Tana French Readalikes From a Variety of Humans as an Example to Help you Find Readalikes for Any Author

Tana French is one of those authors we library workers love to suggest for a variety of reasons.

First, she writes well constructed, twisty crime stories with great characters. There are so many entry points where a reader will get hooked by her storytelling. This means we have a very wide swath of potential readers to suggest her books to. Seriously, when in doubt or when I am stuck, to the FRE shelf I go.

Second, this ability to easily suggest French is also aided by the fact that except for three books in the Cal Hooper series. All of her other books do not have to be read in any order. Yes the Dublin Murder Squad books are numbered, but they are all related stories in the same world, it does not matter in which order you read them. This means, most days you can confidently go to the shelf and find a Tana French book there for a new reader to discover.

Third, not for nothing, they are also always great on audio. Again, another place where you might find a book available immediately. For example, on my Libby, there are currently 8 French titles without a wait on audio. And one is the first Cal Hooper, the rest are various Dublin Murder Squad.

Over the years, I have not been alone in going to French when I needed a sure bet title for fans of crime, literary fiction, psychological suspense, thrillers, suspense and honestly, those who had no idea what they wanted to read as long as it was a "good read," especially for those going on vacation. The success we have all had suggesting French, means that we are starting to see readers who have exhausted all her title.

It is a good problem to have, right? We have helped to make her a must read author. 

Since the last Cal Hooper is out and there are holds lists everywhere, and because many of those on hold have already read everything else, today I am sharing some HUMAN created resources for you to use to find new pathways for French readers to follow. But I also want you to understand, these specific resources are here for you to use as an example of a pathway you can take to help any reader find readalikes for their favorite authors while they are waiting for a new title.

• Love Tana French? Read These Books Next via the NYT (gift link): What I love about this extensive list is that it probes all of the different appeal entry points who why a reader might like French and then provides books that will scratch all this different itches.
• Five Reddit lists of Tana French readalikes: Click that link and a google search will run of results from different Reddit threads across various Reddit boards. What I love about these threads is that the people all write about WHY they like French. You can really narrow down a great option for a variety of different readers.
• If You Like Tana French via Seattle Public Library: anyone can access the title list, but only their card holders can place a hold. Also this is a library example. There are many. Search the largest library near you to see if they have a list you can use to build tour own.
• Goodreads Members Who Read Tana French Also Read, a list: Not as nuanced a list but it is crowdsourced info from real reader habits. One thing I have learned, readers' brains do not follow a plot-able algorithm. Sometimes they just like what they like, and this list showcases that fact with suggestions I have not seen on other lists. Sometimes we can try to match appeal factors all day, but people just like what they like and seeing some data that supports that is enough of a reason to make the match.
• Tana French herself recommends: Author recs of other authors is one of my 5 Resources you cannot live without. Here is one example (via Elle magazine) which I found via a Google search for  "Tana French recommends"
• Click here for a Literature Map for Tana French. The closer someone's name is to hers the more likely they think it is the reader will like them. These maps are created by users in a Pandora style of gathering recs and clicks. I love to try the authors on the fringes in these cases because they are your wildcard options. There was at least one reader who made this connection. Why not explore that one with your patrons. It will give them an outside the box suggestion that they never could have found without your help. In this case, I really like the Celeste Ng option. I never would have thought of that, but I know more than a few readers who which it is SPOT ON.
• And if you have NoveList access, don't just pop the author's name in and go with only the readalike authors that come up first. (I mean you should do that first, but you can do more.) You should also play around with the appeal factors, click on a few, and see what results you get. This will expand the search from the top author hits. And then you can narrow down further from that expanded list as well.

This is just a short list of options, but I made sure to pull them from completely different spaces; from resources that use a different method, but all of which rely on human input. This way you can see the range of ways you can find readalikes as well as providing you with resources for French specifically.

Apply this logic and this breadth of human created resources to help your readers find a readalike for their favorite authors. 

Flashback Post: Allow People to Dislike the Books You Suggest

Today I am reposting something from 2017. There are a few reasons why I am doing this.

First, I know there is a lot of good content buried on the blog, content that I use in my live training programs, so I think more people are seeing it than they really are. I need to be better about pulling out older content that is foundational to everything I teach.

Which leads to second, in 2023 I debuted the idea of using "conversation starters" as the basis for all of your service to readers but again, the foundation for this goes back much further. Here is one of those examples of where I worked through these ideas in real time with all of you.

Third, I get new people on this journey with me all of the time. By pulling out older posts, you can see examples of what is there to find if you dig through the archives and use the tags to guide you.

So here is today's flashback post.

Call to Action: Allow People To Dislike The Books You Suggest

For today’s Call to Action, I want to remind you of something very important, something that can derail library workers as they begin to help more readers...

