LibraryThing: State of the Thing - July

LibraryThing: State of the Thing Dear {NAME}, Welcome to the July State of the Thing. We've got LibraryThing updates, 1,973 free books, and some news from the world of book awards. 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. LibraryThing Feature Updates Library of Congress Classification. We've improved LibraryThing's handling of the Library of Congress Classifications (LCC), the call number system used by most academic libraries. You can now look at your library across the top-level classes, from A ("General Works") to Z ("Bibliography, Library Science and Information Resources"), and see detailed wordings in your catalog. More improvements are planned soon. [Find out more on Talk](. Navigation Tweaks. We've changed the navigation bar on your home, profile and related pages and when looking at the same pages for another member. Other members now get their member name listed on the left, and a "Books" tab. This will make it easier to know where you are, and who you are looking at. See our [Talk](topic for more information. List of the Month Come join LibraryThing’s List of the Month project, as we create a new thematic book list each month. Like all of our [Lists](, the List of the Month draws upon the knowledge of the LibraryThing community, while also aiming to provoke discussion around each theme. See our new [wiki page]( for a complete List of the Month list, and join us over on our [talk thread](, for further discussion of the project. July List of the Month. Summer is here, and our List of the Month for July is devoted to [Best Beach Reads](. Head over to the list to add your top five choices. The top spot is currently occupied by Camus' The Stranger, "Probably the most famous beach encounter in literature." Funny. Check out other recent Lists of the Month: - March: [Favorite Science Fiction by Women Authors]( - April: [Recommended Nature Writing]( - May: [Must-Read Maine Books]( - June: [Favorite Caribbean Books]( The Talk of LibraryThing What conversations are going on in our groups? - The question, [What’s Important In a Book?](, is being debated by the members of [Readers Over Sixty](. - A discussion of the [Best Translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey]( is ongoing, amongst our [Folio Society Devotees](. - Members have been nominating their [Favorite Depiction of Dragons]( in fantasy literature over in the [FantasyFans]( group. - [Writing from the Lusophone World]( will be explored from July through September in the [Reading Globally]( 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 welcome back the Canadian press, Orca Book Publishers. Explore the full list and [sign up to request books](. Our July batch of Early Reviewers has 1973 copies of 76 books. The deadline to request a book is July 26th, 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 Awards and Prizes. British author [Hilary Mantel]( has recently been [awarded the 2021 Walter Scott Prize]( for her novel, [The Mirror & the Light](. Named for the famous Scottish author of such classic works as [Ivanhoe](, the [Walter Scott Prize](Scott+Prize) celebrates excellence in historical fiction. [Amanda Lohrey]( has [won the 2021 Miles Franklin Literary Award]( for her seventh novel, [The Labyrinth](. First given out in 1957, the [Miles Franklin Literary Award](20Franklin%20Literary%20Award) honors "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases." Canada’s [Griffin Poetry Prize](Poetry+Prize) winners for 2021 [have been announced](. In the Canadian category, [Canisia Lubrin]( has won for her [The Dyzgraphxst](, while Belarusian poet [Valzhyna Mort]( has won in the International category, for her [Music for the Dead and Resurrected](. The 2021 [Orwell Prize](20Prize) winners [have been announced](. Given annually by The Orwell Foundation, these awards are named for [George Orwell](, and recognize the best in political writing. The winner in the non-fiction category is [Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition and Compromise in Putin’s Russia]( by [Joshua Yaffa](. In the fiction category, the winner is [Summer]( by [Ali Smith](. The New York Public Library’s [Young Lions Fiction Award](20Lions%20Fiction%20Award), given annually to an American author who is thirty-five years or younger, [has been awarded]( to [Catherine Lacey](, for her novel, [Pew](. The [Desmond Elliott Prize](20Elliott%20Prize), an annual award for a debut novel written in English and published in the UK, [has been given]( to [A.K. Blakemore](, for [The Manningtree Witches](. COVID-19 Updates. The book world continues to adapt to changing Covid-19 conditions. [UK booksellers plan to maintain safety precautions](, despite an easing of governmental restrictions, while regional bookselling conferences in the US [plan to host a mixture of live and virtual events](. Publishing houses have announced a variety of plans to ease their employees back into in-person work in the US, from [Hachette’s hybrid plan]( involving a minimum of two days in the office, to [Penguin Random House’s announcement]( that offices will be reopening in September, to vaccinated staff members interested in returning. Book sales have improved in many parts of the world, thanks to the reopening of bookstores since the beginning of 2021, with increases being reported in the [UK](, [USA]( and [Italy](. Examining Two Great Authors. It has recently been announced that hundreds of [Franz Kafka’s]( private letters, sketches and papers [have been digitized by The National Library of Israel](, and are now available for the world to peruse, [on that library’s website](. Those interested in a more physical exploration of an author’s work might want to take the new walking tour of [Oliver Twist’s]( London, recently [put together by the Charles Dickens Museum](. Hot on LibraryThing - [The President’s Daughter]( by [Bill Clinton]( - [Survive the Night]( by [Riley Sager]( - [The Personal Librarian]( by [Marie Benedict]( - [Golden Girl: A Novel]( by [Elin Hilderbrand]( - [The Maidens]( by [Alex Michaelides]( - [How the World is Passed]( by [Clint Smith]( - [The Witness for the Dead]( by [Katherine Addison]( - [The Guncle]( by [Steven Rowley]( - [Malibu Rising]( by [Taylor Jenkins Reid]( - [The Other Black Girl]( by [Zakiya Dalila Harris]( - [One Last Stop]( by [Casey McQuiston]( - [For the Wolf]( by [Hannah Whitten]( - [The Hidden Palace]( by [Helene Wecker]( - [Any Way the Wind Blows]( by [Rainbow Rowell]( - [The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet]( by [John Green]( - [Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment]( by [Daniel Kahneman]( - [That Summer]( by [Jennifer Weiner]( - [The Chosen and the Beautiful]( by [Nghi Vo]( - [While Justice Sleeps]( by [Stacey Abrams]( - [Legacy: A Novel]( by [Nora Roberts]( Hot in Libraries Here's what's hot so far in July across thousands of public libraries in the United States. We also wrote a [blog post]( for June. 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](. - [The Last Thing He Told Me]( by [Laura Dave]( - [The Paper Palace]( by [Miranda Cowley Heller]( - [The Midnight Library]( by [Matt Haig]( - [Malibu Rising]( by [Taylor Jenkins Reid]( - [The Personal Librarian]( by [Marie Benedict]( - [Golden Girl: A Novel]( by [Elin Hilderbrand]( - [The Four Winds]( by [Kristin Hannah]( - [Falling]( by [T. J. Newman]( - [The President's Daughter: A Thriller]( by [Bill Clinton]( - [The Maidens]( by [Alex Michaelides]( - [Project Hail Mary]( by [Andy Weir]( - [People We Meet on Vacation]( by [Emily Henry]( - [Survive the Night]( by [Riley Sager]( - [Sooley: A Novel]( by [John Grisham]( - [The Cellist: A Novel]( by [Daniel Silva]( - [The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue]( by [V. E. Schwab]( - [Where the Crawdads Sing]( by [Delia Owens]( - [The Silent Patient]( by [Alex Michaelides]( - [That Summer]( by [Jennifer Weiner]( - [The Forest of Vanishing Stars]( by [Kristin Harmel]( 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. 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](.