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 Automated Books, publisher of Divining Another Dream and creator of Google Play App Multiplicity.
Nine-year-old Laiza Wendel can’t remember anything because her memory consists only of events in her future. But for her, the future suddenly begins to look… short. She believes it means she will die soon, but she can’t see how. Her teacher and friends want to help her overcome her new and unusual fear of getting hurt, but Laiza knows that they can’t help unless she shares the secret about how she sees. Will she be able to determine what’s wrong before her world falls apart?
Libraries & Librarians
- American Institute of Architects & ALA recognize achievement in library design with the Library Building Awards. (Field trip, anyone?)
- How do your patrons keep track of books they’ve already read? One librarian solves the mystery…
- The Fantastic Library in Wetzlar, Germany uses science fiction to help companies predict the economic and technological future.
Book Adaptations in the News
- The Cormoran Strike TV series comes to Cinemax this summer!
- Check out the first full length trailer for HBO’s Fahrenheit 451!
- HBO has also ordered a docuseries based on Michelle McNamara’s best-selling true crime book, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas is coming to the big screen.
- AMC orders a 10 episode miniseries of Joe Hill’s NOS4A2
- Do you love movies about outrageously huge sharks? Steve Alten’s bestseller, Meg, is being made into a movie. Yes, there is a trailer.
Books in the News
- Tana French has a new standalone novel coming out October 9th!! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!
- JK Rowling (er…Robert Galbraith) has finished writing the latest Cormoran Strike novel, Lethal White. No update on a release date yet.
- Ann Leckie announces a new fantasy series. Check out the cover release for the first book, The Raven Tower.
- After revealing her bipolar diagnosis, Mariah Carey announces she his writing a memoir.
- The massively informative Our Bodies, Ourselves will no longer be published.
- Cassandra Clare’s latest (self-published) book, Son of the Dawn, was temporarily de-listed on Amazon because of suspected fraudulent behavior. (Specifically, Amazon did not believe that an author of Clare’s fame would willingly self-publish a book.)
Race and the RWA
Over the last few weeks, there has been a significant amount of discussion around the Romance Writers of America, the RITA Awards, and the lack of inclusivity for authors of color.
- Read the official statement from the RWA addressing the lack of Black representation in the list of RITA Awards nominees.
- Smart Bitches, Trashy Books responds to the RWA statement.
- Courtney Milan, Piper Hughley, and Barbara Ferrer share their thoughts and experiences about being being a romance author of color.
- A romance reader and reviewer talks about the purpose and structure of the RITA Awards.
By the Numbers
- Black-owned independent book stores are on the rise.
- Qatar National Library opens with 1 million books on the shelves.
Award News
- The 2018 Pulitzer Prize winners have been announced!
- Check out the Man Booker International Prize shortlist.
- On a similar note, the longlist for the 2018 Best Translated Book Awards has also been released.
- And if the thought of trying to keep up with so many amazing books during awards season fills you with dread and shame…you’re not alone.
All Things Comics
- Boom! Studios plans its first original Lumberjanes graphic novel. (Great news for all you hardcore lady types out there!)
- 10 NSFW comics you may not want to read at the circulation desk.
- 18 science fiction/fantasy graphic novels sans superheroes, for anyone who’s exhausted just thinking about the upcoming Avengers movie.
- 50 must-read middle grade graphic novels.
Audiophilia
- A short list of erotic audiobooks that you may want to save for solo car trips. *ahem*
- Audible.com has…a horse in the Kentucky Derby?
- 11 business audiobooks for managers and entrepreneurs.
Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists
- 6 culinary murder mysteries.
- YA books about divorce.
- How about a list of bilingual board books? (Yep, even your board book collection needs to be diverse.)
- Books about the women of Golden Age Hollywood musicals.
- 50 must-read plays by women.
- Books for fans of Greek and Roman mythology.
- Readalikes for Donna Tartt’s The Secret History.
- 34 page-turners for your summer reading TBR!
- Animal fiction for adult readers.
- 15 WoC poets for National Poetry Month (or any month, really).
Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous
- Mourning the loss of crime fiction author Philip Kerr and literary novelist Anita Shreve.
- These 1923 copyrighted works will enter the public domain in 2019.
- How do you predict a best-seller?
- New Harry Potter covers are being released for the 20th anniversary of the series’ US publication. You may not need to order them for your library’s collection, but they’d look mighty fine in your personal collection…
- Best home library furniture.
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 by May 20th.
- It All Falls Down by Sheena Kamal (July 3, 2018): Nora Watts, who was introduced in Kamal’s earlier book The Lost Ones, travels from the Canadian Pacific Northwest to Detroit in search of the truth about her dead father.
- Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir by Jean Guerrero (July 17, 2018): The haunting story of the author’s quest to understand her charismatic and self-destructive father, as he crosses from Mexico to California and battles with his internal demons.
- The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon (July 31, 2018): A young Korean-American woman at a prestigious American university is drawn into acts of domestic terrorism by a group with ties to North Korea.
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 Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer