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 this week by Stewie BOOM by Christine Bronstein from Nothing But The Truth Publishing.
Stewie BOOM! and Princess Penelope get ready to have a fabulous play-date with Eric, their awesome friend with autism. This book delves into many ways families can embrace neuro-diversity.
Libraries & Librarians
- 25 libraries every voracious reader must visit. These are some gorgeous spaces.
- Regina Anderson was a powerful librarian behind the scenes during the Harlem Renaissance, and this profile of her is outstanding.
- Yes, bookmobiles are still a thing. We know this, of course, but the piece is really good despite the headline.
Book Adaptations in the News
- The Wicked Deep, a brand new YA book which already hit the bestseller list, is going to be made into a film.
- Sundance film winner The Miseducation of Cameron Post has a distributor and will be hitting big screens this summer.
- Have you been keeping pace with the number of Stephen King adaptations in the works over the next couple of years? Here’s another one for your list.
Books in the News
- Make sure you’re prepared for the holds that’ll come for the new Nicholas Sparks book.
- Parent-child reading is tied to psychological benefits. As librarians, we know this, but having more research to highlight about it doesn’t hurt.
- There’s a new Khaled Hosseini book coming out, and here’s a look at the cover and what it’s about. It might not be a full novel, but readers will be excited to see it.
- Two new Charlotte Brontë manuscripts are being published!
By The Numbers
- Who doesn’t read in America? As much as this headline feels gloom and doom, the data isn’t surprising — and let’s also look at the fact a lot of Americans are reading.
- Responses came to that data, of course, including this look at the science behind why we should be prioritizing reading.
- How about this number: 1 BILLION items have been borrowed via Overdrive since it began in 2013.
- And here are the top 10 most-borrowed authors on Overdrive of all time. There is not a single author of color on this list.
- Black Panther is absolutely crushing it at the box office.
Award News
- Here are this year’s Hugo Award nominees.
- The 2018 PEN/Hemingway Award winner has been announced. If you don’t have a copy of this in your collection yet, grab one! This award often predicts big things for the author.
- Jacqueline Woodson won a huge cash award with the Astrid Lindgren prize.
Pop Cultured
- For readers who love Ready Player One, 25 more books to read.
- Meredith Vieira will be hosting PBS’s series “The Great American Read.”
- Books for readers who love Love, Simon (or the book).
All Things Comics
- The New York Times is starting a graphic novels and comics column.
- Great graphic essays and short stories.
- 14 inclusive comics about coming of age.
- An all-star line up has been announced for this comic anthology that’s being made in response to the Las Vegas shooting last fall.
Audiophilia
- This list of the 50 best audiobooks of all time isn’t especially surprising. It’s a lot of big-title books, with only a few authors of color represented. BUT: it’s worth reading and thinking about lists like this, as it’s what patrons who want to get started with audiobooks are finding in their search, and it could be a great resource for starting RA with new listeners.
- How listening to audiobooks changed the way I read.
- Fifty nifty thrillers on audio.
- Celebrity-read audiobooks that are worth the time.
- Jeremy Irons + TS Eliot. It’s a thing.
Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists
- This is from last summer but so good, it’s worth a share: 22 ambassadors recommend one book to read before visiting their country. An excellent book display idea and/or means of expanding reading horizons.
- The best nonfiction of 2018 so far.
- 35 must-read books by women from the last 5 years.
- 25 classic crime novels you can read in an afternoon.
- Thrillers for your spring reading and ordering lists.
- Books to honor the life of Martin Luther King, Jr, who died 50 years ago this month.
- 50 must-read board books, for when your collection needs a refresh.
- British cozy mysteries: a guide to the genre and a reading list.
- Six books by “gravely” disabled people you should read.
- If This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp is constantly checked out or readers want more books like it, here’s a place to start ’em.
- 50 must-read classics in translation.
Bookish Curiosities
- Hello, weird cookbooks!
- 7 tips for how to read more books. These are practical and realistic.
- Less curiosity, more timeliness: 47 great authors on their favorite poems.
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!). Links here will direct to Edelweiss digital review copies. These books hit shelves in July, giving you plenty of time to read and nominate accordingly.
- An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim: “In the vein of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Station Eleven, a sweeping literary love story about two people who are at once mere weeks and many years apart.”
- How To Love A Jamaican: Stories by Alexia Arthurs: “From a magnetic new voice, a debut story collection set in Jamaica and America for readers of Zadie Smith, Helen Oyeyemi, and Imbolo Mbue.”
- Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras: “A mesmerizing debut set against the backdrop of the devastating violence of 1990’s Colombia about a sheltered young girl and a teenage maid who strike an unlikely friendship that threatens to undo them both.”
How adorable are these vintage school library advertisements made into coasters? Grab ’em for $14.
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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 Valley Girls by Sarah Nicole Lemon.