (VA) School Board debates the use of the book Walk Two Moons in a middle school literature class. One parent brought up concerns that it was too depressing, but read from a review of the book, which makes me think she didn’t actually read the book herself. (Shocking.)
Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!
Cat photos! These may look like two pictures of Dini exploring the bathroom, but they’re actually photographic evidence of the two near-heart attacks that my husband had when he got out of the shower and found Dini waiting for him. I told him he needed to shut the bathroom door when he showered and he said, “But then the bathroom gets all steamy!” So I said, “Well, would you rather have a steamy bathroom or a heart attack?? This is an easy problem to solve!”
That’s it for me, friends. Have a good weekend and keep your bathroom doors shut when you shower!
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. A quick note about my current reading: I’m in the middle of the audio version of The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Hunting Vampires by Grady Hendrix. I expected a darkly humorous horror novel. I was not prepared for how deeply I would despise the male characters. I can’t remember the last time I’ve wished for such a gory, painful fate towards a fictional character. The writing is fantastic and extremely well crafted, but let’s just say the real horror isn’t with the vampires. Hoo boy.
So while I collect my feelings, let’s talk about other books!
Our guest kitty in this newsletter is my parents’ new cat, Penny, who enjoys watching her shows on my mom’s iPad. Her shows are just YouTube videos of birds and squirrels, but she loves them, and my parents are willing to give up their iPad for her. The baking sheet is covering the keyboard so she doesn’t accidentally turn off the iPad or delete a bunch of apps or something. It must be nice to be so spoiled.
Well, let’s all take a deep breath and muscle through this week. (My to-do list is already crying.) Catch you on Friday!
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. I’ve been in full middle-managerial mode for the last couple weeks trying to finish up evaluations before the end of the month, and I know regular evaluations are important, but I will be so happy when these are finally done! I will have to celebrate somehow…maybe with a new book?
The Jefferson County Public Library opened its first “ghost library:” an unstaffed, automated library that can be accessed by anyone with a library card and a PIN.
Iredell-Statesville Schools (NC) will conduct an official review of less than a dozen books in response to a parental challenge of 75 titles. Worth noting: “The child of the parent who filed the challenge has not checked out any of the books on the list, VanVliet said. In fact, the child has only checked out one library book. Meanwhile, the books on the list challenged by the parent have been checked out 1,500 times by other students — and not one challenge has been filed by a parent.”
The Claremore Public School Board (OK) discusses a preemptive library policy in the event that a parent challenges materials on library shelves or materials being used in the classroom.
Have a banned book break with a cat photo! A couple months ago, Gilbert and Dini discovered that my husband’s pea coat made for a fantastic bed, and they spent all of their time napping on it. Note the enormous amounts of cat hair stuck to the fabric.
It’s the weekend!! Let’s all take a breather and regroup for next week, kay?
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. I’ve once again caught the travel bug, and am trying to convince my husband that we should take not one, but two, vacations this year. (I told him he gets to pick our next vacation spot, but now I’ve been bitten by a desperate need to visit Colorado again, so…two vacations.) We’ll see how this goes.
Jennifer M. Buck’s book Bad and Boujee: Toward a Trap Feminist Theology has been pulled from publication after critics and readers questioned why a white woman was writing about a feminist perspective based on Black women’s experiences.
I present Exhibit #465 that Gilbert and Houdini really do love each other. Dini was laying on his blanket and Gilbert came over, sat right next to him, and within minutes had his paw on top of Dini’s. So of course I had to squeal and take a photo. THEY’RE JUST SO DAGGUM CUTE!!
That’s all I’ve got for this week. Stay cool, friends.
—Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby.
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. As I put together this newsletter, my husband and I are recovering from what we think was food poisoning. Thankfully, the worst of it only lasted 24 hours and I didn’t have it as bad as Blaine did, but yesterday was not great.
So while I try to rehydrate myself, let’s talk about libraries.
PEN America released a statement, a new Index of School Book Bans, and an accompanying report, Banned in the USA, which documents the book bans that have occurred over the last 9 months. They discovered 1,586 book bans in 86 school districts, and 1,154 unique titles being challenged.
After the Derby School District (KS) removed The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian from a list of approved classroom materials, a former member of the Derby City Council asked the district to review and remove the Bible from its approved classroom materials as well, in an effort to highlight the consequences of censorship. She cited references to murder, masturbation, genocide, incest, and other “mature topics.” The Board refused to remove it, but other committee members have questioned the decision to remove The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian.
One mom in Broomfield, Colorado is upset over Gender Queer and Lawn Boybeing available to high school students, even though Gender Queer isn’t held at any of the district school libraries.
Remember Gilbert’s resting head portrait from the last newsletter? Well, here’s Dini’s version. Those are my feet he’s resting on, and he stayed that way just long enough for Blaine to take the picture.
It’s the weekend, thank goodness. I’m going to be pretty careful about where we get takeout from for awhile…hopefully all of your culinary adventures will be satisfying and not illness-inducing.
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. I seem to have two operating modes in life: mostly engaged (usually at work) and completely switched off (usually at home, sometimes at work). There’s no in-between where I can come home and take care of basic household stuff without feeling like the weight of the world is going to crush me. Sometimes I’ll have a couple good days, and then I’m right back to staring at the garbage, wondering how long I can let it sit before I absolutely have to take it out. It’s maddening! I need to figure out a better way to divvy up my mental spoons, I think…
This issue’s cat photo was a no-brainer! My husband was holding Gilbert the other night, and I wanted to play around with the Portrait setting on my iPhone. The result was this angelic and slightly dramatic photo of Gilbert looking at me for extra snuggles, even though Blaine was already holding him like a baby. But how can you say no to those eyes?! I’m a complete sucker for Gilbert’s wide-eyed over-the-shoulder look, and he knows it.
That’s all I’ve got for this issue. I’m going to try and muster up the motivation to unload the dishwasher. It may take all week.
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. I know this newsletter is supposed to be about books and stuff, but I’m just SO EXCITED about the new Lego Star Wars game finally being released this week! I’m a sucker for kid-friendly video games, especially the Lego series, so I made sure that game was preordered and downloaded by the time I came home from work on Tuesday! I also saw this shared on the Twitters today, and I’m wondering how it came to be that the main menu of a video game gave us better Finn/Poe relationship content than Disney.
An open letter to library trustees: your job is not to review challenged books yourselves, and you need to support and trust your staff, who have the appropriate knowledge, context, and perspective of what’s happening in their community and their profession.
Flagler County Schools (FL) roll out a new circulation policy that allows parents to restrict books for their own kids on a broad scale. Level 1 represents open access (although not really, because middle school students still need a parent’s permission to request a high school book), Level 2 access allows 5 titles to be blocked from a student’s account, and Level 3 access only allows students to check out books on a parent’s pre-approved list. I can’t begin to tell you how much I hate this policy. It is NOT the library’s place to implement or enforce such a policy, and it tramples all over students’ rights.
Ridgeland (MS) leaders are withholding library funds until the library signs a memorandum saying that the library will be required to appear before the board of aldermen before they adopt a budget, and that they will develop a system in writing for addressing complaints by the public. Which, okay, fine, but then the last line of the article says, “City leaders said it is not their intentions to ban or remove any content but they do want the library to use more discretion about what types of books that are openly displayed.” Yep, that’s still censorship.
Here’s your biweekly cat photo! I know I’ve shared pictures of Gilbert wrapped up in a blanket before, but I can’t overstate how much he loves being burritoed. When you see him with those fancy paws outstretched, that’s how you know he’s fully relaxed. It must feel like a weighted blanket or a thunder shirt for him.
All right, Imma fire up the ol’ PS5 and start doing Lego battles in a galaxy far far away. Do something fun for yourself this weekend, and I’ll catch you on Tuesday!
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. This week is very exciting because Thursday is OPENING DAY for baseball, and after a three month lockout, I wasn’t even sure if baseball would be happening this month. I’m still not over the Cubs trading their Big 3 last year, but I am looking forward to baseball. Baseball also means the end of sports that I’m not interested in watching, specifically football and college basketball.
Here’s a bit of a throwback – if you look closely, you can see Gilbert splooted in my lap while I’m crocheting a baby blanket. If the blanket had been farther along, Gilbert would 100% have been napping on it. Which is why if you ever get a blanket from me, it will have a non-zero amount of Gilbert fur.
All right, friends. I’ll catch you on Friday. (And PLAY BALL!)
The Grandbury ISD (TX) superintendent’s leaked comments, telling librarians to pull books on sexuality and transgender people, raise constitutional concerns.
A woman running for the Southwest Allen County Schools Board (IL) is organizing a group of “book investigators” to monitor and document “harmful” titles at all four Allen County public school systems.
The Wicomico School District (MD) pulled All Boys Aren’t Blue from library shelves. The district superintendent even said “I went so far as to check on how many students had checked the books out because I was concerned. One, since it’s been here. One too many.”
The 42nd Razzie Awards have been announced, and I’m pleased to see that Jared Leto won Worst Supporting Actor for his role in House of Gucci. I liked the movie, but his performance was astonishingly bad.
Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!
Here’s a cat picture! This photo is actually doing double duty, since Blaine asked if I could put him in the newsletter. So you see that sliver of white t-shirt on the side? That’s my husband. (And fun fact…that white t-shirt is actually a Book Riot t-shirt! He’s a wonderful supporter.) And Dini of course is being ridiculously cute and extra, as always!
It’s Friday! I’m feeling hungry right now, so let’s all vow to eat something tasty this weekend!
