Attack of the Best Lists 2024: LibFaves 24

This post is part of my year end "Attack of the Best Lists" coverage. To see every post in my "Attack of the Best Lists 2024" coverage [and more backlist best of the year options] you can click here.

I have 2 more Attack of the Best Lists posts planned for 2024 today and Friday before returning on 12/30 and and 31 for RA for All specific end of the year posts-- my most popular posts on 12/30 and my personal best reads post on 12/31.

Today I have one of my favorite lists because it is created by librarians-- LibFaves24 (which moved to Bluesky this year). What is LibFaves? Well here is the simple explanation. Each year (except 2023) library people are asked to do a countdown of their 10 favorite Adult books published in 2024 with the TITLE in all caps, 1 per day. And they are asked to use the hashtag (this year it is #LibFaves24). For those who are interested, you can click here for a longer post where I invited my colleague Nanette Donohue to write about the history of the event.

It had been on Twitter for years, but as people have left that site, it had no home last year. But thankfully, the tradition was revived, led by my local colleague Jenna over on Bluesky. But every day there was a library worker minitor who gathered all of the mentions and built a huge spreadsheet to present a library worker faves list. 

To see this years' spreadsheet click here. Every book that was mentioned is gathered there. Also Jenna made the graphic on the left with the top titles. You can also click on that to get to the spreadsheet.

Since the spreadsheets from past years are not well cataloged anywhere, I wanted to also offer some backlist access. Please note, 2023 did not happen and I cannot find a 2021 list. If someone reading this knows where it is, please leave it in the comments and I will add it to this post:

• LibFaves22 final spreadsheet
• LibFaves20 final spreadsheet
• LibFaves19 final spreadsheet

Back to LibFaves24 though because I have a few thoughts I want to share; thoughts that I think speak to larger trends in the entirety of the book world this year:

• The top of the list has more marginalized voices than ever before. The entire spreadsheet has been getting more representative over time, but not as much at the tippy top.  Click through and look at the top 20 specifically.
• Genre titles are always popular, but it wasn't always all genres at the top. This year, we see a variety of genres at the top. Even Horror (Bury Your Gays) made it into the top 20 this year. Even Nonfiction was up very high. The variety of titles that got the most votes in general was as broad as I have seen it.
• No surprise that the consensus best book of the year, James, was also at the top for LibFaves. I mean, it excellent but it is also a book about a book. 
• I am not seeing as many obvious genre blends this year. I need to look at this a little more closely. Last year, there were so many books that were consciously using more than one genre and its tropes. This year, I see more of the more casual genre blending of year's past. I need to compare this to the checkout data and book selling data before I say anything about this. I can come up with a few reasons off the top of my head, but I will share them for the longer presentation I will be working on for Feb where I take all of the data and make larger comments.
• And finally, this year was the first where the conversation was held on Bluesky. People are slowing moving over there. Not as many people participated this year, but I am hoping more will in the future.

That's the library world's view of their favorite reads. RA for ALL will be off until 12/27, when I will be back with LitHub's comprehensive "best" coverage. 

I hope everyone enjoys their midweek day off.

We are Terrible at Communicating Who We Are, What We Do, and Why-- Make a Commitment to Do Better in 2025

As the working days for 2024 begin to wind down, I wanted to start preparing all of you for my annual posts (coming the first full week of January) assessing my own goals from 2024 and looking forward to the goals I will be setting for 2025. Each year, the goal of those posts is to set an example for all of you. To remind you how important it is to take a moment to look back at the year that was before rushing headlong into a new year.

I am also actively working on the 2024 iteration of my Keeping Up With Books Year in Review webinar. This year it will once again be with NoveList and Yaika Sabat in February 2025. You can click here to read about the 2023 version.

Today I have a goal I think all of us need to consider adding to our 2025 to-do lists, and it is one I talk about every time I give my Actively Anti-Racist Service to Leisure Readers presentation. We are terrible at communicating what we do and why we are important. People outside the library world do not understand how important our work is. They don't even know that we don't just order every single book. And they especially are unaware of the care and professional training it take to craft a collection and serve the public. How we carefully add and subs track titles to make our collections shine. It is one of the main reasons why there are factions that have been undermining us, without much resistance. 

To that end, I want all of you to take a moment as we move from one year to the next and really think about how you are going to communicate your worth and articulate exactly what we do throughout 2025. I want you to start speaking out about how great we are BEFORE people try to attack you. I want you to do it in 2025 but then keep doing it, on a regular basis going forward.

Library workers too often are uncomfortable bragging about themselves (best case) or are afraid to sp-eak out for fear of retaliation by book banners (worst case).

To this I say-- GET OVER IT.

We have not prioritized telling our story. We have ALWAYS let others define us. And when we do try to advocate for ourselves we do stupid things like tell people are services are free. THEY ARE NOT FREE. EVERYONE HAS PRE-PAID FOR THEM.

I have discussed the harmful nature of this messaging many times before, both in my live training programs and here on the blog. Please read that post and fix your language. In fact, I would argue that as part of this commitment to prioritize communicating who we are and what we do--  you should go out of your way to work the "prepaid" language into every interaction you have with people. Again, I have a full post to help you. Use my words. I am fine with that. It's why I write this blog. It gives you no excuse to start being better at communicating.

Speaking of this blog and using my words, on 12/30 I will have a post about my most popular posts of the year, but here is a teaser because it is about communicating what we do. My most popular post of the year was a guest essay by my colleague Misha Stone entitled: Why Libraries Need to Stop Saying “More Than Books” by Misha Stone.

This is all part of the larger-- we are terrible at communicating problem, yes, but I feel like you all know that this is a problem (even though you haven't helped solve it) because you clicked on it so much. So I see this as me helping to nudge you to do the work you know you need to do already.

Again, click here to read Stone's post and use her words to improve your communication and stop the cycle of poor, even harmful, communication. 

But this is not a "Becky is the only person who can help you" post. I also have three very good suggestions for you to use to help you to be proactive in your communication of who we are and what we do.

The first is this article from VOX-- a non-library outlet explaining, very well, what librarians do in the most basic way. It is not perfect, but it gives the general public a sense of everything we do and for such little money (because that is how it ends). Often we forget that the public doesn't know even the most basic things about how their public library works. This piece, not only comes from that place of starting with an assumption that the reader knows nothing, but also it is written in a conversational style that draws the average person in. It is a great entry point to beginning the conversation with our patrons and communities, one we can add to.

The second is this study-- "Libraries & Well-Being: A Case Study from The New York Public Library" Available for free, here is the text from the introduction: 

By Daphna Blatt & Dr. E.K. Maloney, The New York Public Library
Dr. James O. Pawelski & Dr. Katherine N. Cotter, University of Pennsylvania

In today’s society, libraries stand out as among the last truly public institutions. Providing access to resources without financial, social, or physical barriers, public libraries make a unique contribution to promoting individual and collective flourishing throughout the communities they serve.

The New York Public Library’s Strategy and Public Impact team and the Humanities and Human Flourishing Project at the University of Pennsylvania's Positive Psychology Center have released a new report as part of an ongoing collaboration to study and advocate for the role of public libraries in the communities they serve. 

There is much here that you can use to "advocate for the tole of public libraries in the communities they serve." NYPL understands that we all need to do better and in the spirit of library collaboration, they, as the largest public library system in America, took it upon themselves to lead and provide all of us with the information we need.

The third is from Kelly Jensen and is part of her Literary Activism series (every post of which is super helpful, but baby steps). This specific post is entitled "How to Explain Book Bans to Those Who Want to Understand."

This post is important for 2 reasons:

1. It is reminder that we don't spend enough time communicating to those who already like us and use us about what we do. We are so focused on countering the bad actors and how they twist what we do and message it way better than we do. We are not going to change their minds. We have lost them. But good news, the vast majority of American like us. We need to speak to them directly. We need to explain ourselves to those who want to understand.
2. Book bans and censorship in general are the issues whose escalation to terrifying levels-- that we bear some of the blame in. Wait, wait?!?!? Becky, we are trying to stop the book banners. Why are you accusing us of making them happen in larger numbers. Well, quite frankly, our inability to constantly communicate what we do, why we do it, and why it is important in a free, democratic society plays a large part in this issue. If we had been out in front of communicating our worth and explaining ourselves to the general public-- for you know, the century plus we have existed-- we would not be in as bad a shape as we are now. Just think about all of the times in the past when a dumpster of weeded books was photographed somewhere and people went all angry on how we throw out books. We have never solved that problem. It still happens. AND IT IS OUR FAULT. We have never gotten in front of  the weeding controversies-- not even to our supporters. And now.... book bans are the next step.

Use Jensen's article to help you do better on this major issue-- both be proactive and speaking to our known supporters. Use all of the information here today as well. Use it to craft a plan for your library in 2025. Commit to communication.

Back tomorrow and the 27th with some final best of the year lists. 

Winter Solstice and the Tradition of Telling Ghost Stories on the Darkest Night of the Year [also included-- end of year blog schedule]

Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice-- the darkest night of the year-- and there is a tradition of reading Ghost Stories to go with that.

I have posted about it here before and shared this series of books-- Seth's Christmas Ghost Stories published by Biblioasis. I have those posts below, but also, check out this STAR review I did last year of Ellen Datlow's Winter Solstice Horror anthology. t just came out in paperback.

Lila over at Passively Recommending Books has this Five for Friday featuring Winter Horror.

The darkest night of the year is a great time to tell ghost stories. Embrace it. Also share the tradition in your buildings, on your website and social media (linked below and here)

Before I leave you all, here is a quick note on RA for All Programming:

• Regular posts on 12/23 and 24 and 27
• Last 2 posts of the year-- 12/30 a post about the top posts on RA for All for 2024 and 12/31 Becky's Best Reads of the Year Conversation Starter style
• RA for All is off 1/1 thru 1/5
• I will be back 1/6 and 7 with my annual goals posts. Beginning with my post doing an assessment of how I did in 2024 and setting goals for 2025. 

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2022

New, Old, Winter Storytelling

I am bringing back these posts from year's past. I am happy to report that my family has acquired more of these amazing little books and we still read them around the Solstice and have incoirtaped them into or regular holiday season traditions. 

You don't need the specific books I mention to make this a thing at your library. It is also not tied specifically to any one holiday, but rather to the long winter nights, meaning it is very inclusive.

Enjoy. I will be back on Tuesday.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2017

Resurrecting A Victorian Christmas Storytelling Tradition

Yesterday, I came upon this article from the Smithsonian Magazine, “A Plea to Resurrect the Christmas Tradition of Telling Ghost Stories.”

This made me remember that I already made this plea to all of you, my readers, almost exactly a year ago- not that this fact surprises anyone. I guess I was a year early on the trend, so today, I have a rerun of that post where I talk about this tradition, discuss how you can turn this into a fun display, and even offer up some reads.

And, I happy to report, as a family, we are keeping this tradition going in our house for second year in a row. 

***************************
MONDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2016

A New, Old, Winter Storytelling Tradition With A Library Display Opportunity

The weekend after Thanksgiving I went back to my old neighborhood in Chicago to do some holiday shopping and stopped in at Volumes Bookcafe.

While I was there I found a beautiful series of paperback, spooky stories on display.  Below is a picture of the front of the three I purchased and a shot of the back of the Burrage title.

You can zoom in to read the back, but basically, these titles have been produced to revive the Victorian tradition of families getting together to read ghost stories aloud on Christmas Eve. 

[Editors note 12/20/24-- the link in this paragraph is gone, use the one above from the Smithsonian] I did some more research on this topic and found this interesting article that explains the tradition in more detail. It turns out that the tradition hit its heyday in Victorian Times, but probably dates back before that. As the article also notes, while much of our current holiday season traditions are remarkably similar to those from Victorian times, this one specific tradition has all but disappeared.

The winter, with it’s long nights, led to spookier thoughts and more forced togetherness huddled inside, around the fire. Ghost stories made for popular entertainment in these circumstances. But Christmas Eve in particular, when large groups were assembled already, grew to be the most popular time to read ghost stories aloud. 

As I mentioned above, I did purchase three titles in this series and our family plans to spend a few evenings over the days off this holiday season to read these stories together, aloud, around our 21st Century fire place. No screens or other distractions involved. 

While I hope some of you out there give the old tradition a try, I think it is a great display option for all libraries. Any spooky story will do. And, it is not Christmas specific. A spooky story for a long winter’s night works no matter where you live, regardless of whether you celebrate a holiday during this season or not. It is a display you can do now, to take advantage of the time people have off of work and school over the next 2 weeks or wait for the new year.

Let’s bring this tradition back through the public library

Emily Hughes' 2025 New Horror Books List is Now LIVE and Coming Soon, Emily, Robb, and I Talk About Our First Half Highlights

[This is a cross post with RA for All: Horror]

Sure 2024 still has a few days left, but you know you are already looking forward to what is coming in 2025. 

Emily Hughes has made her 2025 list of Horror titles available here. It includes books I have already reviewed. Please go there to see not only the list for next year, but also to find links to previous years' lists. Remember, you can use her annotated list from years' past to find a great, new to you, read.

And here is a teaser...later tonight Emily and I are going to record for Robb Olson's ARC Party. Just like last year we are doing our Horror preview episodes. Click here for the podcast we did for the first half of 2024, here for the one we did for the second half of 2024, and stay tuned for when Robb posts this new podcast looking at the first half of 2025. 

Below is the introduction to Emily's post but again, click here to see the full list. And get ready for some awesome scares coming in 2025. Or use the page to go find some books you missed from year's past.

2025’s New Horror Books

Welcome back, kind readers and weird little freaks! Once again I’m obsessively cataloguing all the year’s new horror fiction, for my benefit and yours. I really enjoy building and maintaining this list every year––it gives me an incredible birds’ eye view of the landscape of horror publishing, and I’m delighted it’s proven useful to so many of you as well.

My general philosophy here is genre-inclusive, not exclusive––I take a broad view of what counts as horror. Alongside traditional horror, here you’ll find all things gothic, dark, weird, and thrilling––and, hopefully, your next favorite scary book.

Looking for previous years’ lists, including the ones broken down by month? Those all live over here. Did I miss something? Let me know here.

Without further ado, here are all the new horror books coming in 2025, featuring an array of slashers, ghosts, vampires, cults, monsters both human and otherwise, and all manner of nebulous eldritch terrors. 

Please note that publication dates are subject to change – I’ll be updating the release dates below and adding new books as I hear of any changes, but publisher and retailer websites will always have the most up-to-date info.

Many titles publishing later in the year don’t have concrete release dates yet – I’ve listed those at the very bottom under “Date TBD” – and if the publisher or Bookshop don’t have a dedicated page for a book yet, I’ve linked to Goodreads or to the book announcement elsewhere. Descriptions below are adapted from the publisher’s synopsis. Books publishing in a given month that don’t have a specific date assigned yet are at the bottom of that month’s list.

Click here for the full list. 

Sign-Up Now for the February Actively Anti-Racist Readers' Advisory Service with Me and Robin

I announced this back on December 6, but I wanted to make sure people saw it again before the end of the year because you want to get your requests in ASAP since it is happening in February. I have more details below but first, here is the info from the official sign-up page with registration links:

Actively Anti-Racist Readers’ Advisory Services

A two-part webinar series taking place on Tuesday, February 18 and Thursday, February 20, 2025 at 2:30pm Eastern/1:30pm Central/12:30pm Mountain/11:30am Pacific.

Increasing the collection and circulation of titles written by underrepresented authors is not just a trend. Providing robust readers’ advisory service that values equity, diversity, and inclusion principles is essential to all library services.

Moving from being a neutral, well-meaning library where systemic racism is acknowledged to an actively anti-racist organization involves in-depth work, some of which can be challenging. In this program you will begin that work and learn tangible skills to help build enthusiasm for reading and strategies for diversifying your materials. You’ll learn how you can strengthen your RA service through thoughtful discussion of equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging principles in all interactions with leisure readers and how to be a steward of the anti-racist mindset for your organization.

In this two-part series, collection development and readers’ advisory experts Robin Bradford and Becky Spratford will move your team from talk to action. You’ll learn how to help your entire organization craft an actionable plan to seamlessly incorporate the values of equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging into your regular RA practices. 

Through your participation in this program, you will learn:

• The distinction between not racist and anti-racist. 
• How to identify more diverse titles to add to your collections.
• How to use anti-racist principles in your displays, book talks, and organization of titles.
• Promotion strategies for diverse titles and authors.
• Basic strategies to address politically motivated requests to remove books from your collection.

Robin Bradford has earned a BA and MA in English, an MS in Library Science, and a JD, but has found a home in building reader-focused, popular collections in public libraries. She was recognized as RWA’s 2016 Librarian of the Year and Emerald City Library Conference's Librarian of the Year in 2022. She is addicted to books and dedicated to helping others discover a love of reading. She has worked with authors to help get their titles into these collections and wrote the Readers’ Advisory Guide to Romance Fiction to further help libraries with their romance collection. She also worked with libraries to push for equal treatment of genre fiction and worked with readers so that they can find their favorite authors on their library's shelves.

Becky Spratford (MLIS) is a Readers' Advisor in Illinois specializing in serving patrons ages 13 and up. She trains library staff all over the world on how to match books with readers through the local public library. She runs the critically acclaimed RA training blog RA for All. She writes reviews for Booklist and a horror review column for Library Journal. Becky is a 24-year locally elected Library Trustee (still serving), a former Board member for the Reaching Across Illinois Library System, and currently on the Executive Board of the Illinois Library Association. Known for her work with horror readers, Becky is the author of The Reader’s Advisory Guide to Horror, Third Edition (ALA Editions, 2021) and the forthcoming Why I Love Horror and You Should Too (Saga Press, Sept 2025). She is on the Shirley Jackson Award Advisory Board and is a proud member of the Horror Writers Association, where she currently serves as the Association’s Secretary and Co-Chair of their Library Committee. You can follow Becky on Bluesky @raforall.bsky.social

This event will be hosted in Zoom. Automatic captions will be enabled for this event. This event will be recorded, and registrants will receive access to the recording within a day after the event ends.

If you have questions or requests regarding accessibility, contact us at ce@ala.org or at 312-280-5100.

Robin and I are very excited to offer this class through ALA eLearning. Not only do we have our books with ALA Editions (which comes into play with some new information below) but we also have their support to do whatever we want, however we want. They trust us to decide how people best learn and are giving us the space to do our thing. Also, the price is WAY more affordable than hiring us on your own-- $116 members, $129 non-members. It is 3 hours of class with 2 chances to ask both of us questions for that price. And as you will see below, this new version comes with BONUS material.

Speaking of, here are a few details to share and clarify.

1. You can do this live or as a recording. For each talk, both of us will be there to answer questions live, but if you can't make the live, register anyway because you will have access to the recordings and....

2. This class will be the first time Robin and I are offering worksheets for participants to use after the class to not only keep their learning going, but to give you tangible exercises to bring back to your places of work. Anyone who signs up gets access to this 6 page workbook. The goal here is to beta test this content with all of you and then work toward a longer workbook to offer through ALA Editions in the future. 

3. We will probably offer this class again in the Fall, so if you would rather do live and this timing isn't perfect, you could wait. But honestly, I would get in now. We are both refreshing our material and you get a first look at the worksheets. We will have contact info available if you have questions after the events which we will answer for free.

4. In the face of recent real world events, Robin and I are committed to making this training even stronger. We are not backing off on our strong language; in fact, is anything we are getting more vocal and will challenge you all to work harder. We met recently and let me tell you, we are ready to take everyone on. You don't want to miss this.

Please contact me if you have questions. 

The Morning News Tournament of Books' Long List Is the Best "Best List" For Readers and an Awesome Resource for You to Help Them

I am on record (many times) writing and talking about how The Morning News Tournament of Books is the best best list for readers, plus it is a super fun way to present it. Also this "best" of 2024 list is presented as a short list now but the "winner" is not decided until March of 2025. I love that the dust will have settled on the year before these books are aired off in judged brackets.

But wait, I think I am getting a little ahead of myself here. Let's back up a bit.

What is the Tournament of Books? From the landing page for the current short list:

Coming March 6, 2025: the 21st year of the Tournament of Books.

Look, we’re surprised as much as you are. Going on two-plus decades, the fact that an event that began as a joke has become one of the web’s biggest cultural events—at the end of which we threaten to give one of our society’s greatest living authors a live rooster—is still startling. There are only a handful of us who organize this thing. There are tens of thousands of you playing along, and hundreds of smart, thoughtful, hardcore readers who participate voluminously in the discussion every day. And we really couldn’t ask for much more. 

A big reason all this has happened for so long is because of the tremendous support of our presenting sponsor Field Notes. If you love the ToB, please show that love to Field Notes, too! We recommend becoming annual subscribers, just like us, because the goods are, well, very good. 

The other big reason we’re here is our Sustaining Members. Their support truly makes this event take place. 

Think of it this way: How much did you pay to attend the Eras tour, or a Beyoncé concert, or a night with Charli XCX? The ToB is a month-long blast, but it requires about six months of pre-production—so we need you to join the crew today and play a role in keeping this event rolling. Sustaining Members also receive 50 percent off everything at the Tournament of Books store—and this year our top-tier supporters are going to receive something very covetable and new. (They also receive our deep affection.)

Here’s how the Tournament works. Each weekday, starting March 6, two books from the shortlist are read and evaluated by one of our judges. One book is chosen to advance to the next round, and the judge explains how they came to their decision, then the commentariat—folks like you—express their feelings and thoughts about that decision and the books themselves. And the next day we do it all over again. This goes on through the month of March, until our championship match, where all our judges convene to decide which of the finalists wins the Tournament of Books, and with it our prize, the Rooster. (No one’s ever accepted the actual live rooster we offer them, fwiw.)

One thing to note before we go: We need your Zombie vote before midnight Eastern on Thursday, Dec. 19. Because from the play-in round to the eight opening round matches, to the four quarterfinal matches, through the two semifinal matches, the field is whittled down to two finalists. However, before those books can enter the championship, they must endure a “Zombie Round,” which restores two books that were eliminated previously during gameplay. As to which books return, it’s determined by y’all, right here, right now, using the form below. 

We’ll have more to announce as the Tournament approaches, so make sure you’re signed up for the Rooster newsletter to stay up with all the news. Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you soon!

Click here (and scroll down) to see the full list of titles that are competing this year.

The ToB is not your average book award or best list and not only because it is a battle between the books as judged by other writers using a bracket system. With ToB we also get the most diverse list of “best books” you will see anywhere, both diverse in authorship and genre. 

And because it happens in March each year, but the books are from the year before-- again the 2025 ToB uses 2024 books--there are a lot of titles that are already off holds. So it's a current "best list" option of a wide range of best books, many of which are on the shelf.

With ToB you not only learn about great books and why they are wonderful, but you also learn about the judges themselves, also a very diverse group of people throughout the publishing industry. You can learn about the judges whose information is after the books themselves on this page. Just the list of judges alone makes for its own resource to suggest books to readers.

Once the tourney begins each “battle” has a full write up which gets to the heart of the two books’ appeal and structure. These essays give us valuable information on who would like the book and why. Readalikes are also often mentioned. This is the easiest link to use to pull up each match-up and enjoy it for fun while also learning something new and unique about these popular books. 

Oh and the comments. The readers who follow along religiously and have entire discussions about each pairing of books for pages and pages are THE BEST. Following just the comments is like reading a novel itself. Plus those are the comments of regular readers. There is even a running commentary on the battle itself by the tournament organizers.

To see what will come for 2025, use this link to the 2024 ToB to see what I mean. 

Speaking of last year-- don't forget the back list! From 2005 to the present. Each with their own full bank of the above mentioned information and more! It is no longer all on one page like it used to be but, if you want to see the archive of ToB from the old format from 2005-2020, click here and scroll to the bottom of the right gutter for all the links. And then click on the years for 2023, and 2024 to see the details of those tourneys. For 2021 and 2022, I cannot figure out the link (they don't do a full list with links to the matches after 2020), but you can see their announcement of the books for the 2021 and 2022 tourneys by clicking on the year.

ToB has also become my go-to resource for "literary fiction." Why? Because the ToB takes the idea of "literary" titles, titles worthy of being deemed as worth your time [which I hate, but it is a thing], and gives it a wide berth. I especially love using the backlist titles for book discussions. 

Speaking of the backlist AGAIN, I love the "Wall of Champions," which you can click here and scroll down to see. That page alone is an awesome "sure bet" resource.

In terms of actively using the ToB to help readers, beyond keeping the cache of suggestions readily available, you can stage your own ToB at any time. Use theirs as an inspiration. Here's an example, kick off Summer Reading by taking a look at your most circulated titles-- overall or in specific genres-- or stage a tourney based on your Summer Reading Theme. This is a great participatory display that can be put up in the building or online. Have your patrons vote yes, but also have your library workers do commentary. Get everyone on staff involved who wants to be and have fun with it. You will showcasing your staff's expertise and your collection. And January is usually when we start seriously talking about Summer Reading planning, so the timing of my post right now, is just in time.

I hope you use the ToB as a resource to get your patrons excited about reading. You can use all of the past years to create a diverse (in every way) display to attract a wide swatch of readers.

If you want to take a deeper dive, you can read "A Brief History of the Tournament of Books." 

LibraryReads: January 2025

    

 It's LibraryReads day and that means four things here on RA for All

1. I post the list and tag it “Library Reads” so that you can easily pull up every single list with one click.
2. I can remind you that even though the newest list is always fun to see, it is the older lists where you can find AWESOME, sure bet suggestions for patrons that will be on your shelf to actually hand to them right now. The best thing about LibraryReads is the compound interest it is earning. We now have hundreds and hundreds of titles worth suggesting right at our fingertips through this archive OR the sortable master list allowing you to mix and match however you want.
3. You have no excuse not to hand sell any LibraryReads titles because there is a book talk right there in the list in the form of the annotation one of your colleagues wrote for you. All you have to say to your patron is, “such and such library worker in blank state thought this was a great read,” and then you read what he or she said.
4. Every upcoming book now has at least 1 readalike that is available to hand out RIGHT NOW. Book talk the upcoming book, place a hold for it, and then hand out that readalike title for while they wait. If they need more titles before their hold comes in, use the readalike title to identify more readalike titles. And then keep repeating. Seriously, it is that easy to have happy, satisfied readers.

So get out there and suggest a good read to someone today. I don’t care what list or resource you use to find the suggestion, just start suggesting books.

Please remember to click here for everything you need to know about how to participate. Click here to see a database of eligible diverse titles sorted by month.

And finally, here is LibraryReads' extremely helpful Resources page.

Now let's get to the January 2024 list.... 

Good Dirt: A Novel

Charmaine Wilkerson

(Ballantine Books)

When Ebby was a child, she witnessed her older brother's murder. After being ditched at the altar years later, she escapes to France only to run into her exfiancé, Henry, and his new girlfriend. Ebby is forced to confront Henry and the trauma of her brother's death. Through a treasured heirloom pottery jar, the novel chronicles the history of Ebby's family and its resilience.

—Alison Zaya, Pollard Memorial Library, MA

NoveList read-alike: Acts of Forgiveness by Maura Cheeks

Now for the rest of the January 2024 list!

Out of the Woods: A Novel

Hannah Bonam-Young

(Dell)

In this follow-up to Out on a Limb, high school sweethearts Sarah and Caleb find that over a decade into marriage, their relationship has changed. They resolve to rekindle things through a weeklong couples retreat, camping in the wilderness. This second-chance romance features flashbacks and great character backstories that elevate it from the typical trope.

—Cari Dubiel, Twinsburg Public Library, OH

NoveList read-alike: Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan

The Note: A Novel

Alafair Burke

(Knopf)

Three friends reunite in the Hamptons only to have chaos ensue after a night spent out drinking. The fastmoving narrative features multiple narrators and lots of unexpected twists. Burke has delivered another excellent psychological thriller

—Cyndi Larsen, Avon Free Public Library, CT

NoveList read-alike: We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz

Babylonia

Costanza Casati

(Sourcebooks Landmark)

Semiramis was abandoned by a fragile mother and raised by a cruel stepfather. She grows up learning that to belong in a maledominated society, she has to think and fight like a man. The author's research, vivid descriptions, and memorable characters make for a great read.z 

—Linda Sullivan, Mission Viejo Library, CA

NoveList read-alike: Wings of Fury by Emily R. King

The Favorites: A Novel

Layne Fargo

(Random House)

This novel looks at ambition and the elite figure skating world with a sharp eye and a fierce writing style. It's a dishy story of an Olympic icedancing couple with some truly romantic moments, the pacing of a thriller, and a documentary interview style that effectively propels the story along. 

—Jodi Prather, Bartholomew County Public Library, IN

NoveList read-alike: Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Business Trip

Jessie Garcia

(St. Martin's Press)

Stephanie, heading to a work conference, meets Jasmine, who is running from an abusive relationship. They find themselves connected to Trent, a raging narcissist. When both women turn up missing, evidence is found at Trent's house. This fast-paced plot will keep readers guessing until the very last page of the book.

—Melissa Turner, Maricopa Library & Cultural Center, AZ

NoveList read-alike: Leave the Girls Behind by Jacqueline Bublitz

Temple of Swoon

Jo Segura

(Berkley)

This delightfully madcap adventure through dangerous jungles and beautifully realized relationships will appeal to fans of Segura's first romance, but can be read on its own. Perfect for patrons who are looking for the quirky banter of India Holton or the academic wit of Ali Hazelwood.

—Clay Chiment, Ulysses Philomathic Library, Trumansburg, NY

NoveList read-alike: The Jewel of the Isle by Kerry Rea

Water Moon: A Novel

Samantha Sotto Yambao

(Del Rey)

At Hana's pawnshop in Tokyo, people can sell their regrets. While Hana provides relief for them, she desperately seeks answers for her father's disappearance. Enter Key and his scientific mind. A fascinating blend of magical realism, mystery, romance, and hope.

—Crystal Faris, Kansas City Public Library, MO

NoveList read-alike: Sorcery and Small Magics by Maiga Doocy

The In-Between Bookstore

Edward Underhill

(Avon)

In this aching “what if?” story, Darby goes back to his Midwest hometown and finds everything has changed but the In Between Bookstore—in fact, when he walks in, the person behind the counter is the sixteen-year-old version of himself. A tender look at how events change and create us— and how not even the closest people to us can know what’s going on in our heads.

—Jessica Trotter, Capital Area District Libraries, MI

NoveList read-alike: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Tell Me What You Did

Carter Wilson

(Poisoned Pen Press)

Poe, a popular true-crime podcaster, has the tables turned on her when a caller claims to know her past. Poe took out her mother's killer years ago, but the caller says she got the wrong person. This tightly wound cat-and-mouse game asks all kinds of moral questions, and readers will enjoy the many twists and turns.

—Kimberly McGee, Lake Travis Community Library, Austin, TX

NoveList read-alike: Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera

Board Bonus picks:

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes

Clay McLeod Chapman 

(Quirk Books)

Notable Nonfiction:

Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything (Essays on the Future That Never Was)

Collette Shade

(Dey Street Books)

See our social media for annotations of the bonus picks

Click here to see the entire Hall of Fame

The LibraryReads Hall of Fame designation honors authors who have had multiple titles appear on the monthly LibraryReads list since 2013. When their third title places on the list via library staff votes, the author moves into the Hall of Fame. Click here to see the Hall of Fame authors organized in alpha order.

Beg, Borrow, or Steal: A Novel

Sarah Adams

(Delacorte Press)

The Stolen Queen: A Novel

Fiona Davis

(Dutton)

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

Grady Hendrix

(Berkley)

Beautiful Ugly

Alice Feeney

(Flatiron Books)

Once Smitten, Twice Shy

Chloe Liese

(Berkley)

The Crash

Frieda McFadden

(Poisoned Pen Press)

Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear

Seanan McGuire

(Tordotcom)

Death of the Author: A Novel

Nnedi Okorafor

(William Morrow)

Accidentally Amy

Lynn Painter

(Berkley)

A Sea of Unspoken Things: A Novel

Adrienne Young

(Delacorte Press)

Attack of the Best Lists 2024: A Year in Reading via The Millions and Thinking Outside the "Best" Box

This post is part of my year end "Attack of the Best Lists" coverage. To see every post in my "Attack of the Best Lists 2024" coverage [and more backlist best of the year options] you can click here. 

One of my favorite end of the year, "best" events is The Millions' annual essays on "A Year in Reading." From the editor's landing page for this year's 20th installment of the series:

Welcome to the 20th (!) installment of The Millions’ annual Year in Reading series, which gathers together some of today’s most exciting writers and thinkers to share the books that shaped their year. YIR is not a collection of yearend best-of lists; think of it, perhaps, as an assemblage of annotated bibliographies. We’ve invited contributors to reflect on the books they read this year—an intentionally vague prompt—and encouraged them to approach the assignment however they choose. 

In writing about our reading lives, as YIR contributors are asked to do, we inevitably write about our personal lives, our inner lives. This year, a number of contributors read their way through profound grief and serious illness, through new parenthood and cross-country moves. Some found escape in frothy romances, mooring in works of theology, comfort in ancient epic poetry. More than one turned to the wisdom of Ursula K. Le Guin. Many describe a book finding them just when they needed it. 

Interpretations of the assignment were wonderfully varied. One contributor, a music critic, considered the musical analogs to the books she read, while another mapped her reads from this year onto constellations. Most people’s reading was guided purely by pleasure, or else a desire to better understand events unfolding in their lives or larger the world. Yet others centered their reading around a certain sense of duty: this year one contributor committed to finishing the six Philip Roth novels he had yet to read, an undertaking that he likens to “eating a six-pack of paper towels.” (Lucky for us, he included in his essay his final ranking of Roth’s oeuvre.)

The books that populate these essays range widely, though the most commonly noted title this year was Tony Tulathimutte’s story collection Rejection. The work of newly minted National Book Award winner Percival Everett, particularly his acclaimed novel James, was also widely read and written about. And as the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza enters its second year, many contributors sought out Isabella Hammad’s searing, clear-eyed essay Recognizing the Stranger. 

Like so many endeavors in our chronically under-resourced literary community, Year in Reading is a labor of love. The Millions is a one-person editorial operation (with an invaluable assist from SEO maven Dani Fishman), and producing YIR—and witnessing the joy it brings contributors and readers alike—has been the highlight of my tenure as editor. I’m profoundly grateful for the generosity of this year’s contributors, whose names and entries will be revealed below over the next three weeks, concluding on Thursday, December 19. Be sure to subscribe to The Millions’ free newsletter to get the week’s entries sent straight to your inbox each Friday.

—Sophia Stewart, editor

They ask a diverse list of writers, most of them "up and coming" or a little under the general radar to write an essay for which the only requirement is that it is on the topic of their personal year in reading. The result is an enjoyable series of essays that are united by theme but vary in style and content, as noted by Stewart above.

They also have a YIR tab at the top of The Million's homepage to access these valuable essays from the current year and any and all past years in one easy to find place at all times, making this not only one of the most interesting takes on the entire concept of "best" lists, but also the most easy to access as a resource year round. From the bottom of 2024's landing page:

A Year in Reading Archives: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013,  2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005

These "A Year in Reading" pieces are also super fun to read. Any reader will enjoy perusing these essays because they are all personal accounts of what reading meant to the author in the year that just passed. Yes there are lists of books, but it is through the author's exploration of why they chose these titles, what they meant to that person, and just in general, what reading meant to them in their life over the past year that these essays viscerally communicate the power of reading. And reading about others being positively affected by the act of reading is a joy for all readers to read. [So many "reads" in that sentence.]

However, besides the personal joy you will get from reading this, there are also tangible RA and Collection Development elements to these essays.

First, there is the training you get on appeal: why different readers like different books. One of the hardest things to get practice on in our field, is hearing readers talk about what they like to read and why. We need to gather voices from across all experiences in order to have more examples of why people like the books they like. The more examples we have experience with, the more easily we can help readers as they approach us with their inquiries. It also allows us to think more broadly about readalikes, which is one of the drums I beat frequently. This archive is a treasure trove of dozens of readers sharing their feelings on appeal.

Second, and most obvious, the lists of books that come out of the series. These are not all books that came out in 2024. These are simply the books other authors read in 2024. You will expose yourself to many titles you either haven't heard of or haven't thought about in a while, through these essays. You can even turn the entire series itself into a display using the books. "A Year in Reading" can be your title. Make a quick note about the source of the display topic and then fill it with books from the series series. Use past year's titles if you run out. It will be inclusive, diverse, and whole collection by default. 

Third, make it interactive by asking patrons to add their "Year in Reading" titles. Use this as a fun conversation starter with your patrons and staff. Instead of asking for "favorites," ask people to share their Year in Reading. Just that. Leave it open and see what you get back in response. You can even start with staff. Send out an email to all staff and ask for 5 titles that represent their year in reading. Then make small displays in the building and in all of your online spaces. This can run for weeks. Then use my conversation starter to displays directions to ask patrons to add their "Year in Reading." Put those up throughout January.

Fourth, the authors that are chosen to participate themselves are a great resource. As I mentioned above, The Millions tends to ask a diverse group of up and coming authors from across the entire landscape of writing today. Use this series to discover new authors, both to add to your collections and to suggest to patrons.

Remember to think outside of the "best" box if you want your patrons to really notice and understand how you help them to discover books they would never find on their own. Yes, we need to have the more traditional "best books" displays up, but make room for some less traditional displays that not only capture those "end of the year" feels, but also, allow them to participate in a more meaningful way.