Category: Check Your Shelf

Comparing Library eBook Services, How Poetry Promotes Healing, and ALLLL the Book Lists

Post author By Katie McLain
Post date October 4, 2018

Welcome to Check Your Shelf! This is your guide to all things book talk worth knowing to help librarians like you up your game when it comes to doing your job (& rocking it).

“Check Your Shelf” is sponsored by A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney, published by Imprint.

The fantasy book I’ve been waiting for my whole life. Alice is Black Girl Magic personified.” —Angie Thomas, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Hate U Give Life in real-world Atlanta isn’t always simple, as Alice juggles an overprotective mom, a high-maintenance best friend, a slipping GPA, and an ongoing battle against monstrous creatures in the magical dream realm known as Wonderland. When Alice’s handsome and mysterious mentor is poisoned, she has to find the antidote by venturing deeper into Wonderland than she’s ever gone before. And she’ll need to use everything she’s learned in both worlds to keep from losing her head . . . literally.

Libraries & Librarians

An interesting article about how public library reference is increasingly about community service.
The challenges of tribal libraries.
As a parting gift to their school, these high school seniors want to create a student library.
Buzzfeed wants to know hear from you: What’s it like to be a librarian?
The federal 2019 budget shows big gains for libraries!
A librarian/reader compares OverDrive, Libby, Hoopla, and 3M ebook services. (Spoiler alert – the librarian/reader is me!)
What being a school librarian means today.

Book Adaptations in the News

Season 2 of The Alienist will be based on Carr’s sequel, The Angel of Darkness.
Michael B. Jordan set to star in two Tom Clancy adaptations: Without Remorse and Rainbow Six.
James Comey’s A Higher Loyalty is slated for a possible miniseries.
Chris Evans will be starring in the Apple drama series, Defending Jacob.
What If It’s Us by Adam Silvera & Becky Albertalli isn’t even released yet, but it’s already been picked up for an adaptation.

Books in the News

Following the success of her Netflix special, comedian Hannah Gadsen will be publishing a memoir called Ten Steps to Nanette.
Sneak peek of Josh Malerman’s new novel!
Angie Thomas on why it’s wrong to ban The Hate U Give.
Lindy West has a new book coming out!
Paul McCartney has a children’s picture book coming out called Hey Grandude, and I am now going to buy a copy for everyone in my life who has, will have, or may possibly have children.

There’s going to be a YA novel set in the Alien xenomorph universe, written by Mira Grant, AKA Seanan Maguire! GIMME!
It’s the 30th anniversary of Matilda, and Mara Wilson has some thoughts on sharing her life with the titular character.
Stephen Colbert announces a children’s book based on President Trump’s comments post-Hurricane Florence. All proceeds will benefit hurricane relief organizations.

By the Numbers

Fear by Bob Woodward breaks Simon & Schuster’s first week sales record – over 1.2 million copies sold.
Banned Books Week by the numbers.
The Kuwaiti government acknowledged that it had banned 4,390 books since 2014.
Women make up only one third of the translated books published each year.

Award News

Man Booker Prize shortlist.
2018 Kirkus Prize finalists.
Carnegie Medal promises immediate action over lack of diversity – the 20 author longlist for 2017 consisted entirely of white authors. (Also important to note that the Carnegie Medal is judged by librarians, which as we all know is a predominantly white profession.)

Level Up (Library Reads)

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.

And to make it even easier, I’ve picked a couple specific titles that are being released in February 2019. Links direct you to Edelweiss, where you can request a digital advance copy, and nominations are due by January 1st.

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls – Anissa Gray (February 19, 2019). “The Mothers meets An American Marriage in this dazzling debut novel about mothers and daughters, identity and family, and how the relationships that sustain you can also be the ones that consume you.”
That Time I Loved You – Carianne Leung. (February 26, 2019). “In this exquisite American debut, Carrianne Leung evokes the legacies of Cheever and Munro with a haunting depiction of 1970s suburbia.”

And make sure to check out Episode 16 of our Annotated podcast, which talks about how Andrew Carnegie transformed the American public library!

____________________

Thanks for hanging out and we’ll see you again in two weeks!

–Katie McLain, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading Destiny’s Captive by Beverly Jenkins.

PS: Don’t forget to enter to win a custom book stamp for your personal library in our giveaway.

Check Your Shelf

Why We Need Libraries, NOS4A2 Casting, and Stormy Daniels’ Tell-All Memoir

Post author By Katie McLain
Post date September 19, 2018

Welcome to Check Your Shelf! This is your guide to all things book talk worth knowing to help librarians like you up your game when it comes to doing your job (& rocking it).

Check Your Shelf is sponsored by Let’s Go Swimming on Doomsday by Natalie C. Anderson.

Forced to become a child soldier, a sixteen-year-old Somali refugee must confront his painful past in this haunting, thrilling tale of loss and redemption for fans of A Long Way Gone and What is the What.

Libraries & Librarians

Penguin Random House announces a new eBook lending model for libraries.
From the Omaha Public Library: Banned Books Week reminds us that the freedom to read is still worth celebrating.
ALA is seeking feedback on its updated meeting room policy.
September is National Deaf Awareness Month, and the Association of Specialized, Government, and Cooperative Library Agencies has put together some resources to help create a more welcoming and accessible library environment.
ALA announced they will be conducting a study to explore public library services for new Americans.
Neil Gaiman & Chris Riddell: A picture essay on Why We Need Libraries.
New York Times: To restore civil society, start with the library.
NPR’s newest podcast, The Keepers, focuses on stories of “activist archivists, rogue librarians, curators, collectors, and historians.”
Libraries are using mobile kitchens to teach food literacy. This is so cool!
Should libraries take a stand on 3D printed guns? (Yes.)
Tips to help you find that book “that has a blue cover and a picture of a dog on it.”
Libraries as community spaces: An academic and a personal perspective.

Book Adaptations in the News

The Devil All the Time is being turned into a movie by Donald Ray Pollock starring Chris Evans and Mia Wasikowsa.
Here’s the first clip from The Hate U Give. And speaking of The Hate U Give, the release date has been bumped up to October 5th!
Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy is going to be a movie and yes, Dolly Parton is involved!
Nancy Drew is getting a TV adaptation on the CW.
Zachary Quinto and Ashleigh Cummings have been cast in the adaptation of NOS4A2 as Charlie Manx and Vic McQueen, respectively. TBH, I never would have pictured Zachary Quinto as Charlie Manx, but oddly enough, it works.
Oprah is turning Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle into a movie.
Maggie Gyllenhaal is set to write and direct the adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novel The Lost Daughter.

Books in the News

Stormy Daniels is releasing a tell-all memoir on October 2nd of this year called Full Disclosure. Order copies, prepare for holds.
Daniel Jose Older is working on the third book in the Shadowshaper series!
Gillian Flynn is working on a new book! What do we know about it?? Absolutely nothing!
We’re getting a graphic novel adaptation of Jason Reynold’s award-winning YA novel Long Way Down.
Lauren Beukes has a new novel coming out!! (If you haven’t read The Shining Girls or Broken Monsters yet, they are genre-bending works of trippy horror and suspense, and they’re ah-may-zing).
Rainbow Rowell is publishing her first graphic novel, Pumpkinheads. Check out the cover here!

By the Numbers

James Patterson donates $2 million to classroom libraries!
Fear by Bob Woodward has sold over 750,000 copies in a single day – the first book to do that since Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee.
Americans are reading more poetry, less fiction.

