Category: Check Your Shelf

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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Libraries & Librarians

News Updates

• If you’re going to be at ALA Midwinter in Philadelphia, here’s a preview of the panels and speakers.
• What OverDrive’s new ownership means for the eBook service.
• Nearly 70 public libraries in Utah join the Macmillan boycott.
• Citizens in Wilmington (DE) say that the public library’s new restricted bag policy unfairly targets people experiencing homelessness.
• The Illinois Department of Corrections makes changes to its book banning policy in prisons.
• Gwinnett (GA) County libraries are closing for three days as they transition to a non-Dewey classification system.

Cool Library Updates

• The downtown branch of the Tucson Public Library has a program called “On the Streets” that offers food, warmth, conversation, and resources for patrons experiencing homelessness.
• Check out the first ever LGBTQ+ digital collections at the Library of Congress!
• Two words: Bunny. Yoga.

Worth Reading

• How libraries prepare for possible ICE activity.
• Why the U.S. sent librarians undercover to gather intel during World War II.

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Book Adaptations in the News

• Jake Gyllenhaal is adapting Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir, Fun Home, for film, and starring as Bechdel’s father.
• Here’s a trailer for the upcoming Gretel and Hansel which looks super creepy! I’m all in!
• Peep this trailer for Season 5 of Outlander.

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Books & Authors in the News

• M.C. Beaton, best-selling author of the Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth mystery series, dies at age 83.
• Elizabeth Wurtzel, author of Prozac Nation, dies from cancer at age 52.
• A Quebec author has been charged with child pornography over his dark retelling of the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale.
• 1,000 letters written by T.S. Eliot are unveiled at Princeton University Library.
• Reese Witherspoon picks Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid as her next book club pick.
• How Little Women inspired these women authors.

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Numbers & Trends

• Why eBook subscription services will finally succeed in the coming decade.
• Library Journal shares the results of its generational reading survey.

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Award News

• The Romance Writers of America cancel their annual RITA Awards amid the ongoing racism controversy.
• Costa Book Awards announce their category winners.
• Lee Child will be a judge for the 2020 Booker Prize.

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Pop Cultured

• Killing Eve gets a fourth season.

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Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

• Archaeologists have discovered the world’s oldest illustrated book in an ancient Egyptian burial site.
• Why this reader refuses to read a book a week again.

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On the Riot

• In library renovations, when do discussions of accessibility arise?
• Libraries support their communities when natural disasters strike.
• 13 must-listen librarian podcasts.
• Remembering Johanna Lindsey.
• Digging into 2020 book goals.
• Bookish New Year’s resolutions to improve your reading life.
• A pledge to read more books in translation in 2020.
• What happened when this reader read more books by Asian American authors in 2019.
• Why you should visit a book festival and how to choose one.

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Thanks for hanging! I’ll see everyone bright and squirrelly on Tuesday!

–Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading The Body Lies by Jo Baker.

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).

The world is a scary place, so let’s try to get each other through everything as best as we can.

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The RWA Fiasco

If you are not currently aware, the Romance Writers of America (RWA) imploded over the holidays when the Board of Directors decided to revoke author Courtney Milan’s membership and other privileges due to Courtney calling out the racism in another author’s work over the summer, thereby continuing a long and tired tradition where calling out racism is seen as a worse offense than the racism itself. This is only the tip of what is clearly a giant dysfunctional iceberg, but I’ve tried to pull as many resources as possible to give readers a comprehensive breakdown of just wtf has been going on.

• Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has the initial story and several updates.
• Claire Ryan lays out the facts and the timeline, which originated in August 2019.
• Cate Eland has a very good factual Twitter thread as well.
• You can also check out the weekly Romancelandia news update from Romance Sparks Joy.
• NBC, The Guardian, and the New York Times all wrote articles and thinkpieces about the situation.
• And fellow Rioter Jess Pryde wrote a piece for Book Riot about the whole mess (and provided many of the above links in her romance newsletter, so thank you very much, Jess!)
• If you’re on Twitter, I highly recommend following Courtney Milan (she posts a lot of updates, as she has very obviously found herself at the center of all this), Alyssa Cole, Beverly Jenkins, HelenKay Dimon, and Rebekah Witherspoon at the very least. They post a lot of updates and provide much-needed context about why this situation is so jaw-droppingly bad.

Okay. Now on to our regularly scheduled programming!

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Collection Development Corner

Publishing News

• Sonny Mehta, editor-in-chief at Knopf, passed away on December 30th at age 77.

New & Upcoming Titles

• A preview of the third book in the You cycle by Caroline Kepnes.
• Is that a new Tiffany D. Jackson book coming this year?? I think so!
• 2020 picks from Bustle, BBC Culture, Elle, Epic Reads, Library Journal, New York Times, O: Oprah Magazine, and Paste.
• January titles to look for from Amazon, Chicago Review of Books, Crime Reads, Entertainment Weekly, Epic Reads, io9, Lambda Literary, New York Times, Popsugar, Tor.com (science fiction, fantasy, and YA SFF), Time, and Washington Post. 
• 56 books by women and nonbinary writers of color to read in 2020.
• Most anticipated middle grade & chapter books of 2020.
• Best romance novels of 2020 from Amazon and O: Oprah Magazine.
• Anticipated YA titles from Paste and Popsugar.
• What to read in 2020 based on your favorite 2019 reads.

Best Books of 2019

• The Atlantic, BBC Culture, Mental Floss, Vanity Fair, Vogue share their favorite picks.
• Best romance of 2019 from Entertainment Weekly and Popsugar.
• Buzzfeed: best thrillers.
• 44 best book covers of 2019.

Best of the Decade

• Elle and The Guardian on the most defining books of the decade.
• LitHub picks the decade’s best fiction and nonfiction.
• The 20 best books of a decade that unmade genre fiction.

What Your Patrons Are Hearing About

• Such a Fun Age – Kiley Reid (Elle, The Guardian, New York Times, NPR)
• Dear Edward – Ann Napolitano (Washington Post)
• Uncanny Valley – Anna Wiener (New York Times)

RA/Genre Resources

• Library Journal unveils a new RA column called #LibrarianRecs.
• HuffPost joins the chorus of people asking, “Did the 2010’s see the end of the Great White Male Writer?”
• A look at the last decade in SFF publishing.
• Kneading into the comfort of cozy cat mysteries.

On the Riot

• Most anticipated LGBTQ books of 2020.
• 7 timely nonfiction books to add to your 2020 TBR.
• Mystery as a gateway to other genres.

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All Things Comics

• AV Club, Entertainment Weekly, Hollywood Reporter, and Wired: Best comics of 2019.
• The Guardian: best comics of the decade.
• 65 most anticipated graphic novels for Winter 2020.
• YALSA picks its 2020 great graphic novels for teens.

On the Riot

• DC’s identity crisis: 15 years later.
• 5 instructional how-to comics.
• Comic anthologies to dive into.

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Audiophilia

• Slate: Best audiobooks of the year.

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Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

Children/Teens

• 14 YA novels that take place in the 1920s.
• 20 non-European influenced fantasy YA novels.

Adults

• 11 books inspired by the March family.
• 8 fantasy novels by trans and nonbinary authors.
• Barack Obama’s favorite books of 2019.
• 10 must read crime novels set in the American West.
• 9 self-help books without the clichés.
• 6 murder mysteries to read after seeing Knives Out. (Did you see it yet?? It’s really awesome!)

On the Riot

• Christmassy picture books.
• 10 books teens want you to read right now.
• 25 must-read series and duologies that ended in 2019.
• 6 Latinx fantasy novels.
• 16 awesome standalone SFF novels from 2019.
• Essential Louisiana crime fiction.
• 6 nonfiction books about Walt Disney the man, and the company.
• 20 must-read books about found families.
• Read Harder: SFF novella, a post-1950s doorstopper written by a woman, a book about climate change, a romance starring a single parent.

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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.

See you on Friday!

Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading The Body Lies by Jo Baker.

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).

I hope you all enjoyed your holidays and are starting 2020 with some renewed energy! And now, to business. Library business.

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Libraries & Librarians

News Updates

• The Seattle Public Library board postpones its final decision on an upcoming public event that many are saying is hostile towards transgender people.
• Publisher’s Weekly’s Top 10 library stories of 2019, in case you missed anything.
• Libby now offers push notifications to let borrowers know instantly when their holds are available.
• Mesa County (CO) Libraries will go fines free in 2020.
• IMLS receives a $10 million budget increase for FY2020!
• Newport Beach libraries weigh rules against bathing in restrooms and leering.

Cool Library Updates

• Operation Warm brings new coats, books, and library cards to children and families in need.
• The Moncton Library in New Brunswick provides tampons and maxi pads to address menstrual insecurity.
• The Denver Public Library reports a 35% increase in patron engagement after eliminating late fees.
• A private UFO enthusiast donated his collection of 30,000 Canadian government documents and UFO reports to the University of Manitoba.
• Houston Public Library launches a mobile technology lab.
• The Phoenix (OR) Library has a collection of vintage…toilet paper.

Worth Reading

• No holds barred: policing and security in the public library.
• 14 tabletop games your library should have.
• “Thank you to the librarian who saved my life before I knew it needed saving.”

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Book Adaptations in the News

• FX is developing a limited series adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie. Early reports say that Carrie will likely be played by either a trans actor or an actress of color, rather than a cis white woman, which adds an entirely new dimension to the story.
• Here’s the trailer for Little Fires Everywhere. 
• Nicole Kidman’s next project in development is Kimberly McCreight’s upcoming domestic thriller, A Good Marriage.
• Just Watch Me by Jeff Lindsay is on the way to its own TV series.
• Signs look good for season 3 of You, while Sweetbitter has been canceled after two seasons.
• Here’s a casting update for HBO Max’s adaptation of Americanah and Netflix’s Shadow and Bone adaptation.
• This interview with Netflix’s VP of International Film has news about adaptations of Munich by Robert Harris and The Last by Hanna Jameson.
• Melissa de la Cruz’s book Beach Lane is headed to HBO Max.
• Trailers for The Woman in the Window and To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You.
• Library Journal has your guide to all the film & TV adaptations of 2020.
• A look at why some of the big-name literary adaptations of 2019 majorly bombed at the box office.

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Books & Authors in the News

• (TW: transphobia) J.K. Rowling publicly tweeted her support for a U.K. woman who was fired for her transphobic tweets, after a judge ruled that her tweets did not constitute protected speech. Naturally, there was a lot of online backlash against Rowling, or as Vox puts it, “J.K. Rowling’s latest tweet seems like transphobic BS. Her fans are heartbroken.”
• A judge rules that the U.S. is entitled to the proceeds from Edward Snowden’s memoir, since Snowden did not let federal intelligence agencies vet the book before it was published.
• Best-selling romance author Johanna Lindsey died at age 67. Award-winning author/journalist Ward Just has also passed away.
• Dave Pilkey is the Publisher’s Weekly Person of the Year for 2019.
• The surprisingly long ripple effect of the Jennifer Weiner/Jonathan Franzen feud and how it’s changed the way we talk about women’s writing.
• Elle: Little Women is a big, important American masterpiece. Let’s treat it like one.

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Numbers & Trends

• 50 Shades of Grey was the best-selling book of the decade, selling 15.2 million copies between 2010 and 2019.
• American Book Producers Association makes predictions for upcoming nonfiction trends.
• The 2010’s were supposed to bring the eBook revolution. It never quite came.
• 11 trends that changed the way we read this decade.

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Award News

• Mystery Writers of America announce the 2020 Grand Master, Raven, and Ellery Queen Award recipients.
• Longlist for the 2020 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

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Pop Cultured

• Quentin Tarantino may not be directing the R-rated version of Star Trek.
• There’s going to be a second installment of The Mandalorian this fall.

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Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

• The holiday season has passed, but here’s a look at Iceland’s annual Yule Book Flood.
• On a related note: the etiquette of gifting books.

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Found on Book Riot

• How libraries are dealing with bed bugs. *shudder*
• The statistics of censorship.

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Thanks for hanging! I’ll see everyone on Tuesday! And remember to write the date as 2020 instead of 2019!

–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).

This is my last newsletter before Book Riot goes on break, so I hope everyone has a safe, happy, and healthy holiday season with lots of reading time!

Collection Development Corner

New & Upcoming Titles

• Ken Follett’s sequel to The Pillars of the Earth will be published in the UK on September 15, 2020.
• Vogue and Entertainment Weekly each have long lists of books to keep an eye out for in 2020.
• 7 SFF novels coming out in spring 2020.
• Promising YA to look forward to in 2020.
• The best fiction written by women in 2020.

Best Books of 2019

• Check out the master list of #LibFaves19 titles!
• Paste has their best books of 2019.
• Kirkus’s 100 best indie books.
• Paste and the New Yorker list their favorite nonfiction of 2019.
• 10 best romance novels of 2019.
• Best LGBTQ books of 2019.
• Best books by Latino & Latin American authors.
• Best historical crime, debut crime fiction, and true crime.
• Best translated books you might have missed.
• Best holiday books.
• Best YA novels of the year from Buzzfeed and Entertainment Weekly.
• New York Public Library and the D.C. Public Library announce their top checkouts of 2019.
• LitHub has a list of all of the award-winning books of 2019.

Best Books of the Decade

• Vox, LitHub, Buzzfeed, and Town & Country all have their lists of the best/most defining books of the decade.
• 80 of the best LGBTQ books. (Great place to start if you want to order more LGBTQ books for your collection, or fill gaps from previous years.)
• Epic Reads picks their favorite YA of the decade.
• Rising stars of international crime fiction in the 2010’s.
• The best books of the decade, as selected by 30 of the decade’s best debut authors.

