Not Writing, But Reading

by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

This month's cycle at GBC, we're talking about NaNo. The only problem is that I never do NaNo, because my year is typically one big NaNo. For example, since Monday, I've written 14,000 words of a new novel, not to mention blog posts etc.

So instead of talking about strategies for writing quickly, I'm going to do a reading post. Since others else-Internet are posting their Best of 2012 reading lists, although it's not even December yet, and since I'm likely not due up here again until 2013, I thought I'd post my list now.

I keep a reading journal and put stars next to the books I deem the most worthy reads. When I make my end-of-year list, I knock out those books that I can no longer remember. Here then are the best books I read this year that I can still remember:

Best Books Read in 2012

Best Adult Fiction

The Paris Wife, Paula McLain

The Odds, Stuart O'Nan

The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach

Hanging Hill, Mo Hayder

Trick of the Dark, Val McDermid

The Leopard, Jo Nesbo

The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes

The Night Swimmer, Matt Bondurant

Night Swim, Jessica Keener

Light from a Distant Star, Mary McGarry Morris

The Lost Saints of Tennessee, Amy Franklin-Willis

Vixen, Ken Bruen

Gone, Cathi Hanauer

The Good Father, Noah Hawley

Helsinki White, James Thompson

The Darlings, Cristina Alger

Broken Harbor, Tana French

Say Nice Things About Detroit, Scott Lasser

The Innocents, Francesca Segal

The World Without You, Joshua Henkin

Alys, Always, Harriet Lane

The Keeper of Lost Causes, Jussi Adler-Olsen

The Shadow Girls, Henning Mankell

The Lifeboat, Charlotte Rogan

Best YA and Middle Grade (MG)

First Day on Earth, Cecil Castellucci (YA)

A Monster Calls, Patrick Ness (MG)

Where Things Come Back, John Corey Whaley (MG)

The Big Crunch, Pete Hautman (YA)

This is Not a Test, Courtney Summers (YA)

The Wicked and the Just, J. Anderson Coats (YA)

Best Nonfiction

The Presidents Club, Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy

Note: For the last several years, I've always picked one book that stood above all the others. This year, despite how many books appear on this year-end roundup, there are no books that stand head and shoulders above the rest. Here, then, are some of the books I've given this accolade to in previous years:

This Human Season, Louise Dean

Breath, Tim Winton

Kings of the Earth, Jon Clinch

The Old Romantic, Louise Dean

Little Bee, Chris Cleave

And that's it! A long list of books for you to potentially go out and buy to support your reading habit.

Oh, bloody hell. Even though I never do NaNo, clearly a writer who can string together 14,000 (hopefully) intelligible words in four days knows something about stringing words together, so here are some free tips from me to you:

1) Don't cook. You want to pile up the pages? Other people cook for you - you don't cook for them - or you rely on takeout or, my favorite lunch, Chips In A Bag.

2) Don't clean. If nothing is actively crawling in your house, it's clean enough.

3) Don't apologize or ask for permission. Presumably, all the others in your household, however many there may be, don't apologize because they do things that satisfy their soul in some way. You shouldn't either.

4) Set daily goals. Sure, Twitter etc is a distraction - for all of us - but "I spent too much time on social media today" is no better an excuse than "the dog ate my homework." Be professional about your writing. Set those daily goals and then don't sleep until you've met them. You can always play afterward or in the gaps.

And that's really it! Enjoy your reading list! Enjoy the last day of NaNo!

Oops, before I go, here's one thing you can do for me. I don't expect a whole list, but how about telling me the title of just one book you read this year that you think the world - or at least I! - would enjoy?

Be well. Don't forget to write.

Lauren Baratz-Logsted is the author of 26 books - and counting - for adults, teens and children, the most recent of which is Pursuing the Times, a comedic romance for adults (buy it! buy it!) You can read more about her life and work at www.laurenbaratzlogsted.com or follow her on Twitter at @LaurenBaratzL

National Novel Writing Month Miracles

By Barbara Claypole White

Yesterday one of my writing partners asked how I was juggling the holidays and two milestone family birthdays with author hoopla and a Christmas deadline for novel two. Badly was the answer that popped into my head, which isn’t strictly true. Considering how November started, it’s a NaNoWriMo miracle.

