Booklist's Corner Shelf Newsletter is Live for August 2026

A new issue of Corner Shelf: A Booklist Newsletter for the space where Readers' Advisory meets Collection Development just dropped. You can access the table of Contents and Susan Maguire's Editor's letter below. Or just click here to read the issue in your browser.

And please go here, if you haven't already, to sign up for any of Booklist's newsletters.

Specifically, this issue is packed with useful information and lists, but in general, this is one o fly favorite newsletters. It gathers a wide variety of useful information in one place, and all of it is focused around helping our readers through our collections or direct RA service.

August 2026

• Read ‘n’ Rave 2026: The List
• Fall Audiobook Preview 2026
• Reference Roundup: Summer 2026
• Top 10 Memoirs: 2026
• Excerpts from the Experts: Peacebuilding: A School Librarian’s Journey
• Essentials: Body Horror
• Shelf Care: Looking Back and Looking Ahead with Robert Wedgeworth
•  From the Backlist: Sweet Nothings: Confessions of a Candy Lover, by Sarah Perry

Hello Shelfers,

As you all stick a fork in your summer reading programs (they’re done!), I hope you’re each taking a well-deserved break. This issue of Corner Shelf is a little light, to match the workload you’re able to take on after the library year’s busiest season. We’re looking back a little bit: to ALA Annual, where we co-hosted the ever-popular Read ‘n’ Rave with our friends at LibraryReads; to our not-too-long-ago August issue, which featured the top 10 memoirs of the past year; even further back, to our June Essentials on Body Horror; and even further back than that with a Shelf Care interview with former ALA Executive Director Robert Wedgeworth, who ruminates on a decades-long career. We’re also looking ahead with the Fall Audiobook Preview for all of your preordering/hold-gathering needs. Then we’ve got a roundup of recent reference reviews and an inspiring piece on one librarian’s journey to serving his students with empathy and love.

This is sort of a lot for a “little light” issue, but what can I say, I’m an overachiever. And I know you need that sweet sweet readers’ advisory and collection development content to get you through your week!

Speaking of sweet sweet readers’ advisory and collection development content (with a soupçon of programming thrown in there), Booklist is hosting another series of FREE online workshops, this time centered around **comics**: Comics & Libraries: Resources for Collection Development and Programming. Maybe you have a few comics readers in your library? You’ll want to check these out. The workshops are being held on September 8th, but if you can’t make the live event, a recording will be sent out to all registrants. So sign up today!

Happy reading!

—Susan Maguire
Senior Editor, Collection Development and Library Outreach, Booklist
smaguire@ala.org
@booklistsusan.bsky.social