Have you heard of Litsy? It's like Instagram, but for books!
Here's a description from the app: "Litsy is a place to share and discover your favorite books with your favorite people. The Litsy community is a groundswell of passionate readers, authors, celebrities, and more. Share bookish moments with Quotes, Reviews, and Blurbs. Measure Litfluence to discover your “bookprint” in the world. Explore recommendations from readers, not algorithms. Oh yeah, want to organize your reading list? Our app has stacks for that, too." Kind of cool, right? We thought so! So we created an account for the library and you can follow us @pthslibrary. Litsy is available to download through the App store as well as Google Play. I love that it's a photo-sharing social media app, but specifically for books. What a great way to engage readers and for anyone interested in literature to post some of their favorite quotes, reviews, etc. I can't wait to follow some of our favorite YA authors and see what they're sharing!
"Astronauts on the International Space Station captured a series of incredible star trail images on Oct. 3, 2016, as they orbited at 17,500 miles per hour. The station orbits the Earth every 90 minutes, and astronauts aboard see an average of 16 sunrises and sunsets every 24 hours." Image via Nasa.gov
Here's 5 websites to check out this weekend:
Planning a career in medicine? The Diagnosis column in The New York Times can give you a glimpse into solving some medical mysteries. Every month, Dr. Lisa Sanders, presents cases that have been very difficult to solve. A great column to check out for any future doctors or nurses! It seemed like everyone watched Stranger Things this summer, but now we have to wait until 2017 for season 2! Luckily for us, the YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) blog recently posted 18 books to read if you liked Stranger Things. I wonder if there's any characters like Barb... Here's why 18-year-old Ann Makosinski doesn't have a smart phone. Her reasons may surprise you! This article is from a few years ago, but advice from grandparents never goes out of style! Like reading? Love dogs? The Instagram account @dogbookclub is probably for you! Not sure what to read next? Click the image above to check out Epic Read's book recommendations based on your favorite Instagram filter. Not quite sure how they came up with these titles, but it's a fun way to pick your next book! I find myself using the Clarendon filter A LOT, so it looks like I'll be reading Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake next. It must be fate since we just ordered that book this week!
My goal this summer was to read 20 books. I came just short of that at 18, but at least now I have lots to recommend! One of my favorites was The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi.
Here's a description: Fate and fortune. Power and passion. What does it take to be the queen of a kingdom when you're only seventeen? Maya is cursed. With a horoscope that promises a marriage of Death and Destruction, she has earned only the scorn and fear of her father's kingdom. Content to follow more scholarly pursuits, her whole world is torn apart when her father, the Raja, arranges a wedding of political convenience to quell outside rebellions. Soon Maya becomes the queen of Akaran and wife of Amar. Neither roles are what she expected: As Akaran's queen, she finds her voice and power. As Amar's wife, she finds something else entirely: Compassion. Protection. Desire... But Akaran has its own secrets -- thousands of locked doors, gardens of glass, and a tree that bears memories instead of fruit. Soon, Maya suspects her life is in danger. Yet who, besides her husband, can she trust? With the fate of the human and Otherworldly realms hanging in the balance, Maya must unravel an ancient mystery that spans reincarnated lives to save those she loves the most. . .including herself. A lush and vivid story that is steeped in Indian folklore and mythology. The Star-touched Queen is a novel that no reader will soon forget. So what did I think? I LOVED this book. Roshani Chokshi writes so beautifully, and the inclusion of both Indian and Greek folklore add a wonderful layer to both the plot and the characters. I came across a review of this book from NPR, and there was a quote that I felt really captured the style of Chokshi's writing, and what it does for the reader: "The sentence-level beauty of this book often stunned me: There's a smooth, understated loveliness to the writing that kept catching me off guard. In Chokshi's prose, voices have substance and texture while light has color and flavor; never have I wanted to munch on books so much as after reading "The archives were cut like honeycombs and golden light clung to them, dousing every tome, painting, treatise and poem the soft gold of ghee freshly skimmed from boiling butter." The vivid details are probably my favorite aspect of the book, but along with that, Maya's strength in the face of mystery and danger makes for a very compelling main character. Check this book out today! Book Riot has posted 131 YA Books that are being published from now until the end of the year! We've been busy putting many of them on our next order so check back in the library as they get released to see when they're available to check out!
Here's some notable books from the list that we are really excited about: The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon **This is the December Book Club Book!** Holding Up the Pieces by Jennifer Niven The Midnight Star by Marie Lu Replica by Lauren Oliver Saving Red by Sonya Sones Amy Chelsea Stacie Dee by Mary G. Thompson Goldenhand by Garth Nix Image via The Atlantic: Baby pandas in China. Someone did NOT want to have their picture taken. Here's 5 websites to check out this weekend: Growing up, Roald Dahl was one of my favorite authors. He wrote in a style all his own, and in doing so created words that make total sense if you've ever read Matilda, or The Witches, or James and the Giant Peach. Here's 50 Amazing Words Roald Dahl Made Up that are sure to take you right back to The BFG. Shoutout to Mrs. Kocan for sending me this article! "This is an ongoing attempt at an algorithmically-generated, readability-adjusted scatter-plot of the musical genre-space, based on data tracked and analyzed for 1496 genres by Spotify. The calibration is fuzzy, but in general down is more organic, up is more mechanical and electric; left is denser and more atmospheric, right is spikier and bouncier." Um, what? Basically, it's Every Noise at Once and it's amazing. Take a look at these drawings by artist Howard Lee and try to spot the fake. His work is so realistic and he uses Instagram to show the big reveal with a glimpse into how each drawing was created. Not sure when to use who and whom? Check out this grammar tip from the Elon University blog. Feeling stressed? Many people say this GIF will help you relax if you sync your breathing to the expanding shape. Try it out - it may come in handy before a test! The library blog is back up and running! The first month of school has been super busy, with classes using library resources and the library book club already halfway through their second book of the year! There's plenty to see here on the blog so stay tuned for our daily posts.
Ever wonder how other kids around the world get to school? The image above is from an article in New York Magazine showing the various ways students get to school everyday from Springfield, Massachusetts to Singapore. Definitely worth checking out! |
Ms. Gilroy
Welcome to The Book Drop, Ms. Gilroy's library blog! Check here for some of your PTHS librarian's favorite things including book reviews, what's happening in YA literature, and the latest and greatest news from around the world & web. Archives
October 2016
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