What Is a Beach Read? Spoiler, the Answer is Anything and Your Displays and Lists Should Reflect That

 We are entering the season of using the term "beach reads" but I am here to remind you that anything you read on a beach is a "Bech Read." I write a version of this post every year around this time. Here is a link to see those.

This past February, when I met Percival Everett at Amherst Lit Fest, I got to tell him I read The Trees on a beach and her literally did a double take and said, "you did what?" And then I told him again, I read The Trees on a beach and it was awesome. He was truly speechless but I think he appreciated me sharing that. We kept talking so he didn't run away in fear of me.

Here is my review of The Trees back from when I read it,

When people mention they want a "beach read," what they are looking for is a book that will hold their interest, a title that will take them "away" in some way, and something they want to have fun reading. Of course those appeal factors are all highly personal and you cannot use them in a vacuum to match books with readers.

However, here are some examples. My review of My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite makes it very clear that this dark, psychological suspense novel was the PERFECT beach read for me. It was also the book I had the most fun reading in 2018. On the other hand, when my best friend just went on a beach vacation she read the way more gentle, A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman and found it a perfect beach read, while her husband read Recursion by Blake Crouch. They are all very different, but all of us found them to be successful "beach reads."

Because any read can be a "beach read" in the hands of the right reader, I am urging you make sure the lists and displays you make for your readers during the impending summer season reflect this. Take the term broadly. The book you include do NOT have to have a beach in them to make the list. I mean, there can be those books, just not ONLY those books.

Look for books that are compelling, escapist, and fun to read. 

And here is a shocking up true statement-- "Beach reads" aren't even solely read on the beach. It is a term people use for their limited leisure time, especially in the summer, to read for no reason other than the pleasure of the story.

And don't just use your brain to find the titles. Use resources AND poll staff . Send out an email to all staff. Ask them to help you build these lists and displays. You don't even have to ask for "beach reads." Say something like:

We are looking to make a list of "fun" reads. Send me titles of all time favorite books, titles that took you away from your day-to-day life, books you still remember fondly, titles that were so much fun to read that you are jealous of people who get to experience them for the first time.

And utilize my conversation starter to display post to see how you can also ask this question to your patrons.  The question for the patrons: What are your all time favorite beach reads?

Sit back and wait for titles to pour in. The display will build itself! When you keep it broad, you will have so many more options, options that will serve a wider range of readers since you are asking a more open ended question to ALL staff [not just the staff at your service area].

Here are some lists that look at the beach read a bit more broadly to get you stated:

• Anything tagged "beach reads" on BookRiot
• Book Riot's all time best beach reads post
• Beach Reads via Reddit: there are SO MANY options here. 
• Summer Scares: The entire program is about summer time horror. And don't forget the link to past years' titles.

New/Old Conversation Starter Questions

Just a little over 2 years ago, I debuted a new concept with a handout. I called "Conversation Starters to Displays." I wrote about how to to systematically ask your patrons questions, gather the answers, and turn their responses into displays and online lists as well as use that information to really understand what parts of your collections they connected with the most. You can go here to read that full post. I also provided this handout with sample questions to get you started.

Since April of 2023, I have also written a slew of posts which I have tagged "conversation starters," to help you expand upon the starter pack of questions I gave you.

I thought everything was brand new since that post, but then as I was scrolling here on my own blog to look for something I came upon my old weekly series-- Monday Discussion which Bega in 2010 and wen well into 2015. Now I remember doing the series, but I had no idea I kept that up for so long.

However the length of time I did the weekly discussion was not what shocked me the most, rather it was that what I was doing was beginning of my "conversation starters" concept, I just didn't do these questions to make a display but rather to engage the larger library worker world on RA question, issues, and ideas.

I took a trip down memory lane and was surprised by how many of the questions I posed for the Monday Discussion were so similar to things I am still asking or thinking about today.

That gave me an idea. I thought I would pull out some of the Monday Discussion questions, all from 10+ years ago, to give you some new conversation starter to display options to try out at your library. Well, new probably to all of you (heck even to me as I didn't remember writing much of this) but really old. 

Again, go here for the explanation of how to execute this exercise. Remember, the goal here is to be vague. These questions are a prompt to elicit honest, heartfelt, immediate answers. We don't want people to be overthinking any of this. We want answers that represent the full breadth of reading tastes that make up our patron base. 

