Sponsored by Libertie by by Kaitlyn Greenidge
Coming of age as a freeborn Black girl in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn, Libertie Sampson knows that her mother, a practicing physician, has a vision for their future together: Libertie will go to medical school and work alongside her. But Libertie feels stifled by her mother’s choices and dreams of more. When a young man from Haiti proposes to Libertie and promises she will be his equal, she accepts, only to discover that she is still subordinate to him and all men. As she tries to parse what freedom actually means for a Black woman, Libertie struggles with where she might find it.
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. I feel like Sebastian in The Little Mermaid right now: “The human world…is a mess.”
Libraries & Librarians
News Updates
The insurrection in DC forced the Library of Congress to evacuate and the DC Public Library to close early. Meanwhile, ALA issues a tepid response to the insurrection that makes mention of property destruction and looting but somehow fails to mention white supremacy.
UNISON, the largest union in the UK, calls for UK libraries to stay completely closed to protect library workers.
Baltimore will pay almost $200,000 to female Enoch Pratt Free Library employees following a federal discrimination lawsuit.
The Indianapolis Public Library goes fine free.
The West Hollywood City Council approved a measure to rename the West Hollywood Library after the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
OverDrive reports a surge in digital library lending in 2020.
Amazon quietly shut down its Kindle Owners’ Lending Library feature, although they did report that a new feature will be taking its place.
Cool Library Updates
This traveling pop-up library exclusively offers books written by Black women.
Baltimore County Library is fundraising for a first-of-its-kind vehicle to bring free legal services to communities.
The NYPL just unrolled a Dial-a-Story service where you can call and hear a librarian read a children’s book in English, Spanish, or Mandarin.
How to take advantage of passive reader’s advisory strategies with your curbside services.
The unexpected joys of Little Free Libraries.
Worth Reading
Meet the Southern librarians fighting for racial justice and truth-telling.
A call to action for academic librarians.
Food, shelter, and the public library.
Where fantasy meets reality: the magic of libraries.
Book Adaptations in the News
Netflix is doing a second adaptation of The Lincoln Lawyer as a series.
Lashana Lynch is reported to play Miss Honey in the upcoming Matilda reboot.
Casting update for The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight.
Tiffany Haddish will star in an upcoming adaptation of Landscape With Invisible Hand by M.T. Anderson.
Clancy Brown will play the villain in the upcoming Dexter revival.
Casting update for the reboot of I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Film rights for Richard Powers’ upcoming novel Bewilderment have been picked up.
Trailer for the adaptation of Cherry by Nico Walker.
Books & Authors in the News
Best-selling author Eric Jerome Dickey has died at age 59.
A Virginia couple has filed to overturn a lower court’s decision not to remove The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo from a high school curriculum.
Powell’s Books closed early on Monday and Tuesday following protests regarding its announcement that it would still sell Andy Ngo’s upcoming book Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy online.
Harry Turtledove reported on Twitter that fellow scifi author David Weber is in the hospital with COVID.
These authors talked about what it was like to release a book during a pandemic.
Also, please stop comparing things to 1984.
Numbers & Trends
Not surprisingly, A Promised Land was the best-selling book of 2020. And if you’re curious, these were the 40 best-selling books of 2020, according to the New York Times Best Seller List.
Bridgerton broke Netflix records in December by bringing in 63 million viewers.
Award News
The 2020 Costa Book Awards have been announced.
Here’s the 2021 Canada Reads longlist.
Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous
If you need healing in the new year (and let’s be real – I think all of us do at this point), there’s a new Philadelphia-based hotline that offers free hopeful poetry from Philadelphia-connected poets to anyone who calls. Read more here on hope and support in the Philly book scene.
Good Housekeeping and Duchess Camilla Parker Bowles have both launched new book clubs.
MTV Books is getting a relaunch.
The Royal Mint released a commemorative £2 coin in honor of H.G. Wells, but fans have already spotted several errors in the design.
On the Riot
If you ever wanted to own a former community library, well, your time has come!
Little Free Libraries across all seven continents.
Unusual libraries from around the world.
A very brief history of reading.
Analyzing Tumblr’s year in review in books.
Help manage your 2021 TBR with these reading apps.
Bullet journal supplies for book lovers in 2021. Plus Rioter’s favorite 2021 planners.
Using neuroscience to explain reading slumps.
That’s it for me this week. Fingers crossed nothing monumental or history-making occurs over the weekend. Wishing you nothing but bountiful snuggles from your favorite furry companions.
—Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter.