Sponsored by Holiday House
An intimate portrait of a boy struggling to live up to his father’s legacy. | In her award-winning Finding Langston trilogy, Lesa Cline-Ransome masterfully recreates mid-twentieth century America through the eyes of three boys: Langston, Lymon, and, now, Clem. Clem can make anybody, even his older sisters, smile with his jokes. But when his family receives news that his father has died in the infamous Port Chicago disaster, everything begins to fall apart. Clem’s mother is forced to work long, tough hours as a maid for a wealthy white family. Soon Clem can barely recognize his home–and himself. Can he live up to his father’s legacy?
Welcome to Check Your Shelf, where the weeks are short but the days are long. (In other words, I’m working an extra long shift at the desk today…can you tell??)
Libraries & Librarians
News Updates
Here’s what you need to know about Florida’s critical race theory ban.
New York legislature passes a library ebook bill similar to the one recently passed in Maryland.
Harvey Fierstein donates $2.5 million for a theater lab at the New York Public Library.
Cool Library Updates
This Tales and Tails adoption program puts libraries in partnership with animal shelters. (Is there a better pairing than book clubs and cats??)
The Arizona State University has collaborated with the Center for Child Well-Being to create a book collection for children whose parents are incarcerated.
How libraries are supporting older adults with senior-specific wellness programming.
A Grand Prairie (TX) librarian found a way to fight loneliness and social isolation during the pandemic.
Worth Reading
Will libraries get the credit they deserve for stepping up during the pandemic?
Thoughts about the bigger implications of the OverDrive/Kanopy merger.
Book Adaptations in the News
Bryan Fuller will be adapting a remake of Stephen King’s novel Christine and I am HERE FOR IT!
HBO and Ronan Farrow are teaming up for a docuseries based on Catch and Kill.
Tiffany D. Jackson’s Let Me Hear a Rhyme will be adapted as a series for Peacock.
Brother by Ania Ahlborn is being adapted for film.
Joe Hill’s short story “Abraham’s Boys” will be adapted as a feature film.
Harry Melling and Christian Bale are starring in an adaptation of Louis Bayard’s historical mystery novel, The Pale Blue Eye, featuring a young Edgar Allan Poe as a detective.
Liam Neeson is starring in an adaptation of The Black Eyed Blonde, a Philip Marlowe novel written by Benjamin Black.
Here are the release dates for the upcoming Fear Street adaptations.
How authors have been given more agency with their adaptations.
10 Netflix book adaptations that totally missed the mark. (Do you agree?)
Books & Authors in the News
Oprah selects The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris as her next book club pick.
Social media backlash is making authors change lines in their already-published books.
Irish author Lucinda Riley, and children’s illustrator Robert M. Quackenbush have passed away.
Numbers & Trends
The most popular in-demand books in US libraries: January – March 2021.
Award News
The Pulitzer Prize winners have been announced!
The Bisexual Book Awards finalists and winners have been announced.
The Women’s Prize for Fiction ceremony has been postponed until September.
Pop Cultured
Robin from Stranger Things is getting a prequel podcast series and a YA novel.
Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous
Authors are upset over a recent Goodreads bug that has randomly removed ratings and reviews from the site.
Human hair, doll clothes, love letters, and other strange things found in old books.
On the Riot
It’s not enough to educate yourself as an ally. You also have to teach.
6 of the best romances featuring librarians in love.
How TV shows use books as props.
Reading less, living more: dispatches from a pandemic reading life.
Assigned reading that changed these readers’ lives.
The books we weren’t allowed to read as kids, and why.
An introduction to the Aarne-Thompson Index.
Stay cool, friends. I’ll see you next week.
—Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter.