Best Books 2021: NPR's Books We Love

This post is part of my year end "Attack of the Best Lists" coverage. To see every post in my "Best Books 2021" series you can use the best lists tag. 

I took last week off, so much of the beginning of this week will be to alert you to the major Best Books list that came out over the holiday week. However, before we get to today's post, I want to remind you that I do not post every best list. There are other resources that do that [like this one, which will get its own post soon]. What I focus on are the lists that are most useful to you, the library worker, as you help match readers with books, in real time, whether in person or virtual.

And that reminder is the perfect transition to one of my favorite and most useful lists, and it is one that got a minor face-lift this year-- NPR Books' Books We Love, formerly known as the Book Concierge. 

Click here to enter the site

From the about page:

Books We Love is NPR’s annual, interactive, year-end reading guide. (You might have known us as the Book Concierge, but this year we got a makeover! We’ve changed our name and adopted a warm and welcoming new look.) What hasn’t changed is the annual bounty of hand-picked books. Mix and match tags such as Book Club Ideas, Biography & Memoir or Eye-Opening Reads to filter results and find the book that’s perfect for you or someone you love.

 I love this list for a few reasons. The first is the filters. Listed in the left gutter of the page in natural language with recognizable categories such as "Biography & Memoir," "Mysteries & Thrillers," or "Young Adult," but also including more intuitive, reader focused categories like "Eye-Opening Reads," It's All Geek To Me," and "The Dark Side," and even choices based on length, this is an excellent portal to "best" books that allows any reader [or library worker] to created highly specific and expertly tailored suggestions.

Second, it is fun to use.

Third,  every former incarnation of this list is easily accessible with a single click from the top of this year's list meaning you have over 2,800 customizable suggestions for literally any reader, no matter how picky, at your fingertips. 

Fourth, Books We Love is a great go-to resource all year long because of the breadth and variety of titles included and the ease of backlist access. Users get to steer the ship to find their own suggestion amongst a universe of pre-approved titles. Then they can be as picky as they want, choosing their own filters to narrow it down. And since these lists are VERY broad in terms of the types of books that are included each year, the results are very useful. And they stand up over the test of time. 

Visit the NPR Book Books We Love portal now and have fun using it for yourself or your patrons, but don't forget about it all year long. It is a wonderful  resource and, after years in existence, the compound interest of titles makes it even more useful. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go place a hold on a titles I found by choosing "Historical Fiction," "Seriously Great Writing," and "The Dark Side." It's The Trees by Percival Everett, a novel I had not even heard of before using this resource. I am very excited.

If it helped me to be surprised with an unknown title, imagine the doors it can open for you and your patrons.