wrapped up in books

Even though February was a short month, a lot has been happening!

World Book Night

I found out I will be a World Book Night giver again! World Book Night is in its third year, and a group from my library has participated every year, and this year we’ll have the biggest group yet. Last year I handed out The Handmaid’s Tale in downtown bars and had many people buy me drinks. It was so much fun! This year I’ll be giving away copies of Code Name Verity!

ALA Annual, Awards, and #TumblrarianTalk

I registered to attend ALA Annual in Las Vegas this summer. I’ll be accepting a YALSA writing award for this post at The Hub about how we talk about ‘strong’ female characters.

I’ve going to be one of many tumblarians talking about Tumblr and libraries of a Conversation Starter panel at ALA annual, as long as it gets voted up (more on that in the future). I have a lot of fun on Tumblr, and it’s cool that I get paid to do it. (I made a library and literary set of Comic Sans Valentines, a list of “romance” novels, and shared the top ten circulating bands/musical artists of 2013, for example).

Burroughs, #RAL2014, and Valentines

Lawrence got a shout out on NPR’s Morning Edition in honor of William Burroughs 100th birthday. He called LFK home for the last decades of his life. While I was at the Read Across Lawrence Kickoff, Mister BS and I checked out the exhibit of his original art on display at the Lawrence Arts Center. Unfortunately we couldn’t make John Waters’ talk as part of the month long celebration of the Beat Generation author’s life.

We made string art Valentine’s at book club. Mister BS got a multi-colored one from me, and i made myself a broken heart one. It was a fun program, and extra cool because the wood we used came from a White Oak tree that had to be removed as part of the library expansion.

Snow Days, Sriracha Chips, Library School

I spent a lot of time catching up from two snow days. Unlike reference desk work, books still have to be ordered and such even if you’re closed. Same with circ — there are not less books to shelve because the library closes for a few days. Library school is a lot more work this semester, but I like my classes more. I haven’t had nearly as much time to read lately, but I picked out my backlist titles for March and the ARCs I want to get to, so hopefully I’ll have more reviews next month.

Reviews

Better off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg

How to Fake a Moon Landing: Exposing the Myths of Science Denial by Darryl Harrington

Someday this Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron

Blue is the Warmest Color by Julie Maroh

At the Library

Passive Program: The Race Card Project 

Passive Program: Awards for Acting Awesome

Readers’ Advisory

Divergent Faction Reading Lists

2014 New Releases: More LGBTQ YA Fiction

Top Ten Books that Will Make You Cry

Memoirs and Biographies for Women’s History Month for NoveList Readers’ Advisory News

Other Posts

I participated in a Book Blogger Love-a-thon, which was basically a weekend dedicated to discovering new blogs, catching up with favorites, and getting to know the book blogging community. I also started a new feature I’m definitely going to continue: Listening Lately, where I share music from my current playlist.

Don’t Miss

Diversity in YA broke down YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults list in terms of diversity.

Ever wonder why the hell I’m always talking about diversity, especially as it related to young adult literature? Check out Beth Revis’ post on the subject.

Kelly at Stacked wrote about talking to teens about tough subjects (like sex).

February was Teen Dating Violence Month, and I didn’t have time to write about it as I had intended. While I’ve volunteered answering the crisis hotline and serving as an advocate at the DV shelter of my local violence prevention organization, over the last few months I’ve become more involved with the SAFE program, which began as a teen dating violence prevention program, but now facilitates workshops for elementary and middle school students as well. Last year I wrote a bit about one of our presentations.

This year, Teen Librarian Toolbox is doing a series of chats and posts about sexual violence in young adult literature, so check out all of their excellent resources and thought provoking analysis.

Some day I will write a love letter to the Internet, and the way it has allowed LGBTQ teens to find community will be a central theme (there will be a section on cat memes, of course).

There was (what I thought was) an awesome piece in Slate about librarians, with portraits and quotes from a wide range of librarians. And a lot of people commented on it, but this post from Every Library “Small Steps Make It Happen” echoes my sentiments.

I loved this post on boys and body image in young adult literature, which is something I don’t see discussed often.

Book Riot asks “Is Hannah Horwitz a believable writer?” I think this is really interesting, especially in the context of MFA vs. NYC and essays like Emily Gould’s “How much my novel cost me.”

This month, I’ve got a big Spring Break program, tons of homework, but also am going to be working on a few special projects, like making some readers’ advisory graphics for adults, and a new blog series on social media for libraries, which will hopefully include a survey and interviews with other librarians who manage social media for their libraries. If anyone’s interested in contributing, let me know. 

What were you up to in February? What are you looking forward to in March?