LibraryThing: State of the Thing - June

LibraryThing: State of the Thing Dear {NAME}, Welcome to the June State of the Thing. We've got LibraryThing news, an invitation to our annual Pride Hunt, 3,508 free books, and some sad news from the picture book world. If you'd rather receive a plain-text version, [edit your email preferences](. You can also read it [online](. You can like LibraryThing on [Facebook]( and follow [@LibraryThing]( on Twitter for up-to-the-minute site news and updates. Sneak Peak: New Stats We couldn't get it out by this newsletter, but here's a peak at LibraryThing's redesigned statistics page. The new stats will cover more data, be more attractive and more easily shared with others. Check out how author nationalities and Dewey Decimals are looking! GenreThing We've just launched a "beta" of "GenreThing," LibraryThing's attempt at high-level bookstore-style genres. Genres do not replace tags and other systems, but offer a simple way to divide works into categories familiar to all readers. Genres are automatically calculated based on many different sources, including tags, library classifications (Dewey, Library of Congress Subject Headings), and bookstore classifications (BIC, BISAC). This mix of data allows us to generate genres for some books before they are released—and before members have added tags. Members can change genres for themselves. These decisions are themselves analyzed, and may affect the system for others too. For now you can find genres a few places. These include work pages (on the right). Genres also have their own pages, such as [Science Fiction]( and [Biography & Memoir](. You can see a breakdown of the genres [in your own catalog](. To add the genre column to your catalog, to go [Display Settings](, then find "genres" under "classifications." The [Genre Settings Page]( allows you to turn genres off and on, including several genres not included by default, or turn the whole feature off entirely. For much more about GenreThing, see [Introducing GenreThing]( on Talk. Other LibraryThing News Site Search Now Includes WikiThing. By popular demand, our site search now includes [WikiThing](, the LibraryThing wiki, the home for help, tips and other useful information. See the [Talk topic]( in [New Features]( for more information. Pride Hunt [HuntBirds]We wish all of our members a Happy Pride Month, and invite you to participate in our annual [LGBTQ Pride Month Treasure Hunt](. Read and solve the twelve clues, and find the pages on LibraryThing that match your solutions. When you find each right page, you’ll see a banner at the top of your screen announcing that you’ve found a rainbow. Everyone who finds at least one rainbow receives a profile badge, with other prizes available the more clues you solve. List of the Month In honor of National Caribbean American Heritage Month, our List of the Month for June is [Favorite Caribbean Books](. Head over to the list to add your top five choices. Check out other recent Lists of the Month: - February: [Must Read Books by Black Authors]( - March: [Favorite Science Fiction by Women Authors]( - April: [Recommended Nature Writing]( - May: [Must-Read Maine Books]( The Talk of LibraryThing What conversations are going on in our groups? - Books evoking a particular [Time and Place]( in members’ own lives are under discussion in [Book Talk](. - Volumes deserving the [Fine Press Treatment]( are being suggested over in [The Fine Press Forum](. - The twelfth [Bad Joke of the Day]( thread over at [The Green Dragon]( continues that group’s terrible humor tradition. - The [July](, [August]( and [September]( authors have been selected by the [Monthly Author Reads]( group. Speaking of Groups, if you're new to LibraryThing, there's a group for that: [Welcome to LibraryThing](21)! Free Books! Early Reviewers is our program where you can win free advance copies of books to read and review. This month we have Newbery medalist Kate DiCamillo’s newest children’s novel, and the first English-language translation of Mexican poet Esther Seligson’s Sed de Mar. Explore the full list and [sign up to request books](. Our June batch of Early Reviewers has 3,508 copies of 114 books. The deadline to request a book is June 30th, 6pm Eastern time. Did you win a book recently? When you receive your book, make sure you head over to your [Books You've Won]( page to mark it received. After you've read your book, add your review to LibraryThing. First, add the book to your LibraryThing catalog. Then click the pencil-shaped "edit" icon next to the book, or click "edit book" from the work page. Type your review into the Review box, and click "submit" to save it. Reviewing your books gives you a greater chance of winning books in the future, while neglecting to review lowers your odds. For more information, vist the [Early Reviewers Help Page](. Book World News Children’s Literature Losses. In sad news, two American picture book giants, [Eric Carle]( and [Lois Ehlert](, passed away within a few days of one another. Carle, perhaps best known for his childhood classic, [The Very Hungry Caterpillar](, co-founded the [Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art]( with his wife in 2002. Ehlert, who is celebrated for such early childhood favorites as [Chicka Chicka Boom Boom](, written by Bill Martin Jr. and John Achambault, won a Caldecott