Those conversation starter questions are:

• What is a book that changed your life?
• Which three books you would pick to define who you are as a reader right now?
• What is the best book you have read in a genre you don't normally enjoy?
• What book has your favorite opening lines/scene?
• Who are your ride or die authors?
• What is the best book you ever read for school/were assigned?
• What book made you laugh out loud?
• Name a book that left you breathless?
• What is a book that rejuvenated you?
• What is a book you have read multiple times?
• What books are you most looking forward to?
• Ask this one often so you can make sure you have what people want on order. Plus, if you get the same book as an answer, you can make a display and lists of "while you wait" options leading up to said book's release. People will think you "read their mind," even though you clearly asked for their opinions.

Ask these questions (again go here to see how you do that) and watch the displays build themselves and most importantly, watch your patrons build a deeper relationship with you and your services.

A New Best Seller List Featuring Black Writers and The Black Book Accelerator

Last week, I was alerted to a brand new bestseller list from a long time trusted resource-- African American Literature Book Club. AALBC has been one of go-to resources to find great books by Black authors since I became a librarian; they have been around longer than that! And have always done great work.

The resource is BLK Bestsellers List: America's Bestseller Books Written by Black Writers from January 2024 to the present, sortable by month

They use the following data and methodology for this list as clearly stated on the bottom of the page:

Sales Data Source: Circana BookScan, January 2023 – May 2025, U.S. print sales, from thousands of retailers including national and regional bookstore chains; independent bookstores; mass merchandisers (e.g., Walmart, Target); Online retailers (e.g., Amazon); and supermarkets and specialty retailers.

Methodology: Books are categorized and filtered for Black Authors by the African American Literature Book Club. This bestsellers list is a sneak peek into a much larger effort led by the Black Book Accelerator (Learn More).

Here is why I love this bestseller list as a tool for us to do our work suggesting books to readers AND as a way to be actively anti-racist. This is not a list of the best selling books by Black writers. Rather it is a list of books by Black writers which were bestsellers. 

In other words, this is not a list others can try to disparage or even ignore because it is WOKE. This is a list of straight up bestsellers that were bestsellers on the white dominated lists in the last 18 months which happen to be written by Black people.

So when people tell me and Robin in our Actively Anti-Racist Service to Readers training programs (click here to sign up up for the next live offering) that people in our town don't read "those books," or, well we only have money for the bestsellers and it is not our fault that those titles are overwhelming white, or....insert lame and useless excuse here-- well here is proof that every single one of those excuses holds no weight.

Public libraries always buy the bestsellers. It is the first thing we do. As someone who did collection development for a community of 60,000 people, I understood that my job was to maintain a circulating collection of popular fiction. That meant having every book on the bestsellers list. It also meant exposing my readers to books that they would not find without my help, but which I knew they would like, be that up and coming writers, mildest stalwarts, small press stars, or books just like the white bestsellers but written by marginalized voices.

This new list, showcases that Black books are for everyone (which, has always been true). However, it also showcases the years of work done by AALBC to promote Black authors, in particular the Black Book Accelerator. From their homepage:

Empowering the Black Book Ecosystem

 

Mission

The mission of the Black Book Accelerator is to strengthen the Black book ecosystem and measurably increase overall stakeholder revenue. 

The Black Book Bestseller list not only celebrates cultural representation but also influences market trends, empowers readers to support Black literature, and inspires emerging Black writers by showcasing successes that might not have otherwise received recognition.

Methodology

Our data is based on monthly print unit sales provided by Circana BookScan. You may read more about Circana.

Since the book publishing industry lacks a definitive source of data on how authors identify themselves, we determine books by Black authors using a combination of BISAC codes and manual research.

We are actively collaborating with organizations in the book publishing industry to improve how authors can share information about their personal identities.

Blackness

The primary requirement for inclusion on the bestseller list is that the author self-identifies as Black or African American. We respect and uphold individuals' self-proclaimed racial and ethnic identities.

For our definition of “Black or African American,” we refer to the U.S. Census Bureau’s classification. This includes individuals with ancestral roots in any of the Black groups of Africa. It encompasses those who identify as “African American” as well as those who associate with more specific African ethnic groups, such as Nigerian, Afro-Cuban, Ethiopian, or Somali.

While we have established these criteria to highlight and promote authors of Black and/or African American descent, we recognize the vast diversity within this community. We are committed to ensuring that our selections reflect a broad spectrum of experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives. We also acknowledge that definitions and categorizations evolve over time.

