What Caught My Eye Online #64
Hope, library funding, new paperbacks, and more
Welcome to this week’s roundup! Here’s what I’ve been loving lately:
Library visitors. Two of the high school libraries where I work had open houses over the past week to show off new books. We invited teachers and students to drop by whenever they wanted to see the new arrivals, create bookmarks, and check out some reading material for spring break. It was delightful to see patrons use the library for fun. No teacher made their kids check out books; everyone was there simply to enjoy themselves. The kids loved the bookmark-making stations, and others enjoyed working a puzzle together. We got a lot of great books into the hands of readers, which is always a good feeling. It was great to see kids interacting and having fun in the library.
Coach Floral Eau de Parfum. I love switching up my fragrances each season. I’m always drawn to fresh, floral, and sweet scents in spring. I’ve been loving this one from Coach. I have the travel size, but I think I need to upgrade.
And now for this week’s links!
April is National Poetry Month! Check out this great piece called The Rhythmical Creation of Beauty: A Celebration of Poetry by Matthew Long.
John Green is an absolute gem of a human. He talks with NPR about his new book, Everything Is Tuberculosis. I love this part of the interview:
“I keep learning again and again that hope is the right response to the human condition. And I have to learn this over and over again because despair is an incredibly powerful force in my life and something that I have to battle on an almost daily basis.
So much of my brain tells me that there's no reason to get out of bed or do anything because nothing matters, because the oceans are going to boil in a billion years, because the world is going to end long before that for me and for everyone I love and probably for humanity itself. People are so monstrous and capable of such horrific behavior toward each other and toward the world.
That despair is so powerful because it tells this complete holistic story. It explains everything. ‘Everything is the way it is because everything and everyone sucks.’ What an incredibly powerful way to look at the world. It just happens to not be true, right?
The truth is much more complex than that. And so I have to remind myself of that almost every day. I have to relearn that lesson that there is cause for hope.”
Kirkus shares their picks for the best books of the 21st century so far. Some of my favorites made the cut, including The Bee Sting, Gilead, The Great Believers, and The Goldfinch.
Kirkus also lists the 20 best books to read in April. Many of their suggestions sound fantastic, including Audition.
The Atlantic offers up their picks for the best poetry books of the 21st century.
Institute of Museum and Library Services staff have been put on leave, thanks to the Trump regime. The American Library Association has issued a statement in which they say, “Whether on a campus, in the neighborhood, on a military base or elsewhere, libraries mean opportunity for everyone in our communities. By cutting off federal support from libraries, the Trump administration is cutting off opportunity for the American people – economically, culturally, professionally and socially.”
The ALA also has a webpage listing various ways you can show up for your library.
One of the wonderful librarians I work with recommended the app 5 Calls to me. The app makes it as easy as can be for Americans to contact their political leaders about issues such as library funding. Like any good introvert, I mostly hate talking on the phone and get nervous when calling, but our leaders need to know what their constituents care about.
I love oddly specific book lists, and CrimeReads delivers with this one: 5 Haunting Thrillers About Someone Disappearing on a Camping Trip. I’m horrified just thinking about camping.
63 new paperbacks have made their way into the world!
Goodreads recommends 57 new short story collections.
One more Goodreads list: 132 Page-Turner Books to Help You Beat Any Reading Slump. Yes, please.
Roxane Gay talks with Stephen Colbert about the new collection she edited, The Portable Feminist Reader. I want to get my hands on that ASAP.
I used to love magazines in my teens and early 20s. This piece from Lit Hub highlighting eight cool print magazines makes me want to start subscribing again.
The Great Gatsby, a novel I love and reread recently, turns 100 this year. The New York Times wonders, “What does its hero tell us about how we see ourselves?”
I recently relistened to Aimee Mann’s 2005 concept album, The Forgotten Arm. I loved it when it came out twenty years ago, and I love it just as much now. It’s one of my favorite albums of all time. I just had to mention it this week since I’ve been fangirling over it (again).
As always, The Everygirl has the cutest tech backgrounds for April.
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What things have caught your eye lately? I’d love to hear what you’ve been loving or thinking about. Leave your thoughts in the comments. Thanks for reading!
Great round up. I really enjoyed that quote from John Green. What a wake up call. And thanks for sharing my essay. I really appreciate it.
Thanks for all of this and for the five calls app.