ARCs from ALA

Last week I attended and survived my first ALA (American Library Association) conference, which conveniently took place in San Francisco.  While I’m still digesting what I saw and did and learned, it was a pretty awesome experience.

But seriously, let’s talk about all of the free swag first.  You guys, you would not believe the giveaways.  I had no idea it would be like that.  I had been warned to not go too crazy in the exhibit hall, but I was expecting free pens and highlighters.  I was so, so wrong.  We’re talking massive amounts of free books wrong.  Major publishers like HarperCollins had giant booths, with stacks and stacks of advance reading copies (ARCs) to give away.  The smaller presses also had some giveaways, but of course not at the same level.

It was madness.  Luckily, there was also a post office in the exhibit hall.  After one hour, I had already filled up two tote bags and had to mail a box home!  And I just shipped a small box.  There were other people shipping multiple extra large boxes of books.

I got nearly 60 books, and believe it or not, I was being judicious in what I picked up.  I didn’t want to take something just because it was free it if it wasn’t going to be something I’d want to read.  I did take the opportunity to pick up books in different genres than I’d ordinarily read, though, like “cozy” mysteries.

Here’s the list of what I picked up:

Young Adult
1.    The Devil and Winnie Flynn by Mical Ostow and David Ostow
2.    If You’re Lucky by Yvonne Prinz
3.    The Night Parade by Kathryn Tanquary
4.    The Marvels by Brian Selznick
5.    How to Capture an Invisible Cat by Paul Tobin
6.    Curiosity House: the Shrunken Head by Lauren Oliver and H. C. Chester
7.    The Girl at the Center of the World by Austin Aslan
8.    Damage Done by Amanda Panitch
9.    It’s a Wonderful Death by Sarah J. Schmitt
10.    The Masked Truth by Kelley Armstrong
11.    Daughters unto Devils by Amy Lukavics
12.    Dead Investigation by Charlie Price
13.    Soundless by Richelle Mead
14.    Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
15.    The Forgetting by Nicole Maggi
16.    Madness so Discreet by Mindy McGinnis
17.    Illuminae by Amy Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
18.    Deceptions by Kelley Armstrong
19.    The Creeping by Alexandra Sirowy
20.    The Doldrums by Nicholas Gannon
21.    Unwind by Neal Shusterman
22.    UnWholly by Neal Shusterman
23.    UnSouled by Neal Shusterman
24.    These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

Adult
1.    Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
2.    Orphan Number Eight by Kim van Alkemade
3.    The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald
4.    The Survivor by Vince Flynn
5.    The Memory Painter by Gwendolyn Womack
6.    The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine
7.    The Winter Girl by Matt Marinovich
8.    Made to Kill by Adam Christopher
9.    Darkness the Color of Snow by Thomas Cobb
10.    The Paris Key by Julie Blackwell
11.    Checked Out by Elaine Viets
12.    Ripped from the Pages by Kate Carlisle
13.    Past Crimes: a Van Shaw novel by Glen Erik Hamilton
14.    Flame Out by M.P. Cooley
15.    The Curse of Crow Hollow by Billy Coffey
16.    A Poet of the Invisible World by Michael Golding
17.    The Keeper by David Baldacci
18.    The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro
19.    The Muralist by B.A. Shapiro
20.    A Murder of Magpies by Judith Flanders
21.    Somebody I Used to Know by David Bell
22.    The Silent Boy by Andrew Taylor
23.    The Night Sister by Jennifer McMahon
24.    Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans
25.    Spellcasting in Silk by Juliet Blackwell
26.    Dark Chocolate Demise by Jenn McKinlay
27.    Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter
28.    Mrs. Jeffries and the One Who Got Away by Emily Brightwell

Nonfiction
1.    The Borden Murders by Sarah Miller
2.    Henry Clay by Giles Unges
3.    Last Stand at Khe Sanh – Gregg Jones
4.    Somewhere There is a Sun – Michael Greenbaum
5.    Goldy’s Kitchen – Diane Mott Davidson

I definitely got my registration fee and other expenses back in free books. I’m very excited about books from Kelley Armstrong (I got to “meet” her), Richelle Mead, Celeste Ng, Brian Selznick, and B.A. Shapiro, but they all sound good and I’ll be working my way through them over the next several months.  I’ll share which ones I love! Other giveaways were lip balm, a little seed bomb from Oakland Public Library, lots of buttons, and a print of San Francisco from the Library of Congress.

 

National Bookmobile Day

It’s National Library Week!  And National Bookmobile Day!  National Library Week began in 1958 and is usually celebrated the second week of April.  How has the library helped you – public, school, or any other library?  I grew up as a library nerd.  I always did the summer reading challenges, and in junior high, my friends and I often went to the local branch library to study (okay, and to socialize).

In honor of National Bookmobile Day, I thought it would be fun to share some images of bookmobiles past and present – and traditional and untraditional.

The Biblioburro!  A Colombian man and his donkeys take books out to 15 impoverished villages.

1918 – The Hibbing, MN bookmobile.  The first walk-in bookmobile in the country.

1917 – Saint Paul, MN bookmobile

Camel “bookmobile “, Kenya.  The camel mobile library was initiated by the government to help improve literacy rates of poor, nomadic people.

Sandhill Regional Library System bookmobile, NC.  I thought it was cute they called it the condensed version.

Annapolis Valley Regional Valley bookmobile, Nova Scotia.

Bookboat (bokbaten), Norway.  A floating library that serves the west coast of the country, which still has many towns most accessible by boat.

1905-1910 – Washington County Free Library bookmobile, MD.  The first bookmobile in the country, service began in April 1905.

Image sources 1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 // 8

 

Carnegie Medal Awards shortlist announced

The American Library Association (ALA) just announced the six finalists for the 2014 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction.  The books were all published last year, and the winners will be announced at the ALA conference this June.

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction 2014 Finalists:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Americanah

Edwidge Danticat – Claire of the Sea Light

Donna Tartt – The Goldfinch

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction 2014 Finalists:

Nicholas A. Basbanes – On Paper: The Everything of Its Two-Thousand Year History

Sheri Fink – Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital

Doris Kearns Goodwin – The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism

For more information on each book, visit the ALA awards shortlist page.