Three months ago, Harlequin MIRA published my debut novel, The Unfinished Garden. The hero of this love story about grief, fear, and dirt battled crippling obsessive-compulsive disorder as a child. He was in remission until something happened in his personal life and blam! The OCD came back. Full force. When I signed the contract for The Unfinished Garden, my son, who was diagnosed with OCD at a young age, had been free of the anxiety monster for three years. TUG launched into the world and blam! The OCD was back. Full force.

In the weeks that followed, I abandoned my promotional efforts and cast my book baby off into the literary ocean on a cobbled-together life raft. Hell, I never even learned how to tweet. Eventually, I asked for an extension on novel two, which my fabulous publisher granted. (Personal aside: I love being a Harlequin MIRA author.)

Thanks to my son’s mantra of OCD will never win and two heaven-sent mental health care professionals, my family has hit a turning point. And here I am. Staring down the deadline that must be met. And a house that must be decorated. And gifts that must be purchased and wrapped in either Hanukkah, birthday or Christmas paper (we’re a two-religion as well as a two-holiday-birthday house). Ho, ho, ho.

But a funny thing happened on the route through my son’s mental collapse. Writing, once again, became my escape and my therapy, and novel two is richer for it. NaNoWriMo was not widely productive for me in terms of whipping through the pages of my third draft. But what I did produce felt golden. I was mining the emotional depths of my story and excavating all kinds of connections I had missed in the second draft.

I don’t much care whether you shelve my novels in women’s fiction, literary commercial fiction, or romance, but I write emotional relationship stories. Voice and character are everything, and until OCD took my family hostage for a second time, I was struggling to connect with my new heroine. She’s a holistic vet, and we don’t even own a goldfish. But she’s also the mother of a suicide survivor.

One day after a crying jag on the bathroom floor, I decided to focus on my writing for a few hours—use it to block out my reality. And as I did, I met my heroine for the first time. On the surface, she was still the calm, spiritual, positive-thinker both the hero and I mistook her for. But in private, she was a terrified parent. And I understood her pain.

So, not really a miracle by It’s A Wonderful Life standards, but something huge happened to me this November. I rediscovered the joy of writing, and I am going to keep that joy through the season of chaos. And wish every reader and writer a December filled with escapism.

Barbara Claypole White is the author of TheUnfinished Garden, a love story about grief, OCD, and dirt (Harlequin MIRA, 2012)

“White … conveys the condition of OCD, and how it creates havoc in one’s life and the lives of loved ones, with style and grace, never underplaying the seriousness of the disorder.” Romantic Times 4* 

“Filled with fascinating characters and a great deal of love for the natural world, White’s novel explores the untilled regions of the psyche, and we are richer for it.” Anne Barnhill, The Pilot Newspaper

Romance Junkies 5 Ribbons + Recommended Read for "unpredictable originality"

5 Game-Changing Gifts for Writers

By Karin Gillespie

 “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

Long ago, when I first read the statement above, I imagined an encounter with a big-bellied, toga-wearing monk who would whisper the secrets of the universe into my ear.

Over the years I've learned you don’t necessarily need a monk to show you the way. If you’re open to it, wisdom comes in many guises, such as advice from a friend, a passage in a book, an overheard conversation or even a sudden insight.

What follows are the valuable writing gifts I have received over the years. Depending on where you are in this journey, they may or may not resonate with you, but each one was precious to me and changed my way of thinking about my craft.

Morning Pages

Since I was a little girl I always dreamed of being a writer but it wasn't until I started doing daily morning pages that I gained the courage to face the blank page.  And what are morning pages?

Simply, first thing when you wake up in the morning, you write longhand in a notebook for twenty minutes without stopping. It’s best if you practice morning pages for two or three months and you shouldn't read what you've written until much later.  The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron popularized morning pages but they've been around for decades.

Morning pages train your subconscious to write. It coaxes out the muse, and, trust me, the practice is utterly magical. Morning pages work best with new writers or writers who have abandoned the craft for a while.

Save the Cat!

Storytelling is a skill separate from writing beautiful sentences and Blake Snyder, author of “Save the Cat Strikes Back!” explains plotting in the most eloquent and accessible way possible.

After reading his book, I knew I would never again plot myself into a corner or abandon a project because of structural problems.  Although his work is written in a breezy style, there’s something very elemental and old-world about Snyder’s approach.

He died a couple of years ago, and even though he was a successful screenwriter, I think his insightful how-to books were his true legacy. I recommend all of his books but if you were only to buy one, I’d get “Save the Cat Strikes Back.” In addition to giving structural advice, he shares the very personal story of how he changed his writing life around. An inspiring man who will be missed.

Pomodoro Technique

Former Girlfriend April Henry turned me on to this incredible yet simple technique. Basically you write for twenty-five minutes, no interruptions, and then take a five minute break.

Repeat as many times as necessary. This method has increased my focus ten-fold. I no longer worry about being distracted by the Internet or e-mail, because during each twenty-five minute period, you trick the brain to attend only to the writing. Here’s more about the Pomodoro technique if I’ve piqued your interest.

Rachel Aaron’s Amazing Productivity Method

Recently I decided I wanted to write first drafts faster, and I ran across author Rachel Aaron's advice on that very topic. Using her method, I easily upped my daily word count from 2,000 words a day to 3,000. (Accomplished in a four-hour time period with brief breaks) The secret?

Aaron suggests writing a brief summary of what you’re going to write each day before plunging in.  Her advice should be worth a $1,000 it helped me so much. But I only spent $.99 on her book. Thank you, Rachel Aaron! XOXO

A recent insight about the writing game

Once during one of the best performances of his life, Laurence Olivier came off the stage and was approached by a reporter who was bowled over by his mastery. Olivier acknowledged he’d done well, but he also said, “I don’t know if I can ever repeat it, because it did not come from me.”

The more I write, the more I understand that the best writing is achieved when I leave my ego outside the writing room, and surrender to my unconscious mind.

 If I show up every day, the muse will arrive, and if I’m humble and understand that I’m only a conduit or co-creator at best, then good writing will almost always result. When I’m co-creating, the supply of ideas are endless, and I never get stale. Maybe this gift was the most important one of all.

So those are the best gifts I've received in over twenty years of writing, and I hope at least one will speak to you. And since it’s the gift-giving season, I would love to hear the valuable insights you have received during your writing life. I’m always looking to add a few more to my treasure chest.     

Guest post: Michelle Diener

Thank you to Maggie for inviting me over to visit :) .

Seeing as this is the Girlfriends Book Club, I thought I'd talk about girlfriends, and the role they play in fiction.

My latest release (which comes out today! yay! :)) The Emperor's Conspiracy, is set in 19th Century London during the Napoleonic Wars. My main protagonist is from the slums but now lives as a lady in high society, and she has to balance her friendships carefully because she wants to live in both worlds.

The person who rescued her from her old life is a woman who is half-mother figure, half-confidant, and the one person Charlotte can be herself around. There is no need for pretense. But a circle of one can be lonely, and Charlotte has no real friends of her own age until an act of extraordinary bravery from her saves three boys from harm and their mother befriends her.

The friendship that ensues is the catalyst for the rest of the book, bringing Charlotte into her new friend's circle and introducing her to her friend's brother, and getting her involved in the dangerous investigation he is part of. This has a ripple-effect through Charlotte's life, forcing her to look at how she's been living, and whether she is happy and in the kind of life she wants.

We can also see Charlotte through her friend's eyes. The competent, strong person she appears to be, contrasting to her internal doubt and sadness.

When I think of great 'girlfriend' stories, I think of Thelma and Louise (probably one of my all-time favorites!), where the director uses Thelma and Louise as foils for each other, and as constrasts to the men in the movie in the way they deal with each other and see each other. Or Steel Magnolias, where the support and understanding of the female characters makes them much more than the sum of their parts. Fried Green Tomatoes also springs to mind (and I'm choosing well-known movies here, because people have often seen the same movies, but haven't always read the same books), where the main progtagonist slowly undergoes a change in the way she sees herself and her own strength and power by hearing a story of other women and the adversity they faced and overcame.

I'd love to hear about your favorite 'girlfriends' book or movie, and I have a copy of The Emperor's Conspiracy to give away to one randomly-drawn commenter (US addresses only, unfortunately).

Short bio:

Michelle Diener writes historical fiction. Her Susanna Horenbout and John Parker series starts with IN A TREACHEROUS COURT. Set in the court of Henry VIII, it features the real historical figures of artist Susanna Horenbout and Henry’s Keeper of the Palace of Westminster and Yeoman of the King’s Robes, John Parker. It was followed by KEEPER OF THE KING'S SECRETS, also featuring Susanna Horenbout and John Parker.

A new historical novel, set during the Napoleonic Wars in London in 1811, THE EMPEROR'S CONSPIRACY, is set for a November 27th, 2012 release.

Michelle also contributed a short paranormal story to the ENTANGLED ANTHOLOGY entitled BREAKING OUT. All the proceeds of the sale of ENTANGLED go to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

The Girls’ Guide to a Book Launch

by the Kenny Powers of Publishing, Jess Riley.

Some of you know I just released my second novel. It’s been four years since I shepherded a book into the world, and I forgot what a stomach-clenching stress-bomb launch day can be.

The day of your book release feels a little like a Christmas morning in which any of the gaily-wrapped boxes under the tree might actually contain a turd. You begin terribly excited: how low will my amazon ranking go? Who will retweet the exciting news? How many fabulous reviews will be posted? How many copies will I sell? Will someone send me flowers? Will I have that special glow about me that people can’t help but compliment so I can blush and say, “Thanks, I just delivered a book baby.”

(Sidebar: did I actually just use the word “gaily?” Moving on. )

As word gets out, you start to wait for that one person to mention it, to say they bought it or loved it or simply acknowledge the fact that you have a new book out, to throw you even the rattiest of bones. The great majority of your friends and family are beyond the moon for you, shouting your great news to the heavens, but you zero in like a laser beam on the fact that ONE fellow author, relative, or friend totally ignored you. This is probably because: they hate you/think your book sucks/hate your politics/think you are a potty-mouth damned to hell/are the meanest, biggest doodoo-heads in the world and probably steal from the elderly and laugh at sick children, they steal from the elderly and laugh at sick children WHILE they’re leaving you a one star review and why won’t they just love you? Why? (sob) You’ll change! You will! You’ll buy them lunch, babysit their kids for free, be their personal chauffeur, change your politics and taste in music if they only validate your existence! Please!

I am NOT like that.

Actually, they’re probably just busy, but we’re funny like that. My dog is like this too, because she always sucks up to the one person in the room who wants nothing to do with her.

And WHOA SALLY if you’re indie publishing your book! Traditional publishing puts little muscle behind your promotion to begin with (unless you’re a Marquee Name, in which case hello! My name is Jess Riley! Do you need someone to pick up your dry cleaning?) When Driving Sideways came out I bent myself into a pretzel for 50 hours a day promoting it: contacting book bloggers, coordinating contests and social media, sending hand-written cards to every indie bookstore manager in a million mile radius, setting up signings and readings, streaking naked through my alma mater’s homecoming game wearing nothing but my book cover in body paint.

Just kidding. I didn’t do that last part. There was one awesome thing I did, and still continue to do: meet with book clubs. They give me wine and laugh at my jokes, and I always drive home afterwards singing along with the radio and feeling like a rock star.

Despite working my heiny off to be noticed in a sea of worthy books, the ONE THING that made all the difference in the world for me was being picked up by Target. One thing that was beyond my control. Well, you write the best book you can, but that’s a given. There are a lot of them out there.

So what advice do I have for you if you’re counting down to your own book launch? If you have a traditional publisher, you still have to promote the hell out of yourself (which most of us hate), but you’re incredibly lucky, because at the very least you will have distribution and consideration by old guard reviewers. People won’t give you the stink eye and say things like, “I only read real books.”

Now.  After rigorous editing and careful consideration, are you indie-publishing? Okay, great! Do you feel that little whinging around the edges of your soul? That’s your ego. Take it in the back yard and shoot it. Now roll up your sleeves and get to work. Email your writer friends for support, and make a huge pot of coffee. You're standing on the edge of a cliff, naked, waiting for someone to either shove you over or wrap you in a blanket and say, "Oh honey, let's get you back to the yurt." But while you wait, there are a thousand book bloggers to put in that spreadsheet ...

Jess Riley just launched her second novel, All the Lonely People. It's about crazy family members and holiday angst and Christmas dinner in a cafe full of dogs. BOOK GIVEAWAY: Email her, leave a comment below, or "Like" her Facebook page by December 1st to win one of three signed copies!

Giving Thanks

Judith Arnold

My grandmother was always the Thanksgiving hostess. She took great, possessive pride in this. The holiday was hers, and nobody dared to challenge her. When I got married, I made very clear to my husband that Thanksgiving would be at my grandmother’s apartment. Any other holiday was up for grabs, but she owned Thanksgiving.

One year, a week before Thanksgiving, my grandmother left her apartment to do her preliminary Thanksgiving shopping at the supermarket in her Manhattan neighborhood. While walking home, her wheeled cart laden with potatoes, bread and cans of cranberry sauce, she stepped into a crosswalk on Broadway and 68^th Street and a van running a red light hit her.

My parents summoned me to New York. My son was a little over a year old, so I brought him with me. By the time I arrived, my grandmother had undergone brain surgery, but her prognosis was grim. I went to see her in the hospital’s ICU, and I didn’t recognize her. Not because she was bruised or disfigured but because she wasn’t my grandmother anymore. Her spirit was gone. At my parents’ request, I authorized the hospital to unplug her from life support and let her go.

That year, we did not have a happy Thanksgiving. My husband joined us in New York and we brought my parents with us to his parents’ house, where my mother-in-law served a lovely Thanksgiving dinner that I remember very little of, although I do recall there was a great deal of drinking and crying. At the end of the weekend, my husband, my son and I returned to our home in Connecticut, where I spent a lot of time dealing with my parents’ grief and my own. In the middle of this mournful period, my husband proposed what he considered a terrific idea: “Let’s have another baby.”

I couldn’t imagine having another child while I was drowning in sadness. But my husband pointed out that it had taken us a long time to conceive our first child, and we ought to start on a second child now if we wanted our children to be spaced only a few years apart. Weary and worn out, I agreed.

Much to my surprise, I became pregnant immediately. My midwife calculated my due date to be exactly one year from the day my grandmother died.

Life is a mystery. I wondered why I’d gotten pregnant so quickly and imagined my grandmother’s hand in it. Maybe she’d had to leave the world so there would be a place in it for my new child. Maybe her spirit would enter me and settle into my baby. Who knew?

What I did know was that the next Thanksgiving my family celebrated was not a sad one. My second son made the scene the Monday before Thanksgiving. I postponed our Thanksgiving feast until Saturday, then invited my parents and in-laws to my house and served a pared-down but tasty meal. From that moment on, Thanksgiving became my holiday.

My meal is not identical to my grandmother’s. Her stuffing contained celery and mushrooms; mine contains apples. She prepared mashed turnips; I’m a butternut-squash person. Her Thanksgiving dinner never concluded with birthday cake. Mine does, every year. Pumpkin pie, apple cake and a chocolate layer cake, my younger son’s favorite.

Like the great-grandmother he never knew, my son is smart, generous, musically talented and a bit scatterbrained. Other than that, they don’t have much in common. But thanks to him, Thanksgiving is a once again happy occasion for my family.

I still miss my grandmother, and I always will. But as we celebrate my son’s birthday every November, I feel her presence, celebrating with us. What I am most grateful for, in this season of giving thanks, is that out of great sorrow, great joy can arise.

May your holidays be filled with joy!

Judith Arnold’s most recent publication is Holding Hands, one of the launch titles at Lunch Hour Love Stories, a fun new site featuring romantic novellas and short stories. Holding Hands is available at all the ebook retailers. You’ll find the links at Lunch Hour Love Stories.

I finished my book. What do I do now?

Pat yourself on the back.   Curtsy.  Take a bow.  If you’re like me, mistakenly mourn the end of your journey.  (Don’t worry.  It’s not the end.  You’ll be spending the rest of your life with your characters.)

What’s next?

No one wants to hear this, but it’s the truth.  Let the book sit for as long as you can manage.  Do something, anything, else.  Take a break.  Drink a beer.  Play CatchPhrase.  Go dancing. 

Tic tock.  Tic tock.  Your dancing shoes have worn thin.  The beer is warm, and your friends are tired of you being a whiz at word games. 

Pretend you’ve never seen your novel before.  Read it with fresh eyes.  Find every flaw and fault you can.  Be good to yourself and STAR the parts you like.  Cut what is unnecessary to the plot, the stuff you love, but doesn’t help forward your novel’s storyline (kill those little darlings).  Revise and rewrite.  Repeat.  Revise and rewrite.  Repeat.  Be your biggest critic.  If you can, have other writers or readers read for you.  Talk to them.  Don’t be defensive.  Get as much feedback as possible so that you can see when there is consensus.

Let it sit again.

Finally, lock yourself in a room for as long as possible.  Stay sober (while writing).  If you smoke cigarettes, smoke up.  Be your harshest critic.  Tell yourself, “I can do this.  I can make something that is undeniably good, that no one will dismiss. I can do it.”  Confidence goes far when it’s you and your pages alone in a room.   

Next, leave your creative muse behind.  I call this the 

BUSINESS STAGE  (I never much cared for this stage.)

Use the Writer's Market or www.agentquery.com to find the agent that fits.  Make sure that your agent reads the kind of prose you write.  Make sure that your agent is accepting unsolicited manuscripts.  

Google "How to write a good query letter."  There are a million links.  Then, get to it.  

Write a fabulous query letter (no first drafts here).

This is my query letter that got my first book (and me) pulled from the slush pile.  

Dear Ms. Brower:

Please consider representing my novel, The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors.

A literary novel, The Handbook… spans nineteen years in the lives of the two main characters (Becca, born into privilege in 1969, and Buckley, born into poverty in 1959), and suggests that people, however disparate, are linked. The 400-page narrative encompasses multiple themes, but ultimately the book is a story of redemption.

Buckley, whose mother is struck dead by lightning, writes a nonfiction handbook, The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors, excerpts of which appear throughout the novel. Becca, a repeat lightning strike survivor, buys Buckley’s Handbook through an ad in the back pages of a magazine. Becca and Buckley, destined to collide, meet during a massive electrical storm where there is a surprising reversal of fortune.

Structurally, the novel tells Becca’s story, then Buckley’s—the tension mounting until the two meet.

I am a thirty-four year old MFA fiction graduate My screenplay Spotting Normal was a 2003 semi-finalist for the Chesterfield Writers Film Project Award and a 2004 finalist for the CineStory screenwriting award. My story “Cop Drag” was a finalist in the First Annual Lewis Nordan Fiction Contest sponsored by Algonquin Books. My second screenplay, Paint Spain With Bart, was a finalist in the 2006 Screenplay Festival Contest sponsored by InkTip. I am currently halfway through my second novel.

Let me know if I may send you the first 100 pages or the full manuscript.

All Best,

Michele Young-Stone

Now, mind you, I can see a dozen + ways to revise this query (nowadays), but it's mine.  It got me where I am.  I just heard a funny Turkey Day story from my dad.  He asked a woman if her boobs were real, and she said, "they're mine."  Enough said.  This query letter is mine.        

Here are some query letter tips from our own girlfriends, a blog from August, 2011.

http://girlfriendbooks.blogspot.com/2011/08/query-letter-tips-that-work.html

Here is a link to an article by Chuck Sambuchino in Writer’s Digest.  My query letter appears with my agent Michelle Brower’s response as to why she requested a partial manuscript.  http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/successful-queries-agent-michelle-brower-and-the-handbook-for-lightning-strike-survivors

If an agent wants to see your manuscript, go "Whoop whoop!" and then calm yourself.  You've got a bite!  Revise again.  This could be your big break!  

If you get a rejection slip, don't cry.  Try try again.  Here's a video I made about my personal rejection journey and publication:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3byixmFbBw&feature=results_video

Happy Black Friday, gang, and thanks for letting me share some tips.  

Michele Young-Stone, author of The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors (2010)

"Young-Stone has written an exceptionally rich and sure-handed debut, full of complex characters, brilliantly described..."  The Boston Globe

"...a book filled with characters so imperfect, they look like you and me."  The Raleigh News & Observer

"The sense of melancholy, tempered by the resilience and heart of the characters, makes this ripe for Oprah or fans of Elizabeth Berg or Anne Tyler."  Starred Review, Library Journal