Are you a library book? Because I’m checkin’ you out.
I couldn’t help it. Cheers to love this Valentine’s Day highlighting a handful of my favorite romances in every format and for different audiences.
Author Archives: Alicia Abdul
Love: The other things libraries offer
This isn’t what you’d expect from a title like that. I’m not going to literally list all of the other things libraries offer because it differs from community to community. Instead, I’m going to highlight one that I’m buzzing about that happened last night.
Open Mic Night.
For three years, I have helped shape three open mic nights per year in our new library space. Luckily, another teacher at the school who pitched the idea of these recurring events is a casual artist himself and the best emcee. Collaboratively, we organize one fall, one winter, and one spring open mic night that allows students in our high school to flex their creative muscles in front of a live audience.
The lights get dimmed. The chairs are intimately pushed toward the microphone. The hot chocolate and baked goods smell wafts in the air. And these teens show up and they perform.
Spoken word (recitation and original)
Songs (original and borrowed, solos and duets, rap, Broadway numbers, pop hits)
Musical instruments (keyboards, pianos, drum kits, guitars)
Artistic expression (song and dance and break dancing)
What other things do libraries offer? Places to see and be seen. To build confidence and skill by offering something as simple as a small stage with a microphone.
Love: Self discovery
Last week I recommended the entertaining first book in The Misfits series The Royal Conundrum written by Lisa Yee and illustrated by Dan Santat to a girl who didn’t really know what she was looking for. I told her that a fun adventure would await and if it sounded good, then dive in.
She returned today saying she wanted something else. I’m not even sure she cracked it open. As a mood reader myself, I assumed that the good time romp that The Royal Conundrum offered her last week when we talked wasn’t what she was looking for now. We chatted for a few minutes. I showed her a new display of books and talked about a few based on format and topic and told her to roam and see what stuck out.
Ten minutes later she came up to the desk with Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett that I had talked about from our display and the Manga Classic edition of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare that was in a wildly different location than the other. Both a decidedly different mood than the original. We chatted during checkout and she grabbed a few bookmarks content with her choices.
I want to celebrate her self discovery. Her agency in choosing what is right for her at the moment. It wasn’t an assignment. It wasn’t forced. She just wanted to read a good book and meandered through the library without me trailing behind. We need to give kids the space to make their decisions with confidence… or maybe even sheer randomness. Either way, I’m glad she feels at home in the library to return and borrow as often as she needs.
Love: Netgalley
Oh, Netgalley! So many pre-published books and not enough time to read them all in… but I try!
I try to be discerning about what I ask for. But it’s also hard when I am pre-approved by a publisher and it just says “Read it”.
I try to not download all the books. But I can’t help myself when they’re my favorite authors, buzzed about books, or sound so fabulous.
I try to read them one at a time in the order of the archive date. But when the mood strikes me, I might skip ahead.
And,
I always review the pre-published books I’ve been gifted to read. It is the obligation.
I always use the Netgalley app but now that they’ve added a read feature built into the website, I’m using that just as much.
I always share with others this gem of an additional resource. What’s not to love?
Love: Picture book biographies
How else can you learn about amazing human beings than with the perfect blend of fact and storytelling and illustration? Picture book biographies are where it’s at. I love learning about people I didn’t know about and others that I did know. Maybe it’s a musician, a children’s book publisher, or a computer. Either way. I’m glad they exist.
Love: Quirky books
I had mentioned in my Love: YMAs post a few of my favorite award winners and honorees including John the Skeleton. It’s a quirky book– in part because it’s a translation? Maybe. But also because it’s odd to write about a “retired” science classroom skeleton going to live with a set of grandparents. It got me thinking about how much I enjoy a quirky book– on my Goodreads shelf, they’re called “offbeat”. To me, it constitutes a book that is unlike anything written in topic, style, mood, tone, plot, or characterization. What might be quirky to me, might not be quirky to you, so I’ll let you decide after I highlight five.
- Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides remains in my top five books of all time. I recently reread it and realized just how much I adore the narration of the Lisbon girls’ demise in their house from the vantage point of neighborhood boys. This is in addition to the fact that all of the girls commit suicide by the end of the story and thus lending itself to the melancholy mood that is so direct in so few pages.
- Henry Hoke’s Open Throat is another vantage point that’s wholly puzzling– a mountain lion in the hills of Hollywood. Yup. Making scathing work of judging humankind.
- David Sedaris wrote and Ian Falconer illustrated Pretty Ugly, a picture book with the goofiest and sweetest twist at the end. The style, the character, the entire premise is quirky but oh so lovely by the time you close the book.
- Ian X. Cho’s Aisle Nine made it into the top five finalists for the Morris Award this year. I’ve never read anything with as much zest and disdain for life than Jasper and the alien creature that lives in his apartment with him while he works a dead end job as a supermarket that’s a portal from hell. I couldn’t help but make a puzzled face through most of it with a little Mona Lisa smile.
- Jackie Morse Kessler’s final book in her Riders of the Apocalypse series called Breath brought a unique approach to the series in which a contemporary teen embodied a horseman as a way to understand an issue they were faced with.
- Lauren Destefano’s Wither was the first in a Chemical Garden trilogy that I got in to. The premise was a medical dystopia with intense characters in an unflattering situation that was creepy and got creepier as the trilogy moved forward.
Love: Turning people on to the library & Libby
Growing up, I was a reader. My mom had bodice ripper paperbacks bought at garage sales. My dad has his magazines. My middle brother was decidedly not a reader and the youngest brother was a casual science fiction and fantasy reader. We were sporadic library visitors.
Fast forward to my retired parents: Mom attends a needlecrafters group at the library weekly and used to attend chair yoga. She participates in their winter or summer challenges and is plugged in to the activities of the library. My dad has a stack of books he reads, generally about history, natural disasters, and conspiracy theories. Both have a Libby account and now that my dad has a pair of headphones he likes, he’s listening to audiobooks like a fiend.
And talking to people while standing in line at the public library to add get themselves a New York Public Library card since we live in New York State to add to their already extensive collection of ebooks and audiobooks from our library system. I had overheard her talking to the library employee that she was over paying for ebooks and audiobooks like she was before and how amazing having a library card was.
Strangers or family, either way, what have you done to turn people on to the library and/or Libby? Have you done visited in a while? Is the app on your phone or tablet? What are you waiting for?
Love: Uninterrupted audiobook time
In recent weeks, I’ve been able to get uninterrupted audiobook time during projects at work (the day after Onyx Storm hit shelves and my months-long hold for the audiobook queued that morning) and activities at home that only require movement and not necessarily brainwork. It’s always a bonus complimenting the traditional audiobook times like daily dog-walking that includes the audiobook, driving to and from work, folding laundry or doing dishes.
I have at least two audiobooks on my Libby and endless holds waiting to come in. Plus, I have a favorites list on Hoopla to pull from. They’re stacked just like my physical TBR.
Having a stretch of uninterrupted time in addition to the daily opportunities is a treat especially if my loans have become unruly or the task seems daunting without the extra distraction of being able to have my audiobook on.
Here is my last, current, and next audiobook queued.
Love: Book announcements and cover reveals
My bookish Instagram is all about following authors, publishers, and book-related creators to keep track of the social side of the business. There’s nothing more fun than stumbling upon an author’s tease about an upcoming project or cover reveal as was the case two days ago from an author I follow.
There are only a few great surprises left in the world. This is one of them!
Love: Book covers
Love it or hate it, we’re a visual culture. And we do judge books by their covers! I can’t help but stare at evocative book covers. Do you have a favorite? Here are a few of mine:
Dunlap’s debut The Resurrectionist was a recent recommended read and I couldn’t have been more in love with the morbid cover.
When I’m doing readers advisory with my high schoolers, I lead with the breathtaking beauty of this cover of Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson (the recent winner of the Margaret A. Edwards award at the Youth Media Awards).
I spent too much time being eviscerated by Ashley Hope Perez’s Out of Darkness and telling everyone I knew to read it before I bought it so I could own it and stare at a cover that in it’s simplicity summarizes the complexity of human existence and sends shivers down my spine every time I think about Naomi.
Were my eyes playing tricks on me? I didn’t really see this cover until days after I finished it and was staring at it again. Genius connection to the story in Jason Reynolds’ Long Way Down.
Speaking of second takes– both Schwartz’s first book Anatomy: A Love Story and her second Immortality: A Love Story have that creative illusion that highlights the heart and mind of the duology’s intelligent and daring heroine Hazel.
Readers Be Advised 