A blog for young readers (and YA lovers) from the Providence Athenaeum.
The Providence Athenaeum is a unique library and cultural center in the heart of Providence, Rhode Island. Growing out of the Providence Library Company (fourth library in the United States), the Athenaeum as we know it was formed in 1836. Our handsome building on the corner of Benefit and College was completed in 1838.
We are one of the few surviving membership libraries in the nation. Student memberships are available - visit or call for more information.
This blog is updated by one of our circulation assistants (and YA enthusiast), RJ. Follow us to find out what's new in our Young Adult corner, or just for a daily dose of literary shenanigans.
You can follow the Ath on twitter or facebook. Our catalog and much more information about us can be found at our homepage.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
What’s New: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor
New to the Athenaeum’s YA corner is Days of Blood and Starlight, the highly anticipated sequel to Laini Taylor’s The Daughter of Smoke and Bone. From goodreads:
Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.
This is not that world.
Art student and monster’s apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.
In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she’ll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.
Staff Picks: Own The Night
Libraries all around Rhode Island are celebrating reading this summer with a dark and mysterious theme: Own the Night. At first it might seem unusual to celebrate everything the goes bump in the night during the season of swimming and sunshine, but when else do we really get to appreciate night-time?
Summer’s the season of fireflies, star-gazing, and stories around the campfire. School’s out, so you can stay up late reading just one more page of that bone-chilling page-turner. My picks for this season are all creature features - vampires, ghosts, zombies, lake monsters, chimaera, and one decidedly spooky fairy prince.
But wait! There’s more. Every week, all summer long, you can help decide who is the baddest baddie in fiction. You may have argued a hundred times that Batman would easily beat up Spiderman (or vice versa), but how would the Dark Knight fair with a Balrog thrown into the mix? Katniss Everdeen might be handy with a bow and arrow, but is she any match for a brain-eating zombie hoard?
Voting for the Who Will Own The Night tournament here at the Your Athenaeum blog starts Monday! You can also come in to the Providence Athenaeum and submit a vote in our YA corner - paper votes are going to count more than internet votes. Keep our summer hours in mind when you plan your visit!
What’s New: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Currently on the New YA Bookshelf is Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone. From the New York Times review:
Any book that opens with “Once upon a time” is inviting high expectations… In this case, the story that follows, by Laini Taylor, a 2009 National Book Award finalist (“Lips Touch: Three Times”), is a breath-catching romantic fantasy about destiny, hope and the search for one’s true self that doesn’t let readers down. Taylor has taken elements of mythology, religion and her own imagination and pasted them into a believably fantastical collage.
Starting with 17-year-old Karou, who is far from a typical teenager, with hair that grows in a bright ultramarine, no rebellious dye required. That’s not the only thing setting her apart from her fellow students at the Art Lyceum of Bohemia in Prague. The monsters Karou draws — one woman who is serpent from the waist down, another with human eyes but a parrot’s beak — are not of her imagination. They are real chimeras, demons, and they are the closest thing she has to family.
Having read it myself, I have to say this one does have something for fantasy fans of all stripes. If you like dark urban fantasy, Daughter offers the beautiful old structures of Prague accessorized with gas masks and monsters. If you like high fantasy, it’s got mythical beasts, ancient civilizations and endless war. If you like awesome female protagonists, there’s Karou - a blue-haired art student who keeps a knife tucked in her boot. If you want to get swept up in a paranormal romance, Daughter has an epic star-crossed love that outshines any sparkly vampire.
