STACKED

books

Links of Note, 5/18/13

|

I’m currently loving this series of “Things that remind me of” on this tumblr, and the image above is for the “Things that remind me of” for Malinda Lo’s Ash. Spend a little time checking out all of the awesome posts here — talk about a neat idea for visually thinking about books. I might have to try it.

This week’s edition of Links of Note is short — we’ve been collecting so many links for “30 Days of Awesome” and for the read and blog along to The Chocolate War. If you haven’t spent time on either of those, you should.

If there’s something I missed from the last couple of weeks worth knowing about, let me know.

  • At School Library Journal, there’s a nice post about YA books you might have overlooked in the last couple of years. Interesting to me is the book that just came out being listed, only because it just came out. How could it already be overlooked? Either way, it’s a good list.
  • Is it weird to include a post I helped write in the roundup? I’m going to anyway. Author Kathleen Peacock and I cowrote a piece about how piracy hurts libraries, authors, and readers. I talked specifically about how you can get books you want into your own library (and how piracy doesn’t help that happen). 
  • “Where are all of the funny YA books?” is a question I hate hearing. Sure, there’s not necessarily a YA humor section but there are plenty of funny YA books. Lawrence Public Library in Lawrence, Kansas even made this awesome flowchart to funny YA.
Pam, of Mother Reader, isn’t hosting this year’s annual 48 Hour Book Challenge, but it will be happening. Check out her post for all the details on the new hosts and how it’ll play out. I plan on participating — are you? 

Links of Note: May 4, 2013

|

Via Flavorwire, the caption for this image is the best part: a librarian helps a young hooligan.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I am so glad to say it finally feels like spring here in Wisconsin. We had snow even through last week, so a string of warm days — with sunshine — has been beyond welcome. But rather than write an essay about how glad I am to see spring, I’ll instead share some of the best and most interesting things from around the internet the last couple of weeks. As always, if there’s something I may have missed worth reading, leave a link for me to check out.

  • We talk a lot about YA covers here, but have you thought about what kids themselves think about cover trends or what covers might be saying about the books meant for them? The Bank Street Center for Children’s Lit posed this very question to 6th graders set loose on a bookstore chain. The results are fascinating. Of course, go back and read Part I and Part II of this discussion of covers and representation, too. 
  • I’ve blogged before about the differences between contemporary YA and historical YA fiction. Michael Cart delves into this very topic himself, too, and it’s well worth reading. Also, for anyone who has any interest in the development or history of YA needs to read Cart’s books because they are foundational. 
  • “And then she was pretty. The end.” I’m not sure I agree with everything in this post, but the conversation about beauty and appearance in YA fiction is well-worth reading and thinking about. 
  • I still don’t think it’s true that “new adult” is here to stay. I’m still firmly in the camp these are crossover titles. That’s all they need to be. 
  • What should we call girl pain? This is a really interesting discussion about Hollywood and the problems that many of the females who grew up with fame are now dealing with. I remember this article VIVIDLY and reading it in high school (it came out when I was a senior). And now seeing the careers and personal traumas these girls have had — it’s eye-opening. I like the wider angle of what do we do about this or call it brought up by the original poster. 

Links of Note: April 20, 2013

|

Becky Canovan, librarian at University of Dubuque, put out magnetic poetry as a passive program for her college students in the library. This awesome zombie poem is one of the resulting creations. 

This is a very short roundup this week — I think partially because it’s been quieter in the book world and partially because I’ve been working on a number of things that have limited some of my own time in blog/news reading. If you’ve seen something worthwhile in the last two weeks, I’d love to see it.

  • Over at the Quirk Books blog, there’s a nice piece about the way that YA fiction depicts tragedy. It hits on a lot of things I think about and believe in that YA fiction is a safe space for exploring these  topics and they are almost always authentic to the range of experiences teens have. 
  • I think it’s important not to stop talking about Steubenville or sexual assault, rape or awareness thereof. There’s a nice piece on Bookriot about how YA books — can help. Which leads me to wanting to post this picture, sent to me by librarian Danielle Fortin about a display she made in her library on the topic. I LOVE this: 
  • Brian Herzog does a post every week he calls the reference question of the week. The question from last week is one of my favorites I think because I would have never figured it out. Can you? Obviously, now I want to try this on everyone I know.
  • Malinda Lo has done another excellent, well-researched post on representation of LGBTQ teens, and this time, she’s looking at covers and their relationship depictions in light of David Levithan’s Two Boys Kissing. This is GREAT stuff.
  • Jen Hubert channeled a lot of thoughts I had about knowledge and experience earlier this week into a post she wrote for Library Lost & Found titled “Give it All Away.” I agree completely. 
  • It’s been a really rough week, and even though I don’t want to necessarily end on that note, I think it’s necessary because I have read a few outstanding pieces that I want to share. First and most important — this particular post resonated with me deeply because I’ve come to discover my approach to tragedy is this: it’s okay to look away. I think because we can access so much information so quickly, we feel like we MUST see it all or that we MUST share it all. But for me? I personally need to just walk away. I can’t process when bombarded with information. I prefer to go inward rather than outward. That said, two first-hand accounts of the Marathon bombing are worth reading because they convey a lot of what needs to be said and they say it well: Carrie Jones’s Boston Marathon and Tiffany Schmidt’s Boston Love. 

Links of Note, 4/6/13

|

via Sarah Andersen — see link below!

Even though it’s a shorter roundup than most, the last couple of weeks have been filled with many interesting book and reading (and life!) related posts, so I’m diving right into it.

  • I’m always impressed with teachers who come up with really neat, innovative ways to get their bigger messages out there, and Sarah Andersen’s literacy lockers initiative is brilliant. She got her kids to show off their reading habits on their lockers — you have to read this post and enjoy just how into it she got her students. This is so smart and so fun to see.

  • This is one of the most fascinating pieces I’ve read in a long time, all about the point of a paperback book. Here’s why they redesign things, as well as what some of those redesigns aim for. I love the bit from Jenna Blum — I only picked up her book in paperback because that cover appealed to me. If I had seen the hardcover, it never would have made me pick it up. 

  • Even though we’re no longer officially doing AudioSynced, I still plan on sharing interesting audiobook links that come my way. This piece written by a neighboring librarian and the person who I learned almost all I know about audiobooks from thanks to a workshop in 2009 (!!) is all about excellent summer audiobooks to listen to as a family. Check it out.
  • This isn’t really book or reading related, except that it is completely related to both for me: taming the feed. Do you ever feel like sometimes the social networks get overwhelming and you’re getting in and letting in too much noise? Here are some ideas for trimming back. 
  • Jennifer Rummel wrote a really thorough and thought-provoking post over at YALSA’s The Hub about women’s history — and she did it through YA books. Go see this.
  • Rather than talk about the Amazon purchase of Goodreads (I am not going to change anything until I have real reason to), I thought I’d instead dedicate this space to a post by author Stephanie Burgis who talks about what it’s like to be caught in the middle of the stalemate between Barnes and Noble and Simon & Schuster as an author. The long and short of it is: you won’t see many midlist/debut/non-significant titles at Barnes and Noble stores from S&S authors because of this dispute. But it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be asking them for these titles. It’s important to support those authors any way you can — ask in store for them, buy them online. Know that what you see on the shelves in a physical B&N is only a tiny fraction of what’s out there. 
  • I think it’s appropriate to end with an essay written by Roger Ebert a few years ago, simply called Books Furnish a Life. 

Links of Note: March 23, 2013

|

via postsecret

It’s time for the biweekly roundup of all things great and interesting on the internet! But first, if you missed earlier announcements, it’s true that we finally joined the ranks of Facebook — if you want to, go ahead and like us there. We’re going to try to share not only our posts over there but also things we read that we think are interesting and worth sharing (that don’t necessarily make it to the roundups here).

Now that that blatant self promotion is done, let’s dive in:

  • Starting with this piece because this is a topic that’s been on my mind a lot lately, if you haven’t noticed via previous link roundups: does it matter what books your library has? My short response to this is: yes, this, yes. 
  •  “Browsing is fundamentally an act of independence, of chasing your own idiosyncratic whims rather than clicking on Facebook links or the books recommended by some  greedy algorithm.” This is The New Yorker on the art of browsing. 
  • A couple of interesting pieces popped up about Twitter and the way that Twitter does or does not promote or sell books. First, there’s this perspective. Then there is this one. From a blogger and librarian perspective, when it comes to Twitter I can say that if I’m being told about a book from someone I don’t know (especially if it’s the author), I ignore it. If it’s repeatedly told to me, I actively avoid it. The only thing that really influences my purchasing and my interest in a book via Twitter is if it comes from a reputable source — and I am okay with authors who promote their own work and who share reviews they’ve gotten because I choose to follow authors who interest me in ways other than their own books. Because here’s the thing: sometimes I don’t read the books of the authors I follow, as it either doesn’t interest me or simply just…time. But it doesn’t mean I don’t find what they share about their work — and other things! — interesting enough alone.  
  • This is one of the best pieces I’ve read in a while — it’s lengthy but completely fascinating (I love good long form essays and long form journalism more broadly). What’s the story behind someone who is a ghost writer? Especially a ghost writer for a series like Sweet Valley High? 
  • I read the piece above at the same time I read this series from Fiona Paul on what it’s like to be a work-for-hire writer. Paul is the author of Venom and one of the authors who works for Paper Lantern Lit (that’s Lauren Oliver’s company). Part one here and part two here. 
  • A couple of older YA novels — dare I say classics of realistic fiction — have some news related to them. First, Rob Thomas’s Rats Saw God is getting a new look. I feel like this has been discussed quite thoroughly already (I feel like I was talking about this a year ago). The other news is that Robert Cormier’s novels, including The Chocolate War, are finally available as ebooks.
  • If you haven’t been reading Nova Ren Suma’s “Haunted at 17” series, go to it. It’s fantastic, and I think anyone who works with teenagers would not only love it in terms of reminding themselves about what is going on in the minds of 17 year olds, but I think this series would be so, so neat to share with your teens — so many of the writers they know and read had the same struggles they’re going through now. 
  • I’m rounding out this round up with a piece that I have read over and over and thought about and really like. In light of the Steubenville case, in light of all of the other stories of rape culture, in light of the stories about women’s rights, period, that have been a part of our world is this: I am not your wife, sister, or daughter. I am a person. I think it’s important to think about the way women are framed — rather than being a possession of someone else, they are themselves their own being. They can have roles as wife, as sister, as daughter, but they are now owned in those contexts.