Unshelve Your Collection Idea: 2025 Hugo Award Finalists

 Readers Advisory expert Becky Spratford has many posts on her blog, RA for All, detailing how to use literary awards in your readers advisory. I've linked to them and I strongly encourage you to read through them for some great insight on how they can help you as you assist readers in finding their next great read. 

Recently the 2025 Hugo Award Finalists were announced. The 2025 Hugo Awards, will be presented on Saturday evening, August 16, 2025, at Seattle Worldcon 2025. They honor works of science fiction and fantasy. I find awards like this helpful as I don't read as much science fiction or fantasy compared to other genres. It's a great way to get insight as to what are the best works in those genres. 

An example of using the awards in an online list can be found on the Chicago Public Library's website. Include nominees past works and short story collection in which the authors are included to add books to the display if you don't have all of them in your collection. You may find holes in your collection as you search for books which can be brought to your collection development librarians. 

Beyond the current nominees, use the lists of past award winners and nominees to fill in your display. There are lists of winners for best novel on Goodreads. 

Both WorldCon and the Hugo Awards are often enmeshed in controversy. Currently it's regarding the use of ChatGPT to vet participants. If you search you will find more. This is just a heads up if you choose to use the Hugos to promote your collection. Always know your community and use that as a guide as you work through ways to market your collection, services, and programs. 

I would be amiss if I didn't point you to Montana State University Billings great LibGuide collection devoted to literary awards. Let it inspire your own efforts on whatever scale you can manage!

Using Book Awards to Unshelve Your Collection - Plutarch Awards for Biography

 The 2025 Plutarch Awards Shortlist was announced recently. The Plutarch Awards are: 

A distinguished panel of judges from the Biographers International Organization (BIO) is proud to announce the five books shortlisted for the 2025 Plutarch Award, the only international literary award for biography judged exclusively by biographers.

(from the BIO website)

While some library workers and readers may not be familiar with these awards, they can definitely be used as part of passive readers advisory in book displays. Biographies are very popular with readers and these awards represent what those in the field believe to be the best in their genre. Setting up a display with information about the awards, the organization which awards them, as well as the current shortlist is a great way to provide information to your patrons. 

Set up the display away from your biography section and include information about where to find it if your building is large. Don't assume that every patron knows what your collection includes. Displays can be put on book carts if necessary so that they can be moved to different parts of the building. 

To fill in the display, you can use previous years winners as well as other titles from those authors. There is an information page about the award with biographies and bibliographies of winners as well as a news page with press releases from previous years. The display can even be filled with biographies that your staff picks. Ask for titles which could use some more attention. Double check the display to make certain that it includes a diverse group of subjects as always. 

Unshelve Your Collection - Bring it Out Into Your Community

 

Book displays and online book lists work for those patrons who enter your buildings or view your website and social media accounts. It is possible to extend your outreach to those in your community who aren’t currently using the library. By increasing the percentage of members of your community who use and appreciate the library, you are increasing the stakeholders and voices who can be asked to speak up during times when your library could use more defenders such as when budget cuts are on the horizon.

One option is to partner with local businesses and non-profit organizations to create book lists designed for their customers or clients. Books and Brews for a local microbrewery would be an example. Create bookmarks that their customers can take with them that have a suggested lists of titles as well as basic information about your library. Small fliers or posters with a QR codes to eBook displays and your website can also be made available. The idea can be expanded to include whichever agencies or businesses that your library partners with.

Building a relationship with your community is beneficial as far as bringing your library to the forefront of residents’ minds as someone to partner with in other kinds of projects and events. You may find that your library’s opportunities to expand its reach increases through bookmarks and online lists. Programming ideas could be created through this kind of partnerships. Local experts in a variety of areas, craftspeople, or local historians may be discovered and brought into your library.

Another idea would be to use donated books to expand your reach. Use labels and stamps to brand them with your library. Create a label or flier with read-alikes and put it on each book. Add a bookmark with information about your library including digital services. Reach out to places like doctor’s offices, laundromats, barbershops, beauty parlors, senior centers and so forth with an offer to add free books for their customers to read or take with them. Provide a contact who can drop off more books when necessary. Giving away the books in a program such as this will be more valuable than whatever book sale revenue your library may lose.

Finally, look to local events, concerts, and festivals. Create book displays, online book lists, and social media posts to promote them and in exchange ask for permission to do a library card sign up at the venue. Patrons can get on the spot readers advisory, take away information about library resources, sign up for cards, and so forth (depending upon your library’s technology.) Patrons will both find out about events in their community and those who attend local events can be reminded about their local library.

If you brainstorm with your co-workers, you can likely discover other opportunities to expand the idea of a book display or book list outside the walls of your library and into your community.

Review - The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre by Philip Fracassi

An official review will be available in Library Journal but here are some notes that make for a more casual review. 

"My whole world is a crime scene" - Rose DuBois

This novel is a romp with both a vibe that slasher fans will love along with those who enjoyed The Thursday Murder Club or An Elderly Woman is Up to No Good. It's definitely a book to recommend to those readers who are waiting for the Golden Girl mystery as well. The humor and clever kills reminded me of Brian McAuley.

While it is a slasher with bloody kills and terror, many mystery and suspense readers have found the same level of violence in that genre. 

The ensemble cast surrounding the final girl, Rose DuBois, are diverse and fun. Fracassi is able to make us love them even as we are terrified that they might be next to fall victim to the killer. Rose in particular is a complex, smart, and wonderful character. 

This is a perfect book to bring on a trip or to the beach. (Listen, I live 15 minutes from the beach so I have more authority here.) It is both full of heart and will make your heart race. It's one of those books that will draw you in and make you not want to stop reading because you have to know who might be next. Blame the author and not me if you stay up all night. 

**In this great slasher, Fracassi mixes some of the dark humor and kills that slasher fans appreciate along with a nuanced look at how the elderly are treated by society. Each trope of the slasher that is introduced is turned on its side, even having a final girl in Rose. Beyond the fun that slasher fans will have, fans of The Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman or Helene Tursten's Elderly Lady is Up to No Good will find much delight in the world of Autumn Springs. 

Unshelve Your Collection Idea - Book Club Picks for April 2025 from Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly does a great service by including a regular feature in which they list many book club picks, some with celebrities leading them and some you may not have heard of. 

There are a number of book clubs included that focus on diverse works such as the Jewish Book Council Book Clubs, Mocha Girls Read, Sapph-Lit, and the Subtle Asian Book Club. Some of them have their own dedicated websites, some are based on Substack, and others ariden organized on social media.

A rotating book display with a small footprint would be to pick one or two a month and focus on their recent and past picks. I would avoid those which pick well known books unless you want to do a "Try these titles while you wait for [popular book]" display. Picks by Reece's Book Club or Read with Jenna tend to have holds that build up quickly. Working on a display like this would be great readers advisory practice for a library worker who is new to readers advisory. 

If you have local book clubs that either meet in your library or elsewhere in your community, you can include them as well. Promoting reading is a always something we should do. Not everyone will be able to come to the clubs which are directly sponsored by your library. Giving patrons online options and options outside of your building will encourage both reading and the discovery of books and authors they have missed. Don't see it as a competition. 

Unshelving Your Collection Idea- NPR Book of the Day

 One quick and easy way to get some readers advisory information about recently published books is to listen to NPR's podcast Book of the Day. From their website: 

In need of a good read? Or just want to keep up with the books everyone's talking about? NPR's Book of the Day gives you today's very best writing in a snackable, skimmable, pocket-sized podcast. Whether you're looking to engage with the big questions of our times – or temporarily escape from them – we've got an author who will speak to you, all genres, mood and writing styles included. Catch today's great books in 15 minutes or less.

 While this is certainly something that library staff should be encouraged to listen to when not at a public service desk, it's also an opportunity for a quick and easy book display that will be small enough that it can be fit in almost anywhere in a library. 

If you don't own that book, you can skip a day. Remember to check your eBook and eAudiobook collections as well. A book display in your library can also reference those collections to remind patrons that you are a source of digital materials as well. It's also a great readers advisory post for social media. 

Here is an example of a sign that could be posted on a public service desk: 

'Adventures in the Louvre' will teach you how to fall in love with the famous museum

Scan this code to check out this book from our eBook collection!

April 15, 2025

From NPR.org: 

Elaine Sciolino has one mantra: "Never go to the Louvre on an empty stomach or with a full bladder." The former Paris bureau chief of The New York Times has written a guide filled with her best advice for enjoying the world's most-visited museum. Her new book, Adventures in the Louvre, is part journalism, part memoir and part art history. In today's episode, Sciolino speaks with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about the contested origins of the museum's name, the staff's love-hate relationship with the Mona Lisa, and why some Louvre visitors might feel underwhelmed.

To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday

Support our local NPR station! [Name of station] [website]

W. W. Norton & Company

Be certain to credit NPR and the publishers when you use their text and images. I would reference your local NPR station in case patrons want to listen as well as NPR.org

 

Unshelving Your Collection Idea - Summer Scares Adult TItles

 Horror, like every genre, is read all year. Summer Scares is a joint reading program between the Horror Writers Association, Booklist, iREAD, NoveList, and Book Riot. It is focused on encouraging people to read more horror. Three titles in three categories (adult, young adult, and middle grade) are selected as well as a spokesperson. For 2025, the spokesperson is Kendare Blake. The selections are always backlist titles and include a diverse selections of authors and levels of scare.

The three adult titles this year are:

• Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes by Eric LaRocca (Titan Books, 2022)
• Reprieve by James Han Mattson (William Morrow, 2021)
• The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling (Harper Voyager, 2019)

The young adult titles this year are: 

• Devils Unto Dust by Emma Berquist (Greenwillow, 2018)
• The Getaway by Lamar Giles (Scholastic Press, 2022)
• Find Him Where You Left Him Dead by Kristen Simmons (Tor Teen, 2023)

The three middle grade titles this year are: 

• Eerie Tales from the School of Screams by Graham Annable (First Second, 2022)
• Ravenous Things by Derrick Chow (Disney Hyperion, 2022)
• Hide and Seeker by Daka Hermon (Scholastic Press, 2020)

 It is also a great book display idea to include in your summer book display schedule. Booklist hosted three webinars with the three authors in conversation with a moderator. They are free to view so you can recommend them to your co-workers. You can view the adult author webinar here, on Booklist's YouTube channel.

You can use this year's titles as well as those from previous years on a book display, of course. Add other books by those authors as well. If you have any horror short story anthologies, you add them as well. 

One of my favorite parts of these interviews with the authors selected for any given year is hearing the reading suggestions of the authors. People love reading suggestions from celebrities and authors. If you watch the video, you can hear these suggestions: 

The Dumb House - John Burnside

The End of Alice - A.M. Homes
Horror Movie - Paul Tremblay

The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
Hotel World - Ali Smith
In My Time of Dying - Sebasitan Junger
Dublin Murder Squad series - Tana French
Crushing Snails - Emma E. Murray

The Bone Mother - David Demchuk
Dead Collections - Isaac Fellman
Tripping Arcadia - Kit Mayquist

Authors: Hailey Piper, Gretchen Felker Martin, Joe Koch, Cina Pelayo, Christopher Buehlman,  Paula D. Ashe

This is a great list of authors and books to use to create a display! 

All the information and links related to Summer Scares is on Becky Spratford's blog, RA for All: Horror. 

The videos with the young adult authors is here and the middle grade video is here.