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Funny, thoughtful, inspiring, and deeply personal essays about yoga, wellness, and life from author of Every Body Yoga, Jessamyn Stanley. Stanley explores her relationship to yoga, including why we practice, rather than how; wrestles with issues like cultural appropriation, materialism, and racism; and explores the ways we can all use yoga as a tool for self-love. Click through to download an egalley, now!
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. For those of you following along with the saga of my injured finger from Tuesday’s newsletter, I’m happy to report that it’s healing quite nicely and I no longer need to wear a bandage 24/7. The cut itself looks quite small, and there’s a part of me that wants to insist that no, really, I swear it was bleeding all over the place, I’m not just being a big baby for nothing!
Anyway, let’s library.
Libraries & Librarians
News Updates
ALA asks the Biden administration to include specific funding for libraries in the American Jobs Plan.
Tennessee state legislators have introduced a bill that would ban any books that “promote, normalize, support, or address lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, or transgender issues or lifestyles” from Tennesse schools. The bill passed out of committee last week, so if you live in Tennessee, now is a good time to contact your state representatives.
Georgia school librarians are alarmed by proposed legislation that seeks to remove them from decisions about which books students can (or can’t) read at school.
The most frequently banned books of 2020 include a lot more titles focused on racial inequality.
Cool Library Updates
Public programming with virtual murder mysteries.
“Whispering libraries” are coming to Brooklyn this summer.
Worth Reading
7 library changes that this librarian hopes will stick around after the pandemic.
Banned books in Florida prisons.
You don’t have to be cool to promote your library to teens!
Book Adaptations in the News
Tessa Thompson launches a production company and is set to executive produce adaptations of Who Fears Death and The Secret Lives of Church Ladies.
Bridgerton star Regé-Jean Page will not return for season two.
A To All the Boys spinoff series is in the works.
Ken Follett’s The Evening and the Morning is being developed as a TV series.
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen is also being developed as a TV series.
Sarah Michelle Gellar is starring in the upcoming Amazon series, Hot Pink, which is based on the book What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold.
Amanda Seyfriend has replaced Kate McKinnon to play Elizabeth Holmes in the Hulu series The Dropout.
Casting update for Station Eleven, The Good Nurse, and Matilda.
Vanity Fair has a piece about “The failure of American Gods and the trouble with Neil Gaiman,” in response to the news that American Gods has been canceled.
Books & Authors in the News
A Cincinnati firefighter wrote a children’s book to inspire and empower young girls.
The many faces of Ramona Quimby.
Numbers & Trends
A rare 1938 Superman comic book has sold for a record $3.5 million at auction.
Award News
The winners of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Literature Awards have been announced.
Deesha Philyaw wins the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for The Secret Lives of Church Ladies.
James McBride wins the inaugural Gotham Book Prize.
The British Science Fiction Association Award winners have been announced.
The winners of the Windham-Campbell Prize have been announced.
Here are the shortlists for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction and the 2020 Aurealis Awards.
Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous
NPR wants your mini poems to celebrate National Poetry Month!
On the Riot
Visiting the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore.
An English professor’s perspective on hating poetry.
Beginner mistakes to avoid during a 24-hour readathon.
A guide to Lord of the Rings special edition sets.
All right. Everyone’s fingers still attached? Good. Let’s keep it that way. Have a safe weekend, everyone!
—Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter.