Written by Jon Williams
Working as a partnership between public libraries and a group of major publishers, LibraryReads is a program designed to promote librarians’ favorite novels to adult readers each month. Beginning in September of 2013, each month they produce a list of ten newly published titles nominated and voted on by librarians across the country. That very first list was a winner right off the bat, containing, among others, the very popular Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.
Since the
beginning, 160 novels have been selected by LibraryReads for recommendation to
patrons, with a fresh batch ready to go for the first month of the new year.
With December being somewhat slow for the publication of new titles, instead of
producing a new list, LibraryReads instead came out with their “Favorite of
Favorites,” the very best of previously selected titles. It’s a list of great
books that showcases the great taste librarians have for literature. The
previously mentioned Fangirl made the list, as did another novel by Rowell, Landline.
The list also includes Pulitzer Prize winner The
Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and National Book Award finalist All
the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.
The book
selected as the overall favorite, though, was The
Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle
Zevin, originally selected for the April 2014 list. The story of a grumpy
bookseller and collector who undergoes a gradual transformation when a young
girl comes into his life, it is Zevin’s eighth novel. Her first, Elsewhere,
published in 2005, was a YA novel dealing with the afterlife. Since then, she
has written for both teens and adults, with Storied
Life being her most acclaimed work to date.
The full
list of LibraryReads Favorite of Favorites can be found in our January
audiobook buyer’s guide, or on our website. And for January, it’s back to the
usual list of ten brand new novels for patrons to check out. This first list is
headlined by such titles as As
Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, the new Flavia de Luce title from Alan
Bradley, and The
Rosie Effect, follow-up to The
Rosie Project, by Graeme Simison. It also includes The
Magician’s Lie by Greer Macallister, The
Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, The
Bishop’s Wife by Mette Ivie Harrison, Vanessa
and Her Sister by Priya Parmar, First
Frost by Sarah Addison Allen, and Full
Throttle by Julie Ann Walker.
Interested
in LibraryReads for your library? No problem! Check out the program’s website for materials you can use
to promote each month’s titles to your patrons. While you’re there, you can
find out how to nominate books for the list and participate in selection, if
you don’t already. Help bring your love of books—and audiobooks!—to patrons who
might otherwise miss these great reads.