It’s almost banned books week! Whether it’s The Lorax, Maus, or I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, reading books with challenging ideas and difficult themes better prepares us to recognize and deal with challenging situations in our lives and feel compassion for those facing similar challenges.

Fantasticland by @mikebockoven.bsky.social ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Great premise! Theme park Employees isolated by a hurricane form rival tribes that violently clash. Structured as a series of interviews, we explore a tale that’s horrificly compelling. I’ll be thinking about this for years. #booksky #bookreview

Stephen Colbert and Anderson Cooper interview from 2019 about practicing gratitude in the face of grief. Source for the full interview: youtu.be/YB46h1koicQ?...

Starter Villain By John Scalzi ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Light, funny, and the right amount of ridiculous. This novel takes the villain tropes we love and spins them into hilarious absurdities. ✅ Volcano lair ✅ Shadowy Villain network ✅ Pet Cats ✅ Stolen Nazi Treasure ✅ Dolphins trying to unionize ✅ Lasers #booksky

I highly recommend people read Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. It was one of my favorite reads from last year and the movie comes out in March. Warning: Some spoilers in the trailer. #booksky

The Heartless Sky (Zodiac Academy 7) By Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti ⭐️⭐️ Peckham & Valenti must be paid by the page. So much filler. So little editing. Characters became caricatures and we crossed from whimsical into the absurd. Fans of this one are loyal fans indeed #booksky #bookreview

A judge paused Canada’s ban on books with explicit content “It contained more than 200 titles, including “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” “Brave New World” and more. … additional books … inaccessible to K-9 students, including… “Nineteen Eighty-Four” and …“The Great Gatsby.” #booksky #librarysky

I’m endlessly charmed by the variations of my violas 🌱

The Names By Florence Knapp ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Follows a family through 3 parallel time lines branching from different choices. While the name of the youngest is distinct in each timeline, the decision to fight back, leave, or endure domestic violence is the choice and consequences Knapp explores. #booksky

The Night Shift By Alex Finlay ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ What a great thriller! We time hop exploring similar crimes separated by several years in the same small town. Short chapters. Multiple narrators. Great characters. Enough mystery to keep things interesting without being contrived. #Booksky

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Absolutely adorable. Librarian with a talking plant for a side kick uses magic, friendship, and kindness to save a community and find love. Durst really knows her audience. Did I mention there are flying cats? Fantasy, romance, no spice. #booksky

Today’s @carolynhax.bsky.social features this amazing Cartoon by @Nick Galifianakis

Cucumber season!

10 years after our CIO incentivized interactions on the internal company social platforms, and 8 years after they stopped giving out points you could redeem for merchandise because people were gaming the system and not adding value, people still post “done” in the comments thread for our courses.

The Mighty Red By Louise Erdrich ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Erdrich’s prose borders on poetry. The characters are beautifully drawn and realistic yet charmingly fantastic. So glad she didn’t make the love of a good woman the fix for broken men. ❤️ Erdrich is why I fell in love with magical realism. #booksky

“Spend time thinking about how you do the work. Is there a way to do it that is life-giving?” Austin Channing Brown Author of Full of Myself 2025 United for Libraries keynote Thanks for an amazing keynote @austinchanning.bsky.social Check out her books! #booksky #librarysky

“Whatever success is possible, is possible through the community we form.” Austin Channing Brown Author of Full of Myself 2025 United for Libraries keynote

“What we mean by polarization—not that we disagree, or even that we disagree too much or too often, but that we disagree badly: our arguments are painful and useless.” - Bo Seo #booksky

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I cried at the first 4 books but not this one. Friends said they were gutted. I’m not sure what I missed, but I didn’t feel strongly for these characters. Maybe knowing H’s ending did it. Top teen read at my library though, so I’m on trend. #booksky

The Ashes & the Star-Cursed King (Crowns of Nyaxia #2) by Carissa Broadbent ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Lost momentum from book one maybe because the main character is grieving through most of this book so we don’t get that fire. The ending is satisfying enough. “There she/he is…” every few pages was ugh. #booksky

When it rains, I take a picture of my rain gauge and send it to my garden club group chat. They reply with their own rain gauge pictures. It’s these wholesome interactions that are keeping me going right now. Find joy where you can friends! 🌱

Waiting to meet @peterbrownstudio.com for my first ever author meet and greet. The wild robot was the first chapter book I read with both my kids who are now avid readers. Roz has a special place in our family.

The God of the Woods By Liz Moore ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ❤️ Told from multiple PoVs & each with a unique voice. ❤️ Keeps you guessing. ❤️ Beautiful writing. ❤️ “The nation’s first” navigating casual sexism 👌. Why not 5⭐️? Some “clues” included to throw the reader off and made 0 sense. No magical realism. #booksky

If you see this, post an image you saved because it made you laugh.

Shadow Princess (Zodiac Academy 4) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Four stars is generous, but I’m celebrating progress on the main plot line after covering the same ground over and over. Not sure if the characters are deeply flawed in their failure to learn or if it’s lazy writing, but I put book 5 on hold so… #booksky

The Christmas Inn by Pamela M Kelley ⭐️⭐️ I’m convinced this book was written by the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce as a marketing ploy. Maybe by the Chatham Cheese Company. Maybe by AI trained on old Bon Apetite magazines. It’s 80% food and wine descriptions, 20% story. #Booksky

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes By Suzanne Collins ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Fascinating, if disturbing read focused on the formative years of the hunger game’s model fascist President Snow. The novel spotlights the mental gymnastics it takes to commit atrocities while believing oneself a good person. #booksky

James By Percival Everett ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This retelling of Twain’s classic is clever. But was an intellectual exercise that kept me at a distance. Only after we were following James through uncharted territory was I able to truly immerse and enjoy what evolved into a powerfully dark tale. #booksky

A June 6th ruling allows the Trump regime’s cuts to the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to stand while the case is heard in the DC District Court. ALA’s case challenges the administration’s authority to dismantle agencies established by Congress at will. #librarysky

Quotes from Peter Brown’s The Wild Robot for trying times: “her desire to stay alive was stronger than her desire to stay clean.” “If you had not attacked the porcupine, you would not have quills in your face.” “My home is a safe place for all.” ‘We are geese and geese keep going!’ #booksky

THE WILD ROBOT ON THE ISLAND comes out in exactly 1 MONTH! You can preorder signed copies from my pals at Back Cove Books. And I hope to see you at one of the public events on my book tour. Find all the details at www.peterbrownstudio.com

The Three Lives of Cate Lay By Kate Fagan ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Good prose, but the story just isn’t there. It’s too self aware to succeed at being profound. The characters don’t behave in a way that tracks with their personality. Miscommunication trope-ugh. #booksky #bookreview

The Hunger Games By Suzanne Collins ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I’m glad friends told me to read from the start of the series instead of jumping in to the newest releases. I had already seen the movie, but reading this book brought out the rich nuance that I didn’t know I was missing. #booksky #bookreview

Spotted a secret Jesus in the lucky bamboo at the radiology center!

None of This is True by Lisa Jewell ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Twisty and fast paced. This book kept me guessing and engaged. But there is no closure unless we pick one problematic narrator to believe making the ending unsatisfying. The Netflix documentary script format got tiresome. #booksky #bookreview

Ruthless Fae by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Second in the Zodiac Academy Series was better than the first. In this edition of Fairy High school, the bullies get some comeuppance but not nearly enough. Almost no progress on the main storyline. #booksky #bookreview

I don’t know who wrote this one, but it lifted my spirits right up.

If you see this, post your get away vehicle.

Great Big Beautiful Life Emily Henry ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The fun, with banter, flawed/complex characters, and romance you can expect from Henry. The fact that the novel wasn’t wholly centered on the romance angered some Henry fans. I thought it left room for a fresh story, told well. #booksky #bookreview

Here it is. A timetable of 100 days of corruption. Breathtaking. Heartbreaking. We cannot let this stand.

NEW: Judge Richard Leon says he's "inclined" to grant a restraining order blocking DOGE's efforts to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services. (IMLS). The independent agency's entire 75-person staff was placed on leave last month. www.wusa9.com/article/news...

Zodiac Academy - The Awakening Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Twin girls from the human world attend fairy highschool where everyone is a bully. Is it well written? No Is the ending satisfying? Also no. Is the type readable? Sometimes Did I get the next book? Yup #booksky #bookreview

Movie you’ve watched more than six times using gifs. (“Hard mode” no Star Wars, Star Trek, or LOTR)

#ProudBlue As a very young girl, The Diary of Anne Frank was one of my favorite books. Never in a million years did I think we would be living through something like this. 😢

It's not so much a panic "attack" at this point, it's more of a standing appointment we have every morning where we meet on my couch for coffee

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness and Siobhan Dowd ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I wholeheartedly recommend this poignant, touching book. The themes of grief, loneliness, and abandonment are dealt with so powerfully that you feel them deeply through this character. Magical realism at its finest. #booksky #bookreview

If you feel like a blue dot in a red area, you’re not alone. Join our Rural Caucus to learn how you can take on Trump, Musk, and MAGA in your own backyard: secure.everyaction.c...

The serpent in the wings of night, by Carissa Broadbent ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ One human joins trials where individuals from different vampire factions compete to the death until the last one standing earns a wish from a God. If you’re ready to suspend disbelief, this is a fun, spicy read. #booksky

In today’s atmosphere, it’s obvious why a book warning of totalitarian censorship would be in the American Library Association’s list of most commonly challenged books

A hate group is suing our local school district because they let a trans kid use her preferred bathroom. So many members of our community came to speak in support of protecting our trans kids. I’m a little choked up.