Sponsored by Oni Lion Forge Publishing Group
Enter the music movements of the ’90s with My Riot and Smoove City!
In My Riot, join teenagers Val, Kat, and Rudie as they throw off society’s expectations and form an all-girl punk band, getting caught up in a movement with other “riot grrrls” also discovering their voices ring out loud and powerful.
In Smoove City, friends Ronnie, Mikey, Vinnie, and Ray navigate the New Jack Swinging landscape of shopping malls, demo tapes, and shady record execs in their pursuit of boy band stardom. But will they achieve their dream or will they learn that all that glitters ain’t double platinum?
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. Each week when I’m working my assigned day in the library, I get a little spark of joy when I’m able to provide valuable information for a patron, or put a book on hold for them. It reminds me that I can still feel competent at something. And then mixed in are the people who call the library looking for a medical diagnosis from WebMD, and I’m reminded that it really is a bizarre environment we work in. Here’s hoping for a week free from descriptions of other people’s medical symptoms.
Collection Development Corner
Publishing News
The American Booksellers Association is launching a national campaign against Amazon.
Penguin Random House launches Book the Vote in order to combat disinformation and increase voter turnout.
How to help local bookstores during the holiday shopping season. Related: your local bookstore wants you to know that it’s struggling.
New & Upcoming Titles
Stacey Abrams has a political thriller coming out next spring called While Justice Sleeps!
Michael Cohen is writing a second book.
S.A. Cosby (author of Blacktop Wasteland) has another book coming out next summer called Razorblade Tears.
Justina Ireland announced her first middle grade novel.
Tara Reade has a memoir coming out on October 27th.
Model & actress Emily Ratajkowski’s book My Body will be published in 2022.
Kirkus picks 13 of the scariest books written this year.
Books you may have missed in September.
5 spooky books to read in October.
Weekly book picks from Crime Reads, New York Times, and USA Today.
October picks from Crime Reads (true crime), Lit Hub, Parade, and Town & Country.
Fall crime titles and crime series to keep on your radar.
20 #OwnVoices YA novels coming out this fall and winter.
What Your Patrons Are Hearing About
The Silence – Don DeLillo (New York Times, Washington Post)
Shelter in Place – David Leavitt (New York Times, NPR)
150 Glimpses of The Beatles – Craig Brown (New York Times, Washington Post)
Plain Bad Heroines – Emily M. Danforth (Washington Post)
The Searcher – Tana French (LA Times)
RA/Genre Resources
Reading pathways for Octavia E. Butler.
Your guide to the fantastical worlds of Rebecca Roanhorse.
On the Riot
5 new nonfiction books to help us understand these troubling times.
5 novels from 2020 featuring complicated female characters.
A beginner’s guide to the Western gothic genre.
A beginner’s guide to gothic fantasy.
An introduction to Filipino horror.
Reading pathway for Anthony Horowitz.
Why you need to read more Black immigrant literature.
Native literature for kids and teens.
All Things Comics
HarperCollins launches an I Can Read! Comics line for beginning and emerging readers.
LA Comic-Con has been cancelled for 2020, with plans to return in 2021.
On the Riot
Next reads for Watchmen fans.
5 comics about dissent in honor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
3 illustrated books for your TBR.
Audiophilia
Here are the October 2020 Earphones Award winners.
19 horror audiobooks that will haunt you for weeks. YES PLEASE.
Audiobooks for your pandemic playlist.
On the Riot
Appalachian audiobooks that taught this reader how to say goodbye.
Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists
Children/Teens
10 spooky children’s books for a Halloween at home.
16 great chapter books for third graders.
16 beautifully written YA books that will completely destroy you.
35 completed YA series to marathon.
Adults
Time picks the 100 best fantasy books of all time.
20 recommended reads honoring Indigenous Peoples.
5 Indigenous SFF authors you should be reading.
The best books to help us navigate the next 50 years.
10 contemporary books by Korean American writers.
Agatha Christie’s best Poirot mysteries other than Murder on the Orient Express.
Historical fiction for fans of Hilary Mantel.
Cozy up with these spooky books for your Halloween in lockdown.
11 favorite horror novels from Mental Floss.
5 SFF books about flawed gods.
6 SFF books by Jewish authors from around the world.
24 romance novels to warm your heart.
17 crime fiction series that use real historical figures as sleuths.
On the Riot
Books to sing your baby or tot to sleep.
20 must-read Halloween books for preschoolers.
13 spooky middle grade novels.
9 of the best YA vampire books.
4 speculative YA books about women of the high seas.
8 witchy YA novels to get you in the mood for Halloween.
6 books celebrating women’s early contributions to fantasy and scifi.
11 of the best LGBTQ urban fantasy novels.
11 books about the bias against women in healthcare and medicine.
8 books to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month.
10 Native North American women writers to read this fall.
7 eerie books by Asian American authors to read this Halloween.
17 excellent short stories by Black authors.
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.
See you all on Friday!
—Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones.