What Caught My Eye Online #73
Simple pleasures, burning books, and more
Welcome to this week’s roundup! Here’s what I’ve been loving recently:
BLT sandwiches. Last night for dinner, I made BLTs and sweet potato fries and had fresh fruit on the side. It was such a delicious springtime meal. The BLT is a simple sandwich, but it doesn’t get much better than that.
The class of 2025. My school year is almost over, and we just had our final meeting with a club of students who have helped us in the library. I’ve known most of the students since their freshman or sophomore years, so it was bittersweet to say goodbye. One student shared that our club was a highlight of their high school experience and that we always provided a place for them to be seen and heard. I was touched and left full of hope about the seniors I know, all of them kind, smart, and thoughtful humans.
And now for this week’s links!
Kelly Jensen has provided an update about the status of the Institute for Museum and Library Services. Even though judges have recently ruled in favor of the IMLS, the Trump administration wants to cut nearly all of their funding, rendering those rulings moot.
Publishers Weekly lists comics that call readers to action.
Librarian Mychal Threets talks with PW about his new picture book, I’m So Happy You’re Here: A Celebration of Library Joy. I appreciate Threets' advocacy and his openness when discussing his mental health struggles.
Lit Hub ranks all the fake books in Wes Anderson's multiverse.
Another organization had to apologize for recommending AI-generated books that don’t actually exist.
Popular Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami received a lifetime achievement award.
An Ohio man is accused of burning public library books about Black, LGBTQ+, and Jewish people.
Young adult author Rex Ogle talks about why it’s important to reimagine classic literature as modern graphic novels.
Here are 12 must-read new June releases.
Check out this book list featuring people with Down syndrome.
Ocean Vuong writes about Sufjan Stevens.
Eric Karl Anderson reflects on 100 years of The Great Gatsby and shows off a beautiful manuscript edition of the book.
Izzy from The Sunday Reads reminds us to stop being book snobs.
This article from The Cut about the prevalence of influencers encouraging extreme dieting and eating disorders in their followers was heartbreaking to read. It seemed as though we were making progress toward greater body acceptance for a while, but most of that progress seems to have disappeared over the last year or two. I follow a lot of body-positive style and wellness accounts, and I'm surprised over and over again by the hateful and cruel comments left for creators in bigger bodies.
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What things have caught your eye lately? Does anything resonate with you from this list? Thanks for reading!
Thank you for gathering such a thoughtful collection. I find myself saving at least half of these to read slowly over coffee. I clicked through to the piece about reimagining classic literature as modern graphic novels, and wow—thank you for putting that on my radar.
I wish I could read the article from The Cut but it’s behind a paywall. I’m sure it’s fascinating! (BTW I’m a retired registered dietitian who worked in eating disorder treatment, so I’m particularly interested in this content).