ALA Midwinter Adult Awards [includes a link to all Youth Awards too]

On Sunday night, RUSA announced many award winners for books and audio books. These are all excellent lists of broad appeal titles that you can suggest freely.

Below I have included the links and official award descriptions in one easy place for you more easily access them as you help patrons. Please use these to help readers and/or make displays...right now!

But, first, quickly check that you own them all. And you need to own every single one. No excuses! These are the librarian's picks. Do you have the YMA winners? Of course you do. So you need all of these too.

The 2017 Carnegie Medal Winners and Finalists: The Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction were established in 2012 and recognize the best fiction and nonfiction books for adult readers published in the U.S. in the previous year. They are the first single-book awards for adult books given by the ALA and reflect the expert judgment and insight of library professionals who work closely with adult readers.

The Medals are made possible, in part, by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York in recognition of Andrew Carnegie’s deep belief in the power of books and learning to change the world, and are co-sponsored by ALA’s Booklist and the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA).

2017 Reading List: The Reading List Council has announced the 2017 selections of the Reading List, an annual best-of list comprised of eight different fiction genres for adult readers. A shortlist of honor titles, up to 4 per genre was also announced. The list was announced today during the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting held in Atlanta. 

[Added 1/26] Library Aware also made a poster of the winners for you to hang in your library.  Click through, it is free.

2017 Listen List: The Listen List Council of the Collection Development and Evaluation Section (CODES) of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) has announced the 2017 selections of the Listen List: Outstanding Audiobook Narration. The 2017 committee listened to 1,919 hours of audiobooks, evaluated over 200 titles, debated 45 nominations, and narrowed the field to the final twelve winners. This award highlights extraordinary narrators and listening experiences that merit special attention by a general adult audience and the librarians who advise them.

Adhering to established criteria, these benchmarks of excellence are available for purchase by libraries. Committee members matched the twelve awardees with three listen-alikes, not appearing on previous Listen Lists, which mirror the appeal, tone, or production style of the winners. Titles are named to the list because the narration creates a new experience with an outstanding performance in terms of voice, accents, pitch, tone, inflection, rhythm and pace, offering listeners something they could not create by their own visual reading. This juried list, designed for both avid listeners and those new to the pleasures of stories read aloud, includes fiction and nonfiction and features voices that enthrall, delight, and inspire.

2017 Notable Books List: The Notable Books Council, first established in 1944, has announced the 2017 selections of the Notable Books List, an annual best-of list comprised of twenty-six titles written for adult readers and published in the U.S. including literary fiction, nonfiction and poetry. The list was announced today at the Reference and User Services Association’s (RUSA) Book and Media Awards ceremony during the American Library Association’s (ALA) Midwinter Meeting in Atlanta. [Note from Becky: Now this one has a long backlist to pull suggestions from.]

Please don't forget to visit RUSA's homepage for past winner too. The backlist is always a great option.