Welcome to Check Your Shelf. This week is the week that BASEBALL starts!! Yes, my one and only sport that I care about is finally back! Since we live near Chicago, I’ve asked Blaine how many games he thinks will end up being snowed out in the first month of the season, and he said, “Oh, come on, you don’t know that it’s going to snow in April.” And now I’m just waiting for the weather to turn so I can pull a good “Told ya so.”
Anyway…back to books!
Collection Development Corner
Publishing News
A coalition of over 30 organizations and 70 public health advocates are urging Simon & Schuster to not publish Rebecca V. Culshaw’s upcoming book, The Real AIDS Epidemic, as Culshaw is a known AIDS denialist and the book will provide misinformation that harms HIV/AIDS efforts.
How a Times reporter found a pattern of plagiarism in a USC doctor’s books that his publisher missed.
The manuscript thief who stole 1,000 unpublished books will not receive prison time.
As machine translation software grows more sophisticated, could it entirely replace human translators?
New & Upcoming Titles
Publishers Weekly shares their Summer 2023 picks.
Millie Bobby Brown is publishing a historical fiction novel this fall.
Sly Stone is publishing a memoir through Questlove’s new book imprint.
Dolly Parton has a new book coming out about her passion for fashion: Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones.
Prince Harry’s memoir gets the parody treatment with Spare Us!, which will be available in the UK in April.
Cover reveal for Alice Feeney’s upcoming book, Good Bad Girl.
30 new fantasy books to make your year extra magical.
Spring 2023 picks from AARP, Entertainment Weekly.
Weekly book picks from Crime Reads, LitHub, Locus, New York Times, USA Today.
March picks from Crime Reads (debuts, international fiction), NYPL.
April picks from Barnes & Noble (adults, teens, children), The Root.
What Your Patrons Are Hearing About
Biography of X – Catherine Lacey (Atlantic, LA Times, LitHub, New York Times, Vulture, Washington Post)
Benjamin Banneker and Us: Eleven Generations of an American Family – Rachel Jamison Webster (LitHub, New York Times, NPR, Washington Post)
Old God’s Time – Sebastian Barry (New York Times, NPR)
Flux – Jinwoo Chong (New York Times, Shondaland, Washington Post)
Commitment – Mona Simpson (Datebook, LA Times)
RA/Genre Resources
What we talk about when we talk about “cli-fi.” (But please, can we stop saying “cli-fi”?)
On the Riot
8 of the most anticipated YA debuts of 2023.
The best new weekly releases to TBR.
Reading pathways for Rebekah Weatherspoon.
A guide to Taylor Jenkins Reid’s backlist.
An overthinker’s guide to giving book recommendations.
All Things Comics
The Great Gatsby is getting a graphic novel adaptation.
The future of black queer representation in comics is joyful.
On the Riot
Kodansha, the publisher of Attack on Titan, is launching a manga app.
A look at the novel and the comic adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird.
7 steampunk comics to TBR.
9 recently published graphic novels about politics and identity.
Audiophilia
On the Riot
A review of BookBeat for anyone looking for an Audible or Scribd alternative.
One listener’s plea to stop removing recipes from audiobooks!
Exploring the limitations of AI-narrated audiobooks from a disabled person’s perspective.
Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists
Children/Teens
13 YA reads trending on BookTok.
13 YA books with morally gray characters.
11 YA books for fans of Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Adults
10 books that celebrate the bonds between women.
11 outstanding second novels that beat the curse of the sophomore slump.
A reading list of heroines who are hot messes.
Books to understand the Vietnam War.
8 novels with characters who go to therapy.
Espionage novel recommendations from a former spy.
8 books that will take you somewhere new.
21 books similar to Daisy Jones and the Six.
Do you need help finding your next great read? Subscribe to Tailored Book Recommendations for really great reads year-round.
On the Riot
The best narrative nonfiction books for kids to make learning fun.
10 YA books that readers and critics disagree on.
10 physics books that will answer your questions about literally everything.
10 romance books that will destroy you and then put you back together.
8 spellbinding witchy books to read for Women’s History Month.
10 vengeful books like John Wick.
11 exciting Italian books in translation.
Marriage of convenience romance novels.
The best realistic science fiction to TBR.
24 of the best coming-of-age novels.
The most influential sci-fi books of the past 10 years.
10 gothic steampunk books to read by lamplight.
Books that actually use the word “lesbian” to describe their characters.
10 fascinating fantasy books like Babel.
10 siren and mermaid books to dive into.
8 terrifyingly claustrophobic horror novels.
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 has a guide to discovering upcoming diverse books, and Nora Rawlins of Early Word has created a database of upcoming diverse titles to nominate as well that includes information about series, vendors, and publisher buzz.
I took this photo last week when I was attending our virtual monthly board, and Gilbert kept me company. On an unrelated note, this is often how I feel when I attend board meetings.
Welp, that’s all I’ve got — I’ll be back on Friday. Don’t forget to check out Book Riot’s newest newsletter, The Deep Dive, with lots of info and advice from experts in the world of books and reading. Subscribe and choose your membership level today at bookriot.substack.com!
—Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter.