Sponsored by The Gilded Girl by Alyssa Colman
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. So, what’s happened in the life of Katie this week? I finally replaced my ancient, cracked phone, my husband and I have officially caught up on Killing Eve, and we’ve started on a healthy smoothie kick, so our freezer is absolutely stuffed with frozen fruit, and our fridge is full of almond milk, yogurt, and spinach. Should be some tasty concoctions in our future though!
Let’s library.
Libraries & Librarians
News Updates
The newest board member of the Lafayette Parish Library Board of Control wants the library to remove “recreation, cultural enrichment” from its mission statement.
Midland (TX) libraries have removed their Pride displays after community complaints.
Cool Library Updates
The Iowa City Bike Library has received money from the city’s social justice and racial equity program, and plans to put the money towards a new guided bike tour of local Black-owned businesses and Black historical sites.
Well, now I’ve seen everything. The Rochester Public Library has a potato library.
Opossums at the Alexandria (LA) Zoo get their library cards!
Worth Reading
Academic library leaders are not confident in their organizations’ diversity strategies.
Book lovers are excited to head back to the library stacks as the pandemic eases.
Book Adaptations in the News
Ava DuVernay is adapting The Wings of Fire books by Tui Sutherland into a Netflix animated series.
Sarah Dessen’s Along for the Ride is being adapted for Netflix.
Did someone say Mindhunter Season 3???
Casting updates for Life After Life and The Lincoln Lawyer.
First teaser trailer for Nine Perfect Strangers.
Here’s a guide for the Shadow and Bone adaptation on Netflix.
Books & Authors in the News
Authors respond to the Texas school district book ban.
If you’ve seen the viral news story from the New York Post about Kamala Harris’ children’s book Superheroes Are Everywhere being distributed at migrant shelters and the subsequent uproar from conservatives, just know that it’s not true, and the journalist who wrote the original article has resigned after being “ordered to write” the story which she knew wasn’t true.
Simon & Schuster will die on the hill that is Mike Pence’s multimillion dollar book deal.
In-person author tours probably won’t be back for awhile.
Award News
Danielle Evans wins the Joyce Carol Oates Prize.
Chloé Zhao makes Oscars history as the first woman of color to win Best Director (Nomadland).
The shortlist for the International Booker Prize has been announced.
Louise Erdrich wins the Aspen Words Literary Prize for The Night Watchman.
Here are the finalists for the 2020 This is Horror awards.
Pop Cultured
LeVar Burton is guest-hosting Jeopardy!
Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous
Instagram, jacket design, and judging books by their covers.
On the Riot
The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh: free to the people.
Bowling for Books: A library program to get kids moving.
15 horror movies based on books.
A quick-and-easy 34-step strategy for making Booktube videos.
Why don’t we have more illustrated books for adults?
This reader’s most mundane post-pandemic bookish fantasy.
How to read when you have a baby.
How fiction showed this reader the reality of being a parent.
Books anchor me in an increasingly chaotic world.
Hope the weather’s nice for everyone this weekend! Go get some fresh air if you can, and I’ll see you on Tuesday!
—Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently listening to You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain by Phoebe Robinson.