But the best part of the Black Book Accelerator project is how honest they are with themselves. From the FAQ:

Q: Couldn’t this information be used for bad purposes?

A: Yes, but we think the good outweighs the bad, and to do nothing is to reinforce the status quo, which is unacceptable.

Q: Don’t you think continuing to focus on race is a problem? Suppose someone published a list of the bestselling white writers; wouldn’t that be racist?

A: The purpose of this list is to address historical and systemic disparities by celebrating the most commercially successful books written by Black writers — whose work deserves more attention.

Q: What about authors who identify as Latino, Asian, LGBTQ+, etc.?

A: We hope our work can serve as a model for similar efforts within other communities. We welcome collaboration and are happy to share our insights with those seeking to elevate underrepresented voices.

They are doing the work AND having the hard conversations about said work. When Robin and I talk about being intention with your anti-racist service to readers-- this is what we mean. We are also constantly called out for being racist in favor of marginalized voices. But here's the thing, if you want to intentionally work against systemic racism, you have to tilt the scales to get there-- INTENTIONALLY. As they say above-- the status quo is unacceptable.

These "questions" listed above are the same things Robin always says are framed as "good faith": questions when really they are just trying to get you to stop doing the work. They are really there as "gottchas," from the asker. We see it all the time. I love that AALBC are very clear, open, and honest, that those questions are not worth exploring further for very good reasons. Full Stop.

This has been a long post, but everything here is important and connected. In order to summarize, here are the 4 points I hope you take away from this post.

1. AALBC is an amazing and longstanding resource 
2. Black bestsellers are everyone bestseller
3. Being intentionally diverse is not racist
4. If you are intentionally diverse over time, the brick wall that is systemic racism can be broken down, one brick at a time. 

Want more help? You can sign-up for the August edition of Actively Anti-Racist Readers' Advisory Service with Robin and I right now.

Pride Month is Coming: Are Your Ready via Book Riot

Celebrating Pride in 2025 is nonnegotiable (see below if you think you can't do anything at your library), but there are better ways than others to celebrate in June. Kelly Jensen over at Book Riot has you covered with an extensive article filled with best practices and tips in: How to Prepare for Pride Month in Libraries in 2025.

The article is filled with information, links, and real world advice, even for libraries who cannot participate without getting in trouble. Click through to read the entire piece, but to give you a sense of what to expect, it is organized into the following 7 main points:

1. Take photos of your display and/or track the books being put on it 

2. Use QR Codes/Images of Book Covers for Displays 

3. Encourage Engagement 

4. Track Your Stats 

5. Be Frank About Intellectual Freedom and the Library 

6. Be Prepared for a Challenge — and Be Transparent About Patron Rights  

7. Do No Display At All and Explain Why

Click through to read it all for free.

That number 7 is the one for all of you who think you cannot do anything. Again, it is nonnegoiatble that you do something, and sometimes doing nothing and making it clear as to why you are doing nothing is in actuality, something. Jensen explains it very well.

The article also has links to past pieces she has written about Pride; they are all worth a look. You can also see this post from 2023 by me as well.

Please do something this June. Your community-- every single person-- needs to see LGBTQ representation loudly and proudly all year long, but especially during June.

Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool: Independent Book Publishers Association Edition

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.  

Earlier this week the Independent Book Publisher Association announced their 2025 winners here.

They are a treasure trove of recommendations and an amazing collection development resource. These are the very best of independently published books in almost 60 categories in all genres, fiction and nonfiction, and for all ages of readers. And you can access the archive of past winners right here.

Take a look and consider adding some of these titles to your library. And don't forget to use Forward Reviews to add indie books all year long.

See below for the linked list of winners in every category. You have multiple options in every category. 

2025 WINNERS - FOR BOOKS WITH A COPYRIGHT DATE OF 2024

Below is a list of the 37th annual IBPA Book Award program winner. One Gold winner and two Silver winners were announced in each category during a LIVE awards ceremony on the evening of May 16, 2025 at the Intercontinental St. Paul Riverfront in St. Paul, MN. Click on any category name below to see the three finalists in each category. Congratulations to all!

​

NOTE: Starting with the 37th annual book award program in 2025, the Independent Book Publishers Association announced the rebranding and expansion of its book award program. Part of that rebranding was a name change for the award program, from the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award to the IBPA Book Award. 

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Audiobook: Fiction
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