Booklist's September 15 issue Spotlight is on Romance and Travel

A new issue of Booklist just dropped and it's a spotlight on Romance and Travel.

Like every issue of Booklist, the spotlight topics get the Top 10 treatment and there are articles as well. Each issue is a great way to catch up on what has been happening in that genre, topic, or format over the previous 12 months. 

You can use these lists for collection development, of course, but you can also use each month's spotlight as a display idea, especially when you use the backlist. Put up a display in all age areas using the cover of the magazine and just call it, "Spotlight on [Fill in the Blank]" and fill it up with titles. The lists and art are ready for you.

Then, make it interactive by asking people-- online, at service desks, at the display itself, and with a conversation starter bookmark in EVERY book on the hold shelf (click here for more on that) to share their favorite in this case Romance titles. Then you can extend the display by adding their suggestions as well. And let me tell you, your Romance readers will share. 

Side note: Romance readers are my favorite readers to help (yes more than Horror readers) because they not only want to talk about the books they love, they are so in-tune with their personal areas of appeal and can articulate it perfectly.

You can do this with any spotlight issue and it fits perfectly with Booklist's mission which is to help you help patrons discover a new read. Click here for a linked list of the September 15, 2024 spotlight contents.

Below is the information from the current spotlight with backlist access to the last few year's lists as well. Please note, the articles requires you log in, but if your library gets the print magazine, you have a login already. Click here for assistance setting it up.

• Top 10 Romance Fiction: 2024 [Adults]
• 2023, 2022, 2021
• Top 10 Romance Debuts: 2024 [Adults]
• 2023, 2022, 2021
• Top 10 Romance for Youth: 2024
• 2023, 2022, 2021
• Top 10 Romance Fiction on Audio
• 2023, 2021, (there doesn't appear to have been a audio list in 2022)
• Read-alikes: They Call It Puppy (and Kitty) Love
• Listen Up: Armchair Travel on Audio

There is a lot more in the  magazine and you can access it right now in digital edition. Click here for assistance setting it up.

Station Eleven is 10 Years Old: How I Can Help You Find Readalikes That Are Less Than 10 years Old and So Much More....

The other day, I saw that Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is 10 years old. In honor of that, Slate interviewed the author. It's a very good interview because St. John Mandel is asked about her thoughts on the book, the pandemic, the TV adaptation, and her life. 

You a read the Slate interview with Emily St. John Mandel here.

This is a book that is 10 years old, firmly in your backlist. but one that because of a real life pandemic happening after it was published AND the TV adaptation being only 3 years old, that is still a great suggestion option. Notably, while it is a "pandemic" story, it also has a hopeful ending. Don't get me wrong, the book is bleak at times, but humanity shines through throughout the story and hope beams its light into the final pages. 

Also, to be frank, it stands up to time (not every book does). 

But how do I know this beyond the anecdotal fact that I still think about it and suggest it to others all the time?

This is a question I asked myself, and the answer is not only here on the blog, but is honestly, the reason I post all of my reviews here-- to help you help readers. And I include myself in that "you." Even more than this though, I do this entire blog solely for the reason of providing you the best free resource out there for those of you who are working with leisure readers. And, because I have been doing it since August of 2007, I can help you make connections from the past into the present. 

Let me explain using Station Eleven as the prime example.

Here is my initial review of Station Eleven from the blog. It has my "three words" [disquieting, thought provoking, character centered] and readalikes. But those readalikes are of books that came out BEFORE Station Eleven, titles I could connect it to in that moment in 2014, so they are 10 years old or older. From that list I was reminded of a book I haven't thought about in a while:

If you liked the quiet look at survival in a world decimated by a horrible flu which also focuses on the intimate connections between people, try The Dog Stars by Peter Heller.

This is fine, but what about books that have come out in the 10 years since, titles that made me think back to Station Eleven. Thankfully, that information is easily accessible with a relevancy ranked search here on the blog (not a newest first results list).  Here is a link to every time I have mentioned Station Eleven with that 2014 review coming up first.

That link provides you with MANY readalikes for Station Eleven, for books that are also awesome backlist recommendations. This is because I have continued to recommend this book as a readalike for others. That means if you search any title here on the blog, you will find similar results. Plus, I don't just say a title is a readalike, I tell you why, information that helps you to match it with the correct reader.

But doing this exercise today has made me realize that I have also made a few mistakes as well. I am finding that for books I reviewed only on Goodreads, the titles get cataloged here in a search but the readalikes do not. Take one of my favorite readalikes for Station Eleven, Severance by Ling Ma as an example. The title is searchable here on the blog and a link to the review on Goodreads is provided. However, it is not until you click through to that full review that you would find out that Station Eleven is my top readalike option.  That information is not discoverable with a search here in the blog. I use Severance in my RA For All signature, introductory training so I always remember the connection between these two titles, but it is lost to a search here on the blog. 

This makes me upset, but it makes sense. I am running this RA database alone and while I work very hard to cross-post, tag, and make as much information discoverable as possible, I am not perfect. I have no one to double check my work and my professional cataloging background and training is minimal. 

Now that I know this, I will work harder in the future to make my readalikes discoverable. I have already identified one thing I can do to improve it-- the 32 books a year I review for LJ are only listed here on the blog with their 3 words. Starting with the October 2024 issue, I will include readalikes in that post with the links to my full draft reviews on Goodreads. This will allow these readalikes to be discovered more easily and for chains of backlist titles as a great suggestion to continue in a more seamless fashion. Eventually, I will also go back and fix the backlist of those columns.

I am thinking this will lead to a 2025 goal of strengthening this blog as a resource and possibly giving the entire thing an upgrade. But that will take time and money. And while this blog is the public face of the paid work I do, I do not generate income directly from publishing it. Tangentially, yes, because it connects me to library workers who hire me to train their staff, but not directly. 

What did we learn today? Well this blog is a resource and like all good resources, you need to use the search function to find the most information. Don't rely on reading it everyday and remembering. Yes, I help with tags and by trying to highlight the best information in my side bar lists or by repeating important or relevant post. But, I also need to evaluate some of the changes I have made in the last few years, changes that may have made my life easier, but your job harder.

I am truly saddened to find that I may have inadvertently made my access to reviews less helpful as a RA tool. I prioritized sharing the key appeal factors in my three words, but forgot about the importance of sharing readalikes as necessary for discovery through a basic search. Honestly, that is bad librarianship, something I chastise others for, so I will get on it and do better going forward.

We also learned that Station Eleven is still a great read 10 years on. Why not put up a small display that rotates with the title-- Backlist Gems. Pick books at least 5 years old and more. Keep this display up always, constantly replacing titles as they check out (because they will) but slap a note on each book that that tells people how many years ago it came out. It can just be a post-it note, or make branded bookmarks that have titles that stick out from top of the book such as-- "Backlist Gem: 6 years ago" to just have the year-- 6 years ago. Something that clearly calls out that it is from your stacks and you still think about it as a good read.

This should be a small face out display of great reads, in a high traffic area. 6 books or less. You have an entire collection of titles that fit this bill. They can be in any genre; in fact, I would argue that this display is stronger when you have titles all from different genres. It broadcasts that you have a wide breadth of titles available AND it reminds people that the backlist is a strong reading option for them today. The new shiny books are fun, but allowing your patrons to discover a book that they might have missed otherwise-- that is where we show our worth.

It is Imperative That We Do Better At Communicating E-Book Pricing to Our Patrons

We are terrible at communicating what we do to the public. Yes some of it is because it is difficult to explain a lot of what we do. Even after 23.5 years on my local library board, my husband is still confused by some of the rules we have to follow because we are funded by tax dollars. But some of it is because we just go about our business quietly, and as long as no one ruffles our feathers, we stay quiet. 

Earlier this month, I wrote about how my library is using September-- National Library Card Sign-Up Month as a chance to share what the library is doing and its value to our citizens. We are focusing on what you get for your prepaid library card and not on tallying how many new cards we get. We have shifted our focus and we have already seen great results (such as a local brewery giving us $1 per glass of a special beer they made for us all month long). Our Executive Director has already given two very public speeches about our library, our values, and what we offer our community (such as our mission statement and strategic plan which you can see here).

