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).
“Check Your Shelf” is sponsored by Hanover Square Press and The Lady from the Black Lagoon by Mallory O’Meara.
The Lady from the Black Lagoon uncovers the life and work of Milicent Patrick – one of Disney’s first female animators and the only woman to create one of Hollywood’s classic movie monsters—the Creature from the Black Lagoon. For someone who should have been hailed as a pioneer in the genre there was little information about Milicent available. Patrick’s contribution had been claimed by a jealous male colleague, her career had been cut short and she soon after had disappeared from film history. The Lady from the Black Lagoon restores Patrick to her place in film history while calling out a Hollywood culture where little seems to have changed since.
Libraries & Librarians
- Friends of the Amesbury Public Library recently paid the library fines for 49 patrons to reinstate their borrowing privileges. And here’s why Friends of the Library are considered libraries’ secret weapon.
- On a related note, here’s why California libraries are getting rid of overdue fines.
- Official trailer for Emilio Estevez’s film The Public.
- Examining equity gaps in libraries.
- Amber Clark, the librarian who was murdered by a banned patron last year, has been named as a Library Journal Mover & Shaker.
- A school library in Western Australia has temporarily banned access to Harry Potter in an effort to encourage students to read other books and “also practice their responsible protesting skills and convince the library staff why Harry Potter should be put back onto the shelves.” Um……huh?
- The bill designed to increase library access in NYC jails faces opposition from the Correction Department.
- Iowa lawmakers modify a bill in discussion that would have eliminated the requirement to have a teacher librarian in each school district. That requirement has now been restored.
- Budget difficulties in Las Vegas schools mean fewer school librarians.
- Ditching the gender data for library card applications.
- The process of adding a book to the NYPL’s shelves, and why some books don’t make the cut.
- A rebuttal to the “annoyed patron” article in Publisher’s Weekly…this time, from an annoyed librarian.
- Tips for securing your first (or next) job in an academic library.
- Redwood City Public Library is raising bees on the roof and selling the honey! (Don’t tell Nic Cage.)
- Santa Monica Public Library is asking residents to submit local women of color to feature in a display for Women’s History Month, since women of color are underrepresented in historical archives.
- A patron from 1968 stole a copy of Life magazine from the Cuyahoga County Public Library with a photo of The Beatles on the cover, then returns it after 51 years along with an $100 check to cover the late fee.
- Zines in the library are making a resurgence.
Book Adaptations in the News
- We’re getting an adaptation of The Night Circus!
- 9 mysteries & thrillers that have upcoming adaptations.
- Mila Kunis picks up the TV rights to The Lost Night by Andrea Bartz, which was only published this week.
- The Babysitters Club is coming back as a 10-part TV show!!
- I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter is being adapted as a play – Chicago residents can see it at the Steppenwolf Theater.
- We’re getting a Misty Copeland biopic, based on her memoir Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina.
- British Netflix has an alternate ending to The Notebook, and people are confused.
- Trailer for Good Omens.
- One Hundred Years of Solitude is coming to Netflix.
Books & Authors in the News
- Skyhorse readies plans for a hoped-for release of the Mueller Report. And here’s another article about how publishers are preparing if the Mueller Report is made public.
- Nora Roberts has a follow-up to her blog post about #copypastecris.
- Reese Witherspoon picks Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid for her next book club title.
- We’re getting a sequel to the Obama/Biden buddy mystery, Hope Never Dies, called Hope Rides Again. CHECK OUT THE COVER.
- The 11-year-old boy who went viral with his mad crochet skills lands a book deal.
- 50 years after the release of The Andromeda Strain, we’re getting a sequel called The Andromeda Evolution, written by Daniel H. Wilson. I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS. Michael Crichton was the first “adult” author I read as a kid.
- YA author Kosoko Jackson withdraws his book A Place for Wolves after criticism that he used the Kosovo War to center a story around two non-Muslim Americans.
- Jonathan Van Ness of Queer Eye and “Can you BELIEVE?!” fame has a memoir coming out this fall!
- Sir Philip Pullman’s second book in the Book of Dust series will be released in October.
- Rachael Denhollander, the first person to publicly accuse Larry Nassar of sexual assault, is releasing a memoir & a children’s book.
- A posthumous Dr. Seuss book.
- Mini books by John Green may be the start of a new trend.
- Pete Townshend of the The Who writes a rock novel.
Upcoming Books in 2019
- New notable books for March from Amazon, AV Club, Barnes & Noble (Fiction, Mysteries, Thrillers, SciFi/Fantasy, Biographies/Memoirs, History/Current Events), Bustle, Chicago Review of Books, Chicago Tribune, Cosmo, CrimeReads, Entertainment Weekly, io9, Lambda Literary, LitHub, The Millions (Fiction/Nonfiction, and Poetry), New York Times, Time, Tor.com (SciFi), and Vulture.
- O Magazine gives us 30 LGBTQ+ books for 2019.
By the Numbers
Award News
- The Booker Prize and the International Booker Prize have a new financial backer.
- Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist has been announced.
- Shortlist for the YA Book Prize.
- UK Romantic Novel Award winners.
- The PEN/Faulkner Award finalists have been announced.
- The Nobel Foundation will award 2 literature prizes in 2019.
- Kate Taylor wins the RBC Taylor Prize for Nonfiction for Lands of Lost Borders.
Pop Cultured
- Trailers for The Twilight Zone and Game of Thrones Season 8.
All Things Comics
- Barnes & Noble: best graphic novels and manga of March 2019.
- Thrillist: Best comics & graphic novels of 2019 (so far).
Audiophilia
- The 2019 Audie Award winners have been announced!
- 25 scifi audiobooks to listen to in 2019.
Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists
- 10 LGBTQ+ characters in crime fiction.
- Must-read books for Women’s History Month, as chosen by women authors.
- Nonfiction books for fiction lovers.
- Read Harder suggestions for nonviolent true crime and a novel by a trans or nonbinary author.
- 50 must-read LGBTQ fiction titles.
- 18 dark romance novels.
- 8 books for learning to get angry.
- 10 books about best friends falling in love.
- 17 picture books for Women’s History Month.
- 15 children’s books about gender identity.
Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous
- School principal reads books on Facebook so that her students can have a bedtime story.
- After a family health scare forced Jennifer Powell to close her San Diego bookstore, employees at competing bookstores pitched in to keep the store open while she was gone.
- The future of indie crime fiction belongs to female authors of color.
- An interesting look at the gender divide between mysteries and thrillers.
- Strange things found inside books.
- Ponden Hall, the house thought to have inspired Wuthering Heights, is now for sale.
- One Book Rioter read a book a day for a month and another recounts her journey to reading 100 books in a year.
- 8 apps to keep your home libraries organized.
- On keeping reading records.
- Up for auction: an old notebook believed to contain poetry written by Bonnie & Clyde.
- How this reader’s library card made them less of a picky reader.
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, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape by Jenna Miscavige Hill.