RA/Genre Resources

• Shortlist for the 2020 Tournament of Books.
• A look at the last decade in YA publishing.
• This was the decade that horror got “elevated.”
• Female novelists replaced the traditional white male author in the 2010’s.

On the Riot

• 10 debut novels to check out in 2020.
• 20 of the best new & upcoming book club picks for 2020.
• 20 queer YA books for 2020.
• 10 upcoming debut novels for 2020.

All Things Comics

• New York Times: Best comics of 2019.
• Is there a DC/Marvel crossover in our future?
• Dark Horse Comics is adapting Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology into a comic series for May 2020.
• 12 most influential indie comics of the decade.

Audiophilia

• Marvel conquered movies. Can it do the same with audiobooks?
• The best true crime audiobooks to learn from.
• Great audiobooks & great readers.
• 12 festive audiobooks to listen to this season.
• 10 SFF audiobooks for holiday traveling.

Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

Children/Teens

• 11 diverse holiday books for kids that go beyond Christmas.

Adults

• 7 super scary sci-fi/horror novels.
• 6 books that predicted our current reality.
• 15 medical thrillers that will have your head spinning.
• 8 cute queer holiday romances to snuggle up with.

On the Riot

• Books by authors who use “they” pronouns.
• Recommendations for Douglas Adams fans.
• 10 romance authors like Nora Roberts.
• YA books under 200 pages.
• Read Harder: a food book about a cuisine you’ve never tried before; a memoir by someone from a religious tradition not your own; a book that takes place in a rural setting; the last book in a series.
• Sports romances not steeped in white supremacy culture.
• 16 mystery book suggestions based on films & TV shows.
• 5 of the best nonfiction books about sexual assault.

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.

 

All right, everyone! Catch you on the flip side!

Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading Magic For Liars by Sarah Gailey.

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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Libraries & Librarians

News Updates

• The Free Library of Philadelphia, the Los Angeles Public Library, and the Seattle Public Library are eliminating late fees in 2020.
• From PEN America: Kansas Prison book ban repeats the state’s prior mistakes.
• Attack in Auburn raises concerns of library safety a year after Sacramento librarian Amber Clark was murdered by a former patron.
• Amber Clark’s husband, Kelly Clark, speaks about the upcoming one-year anniversary of his wife’s death.
• The Anna Porter Public Library in Gatlinburg, Tennessee is looking for a loving home for their resident library cat, Porter C. Bibliocat, who has developed some health issues in his advanced age. Poor baby! I want to adopt the library cat!!

Cool Library Updates

• The Long Branch (NJ) Public Library’s prisoner re-entry program is going statewide thanks to a $630,000 federal grant received by the New Jersey State Library.
• Lisa Lamont at the San Diego State University Library, is curating a living collection of over 1700 letters written by migrants in detention centers.
• How Chicago’s Chinatown public library is adapting to its senior population.
• The Burlington (WI) Public Library has an exercise class that helps patrons with Parkinson’s disease.
• How South Carolina libraries are working to improve low child literacy rates.
• OMG, it’s a Little Free Stick Library for dogs!!

Worth Reading

• Why it’s time to quantify the library’s role in the reading marketplace.
• Libraries take a leading role in the 2020 Census.
• Public libraries are now mental health resource centers.
• The complicated role of the public library.
• Libraries where bats are welcome patrons.

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Book Adaptations in the News

• Kay Oyegun, producer for This Is Us, is adapting Angie Thomas’s YA novel On the Come Up.
• Rick Riordan is in discussions with Disney about adapting Percy Jackson.
• Paul McCartney is teaming up with Netflix to adapt the children’s novel he co-wrote, High in the Clouds, about an imaginative teenage squirrel. He’ll also produce and contribute songs for the film.
• Pierce Brosnan is cast as the king in the upcoming Cinderella musical. I’m sorry, but is anyone else disappointed that he’s not playing a silver fox Prince Charming?
• Susan Choi’s Trust Exercise will be adapted as a limited series.
• Michael Chabon and his wife Ayelet Waldman will be adapting Chabon’s novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay for TV.
• Stephen King’s The Dark Half is getting adapted for the second time.
• Elin Hilderbrand’s The Perfect Couple is coming to Fox.
• PopSugar has a list of 34 books that are being adapted in 2020.

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Books & Authors in the News

• Neil Gaiman wrote a poem for refugees based on 1,000 individual tweets.

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Award News

• The 2020 PEN America Literary Awards longlists are out.
• National Book Critics Circle announces the 2019 finalists for the Best First Book award.
• De’Shawn Charles Winslow won the Best First Novel award from the Center of Fiction.
• Lois McMaster Bujold becomes the 36th Damon Knight Grand Master, as awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
• The New York Times says that the Caldecott Medal needs an international makeover.
• For the first time, the Bad Sex in Fiction award was given to two authors.