Back to our HUGE problem of being bad at proactively communication what we do and why to the public-- who pay for our services. This has served us poorly in a variety of ways. For example, every time a dumpster of weeded library books show up on the internet, people freak out. And then we have a PR disaster as we have to go back and explain that collections are always added to and deleted from. And also remind people that some books need to be "retired," and no, they aren't good enough for "poor people."

Of course, the entire rise of paid political agitators actively trying to remove books from libraries has been exacerbated by us thinking if we ignored the obvious illegality of their argument that the "problem" would go away.

However, today I want to talk about another issue we have been too passive and silent on for too long and now it is out of hand-- ebook pricing and how we NEED the public's help in our fight to get fairer pricing and user models.

Let me back up for some context. I am constantly correcting people-- educated people, library users, readers-- who think that when we buy a book for the library we get it in all formats for one price. They assume we pay slightly more than them, but they think for that price we get all those copies they see in our collections.

Sigh. 

These are people who support the library and use our collections. They love getting their books for a prepaid value. They want more access to books and they would be appalled if they knew what was actually happening. They have no ideas that 1, we pay for every copy of the same book in every format and 2, that we are gouged on e-book and e-audio pricing AND that we don't even own them at those prices.

As a member of the Illinois Library Association Executive Board, I have been a part of an organized effort across a variety of states to use existing contract and consumer protection laws in each state to force publishers to be more fair in the money they charge us for e-books and e-audio. The key language here is coordinated effort. Publishers are fighting hard against these laws in every state, but we are all using similar language and avoiding FEDERAL law (because that infringes on copyright and was already shot down). This state-by-state approach that is focused on consumer protection is receiving more support from legislators and making it harder for the publishers to argue against us. Legislators want to give their constituents the best deal for their tax dollars, not fight to have their money wasted.

Here is the language ILA is using as part of our legislative agenda not his issue:

Equitable Access to Electronic Literary Materials Act
Restrictions placed on libraries accessing digital content have posed a challenge in acquiring and providing access to eBooks, as publishers often impose restrictive licensing and contractual terms.  Most publishers and eBook aggregators force libraries to acquire eBooks with licensing terms that make it impossible to meet library standard access and preservation missions. ILA will propose legislation seeking to change this through a new state law based on consumer protection, contract law, and contract preemption to regulate library eBook contracts with publishers.

This is the communication we have use to legislators about this issue.

However,-- and now it is time to bring it back to the beginning here-- we need to also work on how we communicate this issue to our card holders. E-book and e-audio access is one of the biggest selling points as to why people should have a library cards. Our patrons love the easy access and the library of materials they have at their literal fingertips. We hear it form them all the time and see it in our statistics as well.

So how can we share this complex issue more easily? Well, to start, NPR ran this 3 minute story recently (audio and transcript access are both at the same link). From the intro to that story:

AILSA CHANG, HOST: 

For years, libraries have complained that e-books are too expensive. They follow a licensing model rather than a purchasing model, meaning that librarians have to keep paying for those e-books. Now legislators in a handful of states are trying to build momentum behind a new approach. In Seattle, KUOW's Clare McGrane explains.

Yes these three minutes are just a tip of the iceberg. But, it does introduce the issue to our patrons very well. Post the NPR piece and more resources on your website. Here is a link to all of my posts on the topic as well. Reach out to your state library association and have them share the language they are doing on this issue and their resources to educate others. 

Just start talking about it. because as I said here, I really want September to not be about tallying how many new library cards you get and instead be about how many conversations you have had with your community about what the library offers.  And how we use their money to serve them is a conversation starter. When they are being fleeced fort he things they want, when they know the truth, they will get mad and advocate right alongside us. Once that happens, our legators will take action.

Sign-Up Now For the Crash Course in Horror from NoveList and LibraryReads

Please see below for a FREE, live event to get you ready to serve your scariest readers brought to you by NoveList and LibraryReads. It is free as long as you sign-up and watch lives or within the limited time window offered after receiving the video. Otherwise it will become part of the Learn With NoveList Platform. Click here or use the links below, directly from the Novelist blog, to access the registration page.

Webinar: Crash Course in Horror

Article by Yaika Sabat. 

Whether you’re a horror genre aficionado or a curious newcomer, this free, live event will give you the knowledge to navigate the genre’s dark and thrilling landscape.

