Fast Girls by Elise Hooper — A Novel of the 1936 Women's Olympic Team

Title: Fast Girls: A Novel of the 1936 Women’s Olympic Team
Author: Elise Hooper
Publication: William Morrow, trade paperback, 2020
Genre: Historical fiction

Description: In this novel about pioneering women athletes of the early part of the 20th century, the author focuses on three real-life American heroines:

Before She Was Helen by Caroline B. Cooney - now writing suspense for adults!

Title: Before She Was Helen
Author: Caroline Cooney
Publication: Sourcebooks/Poisoned Pen Press, hardcover, September 2020
Genre: Mystery

Plot: When Clemmie goes next door to check on the wellbeing of her difficult neighbor Dom, he isn’t there.  But something else is.  Something unexpectedly stunning and beautiful.  Clemmie snaps a picture on her cell phone and makes the terrible mistake of forwarding it.  As the picture goes viral, Clemmie tries desperately to keep a grip on her own personal network of secrets.  Can fifty years of carefully hiding under names not her own be ruined by one impulsive text?

Bookshelf Traveling - May 22, 2020

It's time for more Bookshelf Traveling in Insane Times which is hosted by Judith at Reader in the Wilderness.

The idea is to share your bookshelves. Any aspect you like, as long as you are entertained, including:

1. Home

2. Books in the home

3. Touring books in the home

4. Books organized or not organized on shelves, in bookcases, in stacks, or heaped in a helter-skelter fashion on any surface, including the floor, the top of the piano, etc.

5. Talking about books and reading experiences from the past, present, or future.

 

This is not a shelf but a pile of advance readings copies (ARCs) I brought home from the ALA Midwinter Conference in Philadelphia back in February.  There are few things as much fun as picking up books that have not yet been published but I had to carry everything back on the bus so I was fairly restrained. I still filled three bags and shared some with my sixth-grade niece, an excellent reader.  In no particular order:

Above All Else by Dana Alison Levy – YA fiction about teens climbing Mt. Everest

Love, Jacaranda by Alex Flinn, a retelling of Daddy Long Legs

Title: Love, Jacaranda
Author:  Alex Flinn

Publication: HarperTeen, Hardcover, July 2020

Genre: YA

Plot: Jacaranda Abbott is a foster kid with a voice.  While working as a cashier at the Publix grocery store in Florida, she makes up and belts out a song for an elderly customer and it goes viral. When she is offered a scholarship to attend a performing arts boarding school by a mysterious benefactor, she knows what an incredible opportunity this is but is worried people will find out her mother is in prison.  School is hard work but fulfilling and Jacaranda, now calling herself Jackie, is determined to take advantage of every opportunity.   She is happy but once she starts dating a millionaire’s son who seems sensitive and caring she wonders what will happen if he finds out her secret.

ALA Midwinter, Betsy-Tacy dinner

A great time was had today at Midwinter ALA in Boston, followed by a delightful Betsy-Tacy gathering at the Channel Cafe!

Front, l-r, Carla, Jen D-K, Julie M, Barb; Back, l-r, Constance, Becky, Jennifer, Camilla, Susann, Hillary, Nicole, Susan R (missing from picture: Deva)

Dawn (boldly grabbing the knight's sword), Deva (blowing a kiss), and Constance
Barb, Susann, and Nicole
Carla describes how she tried to purloin (the sadly MIA) KathyB's secret celebrity crush, who even sang for her before autographing Lights Over Broadway!
Jen D-K displays the autograph from Brian Stokes Mitchell while we moan with envy!
Jen D-K and Julie M
Nicole, Susan R, and Deva (who later showed us the cover of her new book!). It was the first time Deva met us so we hope we didn't scare her! Not everyone can handle the truth (I mean, the cult).

Becky masterfully figures out the bill (and wonders why we didn't just buy a vineyard!)

Shipping up to Boston

I am pleased to hear that ALA Midwinter is going to be in Boston this year, just a few blocks from my office. I have attended ALA conventions twice, once tagging along with my mother, then a librarian at Northeastern, and as an exhibitor in 1999 in DC, but those were in the summer and it is in the winter that the Newbery Medal is awarded. For those who are interested, there is a blog at School Library Journal that actively discusses the potential contenders.