Resource Alert: How to Read A Review (Instead of The Book) and the Final Issue of The Corner Shelf for 2023

The last issue of Booklist's Corner Shelf newsletter for 2023 is upend can be read here. 

While all the content in this newsletter is useful, I want to draw your attention, in particular, to Susan's article, Booklist Better:How to Read a Review (Instead of Reading the Book). This is a skill I spent time on with the students when I taught the RA class at the graduate school. And I always used Booklist reviews as my examples.Why? Because Booklist reviews are always written to the best possible reader of the book. They do not waste your time with reviews for a book no one you are serving would like. That focus on writing to the best reader also means that the reviewers (myself included) focus on the appeal of the book and what the author does best. 

I now mention using reviews to help readers without reading a book in all  my programs, but I don't have the time to get into it in depth anymore. Thanks to Susan for breaking it down in detail.

Below is Susan's editor's note for the entire issue with links as well or you can just click here for the whole thing at once.

You can also click here for previous issues as well. Most of the information in this newsletter is evergreen. 

Editor's Note

Hello Shelfers,

It's spooky season, sweater weather, pumpkin spice season, and time to start thinking about the best books of the year. I know! Already!

This is the last issue of Corner Shelf for 2023 (don't be sad! We'll be back in February), and as is tradition, I'm going to share some of my fave reads of the year. There were so many good ones! But if I had to narrow it down, I would put The Hotel of Secrets, by Diana Biller, near the top. It perfectly captures a competent heroine, a delightfully repressed hero, and glittering nineteenth-century Vienna with humor and emotion. But there are others that I can't stop thinking about: Uzma Jalaluddin's effervescent Much Ado about Nada, a Persuasion retelling set in Toronto; Lush Lives, by J. Vanessa Lyon, a hot, perceptive novel about art and authenticity; and the intense, compulsively paced locked-room thriller, There Should Have Been Eight, by Nalini Singh.

If you haven't read any of these, fear not: in a new edition of Booklist Better, I walk you through how to read a review, looking for clues to the appeal of a book so you can talk about it without reading the book. It's not cheating! It's readers' advisory!

Also in this issue of Corner Shelf, we've got a preview of some great forthcoming documentaries from Audio Editor Heather Booth, the top 10 romance novels of 2023, and Excerpt from the Experts about building a manga collection (you know you have patrons who love manga . . . ), and a link to the latest Shelf Care: The Podcast, all about creative ways folks are raising awareness of the rising tide of book challenges and bans.

What cool readers' advisory and collection development stuff are you doing at your library? Share with me and you could be featured in an upcoming Corner Shelf newsletter!

Happy reading, friends.

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

A Stacked Issue of Booklist's Corner Shelf is Ready to Help You Help Readers RIGHT NOW!

The just released issue of Corner Shelf newsletter from Booklist is one you 100% cannot miss. It is filled with lists, articles, a FREE three part, virtual event and more.

This newsletter is always helpful and focused on things you can use in your day to day work with readers, but I have not seen one this chock full of so many things you can use RIGHT now, well ever.

From Susan Maguire's letter from the editor to open the newsletter.

Hello Shelfers,

Corner Shelf sits on the corner of readers’ advisory and collection development, but this newsletter is sitting on the RA side of the street. (Of course, the two are inextricably linked, so there’s plenty for CD folks to enjoy as well . . .). We’re talking about a useful Booklist trick, the appeal of audio, and how we produce a Top 10 list. There are also four Heated Rivalry references, because of course there are. Can you find them all?

We’ve also got some stuff going on outside of Corner Shelf:

A lot of us have a go-to tool for readers’ advisoring, but what makes it useful? That’s the question we’re trying to get to the bottom of with our Readers’ Advisory Tools Survey. If you’ve got a few minutes, won’t you consider taking it? We’ll talk about the results at ALA’s Annual Conference in June. Exciting!

Speaking of RA, our *free* annual workshop series, Readers’ Advisory: Ideas and Practice, is back! On Wednesday, March 18, luminaries from library land will explore the appeal of nonfiction, specifically history and memoir; what the deal is with romantasy; and the four cornerstones of reader interest. Did I mention it’s free? Well, it is. Free. If you can’t make it, or you can’t stay for the whole three hours, it will be recorded, so those who register will have access later.

Happy reading!

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

Now I have posted about the Survey and Readers' Advisory: Ideas and Practice before, but this is your reminder to do the survey AND sign up for this valuable, FREE half day event (you can do it all live, some live and some with the recording and even all of it recorded, just get signed ups you are notified).

• Click here to lend your thoughts to the survey
• Click here to register for Readers' Advisory: Ideas and Practice

Yes, those are the headlines here, but please click through to see the entire newsletter because there is more.

In particular, I want to draw your attention to this article by Booklist's Audio Editor, Heather Booth entitled, Trade Secrets: Why Audio?. From Booth's introduction:

Successful reader’s advisory for audio can look a lot different from RA for print. The format comes with its own tech requirements, another entire layer of appeal via the narration, and, often, a very different way of interacting with the book from what one might assume with print. Throughout this year of RA explorations, we’ll look at the motivations listeners have behind choosing audio and the particulars of that choice so that we can better understand patrons who listen and better respond to their reading needs. Avid audiobook listeners share some of their motivations for choosing audio below.

And that is just one of the things from the stacked table of contents. Click through or use the free links below to access it all.

• Booklist Better: Save and Share a Search
• Trade Secrets: Why Audio?
• Reference Roundup: Winter 2025–26
• Top 10: Book-Group Books 2026 (plus Anatomy of a Top 10 List)
• Excerpts from the Experts: Challenges to Materials and Programming
• Essentials: The American Revolutionary Era in Fiction, at Home and Abroad
• From Booklist Reader: Black Writers Tell Their Stories
• Shelf Care: Three Conversations about Reading
• From the Backlist: Sometimes I Trip on How Happy We Could Be, by Nichole Perkins

New Issue of Booklist's Corner Shelf Newsletter with Backlist Access

 

Booklist Online is full of RA info, and resources above and beyond the reviews. Yes, reviews and the spotlight best lists make up the bulk of the contents in the magazine, but they also have very useful newsletters.

The Corner Shelf, in particula, is exactly perfect for the reader of this blog. From the newsletter landing/archive page:

Where Readers' Advisory meets Collection Development. This free newsletter addresses trends, ideas, and issues in the two areas, helping librarians find the common ground between them. Original writing by respected experts, as well as in-the-trenches looks at new products and what's coming up. If you don't already receive Corner Shelf, subscribe now!

This newsletter comes out 4x a year-- February, May, August, and October.  Click here to read the current newsletter- October 2025.

And don't forget to check out the FREE archive of newsletters going back to 2014. There is a treasure trove of RA resources, suggestion ideas, and interviews with RA professionals lurking just a few clicks ff the Booklist Online homepage here.

But back to the present. Today I am including the Editor's Note from Susan Maguire that leads off this issue. Please click here or at the end of her intro to read the entire issue and check out the useful links.

Hello Shelfers,

Publisher’s Weekly shared some bad news from the leisure-reading world back in August: folks are currently reading for pleasure at the lowest rate in the past 20 years. This seems to be at odds with the BookTok-driven boom in reading, where users are consuming books at wild pace, snapping up special editions and self-published gems alongside picks from past publishing seasons. (Although there is a part of me that wonders if this is reading, or just consumption? Not because of the content—I’m a devoted romance reader, and you won’t catch me judging what anyone chooses to read for fun—but because there’s just so much. Are people just filling their bookshelves with pretty stuff? Does it even matter? Am I being too gatekeep-y?)

And then I look to my own library. I spent last weekend working at my Friends of the Library book sale (shout out to the Edgewater branch of the Chicago Public Library!), two days full of talking to folks about the treasures they found and how excited they were to dig in. I’m not saying this refutes PW’s report or my own cynicism about social media, but it was good for my readers’ advisor’s soul to see people jazzed about books.

What are you seeing at your libraries? Are your leisure-reading patrons still actively using the library? Are your holds queues still growing? Are folks browsing the shelves for things to take home? Are BookTok and Bookstagram suggestions making their way into your RA conversations and patron requests?

Hopefully your reading community is a robust one, but no matter the shape it’s in, Booklist and Corner Shelf are here to help. In this issue, I’m highlighting a Trade Secrets column that ran in the July issue from librarian Kaitlyn Griffith-Miller on the nuances of using BookTok for readers’ advisory. (Because no matter how cynical we are—*ahem* I am—about it, patrons are getting books suggestions from BookTok.) You’ll also find a list of Essentials on “Understanding Propaganda” for young readers; get that media literacy started early. We’ve also got a roundup of recent professional reading reviews, the Top 10 Art Books for 2025, a community-oriented Excerpt from the Experts, and more. Plus, it’s spooky season, so I couldn’t resist including Kelly Ferreira’s “YA Queer Horror Roundtable” and an unsettling backlist suggestion that harkens back to a classic horror master.

Happy reading!

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

Click here to access the full issue with links. 

New Issue of Booklist's The Corner Shelf

In case you missed it or don't subscribe (you should fix that here), I have reposted Susan Maguire's editor's letter (and the header with quick links) to the very useful newsletter that is focused on where Collection Development and Readers' Advisory meet-- The Corner Shelf. Click here or below to read the entire thing.

Have a great weekend. Some of you are off Monday for President's Day, but I will have a post.

February 2024
• Notes from the Field: LynnDee Wathen on Readers' Advisory, Merchandising, and BookTube
• Spring Audiobook Preview
• Top 10 Book-Group Books
• Reference Roundup: Winter 2023–24
• Excerpts from the Experts: Thoughts on Sensitivity in Reading Selection
• Shelf Care: The Podcast: Memoirs, Author Visits, and Books Books Books

Editor's Note

Hello Shelfers,

A readers’ advisor’s work is never done. First, you have to learn the basics—appeal elements, and how to talk to patrons about books, etc. But that’s just the beginning. A readers’ advisor must be aware of the titles on the shelves and the titles coming out soon and be able to connect their readers to those titles, and that work never ends. But, not to get too vocational-awe-y about it, it’s some of the most rewarding work a library worker can do.

We here at Booklist want to make that work as accessible as possible, and to that end, we’re throwing a party! And by “party,” I mean “series of three free workshops in one afternoon.” Readers’ Advisory: Ideas and Practice takes the basics of RA and expands on them, with a workshop on the RA conversation, an exploration of horror and romance and how the genres’ appeal intersect and diverge, and a class on writing concise, catchy book blurbs. All taught by rock star librarians, all free. Sign up, and join us on March 14th!

Speaking of readers’ advisory, in this issue of Corner Shelf, I chat with branch manager (and Booklist reviewer) Lynn Dee Wathen about her RA practice, including how she uses bookish social media. Our friends at ALA Editions share an excerpt from The Librarian’s Guide to Bibliotherapy (2023) that considers how readers’ advisors can suggest with sensitivity. For the collection developers out there, we look ahead with the Spring Audiobook Preview, and look back with the winter Reference Roundup. All that, plus a top 10 list and a podcast. Wowee!

Enjoy this Corner Shelf, and feel free to reach out if you’ve got suggestions for future issues. 

Happy reading!

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

Read the full newsletter which has even more information.

New Issue of Corner Shelf Featuring Joyce Saricks’ Column on Psychological Suspense

I’m back from the Columbus Day holiday.....

Yesterday, a new issue of The Corner Shelf-- Booklist’s newsletter on “Where Readers' Advisory Meets Collection Development” came out. Click here to access the entire issue.

Here is the editor’s note which previews the issue:

No matter how widely read we consider ourselves to be, every librarian has a favorite genre or two. I like to think a healthy mix of reading preferences makes for a better library staff, and so I'm giving all of you who consider yourself "book floozies" (I prefer to call myself "the Booklist slattern") permission to celebrate your love of anything deemed nonserious. Nicolette Warisse Sosulski provides the "Real Life Reference" column for our Top Shelf Referencenewsletter, and I'm delighted to give her the opportunity to show her fiction skills off to Corner Shelf readers with her feature, "I Am a Book Floozy.” 

This issue also features part 2 of Robin Bradford's interview series featuring self-published authors, a new "Weeding Tips" column, and a look at how our sponsor, Baker & Taylor, seeks customer satisfaction in "At the Corner of Baker & Taylor: In Pursuit of Customer Delight." And just in time for Halloween reading, a link to Joyce Saricks' recent "At Leisure" column, focusing on creepy psychological suspense. 

As always, I love to hear about what you'd like to see featured in Corner Shelf, particularly if you are interested in submitting a feature item. Get in touch with me at rvnuk@ala.org. 

—Rebecca Vnuk, Editor, Reference and Collection Management, Booklist

Although the entire issue is worth your time, I did want to take a moment to point out Joyce’s Saricks’ column this month both because it is useful AND the link in the newsletter is wrong.

It’s all about my favorite genre-- psychological suspense [link goes to all RA for All posts tagged with that genre].

Psychological Suspense is a great genre to suggest at Halloween time, as Joyce describes in the column at length.

When Joyce and I taught together [beginning back in 2004], we were always advocating for people to consider psychological suspense as its own genre. For many years, it was an uphill battle.  I am so glad others have begun to enjoy it as much as we always have.

Back tomorrow with some reviews.

And don’t forget, RA for All Horror is going strong with a post a day all month.

New Issue of Corner Shelf: A Booklist (Free) Newsletter

Last week, Susan Maguire, my editor at Booklist sent out the final Corner Shelf newsletter of the year. Below is the Table of Contents and her Editor's Note. Click here to read the entire newsletter and to find the link to subscribe to receive future issues.

• Notes from the Field: Serving Romance Readers and RomanceCon
• Essentials: Serving the Unhoused
• Listen Up: Spanish Audio of Note
• Top 10 Food Books
• Excerpts from the Experts: Play with Purpose—Integrating Games into the Collection
• Shelf Care: The Podcast: Book-Clubbable
• From the Backlist: The Queen of the Cicadas, by V. Castro

Editor's Note

Hello Shelfers,

This issue of Corner Shelf has it all: an interview with a library worker about serving romance readers and RomanceCon, an article on Spanish-language audio, the top 10 food books of the year, a feature on why you should integrate games into your library collections, and more. More!

One feature of note is that this issue doesn’t have the usual Professional Reading Roundup. Instead, I put together an Essentials list on serving the homeless which can serve as a professional reading list for library staff, or, with a few adjustments, for patrons interested in understanding their unhoused neighbors better. This list was inspired by my reading of “They Just Need to Get a Job”: 15 Myths on Homelessness, by Mary Brosnahan, which I first heard about from LibraryReads’ Rebecca Vnuk at our Read n Rave this year.

And it’s the last issue of Corner Shelf for 2024. I know! It’s sad. But as is tradition, here are what I’m pretty sure are my fave reads of the year:

The God of the Woods, by Liz Moore. This book has a compelling mystery, an exploration of class and the roles of women, and a surprising and satisfying ending.

The Pairing, by Casey McQuiston. Does anyone really need to be sold on Casey McQuiston who isn’t already sold on them? Except to say they keep getting better and better?

The Wedding People, by Allison Espach. A very funny, very moving, keenly observed piece of relationship fiction about a woman who unwittingly infiltrates a wedding party.

And two books that tackle mental illness in very different ways:

Between Friends & Lovers, by Shirlene Obuobi. A romance about, among other things, learning to love a person with depression.

One of Us Knows, by Alyssa Cole. A thriller about a woman with dissociative identity disorder who finds herself in a castle that is identical to one that lives in her mind. Very twisty and delicious.

What have you read and loved in 2024? Feel free to reach out and let me know!

Happy reading!

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

Click here to read the entire issue

New Issue of The Corner Shef via Booklist

Today I have the direct link to one of my favorite library related newsletters-- The Corner Shelf: Where Readers' Advisory Meets Collection Development. My favorite editor, Susan Maguire, is the editor of this newsletter and she gives you exactly what that title promises. 

This issue is a great example. See below for the ToC and Susan's intro. There are links throughout to the specific articles and the full newsletter.

 

August 2023 

• Notes from the Field: The New Jersey Library Association Readers' Advisory Section 
• Fall Audiobook Preview: 2023 
• Top 10: SF/Fantasy & Horror Debuts 
• Reference Roundup: Summer 2023 
• Excerpts from the Experts: Best Practices for Romance-Collection Building Success 
• Shelf Care: The Podcast: Cool People Talking about Cool Books