Horror readers seek out thrills and chills within the pages of their favorite books. And we're in a golden age for horror, with a bounty of options!  

There's a horror book for every reader. Whether your readers love a creature feature or real-life monsters, join NoveList and LibraryReads as we give you the latest and greatest the genre has to offer — from small-town horror to vampire menace. If you are scared of working with horror or just want to stay up to date, this webinar is for you. 

Join me and my co-worker Suzanne Temple, Senior Metadata Librarian at NoveList, as we cover:  

Popular subgenres and themes  

Authors you want to know  

How to help readers of horror 

Other helpful resources for this genre  

Click here to register

Some practical details   

We welcome you to stay for an additional 15-minute NoveList Plus training after the webinar. Learn search strategy tips and where to find genre-related information in NoveList so you can provide the best possible service to your readers. 

A free recording of the webinar will be made available for a limited time to all registrants. Afterward, a recording and bonus content will be available for a small fee on the Learn with NoveList platform. 

Meet the panelists 

Yaika Sabat (that's me!) is the Manager of Reader Services at NoveList, where I develop strategies for helping readers and train library staff in the art of recommending books. Before NoveList, I worked in public libraries, and no matter the role, my favorite part of work has always been discussing books. As a lifelong horror fan and member of the Horror Writers Association’s Library Advisory Council and Summer Scares Selection Committee, I work to encourage libraries to embrace the horror genre.  

Suzanne Temple has worked at NoveList for the past ten years, most of those as a Metadata Librarian for juvenile materials and graphic novels. She is a past member of the Odyssey Award committee and GNCRT's Best Graphic Novels for Children. Most months you can find her reviews for audiobooks and graphic novels in Booklist. As a lifelong lover of horror, Suzanne looks forward to sharing her passion with anyone who will listen. 

Moderator Rebecca Vnuk is the Executive Director of LibraryReads. She worked as a public librarian for a decade before becoming the first editor for Collection Management and Library Outreach at Booklist magazine. Rebecca is the author of three reference books on the topic of Women’s Fiction, as well as a best-selling book on weeding library collections. 

Register for Crash Course in Horror

EveryLibrary's Free Banned Book's Week Festival of Authors And I Am A Part of It!

Banned Books week is coming up on September 22 and EveryLibrary is doing a full week of author and publishing and library professional interviews. They have recruited me to help and I will be doing 3 authors interview panels.

You can go here to signup for free. From the landing page with and easy sign-up box and the schedule as its stands now:

Join us for over 25 panels with 45+ authors, publishing professionals, and experts on book bans and the First Amendment for "EveryLibrary Live! Banned Books Week 2024", September 22 - 27 online. This will be an extraordinary week of conversations about the joy of writing, the culture of reading, the challenges of censorship in schools and libraries, and the celebration of the freedom to read. Plan now to be a part of this new literary festival where everyone is encouraged to read freely. 

We have an exciting lineup of author conversations, panels, and learning events that you can attend online and at your convenience. We will be hosting live broadcasts every day during Banned Books Week 2024 on our Facebook Live or YouTube Live channels. Be a part of each event as it happens, or access the "instant archive" for on-demand viewing. Meet your favorite authors and take the time to learn, listen, and enjoy new ones. 

We start our festival of reading on Sunday, September 22 at 12n EDT and run through Friday, September 27 at 8pm EDT. All events are free to attend. Meet and listen to authors like Julia Quinn, Jason Reynolds, Malinda Lo, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Stephen Chbosky, Maia Kobabe, and Paula Poundstone as they share about writing and how libraries matter in their lives. Join the conversation about fighting censorship and supporting the First Amendment with noted experts and organizers like Dr. Emily Knox and Patrick "PC" Sweeney.

This reading festival is free and open to the public.

EveryLibrary Live! Banned Books Week 2024 is supported by the participation of great publishers like Penguin Random House, Simon and Schuster, Hachette, Rowman & Littlefield, Kensignton, Candlewick, and Seven Stories Press. Our partner organizations, Authors Against Book Bans (AABB), the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), and the We Are Stronger Than Censorship initiative, are powerful advocates for reading. Join your hosts Gigi Howard from the hit podcast Drinks in the Library, Lee Wind from IBPA, Becky Spratford from RA for All, author and ambassador Rex Ogle, and John Chrastka from EveryLibrary for dozens of engaging author conversations.

RSVP now to get the full festival schedule emailed to you, along with reminders every morning. New sessions are still being announced. Sign up now so you won't miss a thing!

While I think this event will be of interest to you, my readers, I also want to remind you that you can (and should) make this FREE event part of your library's Banned Books Week programming.

First, and most importantly, please notice that the authors here are all currently publishing. We are not talking about banning classics. These are books and authors whose work is challenged RIGHT NOW. These are people who are involved in the fight right to stop censorship today.

Please model this behavior during your Banned Books Week programming and promotion. This is not about the outrage of classic titles being banned. We are in a moment when contemporary stories where people who write authentically as a person of color or from their LGBTQIA+ perspective are facing challenges that are demanding that their existence be silenced. Yes it is that serious. Sure it sucks that people ban Huck Finn, but you should be outraged that simply having a queer character means there are loud voices calling it pornography. Showcase the books from the last 10 years that are actively being removed from libraries. Books that have won major awards. 

Second, you can set up a room in your library to show these interviews live throughout the week as well as passing it on to your patrons for them to watch on their own. This can be your Banned Books Week in person event. EveryLibrary is helping you by doing the work to organize it, but they are doing it to help all of you.

I was talking to EveryLibrary Executive Director John Chrastka about encouraging libraries to make watch parties for this weeklong, "accidental" book festival (his word in quotes). He agreed.

In fact, if you look at the schedule, they were thinking about just this as planning because there are live events starting as late as 8pm Pacific- meaning that all libraries, across the continental US have the chance to have evening programming all week long.

And yet, they are also all free and will be archived for use at anytime. So while this a Banned Books Week event, it can be an anytime of year event as well.

Please sign-up for yourself, advertise the event as YOUR Banned Books Week Programming. Make displays of the books by the authors scheduled to appear. They write in all age levels so that means you can do intergenerational displays as well, and I love these as I have made evident in these posts.

RA for All Off for Family Weekend

I am spending he weekend with my kid at college. Yes, they just went back 3 weeks ago and it is already Family Weekend. I just go where they tell me.

I'll be back Monday with an exciting announcement. If you cannot wait go here for a preview. 

Using Awards Lists As A RA Tool: Anthony Awards Edition

This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.  

I forgot to post the nominees for the 2024 Anthony Awards when they were released, but over the weekend the winners were announced so I am righting that wrong here today.

The Anthony Awards are given at each annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention with the winners selected by attendees. The award is named for the late Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White), well-known writer and critic from the San Francisco Chronicle and New York Times, who helped found the Mystery Writers of America.

Now, this info leads to a few other questions. What is Bouchercon for one? The answer to that common question is found on their FAQ page: 

The Bouchercon [bough’•chur•con] World Mystery Convention is a nonprofit organization which holds an annual convention in honor of Anthony Boucher, the distinguished mystery fiction critic, editor, and author.

​

Every year, readers, writers, publishers, editors, agents, booksellers, and other lovers of crime fiction gather for a four-day weekend of education, entertainment, and fun.

How this award works is, after the nominees are listed in the spring, votes are gathered as that year's convention is going on. The Anthony Awards committee (who are separate from that year's convention planners) will take votes in each category, tally them, and announce the winners during the event. It makes me tired thinking about it, but it also makes for a 100% fan selected award.

Because this award is reader driven, I often have had better luck suggesting these titles to readers at the library than with other crime focused awards. And this is exactly why I am explaining how this award is chosen and not just posting the list. How an award is picked matters in terms of who we could best suggest those titles to.  

As you can see, there is an overall website for Bouchercon in general, since it rotates location each year, there is a specific page for each year as well. This year it was in Nashville and on this page they have a list of every nominee. 

You can also visit the Anthony Award's permanent page on the Bouchercon site or, my favorite place to see all the current and past nominees at Stop You're Killing Me here. Please use that link to access the backlist of winners and nominees, especially from the past 5 years, to make a great sure bet, crime fiction display.

Here is the full list on Nominees from Stop You're Killing Me with stars in front of the winners as they were announced 8/31/24. Please note, I kept the Stop You're Killing me links to reviews where they had them to make it easier for you to get these books into readers hands.

[Eds note: The Short story category would not layout properly. Use the link to see it better]

Best Mystery Novel
*	All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby [review]
°	Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper [review]
°	Time’s Undoing by Cheryl A. Head [review]
°	Face of Greed by James L’Etoile
°	The Last Devil To Die by Richard Osman [review]

Best First Mystery
*	Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon [review]
°	The Peacock and the Sparrow by I.S. Berry [review]
°	Play the Fool by Lina Chern [review]
°	Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy [review]
°	City Under One Roof by Iris Yamashita [review]

Best Paperback Original
*	Hide by Tracy Clark [review]
°	No Home for Killers by E.A. Aymar
°	Because the Night by James D.F. Hannah
°	The Taken Ones by Jess Lourey
°	Magic City Blues by Bobby Matthews
°	Lowdown Road by Scott Von Doviak

Best Short Story
*	“Ticket to Ride” by Dru Ann Love and Kristopher Zgorski from Happiness Is a Warm Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of The Beatles
°	“Real Courage” by Barb Goffman Black Cat Mystery Magazine, October 2023
	“Knock” by James D.F. Hannah  Playing Games
°	“Green and California Bound” by Curtis Ippolito Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September/October 2023
°	“Tell Me No Lies” by Holly West Shotgun Honey Presents: Thicker Than Water

Best Juvenile/Young Adult
*	Enola Holmes and the Mark of the Mongoose by Nancy Springer
°	Finney and the Secret Tunnel by Jamie Lane Barber
°	Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity by Elizabeth C. Bunce
°	The Sasquatch of Hawthorne Elementary by K.B. Jackson
°	The Mystery of the Radcliffe Riddle by Taryn Sounders

Best Critical or Nonfiction Work
*	A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan
°	Finders: Justice, Faith and Identity in Irish Crime Fiction by Anjili Babbar
°	Spillane: King of Pulp Fiction by Max Allan Collins and James L. Traylor
°	A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Mark Dawidziak
°	Fallen Angel: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Robert Morgan
°	Agatha Christie, She Watched: One Woman's Plot to Watch 201 Christie Adaptations Without Murdering the Director, Screenwriter, Cast, or Her Husband by Teresa Peschel
°	Love Me Fierce in Danger: The Life of James Ellroy by Steven Powell

Best Anthology or Collection
*	Killin’ Time in San Diego: Bouchercon Anthology 2023 edited by Holly West
°	School of Hard Knox edited by Donna Andrews, Greg Herren, and Art Taylor
°	Here in the Dark: Stories by Meagan Lucas
°	Happiness Is a Warm Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of The Beatles edited by Josh Pachter
°	The Adventure of the Castle Thief and Other Expeditions and Indiscretions by Art Taylor

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month And We Need to Leverage It to Spread the Good Library News

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month and it is THE BEST time to communicate the worth and importance of your library to your community-- directly. 

ALA has graphics and ideas on how you can spread the positive message about your library but today, I want to share what my library is doing because while the ALA information is helpful, it is only a general and it can be overwhelming if you don't know where to begin.

To that end, I want to use today's post to to model the behavior I want to see and help you by offering a real world example.  Here is the link where my library (I am on the Board) is communicating to the community exactly are doing for Library Card Sign-Up Month.

The first thing you should notice is that we are not only using this month to incentivize new library card sign-ups, but we also are rewarding those that have a card already as well. This is the first mistake libraries make during National Library Card Sign-Up Month. They only worry about the "Sign-Up" part. Rather, we need to think about it as a month to share how awesome having a library card is.

Which leads to the second thing we are doing. Our Executive Director and I worked to meet with Village officials (me) to write up a Proclamation (her) and encourage them to share it as part of their first September Board Meeting (both of us). It was not hard to convince everyone to get on board but it does take time and leg work. We had to start discussing the idea via email in May and then I had an in person meeting with an elected village trustee in July. Our Executive Director sent a draft proclamation-- which I have included below-- for them to approve. And by mid-August, we had it set for the 9/9 agenda.

One of the nice things about this Proclamation event is that the Village told us to "use it as a commercial" for the Library. They want us to pack the room and encouraged people to get up for public comment to say great things about the library.

That is what Library Card Sign-Up Month should be-- a commercial about everything you can do with a library card. Yes it is called "Sign-Up" month but again, when we focus on the stats and the tallying of the number of new card holders, we lose track of the marketing opportunity we have here-- a chance to get ahead of those who want to tell our story for us and in a negative (untrue) light.

This is the biggest mistake we have made in the last 4 years as others have attacked us. We have not gotten out in front of the story. We are too busy playing defense and fighting off attacks. We need to communicate what we do and our worth to a free society much better. Library Card Sign-Up Month is a slam dunk for that. We have a National spotlight to communicate how great we are through our services. And because it is a long standing, recognized event-- since 1987-- people will listen.

So I am encouraging all of you to stop thinking about adding cardholders this month and instead use the media spotlight to highlight the good work of your library and its workers.

Below, is the draft version of what our Executive Director wrote up for the Proclamation. Please feel free to use the more generic parts of it in your promotional events. 

And if you are so inclined, you can watch me and my fellow library supporters and Board members here:

Proclamation Designating September as National Library Card Sign Up Month in the Village of La Grange:

• Village of La Grange Board of Trustees Meeting, September 9 at 7:30pm
  La Grange Village Hall Auditorium. Click here to find watch options. 

Proclamation Designating September as National Library Card Sign Up Month in the Village of La Grange

*Whereas* National Library Card Sign Up Month originated in 1987 as an initiative via then-United States Secretary of Education William Bennett and the American Library Association and has been celebrated annually since; and

*Whereas* the American Library Association and libraries nationwide remind people of all ages that signing up and actively using your library card is the first step to academic success and lifelong learning; and

*Whereas* a library card provides equitable access to reading materials, technology tools, and serves to strengthen community connections; and

*Whereas* a library card contributes to a strong local economy by providing access to the technology and training that are critical to the success of jobseekers, entrepreneurs, local businesses and students; and

*Whereas* libraries are constantly transforming and expanding their services and opportunities to meet the current needs of the communities they serve; and

*Whereas* a library card provides critical access to tools that encourage free thought, exploration and the pursuit of personal excellence; and

*Whereas* libraries uphold the right to access information and promote a free society that values choices in content and affirms the ALA Freedom to Read and View Statements; and

*Whereas* library workers create welcoming and inclusive spaces for people of all backgrounds and ages to explore diverse ideas, exercise, imagination and practice literacy in all forms; and

*Whereas* the La Grange Lending Library first shared books via the La Grange Women’s Club in 1896; and

*Whereas* in 1903, the La Grange Public Library was constructed with grant funds from Andrew Carnegie, establishing its presence that has persisted for 128 years; and

*Whereas* it is the mission of the La Grange Public Library to enrich our community by inspiring connections, providing access to meaningful resources and encourage curiosity in an inclusive and welcoming atmosphere; and

Now, therefore be it resolved that the Village of La Grange will designate September as National Library Card Sign Up Month in La Grange, Illinois, and publicly recognizes the service of library workers in our community and schools and across the nation.

What I'm Reading: Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram

Today I have a STAR review of a title that will 100% end up being on my personal BEST of the year lists-- for all genres. Yes, it is that good. And it is a novella that you can read in one sitting, although it is so intense and immersive that I did take 1 break to breathe.

STAR
Coup de Grâce

By Sofia Ajram

Oct. 2024. 128p. Titan, $18.99 (9781803369624). 

First published September 1, 2024 (Booklist).

Ajram’s unforgettable novella lives up to its provocative title, delivering a gripping story that is as brutal as it is beautiful. Vicken is on the Montreal subway, making his way to the final stop where he plans to exit, walk to the St. Lawrence River, and end his life, except after exiting the train and going through the one-way turnstile, he is caught in an inescapable labyrinth of never ending gray corridors, moving in and out of rooms  and levels that vacillate between blandly colorless to existentially terrifying and visceral. Vicken’s engaging first person narration draws readers into the story immediately as he shares his struggles and fears, ratcheting up the unease at critical moments by using dark humor or turning to speak directly to the reader. As Vicken continues to wander, Ajram cleverly transforms what seems like a deceptively simple plot into a complex, moving and immersive contemplation of the very real horror of living with severe depression. A stellar option both for fans of liminal space Horror like Travelers Rest by Morris or The Hollow Places by Kingfisher as well as those who enjoy intense tales of an unreliable narrator exploring a terrifying and mysterious landscape such as Annihilation by VanderMeer or The Luminous Dead by Starling.