Award News

All the juicy behind-the-scenes drama with Man Booker Prize judging.
All of the longlists for the National Book Award categories have been released!
Anthony Bourdain posthumously awarded 6 Emmys, including Best Nonfiction Writing.
The 2018 Anthony Award winners & nominees.
Haruki Murakami withdraws from consideration from the Alternate Nobel Prize for Literature.

All Things Comics

First images from the Captain Marvel movie!
What to know about Captain Marvel before the movie comes out.
Every superhero movie coming out in 2019. (Which also means you have a year’s worth of displays now!)

Audiophilia

Alyssa Cole is writing a SFF romance Audible Original novella!
Royal National Institute of Blind People offers free access to Penguin Random House audiobooks.
50 must-read nonfiction audiobooks.
10 audiobooks in translation.

Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

8 fantasy books like A Game of Thrones.
50 must-read m/m romance novels.
YA author Nova Ren Suma recommends her favorite YA ghost stories.
YA books about school shootings.
23 fantasy series for adults.
50 must-read books set in space.
11 mysteries that don’t start with a dead girl.
24 horror movies based on true stories, and the books they were based on.
8 memoirs from former Obama staffers.
5 reads for Hispanic Heritage Month.
10 engaging novels about World War II.

Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

First the serious pieces:

A really interesting piece on domestic violence in romance novels, courtesy of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books.
Target has been redacting key words in certain book descriptions published on its website, including “transgender” and “queer.”
The NYT writes about how kidlit authors are taking a political stand.
Using YA novels to make sense of #MeToo.
A must-read article about the attitudes towards black girls who like to read.
The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections is planning to ban free book donations due to concerns about drug trafficking. Prisoners instead are being pushed to buy into an expensive eBook system.

And now for some lighter news!

Check out this ah-may-zing Slytherin wedding!
A romance novelist has been arrested for allegedly murdering her husband. But here’s the kicker: She had previously published an online essay called “How to Murder Your Husband.”
A UK bookseller decided to take an early retirement and raffled off his store to a lucky customer for £20.
In other bookseller news, the Ripped Bodice Book Store has signed a deal with Sony TV to develop their own romance projects based on their close relationships with romance readers and authors!
Famous authors and their cats. On a related note, I once held a cassette case that belonged to Ray Bradbury, which was used to store fur from one of his deceased cats as a memento. I love to tell that story at parties…
Which banned book should you read next?
Luxury Harry Potter gifts for adults. My bank account hates me right now.
Break out of your reading comfort zone!

Level Up (Library Reads)

And to make it even easier, I’ve picked a few specific titles that are being released in January 2019. Links direct you to Edelweiss, where you can request a digital advance copy, and nominations are due by November 20th.

The Far Field – Madhuri Vijay. (January 15, 2019). “An elegant, epic debut nove from an exciting new talent and Pushcart Prize-winner that follows one young woman’s search for a lost figure from her childhood, a journey that takes her from Southern India to Kashmir and to the brink of a devastating political and personal reckoning.”
The Kingdom of Copper – S.A. Chakraborty (January 22, 2019). “S. A. Chakraborty continues the sweeping adventure begun in The City of Brass, conjuring a world where djinn summon flames with the snap of a finger and waters run deep with old magic; where blood can be dangerous as any spell, and a clever con artist from Cairo will alter the fate of a kingdom.”
The World According to Fannie Davis – Bridgett M. Davis (January 29, 2019). “Set against the dramatic backdrop of 1960s and 70s Detroit, novelist Bridgett M. Davis’s stirring memoir tells how her ingenious mother used Detroit’s illegal lottery to support her family.”

Thanks for hanging out and we’ll see you again in two weeks!

–Katie McLain, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager.

Check Your Shelf

Library-Loaned Neckties, Harry Potter Mixology Class, and All the Audiobook Lists

Post author By Katie McLain
Post date September 5, 2018

Welcome to Check Your Shelf! This is your guide to all things book talk worth knowing to help librarians like you up your game when it comes to doing your job (& rocking it).

“Check Your Shelf” is sponsored by LibraryReads.

LibraryReads, the monthly library staff picks list for adult fiction and non-fiction, draws upon the incredible power that public library staff has in helping to build word-of-mouth for new books, and the important role that libraries play in creating audiences for all kinds of authors.

LibraryReads represents collective favorites–the books that staff at public libraries loved reading and cannot wait to share. This is the 5th anniversary year of the LibraryReads list, so visit libraryreads.org to learn more about how you can nominate titles for the monthly list and to see what the organization has in store for the future.

Libraries & Librarians

Millions of historic artifacts have been lost in the National Museum fire in Rio.
A follow-up perspective regarding Tor’s recent embargo on library eBooks.
A look at the great work being done by Little Free Libraries in Leeds.
Utah Library Association steps in to help Washington County Library System come up with better policies after the director ordered all LGBTQ+ displays to be taken down during Pride Month.
Toronto Public Library has a bedtime story hotline!
New York Public Library is loaning out ties and other business attire accessories for job interviews. THIS IS SO COOL!
Do you need more evidence that going fines free is the wave of the library future? Here you go.
Drag Queen Story Hour brings fun and continued protests.
And amidst the drag queen controversy, a refresher on what libraries are really for.
For anyone who’s ever wondered about the library on the International Space Station.
Penn State Libraries are offering a computer programming workshop for female and gender-diverse faculty and staff!
Instagram tips for librarians.

Book Adaptations in the News

There’s a Crazy Rich Asians sequel already in the works!
HBO is adapting Tom Perrotta’s novel, Mrs. Fletcher.
Showtime is developing a horror series based on Kill Creek by Scott Thomas.
Dopesick by Beth Macy has been optioned for TV.
The first Japanese TV series to debut on HBO Go is Miss Sherlock – watch the trailer here!
Here’s the first teaser trailer for My Brilliant Friend.
Sarah Waters on the film adaptation of her novel, The Little Stranger.
A first look at the Netflix series adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House.

Books in the News

Snoop Dogg is publishing a cookbook called From Crook to Cook. I honestly don’t know what else I need in my life right now.
3 new Harry Potter pop up books are coming this October!
We’ve seen Tolkien’s last posthumously published book.
The National Coalition Against Censorship has issued a joint statement with a number of organizations condemning President Trump’s litigation threats against Omarosa’s latest book, Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House.

By the Numbers

Speaking of Unhinged: it sold over 33,000 copies in its first week.
One report says that as teens spend more time in front of screens, the amount of time spent reading is declining.
The results from the Romance Writers of America diversity survey have been released…it’s a first step, but there’s a long way to go.
Male authors are four times more likely to recommend books by men than by women, according to the New York Times’ “By the Book” column.
Penguin Random House reports a decline in sales & earnings in the first half of the year, but note a double-digit increase in audiobook sales.
Traditional publishers are selling a LOT more nonfiction titles than fiction.

Award News

Teens can now vote for the titles featured in YALSA’s annual Top Ten list.
The shortlist for the Alternative Nobel Prize has been announced.
But in their coverage of the Alternative Nobel Prize, The Guardian has focused almost exclusively on the male nominees, even though half of the nominees are women.

All Things Comics

Celebrating female comics artists.
10 women-created comics coming out this fall.
Comic book hairspiration, because librarians are nothing if not trendy! (And nerdy.)
10 adorable comic books about love.

Audiophilia

Downloaded audiobook sales are up by 36.1% in the first half of the year!
Mysteries & thrillers that are better on audio. (And FYI, Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou & Will Damron is getting a LOT of word-of-mouth buzz from readers. Keep an eye on this one!)
10 of the best true crime books on audio. (Again, Bad Blood is on this list!)
Short nonfiction audiobooks for your next road trip.
12 great YA audiobooks from 2018.
A Robin Miles audiobook for every mood.
For your readers who don’t want to say goodbye to summer: 8 great poolside audiobooks.
Southern audiobooks with decent accents.
12 own voices middle grade audiobooks.

Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

August may be over, but here are 7 new romances for Romance Awareness Month…and the rest of the year!
40 books about family secrets.
Reading pathways for Nova Ren Suma and Catherynne M. Valente.
From Paste Magazine: The 50 best horror novels of all time. (And just in time for all your Halloween displays!)
These are the Top 20 books most frequently left behind at hotels.
3 books about Aretha Franklin and soul music.
Nonfiction books about other books.
Badass women biographies for kids (Just don’t use the word “badass” in any library displays or book lists…).
14 books about everyday criminals.
50 must-read children’s series.
YA books about social anxiety.

Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

Holy firewhiskey! There’s a Harry Potter-themed mixology class in New York, and they give you a robe and a WiFi wand to activate areas of your workstation, and it sounds AMAZING!
NPR gives us “Banned Books on the Run.” And now I want a group of librarians to recreate the album cover for Band on the Run, but with everyone reading a different banned book. Who wants to take this on?
The drama is brewing behind the scenes at Barnes & Noble.
A first edition of Pride and Prejudice is selling for over $23,000!
A calendar of book-related holidays – this would be a great display resource!
Do you get a lot of questions at the Reference Desk about printing directions from Google Maps? Here are 33 Google Map tricks that might help.
A year of regimented reading.

Level Up (Library Reads)

An Indefinite Sentence by Siddarth Dube (January 8, 2019). “A revelatory memoir about sex, oppression, and the universal struggle for justice.”
Lives Laid Away by Stephen Mack Jones (January 8, 2019). “Detroit ex-cop August Snow takes up vigilante justice when his beloved neighborhood of Mexicantown is caught in the crosshairs of a human trafficking scheme.”
House of Stone by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma (January 29, 2019). “A masterful, haunting debut set during the tumultuous beginnings of Zimbabwe that explores the creative—and often destructive—act of history-making.”

Thanks for hanging out and we’ll see you again in two weeks!

–Katie McLain, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading Lady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History by Tori Telfer.

Check Your Shelf

Bill Clinton Is A Million Best Seller, Libraries Were Visited Over 1 Billion Times in 2015, and More Library News

Post author By Kelly Jensen
Post date August 21, 2018

Welcome to Check Your Shelf! This is your guide to all things book talk worth knowing to help librarians like you up your game when it comes to doing your job (& rocking it).

Check Your Shelf is sponsored by Seafire by Natalie C. Parker.

After her family is killed by corrupt warlord Aric Athair and his bloodthirsty army of Bullets, Caledonia Styx is left to chart her own course on the dangerous and deadly seas. She captains the Mors Navis, with a crew of girls and women just like her, who have lost their families and homes because of Aric. But when Caledonia’s best friend barely survives an attack thanks to help from a Bullet looking to defect, Caledonia finds herself questioning whether to let him join their crew. Is this boy the key to taking down Aric once and for all…or will he threaten everything the women have worked for?

____________________

Libraries & Librarians

A Utah library has decided to stop promoting LGBTQ materials after patron complaints. This is not: 1. how to respond and 2. how to welcome or work for your entire community.
The weirdest libraries around the world.
If any of you have had an animal break into your library like these guys, please hit reply (& include pictures).
The library director who stole $89,000 to fund his gaming habit was sentenced.
Snakes! In the library! (And where is momma snake?)
Check out the library on wheels delivering books in Ghana.
Librarians know how to find things.
10 tech perks available at your library — it’s always nice seeing positive publicity like this on a big site.
At Denver Public Library: tattoos! Such a fun program for a good cause.
I love a story where celebrities hear about a library in need and do something about it.
Why the Tor embargo on ebooks is a wakeup call for libraries.

Book Adaptations in the News

HG Wells’s The Time Machine will be adapted. Again.
Every Ursula K. Le Guin adaptation currently underway and rumored to be happening.
Is there another Little Women adaptation in the works?
Netflix renewed Anne With An E.
Just Mercy will be hitting the big screen.
Some news about Ashes In The Snow, the adaptation of Ruta Sepetys’s Between Shades of Gray.
Here’s the trailer for the adaptation of Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto.
The list of projects for Apple TV include a number of adaptations.

Books in the News

Have you watched the Netflix special Nanette by Hannah Gadsby? We’re getting a memoir.
There’s also a My Favorite Murder book in the works.
How Hollywood is rekindling the Rom Com with the help of romance novels.
A really thoughtful piece about how white the domestic thriller genre is.
…And Justin Timberlake is writing a book.
Brian Selznick is illustrating a book of queer poetry by Walt Whitman.

By the Numbers

People visited libraries more than a billion times (!!) in 2015.
Physical print books are the only form of media seeing sales increasing.
Bill Clinton is now a million-dollar seller.

Award News

Here are this year’s Hugo winners. Big kudos to N. K. Jemisin!
This year’s American Book Award winners.
The long list for this year’s business book of the year.
I’m not sure I get why so many non-American books were considered — or made the final list — of top books in The Great American Read.

All Things Comics

All 20 Marvel Cinematic Universe movies will return to theaters in IMAX.
Watchmen will be heading to HBO.
50 must-read comics about friendship.
10 great kick off comics for digging into X-Men.

Audiophilia

New audiobooks for August.
10 great audiobooks for traveling.
15 audiobooks narrated by the author worth listening to.

Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

August is Women in Translation Month. Here are some recent books by women in translation to read and share with your patrons.
NPR put together a list of 100 must-read horror books.
15 books like Patrick Rothfuss’s Kingkiller Chronicles.
The top 10 best-selling books about happiness on Amazon.
For your fans of erotic fiction: 50 must-read novels, anthologies, and more.
A Latin American reading list.
A round-up of great baseball books.
Thrillers from around the world.
Enjoy some of these alien books.
Poetry books for teens to devour.
New chick lit titles for fans of Bridget Jones.
Have readers who devoured The Kiss Quotient and want more books like it? Have some!
And finally, great YA books about witches.

Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

Walked into my local library and felt ATTACKED. 💀 pic.twitter.com/NgUg05O3ch

— cw 🌷 (not really here) (@artfromafriend) August 4, 2018

5 of the best book club apps.
Bella Swan’s home from Twilight is up for sale.
Barack Obama’s summer reading list.

There’s this then!

The truest t-shirt to ever t-shirt. Grab one for $23.

____________________

Thanks for hanging out and we’ll see you again in two weeks!

— Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Instagram and Twitter

Check Your Shelf

The Ethics of 3D Printers, Booktubers in the New York Times, and More Library News

Post author By Katie McLain
Post date August 9, 2018

Welcome to Check Your Shelf! This is your guide to all things book talk worth knowing to help librarians like you up your game when it comes to doing your job (& rocking it).

“Check Your Shelf” is sponsored by The Last Hours by Minette Walter.

When the Black Death enters England in 1348, no one knows what manner of sickness it is. Fear grips the people as they come to believe that the plague is a punishment for wickedness.

But Lady Anne of Develish has her own ideas. With her brutal husband absent from the manor when news of this pestilence reaches her, she looks for more sensible ways to protect her people than daily confessions of sin. She decides to bring her serfs inside the safety of the moat that surrounds her manor house, then refuses entry to anyone else, even her husband.

The people of Develish are alive. But for how long?

Libraries & Librarians

Employees at a Utah library were asked to take down Pride Month-themed displays and staff buttons due to patron complaints, but several librarians are speaking out against the decision.
New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture purchases missing Malcolm X writings at auction.
In archiving and information preservation news, US historians are fighting to prevent ICE from destroying records pertaining to the agency’s treatment of immigrants.
Here’s a really interesting piece on “imperialist charity” and how the library and publishing communities in powerful countries have donated Eurocentric books to rebuild hurricane-damaged children’s libraries in the Carribean.
Following the controversy surrounding ALA’s revised Meeting Room Policy, the Intellectual Freedom Committee created a Google Form for library community members (including non-ALA members) to suggest language & resources for the policy. The form is open until August 24th.
Sonali Dev gives the keynote speech at Librarian’s Day at RWA, and in the last 5 minutes, asks librarians to think about how their library’s collections contribute to ongoing issues of racism and discrimination. It’s a message every library employee needs to hear.
Archaeologists unearth the foundations of Germany’s oldest library.
Two Kenyan women are working to restore three Nairobi libraries.
Librarian Thomas Guignard showcases his Creative Commons photography collection of the most beautiful libraries he’s visited.
Amanda Smithfield, a Nashville school librarian, is teaching incoming freshmen how to engage in constructive discourse about difficult subjects.
Two library employees are recognized at a Denton (TX) City Council for saving an unconscious man’s life.
“I don’t remember the title, but the cover was blue”: The New York Public Library has assembled a team of librarian sleuths to track down half-forgotten books.

Libraries & the 3D Printed Gun Controversy

As more libraries adopt 3D printer technology for their communities, we’re seeing more ethical and safety-related questions about what patrons can and can’t print using library technology. Right now, the focus is on 3D printed guns.

ALA’s Best Practices for 3D printing in libraries.
A judge blocks an attempt to post blueprints for 3D guns online.
Although there are ethical questions surrounding access to information and library technology, many libraries already have rules in place that prevent people from using the printers to create weapons.
From the Hartford Courant: Can you print a gun at your library? Not likely.

Book Adaptations

Leads have been cast for Megan Abbott’s psychological thriller, Dare Me.
The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Book Riot’s very own Karina Yan Glaser has been optioned by Amy Poehler’s production company! All the muppet arms!
Sophie Kinsella’s Can You Keep a Secret? is being adapted for film.
Updated casting news for All the Bright Places.
Here’s the full trailer for To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.
From a Buick 8 is the latest Stephen King title to be adapted for film, which I’m super excited about! In my Constant Reader’s opinion, this is one of his most underappreciated works.
Okay, scratch that, there’s been an even newer Stephen King adaptation announced: In the Tall Grass, which was co-written with his son Joe Hill, has been optioned by Netflix.
Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery is slated for its first film adaptation, which makes me ask, “How the heck has this never been made into a movie before?”
Apple has secured the rights to develop Min Jin Lee’s novel Pachinko into a new series.
Slaughterhouse Five is also being turned into a series.

Books in the News

Bob Woodward announces a new book: Fear : Trump in the White House. If your patrons were eager for Fire and Fury, they’ll probably be placing holds on this book too.
Tiffany Jackson is writing a new book that she describes as “Notorious meets Weekend at Bernie’s,” which is the best description of anything ever.
Veronica Roth is writing her first non-YA book.
Parkland activists are publishing a book in October about preventing gun violence.
Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstack, hosts of the mega-popular podcast “My Favorite Murder,” are publishing a book for May 2019! The book will apparently focus on the lives and experiences of the authors, which is a big part of what’s made their podcast so popular.

By the Numbers

More than a billion people visited public libraries in 2015. Take that, Forbes.
Barnes & Noble reports a sales increase in books pertaining to anxiety, self-help, and overall happiness. If your library is anything like mine, you have probably also noticed a similar increase in checkouts and patron requests.

Award News

Nicki Salcedo wrote one of the most poignant responses to Suzanne Brockmann’s speech at the RITAs. Her essay is well worth a read.
Finalists have been announced for the World Fantasy Awards.

Pop Cultured

There’s been a lot of recent controversy surrounding WorldCon and the Hugo Awards, and how marginalized science fiction authors have been treated. Here’s a summary of what’s happened so far.
Buffy’s getting a reboot with a black lead actress and a black female showrunner, but responses have been mixed. Here’s an interesting take.
52 great true crime podcasts.
Get your wands and your time turners ready: All eight Harry Potter films are coming back to the big screen in honor of Harry Potter’s 20th anniversary in the US from August 31st to September 6! (Flashback to me sobbing with my friends in the theaters at the end of the 8th movie, knowing that my initial Harry Potter journey had come to an end. I may or may not have the same reaction 7 years later.)

All Things Comics

Season 1 of BBC Sherlock gets a manga adaptation.
Here’s a list of upcoming YA graphic novels through the end of the year – have you ordered these yet for your library?
Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower is getting its own graphic novel adaptation.
I hope no one needs to be reminded that comic books count as “real” reading, right?

Audiophilia

Audiobooks. Count. As. Real. Reading. Too.
Michael Lewis has signed a multi-year contract with Audible to write & produce 4 audio-first pieces.

Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

Publishers Weekly’s Most Anticipated Books for Fall 2018.
International Sherlock Holmes adaptations.
Here’s a fun romance subgenre: bodyguard romances!
Black & indigenous writers you should be reading.
Fiction and nonfiction about space exploration.
A reading list for midterm elections.
If you’re not a fan of history, may I suggest this list of microhistories?
50 LGBTQ fantasy novels.
Board books with a plot.
Alternate universe Filipino romance novels, for your patrons who really want something new!
2018 summer reads by women in translation.
Scary books for kids & teens.
Underhyped upcoming SFF titles, which means it’s time for librarians to start their book talking engines!
Best brainy books of the decade.
“All the world’s a stage”: 50 books about actors & actresses.
Books about tough topics for kids.

Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

It’s never too late to become a reader.
The massive community of Booktubers gets a profile in the New York Times!
Goodreads’ blog posts a conversation between Laura Lippman and Alice Bolin (author of Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession) about the “dead girl” trope in crime fiction. Definitely worth a read, especially if you’re looking ahead at possible trends in mystery fiction.
Vulture has a series of articles and lists about our culture’s fascination with true crime.
Rick Riordan doesn’t have time for anti-transgender Internet trolls.
PBS put together this delightful introduction video to the romance genre.
The rise of fantasy fiction from East Asian authors.
Is Instagram changing how you (or your patrons) read?
Harry Potter’s most irresponsible professors.
I know every book has its reader and we should never judge anyone’s reading tastes. That being said, I really hope Bigfoot erotica does not become the latest book trend.
Are all those Goodreads update emails helpful or harmful when it comes to your reading life?
The ins and outs of Kindle Unlimited.

Level Up (Library Reads)

And to make it even easier, I’ve picked a few specific titles that are being released in November 2018. Links direct you to Edelweiss, where you can request a digital advance copy, and nominations are due by September 20th.

My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. (November 20, 2018) “A short, darkly funny, hand grenade of a novel about a Nigerian woman whose younger sister has a very inconvenient habit of killing her boyfriends.”
Newcomer by Keigo Higashino. (November 20, 2018) “A new case from internationally bestselling Keigo Higashino —newly transferred Tokyo Police Detective Kyochiro Kaga is assigned to a baffling murder, where nearly all the people living and working in the district have a motive.”
How Long ’til Black Future Month?: Stories by N.K. Jemisin (November 27, 2018) “Hugo award-winning and New York Times bestselling author N. K. Jemisin sharply examines modern society in her first short story collection.”

Thanks for hanging out and we’ll see you again in two weeks!

–Katie McLain, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole.

Check Your Shelf

Tor Changes Library Sales, Great Summer Audiobooks, and More Library News

Post author By Kelly Jensen
Post date July 24, 2018

Welcome to Check Your Shelf! This is your guide to all things book talk worth knowing to help librarians like you up your game when it comes to doing your job (& rocking it).

Check Your Shelf is sponsored by Libby, the one-tap reading app from your library and OverDrive.

Whether you’re traveling around the world or relaxing on your couch this summer, Libby, the one-tap reading app from OverDrive will make sure you always have a good book with you. Instantly access thousands of eBooks and audiobooks for free from your library in just one-tap. Thanks to Libby and your library no matter what time it is or where you are, you’ll always have instant access to your next great reading adventure.

Libraries & Librarians

A New York City library card gets holders into awesome city museums. Do you do something similar with your local cultural institutions?
This partnership between Ohio libraries and LinkedIn is really smart.
I love this idea of starting a short story club, rather than a full-on book club.
If you missed seeing Michelle Obama at ALA in New Orleans back in June, here’s the video (skip to about 20 minutes if you want to get right into it).
Spain’s National Library is sharing videos of vintage recipes. Awesome.
I love how libraries are incorporating fitness programs. My concern is that some, like yoga or tai chi, being run by librarians who aren’t certified, screams injury potential and also potential lawsuit to me (I’m a certified yoga instructor and have to carry my own personal liability insurance, outside the insurance my studio holds — librarians, if you do these programs, bring in a local expert or pay for your staff to be certified properly to CYA). A walking club is brilliant and easy, without those concerns. Imagine a biweekly noon walking group with local companies and patrons who use part of their lunch hour to get in a little fresh air.
None of you will be surprised about these things librarians do at work (this would make a great social media post).
Tips for controlling your library holds list.
A year after Harvey, a number of Houston libraries are still closed.
Libraries: where the world’s memories are stored.
Surely, you read the Forbes piece. Here’s why it disappeared. And here’s why libraries are a lifeline for millions of Americans. You already know this.

Book Adaptations in the News

Peep some of the first images from PBS’s adaptation of Les Miserables.
There’s a Weetzie Bat adaptation coming.
Netflix ordered an adaptation of Midnight’s Children.
There’s a new Jane Austen adaptation coming.

Books in the News

Tor changes rules for libraries, making them wait for digital editions of titles. Bad move, Tor.
Eight MILLION dollars in rare books were stolen from the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh.
Lin-Manuel Miranda announces a GMorning, GNight! book.

By the Numbers

The Association of American Publishers released sales data from 2017, including the categories of books seeing sales growth. Have you seen similar in your collections?
Only 1% of books published in the UK for children featured a BAME character. Diversity in the US is not representative, but this is even more disheartening.
Americans are reading less. Or are they?

Award News

This year’s RITA awards were announced. Make sure you have these on shelf for your Romance readers. And here’s a bit more about the powerful speech given by one of the winners.
The Shirley Jackson awards have been named.
Eisner winners are here, too!
Details about the Alternate Nobel and the long list.
Here’s the Man Booker Long List for this year.

All Things Comics

Black Panther’s Shuri is getting her own comic.
Y: The Last Man casting news.
Didn’t make it to San Diego Comic Con? Here are 16 comics to help you feel like you were there anyway.
Hockey comics!

Audiophilia

Brilliance Audio is shutting down their storefront.
Great audiobooks to listen to this summer.
Funny audiobooks by funny women.

Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

20 funny books by female writers.
Super short, super sad books you can read in a day.
Here are the books by 45’s staffers already out.
Books where poetry and politics overlap.
Great books for beginning a meditation or mindfulness practice.
50 must-read recent essay collections — imagine using some of these in a short story style book club.
A huge preview of the books hitting shelves in the second half of 2018.
New novels by Indigenous US authors.
Adventure books!
Barack Obama shares his favorite African writers.
Celebrity memoirs hitting shelves this fall.
A whole bunch of great young adult romance novels.
Solid reads featuring multiple points of view.
Need some creative nonfiction reads? Got cha!

Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

These are the most expensive books in the world.
Why it’s so hard to quit a book you don’t like.
The best notes found in used books.
Love cover design? Here’s a peek at the process of drafting the perfect cover.
Is this the earliest excerpt from The Odyssey?
The ancient library where books are under lock and key. This video is fabulous.
Every Shakespeare play summed up in a quote from Parks and Rec.
Have you noticed this book cover design trend?

Level Up

This month, I’m directing you to Becky Spratford’s piece that digs into not just the database I’ve created of adult reads eligible each month for LibraryReads, but also the database at EarlyWord by Nora Rawlinson.

I’ve made the decision to make the diverse adult titles database open to all, so feel free to add titles you’re aware of to it. I’ll go through periodically and clean up ineligible titles, duplicates, etc. Click here to access it.

This newsletter goes out after the deadline for September titles, so start keeping an eye on October titles and nominate them before August 20.

This is such a great shirt. $22 and up.

____________________

See you again in two weeks!

— Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Twitter and Instagram

Check Your Shelf

Libraries Aren’t Neutral, a New Anthony Bourdain Biography, A Billion and One Book Lists, & More

Post author By Katie McLain
Post date July 11, 2018

Welcome to Check Your Shelf! This is your guide to all things book talk worth knowing to help librarians like you up your game when it comes to doing your job (& rocking it).

Check Your Shelf is sponsored by Libby, the one-tap reading app from OverDrive.

Libraries & Librarians

Bartow County, Georgia residents can check out State Park Passes that give them free parking and admission to state parks and historic sites!
The eBooks Minnesota program offers access to 4,000 eBooks to state residents, even if they don’t have a library card.
How libraries can help migrant children, with an accompanying book list
Anonymous graffiti artist Banksy offers support to keep Bristol’s 27 libraries open.
Fargo Public Library is joining a growing wave of libraries by eliminating late fees for children’s books.
How to create a classroom library.

Response to ALA’s Meeting Room Policy Interpretation

ALA very recently updated “Meeting Rooms: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights” to explicitly state that if libraries provide study spaces for public use, they cannot refuse room space to hate groups. I have lots of thoughts about this, many of them angry.
Many other librarians have shared similarly angry thoughts, including this Twitter thread by librarian Tyler Vachoff.
The Office of Intellectual Freedom responded to the backlash with this press release.
Which prompted even more angry responses from librarians.
If you have thoughts about this (and I bet a lot of you do), you can check out this handy resource created by several librarians on Twitter – it has contact information and email scripts for your ALA leaders and representatives.
And Rioter Beth O’Brien wrote last year about why neutrality in the library is bullsh*t.

Book Adaptations

Megan Abbott has not one but TWO books simultaneously optioned for adaptation: You Will Know Me and Give Me Your Hand.
Netflix is adapting Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie as a TV series.
Greta Gerwig is following up Ladybird with her own adaptation of Little Women, starring Meryl Streep, Emma Stone, and Saoirse Ronan.
Check out the first trailer for the Discovery of Witches TV series!
Oprah casually mentioned on Twitter that she’s producing a film version of An American Marriage by Tayari Jones.
Here’s a trailer for The Miseducation of Cameron Post.

Books in the News

Look for a new biography of the late and sorely missed Anthony Bourdain, coming next year.
Reese Witherspoon picks Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton for her July book club pick.
Meanwhile, Emma Watson’s book club will be reading its first poetry collection: Milk & Honey by Rupi Kaur.
South Carolina police object to the inclusion of The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas and All American Boys by Jason Reynolds on local high school reading lists, saying that these books foster anti-police attitudes in teens. Now, I’m no expert, but this seems like a major professional overstep.
Children of Blood and Bone has been picked as the first book for the Tonight Show Book Club!

By the Numbers

Print sales are up by 2% in the first half of 2018!
And on the other end of the spectrum, pleasure reading is apparently at an all-time low in the United States.
4 Houston schools receive 27,000 books to restock the libraries that were damaged by Hurricane Harvey.

Award News

James LaRue, the Director for ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, offers his own perspective on the name change to the (former) Laura Ingalls Wilder Award.
A group of Swedish authors, actors, and journalists have come together to award an alternative Nobel prize for literature. This comes after the Swedish Academy postponed this year’s prize following allegations of sexual assault within the Academy.

Pop Cultured

Gone Fishing is a new true crime podcast for all of your crime-solving patrons.
Expect to see more literary writers in the TV studio.

All Things Comics

First novels, and now graphic novels! Stranger Things is getting the comics treatment from Dark Horse.
Steve Ditko, creator of Squirrel Girl and co-creator of Spider Man, passes away at age 90.
ALA approves a new Graphic Novel Roundtable, which will hopefully mean lots of new graphic novel resources, reading lists, and awards created by librarians, for librarians.
7 sexy comics that put the “graphic” in graphic novels.
10 short graphic novels & memoirs to read in one sitting.

Audiophilia

Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

Our list of the best books of 2018 so far!
20 (yes, 20) dragon shifter romances.
If you’re new to the grimdark (dark fantasy) subgenre, here are 20 books to get you started.
Publisher’s Weekly highlights promising debut novels for Fall 2018.
Book Riot rounded up a bunch of posts about immigrants and the immigrant experience. Consider this your all-in-one resource on an extremely important topic.
6 transgender novels written by transgender authors.
Books about Central America.
A reading pathway for Tiffany Reisz’s super-intense romance novels.
50 must-read books about music.
Whether you’re into clothes, amigurumi, or fancy granny squares, we’ve got a crochet book suited just for you!
50 classic memoirs written by authors of color.
What is gothic fiction?
Native American poets you should familiarize yourself with.
40 award-winning YA books to keep in your back pocket (and your front pocket). Basically all the pockets.
I don’t watch soccer, but I bet your patrons do! Here’s a list of books to keep your World Cup readers happy.
10 middle grade book about the pioneer life (that aren’t Little House on the Prairie).

Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

Why aren’t schools teaching black literature?
Demos Parneros, Barnes & Noble CEO, has been fired for violating unspecified company policies.
Goodreads users vote on their picks for the modern “Great American Novelist” – see the results, along with the authors’ most popular books.
Two interesting posts about the lack of diversity in historical romance.
How one reader uses her library’s holds list to manage her reading schedule.
Space-saving bookshelves ftw.
Do you like bookends? Do you like Harry Potter? How about a list dedicated solely to Harry Potter bookends??
University of Southern Denmark discovered three poisonous books in its collection.
A small-town Connecticut restaurant gives away free books to every diner!
Why were mice so darned popular in 90’s children’s books? Bustle investigates.
Which literary cat are you??

Level Up (Library Reads)

Last month, Kelly put together a reference guide for finding these books, along with a database of titles and publication dates to make reading and highlighting these books as easy as can be. Your only work is to read them and talk about them.

There is literally no excuse. Nominations for titles on the October list need to be submitted by August 20. Here are a couple suggestions to get you started:

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice. “Moon of the Crusted Snow imagines a small community on the precipice of winter without power or communication where leaders must grapple with control, restore order, and save their people from a grave fate.”
The Lady Killer by Masako Togawa; translated by Simon Grove. “The Lady Killer leads a double life in the shadow world of Tokyo’s singles bars and nightclubs. By day a devoted husband and hard worker, by night he cruises nightclubs cafes and cinemas in search of lonely single women to seduce. But now the hunter is being hunted, and in his wake lies a trail of gruesome murders. Who is the culprit? The answer lies tangled in a web of clues, and to find it he must accept that nothing is what it seems.”
White Dancing Elephants by Chaya Bhuvaneswar. “In sixteen remarkable stories, Chaya Bhuvaneswar spotlights diverse women of color—cunning, bold, and resolute—facing sexual harassment and racial violence, and occasionally inflicting that violence on each other.”

____________________

Thanks for hanging out and we’ll see you again in two weeks!

–Katie McLain, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading Hope Never Dies by Andrew Shaffer.

Check Your Shelf

Audiobook Purchases Up 23%, THE PRESIDENT IS MISSING Burning Up The Charts, & More

Post author By Kelly Jensen
Post date June 26, 2018

Welcome to Check Your Shelf! This is your guide to all things book talk worth knowing to help librarians like you up your game when it comes to doing your job (& rocking it).

“Check Your Shelf” is sponsored by Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed from Penguin Teen.

Amal Unbound Cover Life is quiet and ordinary in Amal’s Pakistani village, she has no complaints, and she’s busy pursuing her dream of becoming a teacher one day. Her dreams are temporarily dashed when the unimaginable happens. After an accidental run-in with the son of her village’s corrupt landlord, Amal must work as his family’s servant to pay off her own family’s debt. When it becomes clear just how far they will go to protect their interests, Amal realizes she will have to find a way to work with others if they are ever to exact change in a cruel status quo, and if Amal is ever to achieve her dreams.

Libraries & Librarians

Here are Nancy Pearl’s picks for summer reading this year.
A nice piece about the growth of Drag Queen storytimes in libraries throughout the YS.
Berkeley Public Library has ended fines for teen and adult books.
Take a gander inside one of the world’s most beautiful libraries.
Behind the scenes with New York Society Library’s head librarian, Carolyn Waters.
On the practice of binding books with even older books.

Book Adaptations in the News

The trailer for The Hate U Give is here and it’s making me want the movie ASAP.
Need a handy list of all the Stephen King adaptations in the works? Here you go!
Victor LaValle’s The Changeling will be coming to TV.
Amazon will be releasing a “Wheel of Time” adaptation.
There’s a trailer for the Netflix adaptation of To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before.

Books in the News

This is a really fabulous profile of Megan Abbott and delves into the growth of female-driven psychological thrillers.
Jimmy Fallon is launching a Tonight Show Book Club.

By the Numbers

Audiobook revenue jumped nearly 23% in 2017. More readers are listening!
The President is Missing is selling a lot of copies. More than any book since the release of any other hardcover fiction title since Go Set a Watchman.
So are Americans reading more or less than they were in the past? A deep dive into the numbers.

Award News

The long list for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize is outstanding.
Dig into this year’s Locus Award winners.
It’s hard to have missed the news that the Laura Ingalls Wilder award is now the Children’s Legacy Award. It’s also hard to ignore how many comments have popped up clearly not understanding that this change — a name change! — does not equal censorship.

All Things Comics

What to read after you finish Brazen and itch for more awesome comics about awesome women.
The first wave of new DC titles for young readers have covers!
Walmart will begin selling an exclusive monthly DC comic starting this month. Worth knowing for your collection development purposes.

Audiophilia

The best audiobooks read by their authors.
Maybe part of the growth we’ve seen in audiobooks is that we’re more emotionally invested in them.
Great nonfiction audiobooks that’ll help anyone up their party-talk game (& enjoy a good listen, too).

Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

Here are the “Read ‘N Rave” titles shared by 5 librarians at this year’s American Library Association conference.
40 of the best villains in literary history. This would make both a fun display and a fun passive program, where patrons can vote for their favorite villains.
Add some Jamaican authors to your reading life and your library’s collection.
The best books of 2018 so far, according to Amazon.
25 of the best psychological horror books.
28 fabulous works of queer historical fiction.
Upcoming romance novels to know about.
A handy guide to great book club book ideas.
Need books to hand to readers who loved Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan series? Try these!
And for fans of Killing Eve, a round-up of books about obsessive friendships.

Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

Reading secrets from a bibliophile who consumers 200+ titles a year.
Need a new lanyard? Here are some bookish ones.
Ever considered starting a Dungeons and Dragons club in your library? Here are five reasons to consider it.
This beach toy library is really smart. Are any libraries who have collections at their local beach doing the same?

Level Up

Last month, I put together a reference guide for finding these books, along with a database of titles and publication dates to make reading and highlighting these books as easy as can be. Your only work is to read them and talk about them.

There is literally no excuse. Nominations for titles on the September list need to be submitted by July 20.

I highly encourage you read through the wonderful notes and slides about why LibraryReads is worth doing, as presented at ALA this past week.

Book heartbeat vinyl sticker

Grab one of these cute book heartbeat vinyl decals for $3.

____________________

Thanks for hanging out and we’ll see you again in two weeks!

–Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Instagram and Twitter.

Check Your Shelf

Pride Month Book Lists, Bat-Infested Libraries, and How to Set Up Book News Alerts Like a Pro

Post author By Katie McLain
Post date June 14, 2018

Welcome to Check Your Shelf! This is your guide to all things book talk worth knowing to help librarians like you up your game when it comes to doing your job (& rocking it).

“Check Your Shelf” is sponsored by Dream Country by Shannon Gibney.

A story across countries, generations, and time, Dream Country follows one single African-and-American family pursuing an elusive dream of freedom from Liberia to America back. Told in five different sections, Shannon Gibney spins a riveting tale of the nightmarish spiral of death and exile connecting America and Africa, and of how one determined young dreamer tries to break free and gain control of her destiny.

Before we dive in…

If you’re attending ALA in New Orleans next week, hop by the Networking Uncommons Saturday morning, June 23, between 8:30 and 9:00 AM. Kelly will be there and wants your input on how Book Riot can better serve librarians. Bring ideas and suggestions for what we might do to make your work even better and easier.

Libraries & Librarians

Here’s a wrap-up from Book Expo 2018, if you weren’t able to make it this year.
Grappling with Dewey’s history of sexual harassment in the era of #MeToo.
The Library of Congress acquires its largest-ever donation of comic books.
A librarian’s top 5 tips for creating the ultimate home library. Great suggestions for cramming even more shelves into your home!
3 Scotland schools are piloting a staffing model that will use students and volunteers to staff school libraries rather than trained library professionals. Parents, teachers, and librarians are not happy.
A librarian in Hong Kong was accused of tampering with patron accounts & locating their personal information to expedite the return of books she really wanted to read. Please don’t try this at home.
These Portuguese libraries are infested with bats, but it’s totally cool because bats eat manuscript-destroying bugs! Also the article refers to bats as “flittermice” and that’s now what I’m going to call bats from now on.

Book Adaptations in the News

Universal options Catherynne M. Valente’s latest novel, Space Opera, with plans to turn it into a music-themed film.
Joe Hill’s Locke and Key is coming to Netflix!
13 Reasons Why is renewed for its third season.
Donald Glover playing Willy Wonka? Now there’s an adaptation I’d really want to see!
HBO orders a Game of Thrones prequel, co-created by George R.R. Martin, who I think is either a) actively looking for reasons not to finish the next book in the GoT series or b) having fun trolling his fans. Either way, more GoT universe coming your way!
Amazon orders limited series based on Colson Whitehead’s award-winning novel, The Underground Railroad. Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) set to direct all 11 episodes.
FX adapting Victor LaValle’s creepy novel, The Changeling.

Books in the News

Rainbow Rowell announces a new book for 2020 on Instagram. Start pre-ordering now! (Just kidding…sort of…)
In other preordering news, J.K. Rowling says that she’ll write a new children’s book after finishing the screenplay for Fantastic Beasts 3.
Michael Wolf is writing a follow-up to Fire and Fury.
Laurie Halse Anderson announces Shout, a new book about her own experiences with sexual assault and the reader reactions to Speak that she’s received over the last 20 years.
Oprah picks her next book club title: The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton.

By the Numbers

Poetry readers in the US have nearly doubled in the last five years. And when you consider how long it’s been since you’ve seen a copy of Milk and Honey on the shelf, this isn’t all that surprising…
James Patterson & Bill Clinton’s novel, The President is Missing, has sold 250,000 copies in its first week.

Award News

2018 Best Translated Book winners.
Kamila Shamsie wins the 2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction!
Lambda Literary Awards announced. This is a great resource for Pride Month, but more importantly, it’s a great checklist of books you should be ordering for for your library.
2018 Bisexual Book Award winners.

Pop Cultured

Stranger Things books are coming this fall and Gwenda Bond is set to write the first one!
In Other Words, the feminist bookstore made famous by Portlandia’s bookstore Women & Women First, is closing its doors.

All Things Comics

Never fear, comics newbies – here’s a syllabus to get you (and me) started!
A librarian talks about the best manga from Shigero Mizuki.
Recent comics about refugee experiences.

Audiophilia

5 YA audiobooks with multiple narrators.
Or how about some award-winning YA audiobooks?
This will keep your avid listeners (and you!) busy: 50 nonfiction audiobooks under 10 hours.
And because we don’t want to leave anyone out, here are 50 fiction audiobooks under 10 hours. These two lists would make for a fun display!
The best mystery audiobooks for road trips.

Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

It’s not too late to put up a Pride display for your YA readers! Here’s a list of 100 LGBTQIA YA novels to get you started.
7 must-read YA novels about coming out.
YA novels with asexual protagonists.
50 must-read books about LGBTQ+ history.
For your romance-reading patrons: 50 military romance novels.
10 great books about weddings, just in time for wedding season!
13 soccer books for your favorite young World Cup viewers.
10 of the best YA feminist fantasy novels of 2018.
The summer’s best foreign novels, as chosen by Vanity Fair.
The ultimate summer book preview from LitHub! Which books are being featured on the most lists?
Upcoming releases by authors of color, as seen at BEA.

Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

Simon & Schuster created a voice-activated app to help you figure out which Stephen King novels you’re most likely to enjoy.
Weird literary relics that people spent beaucoup bucks on.
#cockygate drama continues, and I can’t believe that’s a real sentence I just typed.
The health benefits of reading just keep stacking up – now they think reading may actually prevent dementia.
How to set up book news alerts. Librarians, if you need to up your newsfeed game, here’s a great way to do it!
Why you should always read the acknowledgements.
No, your book is not a “guilty pleasure” just because you’re a woman.

Level Up

Do you take part in LibraryReads, the monthly list of best books selected by librarians only? Whether or not you read and nominate titles, we’ll end every newsletter with a few upcoming titles worth reading and sharing (and nominating for LibraryReads, if you so choose!). inks here will direct to Edelweiss digital review copies. These books hit shelves in September, giving you plenty of time to read and nominate by July 20th.

And to help librarians find more diverse titles for Library Reads, Kelly put together this awesome database & reference guide with a list of upcoming diverse books. No more excuses, fellow librarians. Time to diversify our reading suggestions.

Always Another Country by Sisonke Msimang. “An intimate story of exile and homecoming by the South African author whose TED Talk touched millions.”
I Should Have Honor: A Memoir of Hope and Pride in Pakistan by Khalida Brohi. “A fearless memoir about tribal life in Pakistan—and the act of violence that inspired one ambitious young woman to pursue a life of activism and female empowerment.”
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan. “From the author of the award-winning international best seller Half-Blood Blues comes a dazzling new novel, about a boy who rises from the ashes of slavery to become a free man of the world.”

Thanks for hanging out! We’ll see you back here in two weeks with another edition of Check Your Shelf.

–Katie McLain, @kt_librarylady on Twitter

Currently reading The Witch Elm by Tana French.

Check Your Shelf

Libby Partnership Lands 33,000 New Library Card Holders, Audiobook Narrator Secrets, and More.

Post author By Kelly Jensen
Post date May 30, 2018

Welcome to Check Your Shelf! This is your guide to all things book talk worth knowing to help librarians like you up your game when it comes to doing your job (& rocking it).

Check Your Shelf is sponsored by The Plastic Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg.

Magicians are pitted against one another to make the next big discovery in Charlie N. Holmberg’s fascinating new read in The Paper Magician series.

Alvie Brechenmacher came to London to study under world-renowned magician Marion Praff. Little did she know she would make a discovery that could change the world of magic forever. Now a rival is after the plans, and in the high-stakes world of magical discovery, not everyone plays fair . . .

Wall Street Journal bestselling author Charlie N. Holmberg returns to the enchanting world of The Paper Magician.

Libraries & Librarians

Local or not, you’ll want to swoon over these gorgeous Chicago libraries. And then you can read about the family that took their children on a world tour of libraries.
20% of US public school librarian jobs have disappeared since 2000. One fifth!
Further reading: why school librarians are the literacy leaders we need.
This is a cool partnership to encourage reading that the New York Public Library and HBO cooked up.
Libraries along the Silk Road in a number of countries have developed an alliance. Sometimes we forget what feels common in the library world is completely new in other parts of the world.
Why Finland is home to the world’s most radical libraries.
This one made the librarian internet rounds, but just in case you haven’t seen it, BuzzFeed put together a list of 17 awesome things libraries have done that’ll make you want to do them for your library.
Kabul library bus helps drive Afghan children to read. I love stories like this.

Book Adaptations in the News

Clear your calendar on October 19 — that’s when The Hate U Give will hit the big screen.
I didn’t know there would still be interest enough for a TV adaptation of The Babysitter’s Club to be shopped. The comics must be helping renew interest.
Kristen Stewart will direct the adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch’s Chronology of Water.
Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits is coming to Hulu.
There’s a trailer for The Sisters Brothers.
Idris Elba + The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Books in the News

Certainly by now, you’ve seen the Jimmy Kimmel clip where your average person on the street can’t name a book. Let’s not talk about that and instead talk about how shaming people who aren’t bookish isn’t cool. Not to mention it’s a common psychological phenomenon that people can’t name something off the top of their head when asked like that.
How a book can become a hit even before it’s finished. Here are the Buzz books of this year so you can be ready.
The New York Times highlights the arguments about Philip Roth’s best books.
A look at the dwindling number of rare and valuable books, in light of the deaths of a handful of literary icons.
Michelle Obama is teasing her memoir on Instagram. If your library hasn’t preordered a pile yet, it’s time (and same with audio, since she’s performing it herself).

By the Numbers

33,000 new library cards have been registered with the help of Libby in the first four months of 2018. I was skeptical about how this would work out when I heard it was happening, but that’s a nice number.
The most popular libraries in the world. Inexact (and that’s noted!) but really fascinating to look at.
Ebook revenue is down.
But digital audiobook revenue is up.

Award News

This year’s finalists for the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction are out, and you can vote on this one.
The winners and finalists for the Indie’s Choice and EB White Read Aloud books were announced.
There’s a winner in the Man Booker Prize for this year.
Check out the titles on the Golden Man Booker Prize list and vote for your pick.
Dig into this year’s Nebula winners.

All Things Comics

Vulture names the best comics of 2018 so far.
A comics guide to the surprise characters in Solo.
Marvel characters make for popular baby names is not a thing I think I’d ever consider typing, but there it is.
She-Ra, the adaptation by Noelle Stevenson, has a cast.

Audiophilia

Reese Witherspoon has teamed up with Audible in a new partnership. Consider these monthly titles essential for library collections or reader advisory.
The New York Times offers up great audiobook recommendations for trips without kids and for trips with kids.
More audiobook recommendations for your summer road trip, this time from the Washington Post. Consider putting the titles here and in the above lists into a nice display for patrons.
Audiobooks…for dogs?
No, listening to audiobooks is not “cheating” when it comes to reading.
Tune in to some great history audiobooks.
17 secrets of audiobook narrators.

Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

19 new translated books you need on your TBR (and in your library).
Love reality TV or a patron base that does? Here are some appropriate books.
Wired suggests 12 books you need to read this summer.
50 must-read books with gorgeous writing.
Great time travel romances (beyond Outlander).
The perfect mystery books for fans of literary fiction.
21 excellent queer women of color books to read with bonus fancy graphic!
Over 120 Stephen King short stories and where to find them. This is some excellent reference for your King fanatics, especially given the rate of adaptations of his work in the last year.
These new books with animal covers would make a fabulous display.
Pick up some excellent books by Asian American writers, whether or not it’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous

The oldest cookbooks from libraries around the world.
What’s going on in your child’s brain when you read them a story? This one is for all of the librarians who not only encourage reading, but who are also sharing stories aloud with the youngest readers.
Why are middle age women invisible on book covers? This isn’t just an issue with books, of course. It’s also even more pronounced when you consider middle age women of color.
50 school libraries to follow on Instagram.

Level Up

This month, I put together a reference guide for finding these books, along with a database of titles and publication dates to make reading and highlighting these books as easy as can be. Your only work is to read them and talk about them.

There is literally no excuse.

Snag a sweet “It’s Lit” enamel pin for $7.

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Thanks for hanging out! We’ll see you back here in two weeks with another edition of Check Your Shelf.

–Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Twitter and Instagram.

Currently reading Final Draft by Riley Redgate