There are few things librarians enjoy more than connecting readers with characters that resonate, storylines that entertain, and information that enlightens. “What should I read next?” is a question that PPL staff receive often, and it’s one of our favorite challenges. In addition to making suggestions to you from our own knowledge, reviews, word-of-mouth, and other research, we also rely on a tool that captures the collective recommending power of all librarians who love to read – LibraryReads.
LibraryReads is a list of the “top ten books published [each] month that librarians across the country love.” We read, review, and nominate pre-published books for the list, so rather than being influenced by sales, books appear on the list purely because of the love bestowed upon them by thousands of librarians nationwide. When you visit our New Books section on the first floor, you’ll be greeted with our monthly LibraryReads display, which features all of the titles that have been selected for the lists since January. The list, which features a top monthly favorite, also contains blurbs by those who have reviewed and nominated the books, providing you with the reasons why you might wish to read them.
Often, the display contains best-selling writers (because librarians love them as much as you do!), but we also help to discover and promote first-time authors or indie titles that you might otherwise not know about. Past top tens have included “The Goldfinch,” “All the Light We Cannot See,” “The Girl on the Train,” “Where They Found Her,” and “The Rosie Project.”
June’s top book of the month is “Eight Hundred Grapes” by Laura Dave (publishing June 2). It’s the perfect summer read for fans of Emily Giffin and Jennifer Weiner, and it follows the plight of Georgia Ford, a young, high-powered attorney who discovers a shocking secret about her British fiance just days before they are to walk down the aisle and move to London. Other librarian favorites for the month of June include the classic children and teen novelist Judy Blume‘s first book for adults in nearly 15 years. “In the Unlikely Event” (publishing June 2) is a fictionalized account of the very real plain crashes that took place in Elizabeth, New Jersey in the early 1950s. For adventure-seekers, “Pirate Hunters” (publishing June 16) by Robert Kurson takes readers on an escapade to locate The Golden Fleece, a sunken pirate ship once captained by Joseph Bannister. And “The Book of Speculation” (publishing June 23) features none other than a librarian and a magical book that could possibly hold the key to mysterious deaths linked through generations.
Want to know more about LibraryReads and the books we have on our display? Stop by the Welcome Desk, where we will be glad to chat with you and make suggestions for your summer reading list. You can also visit www.LibraryReads.org to see the current and archived lists. Happy reading!
(Photo courtesy of flickr user Susana Fernandez.)