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Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

• How reading changed in the 2010’s.
• Chicago’s getting a Harry Potter-themed Christmas pop-up bar!
• Two words: Book fairies.
• Lego’s latest Creator Expert set is a 2500 piece modular bookstore! WANT!

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On the Riot

• What’s the deal with all of these middle grade adaptations?
• The therapeutic value of weeding your digital shelves.
• Measuring reading time, rather than the number of books read.
• Tracking down the history of the library cake.
• Book signing conversation tips, or how not to sound like a total doofus when you meet your favorite author.

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Thanks for hanging! See everyone on Tuesday!

–Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading The Farm by Joanne Ramos.

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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Collection Development Corner

Publishing News

• Shipping delays complicate the holiday season for indie booksellers.
• The effect of a no-deal Brexit on indie publishers.

New & Upcoming Titles

• Publisher’s Weekly lists its adult book announcements for Spring 2020.
• Melville House and Skyhorse are each publishing a copy of the impeachment report documents.
• Esmé Weijun Wang, author of The Collected Schizophrenias, and John Banville each sign two-book deals.
• Alix E. Harrow will publish two fractured fairy tale novellas with Tor.
• Sona Charaipotra announces her next book!
• Jasmine Guillory’s next book will be published in June 2020.
• Not an actual article here, but I just learned that My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Vol. 2 will hopefully be published in September 2020!
• Must-read books coming out in December.
• 20 most anticipated debuts of 2020.

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Best Books of 2019

• Best books from AV Club, Booklist, Electric Lit, L.A. Times, People, Town & Country, and Vox.
• Powells picks its best fiction, nonfiction, science fiction, horror, & graphic novels, & kids/YA novels.
• Kirkus and Electric Lit pick their favorite nonfiction.
• CrimeReads: best crime novels and psychological thrillers.
• Tor.com: Best YA SFF and horror.
• Electric Lit: best short story collections.
• Vulture picks the best comedy and overlooked books of the year.
• Bill Gates talks about his 2019 book picks.
• Best books of 2019 written by women.
• Best queer YA of 2019.
• Best book covers of the year.
• If you’re on Twitter, make sure you’re following and participating in the #libfaves19 rundown!
• LitHub did some number crunching and came up with the Ultimate Best Books List of 2019.

What Your Patrons Are Hearing About

• The Revisioners – Margaret Wilkerson Sexton (New York Times, Washington Post)
• Trump and His Generals: The Cost of Chaos – Peter Bergen (New York Times, Washington Post)

On the Riot

• Best book covers of the year.

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All Things Comics

• Best graphic novels of 2019.

On the Riot

• Solving the Superman “problem.”
• All the superhero movies coming in 2020.
• 5 comics about history and culture.
• 7 great comics by Asian American writers and illustrators.
• Read Harder: Read a graphic memoir.

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Audiophilia

• Libro.fm has your holiday gift guide right here!
• Top audiobooks of 2019 from Libro.fm, Paste, Wired, OverDrive, and Audible.
• 10 best audiobooks of December 2019.
• Kids’ audiobooks perfect for listening and gifting.
• The joy of listening to authors read their own audiobooks.
• According to this romance audiobook narrator, “sometimes a moan is required.”

On the Riot

• Read Harder: a poetry audiobook.

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Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

Children/Teens

• Books to help teens find their inner activist voice in 2020.

Adults

• 9 novels to give to your favorite climate change skeptic this holiday season.
• 20 books to make you want to pack your bags and travel.
• 3 books that explore the violence of women’s appetites.
• 5 books that belong on any time traveler’s TBR.
• The best Latino books, according to Latinx writers.

On the Riot

• 20 must-read picture books from 2019.
• 50 must-read books you may have missed in 2019.
• 10 epic fantasy novels like Wheel of Time.
• 7 books that illustrate life as a woman in politics.
• 8 books about badass female scientists.
• 5 poetry collections by women in translation.
• 3 books that open up complicated conversations about interpersonal violence.
• Read Harder lists for a historical fiction novel not set during WWII, a play by an author of color or a queer author, a book about a natural disaster.

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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 Mind of Winter by Laura Kasischke.

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).

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by this persistent half-cold that just will not. go. away.

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Libraries & Librarians

News Updates

• The Seattle Public Library is facing strong criticism for its decision to make space for a community event hosted by the Women’s Liberation Front, which has publicly espoused anti-trans viewpoints.
• Ex Libris acquires Innovative, although there are no anticipated changes to libraries who already use Innovative’s integrated library systems.
• Flint (MI) Public Library gets $16 million in grants for renovations.
• Britain has closed almost 800 libraries since 2010. Booooooo! Boooo I say!
• Staff at a Chinese public library burned a stack of books in front of the building that had been deemed “illegal” by the government.
• A man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon after attacking three people with a knife at the Placer County Library in Auburn, CA.
• The LocHal Public Library in Tilburg, the Netherlands is named the 2019 World Building of the Year!

