RA for your Friday

First things first! New Book Club in a Bag titles are now available!

The Guncle, by Steven Rowley

Somebody’s Daughter, by Ashley C. Ford

Slow Horses, by Mick Herron

Just a quick note for those who are new to the system that NCLS loans books exclusively for local book clubs to use for their discussions. Books are checked out in a sturdy canvas bag containing 12 paperback copies of each title and a printed list of discussion questions. Bags are checked out for six weeks, and they can be picked up and returned at any NCLS member library. Please remember to scan the bags in when they are received – and check them out to patrons promptly – so that the hold doesn’t linger in holds limbo for all eternity.

You can find all our book club titles right here, and you can find printable bookmarks here. NCLS has social media posts on the new titles today, so please like and share!

I’ve made my first pie of the season and have already given up on the weeds in my garden. It’s officially summer! We’ve got summer picks from USA Today, People, and NPR, who are sharing their favorite picks from each of the 50 states (plus DC and Puerto Rico.) Want to chime in? You can do that here.

And now for some June news.

We’ve got picks from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, the LA Times, Bustle, Shondaland, and The Millions. For all you genre fans, we’ve got romance from SBTB, fantasy from Paste, sci fi and fantasy from Lit Hub, and of course, crime reads from Crime Reads.

In other June news, it’s Audiobook Month! AudioFile is here with their June Earphones Award winners, and Book Riot has rounded up the best audiobooks of 2022 so far. The RA for All blog goes deeper on how to use AudioFile and Book Riot to find great picks for patrons and reminds us:

“Audio books are an excellent option that some readers may not think about. And they are the perfect choice for people who don’t think they have time to read.”

If you’ve got patrons looking for Stranger Things readalikes to tide them over to the July 1 release of the rest of season 4, check out these lists from Book Riot, Epic Reads, Books Are Our Superpower, and the Central Rappahannock Regional Library. (And if you’ve got Opinions about season 4, let’s talk.)

There’s still time to sign up for this afternoon’s book sharing session, Friday Reads, at 3pm. Join your fellow North Country library staff for a virtual discussion about what’s flying off the shelves at your library, what you just finished and loved (or what you just finished that you know someone ELSE would love), what author or series you’ve just discovered, and more!

Finally, #FridayReads: I’ve been tag-teaming fiction and nonfiction this week, bouncing back and forth between Last Summer at the Golden Hotel and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, the latter of which is almost, ALMOST enough for me to attempt another vegetable garden. (Still not over that deer that ate my apple tree. Still. Six years later.) In my earbuds is In Defense of Witches, which comes on the heels of Pandora’s Jar. Happy reading/listening!