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!
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"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 Finished with a book you absolutely loved and looking for something else to read? Bookseer.com can help! If you type in the title and author of a book you like, it'll generate a list with similar style fiction and non-fiction. Give it a try!
Image via HuffPost Travel: Aurora Borealis at the Arctic Circle Here's a list of 5 websites to check out this weekend:
If you were ever curious as to what kids around the world wear to school, now you know! It's interesting to see what factors influence their dress codes based on their location. Also I love Australia's blue hats! Here are 6 Addictive YA Historical Novels to check out. Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres especially when it's done really well. I love how reading can transport you to a different time and you feel like you're actually there. Reading any of the books on this list is sure to have that effect on you. Ever wonder how many people are in space at any given time? Me either! However, there's a website that will tell you who's in space and provide mission details like how long they'll be up there. There are also astronaut profiles that tell you everything from their nationality to space flight experience. This Pittsburgh librarian is probably the biggest Harry Potter Fan and coolest mom ever. And finally, "30 Dr. Seuss Quotes to Live By." You can't go wrong with "Be awesome! Be a book nut!" Looking for a book to read, but want to keep it short & sweet? Half Price Books asked its readers for their favorite books under 200 pages. The covers above got the most votes! Here's a list of all 55 of them below:
1. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck / 2. Siddhartha by Herman Hessel / 3. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman / 4. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway / 5. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald / 6. The Pearl by John Steinbeck / 7. Help Thanks Wow by Anne Lamott / 8. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (not the Complete Guide) / 9. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes / 10. Beasts by Joyce Carol Oates / 11. The Neon Bible by John Toole / 12. Consider the Oyster by M.F.K. Fisher / 13. The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder / 14. Chronicle of Death Foretold by Gabriel Garciá Márquez / 15. The Stranger by Albert Camus / 16. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens / 17. The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket / 18. Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein / 19. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck / 20. Being There by Jerzy Kosinki / 21. The Red Pony by John Steinbeck / 22. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White / 23. The Awakening by Kate Chopin / 24. A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut / 25. Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’Nan / 26. Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker / 27. Black Orchids by Rex Stout / 28. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells / 29. Animal Farm by George Orwell / 30. The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde / 31. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton / 32. A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle / 33. Heartburn by Nora Ephron / 34. The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell / 35. Strange Pilgrims by Gabriel Garciá Márquez / 36. Grendel by John Gardner / 37. Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote / 38. Flatland by Edwin Abbot / 40. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto / 40. Shopgirl by Steve Martin / 41. The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo / 42. Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr. / 43. The Girl on the Fridge by Edgar Keret / 44. Love is Letting Go of Fear by Gerald G. Jampolsky / 45. I And Thou by Martin Buber / 46. Perelandra by C.S. Lewis / 47. Pafko at the Wall by Don Delilo / 48. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett / 49. My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George / 50. At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom by Amy Hempel / 51. Lord of the Flies by William Golding / 52. The Passion by Jeanette Winterson / 53. The Quiet American by Graham Greene / 54. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt / 55. Rape: A Love Story by Joyce Carol Oates. Tammy from Books Bones & Buffy reviewed the YA book The Weight of Feathers. Here's an excerpt from her review:
"The story seems simple at first, and yet it’s actually quite complex once you start reading. The set-up has a very strong Romeo and Juliet vibe: two feuding families, the Palomas and the Corbeaus, are both performing families, traveling from town to town with their unusual acts. But a long ago tragedy has made the two families mortal enemies, and now they avoid each other like the plague, even when they happen to end up in the same town together. Lace Paloma has been taught all her life to never let a Corbeau touch her, or she’ll bring tragedy to her family. But in the small town of Almendro, Lace is injured during a terrible factory accident, and a boy named Cluck Corbeau saves her life. Lace finds herself swept into the mysterious world of the Corbeau family, but as she and Cluck get to know each other, Lace dreads the day that Cluck finds out who she really is: a member of the hated Paloma family. Lace and Cluck must make a choice between true love and family—not an easy choice to make." You can read the full review on her site by clicking the image above! |
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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