Three Words That Describe This Book: liminal space, horror of mental illness, brutal yet beautiful

Further Appeal: This book does so much with so few pages. It is a title you can literally feel. It presses down on you. Ajram is able to give readers the ability to see everything from above AND be part of it. This is a short book, but while you are reading it, the detail is remarkable. 

Also, and this is VERY important. This book was a STAR while reading it, but I was nervous that the ending would be a STAR. Not because I didn't trust Ajram to stick the landing, but because liminal space stories are hard to end well. You need a realistic but satisfying ending-- both in resolving the plot and the emotions. Without giving anything away, this book sticks the landing and then some. As we get close tot the ending, Vicken and Ajram (when you read it you will now what I mean using both the protagnist and author's names) use dark humor and a storytelling device to get us to that conclusion. Brilliant!

Here are a few more notes I made about the appeal of this book:

• For those who don't know the definition of Coup de Grâce is  a deathblow or death shot administered to end the suffering of one mortally wounded. Works perfectly here.

• Vicken is a strong narrator. He speaks directly to the reader and it is striking. Draws you in and asks you, the reader, to participate, even when it gets HARD.
• And it gets hard because this book is as much about what it feels like to live with illness-- specifically mental illness but physical illness is also included (not spoiling). How being sick is a liminal space.
• There is so much dark humor here. Which both lightens the the horror and somehow also intensifies it. As I say in my three words-- it is brutal yet also beautiful. This dichotomy is tangential to how humor is used as well
• Talk about every word mattering. This is a novella that had more atmosphere, sense of place, immersive terror etc... than some 500 page novels. I appreciated that so much as a reader.
• Yes you can read this in one sitting page-wise, but emotionally? I needed 1 break to put the book down to breathe some outside air. That's how realistic this reading experience is. I felt trapped in my house.
• A couple of notes for my editor about words I needed her to keep in the review but which are not spoilers. When you only have 200 words, you have to choose them carefully:
• The one-way turnstile: watching Vicken go through it is key, It only goes the one way. It makes getting stuck so much worse. He also encounters it again in his travels through the tunnels.
• Example of this phrase and its importance to the review: "moving in and out of rooms  and levels that vacillate between blandly colorless to existentially terrifying and visceral." There is a room with dead bodies reaching out with juicy descriptions and yet so many rooms that are just gray with nothing happening. And there is really no inbetween. Either it is bland or terrifying. 
• IMMERSIVE AND INTENSE (yes I used all CAPS in my notes)
• This is what I wrote down the second I finished it: Did any of this happen? Or is Vicken dead. Or is Vicken still at the station imagining this– stalling on killing himself? Also the ending– it is both complex and simple just like the book itself.
• A clever ending that perfectly underscores the entire tone of the book– it is bleak but also full of dark humor. It is brutal and beautiful. It is bland and visceral. It is literal and metaphorical (a novel that shows readers what severe depression actually feels like– brillant.)

Okay enough gushing-- just pre-order this book.

Readalikes: There are so many immersive and intense reads that consider liminal spaces/places where people are trapped with no way out. I do want to point out the claustrophobia and intensity of The Luminous Dead in particular because I don't think it would come up as a readalike in most traditional searches. I try very hard to include readalike options that are good matches for the feel of the book, not the plot or even the subgenres because I know my reviews are important to help library workers make connections between titles that they don't have time to read themselves. This is a great example. I know there are a lot of fans of the Starling title. Get this new novella and hadn't it out with confidence to those readers.

Look at all 4 readalikes options above but also here are more titles I would add to this list of titles similar to Coup de Grâce:

• This Wretched Valley by Jenny Kiefer
• House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
• The Ruins by Scott Smith
• The Grip of It by Jac Jemc
• Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
• Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca

I will have a giveaway of an ARC of this book next week as well. If you aren't entered in the #HorrorForLibraries weekly giveaway, enter now and you will be entered going forward. I have 2 winners a week planned for at least the next three weeks.