Editor's Note

Hello Shelfers, To borrow from an old saying, "no readers' advisor is an island." You just can't go it alone. There's no way you'll read every book you talk about, and there's no way you can master every genre your readers are into. You need colleagues and resources to help you beef up your knowledge, alert you to trends, and get you answers to tricky RA questions. That's why I spoke to Maribeth Fisher, Adult Services Librarian, and Vice President of the New Jersey Library Association's Readers' Advisory section (and Booklistreviewer). I wanted to find out what NJLA was doing to support readers' advisors and get a little insight into how the section works. And I did! You can read it in the Notes from the Field interview below. The rest of this issue of Corner Shelf really lives up to its mission to join everyone on the corner where collection development and readers' advisory meet. There's a Fall Audiobook Preview from Audio Editor Heather Booth, so you can make sure your audio patrons get their listening fix. For titles you'll want on your shelves and in your RA arsenal there's a list of the top ten sf/fantasy and horror debuts, and an episode of Shelf Care: The Podcast in which LibraryReads' Rebecca Vnuk and I rave about some forthcoming books. We have an excerpt from Robin Bradford's The Readers' Advisory Guide to Romance to help you build your happily ever afters (with a coupon!). And there's a roundup of Booklist's summer of reference reviews (because people need reference, even if you've dismantled your in-house reference collection and you're circulating the books). Phew! That's a lot in one little newsletter. But, as always, I hope it's useful and makes your collection development and readers' advisory jobs a little easier. I'd love to hear what kinds of collaborations you've got going on to help with readers' advisory efforts. Drop me a line at smaguire@ala.org, and you might see yourself in a future Notes from the Field! Happy reading! —Susan Maguire  Senior Editor, Collection Management and Library Outreach, Booklist  smaguire@ala.org  @Booklist_Susan

Click here to read the full newsletter for free and to sign up for this newsletter for yourself. If you read this blog, you should be a subscriber to this and honestly, a whole bunch of Booklist newsletters. Click here to go to their newsletter page. 

Corner Shelf Newsletter: Audiobook RA Program Video and Advice for Conferencing

The latest issue of the Corner Shelf is out and while each issue is always informative, this one has two pieces in particular that I wanted to point out to you.

First, here is Susan, with her Editor’s Note:

EDITOR'S NOTE

Whenever I go to any sort of library event, something comes over me. It's a particular madness that strikes when confronted with the possibility of FREE BOOKS while in the presence of others who are also mad for swag. I was picking up galleys at PLA, even though I work in a place where publishers send galleys to my office!  

But this madness cares not for logic. It just wants to fill your free tote bag with those sweet, sweet books.  

I try to justify my galley gathering by saying I'm going to review the book, or share it with someone I know who totally loves this kind of thing (aka readers' advisory) . . . but I don't mean it. I know I'm going to put them in a pile in my living room and look at them and be happy because free books.  

Aside from the permanent damage this has done to my spine, is it really so wrong? Unfortunately, I think the answer is yes. It is much better to be judicious with my ARC selection, to strike up a conversation with the publisher rep to ensure that I'm using precious suitcase space for something really meaningful. To see free books not as free books but as an opportunity for professional development rather than gluttony. 
Ha ha, like I'd ever listen to my own advice. Good thing I got Kaite Mediatore Stover to give us some conference-going tips. Plus, we've got the summary and video of Joyce Saricks' listeners'-advisory event for those who couldn't make it, and some great book suggestions, old and new.  

Oh, and if you see me at ALA in New Orleans with a stack of galleys, feel free to remind me of this column . . .  

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

First, I wanted to highlight the recording of the live Booklist and NoveList program on Listeners’ Advisory from last month. I couldn’t make it, but I watched the video as soon as it went up. Whether you are an audio RA expert, a newbie, or anywhere in between, there is something to learn here. Details in the newsletter and immediately below.

RA Showcase: Listeners' Advisory Joyce Saricks We are very lucky to have Bona Fide Readers'-Advisory Legend Joyce Saricks as the Audio Editor here at Booklist. You all reap the rewards in every issue of Booklist with her thoughtful features and curated reviews. Now you can reap additional rewards (the Saricks? The Joycees?) by revisiting "Listeners' Advisory: Empowering Staff to Take on the Audio Collection," the latest in Booklist's ongoing series of live events called "RA Conversations" (sponsored by NoveList), which was held on May 16th at the Skokie Public Library.‌ read more→

I also loved the piece by my friend Kaite Stover where she shares her tips and tricks to make any conference experience the best it can be. Whether you are going to ALA or a local conference, now or any time on the future, this is a great planning tool. I have been to my share of conferences and I even picked up a tip.  Notes from the Field: 5 Things I Learned in 15 Years of Conferences Kaite Mediatore Stover Are you joining us in New Orleans for ALA Annual? Are you overwhelmed by the bounty of professional goodness on the programming schedule? We asked Kaite Mediatore Stover for suggestions on how to make the most of Annual in the Big Easy. Let the Productive Times Roll!‌ read more→

There is much more in the full issue. Click on over and take a look.

If you are going to ALA Annual you can come see me, Kaite, and Susan [with others] live at ALA Annual. Details were in yesterday’s post.