Upcoming Events - Penguin Random House Spring Book & Author Festival

 

I will be participating in the PRH Spring Book & Author Festival on Thursday, April 16. It's a free day-long event that has interviews, book buzzes, eGalleys, and more! There are authors of youth titles from picture books to young adult titles as well as adult fiction and non-fiction.  For those who need it, a CE certificate is available. The sessions will also be available for three months after the event. 

The panel I will be moderating is "Twisted Fiction." So far, the lineup of authors includes (with blurbs from the publisher): 

Bill Schweigart, author of Dirty 20 : The Sopranos meets Dungeons & Dragons when the son of a crime boss accidentally becomes a crowdfunding superstar and disrupts business on the streets with his RPG

Luke Larkin, author of The Unheld : Startling monsters and occult oddities abound in this chilling horror Western as a girl journeys across the haunted Montana Territory to rescue her father from an otherworldly creature.

Emeline Atwood, author of A Real Animal : In this unforgettable debut, a moment of metaphysical transformation launches a woman’s beautiful and terrifying journey through her twenties, through loneliness and complicated love that takes her from the depths of the Pacific Ocean to the plains of Texas

Abe Moss, author of Morsels : Meeting the family is scary. Surviving them is a nightmare.

Heather Parry, author of Carrion Crow : In this viscerally dark, queer Victorian gothic, longing and transformation take wing through the secret selves we nurture when no one is watching.

These events are fun and educational for any library worker. You can view the Winter 2025 PRH Book and Author Festival here. There is not a cost to attend. Staff can register here. 

PRH also has a page with upcoming author events which you can share with your patrons. Working with local bookstores benefits both the library and the bookstore. We are not in competition. Readers often will buy books from authors they have discovered at the library. 

Unshelve Your Collection with The Lineup & Grief Horror

 The Lineup recently featured this list: 9 Unsettling Horror Books About Grief.  For those who don't know, The Lineup covers movies, TV shows, and books about horror, true crime, and thrillers. They focus on backlist titles so it's a great resource for discovering titles for book displays and book lists. 

Grief horror is big right now and a focus on a popular theme, trope, or subgenre can help fans of a recent title find other books they will love. I would add other fiction about grief to the display to fill it out and to allow you to leave it up for a longer time if you don't currently have enough horror titles. Don't forget to include information about which titles you have in your digital collections. 

One of the lists below includes recovering from trauma with the fiction about grief so I included some lists about that subject for those who wanted to expand their display. 

It's always possible to put up a small, curated, pop-up collection at a service desk or on a bookcart. This would allow more staff to be involved as you would have to change it out more frequently when titles were checked out. Include a link to your catalog on the sign and encourage patrons to place holds if titles are already checked out. 

If you decide to put up some non-fiction, consider your community and perhaps place that in a different part of the library. However, as the Reddit threads indicate, reading fiction about loss is one way to grieve and deal with a death. 

Here are some lists to help get you started: 

The Seattle Public Library : Next Chapter: Grief (Fiction)

Goodreads : Grief Fiction Books

Reddit r/literature : Novels with grief as an important theme

Reddit r/suggestmeabook : My partner passed recently, fiction books about loss and grief? 

Reddit r/suggestmeabook :Suggest me a fiction book with grief as a theme

The Fiction Fox : Ultimate Guide to Grief Fiction

Book Riot : 8 of the Best Novels About Grief and Recovering from Trauma

Reddit r/suggestmeabook : Fiction books with a MC struggling/dealing with trauma in a realistic way?

Reddit r/suggestmeabook : Books involving characters who have gone through childhood trauma or dysfunctional families

The Fiction Fox :Ultimate Guide to Novels on (Healing from) Trauma

Electric Lit : 7 Novels About the Reverberations of Trauma

Goodreads : Trauma Book Lists

What I've Read and Reviewed Recently

Beyond reading for pleasure, I review for both Booklist and Library Journal. Here are some of my recent reviews:

I recommend both of these sites and publications for both readers advisory and collection development purposes. They are a fantastic way to keep in touch with what is popular and what is trending. If your library doesn't subscribe, ask that they do. 

Published March 1 by Booklist: Neurotica by Maxwell I. Gold from Shortwave Press

https://www.booklistonline.com/products/9819174. Starred Review
Comps: Stephanie Wytovich or Cynthia Pelayo

Published February 1 by Booklist: The Spoil by Maile Chapman from Graywolf

https://www.booklistonline.com/products/9818773
Comps:  I will add these as soon as I can 

Published February 6 by Library Journal: Molka by Monika Kim from Erewhon Starred Review

https://www.libraryjournal.com/review/molka-100008120
Comps: Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado or My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Published February 6 by Library Journal: Odessa by Gabrielle Sher from Little, Brown Starred Review

https://www.libraryjournal.com/review/odessa-100008109
Comps: The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman or The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

I won't republish the reviews here and I will try to do a better job of adding more information to my Goodreads page with more details than can be in print. I did list my comps for the titles to give you some idea. 

 

Unshelve with Help From Novel Suspects

 Novel Suspects is a website and newsletter from Hachette Book Group. It covers crime fiction and horror, including true crime. They include book lists, obviously with Hachette titles. However, you can borrow the idea and use the books in your collection. 

"Cannibalistic Cravings: 5 Gourmet Thrillers with ‘Unique’ Taste" is a recent list that could make a creative display. In addition to crime fiction, horror, and true crime, a display like this could include cookbooks as well. There are a number of lists below with books that you can use. 

The same display could be done with cozy mysteries with food themes. Cozy-Mystery has lists of culinary mysteries. 

I love the titles that Book Riot used - Fed Up With People and On the Menu. They are both clever and could be borrowed for your display with credit give to Book Riot. 

Horror suggestions from Reddit

Cannibalism Books - Goodreads

Crazy about Cannibalism- Patron created list from Central Arkansas Library System

8 Novels About Humans Eating Humans - Electric Lit

8 Books About Historical Cannibalism - Mental Floss

Fed Up With People: 10 Great Horror Books About Cannibalism- Book Riot

9 True Crime Books About Cannibalism - The Lineup

Cannibal Books - Goodreads

On the Menu: Cannibalistic Horror - Book Riot

Using Reddit as a Source for Passive Readers Advisory

 Reddit has a large number of communities or subreddits that focus on books, some of which are very specific and delve in subgenres that you may have never thought about. It can be a great way to find read alikes or to satisfy a patron who has very distinct tastes. You can also use ideas in the threads and posts there to launch a book display as well. 

Enter in a genre and search for communities. If you search for romance book, you will see the following communities: 

Romance Books

Spicy Romance Books

Contemporary Romance

Dark Romance

Romance Authors

Historical Romance

Fantasy Romance

Free Romance Books

MM Romance Books

Romance for Men

Queer Romance Lit

Wholesome Romance

Science Fiction Romance

Romantasy

Paranormal Romance

Sapphic Lit

Romance Anime Manga

Romance Anime

Reverse Harem

Mafia Romance Books

There are likely even more...

Search for a read alike and you will find readers who have posted their suggestions. I looked for read alikes for Sarah MacLean and found many posts with suggestions. While you might not agree with all of them, they can provide the start of a conversation as well as options for a book display. 

You can search Reddit without logging in which is helpful. Even the threads about books people dislike can help you out if they provide reasons why. Someone's hate read is someone else's catnip. 

It's a useful site to keep in your list of tools you have for passive and active readers advisory. 

Unshelve Your Collection Post Superbowl

 Superbowl 2026 is behind us now but you can use it to market your collection. The easiest thing to do is to harness the press about Bad Bunny and set up a display of books by Puerto Rican authors and books about PR. I will put a few lists below to get you started. The idea is to use a topic that is already on the minds of your patrons and use it to put some great books in front of them. 

Goodreads Listopia:Highlighting books written by Puerto Rican authors.

Indianapolis Public Library - Puerto Rican Authors

Reddit r/books: Literature of Puerto Rico

Barnes & Noble: Puerto Rican Fiction 

Don't forget to look for music by Puerto Rican musicians and to bring out your non-fiction about the island. You likely also have biographies of people from Puerto Rico. 

This is not an attempt to provoke those who might be mad about the halftime show but a way to bring out some great books that are hiding on the shelf. Use your best judgement about your patrons and community when it comes to signage. 

Another way to harness the Superbowl is to check the news today and see which advertisements landed well with viewers. Pull out books with titles that will remind patrons of those ads or are about subjects related to the ads. This kind of display can harness the creativity of your staff! 

Word of Mouth Recs vs AI

A quick follow-up to my previous post about AI vs librarian recommendations, this Dec. 11 article from Publishers Weekly, Word-of-Mouth Recs Best AI at Everand, Fable, 

The report, based on user activity data from both platforms and a survey of more than 1,600 U.S. adults using the platforms, found that "people I know personally" ranks as the top source of book discovery, holding its position even as AI-driven recommendation tools proliferated in 2025. That human connection extends to sharing a book with a friend or family member, which proved more popular then "saving to a shelf" as the most common action readers take after finishing a book.

Library workers would fall into people they know. Get into the habit of speaking to your patrons and encouraging staff to talk to them about books. Make it clear from your social media posts and the atmosphere in your buildings that you are a place for readers and the reading curious. Become the center for books in your community. 

Use interactive book displays to encourage your patrons to suggest books to each other. Have patrons suggest read alikes for a popular title. Have them suggest a favorite book based upon a theme, plot, location... I have a presentation called Book Displays That Do More if you are interested in more ideas for making your displays into passive programs. 

Staff favorites pulled from your shelves is another way to share books. Encourage your entire staff to participate in book displays. everyone is an expert in something! Staff who are comfortable can add their name to the display and create conversations with patrons with similar interests. 

Library workers will always give better readers advisory than AI could ever.