Cool Library Updates

• The Public Library for Union County (PA) offers safe Sensory Nights for kids who experience sensory overstimulation.
• Boston Public Library considers adding apartments to four different library branches.
• The University of Virginia will begin a collaborative effort to preserve a physical card catalog containing 4 million cards.
• Does your library do stuffed animal sleepovers?

Worth Reading

• This professor argues that his library’s borrowing limit of 350 books isn’t high enough.
• Female authors dominate the Toronto Library’s most popular books of 2019.
• This is a really sweet letter from a student to their school librarians.
• 23 tweets that recapture the nostalgia of the Scholastic Book Fair.

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Book Adaptations in the News

• Elle Fanning & Dakota Fanning are set to play sisters in the adaptation of Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale.
• David Tennant is playing Phineas Fogg in the upcoming adaptation of Around the World in 80 Days.
• Tom Jane and Courtney Lauren Penn are teaming up to adapt From a Buick 8 by Stephen King. I am SO EXCITED for this – From a Buick 8 is one of Stephen King’s best under-the-radar novels.
• Janet Evanovich just landed two TV series.
• Eloise sells rights for pretty much all of the adaptations.
• Trailer for The Outsider.
• 10 best literary adaptations of the decade.

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Books & Authors in the News

• Barnes & Noble names The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy as its 2019 Book of the Year.
• Reese Witherspoon selects Conviction by Denise Mina for her December book club pick.
• Jay-Z sues an Australian company over an ABC picture book that used a parody of his lyrics on the back of the book.
• David Grossman’s book Someone to Run With has been banned in Russia. Children’s Rights Commissioner, Pavel Astakhov, claims that “distribution of this sort of literature with no age restriction increases the rates of teenage pregnancy, single motherhood, and sexually transmitted diseases.” Well alrighty then.
• Jimmy Kimmel wrote a kid’s book called The Serious Goose and is donating all of the proceeds to children’s hospitals, including the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, who performed life-saving heart surgeries on his young son.

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Numbers & Trends

• Where the Crawdads Sing and Becoming are the top-selling fiction and nonfiction titles of 2019, according to Amazon. Anyone surprised?
• More than 80% of the books in New York City’s pre-K through 8th grade curriculums are written by white authors.
• The world’s largest Harry Potter book collection could sell for thousands of dollars.
• Autobiographical fiction at war: why “revenge novels” are taking off in Norway.

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Award News

• Peter Englund, former permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, and the Kosovan government are boycotting the Nobel Prize ceremony in protest of Peter Handke’s political views.
• Lesley McDowell, one of five judges for Scotland’s Saltire Fiction Book of the Year Award, claims that her fellow judges had not read all of the books on the shortlist and selected a book by a male author rather than one of the three shortlisted books written by women.
• Goodreads Choice Award winners are announced.
• A look at the 2020 Golden Globe nominees, but as the Washington Post points out, no women were nominated for best director, screenplay, or motion picture.
• The winners of the Reading Women’s Award have been announced.
• YALSA released the shortlists for the Morris Award (YA debut titles) and the Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award.

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Pop Cultured

• Trailers for No Time to Die, Mulan, and Wonder Woman: 1984.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine actor René Auberjonois dies at age 79.
• A guide to the new canon of Star Wars books and comics.

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Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

• The Edgar Allan Poe House & Museum becomes the first official Literary Landmark in the state of Maryland.
• A rare first edition copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was discovered in a school library.
• Merriam Webster’s word of the year: “they.”

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On the Riot

• How to become a librarian.
• My library card, my constant friend.
• How to store your books properly & safely.
• How many books should you read at once?

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Thanks for hanging! See everyone on Tuesday!

–Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently rereading In the Woods by Tana French.

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).

In the famous words of Groucho Marx, “Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” Let’s do this!

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Collection Development Corner

Publishing News

• Random House will publish the just-released impeachment report, including print, eBook, and digital audio versions.

New & Upcoming Titles

• Anna-Marie McLemore is publishing a YA fairy tale novel in 2021.
• YA author Ellen Hopkins is publishing her debut middle grade novel in verse.
• Notable December releases from Amazon, Barnes & Noble (mystery/thrillers, SFF), Bustle, Crime Reads, The Millions, New York Times, Paste, PopSugar, Refinery29, and Tor.com (YA SFF & genre-benders).
• Amazon picks books to look forward to in 2020.
• Two swoony queer romances to keep your eye on in 2020.
• 31 LGBTQ books that will change the literary landscape in 2020.

