Sponsored by How to Build a Heart by Maria Padian, new from Algonquin Young Readers
All sixteen-year-old Izzy Crawford wants is to feel like she belongs somewhere. Her father, a marine, died in Iraq six years ago, and Izzy’s family hasn’t stopped moving since. When Izzy’s mom settles them in Virginia, all of Izzy’s dreams start clicking into place, although she’s careful to keep her scholarship status hidden from her well-to-do classmates and new boyfriend. Best of all, Izzy’s family has been selected by Habitat for Humanity to move into a brand-new house. Izzy is this close to the community she’s been searching for, until all the secret pieces of her life begin to collide.
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. We’re almost to Memorial Day weekend. I hope everyone gets a very well-deserved physical, emotional, and mental break.
Libraries & Librarians
News Updates
- The Chicago Public Library calls staff back to work and plans for a full reopen as of June 1st, although mayor Lori Lightfoot says that no reopening date has been set.
- Fort Worth librarians are calling their older patrons to check and see how they’re holding up. While many are applauding this as a way for libraries to stay in contact with their patrons, it also raises a lot of questions about patron information and privacy.
- Library Journal looks at the massive library worker furloughs and layoffs in response to ongoing closure.
Cool Library Updates
- The Obamas read The Word Collector by Peter H. Reynolds for the Chicago Public Library’s “Live from the Library” series. Oprah and other celebrities will also read for the library.
- A look at how library book clubs have gone virtual during the pandemic.
- Library pen pal programs unite communities during quarantine.
- This North Carolina bookstore owner is giving away new books to keep Little Free Libraries in the community stocked.
Worth Reading
- Don’t leave workers out of the library narrative.
- Essential until we’re not: the disregard for library staff safety. (Full disclosure, I wrote this one.)
- How to move from teen-centered to teen-driven services.
- The ground floor of this Japanese home is a public library.
- Here’s something to brighten your day: a cat that wears elaborate costumes to promote his local library!
Book Adaptations in the News
- The Percy Jackson series is officially coming to Disney+.
- Ryan Gosling is already set to star in the upcoming adaptation of Andy Weir’s as-yet-untitled new novel.
- Netflix is planning an adaptation of S.A. Chakraborty’s Daevabad Trilogy.
- Ivy Pochoda’s new novel These Women sells rights for a series adaptation.
- Another Harlan Coben novel is coming to Netflix.
- HBO Max is adapting Throttle by Stephen King and Joe Hill.
- Great Expectations is being adapted by the creator of Peaky Blinders.
- AMC has acquired the rights to Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series and The Lives of the Mayfair Witches series.
- The graphic novel Sweet Tooth is being adapted as a live-action Netflix series, with Will Forte and James Brolin attached to the project.
- 10 book-to-screen adaptations that are perfectly suited to quarantine.
Books & Authors in the News
- Washington Post created a virtual literary event calendar.
- Indie bookstores across the country are planning digital celebrations for the new Hunger Games novel.
- French author and serial killer expert Stéphane Bourgoin admits that much of his nonfiction work was made up. (This story is bonkers.)
- Judy Mikovits, the disgraced doctor at the center of Plandemic, has a best-selling book on Amazon. I’m not linking to the book here, but I’m mentioning it because inevitably, we’re going to have patrons asking libraries to purchase a copy of her book, and we’ll have to grapple with whether patron access takes priority over providing access to accurate information.
- 6 queer authors on what it’s like to launch their books in a pandemic.
Numbers & Trends
- Not surprisingly, bookstore sales plunged 33.4% in March. However, print unit sales continue to rise by double digits, two months into the quarantine.
- Editors are apparently shying away from acquiring new dystopian fiction.
Award News
- There’s controversy stirring around Benjamin Moser’s Pulitzer Prize for Biography for his book Sontag: Her Life and Work, both in terms of the content and the author’s behavior towards women translators and biographers.
- The British Science Fiction Association Awards are announced via video.
Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous
- The Globe Theater faces permanent closure due to COVID 19.
- This Tampa Bay woman is making sure kids get to keep reading, thanks to her book bus.
- A Wisconsin retirement center put out a call for used books and got a flood of donations.
- This new app aims to connect people based on on their reading preferences and location.
- This Paris bookstore reveals the reading habits of its famous historical clientele, including Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein.
- You can download Zoom backgrounds from the Harry Potter Studio Tour at Leavesden Studios. Brb, currently wailing about how I wanna do the studio tour again.
On the Riot
- Back to borrowing: regaining a love for the library.
- The different types of book formats, explained.
- 6 ways to maximize your reading time during the pandemic.
Enjoy the long weekend, but please keep social distancing! Keep on keeping on, everyone.
—Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter.