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Showing posts sorted by relevance for query attack of the best lists. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query attack of the best lists. Sort by date Show all posts

Friday, December 27, 2024

Attack of the Best Lists 2024: LitHub's Best Book Coverage Including the Ultimate Best List

This post is part of my year end "Attack of the Best Lists" coverage. To see every post in my "Attack of the Best Lists 2024" coverage [and more backlist best of the year options] you can click here. 

This is my last Attack of the Best Lists post of the year, although I will be revisiting all of this for my 2024 installment of Keeping Up with Books: Year in Review with Yaika Sabat for Novelist. It will be FREE and in February. Details soon, but here is the link describing the 2023 program so you get a sense of what to expect.

But back to day. Here is the list we all have been waiting for-- LitHub's aggregation of all the major best lists. From the landing page:

The Ultimate Best Books of 2024 List
Reading All the Lists So You Don’t Have To Since 2017
By Emily Temple 

The end of the year is approaching, the universe is expanding, and the internet is updating—right now, it is mostly updating its Best Of lists. Therefore, per Literary Hub tradition, I now present to you the Ultimate List, otherwise known as the List of Lists—in which I read all the Best Of lists and count which books are recommended most. 
In all the time I’ve done this, I’ve never seen a book run away with this list like Percival Everett’s James has this year: it was recommended a full dozen more times than the next most popular books. (It also won the National Book Award and the Kirkus Award, and was a finalist for the Booker—and with good reason.) 
Overall, this year, I processed 69 lists from 39 outlets, which collectively recommended more than 1,200 individual books (RIP my spreadsheet). As always, these are probably not all the lists, but all universes have to end sometime. Anyway, 90 of those books made it onto 5 or more lists, and I have collated these for you here, in descending order of frequency.

This is the only single list you need to look at because Temple has done the most focused work of anyone out there. And the results, are RA gold for you. The post she has created seamlessly combines adult fiction, nonfiction, and GNs into one list. Further, she not only does the compiling for you, the sources are listed and linked (!) at the bottom of the page, so you can have DIRECT access to the 69 most influential publications' best lists, and the aggregation of which titles are on the most lists, with just this one click. It is crowdsourcing first, but also, a resource to dive deeper, all in one place.

But wait, there's more....

Multiple layer of backlist and indexing are happening here, meaning you can embrace "Best" across multiple years. Reminder, "Best" titles have a longer shelf life than the current year. Last year's best titles, even 5 years ago, are great suggestions for a wide swath of readers. Here's how LitHub makes it easy, all year long, with their clear, consistent, and accessible tags at the bottom of their posts:

All of these tags pull up useful information in reverse chronological order, meaning you decide how far into the backlist you want to dig.

But wait, there is even more...

LitHub owns CrimeReads and they have their own Best of 2024 lists (but no useful tags to collection them all. Here are those best lists:

I AM NOT DONE YET. I told you I was saving the best for last. 

LitHub also owns Book Marks a review aggregator. Full disclosure, they include Booklist and Library Journal so my reviews are part of this database. Here are their best reviewed fiction and nonfiction of 2024.

Okay, now that is the end. The final day of Attack of the Best Lists 2024. But please remember, you can use these lists all year long and the back lists as well. Click here for my Attack of the Best Lists consolidated coverage for 2023, 2022, and 2021. And note, each of those posts goes into the backlist for each list as well. going back to 2021 will take you back even further. There are literally hundred of titles here for you with one or 2 clicks that are sure to be on your shelves and satisfy a wide range of readers. 

Back Monday and Tuesday with my most popular posts and my favorite reads of the year. Until then, stay safe.

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Friday, October 14, 2022

RA for All Greatest Hits: Attack of the Best Lists

I am currently working on two major best lists and one award....and it is early October. Soon, we will be inundated with "best" lists created by experts telling us what we should have read this year, but didn't.

So in honor of what I like to call, "Attack of the Best Lists," today's Greatest Hits post is a flashback to back in 2015 when I wrote about using the glut of best lists this time of year to your advantage. That post, "Attack of the "Best" Lists-- Becky's Advice to Stay Ready and Look Smart," is below, but you can also use this link to read more posts in that "Attack of the Best Lists" series.

For more of RA for All's Greatest Hits click here.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2015

Attack of the "Best" Lists-- Becky's Advice to Stay Ready and Look Smart

This time of year is exciting with the holidays approaching and “Best of the Year” lists coming fast and furious.  Best lists are both one of the best things about our job and one of the most frustrating; however, if you listen to me, I will help you to turn all of the frustration into a success story-- one that will make you and your library look like book super stars.

Let me start with how Best Lists help us, library workers who help leisure readers.
  1. We love books and get excited about what is deemed the best.  As cool as we try to play it, we are like kids in a candy store when best lists come out. We are all comparing our reading lists to see which we have already read, which are on our to-read lists, which books we feel didn’t deserve to be deemed best, and most importantly, which books we feel were snubbed. This is pure fun for us since our job involves leisure reading.
  2. Best lists get our patrons psyched up too.  They start coming back into the library to look for these great books that they may have missed. We are relevant to them [for the moment], which makes us feel good.
  3. Since best lists get patrons more excited about books and reading, they are also more willing to engage us in a conversation about what they are reading. This is the best time of year to practice our book talking and RA conversation skills.
Now the frustrations.
  1. There are so many lists and they start coming at us before Halloween. It is a lot to handle.
  2. All of those patrons coming in are only interested in the “best” books and of course, many of those are checked out.
  3. We often feel like we have lost the opportunity to shine because of their disappointment. The best list barrage can make us feel like failures. :(
These are real frustrations, but I have helpful answers.

First, take advantage of the huge number of best lists and don’t see them as overwhelming, rather use them to your advantage.  There are SO many of them, you should be able to find a book that someone deemed best this year.  Often, patrons aren’t looking for a specific “best book” even though they come in asking for a specific title. They actually are just looking for a book that someone said was good enough for them to spend their time reading.

So take a step back and think about that last statement.  The patrons are all clamoring for Fates and Furies or Between the World and Me and you know it will be 2016 before a copy is available, but what they actually want is something good to read. They figure a “best” book is a safe bet.

Do not think of this as a lost opportunity or failure because the specific title has a long holds queue.  Instead, engage the patron in conversation about finding them a “best” book that is both ready right now AND is tailor fit to their reading tastes.  9 times out of 10, the patron in front of you has NO IDEA that you will provide this level of customized service for them. They will be so happy for your help.

But how do you do it> Remember frustration #1, so many lists to keep track of.  Well that’s where I come in, to give you 1 easy link to all of the best lists.

Since 2008, the website Largehearted Boy has kept the best and most comprehensive list of all of the best books lists.  All can be easily access here. The 2015 one is already well underway. 

So you start with this year’s lists, but as I said above, that often is limiting because they are checked out. But, as I have said before on this blog, the fact that the library has the BACKLIST is what makes us look like superheroes. We still have most of the past 10 year’s “best” books in our stacks [at least that far back].

One click to Largehearted Boy’s archive and you have many years of best lists at your finger tips.  I have had tons of luck moving patrons coming in for the top books for the current year to the previous year’s best lists.  Just a few simple reminders-- that these were last year’s best and often, they are still on the paperback best seller list, and offering to put this year’s best on hold while they are reading a book from last year’s list that I can place in their hand right this second-- can go a long way toward creating happy, satisfied patrons.

Again, you need to remember that they just want a “best” book. Most of them do not care when it was “best.” Trust me. I have done this switcharoo dozens of times over the last 15 years.  People love it. They often feel like they got a “secret” best book when it is one I found from a previous year’s list. Even the grumpy lady who insists she will only read Fates and Furies or Between the World and Me, will love being in on a secret best list [as long as her hold is also placed for this year’s titles].

Try this advice and you will have an awesome end to the year at your library. You will have helped your adult leisure readers brilliantly.  They will tell their friends how nice and smart you were. And you will have handled the attack of the best lists with grace and skill.

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Thursday, December 18, 2025

Attack of the Best Lists 2025: LitHub's Ultimate Best Books List (and more)

This post is part of my year end "Attack of the Best Lists" coverage. To see every post in my "Attack of the Best Lists 2025" coverage [and more backlist best of the year options] you can click here.  

Today I have the list I have been waiting for-- LitHub's aggregation of all the major best lists. From the landing page:

The Ultimate Best Books of 2025 List
Reading All the Lists So You Don’t Have To Since 2017
By Emily Temple 

Happy List Season, children. I hope you’ve been good. Just like every year, I have arrived to present to you the Ultimate List, otherwise known as the List of Lists—in which I read all (or at least many) of the Best Of lists on the internet and count which books are recommended most. 
Is consensus the same as quality? Not always. Is this basically a popularity contest? Sure. But if you want to know which books The Critics are talking about, this is one way to do it. (Three of my own personal favorite books of the year made it to the top five below, which I can only assume means I am either a) boring or b) correct or c) both??) 
This year, I processed 58 lists from 49 outlets, which collectively recommended more than 1,300 different books (…help). 90 of those books made it onto 5 or more lists (weirdly this is the exact same number as last year, despite there being more books recommended in total this year), and I have collated these for you here, in descending order of frequency.
I know I have been doing my Attack of the Best Lists 2025 coverage since late October, but honestly, if you only have time for 1 list, this is it. Temple has done the most focused work of anyone out there. And the results, are RA gold for you. The post she has created seamlessly combines adult fiction, nonfiction, and GNs into one list. Further, she not only does the compiling for you, the sources are listed and linked (!) at the bottom of the page, so you can have DIRECT access to the most influential' best lists, and the aggregation of which titles are on the most lists, with just this one click. It is crowdsourcing, and an end of the year lists resource to dive deeper, all in one place.

And for just a moment, before going further, I need all of you to look at the books appearing on 12 lists because we have Stephen Graham Jones alongside Nobel Prize winner Han Kang! Look this year was not the best overall, but I for one am going to celebrate SGJ being on par with Kang as a win.

Back to more best books coverage on Lit Hub as they also has a few of their own best list content that is worth a look:

Multiple layer of backlist and indexing are also happening in every list, meaning you can embrace "Best" across multiple years. Reminder, "Best" titles have a longer shelf life than the current year. Last year's best titles, even 5 years ago, are great suggestions for a wide swath of readers. LitHub makes it easy, all year long, with their clear, consistent, and accessible tags at the bottom of their posts. All of these tags pull up useful information in reverse chronological order, meaning you decide how far into the backlist you want to dig.

Here are some of the tags that can help you all year long and include easy backlist access:

[Also, I wanted to remind people of the extremely useful Best of the Decade lists they made in 2019. Those are also a great "best" resource, one that truly embraces the treasure trove that is the backlist.]

But wait, there is more...

LitHub owns CrimeReads and they have their own Best of 2025 lists (but no useful tags to collection them all. Here are those best lists:

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Monday, November 24, 2025

Attack of the Best Lists 2025: Make a Local List-- Featuring Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best (with a Becky Shaped Surprise)

This post is part of my year end "Attack of the Best Lists" coverage. To see every post in my "Attack of the Best Lists 2025" coverage [and more backlist best of the year options] you can click here.

Library generated best lists are one of your best end of year tools, especially when you use the largest library near your physical location as a guide. Why? Here are a few reasons:

  1. Library generated best lists reflect the opinions of actual staff and readers. What did staff most enjoy and what was popular? It is not just critical acclaim or sales data. Remember bestselling mainstays like Daniel Silva, Louise Penny, and Colson Whitehead were extremely popular in libraries well before they became household names. Library workers and patrons often know what is popular and good long before the rest of the world catches up.
  2. Library generated best lists take into consideration all ages of readers and all formats because they serve everyone.
  3. Library generated best lists always have genre choices because library workers know patrons love genre-- especially Romance and Crime Fiction.
  4. Library generated best lists ALWAYS consider local or regional authors which is why I advocate for you to prioritize using the best list from the library in the largest city closest to you [in the same state if possible]. 
  5. Library generated best lists are not commercial in anyway. There are no publishers submitting books to their sites. No one is buying ads to be include. There are no links to encourage those using the list to buy the titles. 
  6. Library generated best lists know that the BACKLIST is not only important to provide access to but also, it is a tool in and of itself. We are all about "new to you" the reader. They always have easy access to past best lists.
I think you get the point. So today, I am using my nearest big city public library as an example, The Chicago Public Library (with a branch 5.5 miles from my house). But you can use any big city or metro area library near you to help you have a regional interest best books option. For example, here is the NYPL's Best Books portal for 2025.

Now I want to take this post one step further. Yes it is important to see what the "best" books are at the closest big city library to you, but why not take this information as inspiration for you to make your own staff "Best of the Best" list.

Chicago Public Library makes their "Best of the Best" list as a team. You can do this too. Why not send out an email to all staff and ask them for their favorite reads of 2025. You can decide if you want to limit it to 2025 published titles or not, but just ask. See what answers you get. Then make your own lists and displays. Promote your staff's expertise and let your community know that best lists aren't just for the big cities or major media-- they are for all of you as well. 

And then take it another step further, and use your local, staff created "best" list to start a "best" conversation with your patrons. The question? What is the best book you read this year? And then yes my conversation starter to display post to ask that question far and wide-- to all of your users-- in the building, online, every service age and format.

Back to Best of the Best 2025 from Chicago Public Library. I love this list even if it wasn't from the city closest from me. They have direct links to every reading category, genre, and age level, as well as links at the bottom to explore the backlist of bests from years past. Bonus,  if you click on the Nonfiction link, you will see WHY I LOVE HORROR on the list!

Explore with the links below or head to the CPL Best of the Best landing page:

CPL Best of the Best Books 2025

Every year, Chicago Public Library staff work hard to evaluate the year’s new books, and today we are proud to present our latest annual recommendations for book lovers in Chicago and beyond. Happy reading!

Adults

Teens

For teens in high school.

Kids

Past Selections

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Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Attack of the Best Lists 2024: Make a Local List-- Featuring Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best

This post is part of my year end "Attack of the Best Lists" coverage. To see every post in my "Attack of the Best Lists 2024" coverage [and more backlist best of the year options] you can click here.

Library generated best lists are one of your best end of year tools, especially when you use the largest library near your physical location as a guide. Why? Here are a few reasons:

  1. Library generated best lists reflect the opinions of actual staff and readers. What did staff most enjoy and what was popular? It is not just critical acclaim or sales data. Remember bestselling mainstays like Daniel Silva, Louise Penny, and Colson Whitehead were extremely popular in libraries well before they became household names. Library workers and patrons often know what is popular and good long before the rest of the world catches up.
  2. Library generated best lists take into consideration all ages of readers and all formats because they serve everyone.
  3. Library generated best lists always have genre choices because library workers know patrons love genre-- especially Romance and Crime Fiction.
  4. Library generated best lists ALWAYS consider local or regional authors which is why I advocate for you to prioritize using the best list from the library in the largest city closest to you [in the same state if possible]. 
  5. Library generated best lists are not commercial in anyway. There are no publishers submitting books to their sites. No one is buying ads to be include. There are no links to encourage those using the list to buy the titles. 
  6. Library generated best lists know that the BACKLIST is not only important to provide access to but also, it is a tool in and of itself. We are all about "new to you" the reader. They always have easy access to past best lists.
I think you get the point. So today, I have my nearest big city public library as an example, The Chicago Public Library with a branch 6 miles from my house. But you can use any big city or metro area library near you to help you have a regional interest best books option. Or go with the NYPL, from the largest city in our country. They have their lists in multiple languages and with graphics you can use to promote.

Now I want to take this post one step further. Yes it is important to see what the "best" books are at the closer bog city library to you, but why not take this information as inspiration for you to make your own staff "Best of the Best" list. Chicago Public Library makes their list as a team. You can do this too. Why not send out an email to all staff and ask them for their favorite reads of 2024. You can decide if you want to limit it to 2024 published titles or not, but just ask. See what answers you get. Then make your own lists and displays. Promote your staff's expertise and let your community know that best lists aren't just for the big cities or major media-- they are for all of you as well. 

Back to Best of the Best from Chicago public library. I love this list even if it wasn't from the city closest from me. Explore with the link below or head to the CPL Best of the Best landing page:


Every year, Chicago Public Library staff work hard to evaluate the year’s new books, and today we are proud to present our latest annual recommendations for book lovers in Chicago and beyond. Happy reading!

Adults

Teens

For teens in high school. Watch our teen librarians share some of their favorite Best of the Best books!

Kids

Past Selections

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