You can now find us at our new home, as part of the fabulous blog suite at Booklist Online.

Here’s our new addy:  http://shelfrenewal.booklistonline.com/

and our new RSS feed:  http://shelfrenewal.booklistonline.com/feed/

See ya there!

In her nonfiction bestseller Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, Katherine Boo uses her journalistic talents to bring India’s poorest outposts to life. Readers driven to learn more about similar situations worldwide may enjoy:

• The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
• The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba
• Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof
• The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri
• The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
• Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

So we’re on the move again!

You can now find us at our new home, as part of the fabulous blog suite at Booklist Online.

Here’s our new addy:  http://shelfrenewal.booklistonline.com/

and our new RSS feed:  http://shelfrenewal.booklistonline.com/feed/

and even a shiny new take on the logo:

Won’t you come join us and keep the party going?

With Quiet: The Power of Introverts by Susan Cain enjoying its second month on the New York Times Bestseller list, I got to thinking about where some of literature’s most infamous inventions would land on a Myers-Briggs test.

• Leopold Bloom.Introvert.Did not mind his own company.
• Nick Carraway. Definite introvert tendencies. Small group of friends, but did seek them out and feel energized by social interaction.
• Howard Roark. Total Introvert. People? What other people?
• Tom Sawyer. Extrovert. Sawyer liked socializing. (A little too much, if you know what I mean.)
• Gregor Samsa. Introvert inclinations predate insect-related isolation.
• Clarissa Dalloway. Tricky. Someone should write a thesis on this. Still, I think she goes in the introvert column.

Hmmmm. Lots of “I”s on the list. Who are some of the canon’s more gregarious inhabitants?

Not to get all mushy, pushy, or sound like a Dr. Seuss book–but love comes in many shapes and sizes. And one of the best reflections I’ve ever read is Patti Smith’s Just Kids. It doesn’t matter what two bodies look like or want to do to each other if the souls are determined to connect. You don’t have to call it romantic, platonic, or iconic. It’s just love.

Well played, Honda Motor Corp. I may not be upgrading my CRV anytime soon, but thanks to your Ferris Bueller’s Day Off commercial I have been reuinited with a soundtrack from my youth. Now, what ode to the 80s to read first?

• Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson
• The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
• Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey into Rural North Dakota by Chuck Klosterman
• The Washington Story by Adam Langer
• Talking to Girls about Duran Duran: One Young Man’s Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut by Rob Sheffield
• Back to our Future: How the 1980s Explains the World we Live in Now–Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything by David Sirota
• The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe

Beth Fish reads, ya’ll. It’s her life, her love, her url: http://www.bethfishreads.com/. “Ms. Fish” is a book lover and freelance book editor and book reviewer. Her blog features book reviews, author guest posts, and other bookish content (with a soft spot for Pennsylvania authors.) One unique feature is her Imprint Awareness Project, currently spotlighting Harper Perennial, Pamela Dorman, Amy Einhorn, and Algonquin.

Back in October I participated on a panel on weeding (one of my FAVORITE library topics!) with the fabulous ladies from AwfulLibraryBooks.net.

Ruth over at Artifact Collectors has posted a great interview with Holly Hibner of ALB, and there is some useful information about the weeding process and collection development in general.  Take a look at it!

 
As a side note, I am absolutely dying over this recent book posted on ALB.  Really??  The most shocking thing is the copyright date of 1991. Ai yi yi.  I’ve seen some pretty awful books myself in my day…this one ranks pretty high.

Sorry for the dearth of posts this month, the holiday season meant we couldn’t keep up with our reading.
Never fear, we’ll be back in the New Year with A VERY EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT. Stay tuned!

Penguin eBook titles for lending to Kindle restored

From OverDrive:

‘Get for Kindle’ for all Penguin eBooks in your catalog has been restored as of this morning. Penguin titles are available for check out by Kindle users and the Kindle format will be available for patrons who are currently on a waiting list for a Penguin title. Upcoming releases remain unavailable.

We apologize for the inconvenience this caused for your library and patrons. At this time, no further information is available. We hope to share more details in the near future.