Dashing December Displays

They're dashing for a couple of reasons.  Number One, I just wanted to use a form of Dasher in my title.  Number Two, December is short around these here parts, so they won't be here for long.  And, Number Three, I had to find a way to triple alliterate the title. 

Author Spotlight was a no-brainer for December: the fair Miss Austen, without a doubt.  It is her birthday month, after all.  I took her original works with the newest covers (paperbacks in permabound), and then I pulled other Austen-esque titles: some non-fiction works about her works, one of the graphic novel adaptations, and a few of the recent fiction works inspired by her life or works.  (I still need to read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  The day I created this display, I came home to find that my father had actually brought me that exact title for me to read, for a friend had given it to him.)  I had lots of fun--AGAIN--creating info slides to put up around the display, too. 

Because we had already spotlighted two males for author of the month, I knew I wanted to do a female for December.  When I started looking in our collection, and before I had remembered December was Jane Austen's birthday month, I noticed a lot of the female authors in our collection have written trilogies.  Trilogies are too small for an author display, and when I brought this up to my supervisor she said, "Why not do trilogies for Christmas...Like the Twelve Days of Christmas, but Twelve TRILOGIES?"  Um.  Yes.  That's why she's in charge.  She makes my ideas so much better.  (What will I do without her??)

And, so, Twelve Trilogies for Christmas display was born.  Some of the trilogies are rather established, like the Inkworld Trilogy or the Bartimaeus Trilogy, and some are rather new, like Lisa McMann's WAKE Trilogy and Jeff Sampson's Deviants Trilogy.  This display had books flying off of it faster than any other yet.  Marie Lu's Legend Series was checked out within the first few days.  Other quick check outs included selections from Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games (no shocker there) and Marisa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles. The best part was fitting them into the display space.  I got to experiment with lay out, book stacks, and still keep the display pleasing to the eye.  Finally, I did make one sign to give students a little bit of reason why all of these random series were stacked up together.

The first semester of displays have been pretty great, I think.  I've tried to keep them interesting, eye catching, and always focused on different types of books.  I may have fallen short of that last goals a few times, but with winter break coming up, I have a few weeks to think of and create new displays for the new year. 

New Author Crushes

I have a new obsession.  Actually, it's a dual obsession.  I have become obsessed with YA authors Ransom Riggs and Tahereh Mafi.  They are pretty much the cutest, coolest married YA couple ever.

(Shut up.  Her bouquet was made of pages from Ransom's book.  Cutest.  Thing.  EVER.)

I believe they should be deemed THE young adult power couple.  I want them to come to my house and read creepy, dystopian stories to my children.  That'd be OK...right?  OK, OK...maybe they shouldn't come read to my children...YET.  They should come read to the Uni High students, though.  That would be awesome.  That would be cause for a MAJOR high five.

They are all over social media, have a joint YouTube channel (ADORABLE!), and married in September 2013.  HE is the author of the uber creepy YA book Miss Peregrine's Home for Very Peculiar Children.  He loves to mine for vintage photos in flea swaps, and Miss Peregrine has just been adapted and published as a graphic novel.

SHE is the author of dystopian YA series Shatter Me.  It was optioned to be a film even before it was published.  And, while I am quick to judge another dystopian effort, hers seems to be interesting, and no, I haven't read it yet, but it is on my list of 100+ to read.  Her blog posts are engaging, so I will definitely give her dystopian effort a try.

(Just look at how cute they are doing joint book talks!  Awwwww!)

You can get to their various social networking efforts via their websites, and I am tempted to join Twitter just to follow both of them.  For now, I'll stick to just following them on Instagram (especially since Ransom has all the cool photographs).  Until I get them over to my house for dinner, I'll just look for images of them online and watch how uber awesome they are from afar.