Welcome to Check Your Shelf. I’m currently typing this newsletter with Dini snuggled in at my side, so I have to work extra hard to avoid typos. My cats may fancy themselves as office managers, but copy editors they are not.
Collection Development Corner
New & Upcoming Titles
5 thrilling new works of historical fiction.
12 new thrillers to read this summer.
The Millions has their Great Summer 2024 preview!
50 books to dive into this summer.
Most anticipated SFF books for the rest of the year.
Vulture’s best books of 2024, so far.
Weekly picks from Crime Reads, New York Times.
July picks from Barnes & Noble, LitHub (SFF), New York Times.
What Your Patrons Are Hearing About
Long Island Compromise – Taffy Brodesser-Akner (Guardian)
The God of the Woods – Liz Moore (New York Times)
The Cliffs – J. Courtney Sullivan (New York Times)
State of Paradise – Laura van den Berg (New York Times)
RA/Genre Resources
Romantasy is a $610 million business sweeping publishing. And also, romance bookstores are booming.
On the Riot
The best new BIPOC mysteries to read this summer.
The best new LGBTQ+ books of 2024 so far.
The best new weekly releases to TBR.
7 of the best LGBTQ+ books out this week.
July picks for SFF, romance, horror, children’s books.
The most popular book genres right now.
All Things Comics
On the Riot
July’s hottest new comics and graphic novels.
Audiophilia
4 new audiobook memoirs for music lovers.
On the Riot
The best new mystery/thriller audiobooks.
8 of the best new YA audiobooks.
Book Lists, Book Lists, Book Lists
Children/Teens
10 great new children’s books to throw into your beach bag.
11 delightful butterfly books for kids.
15 kids’ books that embrace disabilities and differences.
6 kids’ fantasies to read this summer.
21 multicultural fairy tales to delight children and teens.
14 captivating YA thrillers to read this summer.
Adults
10 books about women colliding with wild creatures.
7 novels about learning and mastering a new skill.
7 thrillers with shocking twists.
9 novels with complex family dynamics.
Books that explore secret ecosystems and shadow economies.
8 workplace thrillers to make you want to work remotely.
What to read during Shark Week!
8 must-read microhistories.
On the Riot
Picture books and middle grade novels for Disability Pride Month.
10 survival thrillers to test human endurance.
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 Edelweiss has a new catalog dedicated to diverse titles, which is managed by Early Word Galley Chatter Vicki Nesting. Check it out!
Cat photos will be back in the next newsletter, but in the meantime, please enjoy this photo of Blaine and me enjoying the Cubs win on Friday! This has been a fairly rare occurrence this season, so I’m glad that they chose to win on a day when we paid money to see them!
All right friends, I’ll be back on Friday! Peace out!
—Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter.
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