The Picture Books I’ve Been Reading

You guys all know I’m a Youth Services Librarian, right? I mostly read YA and MG, but I also read a ton of picture books (through story time or just my own time) because I spend a lot of time recommending books to patrons. I adore picture books. Before I started working in the library, I never read them, but there’s something about the sweet messages, adorable illustrations, and short page length that is wonderfully satisfying and calming to read. SO here are a few picture books I’ve read recently:

The Wonderful Things You Will Be – Written and illustrated by Emily Winfield Martin (Find it on Goodreads)
Published August 25th, 2015 by Random House Books for Young Readers

I checked this one out because I adore the cover. The illustrations inside are just as gorgeous and fanciful. I’m not a mom (yet) but I can just imagine reading this one with my future child – what wonderful things will they be when they grow up? A book about all the amazing possibilities a child has. The Wonderful Things You Will Be is sweet, gentle, and lovely. And seriously, I could frame some of the illustrations. They’re gorgeous.

Rosie Revere, Engineer – Written by Andrea Beaty, illustrated by David Roberts
Published September 3rd, 2013 by Harry N. Abrams

Inspiring and fun. “The only true failure can come if you quit.” This book is about the importance of failing but continuing to go on, continuing to try, and I really love that message. It’s all about having confidence in yourself and what you want even in the face of ridicule and failure. It’s a quick, fun read, but definitely powerful. Plus, it’s got some GREAT illustrations.

Iggy Peck, Architect – Written by Andrea Beaty, illustrated by David Roberts
Published October 1st, 2007 by Harry N. Abrams

This one is written by the same team who wrote Rosie Revere, Engineer. After I read that one, I HAD to read this one too. Iggy Peck, Architect is a really cute story with some seriously cool illustrations. It’s not exactly one I would read in story time at the library as there are some parts where the text is rather long, but this one would be perfect for some one-on-one reading with the little builder in your life. A great story about not giving up and doing the things you love.

(Thanks so much to Emma at Miss Print for recommending the last two books to me!)

#ReadingMyLibrary Challenge – Wrap up!

Sadly, the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge is over. But I had a blast this month – saving so much money through my library, seeing what you guys were reading, doing the scavenger hunt. All of it was so much fun, and I hope you all enjoyed it too! I loved (almost) all of the books and comics I read this month, and I can’t believe how much money I saved! Let’s break it down, shall we? (prices listed are MSRP)

Beautiful You by Chuck Palahniuk – $25.95
Mustache Baby Meets His Match by Bridget Heos – $16.99
Compulsion by Martina Boone – $17.99
Superman: Earth One, Volume 1 – $19.99
Trees, Volume 1 – $14.99
Deadpool: the Complete Collection – $34.99
Deadpool & Cable: Ultimate Collection, Volume 1 – $39.99
Jackaby by William Ritter (audiobook) – $29.95
The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows (DNF) – $17.99
None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio – $17.99
The Great Fuzz Frenzy by Janet Stevens – $17.99
The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma – $17.95
The Skunk by Mac Barnett – $17.99
Power Down, Little Robot by Anna Staniszewski – $16.99
I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson (audiobook – still listening) – $29.99
The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury (still reading) – $17.99
Watchmen by Alan Moore (still reading) – $19.99

TOTAL SAVED: $375.71

THAT IS AWESOME! That is $375 I kept in my bank account this month, money I can use in the future on gas or…okay, more books. Whatever. But since I DNF’ed one of the books, I’m actually quite happy I didn’t spend money on that one or on Beautiful You, which I didn’t really like. I will say that I will eventually buy a copy of None of the Above because it was wonderful. Comics are SUPER expensive, so I’m glad I didn’t have to buy any of those either.

Favorite book read during the challenge: None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio; I am also LOVING I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson and I will probably buy it in physical format to reread it

Least favorite book read during the challenge: Obviously this one goes to The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows as I DNF’ed it

I’m so glad that Amy and I organized this challenge, because I’ve loved seeing how much you guys love and appreciate your libraries. I hope you all enjoyed this challenge.

Amy and I will be announcing the giveaway winners (hopefully) today on Twitter, so make sure you keep your eye out! It could be you. 🙂

#ReadingMyLibrary Challenge | Week Two Update

Week two of the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge was…not great. I’ve been under a lot of stress recently and I don’t know if it’s that or what I was reading, but I didn’t make much headway this week. As you might remember from last week’s update, I had started The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows. I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to DNF it. I read a little over a hundred pages, and I just felt like I had read it before, like it was similar to A LOT of other books I’ve read. So I took a break and picked up Compulsion by Martina Boone, which I really like, but it’s taking me SO long to read it. I also took a break from my Jackaby audiobook. Do you ever just have days (or weeks) where you really enjoy what you’re reading but you don’t really feel like reading? Does that even make sense?

BUT Thursday I raced through more than TWO HUNDRED PAGES in Compulsion and finished it up on Friday, so I think I’m doing better. Fingers crossed I’m not falling into a slump.

Each week during the Challenge, we’ve chosen a topic to discuss during our weekly update. This week’s topic is:

Books you would like to suggest to your library.

Well, I feel a little bit like a cheater because I usually get to order a lot of the books that I want to read each month. I do all of the YA ordering at my library (as well as suggesting several adult titles per month), so, of course, my list is pretty much all books I either want to read or have found through other book bloggers as ones they’d recommend. Because of this, I’m going to share the list of YA and MG books I ordered in April. Because we’re a small library, we have a relatively small budget each month, but I think I did a pretty good job of getting a wide range of books. This list does not include the easy reader/picture books we ordered or the few non-fiction books. [All titles linked to Goodreads, of course!]

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things by Ann Aguirre
Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen
Pip Bartlett’s Guide to Magical Creatures by Maggie Stiefvater and Jackson Pearce
Mosquitoland by David Arnold
Made You Up by Francesca Zappia
I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest
Denton Little’s Deathdate by Lance Rubin
Anything Could Happen by Will Walton
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste
Lois Lane: Fallout by Gwenda Bond

What books would you suggest to your library? Let me know so I can expand my collection!

LINK YOUR WEEK TWO UPDATE BELOW!

And don’t forget to enter the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge giveaway!

THE #READINGMYLIBRARY CHALLENGE HAS STARTED!

Hello, everyone! Today is April 1, which means the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge has begun! And no, this isn’t an April Fool’s joke! No worries if you haven’t signed up yet; sign ups are open until Wednesday, April 15, so you still have a whole TWO weeks to sign up. Also, don’t forget that you only have to read ONE library book to participate, and why wouldn’t you? If you’re already going to be reading books from the library, just sign up and enter for a chance to win our giveaway!

Here’s the beginning of my #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge! I started the audiobook of Jackaby yesterday (oops), and today I can’t decide if I want to read Beautiful You by Chuck Palahniuk or The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury. You don’t need to remind me how ridiculously different those two are. I know. I just can’t decide which I want to start with. I’ll probably just pick right before I head to work – whichever one catches my eye first.

What are you going to read first?

A little more info on the weekly updates since we’ve had some questions. These updates do not need to be super detailed or anything. They’re not even required, but more of a fun way to see what everyone is reading! My posts will discuss (and probably contain pictures of) what I’ve read that week. I’ll answer the weekly questions and talk a little about the challenge. I will probably include how much money I’ve saved that week by checking out the books from the library instead of buying them. That’s it! If you want to just tell us what you’ve read and nothing else, that’s cool too! Up to you. Just have fun! Each week, I will include the linky in my own weekly update post, but it’ll also go HERE on the Weekly Updates page.

Once you create your sign up post, don’t forget to enter the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge giveaway for your choice of book up to $15 from The Book Depository!

#ReadingMyLibrary Challenge – My Sign Up Post

Hello, lovelies! As you may know, I am co-hosting the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge with Amy at Read What I Like next month! You might also know that I am the Circulation Clerk and YA Librarian at a small library in Mississippi. Each month I order between 10-20 new YA and Middle Grade books for my library, though I’m only able to read a very small number of these (because of time, ARCs, life), so Amy and I started the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge to fix that. We want to read ONLY library books for the month of April (though if you participate, you are only required to read ONE library book). I hope to get caught up on the books I’ve ordered but haven’t read – partly so I can be even better at recommending titles to my patrons and partly because I ordered those books for a reason! 🙂

So here is my (tentative) TBR for the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge (definitely subject to change based on my mood, and also in no particular order whatsoever). Also, a few books/audiobooks are not pictured but linked below. I’ve only chosen books that I have ordered for my library since I started working. Yes, the TBR is a little overambitious, but if you recall, I’m a mood reader, so I need options!

The Sin Eater’s Daughter / Made for You / Shutter / Vivian Apple at the End of the World / The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley / Red Queen / I’ll Meet You There / Beautiful You / Atlantia (on CD)

NOT PICTURED (aka waiting on holds/hoping the new books come in soon!)

I’ll Give You the Sun (on CD) / Jackaby (on CD) / We All Looked Up

My TBR is obviously VERY ambitious, and I’ll be lucky to get to even half of these, BUT I’m excited for all of them, so I just went ahead and checked them out. It gives me options!

I would LOVE it if you would join us next month. As I said earlier in the post, you only have to read ONE book to participate in the challenge (did I mention there were TWO giveaways?!), and I hope it’ll be a lot of fun to show your support of your library. So if you do want to participate, head over to my sign up post to learn more and enter your link!

Sign ups are open for the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge!

Hi guys! So remember how last month I posted about the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge that Amy at Read What I Like and I were working on a challenge for the month of April all about libraries and reading library books? Well, it’s HERE and sign ups are open today! You might’ve noticed my brand new tab at the top of my page called “#ReadingMyLibrary Challenge” – no? It just magically appeared? Yeah, I’m good like that – where you can find more information about the challenge, including a schedule, rules, and a FAQ of sorts, even though no one’s asked any questions yet. 🙂

Calling all librarians!! #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge

As a librarian, you see so many books come across your desk (either that you’ve ordered yourself or that your patrons are requesting) that you just don’t have time to read. Which sucks, honestly. Yes, you’ve ordered those books for your patrons, but let’s be honest: you’ve ordered them for yourself too. I order around 10-15 YA (and MG) books per month – remember when I said I’m at a tiny library? – all of which I want to read but end up just putting out into the library. As a library patron, I’m sure you have a LONG list of books you want to read, don’t you?

Well, Amy at Read What I Like and I have a solution for you! We’ve created the Reading My Library Challenge – a month long event in which we will try to read as many of those library books we’ve seen come in but haven’t had a chance to read yet! Sound fun? Join us!

Right now, we’re still in the planning stage, but we need help – from any other bloggers who work in libraries! This is what we know so far:

• The Challenge will take place throughout the whole month of April (April 12-18, 2015 is National Library Week)
• Anyone can participate as long as you have somewhere to share what you’re reading
• You don’t have to exclusively read library books, as long as you are reading some library books
• We’re going to have an EPIC Library Scavenger Hunt that will span all areas of a library and get you appreciating everything your library has to offer
• We’ll have TWO giveaways – one for the Scavenger Hunt and one for participating in the challenge
• We want you to have fun and save money – libraries are FREEEEE!

What we need right now is help ironing out all the details so we’re asking any bloggers who are also librarians to PLEASE sign up below (link will take you to a Google Form that will ask for your name and email). You can also feel free to send any questions or emails to caughtreadhanded [at] gmail [dot] com!

And of course, if you aren’t a librarian, but this challenge sounds like something you might like, keep your eyes open for a sign up post sometime next month! Leave any suggestions in the comments below or feel free to email me too!

If you want to talk about the challenge before April or would rather tweet suggestions, please use the hashtag #ReadingMyLibrary so we can all see what you have to say!

[Learn more about National Library Week]

Stacking the Shelves – Comics from the Library, Giveaway Prizes, and my #OTSPSecretSister!

It’s been a while since I did a Stacking the Shelves post, but I got some really cool stuff this week I wanted to share!

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Stacking the Shelves – This week I checked out Shutter, Chew Omnibus Volume 1, and Ms. Marvel from the library, received The Glass Arrow through a giveaway, and was gifted Eleanor & Park from my #OTSPSecretSister! #books #comics #bookstagram #comicbookhaul #bookhaul #reading #bookgram #booknerdigans

A post shared by Stefani (@stefanisloma) on Feb 7, 2015 at 11:09am PST

On Monday, I got my first package from my wonderful On the Same Page Secret Sister and got a SIGNED copy of Eleanor & Park, which I’m definitely looking forward to reading. Then on Thursday, I got The Glass Arrow in the mail from Kristina aka Gone Pecan (Thanks again, Kristina!) through one of her giveaways. On Friday, the library system I work for had an all day training at a library that is at least three or four times the size of the one I work for, so, of course, I explored and found a few things to check out: Shutter Volume 1, Chew, The Omnivore Edition Volume 1, and Ms. Marvel Volume 1 (which I’d already been wanting to read but was described as “It’s a female, teenage, Muslim superhero. What more could you want?” My answer – nothing, which is why I checked it out!).

What did you add to your shelves this week?

Bout of Books 12 – Top 10 Recommendations Challenge

Today is Day 2 of Bout of Books! Trees of Reverie is hosting the Top 10 Recommendations challenge, and since I actually work in a library, I thought I kind of have to participate, don’t I? 🙂

The Challenge: You’ve just started to work at a bookstore (or library) – what are your top ten go-to book recommendations?

All of the books I’ve chosen are ones that I’ve actually recommended to people at my library for various reasons. Some are favorites and some are just generally good reads. Here we go!

    

The Humans by Matt Haig – for everyone. Seriously. Read it. (I know you’re all surprised)

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins – perfect for a lot of our YA readers but also for some of our older patrons who like books by authors like Debbie Macomber

This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith – for basically the same reasons as above

The Black Hour by Lori Rader-Day – I read and loved this one and have recommended it to several patrons that enjoy crime fiction

The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber – one of my new recommendations because I read and LOVED this. It’s unique and interesting. Different from my normal read.

    

The Passage by Justin Cronin – patrons who enjoy vampires but the creepy, scary kind have been told to read this by me on several occasions. 🙂

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by Fiona Staples – for people who want to try comics. This is how I got into comics and I’ve never looked back.

The Young Elites by Marie Lu – because this was probably my favorite read of the year

ANYTHING by/illustrated by Oliver Jeffers – because stick legs

Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Skottie Young – for Neil Gaiman fans. For fans of silliness. For fans of fun.

A few others:

Anything Maggie Stiefvater has written

Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll

Gone by Michael Grant

What would you recommend?