Using Awards Lists as a RA Tool: 2019 Edgar Award Winners

I feel like a skipping record sometimes, but people are always forgetting that awards lists are a great resource on their own, m beyond just celebrating the winners.  They are a chance to get up to speed in what is going on in a particular genre AND a tool for making great suggestions and displays

Since mystery is one of the most popular genres at the library, the Edgar Awards announcements are among the most useful of all of the awards, and they happened last night!

Why?

Well for the normal reasons, like:

• You can use the list of nominees and winners to see the current state of the genre
• The list gives you some sure bet suggestions in many categories
• It covers all age ranges of reading, nonfiction and stories-- all of which are very popular at the library.

But there are also other reasons why the Edgar Awards in general are among my favorite resources:

• They make accessing every year's list of past nominees and winners super easy with a database that can be sorted in multiple ways. I use this whenever I am looking for a "new to them" mystery suggestion for a patron. It has never failed me, even when I have been presented with a stubborn reader who has already claimed to have "read everything you have here." Nope, no you haven't. 
• They have a readalike award-- the Mary Higgins Clark Award-- for books that are like the way she writes. I LOVE THIS AWARD. Here is the link to only those winners and nominees from that aforementioned easy to use database. And this year's winner, The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey (Soho Press – Soho Crime), is one of my favorite sure bet mysteries to suggest already [second book coming this year].
• I also like the paperback original category. This is a second way [along with best first novel] to identify up and coming authors.

Again, don't forget the vast resource that awards lists are. Here is a link to every time iu have blogged about this topic in reverse chronological order. Yes it is fun to celebrate the winners, but it is the list of all of the contenders AND the backlist of winners and contenders that taken together are a great resource-- for teaching you what's up in a given genre, collection development, displays, suggestions.... everything!!! And this is true for all awards.

Click here or see below for this year's winners and nominees. But again, use the database for great backlist titles.

The 2019 Edgar^® Winners and Nominees    
Winners are listed in red.
See the list of winners as a press release (PDF).

  Novel  •  First Novel  •  Paperback Original  •  Fact Crime  •  Critical/Biographical  •  Short Story  •  Juvenile  •  Young Adult  •  TV Episode  •  Robert L. Fish Memorial •  Mary Higgins Clark  • Sue Grafton Memorial
 • Grand Master  •  Raven Awards •  Ellery Queen Award 

Best Novel

               

The Liar’s Girl by Catherine Ryan Howard (Blackstone Publishing)
House Witness by Mike Lawson (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)
A Gambler’s Jury by Victor Methos (Amazon Publishing – Thomas & Mercer)
Down the River Unto the Sea by Walter Mosley (Hachette Book Group – Mulholland)
Only to Sleep by Lawrence Osborne (Penguin Random House – Hogarth)
A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourn (Penguin Random House – Berkley)

^ back to top ^

Best First Novel

        

A Knife in the Fog by Bradley Harper (Seventh Street Books)
The Captives by Debra Jo Immergut (HarperCollins Publishers – Ecco)
The Last Equation of Isaac Severy by Nova Jacobs (Simon & Schuster – Touchstone)
Bearskin by James A. McLaughlin (HarperCollins Publishers – Ecco)

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (Penguin Random House – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

^ back to top ^

Best Paperback Original

            

If I Die Tonight by Alison Gaylin (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow)
Hiroshima Boy by Naomi Hirahara (Prospect Park Books)
Under a Dark Sky by Lori Rader-Day (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow)
The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani (Penguin Random House – Penguin Books)

Under My Skin by Lisa Unger (Harlequin – Park Row Books

^ back to top ^

Best Fact Crime

          

Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation 
by Robert W. Fieseler (W.W. Norton & Company – Liveright)
Sex Money Murder: A Story of Crack, Blood, and Betrayalby Jonathan Green (W.W. Norton & Company)
The Last Wild Men of Borneo: A True Story of Death and Treasure
by Carl Hoffman (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow)
The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century
by Kirk Wallace Johnson (Penguin Random House – Viking)
I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killerby Michelle McNamara (HarperCollins Publishers – Harper)

