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Killed in action, soldier Ray Garrison is brought back from the dead by Project Rising Spirit, a private military contractor trafficking in violence. Infused with cutting-edge nanotechnology, Bloodshot’s nanites make him a nearly unstoppable killing machine. His enhanced strength, speed, endurance, and healing make him the perfect weapon, and he serves his masters at PRS very well. But after defying his programming and escaping his captors, Bloodshot will fight to rediscover the secret of his true identity and expose the billion-dollar black-bag operation that created him once and for all.
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).
Today’s newsletter is brought to you by this persistent half-cold that just will not. go. away.
Libraries & Librarians
News Updates
- The Seattle Public Library is facing strong criticism for its decision to make space for a community event hosted by the Women’s Liberation Front, which has publicly espoused anti-trans viewpoints.
- Ex Libris acquires Innovative, although there are no anticipated changes to libraries who already use Innovative’s integrated library systems.
- Flint (MI) Public Library gets $16 million in grants for renovations.
- Britain has closed almost 800 libraries since 2010. Booooooo! Boooo I say!
- Staff at a Chinese public library burned a stack of books in front of the building that had been deemed “illegal” by the government.
- A man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon after attacking three people with a knife at the Placer County Library in Auburn, CA.
- The LocHal Public Library in Tilburg, the Netherlands is named the 2019 World Building of the Year!
Cool Library Updates
- The Public Library for Union County (PA) offers safe Sensory Nights for kids who experience sensory overstimulation.
- Boston Public Library considers adding apartments to four different library branches.
- The University of Virginia will begin a collaborative effort to preserve a physical card catalog containing 4 million cards.
- Does your library do stuffed animal sleepovers?
Worth Reading
- This professor argues that his library’s borrowing limit of 350 books isn’t high enough.
- Female authors dominate the Toronto Library’s most popular books of 2019.
- This is a really sweet letter from a student to their school librarians.
- 23 tweets that recapture the nostalgia of the Scholastic Book Fair.
Book Adaptations in the News
- Elle Fanning & Dakota Fanning are set to play sisters in the adaptation of Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale.
- David Tennant is playing Phineas Fogg in the upcoming adaptation of Around the World in 80 Days.
- Tom Jane and Courtney Lauren Penn are teaming up to adapt From a Buick 8 by Stephen King. I am SO EXCITED for this – From a Buick 8 is one of Stephen King’s best under-the-radar novels.
- Janet Evanovich just landed two TV series.
- Eloise sells rights for pretty much all of the adaptations.
- Trailer for The Outsider.
- 10 best literary adaptations of the decade.
Books & Authors in the News
- Barnes & Noble names The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy as its 2019 Book of the Year.
- Reese Witherspoon selects Conviction by Denise Mina for her December book club pick.
- Jay-Z sues an Australian company over an ABC picture book that used a parody of his lyrics on the back of the book.
- David Grossman’s book Someone to Run With has been banned in Russia. Children’s Rights Commissioner, Pavel Astakhov, claims that “distribution of this sort of literature with no age restriction increases the rates of teenage pregnancy, single motherhood, and sexually transmitted diseases.” Well alrighty then.
- Jimmy Kimmel wrote a kid’s book called The Serious Goose and is donating all of the proceeds to children’s hospitals, including the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, who performed life-saving heart surgeries on his young son.
Numbers & Trends
- Where the Crawdads Sing and Becoming are the top-selling fiction and nonfiction titles of 2019, according to Amazon. Anyone surprised?
- More than 80% of the books in New York City’s pre-K through 8th grade curriculums are written by white authors.
- The world’s largest Harry Potter book collection could sell for thousands of dollars.
- Autobiographical fiction at war: why “revenge novels” are taking off in Norway.
Award News
- Peter Englund, former permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, and the Kosovan government are boycotting the Nobel Prize ceremony in protest of Peter Handke’s political views.
- Lesley McDowell, one of five judges for Scotland’s Saltire Fiction Book of the Year Award, claims that her fellow judges had not read all of the books on the shortlist and selected a book by a male author rather than one of the three shortlisted books written by women.
- Goodreads Choice Award winners are announced.
- A look at the 2020 Golden Globe nominees, but as the Washington Post points out, no women were nominated for best director, screenplay, or motion picture.
- The winners of the Reading Women’s Award have been announced.
- YALSA released the shortlists for the Morris Award (YA debut titles) and the Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award.
Pop Cultured
- Trailers for No Time to Die, Mulan, and Wonder Woman: 1984.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine actor René Auberjonois dies at age 79.
- A guide to the new canon of Star Wars books and comics.
Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous
- The Edgar Allan Poe House & Museum becomes the first official Literary Landmark in the state of Maryland.
- A rare first edition copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was discovered in a school library.
- Merriam Webster’s word of the year: “they.”
On the Riot
- How to become a librarian.
- My library card, my constant friend.
- How to store your books properly & safely.
- How many books should you read at once?
Thanks for hanging! See everyone on Tuesday!
–Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently rereading In the Woods by Tana French.