Honor in 1990 for her own [Color Zoo](. COVID-19 Updates. The response of the wider book world to the Covid-19 pandemic continues to vary, depending upon government recommendations and regulations, and the outlook in different regions of the world. [The 97th Annual Australian Booksellers Association Conference](, convening later this month, has chosen to go online, whereas this year’s [Frankfurt Book Fair]( will be held in person this coming October. In the United States, [The 2021 ALA Conference]( will be held online in late June, with [Barack Obama]( as the much-anticipated keynote speaker. Awards and Prizes. The 2021 [Pulitzer Prizes](Prize) have [just been announced](, with winners including [Louise Erdrich]( in the fiction category, for her novel [The Night Watchman](, and [David Zucchino]( in the general nonfiction category, for his [Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy](. Other book winners include [Natalie Diaz]( in the poetry category, for her [Postcolonial Love Poem](; [Les Payne]( and [Tamara Payne]( in the biography category, for their [The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X](; and [Marcia Chatelain]( in the history category, for her [Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America](. The winners of the [Carnegie](Medal) and [Kate Greenaway](Greenaway+Medal) Medals, the UK’s oldest and most prestigious children’s literature awards, [were also announced recently](. American author [Jason Reynolds]( scooped the Carnegie for his collection of ten interconnected short stories, [Look Both Ways](, while Canadian author and artist [Sydney Smith]( won the Greenaway for his picture-book, [Small in the City](. The [Man Booker International Prize](Booker+International+Prize) was [awarded in early June]( going to [David Diop]( for his novel, [At Night All Blood Is Black](, about a Senegalese soldier fighting for the French during World War I. Diop is the first Frenchman to win the Booker, and his prize will be split with his translator, [Anna Moschovakis](. Also in early June, the winners of the 2021 [Lambda Literary Awards](Literary+Award), better known as the “Lammys,” [were announced](. This year, twenty-four awards were given out, in categories ranging from Lesbian fiction - won by [Juli Delgado Lopera]( for [Fiebre Tropical: A Novel]( - to LGBTQ Mystery - won by [Tom Ryan]( for [I Hope You're Listening](. Lost Gems? In some disappointing news for John Steinbeck fans, his [lost werewolf novel will not be published](, despite considerable interest on the part of critics and readers. On the other hand, Richard Wright’s [The Man Who Lived Underground](, written some eighty years ago but never published in full, was finally made available in print this year, just in time for the first official celebration of the [federal American holiday of Juneteenth](. Hot on LibraryThing - [The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet](, by [John Green]( - [Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment](, by [Daniel Kahneman]( - [Malibu Rising]( by [Taylor Jenkins Reid]( - [The Other Black Girl]( by [Zakiya Dalila Harris]( - [While Justice Sleeps]( by [Stacey Abrams]( - [The Plot]( by [Jean Hanff Korelitz]( - [The Maidens]( by [Alex Michaelides]( - [Great Circle]( by [Maggie Shipstead]( - [The Premonition: A Pandemic Story]( by [Michael Lewis]( - [One Last Stop]( by [Casey McQuiston]( - [The Last Thing He Told Me]( by [Laura Dave]( - [A Master of Djinn]( by [P. Djèlí Clark]( - [Sooley: A Novel]( by [John Grisham]( - [Realm Breaker]( by [Victoria Aveyard]( - [Project Hail Mary]( by [Andy Weir]( - [People We Meet on Vacation]( by [Emily Henry]( - [Crying in H Mart: A Memoir]( by [Michelle Zauner]( - [Hour of the Witch]( by [Chris Bohjalian]( - [A Gambling Man]( by [David Baldacci]( - [Dial A for Aunties]( by [Jesse Q. Sutanto]( Hot in Libraries Here's what was hot in May across thousands of public libraries in the United States. We also wrote a [blog post]( about it. This data was collected by Syndetics Unbound, a LibraryThing/ProQuest project to enrich the library catalog. The search data is fully anonymized the day it is collected. For more information about Syndetics Unbound, please visit [Syndetics.com](. TinyCat [TinyCat]( is the online catalog for small libraries, created by LibraryThing. It turns your existing LibraryThing account into a simple, professional, web-based catalog. Pride Month Giveaway! In honor of Pride Month, TinyCat is running a tote bag giveaway on Twitter for all of their members in the LGBTQ community. Eligible members should: - Tweet out their TinyCat library before Monday, June 28th - Add #tinycatlibraries to their post so their entry can be found Live Demo. To learn more about TinyCat, join Kristi for a live demo Wednesdays at 1pm Eastern. Webinars are now on Zoom, so make sure to use our new [link to attend](. You can also check out our playlists of Tiny Tutorials on [LibraryThing's YouTube channel](, where Kristi walks you through various features of TinyCat in 30 seconds or less. If you'd like to schedule a webinar at another time or if you have other questions about TinyCat, you can reach Kristi at tinycat@librarything.com. That's all for the Thing this month! Happy reading, Abigail This message was sent to {NAME}. Click to [edit your email preferences or unsubscribe from future emails](.