The Good Mothers: The True Story of the Women Who Took on the World's Most Powerful Mafia
by Alex Perry (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow)

^ back to top ^

Best Critical/Biographical

        

The Metaphysical Mysteries of G.K. Chesterton: A Critical Study of the Father Brown Stories and Other Detective Fiction
by Laird R. Blackwell (McFarland Publishing)
Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession
by Alice Bolin (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow Paperbacks)
Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s  
by Leslie S. Klinger (Pegasus Books)
Mark X: Who Killed Huck Finn's Father? by Yasuhiro Takeuchi (Taylor & Francis – Routledge)
Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life by Laura Thompson (Pegasus Books)

^ back to top ^

Best Short Story

“Rabid – A Mike Bowditch Short Story” by Paul Doiron (Minotaur Books)
“Paranoid Enough for Two” – The Honorable Traitors by John Lutz (Kensington Publishing)
“Ancient and Modern” – Bloody Scotland by Val McDermid (Pegasus Books)
“English 398: Fiction Workshop” – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Art Taylor (Dell Magazines)“The Sleep Tight Motel” – Dark Corners Collection by Lisa Unger (Amazon Publishing)

^ back to top ^

Best Juvenile

      

    

Denis Ever After by Tony Abbott (HarperCollins Children’s Books – Katherine Tegen Books)
Zap! by Martha Freeman (Simon & Schuster – Paula Wiseman Books)
Ra the Mighty: Cat Detective by A.B. Greenfield (Holiday House)
Winterhouse by Ben Guterson (Christy Ottaviano Books – Henry Holt BFYR)
Otherwood by Pete Hautman (Candlewick Press)
Charlie & Frog: A Mystery by Karen Kane (Disney Publishing Worldwide – Disney Hyperion)
Zora & Me: The Cursed Ground by T.R. Simon (Candlewick Press

^ back to top ^

Young Adult

    

Contagion by Erin Bowman (HarperCollins Children’s Books – HarperCollins)
Blink by Sasha Dawn (Lerner Publishing Group – Carolrhoda Lab)
After the Fire by Will Hill (Sourcebooks – Sourcebooks Fire)
A Room Away From the Wolves by Nova Ren Suma (Algonquin Young Readers)

Sadie by Courtney Summers (Wednesday Books)

^ back to top ^

TV Episode Teleplay

“The Box” - Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Teleplay by Luke Del Tredici (NBC/Universal TV)
“Season 2, Episode 1” – Jack Irish, Teleplay by Andrew Knight (Acorn TV)
“Episode 1” – Mystery Road, Teleplay by Michaeley O’Brien (Acorn TV)
“My Aim is True” – Blue Bloods, Teleplay by Kevin Wade (CBS Eye Productions)

“The One That Holds Everything” – The Romanoffs, Teleplay by Matthew Weiner & Donald Joh (Amazon Prime Video)

^ back to top ^

Robert L. Fish Memorial

“How Does He Die This Time?” – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Nancy Novick (Dell Magazines)

^ back to top ^

Mary Higgins Clark

        

A Death of No Importance by Mariah Fredericks (Minotaur Books)
A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder by Dianne Freeman (Kensington Publishing)
Bone on Bone by Julia Keller (Minotaur Books)
The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey (Soho Press – Soho Crime)A Borrowing of Bones by Paula Munier (Minotaur Books)

^ back to top ^

The G.P. Putnam’s Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Awards

Lisa Black, Perish – Kensington
Sara Paretsky, Shell Game, HarperCollins – William Morrow
Victoria Thompson, City of Secrets, Penguin Random House – Berkley
Charles Todd, A Forgotten Place, HarperCollins – William Morrow
Jacqueline Winspear, To Die But Once, HarperCollins – Harper

^ back to top ^ 

Grand Master

Martin Cruz Smith

^ back to top ^

Raven Award

Marilyn Stasio, Mystery Book Reviewer - New York Times 

^ back to top ^

Ellery Queen Award

Linda Landrigan, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine

ALA Adult Books and Media Award Announcements

The Youth Media Awards are abut to be announced, and while I enjoy those as a librarian, we here in adult services had our own big ALA announcements for the Adult Books and Media Awards. You can click here for all of the award announcements including a link to past winners.

Below you will find the beginning of each announcement with a link to the full information, except for the Reading List-- the genre awards-- which I will repost here in their entirety because of all of the awards announced last night, these are the ones you are going to use the most.

• The American Library Association (ALA) announced “Manhattan Beach,” by Jennifer Egan, published by Scribner, as the winner of the 2018 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir,” by Sherman Alexie, published by Little, Brown, as the winner of the 2018 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. [Link here]

• The Reference and User Services Association’s Notable Books Council, first established in 1944, has announced the 2018 selections of the Notable Books List [link will take you to old lists], an annual best-of list comprised of twenty six titles written for adult readers and published in the US including fiction, nonfiction and poetry. The list was announced today during the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting in Denver. Link to 2018 list is here.

• The Listen List Council of the Collection Development and Evaluation Section (CODES) of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) has announced the 2018 selections of the Listen List, selected for both avid listeners of audiobooks and those new to the pleasures of the fastest-growing format in publishing. This juried list of twelve newly-released titles features extraordinary narrators and listening experiences that merit special attention by a general adult audience and the librarians who advise them.

• And finally, The Reading List. Click here for the full press release, but the winners [with readalikes], and short list are posted below. I cannot stress enough how useful this list is as you help readers and keep yourself in genre shape. These are key titles in each genre from the past year. And don’t forget there is an archive of lists from the past few years.

The Reading List Council has announced the 2018 selections of the Reading List, an annual best-of list comprising eight different fiction genres for adult readers. A shortlist of honor titles was also announced. The list was announced today during the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting held in Denver.

The 2018 selections are:

Adrenaline

Winner“Fierce Kingdom” by Gin Phillips. Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Joan and her four-year-old son, Lincoln, are enjoying an afternoon outing at the zoo when the unthinkable happens–a mass shooting. Trapped and in tremendous danger, Joan must rely on her bravery and survival instincts to make it out alive. This terrifyingly plausible thriller unfolds in real time.

Read alikes
“Lockdown” by Laurie R. King.
“The Quality of Silence” by Rosamund Lupton.
“This Is Where it Ends” by Marieke Nijkamp.

Short List“The Marsh King’s Daughter: A Novel” by Karen Dionne. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
“She Rides Shotgun: A Novel” by Jordan Harper. Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
“Lola: A Novel” by Melissa Scrivner Love. Crown, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House.
“The Force: A Novel” by Don Winslow. William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Fantasy

Winner“Down Among the Sticks and Bones” by Seanan McGuire. A Tor.com Book, published by Tom Doherty Associates.

Twin sisters Jack and Jill discover a portal that leads them to the Moors, a dark and unsettling world that reveals their true selves. But will their conflicting desires tear them apart?

Read alikes
“The Book of Lost Things” by John Connolly
“The Magicians” by Lev Grossman
“Birthright” by Joshua Williamson (graphic novels)

Short List“Winter Tide” by Ruthanna Emrys. A Tor.com Book, published by Tom Doherty Associates.
“Passing Strange” by Ellen Klages. A Tor.com Book, published by Tom Doherty Associates.
“The Witches of New York: A Novel” by Ami McKay. Harper Perennial.
“A Gathering of Ravens: A Novel” by Scott Oden. Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press.

Historical Fiction

Winner
“The Half-Drowned King: A Novel” by Linnea Hartsuyker. Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

Betrayed and left for dead, Viking raider Rangvald seeks revenge and his inheritance, while his sister Svanhild’s path to freedom lies with Rangvald’s mortal enemy. This epic tale of uneasy alliances, set in 9th century Scandinavia, offers action, intrigue and historical detail.

Read alikes“The Sagas of Icelanders” by Robert Kellogg
“Saxon Tales” (series) by Bernard Cornwell
“Vikings” (TV series)

Short List“The Confessions of Young Nero: A Novel” by Margaret George. Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
“Pachinko” by Min Jin Lee. Grand Central Publishing, Hachette Book Group.
“Golden Hill: A Novel of Old New York” by Francis Spufford. Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
“Miss Kopp’s Midnight Confessions: A Kopp Sisters Novel” by Amy Stewart. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Horror

Winner“Kill Creek” by Scott Thomas. Inkshares.

An homage to horror and the authors who write it, “Kill Creek” features four prominent authors who are lured into spending the night in a famous haunted house as a publicity stunt. The aftermath is both unexpected and terrifying.

Read alikes
“Hex” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
“The Haunting of Hill House” by Shirley Jackson
“The Family Plot” by Cherie Priest

Short List“Little Heaven” by Nick Cutter. Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
“In the Valley of the Sun: A Novel” by Andy Davidson. Skyhorse Publishing.
“A God in the Shed” by J-F Dubeau. Inkshares.
“Ararat: A Novel” by Christopher Golden. St. Martin’s Press.

Mystery

Winner“The Dime” by Kathleen Kent. Mulholland Books/Little, Brown.

Dallas detective Betty Rhyzyk comes from a family of cops. She’s nearly six feet tall, has flaming red hair, a New Yorker’s sharp tongue, and a girlfriend. When her investigation into a Mexican drug lord goes sideways, she must salvage the operation while dealing with a highly disturbed stalker.

Read alikes
Mallory Novels (series) by Carol O’Connell.
“Cop Town” by Karin Slaughter.
“Revolver” by Duane Swierczynski.

Short List“The Dry: A Novel” by Jane Harper. Flatiron Books.
“Magpie Murders: A Novel” by Anthony Horowitz. Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
“Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore: A Novel” by Matthew Sullivan. Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
“Casualty of War: A Bess Crawford Mystery” by Charles Todd. William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Romance

Winner“An Extraordinary Union: A Novel of the Civil War” by Alyssa Cole. Kensington Books.

Elle Burns, a free black woman, voluntarily leaves the North to work in the Confederacy as a slave and a spy. When she uncovers a possible plot she also encounters Malcolm, a white Union spy. Their intense attraction places their lives in danger in this tale of forbidden love.

Read alikes“The Spymaster’s Lady” by Joanna Bourne.
“Indigo” by Beverly Jenkins.
“His at Night” by Sherry Thomas.

Short List“The Sumage Solution: San Andreas Shifters #1” by G.L. Carriger. Gail Carriger LLC.
“Wild at Whiskey Creek: A Hellcat Canyon Novel” by Julie Anne Long. Avon Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
“Hate to Want You” by Alisha Rai. Avon Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
“The Lawrence Browne Affair” by Cat Sebastian. Avon Impulse, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Science Fiction

Winner
“The Collapsing Empire” by John Scalzi. Tor, a Tom Doherty Associates Book.

In the Interdependency, each planet relies on its far-flung neighbors for survival. Now a galactic change is transforming the universal order, a new empress has been crowned, a rival is plotting a revolution, and a foul-mouthed captain is caught in the middle.

Read alikes

Foundation series by Isaac Asimov
“The Cold Between” by Elizabeth Bonesteel
“The Wrong Stars” by Tim Pratt

Short List
“The Power” by Naomi Alderman. Little, Brown and Company.

“A Closed and Common Orbit” by Becky Chambers. Harper Voyager, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

“Paradox Bound” by Peter Clines. Crown, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House.

“An Oath of Dogs” by Wendy N. Wagner. Angry Robot, an imprint of Watkins Media, Ltd.

Women’s Fiction

Winner
“The Almost Sisters” by Joshilyn Jackson. William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

Geeky Leia is pregnant after an encounter with a sexy, anonymous Batman. Pondering when to tell her Southern family she is expecting a biracial child, her life is upended by the implosion of her half-sister’s marriage, her grandmother’s dementia, and a skeleton in the attic in this humorous tale.

Read alikes

“June” by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore
“Six of One” by Rita Mae Brown
“Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe” by Fannie Flagg

Short List
“Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine” by Gail Honeyman. Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
“The Woman Next Door: A Novel” by Yewande Omotoso. Picador.
“Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk: A Novel” by Kathleen Rooney. St. Martin’s Press.
“The Garden of Small Beginnings: A Novel” by Abbi Waxman. Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

HarperCollins Ebook Policy

Many of you are probably following the OUTRAGEOUS news from HarperCollins that the ebooks they now make available for checkout on OverDrive will terminate after 26 checkouts.

To make the insanity of this decision clear, the books we buy from HarperCollins can sit on the shelf and be checked out with a library card over and over again.  Just quickly scanning their top authors list, I see Diane Mott Davidson and Kim Harrison in the top 10.  It would be safe to say that each of their books has circulated at BPL at least 50 times (and that would be a conservative estimate).  The new Joyce Carol Oates will also be on the bestseller list soon.

But those same books, being checkout with the same library cards, just in ebook version, would disappear from our shelves after 26 checkouts.  Are you kidding me.  That makes no sense.

Libraries buy lots of books.  We buy books that get good reviews, but may not sell well.  For goodness sake, my book gets bought by most pubic libraries.  Thanks to library purchases, I am still getting royalty checks on the first edition of my book, and it is 7 years old!  These are not sales to scoff at.

So HarperCollins, we will now buy at least one print, the audio, and an ebook version of your books for our library patrons.  But even though we are increasing the number of copies of your books we are buying, you want to be greedy and force us to buy more?

Are you forgetting that the library is a great advertisement for your authors and their books?  Many patrons discover an author at the library and then go out an buy their own copies of the books.  Did you think about that?  Probably not.  Now you may lose new readers because we will not have your books at all in ebook form.  Good forward thinking HarperCollins.

Of course, I am not the only person upset about this.  RA Online has this great post with a run down of the issue including many links with more details.

There is also this boycott website.  It explains the full issue and has ways you can voice your displeasure.  Please join the fight to shame HarperCollins into changing their policy.

Using Awards Lists as a RA Tool: RUSA Book and Media Awards

This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.

Last night RUSA, The Reference and Users Services division of the ALA announced their Book and Media Awards.

I will link to each award. All are equally important but here on my blog, where I am here to help you help the average leisure reader, I will post the entire press release of the RUSA CODES Reading List, a list of the best genre reads.

The RUSA website has an excellent page with every award. Each award links to a page that makes access of backlist winners super easy, and those backlist winners are great suggestions anytime. Please note however, those pages are not updated with the 2020 results. For those, I will be linking to the press release. However, if you come upon this post at t a future date, use this link to see winners past and present.

First all of the other[non reference] awards with press release links:

• The Sophie Brody Medal and Honor titles for achievement in Jewish Literature
• 2020 Listen List of Outstanding Audiobook Narration for Adult Listeners
• 2020 Notable Books List: The Year's Best Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry

And now, the full 2020 RUSA CODES Reading List Genre winners. This list is the perfect RA tool because it has a winner with a blurb [so you can book talk it ASAP], 3 readalikes for the winning titles, and a list of runners up. Use this list right now for current genre titles and backlist readalikes. Use the archive for past year's winners. And make a big display that honors the best in genre books. 

Genres books are not less worthy than "literary" titles, and this award is proof of that.

Click here for the source. Press release reposted below:

Click here for the press release 

The Reading List Council has announced the 2020 selections of the Reading List, an annual best-of list comprised of eight different fiction genres for adult readers. A shortlist of honor titles, up to 4 per genre was also announced. The list was announced today during the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting held in Philadelphia.

The 2020 selections are:

Adrenaline

Winner“The Passengers” by John Marrs, Berkley an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

After their driverless cars are hacked, eight passengers have two and a half hours to live. One will be set free based on the votes of a captive jury and the will of the world’s social media population – but each has secrets that could condemn them.

Readalikes

“Speed” the 1994 movie
“Elevator Pitch” by Linwood Barclay
“The Escape Room” by Megan Goldin

Short List“The Chain” by Adrian McKinty, Mulholland Books an imprint of Little, Brown and Company, a Division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
“Cold Storage” by David Koepp, HarperCollins
“Conviction” by Denise Mina, Mulholland Books an imprint of Little, Brown and Company, a Division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
“Lock Every Door” by Riley Sager, Dutton an Imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

Fantasy

Winner

“Gods of Jade and Shadow” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Del Rey an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC

In Jazz Age Mexico Cassiopeia’s dull life takes an adventurous and life-changing turn when she must help a Mayan death god vanquish his brother and regain his throne in the underworld.

Readalikes

“Spinning Silver” by Naomi Novik
“Trail of Lightning” by Rebecca Roanhorse
“We Hunt the Flame” by Hafsah Faizal

Short List

“Middlegame” by Seanan McGuire, a Tor.com book published by Tom Doherty Associates
“Ninth House” by Leigh Bardugo, Flatiron Books
“The Ruin of Kings” by Jenn Lyons, a Tor book published by Tom Doherty Associates
“Silver in the Wood” by Emily Tesh, a Tor.com book published by Tom Doherty Associates

Historical Fiction

Winner

“The Secrets We Kept” by Lara Prescott, a Borzoi Book published by Alfred A. Knopf

During the Cold War, the CIA trains a new generation of female spies in an attempt to smuggle Boris Pasternak’s censored novel, Doctor Zhivago, back into the U.S.S.R. while Pasternak’s mistress deals with the fallout

Readalikes

“A Thread of Grace” by Mary Doria Russell
“Hidden Figures” by Margot Lee Shetterly
“A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles
“The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book” by Peter Finn

Short List

“City of Flickering Light” by Juliette Fay, Gallery Books an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
“The Confessions of Frannie Langton” by Sara Collins, Harper an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
“The Song of the Jade Lily” by Kirsty Manning, William Morrow An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
“Where the Light Enters” by Sara Donati, Berkley an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

Horror

Winner

“The Twisted Ones” by T. Kingfisher, Saga Press an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Brimming with spookiness, paranoia, and a single-minded bloodhound, this devilishly wicked tale of folkloric horror set in the woods of North Carolina is inspired by Arthur Machen’s “The White People.”

 Readalikes

“The White People and Other Weird Stories” by Arthur Machen
“The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek” by Rhett McLaughlin
“Meddling Kids” by Edgar Cantero

Short List

“The Devil Aspect” by Craig Russell, Doubleday, a division of Penguin Random House LLC
“The Homecoming” by Andrew Pyper, Simon & Schuster Canada a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
“The Toll” by Cherie Priest, a Tor Book, published by Tom Doherty Associates
“Violet” by Scott Thomas, Inkshares, Inc.

Mystery

Winner

“The Right Sort of Man” by Allison Montclair, Minotaur Books

In post-World War II London, Iris Sparks (perhaps a wartime spy) and Gwendolyn Bainbridge (a society widow) have teamed up to matchmake singles with The Right Sort Marriage Bureau. When one client is accused of murdering another, Iris and Gwendolyn decide the police have the wrong man and start investigating

Readalikes

“Dear Mrs. Bird” by A.J. Pearce
“Mr. Churchill’s Secretary” by Susan Elia MacNeal
“Girl Waits with Gun” by Amy Stewart
The Tommy & Tuppence books by Agatha Christie

Short List

“The Chestnut Man” by Soren Sveistrup, Harper an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
“Magic for Liars” by Sarah Gailey, a Tor Book published by Tom Doherty Associates
“Paper Son” by S.J. Rozan, Pegasus Crime an imprint of Pegasus Books, Ltd.
“The Scholar” by Dervla McTiernan, Penguin Books an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

Relationship

Winner

“When You Read This” by Mary Adkins, Harper a division of HarperCollins Publishers

After her death at 33 from an aggressive lung cancer, Iris leaves behind a blog that connects her boss and sister.  Told through blog entries, emails and texts, this tender, uplifting, and at times amusing story shows each working through their grief and discovering an unexpected connection

Readalikes

“The Garden of Small Beginnings” by Abbi Waxman
“Attachments” by Rainbow Rowell
“Meet Me at the Museum” by Anne Youngson

Short List

“Evvie Drake Starts Over” by Linda Holmes, Ballantine Books an imprint of Random House a division of Penguin Random House LLC
“Queenie” by Candice Carty-Williams, Scout Press an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc
“Rules for Visiting” by Jessica Francis Kane, Penguin Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
“The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters” by Balli Kaur Jaswal, William Morrow an imprint HarperCollins Publishers

Romance

Winner

“The Flatshare” by Beth O’Leary, Flatiron Books

Tiffy needs a place to live and Leon works nights, so they come to an unusual arrangement: sharing an apartment (and a bed!) but never seeing each other. Communicating via post-it note, they begin to rely on each other in ways they never imagined.

Readalikes

“Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating” by Christina Lauren
“Our Stop” by Laura Jane Williams
“We Met in December” by Rosie Curtis

Short List

“The Bride Test” by Helen Hoang, A Jove Book published by Berkley
“Lady Derring Takes a Lover” by Julie Anne Long, Avon Books an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
“The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics” by Olivia Waite, Avon Impulse an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
“Royal Holiday” by Jasmine Guillory, Berkley an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

Science Fiction

Winner

“A Memory Called Empire” by Arkady Martine, A Tor Book published Tom Doherty Associates

In this conspiracy-filled novel, a determined ambassador desperately tries to survive her new diplomatic assignment while investigating the murder of her predecessor on a planet with rules she doesn’t understand.

Readalikes

“The Goblin Emperor” by Katherine Addison
“The Collapsing Empire” by John Scalzi
“Ancillary Justice” by Ann Leckie

Short List

“Finder” by Suzanne Palmer, DAW Books, Inc.
“The Future of Another Timeline” by Annalee Newitz, A Tor Book published by Tom Doherty Associates
“Gideon the Ninth” by Tamsyn Muir, a Tor.com Book published by Tom Doherty Associates
“To Be Taught, If Fortunate” by Becky Chambers, Harper Voyager an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

The winners were selected by the Reading List Council whose members include twelve expert readers’ advisory and collection development librarians. The eight genres currently included in the Council’s considerations are adrenaline, fantasy, historical fiction, horror, mystery, romance, science fiction, and women’s fiction. However, the Council is adaptable to new genres and changes in contemporary reading interest.

The Council consists of Matthew Galloway, Anythink Libraries, chair;  Craig Clark, Upper Arlington OH; Gloria Drake, Oswego Public Library District; Halle Eisenman, NoveList; Andrea Gough, Seattle Public Library; Marlene Harris, Reading Reality LLC; Sarah Jaffa, Kitsap Regional Library; Jackie Kropp, Western Plains Library System; Teresa May, Durham County Public Libraries; Jo Schofield, Stark County District Library; Karin Suni, Free Library of Philadelphia; Estella Terrazas, Altadena Library District;

The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association, represents librarians and library staff in the fields of reference, specialized reference, collection development, readers’ advisory and resource sharing. RUSA is the foremost organization of reference and information professionals who make the connections between people and the information sources, services, and collection materials they need. Learn more at www.rusaupdate.org.