Best of 2019

• Cue the trumpets! The NPR 2019 Book Concierge is here!!
• Best books of the year from Chicago Tribune, Entertainment Weekly, GQ, The Guardian, LitHub, New Yorker, Shelf Awareness, Slate, Vulture, and Waterstones.
• Best YA novels from Barnes & Noble, Kirkus, and Paste.
• Best children’s books from Barnes & Noble (picture books & young reader books) and the New York Times.
• Best thrillers from Barnes & Noble and The Guardian.
• Barnes & Noble also picks its favorite romance and sci-fi/fantasy novels.
• 55 of the best queer books of 2019.

Best Books of the Decade

• Best books from Essence and LitHub.
• Entertainment Weekly: Best nonfiction books of the decade.
• Esquire: The best books of the 2010s nudged the world in a new, better direction.
• Book Marks: 10 SFF must-reads from the last decade.
• Stylist: 15 best books of the decade by female authors.

What Your Patrons Are Hearing About

• Dead Astronauts – Jeff VanderMeer (Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post)
• The Sacrament – Olaf Olafsson (Entertainment Weekly, New York Times, USA Today)

RA/Genre Resources

• Why is the romance industry still overlooked?
• The young adult industry has become a literary juggernaut.
• Passive reader’s advisory techniques for school libraries.
• How Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series developed a cult following.
• Popsugar releases their 2020 reading challenge.

On the Riot

• The 2020 Read Harder Challenge is here, plus the 2020 Reading Log spreadsheet!
• 3 romance book apps designed for romance readers.

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All Things Comics

• DC removes a Batman image after some claimed it supported Hong Kong unrest.
• Locke and Key, based on the graphic novels by Joe Hill, is coming to Netflix on February 7th, 2020.
• 10 gift ideas for comics lovers.
• 5 comics to read this December.
• Barnes & Noble’s favorite graphic novels and comics for 2019, plus their favorite graphic novels for young readers.
• First trailer for Black Widow.

On the Riot

• 25 best comics according to Goodreads.
• 4 Shakespearean graphic novel adaptations.
• 5 graphic novels for kids that tackle tough issues.
• Why we’re seeing more adaptations between graphic and prose mediums.

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Audiophilia

• AudioFile picks their best audiobooks of 2019. 

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Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

Children/Teens

• New York Times launches a new column with reading recommendations for kids of all ages, from infant to teenager.
• 11 books if you loved The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue.

Adults

• 19 Christmas romances for the holiday season.
• Books and essays by Native authors.
• 15 queer books you might have missed this year.
• 12 romantic comedy novels that will give you all the warm fuzzies.
• 16 must-read books by celebrities you know and love.
• 7 London novels by authors of color.

On the Riot

• 10 of the best genre-blending YA novels of the year.
• 5 books like Trust Exercise that mess with narrative.
• Read Harder: Read a mystery where the victim(s) is not a woman, read a fairy tale retelling by an author of color, read a YA nonfiction book.
• Romance books that will restore your hope in modern dating.
• 8 awesome second books.
• 14 spooky reads to close out fall.

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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! See y’all on Friday!

–Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

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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Libraries & Librarians

News Updates

• The Hunters Point Library faces a lawsuit over accessibility issues.
• Bozeman (MT) Public Library staff respond to threats of gun violence.
• NPR looks at why more and more libraries are eliminating late fines.
• The Washington Post has an article about library eBooks and reader “hacks,” but this article is misleading in that these avid library eBook readers do not make up the large percentage of people who borrow eBooks from the library…although Macmillan seems to think they do.

Cool Library Updates

• Brooklyn Public Library starts lending out board games to its patrons. Plus, it has a cook-mobile that’s designed to travel around and teach people how to cook!
• The Shelter Island (NY) Library raised around $9000 by sponsoring a community polar plunge.
• Philadelphia’s toy library helps families save money and prevents unused toys from ending up in landfills. (Can this be the plot of the next Toy Story movie? Woody and friends end up in a toy library and have misadventures at a bunch of different people’s houses?)
• The Long Beach Public Library pilots a social work internship program.

Worth Reading

• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reminds everyone that libraries aren’t “free stuff,” and they’re not public handouts. They are Public. Goods. SAY IT FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK, AOC!!

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Book Adaptations in the News

• AMC plans to turn Jeff VanderMeer’s Borne novels into a TV series.
• Robert Dugoni’s The Eighth Sister is getting a TV series as well.
• David Tennant will play real-life Scottish serial killer Dennis Nilsen in Des, which is based on the book Killing for Company by Brian Masters.
• The First Wives Club series adaptation has been renewed for a second season.
• Sony is adapting Lost in Shangri La by Mitch Zuckoff.
• Trailers for The Magicians and Just Mercy.

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Books & Authors in the News

• Andrew Clements, the children’s author best known for Frindle, has died at age 70.
• (TW: sexual harassment) Buzzfeed investigates sexual misconduct accusations against author and motivational speaker Tony Robbins.
• Anonymous author says that they likely will not remain anonymous forever.
• How Gillian Flynn broke barriers with Gone Girl. (Still one of my favorite all-time thrillers!)

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Award News

• Costa Award shortlists are out.
• The Nobel Prize for Literature has been hit by a second round of resignations following continued scandal.
• Barnes & Noble announces its Book of the Year finalists.
• Waterstones names Greta Thunberg its 2019 Author of the Year.
• A survey of the book award season.

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Pop Cultured

• A sequel for Downton Abbey?
• Godzilla vs. Kong set to open on November 20, 2020.

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Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

• Looking for book-gifting suggestions? USA Today (Fiction, nonfiction, biographies/memoirs, history, children’s books), O: Oprah Magazine, Washington Post, and the New York Times all have book-giving guides for the holidays.
• Speed reading is a myth – don’t let people shame you into reading faster.
• Ehrmegerd bookstore kittens!!
• Dictionary.com’s word of the year is “existential.”

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Found on Book Riot

• A 101 guide to finding a book in the library. I know we all know how to do this, but this might be helpful for some of your patrons.
• Your ultimate guide to Harry Potter goods at Target.
• 15 last-minute bookish gift ideas for the reader(s) in your life.
• 7 no-nonsense tips to help you read more.

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Thanks for hanging! See everyone on Tuesday!

–Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare.

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).

Everyone finished digesting Thanksgiving leftovers? Let’s dive back in to libraries and books!

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Collection Development Corner

Publishing News

• An update on the publishing battle against book tariffs.
• The heroines of America’s black press.
• The convoluted world of best-seller lists.

New & Upcoming Titles

• Nnedi Okorafor is publishing a middle grade novel in August 2020, called Ikenga.
• Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is writing a novel, which has been in the works for almost eight years.
• Jill Filipovic will publish a book called OK Boomer: Let’s Talk: Dispatches From a Generational Divide.
• C.L. Polk’s third novel will be released in 2020.
• Best books to read this winter.
• The season’s most-anticipated YA novels.
• Most-anticipated SFF novels of 2020.
• New fantasy for December 2019.

Best Books of 2019

• Chicago Public Library
• Elle
• The Guardian
• New York Public Library
• New York Times
• Time (fiction & nonfiction)
• Best middle-grade and children’s/YA books of 2019.
• Best book covers of 2019.

Best Books of the Decade

• Rising stars of crime fiction in the 2010’s.
• Best novels of the decade (Buzzfeed, Entertainment Weekly)
• Best books of the 21st century from Powell’s and Vulture.

What Your Patrons Are Hearing About

• Labyrinth – Burhan Sönmez; transl. by Umit Hussein (New York Times, NPR)
• The Second Sleep – Robert Harris (New York Times, NPR)
• The Lying Lives of Adults – Elena Ferrante (Guardian)
• The Deep – Rivers Solomon (NPR)

RA/Genre Resources

• How translated fiction can open up the world.

On the Riot

• Great noir by female authors.
• A beginner’s guide to Chinese science fiction.

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All Things Comics

• What does the future hold for the DC film universe?
• 25 best comics of the decade.

On the Riot

• 5 middle grade/YA comics with awesome adult characters.

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Audiophilia

• 8 audiobook classics written & narrated by women.
• 5 small press audiobooks to give as gifts this year.

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Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

Children/Teens

• 7 kids books about eating too much.
• 16 YA novels with a shiny crown on the cover. (Display idea, anyone?)
• 16 YA novels about food.

Adults

• 15 books to read if you can’t get enough holiday cheer.
• 25 (more) crime books you can finish in an afternoon.
• 12 books to read if you enjoyed Knives Out.
• 20 standalone novels for anyone who doesn’t have time for a series.
• The 11 best cookbooks for eating your way around the world.
• 8 memoirs and biographies of iconic musicians.

On the Riot

• 9 solid YA fantasy novels from 2019.
• Reading pathway for Bernardine Evaristo.
• 6 dangerous books for Black Friday.
• 20 must-read short story collections by women in translation.
• 20 awesome 2019 titles for gifting.
• 9 new holiday romances.
• 20 personal development books for your best 2020.
• 20 must-read time travel books.

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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! Friday is only a few days away!

–Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke.