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Arrived at work this morning to find an e-mail from Keith Michael Fiels, ALA’s executive director, announcing the death of Judith Krug, the founder of Banned Books Week and the director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom. There’s a brief note on AP (“Judith Krug, founder of Banned Books Week, dies“); click “read the rest of [...]

In yesterday’s issue of REaD ALERT, I asked, “But is historical fiction still hot?” I’ve gotten a wide variety of answers, which I’ll try to group into some kind of logical order. My apologies if I haven’t included your reply or if I’ve cut too much from it. (I’ve taken the liberty of linking book titles [...]

On the off chance that you missed it, here’s the interview I did last night:

If you’re in or around Chicago, be advised that the Chicago Underground Library has, ahem, gone . . . overground (“Library of obcure Chicago literature opens,” by Robert K. Elder, Chicago Tribune): Underground Library co-founder and director Nell Taylor describes some of the collection’s more esoteric items: Poetry: Gwendolyn Brooks chapbooks ? “It’s a group of [...]

Usually, if I want to read criticism of the ALA and its works, I need look no farther than the Library Journal website. But, this fall, as the Washington Post reports (“Plot Twist,” by Valerie Strauss), attacks have been coming from unlikely quarters: John Beach, associate professor of literacy education at St. John’s University in [...]

It goes without saying that you shouldn’t write in library books. But when you’re reading a library book, isn’t it always interesting to see what the scofflaws have written? Here’s a photo of a piece of marginalia, from a book believed to be The Plunder Squad, by Richard Stark (aka Donald E. Westlake), that proves [...]

I just handed in my review of Walter Mosley’s The Long Fall, the first book in a new mystery series set in New York City and starring Leonid McGill, private eye. I liked it better than the Fearless Jones books, but McGill is no Easy Rawlins, either. I couldn’t help but notice the following paragraph (read it with [...]

Between a monumental morning meeting and a looming deadline for REaD ALERT, I’ve hardly had a moment to read or write about book news. But I did find time to watch a clip forwarded by Valerie Hawkins, the American Library Association’s own library reference specialist. Seinfeld’s OK, but Philip Baker Hall is terrific. For some [...]

Three things you need to know about American Libraries. First, they now have their own blog! Called Inside Scoop, here’s how it’s described by editor-in-chief Leonard Kniffel (A Polish Son in the Motherland, 2005): While I don’t expect to blow the ALA website out of the water with Inside Scoop, I do expect to offer up-to-date [...]

Warm congratulations to the good people at the Kansas City Public Library (“Kansas City Public Library wins 2008 National Medal for Museum and Library Services,” by Joe Robertson, Kansas City Star): The creative partners behind the Kansas City Public Library know they have been on a roll. And now they have the nation’s highest honor [...]