Happy December and welcome to our year-end edition of the new releases that will be hitting the shelves – and your hold lists – this month.
December is a time to look back and see what happened this year. It’s easy to get caught up in the rush to keep up with the hot new releases, but forget the books that took a while to find their audience. In this edition, instead of looking forward to see what is coming out this month, we’ll look backward to see the best books of the year. Here in Johnson County, we’ve had an exceptionally mild fall, but recently the temperature is finally dripping and the wind is finally biting, so if you’re looking for an excuse to stay at home, wrapped in a blanket, reading or listening to some of 2016’s best books, we give you full permission!
We absolutely LOVE the folks behind at NPR’s Book Concierge, who have arranged the year’s best releases in a fun, dynamic way, and have arranged them in different categories so you can narrow down exactly what you’re in the mood for. Book club picks? Absolutely. Children’s books? You got it. In the mood for short, quick reads? Interested in science, maybe? Want stuff on cultural issues? They’ve got it all covered, and with a click of the mouse the book covers arrange themselves on the screen in front of you.
The folks at Kirkus Reviews have a wonderful selection as well. Some parts are still under construction at the time of this blog post, but the big guns – fiction, non-fiction, and children’s books – are already posted. (Their YA selections and stuff from independent publishers are forthcoming, so keep it bookmarked or check back later.) Kirkus is one of the best resources for book reviews, and the lists not only include genres like Thrillers and Romance, but categories like Memorable Characters, Best Debuts, Best Books to Explain Current Politics, and Heartrending Nonfiction. There’s a lot to like here, and the depth of the lists will be enough to keep the most well-read people busy.
If you’re active on the internet and are a book lover, chances are you’ve at least heard of Goodreads, the social network based on books, if you’re not already a member. Not only can you use Goodreads to come across new books, get suggestions, and keep track of what your friends are reading, but they have an excellent 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards section, where members have nominated and awarded books in several different categories. Sometimes the “winning” books aren’t as interesting as other books that were nominated, but each category is a great place to jump in and find new favorites.
As you likely already know, we librarians like to read, too, and the folks at LibraryReads post a monthly top-ten list of new releases that librarians across the county love and recommend. This month they’ve put out a “favorite of favorites” list, which serves as a nice best of for 2016. If you’re looking for some good book club picks, this is an excellent resource, because if there’s one thing librarians like more than finding good books to read, it's talking to other people about the good books they’ve read.
Of course, you can always hit the New York Times’ Best Books of 2016. (Or, if you want more than just ten, then they have a list of 100 Notable Books to browse.) If you like to go for more international, the British newspaper the Guardian has not one but two best-of lists.
Have YOU come across any best-of lists that you’ve loved? Let us know! Happy reading, everyone, and we'll see you next year!