Booklist's Read N Rave from ALA Annual 2024

One of my favorite events at ALA Annual every single year is the Booklist and Library Reads Read 'n' Rave. 

What is Read 'n' Rave. Here is the quick explanation from Booklist:

At this year’s ALA Annual Conference, Booklist and LibraryReads teamed up for the popular Read ‘n’ Rave, where superstar librarians scour the Exhibit Hall floor to find the books you’ll want to know about for late summer and fall. 

I have done this event myself a few times and I know how awesome it is from both sides. From the presenter side, those people spend the weeks leading up to the conferenced and their time on the exhibit floor gathering ARCs that are there at the conference, trying to curate a pile that they at to gush about (often only having had time to quickly skim) and fit as many as they can into 10 mins. There is a timer and Susan Maguire (aka my fav editor) will cut you off. It is exciting and exhausting as a presenter.

From the audience perspective (which I have also done and loved), they get to spend time on the last full day of the conference, hearing from colleagues about what books they are most excited about. Not what the publishers told them to be excited about, but what they truly, truly, are jazzed up about. And they get to hear from people just like them, the ones who are going to help get these books into the hands of readers talk about the books from that perspective.

Each year, Booklist publishes the titles of titles included on their blog. Here is the 2024 Read 'n' Rave list (and I also have it below so the titles are searchable on this blog.)

And if you want to see the Read 'n' Rave lists going back to 2021, you will need to activate your Booklist Online subscription (directions here) and put read n rave in the search box. They come right up. From 2024 back to 2021, all on one nice page. It is great to see titles that our fellow library workers were excited about a few years ago. Some became huge hits, others are backlist gems, and some great under the radar recs. 

You can also access past Read n Rave lists with this link from my blog, including the ones I was a part of, from pre-pandemic conferences. 

Go out there and show your patrons how valuable you are, by suggesting one of these buzz worthy titles from a few years ago, a book they never would have found to read on their own, but just might very well love.

Finally, speaking of LibraryReads, the list for August 2024 comes out on Monday. I will have it here on the blog. See you back there then. Enjoy your weekend. And see the full text of this year's list immediately below.

Booklist and LibraryReads Read ‘n’ Rave 2024 By Susan Maguire.
		First published July 2, 2024 (Booklist Online). At this year’s ALA Annual Conference, Booklist and LibraryReads teamed up for the popular Read ‘n’ Rave, where superstar librarians scour the Exhibit Hall floor to find the books you’ll want to know about for late summer and fall.  If you missed the event, or if you had trouble keeping up with the rapid-fire raving (can’t blame you!), here’s a list of the books everyone talked about: Alicia Ahlvers: I’ll Have What He’s Having, by Adib Khorram. Aug. Forever. The Last Gifts of the Universe, by Rory August. Oct. Hanover Square. The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year, by Ally Carter. Sept. Avon. The Nightmare before Kissmas, by Sara Raasch. Oct. Bramble. A Pirate’s Life for Tea, by Rebecca Thorne. Oct. Bramble. Rules for Ghosting, by Shelly Jay Shore. Aug. Dell. Swordcrossed, by Freya Marske. Oct. Bramble. The Truth According to Ember, by Danica Nava. Aug. Berkley. Bonus Picks: The Last Dragon of the East, by Katrina Kwan. Oct. Saga. The Scenic Route, by Katie Ruggle. July. Sourcebooks Casablanca. The Specimen, by Jaima Fixsen. Oct. Poisoned Pen. The Treasure Hunters Club, by Tom Ryan. Oct. Atlantic Monthly. The Witches of El Paso, by Luis Jaramillo. Oct. Atria/Primero Sueno. The Woman in the Garden, by Jill Johnson. July. Poisoned Pen. Andrienne Cruz: Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health, by Marty Makary. Sept. Bloomsbury. The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife, by Anna Johnston. Sept. Morrow. Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times that Made Handel’s Messiah, by Charles King. Oct. Doubleday. The Extinction Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World, by Christine Rosen. Sept. Norton. Gaslight, by Miles Joris-Peyrafitte and Sara Shepard. Sept. Blackstone. Good Night, Sleep Tight: Stories, by Brian Evenson. Sept. Coffee House. The Launch Party, by Lauren Forry. Oct. Zaffre. Lesser Ruins, by Mark Haber. Oct. Coffee House. Madwoman, by Chelsea Bieker. Sept. Little, Brown. The Night Guest, by Hildur Knutsdottir, tr. by Mary Robinette Kowal. Sept. Tor Nightfire. The Only Sound Is the Wind, by Pascha Sotolongo. Oct. Norton. Ordinary Devotion, by Kristen Holt-Browning. Nov. Monkfish. Safe Enough, by Lee Child. Sept. Mysterious. The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham, by Lucy Hughes-Hallet. Nov. Harper. Erin Downey Howerton: The Bog Wife, by Kay Chronister. Oct. Counterpoint. A Glitch in the Matrix, by Jessica Castro (Auntie Matrix). Sept. Sterling Ethos. Hate Follow, by Erin Quinn-Kong. Oct. Morrow. How to Fall in Love in a Time of Unnameable Disaster, by Muriel Leung. Oct. Norton. Hum, by Helen Phillips. Aug. S&S/Marysue Rucci. Keep, by Jenny Haysom. Oct. Anansi. Now You Owe Me, by Aliah Wright. Sept. Red Hen. Only Here, Only Now, by Tom Newlands. Nov. HarperVia. Water Moon, by Samantha Sotto Yambao. Jan 2025. Del Rey. Shayera Tangri: Bad Witches, by H. B. Akumiah. Aug. Blackstone. The Body in the Backyard, by Lucy Score. July. Bloom. The Crescent Moon Tearoom, by Stacy Sivinski. Oct. Atria. A Fire in the Sky, by Sophie Jordan. Sept. Avon. How to Steal a Galaxy, by Beth Revis. Dec. DAW. The Legend of Meneka, by Kritika Rao. Jan 2025. Harper Voyager. Lifeform, by Jenny Slate. Oct. Little, Brown. Of Blood and Lightning, by Micki Janae. Oct. Three Rooms. Pride and Prejudice in Space, by Alexis Lampley. Oct. Union Square. A Sacrifice of Blood and Stars, by Jennifer Brody. Sept. Podium. Upworthy – Good People: Stories from the Best of Humanity, by Gabriel Reilich and Lucia Knell. Sept. National Geographic. A Very Indian Christmas, by Salman Rushdie, Rabindranath Tagore, Jhumpa Lahiri, et al. Sept. New Vessel. Rebecca Vnuk: The Author’s Guide to Murder, by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White. Nov. Morrow. Break Every Rule, by Brian Freeman. Sept. Blackstone. Cult Following: The Extreme Sects that Capture Our Imaginations and Take Over Our Lives, by J. W. Ocker. Sept. Quirk. The Examiner, by Janice Hallett. Sept. Atria. A Kid from Marlboro Road, by Edward Burns. Sept. Seven Stories. The Last One at the Wedding, by Jason Rekulak. Oct. Flatiron. Libby Lost and Found, by Stephanie Booth. Oct. Sourcebooks Landmark. The Madness, by Dawn Kurtagich. Aug. Graydon House. Marigold Mind Laundry, by Jungeun Yun, tr. by Shanna Tan. Oct. Dial. Pay the Piper, by George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus. Sept. Union Square. Shred Sisters, by Betsy Lerner. Oct. Grove. They Just Need to Get a Job: 15 Myths on Homelessness, by Mary Brosnahan. Nov. Beacon The Way, by Cary Groner. Dec. Spiegel & Grau.