Welcome to Check Your Shelf. I am publishing this newsletter from Room 401 at the Stanley Hotel, aka one of the hotel’s most haunted rooms! We’ve only been here for about seven hours, and so far, nothing spooky has happened, but maybe that will change by the time the next newsletter comes out…
Don’t forget — there’s still time in September for new free Deep Dive subscribers to enter to win a copy of Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, plus five mystery books from The Deep Dive. To enter, simply start a free subscription — no payment method required!
Collection Development Corner
Publishing News
After 70 years, Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as the chair of News Corp and Fox.
Another in-depth look at what KKR’s acquisition of Simon & Schuster really means.
John Grisham, Jonathan Franzen, and Elin Hilderbrand are among the authors who have joined in a class action lawsuit against OpenAI.
Amazon is restricting authors from self-publishing more than three books per day in an effort to further curb AI-written submissions.
Why Silicon Valley’s biggest AI developers are hiring poets.
How TikTok is helping booksellers bring in business, and how it’s reshaping the American cookbook. (These two items are not related.)
Confessions of a viral AI writer.
New & Upcoming Titles
WNBA star A’ja Wilson is publishing a self-help book in 2024.
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin is publishing a new book: An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s. The book will be out on April 16, 2024.
David Levithan talks about his new queer YA romance, Ryan and Avery, which revisits the characters from Two Boys Kissing.
Here’s a preview of Rebecca Roanhorse’s upcoming Mirrored Heavens, the final book in the Between Earth and Sky trilogy
Cover reveal for Steven Rowley’s The Guncle Abroad (out May 2024).
Cover reveal for R.O. Kwon’s Exhibit (out May 2024).
Cover reveal for Leigh Bardugo’s The Familiar (out April 2024).
54 new books to discover for Hispanic Heritage Month.
Queer crime fiction coming out this fall.
Weekly book picks from Crime Reads, LitHub, New York Times.
October picks from Barnes & Noble (adults, teens, kids), The Root.
What Your Patrons Are Hearing About
Wellness – Nathan Hill (LA Times, New York Times, NPR, Washington Post)
Leslie F*cking Jones – Leslie Jones (Entertainment Weekly, People, Shondaland, USA Today)
The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty – Michael Wolff (New York Times, Vanity Fair, Variety)
The Vaster Wilds – Lauren Groff (The Guardian, NPR)
Bright Young Women – Jessica Knoll (New York Times, Washington Post)
North Woods – Daniel Mason (New York Times, NPR)
Father and Son: A Memoir – Jonathan Raban (LA Times, New York Times)
Bartleby and Me: Reflections of an Old Scrivener – Gay Talese (New York Times, Washington Post)
Land of Milk and Honey – C Pam Zhang (Datebook, New York Times)
RA/Genre Resources
Why mystery icon Kate Atkinson went apocalyptic.
On the Riot
Is the bestseller list broken?
The best new biographies of 2023.
Analyzing the most anticipated fall releases of 2023.
The best new weekly releases to TBR.
8 2023 releases by trans women and transfeminine authors.
Reading pathways for Kekla Magoon.
All Things Comics
Why it matters that Marvel comics are becoming Penguin Classics.
After fighting with DC Comics, Bill Willingham has said that he will make Fables part of the public domain.
Alan Moore says that he’s asked DC to send all future adaptation royalties to Black Lives Matter.
On the Riot
Historical graphic memoirs to educate and enlighten.
A brief history of gender in manga.
Book Riot has podcasts to keep your ears listening for days! Check them out and subscribe.
Audiophilia
Project Gutenberg has added 5,000 new online audiobooks that were recorded using AI narration.
Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists
Children/Teens
Uplifting children’s books about Black hair.
8 YA books that adults can enjoy, too.
25 queer YA horror books to sink your teeth into.
13 frightfully good YA horror novels.
22 Latine YA romance novels to fall in love with.
Adults
10 dystopian novels in translation.
5 books to read if you’re thinking about changing careers.
7 novels about abortion and the fight for reproductive justice.
10 books that can act as replacement therapy while your favorite TV shows are on strike.
13 books about gay mayhem and “bad queers” to read after watching Bottoms.
8 works of translated fiction to read right now.
10 books with surprising twists.
The best aunties in mystery fiction.
8 authors who have written themselves into stories.
6 books featuring ghosts with unfinished business.
A reading list of historical trauma in fiction.
The best cozy food memoirs.
The 101 best mystery books of all time.
On the Riot
8 horror novels that question our obsession with beauty.
10 of the best asexual and aromantic fantasy books.
14 novels that read like true crime.
9 nonfiction books to help you rethink the world.
10 Halloween romance novels to read this spooky season.
12 college romance novels you can’t stop reading.
Thrillers about cursed movie sets.
On the menu: cannibalistic horror.
10 books from 2013 that aged badly, and 10 that are still worth reading.
10 lighthearted classic books.
8 of the best poetry anthologies.
20 must-read stories of creepy cabins and haunted homes.
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.
Seven years have passed since the last time I was here, and seeing Stephen King’s room is just as cool as it was in 2016!
All right, friends. I’ll be back on Friday!
—Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter.