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 Penguin Teen.
In this riveting, unflinching tale of sacrifice and hope, critically-acclaimed author Natalie C. Anderson delivers another tour-de-force that will leave readers at the edge of their seats.
When Abdi’s family is kidnapped, he’s forced to do the unthinkable: become a child soldier with the ruthless jihadi group Al Shabaab. 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
- Senate committee unanimously approves the Museum & Library Services Act.
- IMLS launches new grant opportunities for small libraries.
- Trans-rights advocates criticize the Vancouver Public Library for hosting a gender identity presentation from an author who has openly questioned trans identities.
- Harold Washington (Chicago) patron calls for a change to the way the library displays items on hold in order to better protect patron privacy.
- 8 tips for saving money on programming. Great suggestions particularly for small libraries!
- How libraries can help readers become writers.
- 2018 gift guide for librarians & book lovers.
Book Adaptations in the News
- Starz picks up Dublin Murders, based on Tana French’s Dublin Murder squad series!!
- Upcoming thriller As Long As We Both Shall Live by JoAnn Chaney will be adapted into a film, and if even half the hype is true, this is going to be one of THE thrillers of 2019.
- Netflix announces that it will be creating animated series based on several of Roald Dahl’s most beloved works.
- Eric Bana is starring as Aaron Falk in the adaptation of Jane Harper’s amazing mystery novel, The Dry.
- The CW is adapting Victoria Schwab’s middle grade novel, City of Ghosts, as a new drama series. The main character will also be aged up by about 10 years.
- HBO orders an adaptation of Stephen King’s recent novel The Outsider.
Books in the News
- In other Victoria/V.E. Schwab news, she has a standalone novel in the works called The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.
- Here’s your face-palm moment for the week: Martin Dorsey’s book, No. More. Plastic.: What You Can Do to Make a Difference, has been…shrink-wrapped in plastic by a US distributor. (For the record, the author was NOT responsible for this decision.)
- EW interviews Sandie Jones (author of The Other Woman) about her upcoming book, The First Mistake.
- Call Me By Your Name has a sequel coming out!
- Kate Atkinson has a new Jackson Brodie novel coming out in 2019.
Award News
- Mystery Writers of America withdraw the Linda Fairstein Grand Master award after significant pushback from its members.
- A Pushcart Prize-nominated poet has been accused of plagiarism by multiple poets.
- If you need a laugh (or you want to cringe), check out the Not Safe For Work nominees for the annual Bad Sex Award in fiction. I repeat, this is NSFW!
- The 2018 Goodreads Choice Awards have been announced.
All Things Comics
- It’s the first full-length trailer for Captain Marvel!
- 15 of the best fantasy manga.
- Book Riot’s best comics of 2018!
Audiophilia
- Poetry audiobooks.
- Nonfiction audiobooks to help with your New Years resolutions.
- Audiobooks for all kinds of personal, political, and in-flight turbulence.
- Audiobook reading resolutions for kids and parents.
- Check out this essay about a reader who listened to their first audiobook and it completely changed how they read.
Best Books of 2018
Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists
- Book Riot’s best queer books of 2018.
- 8 books for wine lovers.
- Sarah MacLean picks her top 5 romance novels of 2018.
- 12 Christmas romance novels for the season.
- The best Jewish children’s books of 2018.
- 8 nights of Jewish books to read and gift for Hanukkah.
- 50 must-read biographies.
- When all of your best-selling YA fantasy is checked out, here are some underrated diverse YA fantasy titles to suggest.
Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous
- Kuwaiti artist Momhammed Sharaf creates a graveyard for books to protest the government’s literature ban.
- Publisher’s Weekly Holiday Gift Guide.
- Here’s a great breakdown of the differences between memoirs and autobiographies, complete with reading suggestions for both!
- You’ve heard of “high fantasy,” but what about “low fantasy?” Here’s your guide to the subgenre.
- Independent publisher Polis Books announces a new imprint (Agora Books), which will be a diversity-focused crime imprint. Yes please!!
- Carina Press from Harlequin is launching a new line called Carina Adores, which will focus on LGBTQ+ contemporary romance titles.
- An elementary school in Buffalo, NY has created a vending machine for books that students can use by earning tokens. How cool is this?!
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.
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Thanks for hanging out and I’ll see you again next week!
–Katie McLain, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading Unmasked by the Marquess by Cat Sebastian.