Garden Valley District Library

It took over five years for Nathaniel Rich to finish his first novel — maybe because he was writing The Mayor's Tongue secretly, first as a college student, and then while writing film criticism during the day.

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This year, BEA reminded me of the big comic conventions I've attended, though 1) there were no exclusive BEA-only action figures (hint to marketers for next year) 2) Bill didn't need time away from the booth to wait in line for Joss Whedon (another hint for next year, on behalf of Bill) and 3) I didn't see any ninjas. But if the ninjas are good I wouldn't have seen them, so they may have been there...

Posted by Gene on 11/19/2009 4:14:00 PM

Our fabulous t-shirt printers are working even faster than normal. Jana, shown here supermodeling, will be shipping out the Recycle Books shirts tomorrow, with the rest soon to follow! Order now for nearly-instant gratification!

P.S. Now that I've seen the shirts in real life I've updated the colors on the site. They're darker and more handsome than I had implied.

Posted by Bill on 11/19/2009 1:26:00 PM

We're getting lots of great questions and answers on our new Unshelved® Answers site. Here are just a few:

• Can we have two people answering questions on Meebo?
• I'm looking for a children's book with a dragon named Mahogany
• How do I weed nonfiction?
• Does your library use LibraryThing and, if so, how?

Come answer these questions and ask your own!

P.S. Want to understand how to using voting on Unshelved® Answers? This question has the answer!

Posted by Bill on 11/19/2009 11:27:00 AM

In addition to the two new designs we announced today, we're also releasing two old favorites in new forms:

• Our all-time bestselling What Happens in the Library Stays in the Library is now available in a handsome Denim Blue shirt with dark blue ink, $18.95 in Standard and Women's Junior styles.
• The classic What Would Dewey Do? is available in a beautiful and warm Deep Heather thermal long-sleeved tee with light blue ink. $24.95 in Standard styles.

Both ship in early December, in plenty of time for the holidays.

That completes all the additions to our store for Holiday 2009. We're starting a little later than usual, which means we won't have time for reorders. So buy your favorites now while supplies last.

Posted by Bill on 11/16/2009 5:29:00 PM

When it comes to green, nothing beats your local library, as shown in this recent strip. White on Thyme, $18.95 in Standard and Junior Women's styles, and also available as a Hunter Green book bag. Ships in early December, just in time for the holidays.

Posted by Bill on 11/16/2009 5:22:00 PM

The actors may be extremely attractive, the special effects may be awesome, but the movie will never be as good as the source material. Black, White, and Gold on a cinematic Sangria shirt, $18.95 in Standard and Junior Women's styles. Ships in early December, just in time for the holidays.

Posted by Bill on 11/16/2009 5:18:00 PM

This week's sponsor is the Library Marketing group at Random House, Inc. They'll be letting us know about several books throughout the week, so keep an eye on the banners. We'll summarize at the end of the week!

Posted by Bill on 11/16/2009 12:05:00 PM

The public ask librarians for help. Who do librarians ask for help? Other librarians, of course. At work and, increasingly, on the Internet, using listservs, message boards, Twitter, etc. Your question may even have been asked before. The problem is finding it, sorting through the answers, and telling the good from the bad.

Introducing Unshelved® Answers, a place to share your expertise about libraries and everything in them: reference resources, reader's advisory, customer service, cataloging, administration, or anything else. Already people have asked:

• What CMS does your library use?
• How do you get rid of pushy vendors?
• What are great graphic novels for early readers?
• What are some ideas for displays for young adults?
• What's that one book I read in the early 80's?

... and much more!

We've got an easy and effective system for grading both questions and answers so that you can quickly and easily solve your problem and help others solve theirs. Every time your work is voted up you gain more reputation, which unlocks more functionality of the site for you. Eventually our most prized contributors become de-facto moderators. The site is really run by you, for you.

We hope this will become a useful tool for the library community (and anyone else, including booksellers and individuals). Visit Unshelved&reg Answers today to share your expertise!

Posted by Bill on 11/16/2009 5:59:00 AM

We hope you enjoyed this week's edition of One Book A Day. Here, for posterity, is the complete list of titles:

• Kid Beowulf and the Blood-Bound Oath, a graphic novel based on the epic poem, by Alexis E. Fajardo
• The Little Stranger a "chilling and vividly rendered ghost story set in postwar Britain" by Sarah Waters
• Al Galope! By Rufus Butler Seder, the Spanish version of one of my favorite kid's books
• Alexander Hickory, a middle-grade mystery set in the late 1800s, by Emily Kieson
• Academic Stimulus Package: a "Piled Higher and Deeper" collection by our friend Jorge Cham
• The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl, career advice you can actually use, from my friend Karen Burns
• Girls With Slingshots a collection of the great comic strip of the same name by our friend Danielle Corsetto

I know, that's a lot of friends. What can I say. We're friendly guys.

That's our last official One Book A Day for the year, the kind with books from all sorts of authors and publishers. But as you'll see, several of our publisher sponsors will be using the same format to let you know about their upcoming books.

Posted by Bill on 11/15/2009 12:00:00 AM

I was lucky enough to score a signed copy of Leviathan at BEA back in May. Bill immediately seized it so that he and his son (8) could read it together, but I've finally got it back and my daughter (7) and I are really enjoying it. (Yes, we know our kids aren't technically young adults yet, but the book is that good.)

If you haven't heard about Scott Westerfeld's amazing steampunk novel yet, if you haven't picked it up, don't take our word for it, watch Scott's pitch:

Posted by Gene on 11/13/2009 10:44:00 AM