Goodreads History

Yesterday was a completely lazy day, but this morning my kid and I officially set our Goodreads goals. In doing so, I remembered that they show your whole history on the sidebar. I thought it would be interesting to share here!

My goal history

My kid's goal history

New YALSAblog Member Manager!

I'm excited to announce one of my new roles:

CHICAGO — The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) has selected Allison Renner, a Teen Services Librarian at the Cordova (Tennessee) Branch Library as its new member manager for the YALSAblog.

“The YALSAblog played a huge part in my life as I earned my Master of Library Science,” said Renner. “I was in an online program, and reading and writing for YALSAblog helped me feel connected to other librarians. As I started my new position as a Teen Services Librarian, I found so much inspiration on the blog, and support from the entire YALSA community. I am eager to bring my hands-on experience as a student and librarian to the position, as well as my interest in promoting diversity and inclusion.”

Renner will serve a one-year term as member manager starting December 1^st.

See the whole press release here.

Celebrating Dreams with Martin Luther King

Today was the first 2016 library program for adults with disabilities! Since Martin Luther King, Jr. day is Monday, he was the subject of the day.


Several individuals knew about Dr. King's life and work, so we started by talking about what we knew. Since we live in Memphis, Tennessee, we have the unfortunate distinction of being the city where Dr. King was shot and killed. Many individuals in today's program have visited the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, where there is a tribute to Dr. King on the balcony where he was shot.

By reading A Picture book of Martin Luther King, Jr., we learned a lot about him that we didn't already know. We learned that his birthday is January 15th, which is why Martin Luther King, Jr. day is around that date every January. He graduated from high school at 15 and started college early!

I Have a Dream is a selection from Dr. King's famous speech illustrated by beautiful paintings. We read this one, and then talked about our dreams for a perfect world, or even just a perfect day. We wrote and drew our dreams.


A lot of people said their dream of a perfect world started with their homes or churches -
spending time there with family and friends who care about them.


One person traced his hand and drew people holding hands across it.


This just might be my favorite...all the colors working together to make a beautiful picture.

I've also written about previous library programs for adults with disabilities.

2015 Reading Challenge Wrap-Up

I've been participating in a self-imposed Reading Challenge on Goodreads for several years now, but in 2015, I added another, more involved list. This one was making the rounds on Instagram at the beginning of the year, so I traced its origins to PopSugar and participated.


Out of 50 challenges, I completed (or didn't complete, in the case of "a book you started but never finished") 42 of them. I only used each book title to check off one challenge, even though a lot of them could have applied to multiple criteria. I'm pretty proud of myself because, though a lot of the books I read and THEN went back to check off items, I read some books just for the list. For example, I never would have read The Marvels (at the last minute!) if I didn't need to read a book over 500 pages. And not reading The Marvels would be an incredibly sad thing. So this list did push me to read beyond my usual interests, even if I didn't read "a classic romance" or "a book over 100 years old".

PopSugar has a new reading challenge up for 2016 - check it out, and let's challenge ourselves together!

My past Goodreads goals
2012: 125/120 - I went above and beyond, so I upped my goal for the next year!
2013: 92/125 - I was well below my goal. That's what I get for being smug and determined.
2014: 110/100 - I went a little bit above, but kept my goal in check for the next year. I learned my lesson.
2015: 141/100 - Well above my goal, which kind of amazes me because my course load was really heavy this year.
2016: ?/100 - sticking firm at 100 books for the year. Like I said, I learned my lesson! I'll be finishing up my MLS, leading library programs for people with disabilities, and reading to my son!

My son read 183 out of 100 books this year! For 2016, I'm raising his goal to 200 books. I need to practice reading aloud as much as I can anyway, and I think he'll have more interest in books (though he already loves them!) since he'll be turning 2.

Do you have any reading challenges or goals for 2016?