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Check Your Shelf

Inform Your Patrons: SAGA’s back!

Welcome to Check Your Shelf. All good things must come to an end, and I am back home from vacation. But it’s always good to come back to my kitties and sleep in my own bed again…my back is grateful to be back in my own bed again, too.

So let’s get to libraries.

Collection Development Corner

Publishing News

A look at the upcoming publishing delays.

Melinda French Gates launches Moment of Lift Books with Flatiron.

New & Upcoming Titles

The spring lead title for Zando Publishing is a novel by Steve Almond, co-host of Cheryl Strayed’s Dear Sugar podcast.

We’ve got a bunch of new Star Wars novels coming out.

Josh Malerman announced his next novel, coming Summer of 2022.

Joan Didion’s complete backlist is being re-issued next spring.

The creators of the Netflix show Nailed It! are publishing a cookbook.

A reading list of new books to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month.

Weekly book picks from Crime Reads, New York Times, and USA Today.

October picks from Bitch, CBC, Entertainment Weekly, Good Morning America, NPR, PopSugar (mysteries/thrillers), Time, and Tor.com (SF).

Fall picks from LitHub, USA Today, and Washington Post (mysteries/thrillers).

The best books of the year so far from Vulture.

What Your Patrons Are Hearing About

Crossroads – Jonathan Franzen (The Atlantic, New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post)

The Storyteller – Dave Grohl (Parade, People, Seattle Times, Washington Post)

Fight Night – Miriam Toews (LA Times, New York Times, NPR, USA Today)

The Lincoln Highway – Amor Towles (LA Times, New York Times, NPR, Washington Post)

I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness – Claire Vaye Watkins (Electric Lit, The Millions, New York Times, NPR)

A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries (2003-2020) – David Sedaris (The Guardian, New York Times, Washington Post)

There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century – Fiona Hill (New York Times, NPR)

My Monticello – Jocelyn Nicole Johnson (LA Times, New York Times)

Reprieve – James Han Mattson (New York Times, NPR)

Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters – Steven Pinker (New York Times, Washington Post)

We Are Not Like Them – Christine Pride & Jo Piazza (Entertainment Weekly, New York Times)

Taste: My Life Through Food – Stanley Tucci (Entertainment Weekly, New York Times)

RA/Genre Resources

Afro-Latino representation in children’s books.

On the Riot

20 must-read adult books by trans and genderqueer authors in 2021.

Weekly new releases to TBR.

15 must-read children’s book releases for October.

8 new YA series to start this fall.

Why you should pick up sci-fi and fantasy books with weird covers.

A love letter to The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones.

All Things Comics

Saga is coming back in January!

How comics responded to our locked-down, anxious COVID lives.

On the Riot

The best comics that Rioters read from July – September 2021.

13 Japanese light novels for genre newbies.

Audiophilia

11 of October’s most-anticipated audiobooks.

On the Riot

It’s time to slow down your audiobook speed.

20 awesome audiobooks for kids.

7 audiobooks for Latinx Heritage Month.

Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists

Children/Teens

Charming picture books on the value of gratitude.

Hauntingly good ghost stories for tweens.

24 YA books to read after you watch Fear Street.

18 YA books with multiracial main characters.

Adults

8 books by, for, and about Muslim women.

14 novels written by Mexican authors.

9 darkly funny reads.

11 true crime tales of the rich and famous.

7 books by women in the spy game.

Your basic witch reading list.

Crime fiction set in claustrophobic communities.

100 novels that shaped our new world.

13 spooky-not-scary books.

11 books about stalkers for fans of You.

On the Riot

10 Halloween board books for babies.

8 children’s books about neurodiversity.

Queer YA horror for spooky season.

20 of the best nonfiction books of the decade.

The best novels set in the publishing world.

Hot-for-teacher romance picks.

Great books featuring female sleuths.

9 of the best LGBTQ thrillers.

Books about the mind in all its splendor.

11 books if you loved HBO’s Lovecraft Country.

Mysteries and thrillers starring musicians.

Level Up (Library Reads)

Do you take part in Library Reads, the monthly list of best books selected by librarians only? We’ve made it easy for you to find eligible diverse titles to nominate. Kelly Jensen created a database of upcoming diverse books that anyone can edit, and Nora Rawlins of Early Word is doing the same, as well as including information about series, vendors, and publisher buzz.


It’s back to work for me…I’ll catch you on Friday.

—Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter.