Before we started working at the library, Baby Blossom and I always wondered how the librarians managed to keep up with all the latest books to grow their collections and to suggest to patrons. Patrons can always find book suggestions for themselves with our extensive list of LibGuides or through the catalog as well!
Librarians often have to be at the forefront of reading trends to prepare for their patrons' questions. So how do we do that? Turns out, every librarian has their own way of finding new books. Here's how Kristen taught us and some new books we suggest for you!
1. Goodreads: A social network for readers, authors, publishers, and anyone interested in the world of books. A great place to find reviews, follow your favorite authors, publishers, and friends to see what they are all reading. You can search by genre, recommended for you, and any other way you could imagine. There are even book giveaways sponsored by authors and publishers where you can win free copies of some new or even pre-published books. Baby Blossom and I started off looking at the new releases page to get an idea of some of the most popular books and authors from upcoming and recent releases. Here's our suggestions: for fans of historical fiction, The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel will be released on June 6th and for our younger readers, The One and Only Ruby by Katherine Applegate was released on May 2nd.
2. Book Page: A subscription magazine that is offered monthly at both branches of the library and offers online resources. Each month, BookPage offers new releases fitting their monthly genre. June's theme was Dive In to The Summer's Best Books, so we read a few reviews of new books, including Happy Place by Emily Henry for romance lovers and The Dog Knight by Bre Indigo for middle grade readers.
3. Simon & Schuster Book Club Favorites: A selection of great books suggested by Simon & Schuster publishers, authors, and librarians. A wide selection of genres and even reading group guides for some of their new releases. Book club leaders (like Kristen) can even apply to be a Book Club Favorites Friend and receive copies of new books before they've been released. A great way to find specific genres for a book club or known popular genre. For this, Baby Blossom and I looked into the historical fiction and suspense suggestions for our Islington Branch book clubs. We found Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See which releases on June 6th for our historical fiction book club and The Bone Hacker by Kathy Reichs for our mystery book club which releases August 1st.
4. NetGalley: A website for books that have not yet been published yet. Readers must leave reviews in exchange for the books they read on one of their personal platforms (Goodreads, Instagram, etc.). Great for librarians or booksellers looking for books being published throughout the year. We used this to look for books for Kristen's true crime book club and found Behind the Door: The Dark Truths and Untold Stories of the Cecil Hotel by Amy Price which comes out on October 3rd. We also looked for some children's books for branch story times and found Molly and the Runaway Trolly: Putting the Brakes on Stress and Worry by Ashley Bartley which comes out August 15th.
5. Edelweiss: Another way for librarians and booksellers to find books before their publication date. Offering e-book versions of new books in exchange for a short review to be shared with each book's publisher. I used this one to find some new historical mysteries, as I know they are an extremely popular collection item at the Islington Branch. We found No Strangers Here: A Riveting Dark Irish Mystery by Carlene O'Connor which releases August 29th and The Merry Widow Murders by Melodie Campbell which came out on May 16th.
6. Amazon Prime Reading: This one is easy for anyone to access. For those of you who have Amazon Prime, you're already signed up. You can get access to millions of Kindle books through Prime Reading. Similar to taking out a library book, you choose a book, download, read, return, repeat. These books are often by up-and-coming or new authors looking for publicity and feedback for their books. Not necessarily new or from large publishing houses, these books can still be a treat if you're willing to look through the large collection. Baby Blossom and I didn't get a chance to find specific suggestions from this site, as we don't have access to Amazon Prime, but Kristen enjoys looking through for new books on her personal time.
Thanks for joining us on another adventure of librarianship! How do you find new book suggestions? Next time you meet a librarian, ask them how they find book recommendations. Let us know by emailing Kristen! Hope to see you on another adventure real soon!
Westwood Public Library
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