In the Bookroom   

Library Journal’s sister company Publishers Weekly sparked a literary tempest two weeks ago with its now notorious “Top 10 Best Books of 2009” list, which did not feature any women writers. As the intern responsible for sending out book assignments to LJ reviewers, I was struck by the omission almost immediately—and so, it seems, were others. The list ignited a series of discussions concerning the state of women in the publishing industry. The Guardian lamented the overuse of the “chick-lit” label, and even the New York Times ...Read More

When you get to a certain age, something forces itself into your consciousness more often than you’d like: the untrustworthiness of memory. Think about the words that just won’t settle on your tongue, the task you had in mind when you left your office that you can’t recall until you retrace your steps back to your desk. It is heartbreakingly portrayed in Lisa Genova’s Still Alice, the story of a Harvard psychology professor who at age 50 is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Alice Howland can’t accept the doctor’s pronouncement. She won’t consider that her life as a respected educator, wife, and m...Read More

Last March I blogged about thriller author Joseph Finder's entry into the bold new world of Twitter. So far @joefinder (his Twitter handle) has built up a nice following of almost 6000 fans, a number that surely will increase with the August 18 release of his new thriller Vanished. Since he won't making many personal appearances to promote the book (primarily N...Read More

August 15 marks what would have been Julia Child's 97th birthday. And what better gift could there be than to have her first book, published almost 50 years ago and still in print, hit the national best-seller lists for the very first time in its history. Publisher Knopf reports that last weekend Child's 1961 culinary classic, Mastering the Art of French Cooking,  was #1 on both Amazon.com and B&N.com. It also debuted this week on the USAToday's list and will appear next week at #6 on Publisher Weekly's hardcover nonfiction...Read More

When I got a call for submissions for the zine Not Your Mother's Meatloaf on Barnard's zine mailing list, my first thought was not "I should write something!" (I can't draw) but "This would be a great zine for library collections!" It's a sex education comic book edited by Saiya Miller and Liza Bley addressing issues of sexual health and sexual experience from points of view beyond the hetero- and gender-normative. The first issue is available from Microcosm Publishing and ...Read More

At last May's Day of Dialog panel on monster lit and urban fantasy, Quirk Books editor Jason Rekulak coyly toyed with his eager audience about the followup to his phenomenally successful horror mashup Pri...Read More

 I’ve lost track of the number of American Library Association (ALA) conferences I’ve been to (not as many as some of my staff, but more than others), and I find my time spent in the LJ/SLJ exhibit booth to be both energizing and enervating. Chatting with librarians and publishers and vendors is fun; I always learn something. It can also be frustrating and bewildering. How do we satisfy everyone with so many varying needs? It is a challenge, but one we are constantly hoping to meet and overcome.
One wonderful thing I discovered on the show floor, however, made the frustration dissipate...Read More

LJ reviewer Tamela Chambers, Chicago Public Library, reports on her conference experiences: 

"Although this is not my first ALA conference, I always experience it as if it were. I never cease to be amazed at the outcome of months of planning and could sense from the buzz of the crowd at the registration desk that I shared this enthusiam with other registrants."

Sessions

"Walk the Fine Line Between Selection and Censorship"
...Read More