If patrons don't like every book you suggested to them, that’s not only okay, it is actually a good thing!

Failure in general teaches you way more than success.  But in particular, why is getting a book suggestion wrong a good thing in our work with leisure readers? Well, honestly, we learn so much more from patrons when they don’t like something. They share much more detail about what they want to read and why when they are talking about what they did not enjoy. Think about yourself. It is much easier to articulate why you disliked a book than why you liked it. And, this information helps us to fine tune future book suggestions.

Take the example from my own reading that I include on my staff reader profile exercise:

Just about every single RA resource [from computers to people] has told me over the years that I should like Outlander, but I don’t. Understanding this nuance as to why I did not like it, has helped me to not only understand how to find better books for myself, but it has also made me more aware of the intricacies in helping readers. It has also allowed me to understand that everyone makes a bad suggestion now and again and no amount of research can stop that from happening because working with people is never predictable.

Now, while failure is both inevitable and leads to more information we can use to help our patrons better, there is actually a larger, more overarching reason why getting a suggestion wrong is helpful. In general, the biggest missing piece in established RA Service in America today is feedback. I know this from my personal experience and from the hundreds of library workers I encounter in my work.

More often that not, we suggest a book or two or three to a patron and we never hear back about how we did. Many times patrons come to us over and over for suggestions without ever letting us know what they have liked or disliked about our suggestions. We can’t even get them to tell us which methods of book discovery we are providing they like the most. Now, over the years, I have worked intensely with a few patrons [I still continue to work with one from my former library, weekly] to get very specific and detailed responses to every book I suggest. This non-scientific research has been time consuming, but I have learned a few things I want to share with you.

The best way we can encourage feedback is to make time and space for conversation at the library.

People are afraid to tell us that they didn’t like the book not because they think we will get it wrong again; no, that is not what is going on at all. I have found that more often than not, they are afraid to tell us we got it wrong because they are worried that we will have hurt feelings and won’t help them anymore.

That’s right, they still want our help when we get it wrong. This fact alone should free you up to accept more failure. They don’t want to lose you, their book discovery tool. They care much less about how much they liked your suggestion than we think they do. Add to this that we, as a group of library workers serving leisure readers, are starved for more feedback and you can begin to see one of our biggest hurdles we have to taking the next step toward more robust RA Service.

So how to stop this vicious cycle and create the space to fail on a suggestion but win at RA Service overall? One of my favorite tools is to make sure every time I suggest a book to a patron that I tell him or her something like, “Based on what you have told me about the books you have enjoyed in the past, this seems like a good option. But, if you aren’t enjoying it, bring it back and let me know. I have thousands of more options. We will find the right book for you. Besides, it’s no skin off my back, I didn’t write it.”

This mix of humor with a gentle reminder that not only do I not mind criticism, but that I have so many more books that I can substitute this one “dud” with, goes a long way toward enraging feedback and creating a space where the RA Conversation can not only live but flourish.

Of course, you don’t have a physical interaction with every patron; therefore, why don’t you start including statements like this on your digital and paper lists and bibliographies, or even stick a note at the end of some of the books. Have a statement like the one above. Something like, “Let us know if you loved this book, hated it, or fell somewhere in between. We want to know so we can help you better!” Have an email address, your phone number, your Facebook page-- multiple places where feedback can be given, but you have to make sure you are letting them know that negative feedback is okay.

When we make the RA conversation-- a truly honest back and forth sharing of ideas and preferences-- our priority and stop making the book we suggest our ultimate goal, then we are encouraging the RA journey. When you encourage the journey it doesn’t matter if your patrons love every book you give them. What begins to matter is HOW they felt about the book-- positively or negatively. Then we learn what our patrons want to read and why-- each one individually and overall as a population we are serving as a whole.

When you encourage the journey and do not put the focus on yourselves [or your employees] to get every suggestion right, you encourage the feedback we all desperately crave.

Now don’t worry about having to force a failure in order to practice this Call to Action; they will come.  The more RA work you do, the more you will get wrong. And, the more you help a specific patron the more he or she will feel comfortable telling you the honest truth about how much they liked or disliked a suggestion.

Get out there and make suggestions. Don’t be afraid of failure; in fact, let the patrons know you might get it wrong and encourage them to come back and work with you more. Let them know how helpful it is for them AND you to have the most feedback-- positive and negative-- possible. It will  help them get access to the perfect book for them and it will help you to help even more readers.

For past Call to Action posts, click here.

Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool: Cundill History and Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Longlists

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.  

Two important longlists for our RA purposes were announced in the last few days.

First up The Cundill History Prize. From the announcement:

The jurors have chosen 15 exceptional titles to be longlisted for the 2025 Cundill History Prize.

Following in the footsteps of recent Cundill History Prize winners, Kathleen DuVal (2024) who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2025, Guardian journalist Tania Branigan (2023) and National Book Award winner Tiya Miles (2022), the fifteen longlisted authors will now be in the running for the US$75,000 prize. The Cundill History Prize is awarded annually to a book that demonstrates excellence across the prize’s guiding criteria: craft, communication, and consequence.

The books on this year’s longlist shed light on compelling stories that span continents and generations, taking us from the Haitian Revolution of the 1790s to the German Peasants’ War of 1524; from Soviet dissidents in the 1960s to American and Australian abolitionists of the 1800s.

The shortlist will be announced in early September, 2025.

Chair of the Jury Ada Ferrer, Dayton-Stockton Professor of History at Princeton University and a Cundill History Prize finalist in 2022, said: “As is to be expected from a Cundill History Prize book, the fifteen titles on this year’s longlist combine superb writing with rigorous and imaginative craft to tackle topics and questions of lasting, sometimes urgent significance. They range widely not only in geographic and temporal scope, but also in method: from sweeping narrative history and biography, to close reading of legal texts, photographs, and dance cards, even to a fascinating walk in a postcolonial city as means to understand an unwritten history, centuries old. The result is a list of fifteen singular books that represent the calibre and diversity of history writing today. Huge congratulations to all the historians and authors on our list.”

Ada Ferrer has been joined by leading international historians and writers Sunil Amrith, François Furstenberg, Afua Hirsch and Francesca Trivellato to complete the jury this year.

You can see the full longlist of titles here 

As you can see above, this is a history prize that values, "craft, communication, and consequence." This focus on those three pillars, especially the "communication" piece means that these 15 titles are excellent history reads for a library patron audience. History is one of the nonfiction area where we see

not in the same high numbers as things like true crime, cookbooks, or biography and memoir, but it is popular enough that we can make displays, use prize lists to build out our collections

And because these are just "History" and not a specific branch or type of history, the titles themselves represent a broad swath of excellent, vetted history writing. You can coincidently add these titles across your dewey areas and suggest them with confidence.

The Cundill Prize also has easy backlist access going back to 2008 here. Since we are talking about history books, backlist titles are less time sensitive. Dig deep into the backlist for this one because history never gets old. (pun intended)

And that backlist will help you make a display of history books. You can even use the prize's mantra as your catchy sign/title-- "History books of craft, communication, and consequence"-- that will draw readers in to see what that means. You can even put the logo for the prize on the sign. And for the online version of your display, add a link to the prize itself.

And second of the two, a prize for debuts. The Center for Fiction recently announced their longlist for the First Novel Prize. From that announcement:

We are pleased to announce the longlist for The Center for Fiction 2025 First Novel Prize. This year, we received 185 submitted titles with U.S. publication dates between January 1 and December 31, 2025. Over 300 readers, writers, booksellers, librarians, and other members of The Center’s diverse community reviewed the submissions and selected the 29 debut novels on the 2025 First Novel Prize Longlist below. 

Inaugurated in 2006, the First Novel Prize honors the best debut novel of the year and supports emerging voices in fiction. Each year, the winning author receives a $15,000 prize in recognition of their contribution to contemporary literature and in support of their ongoing creative career. Past winners of the Prize include Marisha Pessl, Junot Díaz, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Tommy Orange, Raven Leilani, and De’Shawn Charles Winslow. In the fall, our judging panel of four distinguished authors will determine the 2025 First Novel Prize Shortlist. Each shortlisted author will receive a $1,000 award. 

We are proud to share these extraordinary books with you. Please join us in congratulating The Center for Fiction 2025 First Novel Prize longlisted authors. 

The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize is supported in part by Hawthornden Foundation. For support opportunities, please reach out to Melissa Wyse and Anne Townsend at development@centerforfiction.org.

This one speaks for itself. You need to go check if you own all 29 of these novels. You probably have a lot of these, but make sure. I love how long this long list truly is. They are identifying a huge list of excellent debut novels to make sure all who deserve to be noticed in the crowded publishing landscape get their moment to shine.  

In the Fall there will be a short list narrowed down by a panel of judges, and each of those authors will get $1,000, which is important to note. Only 1 person can win the $15,000 prize, but that $1,000 for the short list authors will go a long way toward keeping them on th path to write a second book.

Also, don't forget, the easily accessed archive of every longlist and winner for the First Novel Prize is also a treasure trove of information. Obviously, you can find authors who are now bestsellers in that backlist, yes. But what about those authors whose first novel got a ton of critical acclaim but then did not make that jump to being more well known? Not making that jump does not make them less worthy of being read; in fact, that debut novel may be the hidden gem titles your patrons will love.

Great debut novels are something many readers search for, but remember, they don't have to be the debuts of right now. You can find excellent debut novels, many of which your patrons would never find without your help pointing them out through a suggestion, list, or displays.

Please use the links in the header of this post to learn more about how Awards Lists can be your best RA Tool.

Prioritize Sharing Your Collection Over Everything Else

I talk about this a lot in my training programs, but I realize I write about it less. Today I will fix that.

Everything we do in our work with readers at the public library can be boiled down to one easy to follow mission statement: 

Prioritize Sharing Your Collection

It is a deceptively simple statement, but in reality it is complex and can be taken in so many different directions by different people across your entire staff.

Everything I do here on the blog, everything I include in my training programs with library staff all over the world, and even my new book aimed at reaching readers directly-- all of it revolves around the idea of finding as many different ways as possible to share the joy of a good read. In fact, if something does not serve this mission, I probably won't share it.

It is why I share awards linguists and not winner for example. It is why I encourage you to promote the back list so heavily.

If you use my tags for Booktalking, Interactive RA, and Conversation Starters, you can find more examples.

I do this to encourage you to think about everything you do in your work with readers whether it is in the building or online, all of it, and ask you to ask yourself-- how is this helping me put sharing the collections we have at the forefront?

For too long we have been focused on our service as a transactional one, based off of a traditional reference model. Person comes to desk, asks for a book rec, and we give them one. 

And while it make sense that RA began as the counterpoint to reference, as a version of leisure reading reference, it definitely should not have stayed that way. In fact, tallying transactions (as we do with reference questions) not only does not work for RA Service, it is also quite frankly, holding us back from reaching as many readers as possible and showcasing what the library can do that NO OTHER resource or location can do.

I see this manifested in the most common question I receive in my training sessions-- how do I do more RA when no one is asking me reading based questions?

My answer is always stop waiting for them to come to you and start modeling the behavior you want to see. You want them to engage in your service to their leisure reading needs, start sharing good reads before they ask, spontaneously, without being asked first-- out loud, online, with props, etc.... there are so many ways. I chronicle them in my popular Booktalk Your Way to the Friendliest Library in Town presentation and feature these ideas in my 10 Rules for Basic RA Service. 

[Click through to both for many examples and longer posts by me explaining how to do those things]

Cultivating conversations with readers in as many ways as possible is the way to serve the mission of prioritizing sharing your collection, This should be a goal under that mission.

Everything you do, every day, ask yourself, is this going to help me share the collection we have diligently built? If the answer is no, don't do it. We have limited time and resources. We cannot do everything.

This does come with a big caveat, though, and it is key to the mission of "prioritizing" sharing as much of your collection, with as many people, as possible. You need to understand that you cannot do this work alone. This is the foundation of the "all" in RA for All.

Reading is a cornerstone of why the library exists. Our books, take up the most space in our buildings, and our collection of those books is among the largest financial investment our community has made in our institutions. (The building is usually a larger investment-- but both are owned by your community and they have paid a lot of them to exist).

We need to cash in on this investment and get the books into the hands of readers. I like to joke that your job isn't done until every book is checked out at the same time. And I am only slightly going there. If that is your goal-- you are truly living by the mission to prioritize sharing your collection. 

Yes, it is not an attainable goal, but the pursuit of it will improve your RA Service greatly. Why? Because if your goal is ti get every item in your collection in the hands of readers, all at once, you understand everything I am trying to teach you about RA service (This concept will be a post soon as well)

There are so many ways to share your collections and to share the love of a good read-- but if only you or your staff are doing it, you will miss out on other titles, age levels, and even items to share.

Our staff members, every single one of them who want to help us, all bring something unique to the table. They all like different types of books, they come from different backgrounds, and they have different ways they like to share what they are reading. And since every single one of them works at your library, they are also part of your overall community of readers. Their voice not only matters, but it adds depth to your service.

Maybe you like interacting with reader one on one, but your shelver likes recording themself sharing their favorite reads, and your tech services clerk loves building lists to share on Libby. You see where this is going. Compound interest of taking everyone's strengths and reading preferences and putting them all into one pot. A pot that privatizes sharing our collections to as many readers in as many ways as possible.

[Again there is a lot more about this in the Booktalking slides]

Which leads me to part 2 of the mission of "Prioritizing Sharing Your Collection," and this is crucial to your success-- enlisting more staff means sharing more of the collection. 

This is why Rule 8 of my 10 Rules of RA service is: "Working together is your best resource." And it is also why in the last year I added  Champaign [IL] Public Library’s Stellar Example.

I know there is a lot of high level information today. But that is my goal over the next few weeks, to have these higher level conversations here. Not everyday, but I do want to share more of the concepts I bring to my training programs with all of you on the blog.

Thanks for following along.

And remember, if you are doing some stellar work at your library, I would love to hear about it.

Email me: bspratford at hotmail dot com and we can talk about you doing a guest post here on the blog.

Back from ALA But First Unfinished StokerCon Business

I got back late last night from ALA Annual in Philly but while I was there, my annual Stoker Awards wrap up article went live on The LineUp. I take the top 5 fiction categories, give you an annotation for the winner and offer two read likes (w/ annotations as well).

Please click here to read the full article. I have also posted the introduction below.

Also, don't forget I have 15 backlist columns available on the site for free as well. All of them contain excellent Horror suggestions for a wide range of readers. Click here to access them all.

From the Haunted Stacks: 2024 Bram Stoker AwardsⓇ Wrap Up

Some of the darkest, scariest, and all around superior works of horror from last year.

Each year, the Horror Writers Association presents the Bram Stoker AwardsⓇ for Superior Achievement in thirteen categories. There are a few interesting things about these, the most prestigious awards in the horror genre. 

One, the award itself is very cool, an eight-inch replica of a haunted house, designed specifically for HWA by sculptor Steven Kirk. The door of the house opens to reveal a brass plaque engraved with the name of the winning work and its author. 

Two, the Bram Stoker AwardsⓇ are not for the “best” works of the year; rather, they are “for superior achievement” which leaves room for more titles to be considered in a broader context.

And three, the awards are chosen by a hybrid system of juries (one for each category) and member input. 

When you put all of this together, the results are always a cause for celebration.

And that is exactly what happened on June 14, 2025, when the Bram Stoker AwardsⓇ for books published in 2024 were presented live in Stamford, Connecticut, as part of StokerCon. 

Visit the Bram Stoker AwardsⓇ  official website for a full list of winners here. Or you can watch the entire ceremony for yourself in the YouTube video here. 

In Haunted Stacks style though, I am not here to simply list the winners for you. Rather, I will focus on the titles that won in five of the categories and offer you two read-alikes to continue your superior reading adventure.  

 Click here to read the article.

Back to morrow to begin the post ALA discussions.

How To Recommend Books Like An Expert via Book Riot

A few days ago, Book Riot ran an article entitled "How to Recommend Books Like an Expert." It is written by a librarian but written FOR a general reader audience.

This distinction matters. 

In my programs where I train library workers to provide service to readers, I often cite how important of a resource Book Riot is to us for two reasons. The first, less important today but worth noting, is because their content is judged by the number of clicks its author receives. This means they are always trying to have content that resonates with people in the moment. Their mission to write articles that readers will want to click on helps us. because they are actively trying to address trends and provide timely content at a speed and in a manner we would never have time to do.  

But the second reason I recommend Book Riot as one of the best resources is on showcase in the article I am sharing here today. 

Book Riot writes every piece in a conversational voice that speaks directly to readers. It is welcoming and easy to understand. They make the ins and outs of the book world clear to its most dedicated readers. Their audience is filled with people who love to read, who mark reading as their biggest hobby, and who are voracious about consuming book news and information. 

We all win when Book Riot educates these readers about genres, what the most popular books are, etc.... And in this case specifically-- when they break down how to best match books with readers.

Click through to read it all.

A couple of thing I love about this post from our perspective at the library:

1. It is a great overview of what we already do, but written out for the average reader to understand. Sharing this with your patrons will go a long way towards creating more conversational based RA service. This will break down the mystery of why we ask all those questions that aren't just about books when helping them find their next read.
2. When I worked at the library, most of the staff were not at the Librarian level, and as the resident RA educator, I was often tasked with getting them up to speed on the basics of RA Service. This was for my staff (Adult and Teen), Youth Services, and Circulation. This article is an even better starting point for new hires than my 10 Rules of Basic RA Service. Think of this article as the introduction before the First Rule.
3. And I am sure the person who wrote the article is aware of my site, but not only is Book Riot one of my 5 Resources you cannot live without, they also mention NoveList and Literature Map as well-- 2 more of my top 5.
4. This article reminds you to keep using resources to stay up to date and gather more suggestions from others. Again, something I talk about all of the time.

So be aware of what Book Riot is writing about in general and specifically, use this piece to introduce your readers and new staff to what it is we all do at the library every day.

But also, be proud of yourselves and your work because Book Riot deems suggesting books to readers as one of the top, clickable topics!

Booklist Online Gets a Fresh Look and Now You Can Have Personal Access to Booklist Reader

I have worked for Booklist as a reviewer since Fall of 2015, and for ALA Publications since the turn of the century as the author of three books. In that time, I have always been proud to write for and support Booklist. 

I love that their focus is on providing busy library workers vetted, expert RA assistance. And, they pay every single reviewer for their work. No working for accolades and by lines for them (unlike LJ who only pay their columnists- which is the only reason I am able to write for them because I do not work for free).

In order to strengthen their mission to be an up to date resource for helping readers,  Booklist just did a huge overhaul of their website. Click here to see. The fonts are all larger and the search function is more prominent. The lists in the current issue are also highlighted easily but just scrolling down past the current issue panel. 

Besides the site redesign, however, there is more big news-- Booklist Reader is now available to ALA members for free. As a reminder, Booklist Reader has always been accessible digitally to every library that has a print subscription, but now, if you are an ALA individual member, you can also login. 

This is important because a few states have made it impossible for library funds to be used on an ALA products and libraries have lost access to their Booklist subscription. However, if the library workers in those states can use their own money to join ALA (now with lower membership dues), they can get still get access to Booklist Reader.

But back to the product itself. I love how Booklist Reader takes the lists and information from a spotlight issue, published previously in the print magazine and for the library worker audience and repackages them as lists aimed at the patron market. Why is this so great?

First, you saw the lists a few months ago, so you already checked your shelves for the best titles for that category or genre over the last 12 months. You already saw the bevy of upcoming books centered around that spotlight as well. You get a heads up that this information is coming to your patrons.

Second, as I have said many times here on the blog-- the Booklist spotlight lists are a treasure trove of information to help readers. Take this month for example, the spotlight in the Feb issue is on Romance, for Valentine's Day. There are formatted and beautiful looking lists to pass out to our patrons in print or online. There is easy access to the best books from the past year-- books that are probably on the shelf-- for you to use immediately as suggestions to put in the hands of eager readers. It is an amazing resource for us to use as we help readers, but also for them to see on their own.

Third, while Booklist is future facing, focusing on pre-pub reviews, Booklist Reader is present focused. So the spotlight on Romance was back in September in Booklist, giving us library workers time to prepare for February. And as I said above-- now that it is February, as Booklist Reader is ready with all the lists, you are already ready to serve your readers because you spent time back in September preparing. It is all interconnected in a way that centers YOU-- the library worker. Who else does this? No one. No one by Booklist puts us first. (This point goes back to the start of this post by the way.)

Fourth, you will never run out of display and list ideas with Booklist Reader. Timely lists of books in popular genres and categories are ready for you. You can even make the lists and displays talk for themselves with short appeal focused annotations provided. No more excuses for having diverse and timely displays. Booklist Reader does the work for you.

And there is more, but don't just take it from me. In honor of the site redesign and new ALA member access to Booklist Reader, I asked Booklist Staff to write me a guest post all about it. They know more than I do, so I asked them here to tell you all about it.

Take it away Booklist staff.....

Use Booklist Reader for Readers’ Advisory

Where can you turn to answer a patron’s request for a recent epistolary novel, early reader graphic novel, or the latest sci-fi on audio? Booklist publications of course! For 120 years, Booklist, the official book review journal of the American Library Association, has been offering expert advice on the latest and greatest reads. With trusted reviews from library professionals across the country, Booklist is a reliable recommendation source that covers everything from picture books to manga series. And now, with our newly re-launched www.BooklistOnline.com, the search for recommendations just got easier. 

 In 2021, we launched a monthly magazine for library patrons: Booklist Reader.

What is Booklist Reader?

Booklist Reader recommends titles for readers of all ages in print and audio. Booklist Reader is sold in bulk so libraries can place stacks where patron traffic is highest. Subscribing libraries can service even more patrons by sharing digital issues on their websites and in newsletters.

Every issue is packed with easy-to-read articles featuring titles that will already be on your shelves. This is a little different from Booklist, which offers pre-publication reviews and timely articles used for collection development in addition to readers’ advisory. Did we mention that both magazines are great resources for your own burgeoning TBR list?

You can read the February issue right now. Inside you’ll find these features:  

• Top Romance Fiction
• Top Middle-Grade Fiction
• Recent Business Books
• Family Reads: Old Favorites and New Views on Black History
• Reserve These Reads
• LibraryReads February 2025 Picks
• PBS Books: Black History Month

Are you an ALA member? In January, the ALA announced that digital access to Booklist Reader for personal use will now be part of your membership! So, what can you do with this new member benefit? 

Use Booklist Reader to:

• Identify read-alikes and trend alerts
• Hear from your favorite authors and audiobook narrators
• Read features from our partners: LibraryReads and PBS Books
• Discover great book group books
• Get new ideas for displays ... and more!

Want to see more? We encourage you to take a Booklist Online 2-week free trial to see for yourself how these resources can help your staff and patrons. Subscription options for all our products can be found here. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to write us at info@booklistonline.com.

-The staff at ALA Booklist

“We read everything, so you don’t have to!” 

Backlist Not To Miss: The Memory Police

I am trying to make an effort to actively promote excellent backlist titles. I have been doing it more frequently verbally, as I talk to readers and give presentations, but here on the blog, I really haven't done it. So while I will not hold myself to a schedule, I am going to make more of an effort to post reviews of older titles.

The other nice thing about sharing backlist titles, it brings up more backlist titles as the readalikes. So I am sharing even more.

Today, let's start with The Memory Police by by Yōko Ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder. I was reminded of this book because Ogawa had another English release this month (originally published in Japanese in 2006), Mina's Matchbox. I have not read that one yet, but as I remark below, not only did I love The Memory Police but The Housekeeper and the Professor is also an all time favorite. 

From my Goodreads review of The Memory Police:

Three Words That Describe This Book: Orwell updated, character centered, thought provoking

This is a short book that packs a punch. I dare you to read it and NOT keep thinking about it for weeks and months.

It takes the old fashioned, Orwell type dystopian story of a police state that keeps taking away something-- in this case actual things in the world and also the memory of them.

What an amazing translation too. This is a short book, meaning there is an economy of words, but these words are very important. They have to convey the urgency of the situation and how it feels to lose memories. 

The entire frame of the dystopia is purposely difficult to wrap your head around. This makes it even more disorienting. But the fact that Ogawa could do this in Japanese and then it is translated well enough to convey the weirdness of it all. And the horror.

Yes this is a dystopian SF story, but it is also a visceral horror story that delves into all out body horror in multiple places.

This is a book about the way it makes you feel-- extremely uncomfortable and yet, you can't stop reading. As things get worse and worse, as more things disappear, the human connections become more important. Our main character hides someone who is unable to forget memories.

Speaking of our narrator, I loved how she is NOT one of the exceptional ones. In most of these dystopian stories, the one who we see the story through is someone who resists or who can see the truth. She cannot and that made it all more visceral, real and disorienting. We meet people who remember, but we are never allowed into their heads. 

Our narrator is also a novelist. So there is a second narrative which is the book she is writing. This book is even more scary and unsettling than what is happening "in real time," or is it? 

Reading this book was an emotional experience. There is so much to digest but it is all at a level that anyone can relate to. The writing is lyrical and words are chosen carefully, but it is not pretentious. It is thought provoking precisely because it takes something so mundane...the regular every day objects in our daily lives... and makes you think about what happens when you are forced to live without them.

It is a story that is both practical and symbolic at the same time. And it is absolutely terrifying watching it all unfold.

Readalikes: The idea that some people can still remember the supposedly lost things and some still have kept many of these lost things secretly hidden and that those fugitives need to be hidden or they will be rounded up and killed and the danger those who remember pose to the order of the society, reminded me so much of FAHRENHEIT 451 by Bradbury

For fans of Murakami and Atwood, yes, but those authors take so many more words to get across the same feelings. And unlike the old school, Orwellian dystopian classics, this one has a female perspective, so those older titles might not be a great readalike for everyone. 

Books like THE POWER by Alderman are so much more heavy handed than this novel. But the horror novel, THE RUST MAIDENS by Gwendolyn Kiste , a traditional horror novel, is not. The Kiste pairs better with this title. https://raforall.blogspot.com/2018/10/what-im-reading-rust-maidens.html

There is a lightness and beauty underneath the terror and unsettledness. It needs to be experienced.

I think I haven't read a book this intense, thought provoking, and yet still short since THE VEGETARIAN by Han.  

Also, I should note that the equally beautiful and disorienting THE HOUSEKEEPER AND THE PROFESSOR also by Ogawa is one of my all time favorites. And the 2 books make a great pair to read back to back.

New Shelf Care Podcast from Booklist With LibraryReads and More

I am digging out after taking 2.5 days off last wee and yesterday. But thankfully, you are still getting a new blog post because the latest episode of Shelf Care: The Podcast. See below or click here to access this episode and all previous episodes. 

But this episode in particular is a perfect listen as it is all reading suggestions featuring Booklist staff and LibraryReads Executive Director, Rebecca Vnuk. 

Happy Listening. I am going back to emails and preparing more posts for this week.

On this episode of Shelf Care: The Podcast, we’ve got lots and lots of reading suggestions. First, host Susan Maguire is joined by Rebecca Vnuk, Executive Director, LibraryReads, for a mini-Read ‘n’ Rave, a version of the hit program that Booklist and LibraryReads host at ALA Annual. (Find the whole list of books our librarian experts raved about at this year’s Read ‘n’ Rave here.) Then, Audio Editor Heather Booth talks to her daughter Julia about how libraries can help teens find good audiobooks. Finally, Susan and Sarah Hunter, Editor, Books for Youth and Graphic Novels, sat down to share a ton of great new graphic novels that you can use to celebrate the tail end of Graphic Novels in Libraries Month (and beyond).

“They Just Need to Get a Job”: 15 Myths on Homelessness, by Mary Brosnahan

The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern, by Lynda Cohen Loigman

Break Every Rule, by Brian Freeman

The Most Wonderful Time, by Jayne Allen

Marigold Mind Laundry, by Jungeun Yun, tr. By Shanna Tan

Swordcrossed, by Freya Marske

Bury Your Gays, by Chuck Tingle

Swan Song, by Elin Hilderbrand

The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn, v. 1, by Tri Vuong, art by the author

The Puerto Rican War: A Graphic History, by John Vasquez Mejias, art by the author

A Pillbug Story, by Alison Conway, art by the author

Ash’s Cabin, by Jen Wang, art by the author

Plain Jane and the Mermaid, by Vera Brosgol, art by the author

The Deep Dark, by Molly Knox Ostertag, art by the author

The Worst Ronin, by Maggie Tokuda-Hall, art by Faith Shaffer

The Jellyfish, by Boum, art by the author

Navigating with You, by Jeremy Whitely, art by Cassio Riberio

Anzu and the Realm of Darkness, by Mai K. Nguyen, art by the author

Gamerville, by Johnnie Christmas, art by the author

A New Car for Pickle, by Sylvie Kantorovitz, art by the author

Hearing Things, by Ben Sears, art by the author

Resource Reminder: NPR Books

ALA Annual begins today so most of the librarians are busy from now until Tuesday. But since I am not there, I am taking advantage of the quiet to take a half day today.

I will be back on Monday with my Horror Genre Preview in the July issue of Library Journal and Tuesday I will start with some ALA Annual Recaps.

But today I wanted to remind you of one of my favorite resources-- NPR Books.

They cover the newest books, they have  written reviews to pair with the audio ones, lists, and include journalism on book news, all with one click. I check it at least once a week to stay on top of what is going on in the book atmosphere (Robin Bradford's term).

However, it is more than a news site, it is also one of my go to suggestion resources because they have a permanent link to the "Books We Love" searchable database with easy backlist access. Please click here for more by me about this wonderful resource.

Here is the direct link to access it

But from the main page of NPR Books, click on the header--  "Best Books of the Year."

Currently they are also running a "Books We Love" so far series for 2024. Use their "Books We Love" tag to pull up those lists and the database of hundreds of titles.

Include NPR books as part of your book news routine AND as a great place to identify titles for readers based on their preferred appeal factors with backlist access to 2013 all on one page.

Weird Westerns: An Annotated Reading List by Me via The LineUp

One of my favorite outlets to write for is The LineUp. You can click here for all of the times I have written for them or about them here on the blog. 

I love getting to write about books directly to the reader audience.  And I really believe in the work that the LineUp does. They are professional, care about getting backlist titles into the hands of readers, and pay me as promised and on time.

This is one of 5 columns I have contracted to write for the LineUp this calendar year. You can read everything I have written for them with this link.

Below is a link to the entire article with the introduction reposted here.

These Weird Horror Western Books Are Re-Inventing the Genre

Where the horror howls.

By Becky Spratford | Published Mar 19, 2024

• 
• Photo Credit: Kym MacKinnon / Unsplash

Back in 2017, I noted the following trend on my blog for library workers:  

“…Westerns are making a comeback…because the genre is shifting to fit what readers want to read about today, while still staying true to the essence of what makes something "a Western." 

Up until recently, in order to be called a "Western" a book needed to be about the expansion of the West—and the men who “tamed” it. It also had to be set from after the Civil War to the turn of the 20th Century.

Okay, before I go any further, you can see right away why there is a problem with this definition—mostly white men, very strict time frame, and limited scope. 

But there are other things that are appealing about Westerns that many readers love and that this genre always got 100% right. For example, the rich descriptions of the beautiful landscape and the plots which place the characters in a morality play (with) revenge and redemption…at the center. These appeals are not unique to the West but they are things about the genre that fans also adore. 

This renewed interest in Westerns uses these basic appeal factors and a broad definition of "The West" as a place, but not always in those former strict time constraints. These are stories of the West that add in something else, like another genre, a darker tone…or are just plain "weird." They can now also be set anytime as long as "The West" as a place features prominently.” 

This popularity has only increased in the seven years since I first wrote that post, culminating most recently with Lone Women by Victor LaValle, a Weird Western, showing up on best lists from Library Journal to Book Page and as a nominee for awards like the Bram Stoker Award and the LA Times Book Prize.  

Looking back from 2017 to now, we not only see an increase in the number of titles being released, but within the classification of “Weird Western,” we have also seen a wider range of stories available to readers.

From science fiction and dark fantasy influences to atmospheric historicals to pulps, there is a Weird Western for every reader to join the wagon train and ride this popular trend into the sunset. 

Click here to see the full article and annotated list of books.